“If you walked away from me today…” — David Pomeranz

 

Because I really don't like forgetting things – even though I'm not sure if this is that important or if this is anything near pleasant (spoiler: it isn’t) that I want to remember it for the rest of my life, but we don't know what's going to happen in the future, right? So I'm going to write down what happened yesterday.

Let's begin with the characters.

So there are four friends: three girls and one guy. The only guy is named Kim Seokjin. He has already migrated to America to be with his father who was there. They are always visiting the Philippines whenever they can though. And because of social networking sites, it doesn’t seem like he was on the other side of they planet. On the other hand, the three girls are in the Philippines where they are now facing the challenges of the real world as they try their best to keep themselves employed at such young ages.

First, there is Bae Joohyun. She is — well, she is the popular one in the pack. She has more friends (although she will insist those people aren’t friends for real) outside the group than any of them. And also a lot of suitors. But despite that, she still chooses to be with her friends. She says she feels more like herself with them.

The second one is Oh Seunghee. She is the complete opposite of Joohyun. It’s not that she doesn’t have any other friends besides them but she tends to scare of other people who doesn’t know how sensitive and soft she is because she looks, well, a little scary. She’s always been serious about everything. It’s a good thing, really, but not all the time.

Last but not the least is Jeon Somi. She is — she’s weird. She thinks she is friends with them because they are all weird in their own ways and they are weirder together and it’s doesn’t weird them out. She hopes that’s not too weird to explain things. She’s not too good with her feelings and her words are better in stories and poems but if she is going to have the chance, she wants to tell her friends that she holds them precious in her heart.

And this is what happened…

Seunghee just resigned from her last job. It has been almost one month since she resigned and currently, she has no job. Because Joohyun and Somi have been a little busy with work and life, it was just yesterday that the three of them finally met after a long time. They should have met earlier at Seokjin's town's fiesta where they were all invited by Seokjin’s kind mother but Seunghee didn't come.

Although there are always text and chat messages, it is different meeting personally.

Even though Joohyun was difficult to contact because she always doesn't have mobile load, Somi tried her best to get the three of them together because she also wanted to see Seunghee. It has been a long time since the three of them see each other. Because of Seunghee's last work, it was always just Joohyun and Somi because they have similar day offs.

But Seunghee's schedule was always different. So she was really looking forward to their meeting yesterday. She called both of her friends during the morning and made sure that they knew what was going to happen that afternoon.

Somi tried her best not to get into a fight with her parents because she wanted the day to turn out really well — at home and with her friends. She and Seunghee changed meeting places several times because Seunghee had to print something and she had to buy something at the supermarket. Then, later, they would meet Joohyun at the church where after the mass that they would attend, they would eat street food as planned.

So she met with Seunghee first. While looking for the perfect toothbrush for Seunghee which was not costly but was good enough, they were able to talk about a few things like Seunghee was already set to train at the provincial hospital as job order employee (JO – the government’s term for hiring contractuals, even though there were some government officials who were “against” contractualism), exactly like what Somi's position was at another government office she was currently working for. And when they were walking already to the church, they were able to talk about Seunghee's problem in their house. Apparently, Seunghee's father was not happy that his daughter resigned because Seunghee was the one paying for his motorcycle. Since Seunghee didn't have a job anymore, no one would be paying for his motorcycle.

Both of them have been trying to contact Joohyun ever since they were at the supermarket where they met but Joohyun was not answering. After finally being able to contact Joohyun and Joohyun wouldn't tell them where exactly she was at the moment (which usually meant she just got out of the shower or she was still getting dressed), they decided to just go in and look for where they would sit already inside the church.

Fortunately, the mass wasn't starting yet when miraculously, Joohyun managed to find her two friends who were teasing her how she managed to find them. They told her they didn't want to be found and they were actually hiding from her. But that was just how the three of them were when they were together.

The mass went on. Somi was sitting on the farthest left of the pew, so that the electric fan would reach her, then Seunghee was next to her, and Joohyun sat next to Seunghee. All throughout the mass, Seunghee was complaining to Somi that Joohyun was so noisy and that Somi should change seats with her. Joohyun was fanning ridiculously using Somi's fan and Somi was just amused because of her friends.

Truthfully, Somi was concentrating so much in the mass she felt like she was able to focus more in the mass because she was trying to ignore her friends' whims than she has ever been when she was in a mass with her parents. She didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

After the mass, as planned, the three of them ate street food (egg balls, tofu, and chicken skin) at the plaza. While eating, Joohyun kept on asking Seunghee about her situation but since Seunghee already told almost all of it to Somi, she didn't want to repeat it to Joohyun. She told Joohyun it was her fault for being late. Somi could understand as she just watched her friends bickering and being amusing again.

They weren't able to buy drinks because their hands have been full when they bought street food so they had to finish eating (and listening to someone talk about God who Somi wouldn't look directly in the eyes because he might be someone dangerous; it wouldn't kill to be careful) first before they bought drinks. As usual, even when buying drinks, it was like the usual to them. They compared the prices and the volume of the drinks. It was funny because it has been long since they've been together but it wasn't like that at all.

They sat at the stool beside the store they bought drinks from (where they didn't even know if they were allowed to sit) and finished their drinks there. Joohyun was hinting on going to Café Hub, a local coffee shop where they serve hot and cold drinks in cute cups, because it was the nearest and most comfortable place they could go to but Somi thought that maybe, Seunghee wouldn't want to go there because she has some financial challenges at that exact moment. So even if she wanted to go, too, she didn't say anything and just waited.

Seunghee told them she wanted to buy a specific type of headband (which Somi still couldn't understand until now) at the night market near Somi's place. Somi didn't really want to go there near her place because she didn't want to go home yet but Seunghee said it was already six and she only said to her parents that she'll be gone until seven.

So they walked to the night market.

Somi already told her friends many times that there weren't much to see in the night market because it wasn't even properly open yet. There were some stalls but they weren't much. But because Seunghee wanted to go there, they all went there.

And that was when it happened.

The three of them were just walking when Somi heard something familiar. Something she couldn't quite put what but she knew was familiar and Joohyun probably realized it only half a second after Somi and before they knew it, they were listening and watching to a less known song of GOT7 in one of the DVD stalls in the night market. Somi didn't even know what the exact song was. She could only make out of “Forever Young” but since it was GOT7, how could she not listen?

Joohyun probably felt the same way, too, and both of them just transformed to being fangirls there and then while Seunghee walked far from them, staring at them. Judging them then and again. The song was just coming to an end and they were about to go but “A” began playing. Somi teased Joohyun to follow the correct melody of the song and they both laughed because Joohyun’s melody is still her own melody. They stayed as fangirls until the first chorus. Just until the first chorus. To be honest, how long did they watch? Four minutes? They both agreed fine, let's just say five minutes to be exact. But did that really warrant a grand walk out from Seunghee?

After finishing the first chorus, they knew they had to go already because Seunghee wasn't a K-pop fan and she wouldn't jive with that they were doing. But when they were like, “Okay. That's enough. Let's go now.” Seunghee declared, “I'm going home now.”

At first, Somi thought it was just a joke. That Seunghee was only probably like that because she wanted her friends to realize that she was still there and they couldn't ignore her suddenly like that. So she was even laughing as she watched Joohyun ran after Seunghee. But she witnessed it well. Joohyun had her arm tangled to Seunghee, trying to stop her from walking away but Seunghee just removed it and repeated in a cold tone, “I'm going home now.”

Somi stopped running after them when Joohyun stopped coming after Seunghee, too. Seunghee was not stopping. She was really going home and the two of them just stared at each other like, “Okay. What just happened?”

They didn't come after Seunghee anymore. And Somi and Joohyun walked through the night market just the two of them. Because what could they do? They talked about what just happened and Seunghee while looking for that headband Seunghee wanted to buy, which was the reason why they were there in the first place.

“I don't even want to come here,” Joohyun admitted.

“Me, too,” Somi said.

“But because she wanted to come here, we went along.”

The night market didn't have that much stalls to walk though so they just sat wherever they could sit because what happened exhausted both of them, talking about what happened as the night came. What happened? Because neither of them can understand what they did exactly that Seunghee felt the need to walk out.

“I came after her but when she removed my arm, I don't know what to think. Does she want me to come after her? I mean, I'm not her boyfriend. This isn't a drama,” Joohyun frustratingly stated. “Does she want to embarrass us?”

“I don't know,” Somi answered, sighing and looking at the clouds that were beginning to turn grey. “I still don't understand why she has to walk out.”

“I'm a little guilty but I don't know if I want to say sorry.”

“We ignored her, for like five minutes —”

“That's not even five minutes,” Joohyun interrupted her. “Okay, let's agree that it's five minutes even though I really don't believe it was five minutes. But does that really merit a walk out? And did we really ignore her? Was that ignoring already?”

“She — Well, she separated herself from us. She could have stood beside us, right? But she just completely detached herself,” Somi added, feeling more disappointed. “Why couldn't she just talk to us? Why did she have to walk out like that?”

Joohyun nodded. Then, she slowly said, “I feel like she thinks both of us are kind of… stable? Like my family is stable, your family is stable and we are both financially stable because we have jobs. You do know I have two fathers, right?”

Somi slowly nodded, understanding that it wasn't exactly easy for Joohyun to talk about that, too. “Just because we're not talking about our own problems doesn't mean we don't have problems.”

“Sometimes I feel like she thinks she is the only one who has problems.”

“I understand that we might have ignored her —”

“But the reason we even met today was because of her!” Joohyun stated. “You were busy yesterday, right? But you said you could make time today…”

“And you even attended mass twice today for this.”

“Could she not see that?”

“And she is our friend. Did we really deserve a walk out?”

“It was really... rude.”

Somi nodded. Then, she noticed that it was dark already and the clouds were getting darker. It might rain soon so she suggested that maybe, they should look for a better place to talk because where they were currently sitting at that time was very open. If it suddenly rains, they would surely get soaked in no time.

The quickest place was the nearest fast food place. They just sat at a slightly hidden table where they could talk without really ordering and try figuring out what just happened. They couldn't figure out what happened.

“She'll probably talk to you first,” Joohyun said.

“Me? I don't know about that,” Somi answered uncertainly even though she knew where Joohyun was coming from. “Do you think she'll even talk to us?”

“I don't know,” the other answered honestly. “We both know her pride.”

Both of them didn't want to eat at the fast food food. Joohyun has been eating fast food all the time because she worked at one while Somi was avoiding fast food as much as she can because it just wasn’t healthy and that delicious anyway. They got tempted over that blue float many times but they didn't let it get to them. They went out of the fast food chain (after thanking it for providing shelter to them) and went at another café – The Bean Box - where they ordered large ice blended drinks and nachos. As they continued talking and figuring out what happened. They still couldn't figure it out.

Then, when it was nine already, Somi's mother already called her, asking where she was and what time she will go home, and Joohyun's mother texted her, saying it was already late and asking where she was, the two of them went home.

Later that night, when both of them were already home, they were chatting. Only with one another they could spend an entire day together and still chat once they get home.

 

Somi: Did she talk to you already?

Joohyun: This soon? No... You?

Somi: No... [sad sticker]

Joohyun: Your sticker is cute. [sad sticker]

Somi: Let's just wait?

Joohyun: Let's just wait...

Somi: [sad sticker]

Joohyun: [sad sticker]

 

Somi considers telling Seokjin about it but she would have to ask Joohyun what she thinks about it first. After all, Seokjin is also their friend even if he is currently who knows how many miles away from them. He is supposed to come back in the Philippines on December. What are they going to tell him if he comes back and Seunghee is still not talking to Joohyun and Somi?

 

End?

 

A/N:

I sure hope not the end of friendship ><

Are you guys friends with someone who is not a K-pop fan? What will you do if this happens to you?