The next Wednesday Suji had a sudden thought. Why not get everyone to write goodbye post it notes? The manager agreed to it and the both of them set off to the stationery store further downtown. Sungyeol was kept in the kitchen by Sunggyu (who was finally willing to let him cook), and Woohyun was coming in late again (girl problems).

 

The store was three streets away and Suji found it stupid to take a bus so they walked instead. They had lived here in this city all their lives but this was the first time they were walking down this street together. Myungsoo found it strangely poetic. Suji pointed out a few of her favourite shops along the way. Because his school was the other way he very rarely walked in this direction. Today it was cold but he was discovering something new. The street was bright and wide and Suji had a red scarf on. It was still January.

 

“We’re halfway through,” she said, “that’s so quick.”

 

Myungsoo could not agree or disagree. Somewhere along the way he had come to acceptance about the fact that he was no longer going to be part of the café. And that was ok. They were all going to move on to different parts of their lives and maybe the country. And that was not really ok.

 

Suji pulled her hair out of her scarf and he helped her with it. He often did it and her hair was soft with slightly grizzly ends in his hands. They walked past her high school and she pointed it out. It was a Catholic girls’ school, and he could see the bell tower peeping out from beyond the gate. She told him the legend behind it, and he could almost see her on the grounds in her school uniform. She wore it everyday to the café but today it was different. Sort of.

 

“If we’re lucky we’ll get lots of notes. But sometimes people come and never come back.” Suji thought it was a pity that some people never came back to the café after their first visit.

 

Myungsoo knew the logic behind it. It was part of life. That was what they were supposed to learn when they started working at the café. What did sixteen year olds know? But Myungsoo thought that they knew more than what the world thought they did. At least Suji was sympathetic about lost experiences.

 

He was starting to feel the same way. What about the experiences lost for them? The café was part of them now. Sungyeol and Sunggyu, Woohyun and Suji and he and the manager. All of them. What about the things they would lose out on when they left? Myungsoo fixated himself on thinking about that as Suji picked out the colours of the post-it notes. It was not a happy thing to do.

 

Woohyun helped Suji hang up the chalkboard explaining the activity on Thursday. She had written the explanation herself. Myungsoo spotted a single wrong word. Sungyeol was the one who pointed it out and received the beating instead. Times like this he knew how to keep himself out of trouble. Even though he found Suji erasing and tracing letters over again cute.

 

Every time they served a customer they would hand out a post-it note. Then at closing they would count the number of notes and adjust the counter accordingly. It became Myungsoo’s favourite past time now to readjust the counter. Even if they could not move on with the café then perhaps this would be the perfect ending to it.

 

 

 

 

 

He looked at Suji. She was doing closing tonight and they had arranged to stay behind and clear out their lockers together. So many years had merged into each other that her things were inseparable from his. It was a strange feeling. Suji shut down the coffee machine and looked at him.

 

“Let’s go,” she slung an arm over him. It was hard for her because he was tall, and had grown even taller over the last three months. Sungyeol and he were now at eye level.

 

Myungsoo watched as she punched in her combination. He actually knew it so it was no difference anyway. When he stopped to think of all the things he knew about Suji, he wondered more about the things he did not. How was she like in school? How about her friends? Did she giggle with them too? Were these all lost experiences too? Suddenly Myungsoo felt like an over excitable poet.

 

Suji then entered the combination for his locker. She knew his too. He couldn’t remember when he gave it to her but she just did. The thought of that simultaneously scared and pleased Myungsoo. It was very odd now that he was starting to feel all this but he wasn’t scared. Was he?

 

They sat down on the bench opposite and looked at the lockers. Hers was very organized and neat; his willy-nilly. Most of the stuff inside his belonged to her though, so it was not like he wasn’t actually tidy. Suji laughed at the stuffed toy hanging out of his. An anonymous admirer had given it to him. Sungyeol used it as a punchline for five months.

 

“How do we even start?” Suji sighed. He didn’t know either. What was his, what was hers.

 

She leaned over and pulled out the stuffed toy. “This is yours, at least.”

 

He couldn't even bring himself to be cross at her. She placed it on the bench beside him, and they decided to start with the books. Even then it was hard—she’d want one and he would give it to her. Then she would not want one and he would take it. It wasn’t separation anymore. He was giving everything to her and Myungsoo felt like it was not limited to books or CDs or anything in his locker. He didn’t know what yet. But Suji smiled up at him from behind the cover of their favourite jazz band and he thought that he would. Soon.

 

 

 

 

 

The wall that they had set aside for the post-it notes was now almost three quarters full. There was less than two weeks left before the café closed and Myungsoo wasn’t sure if they were going to have enough space. Howon and Dongwoo came over again on Sunday and Myungsoo stayed to watch as they wrote their post-it notes. Dongwoo decorated his with overdue Christmas mistletoe while Hoya tried to cover his with his right hand. Myungsoo forced it out of the way.

 

“Eunji?” Myungsoo read the name aloud incredulously. When and how? Howon had problems with girls. He didn’t and already he was having a hard time understanding what was happening between Suji and he.

 

Howon kicked Myungsoo in the shin as hard as he could from his seat. “Shut up!”

 

Myungsoo assured him that Suji was not around to hear of his betrayal. Sunggyu had called her in for taste testing an hour ago. Sunday was not their busiest day, most in part because everyone was at church or the places of long lost cousins. Moonsoo himself was at one with their mother. Howon scowled at him.

 

“Who’s Eunji?” Myungsoo persisted.

 

Howon’s speed at moving on was incredible. Dongwoo offered to answer while Howon finished up his post-it note. If he was willing to write it down then he wouldn’t object to Dongwoo telling the story on his behalf. Myungsoo listened as Dongwoo launched into a lengthy recount of how Eunji moved in three months ago and Howon never ever took notice until they met at the record store and discovered what they had in common. The rest of the story sounded suspiciously like idol drama drivel to Myungsoo.

 

 

 

 

 

Suji heard of the idol drama drivel over tea. Sungyeol laughed and swore he’d ask Howon himself. Woohyun was envious, and Myungsoo just stabbed at his cake. Suji was decidedly amused. Eunji was a student at her school, and they had met a few times before. Myungsoo was however upset at the fact that Howon had problems with girls and now they had magically disappeared. Sungyeol wouldn’t let it go either, and he took the chance to stalk back into the kitchen when the teapot was empty. Sunggyu had gone outside to check on his herb pots. He stared at the kettle, and jumped when Suji touched him on the shoulder.

 

“Are you okay?” He looked down at her. Her name on the apron was also stitched in gold. Sungyeol complained about it the other day, how only hers and his were in the same colour. Suji simply said there was not enough thread. Whatever she said Sungyeol usually believed. Myungsoo though wanted to believe otherwise. Suji took the teapot from him and refilled it herself. Then she handed it back to him. She knew when to and when not to talk to Myungsoo.

 

Myungsoo tugged at his apron. “Did you really run out of thread?” It took a while for her to process the question. When she did she smiled back up at him. He knew this was her truthful smile. Whenever she was playing around with Sungyeol or Woohyun it was another sort of smile. This one reached her eyes and the ends of it. It was very pretty and Myungsoo smiled too.

 

“No,” she tugged at his apron too, “but Sungyeol doesn’t have to know.”