“Chan-ah!!!! You’re already late!” his mother bellowed from downstairs.

Chanyeol immediately lurched for the headpiece that was supposed to go with his hanbok and ran downstairs, “I’m coming!!”

His parents, and his sister, Yoora, were waiting for him downstairs, all of them looking at him fondly. “Look at my son,” his mother beamed, “all grown up and ready to go to the coming of age ceremony.” His father produced a bouquet of roses and handed over to him. Chanyeol grinned and took it. His sister was grinning mischievously as she held a box of perfume for him.

“Do you want me to give you a kiss?” she younger brother as she stepped forward with a mischievous smile. Chanyeol pulled a face in disgust, “Ew. Yoora, stop!” he yelled as he walked backwards a few steps. Yoora let out her signature screeching laughter, the one she uses to irritate him, and walked backward.

His mother laughed, “Okay, children, stop fighting. It’s time to go meet your friends. Don’t forget our family dinner!” Chanyeol nodded and smiled at his mom, then hugged her before he walked out of the house. “Don’t forget to meet So Eul at the town square, okay? Her mother said she had already gone out to the temple.” He smiled and promised his mother that he would bring her back home for the dinner with the two families.

Coming of age day ceremony is an enormous tradition of the town Chanyeol lives in. All the youths gathered at the town square and greet each other. Some would go to the temples pay respect, if it was in their religious regime. If not, it’s a school holiday. It is also a chance for all the youths to show off their fashion sense as well – mostly girls, who go all out to dress up to their best.

Chanyeol reached the town square, filled with youths from the same neighbourhood, to wait for Ken and Soul to come greet him just as they had arranged a few days ago. He saw a few friends from school and he beamed to greet them. After five minutes, Chanyeol was already bored.

“Chanyeol-ssi,” Soul’s familiar voice appeared from behind and Chanyeol turned around. In front of him stood a really well-dressed girl looking at him with her usual expression, though she was smiling slightly. He chuckled at her hanbok since it was a drastic difference from other girls. While other girls around them were wearing hanbok of really bright and pastel colours, Soul was wearing dark colours. Her jeogori (the top blouse part) was a deep lilac in pastel hues while her chima (the skirt part) was a dark purple, almost black. It was apparent that Mrs.Kang was the one who made her the dress because the dress looked extremely expensive since it was made out of silk and organza.

She smiled awkwardly at him as she took her spot beside him. Soul had put her hair into a low bun and had tucked every single strand of hair into the bun – another difference from her usual image, where she just lets her dark hair down. She also had a pin stuck into her bun, which sat nicely in her thick luscious hair. “You look different,” Chanyeol spoke, hoping it was a compliment.

Her face had two faint pink dots appearing across as she beamed, “Thank you. I feel a little awkward though,” her hand came up to the nape of her neck and she scratched her neck with her little finger. “You look very nice too. Very handsome,” she smiled as she looked at him from head to toe. Chanyeol was taken by surprise at her sudden straightforward compliment. He was rendered speechless for a while before someone shouted his name.

“CHANYEOL-AH!” It was Ken, who was wearing an indigo and cream colour hanbok.

“Ken! Over here!” he waved at his friend, who was rushing over to the pair of friends. There was someone who was following Ken, a girl who was wearing a bright orange hanbok, which stood out in the crowd.

Ken was slightly panting and smiling as he saw Chanyeol and Soul. The orange hanbok girl stopped too. Chanyeol looked at her and noticed that she was really pretty – honey coloured hair, slender face, bright wide eyes even though she was wearing gray coloured lenses and her lips were dark orange, just like her orange hanbok. As he looked at the girl closely, Chanyeol suddenly felt shy and his heart started to beat faster than normal with his palms starting to sweat a little.

“This is…?” Chanyeol raised his eyebrows at his friend, who was so discourteous to a point that he had not introduced the new girl to the others, because Ken was busy admiring Soul’s unusually pretty appearance.

Even though Chanyeol had voiced out, Ken was still clueless so Chanyeol had to nudge his sweet-smile friend in the ribs, hard, to draw back attention to him. “Owh!” Ken yelped, “Oh, Chanyeol. This is Heeyeon.”

The orange hanbok girl glared beautifully at him and whined, “It’s Hani. Jae. Hwan.” She put her hands on her hip and pouted. Chanyeol almost died at the cuteness and the liveliness of the girl. She was the complete opposite of So Eul, who is more quiet and reserved.

Ken laughed, “Fine,” he cleared his throat, “This is Hani, also known as Ahn Heeyeon. My new friend I made during my exchange student year. We lived in the same building while we were there and her dad moved here on government position this year so she moved here with her family. Hani, this is Park Chanyeol, my best friend since middle school.”

Hani smiled brightly, “Hello, nice to meet you, Chanyeol. I hope we can be friends in future. I’m new here so I’m kinda clueless actually. What are we doing?” She shot her words so rapidly.

“Oh, we’re just here to meet friends and then we can go do whatever we want. What do you want to do later?” Chanyeol asked as his eyes swept across his friend’s faces.

“Temple,” Soul mumbled. After that, the three of them headed to the only temple in their town.

As expected, the temple was busy with all the visitors on a ceremonious day. The four friends took their places in front of the wishing booth, Ken especially made sure he stood beside Soul and he let it be known by pushing Chanyeol away from Soul. As usual, Soul didn’t notice and Chanyeol didn’t mind because his focus was on Hani, the new pretty girl.

“What did you wish for, Soul-ah?” Ken eagerly asked Soul, again, pushing Chanyeol aside towards Hani. Again, Chanyeol was not complaining.

Soul smiled gently as she spoke, “I don’t think we’re supposed to say our wishes aloud, Ken-ssi. Don’t people say they won’t come true if you say your wishes out loud?” Ken grumbled and agreed with her.

Hani suggested that they all should go to cast their floating lanterns away like everybody else. The two boys agreed and Soul, as usual, was dragged along. The appearance of Hani highlighted Soul’s meek and timid self even more.

They bought only one big floating lantern to use and decided to write a small wish on a piece of paper to attach it to the metal wire frame at the base of the lantern.

Chanyeol couldn’t stop looking at Hani as they busied themselves with lighting the lantern to risen it up into the sky. While Soul composedly and quietly did all the things she needed to, Hani was the opposite. She kept chatting to the two boys – about the time she helped her older brother to set his lantern, when it was his Coming of Age day. She would playfully push Ken when Ken joked around, which made Chanyeol feel slightly uneasy with jealousy and wished that Hani would be as close to him as Ken.

“Soul-ah,” Ken spoke again after they had cast their lantern away into the sky and was walking back down from the small hill that the temple was built on, “what did you wish for?”

Soul smiled as she gently shook her head, “Ken-ssi…” she muttered.

“I know. I know,” Ken put up his hands in defeat, “I was just curious. I won’t know what you wish. Hani-ya, what did you wish for?”

“To get a boyfriend this year!” Hani chipped and Chanyeol was not sure whether it was the reality or his imagination that she was looking at him as she said so. When Ken asked him, Chanyeol answered vaguely that he wanted to get into medical school, as it was his wish to do so.

Afterwards, they all headed back hom, Hani and Ken at the opposite direction while Soul and Chanyeol went back to Chanyeol’s restaurant. The walk was traditionally quiet and it was even slower than before since Soul was in her hanbok and it was quite uncomfortable to walk fast in their traditional clothes.

“Soul-ah,” Chanyeol called her name. Soul turned her head sideways to look at him and her head completely went out of Chanyeol’s vision frame all of a sudden.

“Owh…” Soul whined. She had tripped on her floaty chima and fell sideways on the ground in a pile. She was lucky that the road was not muddy or else her expensive hanbok would have been smeared in dirt.

“SOUL-AH!” Chanyeol rose his voice unknowingly. “Are you hurt?” he immediately went to her side and supported her by lifting from her underarm.

Soul started giggling softly, “Chanyeol-ssi, I’m okay. But I think I might need to walk slower since my right foot hurts.”

He immediately squatted on the ground, “Do you want to-“

She laughed, “Chanyeol-ssi, I’m okay. Really.” She cut him off politely as she saw through his intention of offering her to carry her on his back. “But, I might need to hold onto your arm as I walk though.”

Chanyeol grinned and offered her his arm. She held onto it and leaned her body weight on the arm. It feels pretty nice, Chanyeol thought to himself. He immediately felt like her was her guardian and a protector, making his ego puff up.

“Chanyeol-ssi, I can see you’re rejoicing this,” Soul spoke.

He laughed, “How do you know? My face is unchanging.”

“I just know,” she replied, “it’s not that hard. And, I also know that you think Hani-ssi is really cute.”

Chanyeol was left speechless. He thought Soul was someone who was unaware of the people around her and their feelings but his conclusion was wrong. “I..I.. How?” he stammered.

“I just know,” she laughed lightly, “She’s very cute, too, and very bright. You two suit each other.”

“Shut up,” Chanyeol blushed.

Soul’s grip tightened on his arm, “Let’s walk faster. We have a dinner to go to. I need to get my presents. Appa forgot to get my presents and Omma too.” She pouted, “I hope they get all of the gifts I must have.”

“You’re hoping to get all the Coming of Age presents, including a kiss?” Chanyeol jested, hoping Soul would blush and go silent without answering.

She shook her head, “I think I want to keep that present. For now. I'll probably ask for that present from someone in future.”

Chanyeol stared, with his eyes turning sideways, at her. The sun had completely set and her skin glowed even more so just as it contrasted from her hanbok and the darkness of the late evening.

Soul grinned at him. Her smile was fresh and sparkling, and Chanyeol was utterly confused. 

~

[Author's note:] I hope you enjoyed this udpate. Comments are appreciated.