(one)

“Woah! Good work guys!” I yelled and clapped along with the others when we saw the Christmas tree light up in a million different colors.

“Great job!” I saw everyone punch each other playfully and hi five.

The project was a success.

Oh, let me introduce myself. I’m Lee Jin Hee, 17 years, in third year high. And I’m the head of the illumination club.

Illumination club, you ask? Well, it’s something like, a club of about 10 members - all of them are my school mates - and we’re in charge of the Christmas illuminations in this village.

Yeah, I live in a village. It’s pretty far from Seoul.  It’s called “The Village of Fallen Stars”. Well, it’s called that because, in this village, you can see the entire sky full of stars. Or something on the lines of that. There are hardly any clouds at night and from wherever you are, you can see the Milky Way. A lot of people discovered some really famous stars from here you know?

But, nobody ever pays attention to the stars anymore. It’s like, people don’t care about the huge spirals of twinkling gas balls, and they have more important stuff to do at night. They’ve just become pretty ignorant. So, the very descriptive word “fallen”.

Right now, it’s the start of December. It’s almost going to snow too. That’s why; the Illumination club members -  which includes me - are nearly going bald with work.

The problem? We don’t have enough funds. Even though the entire village contributed, we’re left with just a little more.

We’re nearly finished with all the money we raised to create these illuminations. And d’ya know why this is so important? On the eve of Christmas, at the of 12, the entire village will go dark, and the hillside will spark up to life with these moving illuminations. There’s going to be moving lights and stuff. You can just imagine what a load of work that takes.

“I’m going home guys! See ya’ll tomorrow!” I yelled and walked to the nearby tree to get my bag pack. So far, all the trees in the area were all set to be lit up.

“Wait! Yah! Idiot, I’ll walk with you!” I grinned when I heard that well known voice call out after me.

Eunhyuk’s voice.

I immediately hid my grin though. There wasn’t anything to be so happy about for. Eunhyuk’s already rejected me.

Or, yeah, that’s the polite way of saying it.

He cheated on me.

He was ‘the’ guy everyone knew in the locality, and placed no.1 in the top three coolest - or hottest - guys list, which those perm haired ulzzang girls in my school do.

And we were in the same class, and we went bowling during a class party. And we got to know each other… and before long, I’d fallen for him.

I really didn’t expect him to even know that I existed, forever, so you can imagine my shock when he confessed. My dope-head of a brother says I stayed in shock for three days, Heh. But I accepted at once.

Anyways, we went out for nearly two years, when this really kind and pretty girl transferred into our school. I wasn’t insecure at all, I trusted Eunhyuk, and I knew he loved me as much as he’d always said.

But things didn’t turn out that way.

One night, I was walking in the streets nearby (there’s hardly any danger in this village, it’s modern and a nice place with nice people) and I called up Eunhyuk to ask if he wanted to go to the old wishing well near the shrine. He sounded really down when he said he couldn’t come so I said it was okay. What bugged me was why he sounded really nervous when I mentioned the wishing well.

When I got to the wishing well, I didn’t really want to make a wish anymore. I saw my boyfriend and that ‘kind’ girl, holding hands and well… you know the rest.

Snap. All the threads of trust I had for Eunhyuk, snapped.

But. I couldn’t just ignore him. He’s in my class and lives near my street. So damnit all, the next time we talked (pretty curtly for my part, which was after a month) I said we’d stay friends. There simply wasn’t any other way. I accepted it. And that pretty, kind girl is also in the illumination club. She wanted to join because of Eunhyuk, and I couldn’t be the mean and jealous ex-girlfriend could I? So the ‘head’ was forced to let her in... sometimes, I feel like a total outsider. Especially, like now, earlier tonight when we started the illumination work, they were being plain lovey dovey on each other

There are times when I wonder if Eunhyuk actually had any feelings for me. What kind of person cheats on their girlfriend, goes out with another girl, but fails to show any kind of shame or remorse?

Now we’re almost back to the way we were before we started going out. We still walk together home from school, still eat ice cream at the ice cream shop, and still go bowling. But I guess, I’ve just stopped my feelings from flowing, and he just lost them.

Ta-da, which brings me back to the present.

“Arasso, but don’t walk so fast okay? I can’t keep up with you!” I complained and earned a bonk from him.

“Nae, take care Jin Hee-ah, good night.” he said, bidding me goodnight on the doorstep of my house.

“G'night Eunhyuk.” I said, waved and watched his retreating back. He was still drop dead good-looking.

I wish that stupid incident never happened. I don’t think I can fall in love anymore, with anyone else.

I was proved wrong.