“This is not a carnival, it’s an amusement park.” I corrected her with a judgmental look as we walked around with a respectable distance between us.

“Well, for me it’s a carnival.” She defended, her face like a 6 year old’s.

“Sica! Look!” She pointed to a mini game booth and skipped ahead of me.

“Wait up!” I shouted, increasing the speed of my pace to catch up to her.

She stopped at the booth. One of the kinds of mini games they had involved tossing balls on bottles stacked together and if you hit them all correctly, you get a prize.

“Hurry up, Sica!”  She shouted.

By the time I arrived at her side, she was already on her second try.

“This is the second ball, missy.” The worker reminded.

“Give it to me! I’ll hit this one for sure.” She clapped her hands twice and rubbed it against each other. That wasn’t the first time I saw her do that. She made it a ritual believing that she would get lucky once she’s done it.

The worker handed her the second ball. She held it close to her lips. I believed she whispered something to it like: “Come on, come on, I need to win this.”

She threw the ball like she was the pitcher of a baseball game. She looked childish, but somehow it suited her. But I couldn’t help looking uninterested since she brought me to a place that wasn’t appropriate for our ages unless we brought a child or a toddler. I kinda expected that she’d take me out to go shopping or a buffet restaurant. But instead, my best friend brought me to an amusement park. How… amusing.

“YEEEEEEES!” She yelled in delight.

She hit the bottles stacked in a pyramid with one throw.  I don’t see how she could’ve been that excited at her age. It made me wonder how Tiffany can tolerate a girlfriend like her.

She pointed to one of the stuffed toy, bears that were hanging on the ceiling as her valuable prize. It was huge and blue; if it stood from the ground it would directly be as tall as my hips. Yuri wrapped the stuffed toy with her arms as we continued our journey around the park.

Yuri noticed my quiet behavior and quickly hopped in front me and positioned the bear on my face.

Yuri masked her face with the bear as she started to engage a conversation with me through the stuffed animal.

“Hello, Sica Noona! I’m Mr. Bear! You know your best friend doesn’t like it when you’re sad. So cheer up, old pal!” The bear (Yuri) ‘talked’ to me in a low, manly tone like it had its own mind and soul.

“Oh Mr. Bear, how could I not be miserable when my best friend brought me to a place full of children.” I gave in to Yuri’s sarcasm.

I pushed ‘Mr. Bear’ out of my way to continue on with my path. ‘Mr. Bear’ continued to walk behind me.

“Yuri Noona, Sica Noona told me that you shouldn’t have brought her here. She doesn’t want to be around children.” ‘Mr. Bear’ spoke in a low tone to Yuri behind me.

I couldn’t help but laugh when I heard Yuri talking to herself. She used the stuffed bear as a puppet but I knew that she wasn’t that childish, I guess she was making a lot of effort to cheer me up that she starts to make a fool out of herself in pubic.

“Mr. Bear, is that so? Well what do you think Jessica wants to do then? You should ask her. She might get mad at me if I ask her.” Yuri answered back at ‘Mr. Bear’ in her normal voice.

With the help of Yuri’s arm, Mr. Bear slowly climbed on my back.

“Hey, Sica Noona, Yuri Noona wants to ask where do you want go then? She’s really concerned about you, but she’s too shy to ask you because she’s afraid you might get mad at her.” Yuri's puppet politely asked with its manly voice.

I grabbed Mr. Bear out of Yuri’s hand and faced her.

“Mr. Bear!” I yelled at the stuffed toy while pinching its blue, cotton fur as I stared at its button eyes.

“Tell your Yuri Noona…” I paused to smile at Yuri and turned back to the bear’s eyes.

“She should’ve fed me before we came here.” I giggled.

Yuri’s cheeks started to blush.

I threw Mr. Bear back at Yuri as the smile on my face continued to reach my ears.

I continued to walk with Yuri and the stuffed animal behind me when she grabbed my neck with one arm while holding the bear on her other.

“I finally cheered you up!” Yuri cheered.

“Stop strangling me!” I complained, still smiling widely.

She quickly removed her arm around my neck and did a mini, goofy dance beside me.

“FYI, Kwon Yuri, Mr. Bear was the one who cheered me up.” I sarcastically corrected her.

She seemed to ignore the information I gave her but started to respond a few moments later.

“Doesn’t really matter who cheered you up, Jessica Jung!” She continued to dance.

“The Important thing is you’re out of your state of depression, right?” She stood still in front of me as she was trying to catch her breathe from the series of movements she’s made.

“Okay, so you’re starving right?” Where do you want to eat?” She asked while she gave her stuffed animal a piggy back ride.

“Anywhere is fine with me.” I replied as I raised a brow at the bear’s button eyes.

“You up for Italian? I know this very homey, family owned, Italian restaurant just a few blocks away from the amusement park. We could walk on our way.” She happily suggested.

“Sure. I’d love to.” I mirrored her happy expression.

She started to skip her way out of the park as I walked behind her.

“Hey, Yuri!” I called out.

“Yeah?” She turned to face me, still giving Mr. Bear a ride on her back.

“Can we come back here after we eat? I suddenly became interested on the rides I’ve been spotting.” I asked, somewhat looking like a child.

“Sure!” She answered after smiling with her full set of teeth.

Going to an amusement park was totally better than shopping or eating at a buffet restaurant. I started to think that Yuri’s childish side was contagious.