Lakeside Picnic

Today we had a picnic by the lake, and guess who joined me – Callie and Shelly. I’ve been friends with these girls for centuries(exaggeration), we go way back. We met up in person after a very long time though.

Minseok was away for the entire day for a shoot. I wanted them to meet him, but may be another time. So, let’s get back to the picnic! It was late morning when they pulled up into the driveway with their Porsche 911 and Mercedes-AMG GT. It was a picture-perfect moment next the Audi R8.

I ran up to them, with Benji and Whiskey in tow. As I reached them I stopped abruptly, not knowing how to greet them. They were used to my awkwardness and just hugged me.

“We missed your awkward hugs Kenzie!”, they both said, laughing, as I stood unmoving in their embrace.

“Ha Ha”

“Ok, ok, personal bubble”, I said and wriggled my way out of the hug.

“So, what’s the plan?”, Shelly asked while running around me as Benji chased her.

Callie was busy petting Whiskey, who was flat on his back, going gaga over her.

“C’mon, let’s go inside. You’ve got to have a look at the house”, I pulled Benji away from Shelly and gestured them to follow me inside.

After a quick house tour, we set up the picnic table.

Callie brought the drinks – Beer and Soju.

While Shelly got her tasty homemade cookie and vanilla ice-cream which was sitting in the fridge for now.

And I was in charge of the food.

“So Kenzie, I can’t wait to hear the menu”, said Callie.

“Well, it’s Gimbap and Bulgogi as snacks. And….Bibimbap for lunch…”

“Drooling”, said Callie while mock fainting.

We laughed at her acting skills. We started talking about random stuff – well Callie and Shelly spoke while I sat quietly and listened. It wasn’t awkward silence, this was how it always was, I could just be myself with them. I jokingly call them my personal radio stations. *sigh* It felt like we were back home at our favourite café.

“Mackenzie, now it’s your turn to speak”, said Shelly.

“I don’t know what to say…”

“Seriously? Kenzie, seriously?”, Callie said hysterically.

“Hmm?”, I was confused.

“MINSEOK!”, both of them yelled.

“Oh, yup”, I laughed. So I gave them a brief description about how we met and stuff like that.

“We met here when he was shooting for a music video. We became friends thanks to Whiskey.”

“Whiskey? How come?”, asked Callie.

“Yup, he had brought him along. But in all the chaos during the shoot, Whiskey found his way to this lawn and was playing with Benjamin. I came running out because I thought he was going to attack Benji. But he was very friendly and came to greet me too.”

“Then what happened?”, asked Shelly eagerly, she liked listening to love stories.

“A couple of minutes later, I saw this guy in a super cool outfit running down the driveway, yelling out for Whiskey. I thought he wanted to drink, but the minute this doggo’s ears perked up, I made the connection- it was the puppy’s name.”

“You thought he wanted to drink Whiskey?”, Callie said smacking her head.

“Dude, imagine someone running down a slope all dressed up in an outfit fit for a k-pop performance. I thought it was some kind of Diva moment…”

“True, true, very true”, she agreed.

“Yup so that’s how we met.”

“Seriously? That’s how you end the story?”, Shelly was not satisfied.

“Haha, let’s enjoy the lake for now”, I said.

“You are not off the hook, we will continue this topic later”, said Shelly, taking a huge swig of her drink.

“Yep”, said Callie and did the same.

“Ok ok”, I agreed and gulped down my drink too.

We finished up the snacks and moved on to the Bibimbap. They enjoyed every bit of the food. It made me really happy that they like it.

We ended the picnic with Shelly’s ice-cream that we enjoyed by the swing. It was the perfect close to a relaxing day with the two very important people in my life. We sat there until it was late evening, enjoying the view of the still lake waters and lush green mountains in the distance.

They left when it was quite dark outside, but they booked drivers since we drank quite a lot. Min pulled in 5 minutes after they left. The minute the puppies heard the Lamborghini Aventador, Benji and Whiskey ran up the driveway to meet him.

 I waved at him from the picnic table as I was still clearing up the place. He walked up to me slowly, I could see he was really tired.

“Babe, you ok?”, I asked him as he took a seat at the table.

“Yeahhh…just a little sore…”

 “How was your day with Shelly and Callie?”, he asked as he stretched out his arms and yawned loudly.

“It was really good. You have got to meet them soon. Once you meet them, we are official…”

“What do you mean, aren’t we official now?”, he faked being hurt and made his sad-puppy face.

“Come, go have a shower and sleep”, I laughed and messed up his hair. I took his hand to get him to his feet.

But he pulled me towards him instead and made me sit across his lap.

“Let’s just stay here for a bit”, he whispered in my ear. He rested his head on my shoulder with his eyes closed and hugged me close.

“Ok”, I sighed and hugged him even closer.