"There are times in life when people must know when not to let go. Balloons are designed to teach small children this." 
— Terry Pratchett

Video clip: 002

Tiffany's face filled up the camera's whole screen.

“TaeTae,” Tiffany whined with a pout. She was getting frustrated over how many times they had to do her introduction. “We've been doing this since....the ice age.... can we go do something else?”

“Alright, alright,” Taeyeon replied. The camera zoomed out, showing the sick girl still sitting on her bed with arms crossed. “This is the last question, I promise. What are you good at?”

“Everything” her best friend buoyantly said as she gave a heavenly giggle akin to moving wind chimes on a summer breeze. “Except,” she continued, “cooking or cleaning. I'm fairly clumsy and can't multitask that well. I love music but I can't sing in normal human decibels.”

“Yeah, you sing pretty loud, like Banshee from Marvel” Taeyeon interjected with a laugh.

Tiffany ignored her and continued, “I continuously lose things, and I can't tell the difference from left and right most of the times. Oh, and when I get angry, I tend to break things”

“You're like the love child of the Hulk and Banshee.”

“TaeTae, they're both guys”

“Well you never know. Technology these days” Taeyeon countered. She laughed and the camera bobbed up and down in concurrent motion to her breaths.

Her best friend shook her head in retaliation to the girl's dorky remark. “As I was saying, TaeTae” Tiffany voiced, “I'm pretty bad at all those things, but you're really good at them. I guess we make a great pair."

“Like Bonnie and Clyde. Han Solo and Chewbacca. Frodo and Sam. C-3P0 and R2D2. Shrek and Donkey. ”

“Yes,” the sick girl replied with a smile that could be compared to a starlit sky, “just like them”


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Not one of us is immune to loss. Everyone loses at least one thing precious to them. Lost promises and lost possibilities. Lost journeys and lost opportunities. Lost love and lost hope. Feelings we can never ever get back again.
♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦ 


Video clip: 003

The camera wobbled around, first staring at the ceiling, then the floor, and then the window that afforded an expansive view of the city of Busan. The video camera stayed like that, watching the city move, before swerving to left where Tiffany still sat on the bed. Taeyeon's forehead crept into the camera's vision from the bottom right corner. It looked like she was checking for something. After a minute of shooting Taeyeon's forehead, the camera zoomed in closer. The short girl stood up, gave a thumbs up to the camera, and headed to where Tiffany sat. 

The two girls were both in the view of the camera.

“Why is the camera on top of the flower pot?” Tiffany asked, staring in puzzlement to the video camera before shifting her attention back to her best friend.

“I was tired of holding it all the time, and besides, I want to get in the shot too” Taeyeon briefly explained as she turned around to grab two white cups. The girl handed one to Tiffany and said, “I know I don't allow you to drink coffee because I said that you still have a lot of years to grow and coffee will just stunt it, but JUST for today I'll make an exception.”

Taeyeon smiled before continuing, “Caramel Coffee, your favourite.”

Tiffany gave a nervous laugh as she scratched the back of her head. “Wha-whaaat? I swear I never had this in my life. TaeTae, I've been a good girl. If you said no coffee, then no-”

“You're such a liar Fany,” Taeyeon cut in with a playful laugh, “I've seen you sneak out and buy a medium cup of it when I'm not looking. The Seoul hospital's cafe says you're quite a regular.”

“Oh my,” Tiffany said nervously, “look at the time! TaeTae, let's drink it before it gets cold”

Taeyeon laughed before quickly getting up from her seat and giving Tiffany a quick kiss on the cheeks. Her best friend turned around to look at the girl with a bewildered yet elated expression.

“What was that for?” Tiffany asked, her eyes curving to upside down smiles.

“Payment. You know coffee doesn't grow from trees”

“Actually, they do” her best friend replied with a smirk, “from Coffea trees”

“You and your random curiosities.” Taeyeon countered. “You really need to stop going on wikipedia.”

“Yeah, that's what I'm scared about” her best friend voiced with a soft pout. “I mean, does heaven have wifi? Because how am I supposed to satisfy my curiosity without wikipedia when I'm there? Oh my god, how am I supposed to update my twitter then?”

“Sometimes I don't know if you understand the whole gravity of your situation.”

Tiffany grabbed Taeyeon's arm, shaking it with all the energy her body afforded her and said, “TaeTae, if heaven has no internet, you better log in to my account and update with a new tweet: Rollin with J.C.”

“You mean 'Trollin with J.C',” Taeyeon remarked teasingly, “because that's what you'd most likely do there; troll.”



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And that's the thing about best friends. In the end of the day, they'd light up the sky by making you laugh and smile even when in the darkest of nights.
♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦


Video clip: 004

The camera was still in the same position as before. But this time the room was dark with only a lamplight to illuminate their faces.

“TaeTae?” Tiffany said. Her arms carefully wrapped around a white pillow while her chin rested on the edges of it.

“Yes, Fany?” Taeyeon replied. She was on her best friend's bed, laying down blithely beside her. The girl's arm was draped over Tiffany and the white pillow she was hugging.

“Can people get married in heaven?” she asked softly, staring up at the white ceiling.

“I'm sure they can,” Taeyeon said unevenly, her voice almost cracking from answering the question. Her best friend didn't notice the waver in her voice, or if she had then she chose to remain silent about it. “Why do you ask?”

“Because since I can't experience the joys of getting wed here, then I hope I can when I get to heaven. With you if possible, I mean, I can wait.”

“Really? You'd wait for me? That would be nice Fany, I'm sure marriages in heaven is better than marriages here. It's already white there, so we wouldn't need that much decorations” Taeyeon croaked dryly, trying to suppress the building tears in her eyes.

“But TaeTae,” Tiffany added, “I also wouldn't mind if you get married here as well. You know, with another person that isn't me.”

Taeyeon scoffed. “That's silly”

“Our original plan was for just the two of us to go on that roadtrip together, you know, the one that Grandma Hwang went on” her best friend softly spoke. “But I'm okay with changing it to three people. Just promise me that I won't be the third wheel, okay?”

“You won't be, because I promise there won't be a third.”

“Well in case you find someone just as important as me here.”

“There won't be. Now go to sleep."

"Just in case TaeTae, just in case" Tiffany whispered.


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Sometimes, there is no way of letting go; Taeyeon's tears told her that one. And no matter how strong the current of time ebbs, no matter how many days flood past, there are some things that can never be washed away, memories that can't be rubbed off like the stain from the spaghetti river on her grade eight school uniform.
♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦


Video clip: 005

The next morning.

The video camera was shooting one of the white walls of their hospital room. On the left corner of the screen was the large circular clock that hung on the wall, mercilessly ticking away the seconds that passed by.

“There,” Taeyeon started from behind the camera, “I think it's all charged now.”

“Is it on?” Tiffany asked.

“Yep, I just turned it on.” the shorter girl replied. The camera appeared to be picked up from someone as the screen blurred for a bit before stopping and swerving to shoot the pale girl on the bed.
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