"This isn't working" (age 18)
18 vs 30"This isn't working," Maeri whined at the match quickly burned out once again. Their families went to the park after nightfall that day. Maeri and Woohyun were alone on the dock of the pond, as their parents (and baby Jonghyun) were looking on from the benches nearby. Her father had given them paper lanterns to write their hopes and dreams on and so they could send them to the sky to be fulfilled. Graduation was quickly approaching, and her father must've noticed how anxious Maeri had become recently. This was supposed to put her mind at ease and give her another fond high school memory before it was over. But now all Maeri was, was irritated.
"How about I light it for you?" Woohyun offered, already grabbing the box of matches from her hands. "You're too slow."
Maeri made a reach for the matches, which Woohyun easily evaded as he pulled a matchstick from the box. "Don't!" she yelled when Woohyun was about to strike it. Her friend did stop but looked up at her questioningly. "Didn't you hear my dad?" she challenged, hitting him. "I have light my own fire for my dreams to succeed. Or some weird metaphorical thing about the fire representing my passion for my dream. Don't light it!" she shouted at the end when Woohyun finally struck the match.
"Why?" Woohyun asked with a chuckle as he lit the lantern. "I don't know what the big deal is. Your dreams are my dreams. This is me helping you achieve them like I will in real life." When he finished, he handed over the lantern to Maeri so that she could lift it into the night sky, which she did. And the two of them watched it fly to the stars in amazement. Even their parents behind them were clapping at the sight. It was beautiful.
"Your so cheesy, just like my dad," Maeri said, after she couldn't make out her lantern anymore. "But thank you," she quickly added, while she grabbed the box of matches. "How about I light yours too?" she offered.
"No," Woohyun quickly objected, taking the box away from her. "You're too slow. I want my dreams to happen soon." He was already getting ready to light the lantern as he was saying this, showing his impatience.
Mari whistled lowly as she looked at his lantern. It was almost completely covered with his handwriting, scrawling out his hopes. "You have a lot of dreams," she remarked as she tried to read them all.
"I'm a dreamer," Woohyun replied in a distracted voice as he fumbled to take out the match from the box in the darkness.
Maeri took this as an opportunity to return the 'favor.' She grabbed his lantern and took the marker out of her pocket. Before Woohyun could yell at her, she gave him her reason, "Let me dream for you." She didn't even wait for him to answer and was already squeezing her small handwriting in the scant space on his lantern.
"And you say I'm cheesy," Woohyun teased as he tried to look over her shoulder and read what she was writing. "What is it?"
"Jjang!" Maeri exclaimed, putting the finishing touches on the dream and showing it off to the other. "For Maeri and Woohyun to always be friends," she read out loud. "I even circled it so they know that this is the most important one."
Woohyun smirked and took the lantern from her. "Are you sure that this is a dream and not a curse? It seems like one to me," he joked.
"Yah!" Maeri yelled as leaned over to hit the other. "You'd be lucky if I'm still your friend."
"I know, I know," he responded in a tired voice, moving away from Maeri. He got the match, finally, and began to light his lantern. "You'd be luckier if I'm still your friend."
"Eung," Maeri found herself agreeing to that. Luckily, Woohyun didn't hear it because he was too preoccupied with launching his lantern into the sky. Maeri was quiet as she watched it float off, doing her best to keep her eye on that little circle that she drew until she couldn't see it anymore.
Just last year, she saw Hani lose friends before her final year of high school wrapped up. Nothing even close to that had happened to Maeri yet (thank god), but she was still full of dread, fearing that it might, seeing her dear friends leave her. She couldn't imagine it. And that was why she made the promise with Woohyun on the soccer field. He was her dearest friend, and she feared losing him the most. She hoped that that promise would be enough for them to stay in touch at least until thirty; at that time, they could call each other and laugh at the idea of them getting married (because both of them would surely have met their soul mates by then). But what would happen after thirty, after that promised expired, Maeri didn't know. She hoped from deep within her heart that they'd always be friends, no matter what.
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