"Who mails out Christmas cards before Thanksgiving?" Kim Seolhyun complained to her friend.

Kwon Mina looked up from her microscope and seemed to take an extra moment to consider what Seolhyun had just said. "You got a Christmas card? Already?"

Seolhyun wheeled her chair back to her station. "Can you believe it?"

"Who from?"

"A college friend three years older than me. You wouldn't know her." Seolhyun shrugged. "Jimin married Choa two weeks after we graduated."

"They have children?"

Seolhyun caught the wisp of longing in Mina's voice and answered with a nod. "Two, a boy and a girl, and of course they're adorable."

"Of course," Mina echoed.

The Christmas card photo showed the four of them in matching outfits of green and red. Choa and daughter wore full-length green dresses with red-and-green plaid skirts. Jimin and son had on vests in the same fabric as the dress skirts. It was too adorable for words.

"There was a letter, as well."

"Everything in their lives is perfect, right?" Mina asked.

"Perfect in every way," Seolhyun grumbled. The unfairness of it all was too much. Choa and Jimin, who worked as restaurant managers, held down forty-hour-a-week jobs, kept a meticulous house and still managed to be a terrific partners and parents. Despite all the demands on their time, they’d mailed out her Christmas cards a full month in advance.

"Is there a reason the perfect family sent their Christmas cards so soon?" Mina asked.

"They just moved into a new home and wanted to update family and friends with their address change. And there was a photo of the house and it was absolutely-"

"Perfect," Mina finished for her.

"Perfect doesn't begin to describe it."

Mina watched her closely. "Do I detect a slight note of envy?" she asked.

"Slight envy? Me?" Seolhyun asked, exaggerating the words. "No way. What you're hearing is a full-blown case of jealousy. The green-eyed monster is alive and well."

Mina rolled her chair to the end of a counter filled with an assortment of microscopes, test tubes, slides and other equipment, then stood, hands propped on her hips. "Do you realize how long it's been since you've been on a real date?"

"I went out with Jonghyun last week," Seolhyun reminded her.

"Jonghyun isn't a man," Mina blurted out. "I mean, he is, but not in the sense of someone you should be interested in," she said. "He's completely unsuitable as dating material."

Seolhyun sighed. "I agree."

He was eligible in practically every way but he happened to be in love with his ex-girlfriend. Unfortunately, he hadn't figured that out yet. The entire date, if it could even be called a date, was spent rehashing the tragedy of his breakup. He went on and on about how much he missed his ex-girlfriend, if the number of times he mentioned her name was any indication. The night had been sheer torture for Seolhyun. It was her first and last date with Lee Jonghyun.

"The problem is, we don't meet many guys here at work," Mina said. Seolhyun was well aware of that. Since they were holed up in a lab eight to ten hours a day, working as biochemists, the opportunities to socialize outside the job were limited.

"What really hit was," Seolhyun said, "after receiving that Christmas card, is how badly I want a family."

"I know." The longing was back in Mina's voice, too.

"I don't understand why it's so hard to meet people. I'm reasonably attractive, right?"

Mina nodded enthusiastically. "Yes."

"Twenty one is still young, isn't it?"

"I'm older than you, you know."

Seolhyun shook her head and wondered why she was still single. She wanted to date, and she liked to think she was a reasonably good offer. Five-six, dark brown hair, dark eyes. She was attractive, though only confirmed by Mina, and she was smart, with a career, a somewhat interesting personality (if a tad childish), and had friends. "I blame my mom for this."

"Your mom?"

"I blame my dad, too, even if he didn't stick around all that long."

"Or maybe because he didn't stick around."

"I guess. After the divorce, my mom was so against marriage, the whole idea terrified me."

"But it doesn't anymore, does it?"

"No. I want to date and I'd really like children one day." She laughed. "The ironic thing is, my mom's remarried."

"Commitment seems to terrify your sister, at least. Yuna could be married by now, don't you think? She’s older than you are."

"I'm not so sure about Yuna." Seolhyun sometimes wondered if Mina might be interested in her sister. There was actually nothing to indicate that, but every once in a while Seolhyun had the feeling . . . "She travels so much that maintaining a long-term relationship would be difficult for her."

"True," Mina said.

Seolhyun's older sister Yuna was a well-known singer who traveled all over the world. The sisters were close and kept in touch, calling each other three to four times a week. Currently Yuna was in California, touring across the United States. Her sister always made headlines wherever she went and huge crowds showed up to listen to her sing.

"Yuna's a different case," Seolhyun said. In her opinion, that summed up the situation pretty accurately.

"But if you were dating, I bet she'd show some interest in finding a partner," Mina commented.

Seolhyun had never thought of their family dynamic in those terms. Perhaps, in some obscure way, Yuna was waiting for her to make the leap first. Mina might be right. It wasn't that Yuna followed