With trembling hands Suzy reached out for Myungsoo’s face. She didn’t say anything, and neither did he. They just sat there, staring at each other with tears flowing freely from their eyes. All he could feel was the warmth of her flesh against his wet cheeks and the blood gushing through his veins. Her honest gaze bore into him, and all he wanted at that time was for the world to stay still.

   “I knew it was Sunggyu on the day he left,” Myungsoo explained in a coarse whisper. “Your father and I were talking, and I somehow managed to fit the pieces together. It was Sunggyu who would leave the roses in my mother’s tomb; it was him who taught you the greeting, right? It was him—”

   “Enough,” Suzy cut in. “It’s okay now. Everything’s okay.”

   “It isn’t,” he shot back, his voice shaking on the last syllable. “If only I wasn’t jealous of him, then I wouldn’t say such hurtful things. I could just let it go and my mom could have avoided the crash. She wouldn’t have died. Everything would have been okay. I…I was so freaking selfish I couldn’t think of anyone but myself Suzy I—”

   “One day,” she blurted out.

   The both of them paused. Suzy’s hands slipped on his shoulders, and she stared at him, straight in the eye. “We used to tell each other that everything will be all right one day, remember?”

   Myungsoo nodded.

   “I’ve got good news for you, Myungsoo,” she said, smiling. “That one day we were talking about…is now.”

   “Suzy—”

   “You have Daehyun. You were able to make other people smile with your music. The kids in the orphanage enjoyed your company, right? Things are slowly but surely opening up to you. Myungsoo, you have us. You’re a part of our family now. Please don’t forget that.”

   “But it hurts,” he choked out.

   “Just now,” she whispered. “It only hurts just now.”

   Myungsoo pulled her into a tight embrace, and he rested his head against her shoulders. Suzy’s sleeve began to get damp, but she didn’t mind. Like a child, he sobbed quietly and she could only caress the back of his head in return. They stayed in that position for a long while, and when the tears were finally dry and when their hearts were already calm, they both proceeded to go upstairs to sleep.

   Hello, this is Mrs. Kim. I can’t answer the phone at the moment. Please leave a message after the beep.

   Beep.

   “Mom,” Myungsoo whispered. “You said before that happiness is when you feel warmth when everything else is cold, right? If that’s the case, then I’m happy. Mom, I’m happy.”

   There was a long pause, and at last, he said goodbye.

<:>

   “Jieun!” Sunggyu called out, as he pulled his coat tighter before approaching the young woman in the porch. “What are you doing out here?”

   “It’s a bit stuffy inside,” she explained. “I wanted to get some fresh air.”

   He smiled, and took the space beside her. “May I join you, then? I’m not that good with crowds.”

   “Sure thing.”

   He smiled, and stared at the patch of sky she was looking at.

   “Do you miss home?” Jieun asked.

   “I do,” he answered sheepishly. “Up to the point of crying.”

   She glanced at him, and remarked, “You don’t look like you cried.”

   “I have dry eye syndrome.”

   Jieun scoffed, but said nothing in return.

   “Do you miss home?” he returned.

   “I do, too,” she said. “‘Did Mom and Dad have their dinner yet?’ or ‘Did they not forget to treat themselves?’ I keep on thinking about such things.”

   “Why don’t you try calling them?” Sunggyu suggested.

   Jieun slowly shook her head no. He waited for an explanation, but it didn’t come. He let it be.

   “I heard you talking with your family earlier,” she began. “It felt nice. All of you seemed really close.”

   “My foster parents treated me like a true son,” Sunggyu said, while leaning against the wooden banister. He clasped his hands together. “They disciplined me and loved me. I’m really grateful for that.”

   “Judging from your voice, it feels as if you did something bad to them.”

   Sunggyu stared at her, and smiled. “I did.”

   “How can you smile while admitting something like that?”

   “Somehow that question sounds familiar,” he returned. “But I did do something bad to them.”

   “What is that?”

   It was Sunggyu’s turn to shake his head, and Jieun simply stayed quiet, as well.

   “Have you ever celebrated Christmas with your girlfriend?” she asked, after a while.

   “I did.”

   “How did you celebrate it?”

   “It depends on the situation.”

   “Were you happy?”

   Sunggyu smiled. “I was. What about you?”

   “I’m not so sure.”

   “Why?”

   “We usually celebrate it in the hospital. My boyfriend was really sickly.”

   “I see,” he replied. “My girlfriend was, too.”

   “Sunggyu, were you aware of her condition beforehand?”

   “Yeah.”

   “And you still carried on with it?”

   “Yeah.”

   “Why?”

   “I wanted to make the days count.”

   “You wanted to make the days count,” Jieun repeated. She sighed, and stared at the frozen ground. “So you didn’t love her at the beginning.”

   “I learned,” he said. “She wasn’t difficult to love.”

   “Sometimes we can mix love and politeness up,” Jieun remarked.

   “But of course,” he agreed. She sneezed, and upon noticing how red her nose was, Sunggyu removed his scarf and wrapped it around his friend’s neck. “Are you still going to stay here?”

   She nodded.

   “I’ll be going ahead, then. Don’t stay out too long.”

   “Sure thing,” she replied. Not long after, everything was quiet. Jieun looked down on the ground, and the scent of Sunggyu penetrated her senses. She smiled to herself, and said, “You really should be cautious around him.”

<:>

   “Do you know what my mom said about Jieun?” Woohyun began, grinning. He turned to face Sunggyu. “She said she’d make a good wife.”

   The older one suppressed his chuckle. “Why do you seem so excited?”

   “Reasons.”

   “You have a crush on her?”

   Woohyun’s shoulders relaxed. “It’s my first time feeling this,” he admitted. “I know what to say to girls to make them feel better, but when it comes to her, it’s different. I get speechless, but in my mind, I have so many honest opinions about her.”

   “I see,” he answered.

   “And I can’t make a move on her,” the younger one added.

   Sunggyu looked at Woohyun. “Why not?”

   “She likes somebody else.”

   “Coward,” he provoked.

   Woohyun smiled a little, and pulled his blanket closer to his chin. “It’s not that noticeable, but I respect my elders more than you know.”

   “You really won’t do anything?” Sunggyu asked. He received no reply. “Hey, Woohyun, are you asleep already?”

   Silence.

   The older one sighed before shifting his gaze to the ceiling. “You’re too kind sometimes, Nam Woohyun.”

<:>

   Myungsoo couldn’t help but glance at Suzy every now and again as she flipped the pages of the photo album. They were in the living room, then, sitting beside each other. Several thick albums were stacked on the coffee table and the frosty rays of the sun leaked through the transparent windows, basking the still room with a pale, frozen glow.

   “This was the time when I went to the amusement park for the first time. See this carousel? I rode with Sunggyu, and I kept on calling him ‘My Prince’.”

   “My complexion was off here because I threw up.”

   “And here is Sang Moon a few years later. He also threw up after getting on the same ride I did before. It was really hilarious but gross.”

   They looked at several more albums, and Myungsoo remarked, “You really captured a lot of memories.”

   “We did,” Suzy agreed. She looked at him, and the other could only shake his head.

   “I burned mine. All of it,” he said, as if he had read her mind completely. “The only thing that’s left is her voicemail. That’s it.”

   “But…why?”

   “I do not want to live off of memories,” was all he replied.

   Suzy bit her lower lip, and reached out for the brown envelope on the table. She took out the pictures she printed off earlier, showing him a photograph of her family with Myungsoo and Daehyun included. It was taken during the charity. “I hope you realize that memories are also there to remind us that things do get better.”

   “Of course,” Myungsoo replied, smiling. “I’m living it out.”

   “You’re living it out,” she repeated, obviously amused.

   He nodded away, before gazing out the window. “Suzy, do you know what’s funny?”

   “What?”

   “Everything out there is covered in frost and snow. The temperature’s below zero and yet…” he locked eyes with her. There was a different spark in his stare. “I feel like it’s already summer.”

   “Happiness brings warmth, after all,” she remarked.

   The young man paused, remembering the words his mother said, and smiled genuinely. Suzy returned the favor by softly punching him on the shoulder. He wouldn’t say it in front of her, but he liked the friendly contact. For Myungsoo, she was like a walking drop of sunshine, just enough to make him feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

   Mr. Bae told the rest about them going to the shelter on the 28^th to visit the ones Myungsoo helped in the subway station. Out of all of them, Daehyun was the most ecstatic one.

   “I can’t wait to see Ai!” he cried. “And I saved her some books, too!”

   Myungsoo smiled as he tousled his younger brother’s hair. “Don’t worry, you’ll see her a few days from now.”

   “I can’t wait!” Daehyun exclaimed, jumping up and down.

   But as for Myungsoo, he wished for that day to never come.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:"
- Ecclesiastes 3:1