thirteen;

When I pulled back a minute later, Bomi kept her stare on the ground to hide her blushing face and the remaining tears. I stayed silent to not interrupt her.

“Thank you,” she finally whispered.

“Thank you actually,”

She didn’t say anything back but simply smiled.

“You know,” I said. “I’m sure you’ll find someone who’s truly worthy of your heart soon,”

“I wonder,” she replied, her smile never left her face. “I should go,”

“Let me walk you,”

“No, it’s fine,” she declined. “I want to be alone,”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded, and with her sweet smile still plastered on her face despite her wounded heart, she turned to walk away. After several steps, however, she glanced back. “Can I still go to your race?” asked her.

I laughed. “Of course,”

“I’ll cheer you on,” she smiled again before resuming her pace.

I watched her as she disappeared from my sight, and I turned to look at the cherry blossoms trees by the street. I watched the little pink petals dancing along with the silent music of the wind, remembering something Chorong taught me back when there were just the two of us.

“If you catch three petals before they could fall to ground and make a wish, your wish will come true,” she told me with an excited tone in her voice.

“Really?”

She nodded. “Appa told me so,”

I caught the required petals in my palm and closed my eyes as I brought I clenched my hand on my chest near the heart, and I made the same wish I had made as a child. “I wish to be with Chorong forever,”

When I turned around at last, Chorong was already gone, and so did the short-lived spring in my heart.

I had expected Myungsoo to be sleeping when I went to visit him, since that was something I’d catch him doing almost whenever he had a free time. To my surprise, he was reading when I entered his room, different from my prediction. He smiled his warm smile the instant he saw me.

“My mom made you some herbal soup,” I told him while placing the thermos on the table next to his bed.

“Tell her I say thank you,” he replied.

I nodded and handed him my DS. “And I brought you this, in case you get bored,”

“Thanks, hyung,”

“What are you reading?”

He showed me the cover of the book and I was surprised to see it. It was The Phantom of the Opera, the novel I spent the past few months reading. “I saw you read it and I felt like reading it as well, so I asked my mom to find one for me,” he explained.

“You should’ve told me. I could’ve lent you mine,”

“I didn’t want to bother you,” he smiled again, and returned his attention to the page he was reading. “Did you finish it yet?”

“Yep,”

“What do you think of Erik? Is he a bad guy to you?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Just curious,” he said simply.

I shrugged. “I don’t think he’s that bad. Of course, what he did was wrong, but he loves Christine,”

“But he stole her from the guy she loves,”

Knowing where the conversation was heading to, I didn’t reply.

“In the end he died alone, didn’t he?” he went on.

“Myungsoo yah,”

He lifted his gaze from the book to meet mine, his eyes betraying nothing.

“When will you get discharged?” I asked, attempting to change the topic.

“Tomorrow,”

“Then you’ll make it in time for my race this Sunday,”

He raised an eyebrow. “I can go?”

“You come every year,”

“But this year’s different,”

I looked away for a second and sighed, before flashing him a smile. “Nothing’s different. Chorong’s still my best friend and you’re still my dongsaeng,”

“Thank you, hyung,” he returned. “I’ll definitely be there,”

“You know, Myungsoo,” I added. “I don’t hate you,”

His eyes softened. “Thank you,” he whispered again. He put down the book and picked up my DS. “Hyung, teach me to play Dragon Quest,”

“Sure,” I replied as I joined him on the bed, sharing the warmness of his blanket and remembered the good times we have had together as two unlikely brothers. He beamed as he handed the gadget back to me, and I smiled back. “It goes like this,”