Joo Eun’s POV:

I left to the States as soon as I could, since I didn’t want to brood too much over Sooyoon’s absence and because of that, I still had too much time in my hand as the course only begins nearly two months later.

Since I hardly spent my childhood in the States, I hardly knew any local friends to spend time with. So all I did was familiarize myself with the route to the university and also with the local area like the market, café, mall etc.

Other than that, I spend most of the time at home, getting coddled by mom who was more than happy to have me home. I also tried learning some cooking from her, especially ones that was Sooyoon’s favorite.

But mom wasn’t exactly happy with me being at home, so she took it upon herself and introduced me to some of her friends’ kids who also happened to be friends of James.

Although they included me in their hangouts, still at times I felt like they were babysitting me for James’ sake as most of them were his age or older.

James laughed at me and said that they aren’t the kind of people who would do so but still I was pretty apprehensive which only lasted until one day when I happened to have some honest conversation with them by chance.

No One’s POV:

It’s been almost a month and it was Sooyoon’s birthday. Although Joo Eun was a bit sad of not being able to see him on such occasions, she still didn’t have the time to mope as she had two idiots come over to her place to spend the Christmas holidays.

She still can’t believe how sneaky these two have been in coming over since she wasn’t aware of their visit until they suddenly showed up at her doorstep one morning. But it all made sense to her later as she found out those two were in cahoots with her mother.

Anyway, Mrs. Lee was currently on a video call with James and she could hear Moon’s voice too. She could guess that those two were probably trying to check up on her. She flopped on the couch, hair still slightly wet from the shower while waiting for everyone to gather around to watch the movie.

“Joo baby, here, James wants to talk to you,” her mother handed over the tablet without any forewarning.

“Yo James! Hey Moon!” Joo Eun waved at them, letting out a yawn lazily while Moon waved back at her with a toothy grin.

“What the! What’s he doing there? And why is he sitting so close to you? MOM?” he kind of shouted like a drama queen seeing his sister sitting with her back resting against Jiwoong.

She glanced over my shoulder and noticed the reason for James to get more agitated. Jiwoong was staring at the screen with a cheeky smile. “Ignore him. He and Mijin have come over for the holidays.”

“What? Mijin is there?” he yelled once again while Moon covered his ears beside him.

Mijin walked into the living room then, carrying a tray of the snacks she had made for the movie time. “Yah Mijin! You asked leave for extra days for personal reasons. Is this it?”

She simply shrugged, “visiting my friend for vacation is personal indeed. Just because you’re related to her, it doesn’t make it official now, does it?” she snapped back at him sassily leaving James speechless while Jiwoong and Joo Eun simply chuckled.

Soon James and Mijin were shooting some sass back and forth while the rest of them were simply having fun. At certain point, without realizing Joo Eun blurted out teasingly, “Unnie, I couldn’t believe you could snap at him so much. You would be a blushing mess at the sight of him. You’ve grown up so much.”

That was the first mistake and as if that wasn’t enough, Moon burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter. That was Mijin’s breaking point. “Says the girl who went crimson and almost faint from forgetting to breathe from the mere mention of Moon’s name.” she snapped back.

Everyone froze for a moment, but James was quick to recover. He turned to his side and glared at his close friend who was beside him.

“Well, she had a crush for a brief moment. But that was years ago.” Moon replied, scratching the back of his neck.

“What?” James overacted once again.

“Whoa! Whoa! Relax bro! Like he said, it was ages ago. Not a big deal. Besides, even Sooyoon knew it.” Joo Eun tried to loosen up her overprotective brother but only ended up agitating him more.

“Oh! So, if Sooyoon knows, it makes it alright?”

That was the last thing she heard as Moon dropped the phone and the call got disconnected. She tried calling them again but neither of the two picked up their phone.

“Unnie, what have you done? Poor Moon!” she shook her head with a smile while Mijin simply shrugged her shoulders, “Not my fault. You started it.” She stuck out her tongue at Joo Eun and settled down on the other side of the couch and then the three started watching the movie.

A few days later, James flew over for the holidays. “Now why did you take over my room?” he stood at his room’s doorway with his arms crossed.

“Coz the bed is bigger here. Simple,” Joo Eun shrugged, not moving an inch from the bed.

“Then where am I supposed to go?”

“Stop whining like a kid and head to the guest room. It’ll soon be ready for you.”

One of the couch pillow flew in Joo Eun’s direction which she avoided, “Consider that you’re lucky this time since Mijin is here as well.” He mumbled something under his breath that she didn’t really hear. “Hey, but there’s only one small bed in the guest room. Where will Jiwoong go?”

“Of course, here. Duh!” looking at James overreact once again, “What do you want from him now? The bed in the guest room is small, the fancy couch in the hall is weird and small for him, but here you’ve got the recliner which should be the only thing okay for him.”

When James still looked troubled, she continued, “Besides, it’s not like I’d be alone with him. Mijin unnie is also here. If you’re so worried, want to switch places with him?”

James went red in embarrassment, “If that wouldn’t be the case, then go away to your room,” she threw back the couch pillow at him.

“Aunty, have they both always been like this?” Mijin asked Mrs. Lee, as she went into the kitchen to fill the water bottle.

Mrs. Lee let out a chuckle, “They’ve actually gotten worse than when they were kids. It’s weird. Sometimes I feel like they’re growing backwards in mental age” she shook her head, staring lovingly at her bickering kids.

Jiwoong and Mijin spent the rest of their holidays with Joo Eun. Since it was a Christmas season, everywhere they went were in festive mood. They spent their time going on long drives, hanging out here and there.

On the other hand, James had fun reuniting with his childhood friends. Sometimes, he even hung out with Joo Eun’s gang. A few days after the New Year’s Day, James, Jiwoong and Mijin left back to Korea.

Although that made her a bit sad, she still loved how her friends came over to cheer her up. And in addition to that, Sooyoon had been posting pics of him on Instagram pretty actively during the holidays.

Once the university started, she still kept in touch with her friends quite frequently and even kept up her letters for Sooyoon like usual. However, as time passed by, she was buried deep in loads of assignments because of which she hardly contacted her friends.

Days passed by and she did well in her studies. She even made a few friends in the University. And every time Sooyoon made any post on his SNS, it only boosted her to do more. Sometimes in her free time, she learned cooking special dishes from her mother.

Soon a year had passed and she had graduated. Since there was hardly six months left for Sooyoon’s discharge from military, she decided to go back to Korea and search for jobs there while waiting for him.

She pa