8/25: Last Day of Summer, Pt. 2- Chan-hee Jung

"Chan-hee!" my mother, Mei, calls out to me from downstairs. She then shouts out loudly, telling me to turn down my music. I don't really see a problem in playing my favorite BTS songs out loud from my JBL speaker, but I do as she says. I don't want her to get mad at me again. If she does, she gives me all these chores to do and she takes my phone & speaker from me until I finish all of them. I cannot go for an hour, 30 minutes, not even a second, without my phone.

You know how you have that feeling that your phone is your life? Well, that's me. After turning down my music to an acceptable volume for my mother, my phone dings. I go back to my queen-sized bed with my cover all over it and flop onto it, then grabbing my phone after it bounces up and right into my hands. I see that it's a text message from Alixandria.

Ali: Hey bestie. Eatin breakfast rn but I'm goin out later. Wanna come? We'll be goin to the beach too ;)

At first, I was gonna say just yeah. But whenever she mentions that we'll go to the beach, I'm all in. I text her back that I'll be ready in a few and then put my phone down. I roll over to the right side of my bed onto my feet. I make my way to my dresser with its 6 drawers and start going through them to find the perfect outfit for the beach and to wear outside. I end up with a white sleeved tight top with some bleached blue jeans that fit perfectly on my legs. I also put on a burgundy fur jacket along with it and then admire my chosen outfit in my full-sized mirror, which is hanging on the back of my room door. 'Perfect,' I think to myself.

I then decide what to do with my back length half-black half-pink hair. I end up putting it all in a high ponytail. I put on my black fur boots and Bluetooth earbuds, grab my Korean designer purse and then disconnect my phone from my speaker to my earbuds, still playing my music. I turn the speaker off before walking out of my Korean-themed room and closing the door behind me.

I get down the stairs and find my mom in the living room sitting on the couch watching one of our favorite Korean shows, My First First Love, on Netflix. I take out one of my earbuds and tell her that I'm gonna go out with Ali today. She turns around and looks at me with her short black hair and partially wrinkly face. She tells me to be back by 11 P.M. and then turns back to her show. I then go over to her and give her a hug and a kiss on her cheek.

At that moment, a knock comes on the front door. I go straight to the door, unlock it, and open it to see that it's Ali's mother. "She's right outside. Be careful out there," she tells me as I let her come in. I say goodbye to both of them and close the door. In the side driveway, I see the blue Ford Fusion Hybrid sitting there with Ali inside. I run to the passenger's side and slide right in, closing the door right after. I turn off my music and Bluetooth, then taking out my earbuds and snapping them in the magnetic pieces to make them unmovable. After I do, I hear the low volume of a BTS song playing on the radio, specifically 'DNA', and start dancing a little, making Ali chuckle a bit at me. P.S. I'm basically the reason why Ali likes BTS anyway.

"Sup bestie," I say to her after I stop. We fist bump, then high five each other. "Aww, we're both wearing burgundy clothes," I add as I click in my seat belt and she starts to back out. She takes a quick glance at me in my outfit and then says," Aye, you look cute." I look at her outfit, seeing that she's wearing a burgundy turtleneck, perfect fitting dark blue jeans, and a pair of brown boots. She's also wearing her necklace that her dad gave her.

Khalil and I were both there for her when he passed. Every day we both came to her house and played with her until we knew she was better. We would play board games, talk about the things we went through, or some days, just watched a TV show we all liked together. Khalil used to live close by us, but then his mom had to move to live closer to where she works.

"So should we get Khalil first or go ahead to the mall?" Ali then asks me as she starts driving down our street, Honne Ave.

"Let's see. If we go to the mall first, we're probably gonna get some things from different clothing shops or some food. Then if we get him, he's gonna be like 'ugh, why y'all get all this stuff', I say to Ali, hearing her laugh at my horrible impersonation of Khalil.

"But, if we get Khalil first, he'll say we could've come later. Then we go to the mall with him coming along, he'll either tell us that he doesn't wanna be in the store behind two girls, doesn't wanna be in there at all, or he'll just stay in the car and wait an hour and a half later for us to come back. By then, he'll be done got somethin' to eat and be sleep afterward," I finish saying, still having Ali laughing at almost everything I'm saying.

"So, what's your decision then, Chan?" she says as we turn onto a different road.

"I say forget everything and just go get him," I say to her.

"Ok, even though I was gonna do that anyway. I just wanted to hear what you would've chosen," she says to me and then giggles. I do the fake 'ha-ha' laugh and then start to mimic her and pout. We pull up into the driveway of Khalil's condo. Ali beeps the horn and Khalil comes out a few seconds later. He's wearing a black shirt with a jean jacket and some denim jeans. He's also wearing a pair of Timberland boots with it.

When he gets to the car, he sits behind Ali and then snaps his seatbelt in place. "Hey," he says as he immediately pulls out his phone from his pocket. Ali and I look at each other, then she looks at him from the rear-view mirror and I look at him from turning around in my seat. "Uh, hello? You're not even gonna look at us?" I say to him in an upset voice. He then does something that I would normally be more upset at: he looks up from his phone, takes a look at the both of us, and then says, "you both look good" before going back to his phone.

So I do something in return that I KNOW will make him mad: "Hey Ali, let's go to the store and buy a bunch of shit 'till Khalil apologizes for doing what he just did." That gets him to look up instantly with his eyebrows scrunched at me, breathe out a sigh, and at that moment he puts his phone away and is the first to strike up a conversation: "So where are we going that's NOT mall related?"