6^th May 2009

Good news! Appa called this morning, saying he’ll drop by to see me soon, though he can only stay for two days before flying off to Japan. But still! I’m so excited to see him! Only a month went by, yet it feels like years since I’ve last saw him.

The house has been so quiet without his childish banters and cringe worthy comments, showering me with unconditional love and although I hate to admit it, I secretly miss hearing them. It’s hard to believe that that giant child is that cool, charismatic pianist that those music critics and lovers speak of.

I guess Baekhyun oppa partially filled in a bit of his role as the loud person that livens up the house now though…I wonder how that immature appa of mine would act though if he and Baekhyun oppa meets, and no I haven’t actually told him about this new guy friend of mine, so it’s surely going to come as surprise for him.

Anyways, Baekhyun oppa and I are practically as close as brother and sister now. And Jinhee unnie too has gotten to know him more.

Often I find myself unknowingly smiling to myself as funny moments of his stupidity or craziness suddenly flashes up in my mind. Embarrassingly, Kim Seonsaeng-nim has caught me off guard on many of the occasions too. Though he was irked at times stating that I’m getting easily distracted these days – that I won’t deny - I remember when he mused, “someone’s surely got a lot of happy thoughts occupying their mind lately” and it’s true!

I guess this is just how it is to have friends. Though I did have a few friends in the first few years of elementary (when I actually attended school) but now the memories are so distant.

…it’s nice to have a new friend to talk to and laugh with now.

I really didn’t expect us to get along so well, but ever since our little piano session a few weeks ago, oppa has frequently been dropping by to hang around for a bit. Even Jinhee unnie doesn’t bother treating him like a guest anymore, jokingly sighing at him everytime he shows up and Baekhyun oppa cheekily smiling back at her with that overly cheesy grin.

Speaking of which, today, he hasn’t actually showed up…strange…  

“I guess that, that Baekhyun isn’t dropping by today” Jinhee spoke as she looked out the window.

Eunmi sat at the sofa watching TV, she glances up at the clock which read 7:36pm and mindlessly mumbled back in response, “mm…guess not”

“Strange, I think I’m getting too used to seeing that kid around these days” Jinhee casually shrugged off.

“…yeah…” jumping onto her feet, “unnie, I’ll be upstairs”

“Huh? Ok.” As Eunmi reaches the stairs, Jinhee suddenly reminds, “remember to-”

“Remember to take my medicine~” she knowingly recites, “got it!”

Back in her bedroom, music softly sounded from the smartphone stereo as Eunmi decides to pass time by doing a bit of reading.

It didn’t take long before she gave up, thinking about the absence of a certain someone today. So once again in attempt to distract herself, she got on her computer and browsed through random bits of news. An article of her dear appa pops up which she clicks on, when her sharp ears detects light knocking.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Eunmi instinctively turns to towards the noise, almost jumping out of her chair in shock as a strange smiling boy stands at her balcony doors.

Her eyes widen in recognition but a strong, heavy pulse shoots through to her heart. Many more pulses inconsistently follows, constantly squeezing themselves through her veins.

Not wanting to be seen like this, her eyes darts to the bedroom door where she can escape to the safety of the bathroom. The panic slowly rising within her definitely wasn’t helping the situation either. And so within a split of a second she quickly turns her back on the balcony doors, Eunmi clutches her heart and rushes out.

Into the bathroom, the door shut with a slight bang. Hurriedly going into the medicine cabinet, she immediately finds a spare bottle of medicine and desperately throws one into , squeezing it down with the slight help of some tap water.

The girl drops to the floor, her body curled up against the sink cabinets. Elbows in, both hands clasped over her heart as she takes moments of deep breaths…gradually…gradually, the erratic pulses calms.

And Eunmi lets out a sigh of relief.

Slowly getting up, she looks herself in the mirror…the state she was in.

Splashing some water onto her face, she grabs a towel and pats her face dry before staring back at her reflection again.

“It’s ok now. It’s ok.” she whispers assuringly.

Memory of the forgotten boy on her balcony suddenly flashes in her mind. *Oppa!...Oh gosh, how long have I been in here?!*

Rushing to the door she makes a quick stop, fixing the strands of her hair around her face before getting out.

Back into her room, Eunmi apologetically approaches the balcony doors and slides them open.

“Yah!” he scolds, keeping his voice low “just leave me hanging here then why don’t you?”

“Oppa, I’m sorry~~” Eunmi apologises with her puppy eyes, palms pushed together.

Baekhyun looks at her and immediately softens up, though he tries to maintain that scolding tone.

“Y-you just saw me and ran away, where did you even go? Do you know how long I had to wait for you?”

“I’m sorry~ I…” Eunmi pauses for a second, how should she respond? She can’t just tell him what actually happened…but… “u-unnie, called for me” she quickly fibs.

Not wanting him to press onto the matter, she swerves away from the topic and asks him “oppa, we do have a front door you know. What were you doing on the balcony?”

“Ah” previous topic completely brushed aside and already forgotten, the older boy immediately regains his initial enthusiasm and excitedly speaks. “Eunmi-ah, come with me. I need to show you something”

“What?!”

“Shhh~” he pushes his shushing finger against her lips and whispers “quieten down, if noona finds out she’ll probably kill me”

Worried about where this is going, but feeling that curiosity bubbling up in side of her, Eunmi uncertainly asks “where are we going?”

Grinning like an idiot he answers “secret”

“B-but…at this time?”

“You talk too much. Now hurry up and come”

He grabs hold of her hand and pulls her along to the balcony.

“W-wait, oppa,” uneasiness filling her insides, “h-how did you even get up here?”

“Easy. That tree” he points.

Eunmi gulps as her eyes follow the great obstacle he was pointing at.

“Don’t worry the branches are pretty close together, just follow my steps, ok?”

And for the next ten minutes, Eunmi carefully places her feet on specific branches of the tree, slowly, slowly following Baekhyun’s lead.

“…and from here just jump…off” finishing his sentence as he lands onto safe ground.

Eunmi stands at the last branch, one arm wrapped around the tree trunk. The distance from there to the ground looks quite lengthy and Eunmi wasn’t exactly a big fan of heights, it’s a miracle she even made it this far. But not wanting to tell that to Baekhyun who was encouragingly smiling at her to jump, she takes a deep breath and hoped for the best.

As soon as she took off, Eunmi knew, this definitely isn’t going to end well. Her landing would be an absolute disaster. Now that her hopes for the best pretty much immediately withered away, she now silently braces herself for the worst.

Just waiting for that deadly impact

…that…never…came?

“Uh!” a familiar voice sounds as she lands into the protective arms of the troublemaker – he may have saved her this time but she swears that he’ll be the death of her someday – all in all, she is eternally grateful that he was there to catch her from a potentially fatal fall though.

Eunmi is released from the safety of his hold as Baekhyun pats her head, unaware of her face turning beetroot.

“There we go~!”

She watches cluelessly as he goes around the tree and grabs a bag that was covering a big-ish square box, carefully holding it the right way up.

“What’s that?”

“Ah, ah, ah” Baekhyun wags his finger at her.

Eunmi slumps her shoulders and complains to him “secret again?!”

“Mm hm”

“Why are there so many secrets today?”

Instead of answering he evilly laughs as he walks ahead, leaving Eunmi to tail behind him.

He leads her into a small mountain (A/N:  The same one from chapter 3) in town as the two fight their way through branches of trees and bushes. Though Eunmi was indeed doubtful as to where this will lead them and honestly her legs really aren’t compatible with mountain hiking either, but she believes that there’s a reason as to why Baekhyun is doing this, why he’s taking her to wherever this place is.

The short hike was surely taking a toll on her, her muscles aching, her shortened breath huffing and puffing as she takes more steps, not to mention that she was in a bit of a sulky mood at this point when she mindlessly walks into the back of Baekhyun who was unfazed as he stands rooted to the ground.

“Oppa, don’t suddenly stop like th-" the moment Eunmi stepped out from behind the human obstacle in her way, her breath was immediately taken away.

Countless specks of little yellowy green lights filled her vision, dancing along the tall grass and wild flowers that spread along the landscape.

The scenery is spectacular.

And Eunmi still couldn’t believe her eyes.

The infinite amount of these beautifully delicate creatures that surrounded them, transporting them into a magical world of their own.

“Wow”

“What do you think? Glad I dragged you along now aren’t you?”

“Oppa, this is just….wow”

“Haha! See! I knew you’d like it! …come”

Eunmi was too stunned to even respond whilst Baekhyun casually slipped his hand into hers and pulled her along, up a few stone steps and into the unnoticed pavilion. It was old with bits of the red and green paint crumbling off. Clearly no one has been using it for a long, long time, nevermind taking care of it, despite this the beauty of traditional architecture still shone through. Everything about this place is so beautiful and even the desertedness in it brought along a distinctive aesthetic quality that made it feel so special.

“Oppa, this place is wonderful!”

Like a tourist abroad, Eunmi’s eyes just would not fix onto one place, constantly wandering, exploring, admiring. It was not till Baekhyun sat her down did her attention return to him and that mysterious box in a bag he had been carrying.

“But what’s with the box you’ve been carrying?”

 “This?” he asks, holding up the box with a knowing smile which Eunmi could only nod to.

“Well…erm…” to Eunmi’s surprise, Baekhyun shyly scratches the back of his head. Byun Baekhyun…getting all shy?

“Today’s, a special day. So it’s only right that I celebrate it with a special person right?”

‘Special’…his words made her blush. As she watched him pull the box out of the bag and open it, her jaw dropped in disbelief.

“Oppa! Today’s your birthday?!” Eunmi exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

“For you information, yes it is. Now calm down and sit back down”

Eunmi did as she was told but didn’t stop complaining. “Something’s definitely wrong with you today.” Baekhyun smiled, not his usual smile but a rather innocent, sweet smile, at her words but said nothing. “…acting all secretive and with your character, I would have expected you to be constantly reminding me of you birthday starting from two weeks prior to it.”  She mumbles before suddenly raising her voice. “Oppa! How could you not have told me earlier?!” she sees him taking the candles and lighter out and took them from him “at least let me do this”

His eyes were fixed on her as she concentrated on lighting the candles with the lighter and smiled that sweet smile again before reaching out to lightly pinch her cheeks.

“Ah~  so cute~”

Eunmi tried to dodge his hand wanting to avoid those moments of dreaded cheek pinching like when those adults used to abuse your cheeks when you were a little kid.

“Ahh~ don’t do that~!”

“…so cute~” Baekhyun ignored her and continued to lightly pinch her cheeks as she continues trying to dodge them.

“Oppa! it’s done!” she points at the lighted candles on the cake, desperately trying to stop him from getting her cheeks. “Hurry up and make a wish”

Stopping at her words, Baekhyun looks at her expectantly. “Shouldn’t you be singing for me?”

“Oh! Right...” putting a bright smile on her face, and slowly clapping to the birthday song

Throughout the whole song, Baekhyun couldn’t stop smiling as he watches the younger girl sing to him.

“Oppa, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

Hearing her overly cheerful voice, Baekhyun broke out into a broader smile, revealing his teeth, eyes curving into perfect little crescents. Eunmi returns the smile back to him, pushing the cake slightly closer to him and excitedly speaks.

“Hurry up and make a wish”

Hands clasped together, eyes closed. A few seconds of silence passes with the only sound being the flickering candles that nicely lit their faces, creating a perfect ambience between the two.

Halfway through making his wish, he randomly starts smiling to himself, his rounded cheeks pushed up, before opening his eyes and blowing out the candles.

The cake was sliced and was placed on paper plates as the two sat watching the beautiful scenery as they ate.

“So what did you wish for that made you smile like that?”

“That’s…a secret hehe”

“Tch.” She playfully glares “I’m starting to hate that word now”

“Haha well it’s not gonna come true if I tell you, so tough”

He sticks his tongue out at her causing Eunmi to jut her bottom lip out, pouting at him, before turning back to the scenery allowing a comfortable, content silence to fall upon them…though it didn’t last too long as Baekhyun breaks the silence, eyes still fixed on the millions of fireflies in front of them.

“...Eunmi-ah?”

“Hm?”

“Have you ever thought of what you want to be in future?”

For a moment she pauses in thought.

Future? Would she be able to become healthy? Would she be able to live a normal life like all those other girls? Does she even have a future?

Many questions crossed her mind, countering that one little question Baekhyun had asked her. And shaking her out of those thoughts was the warmth of Baekhyun’s hand that was placed on her shoulder.

“Eunmi-ah? You ok?”

“Huh? …yeh, I’m fine.” She feels his eyes on her and realises she has yet to answer his question “…I never really thought about it, what I want to be in future...” she says, her eyes casting down. *I don’t even know if I have a future.*

“Really? But you’re so good at playing the piano!”

Her mind immediately thought of her dear appa, and a small smile played along her lips.

Looking up at him, she questions “what about you? Oppa? You know what you wanna be?”

“Yep!” He proudly says with a confident nod that somehow sparked envy within her. “I wanna be a singer!”

Eunmi’s eyes widens in surprise, though it shouldn’t have surprised her. Baekhyun could easily pass off as an idol. His presence practically calls for the attention of others.

“I’ve always had this dream” His eyes were sparkling with so much excitement and passion as he continues to speak about this dream of his. “…of singing in front of thousands of people, my fans. People who came just to see me, to hear me sing for them. These people holding up banners, showing their support for me, chanting my name, singing along to lyrics of my songs, and the thousands of waving light sticks”

He stops and turns to face her, “this is why I love this place so much. I feel like this place gives me so much energy. It makes me feel like one day, my dream would definitely come true. Look at it…the lights from the fireflies, don’t they look an ocean of light sticks from the audience in a dimly lit concert hall?"

Looking at the fireflies like he told her to, the scenery she couldn't stop admiring before was no longer there.All she saw were thousands and thousands of fans screaming Baekhyun’s name, enthusiatically waving their light sticks to the blaring music.

Her presence next Baekhyun shrunk into nothingness as the spotlight was on him and him only. Sweat sparkled on his damp skin due to the heat of the lighting and the masses of population filling up the entire concert hall. And all throughout this space, only one dominating figure shined – the star of the show.

It’s so beautiful…his dream.

Hearing Baekhyun share his dream with her, Eunmi was completely taken aback by his resolution.

Baekhyun is so confident in knowing what he wanted.

Yet here she is questioning everything about her life. She always knew that Baekhyun was different from her but for the first time, she felt the distance between them. As though she can only admire him from afar, despite how close they sat together right now.

And as she stares at his side profile, in the back of her mind she already knew, that this distance she’s feeling would only grow bigger in the future he speaks of.

“It looks magical, doesn’t it?”

Eunmi sadly smiles to herself, “mm, it’s amazing how you’ve managed to find this place…Oppa, I’m sure it’ll come true, your dream I mean”

Baekhyun smiled at her, when something popped up in his head. And a brighter smile lit up his face.

“You know what else makes this place so special?”

Eunmi curiously looked at him with her big eyes.

“The day I first found this place is also the day I first met you…remember?”

She blankly looked at him as though she couldn’t remember very well.

“…that day when you playing the piano?”

“Ahh~” she nods, though she recalls an encounter before that “…but I saw you before that too…” she mumbles to herself but unfortunately Baekhyun heard it.

“What?! When?!”

Eunmi cautiously looks at him and turns away “I’m not telling. You’re gonna laugh at me”

Slyly smiling, “now that you said that, I have to hear it now”

“No.”

“Eunmi-ah”

“Nope.”

“For the birthday boy?”

“You-!” Eunmi turns to face him only to be caught off guard by his puppy dog eyes with a bit of pouting. Seeing him like that, she could only helplessly give in with a dejected sigh. “…at the beach…a few days before that…”

Pinching his chin in thought, “…at the beach…beach?” He thoughtfully stares at her face trying to get a better image of when else he could have encountered her. The staring lasted a painstakingly long ten seconds, making the girl feel conscious of herself, when…

“Ah!” he points at her accusingly “you’re that creepy girl that was watching me sleep!”

His choice of words made her immediately take on a defensive position “what do you mean creepy?! I just thought…” she stops not wanting to embarrass herself further.

“Thought what?” Baekhyun probes, leaning in closer towards her, whilst she consciously leans back, before randomly exploding.

“Well a crazy guy motionlessly lying there on the beach, what else am I supposed to think?!!”

It took a few seconds for Baekhyun to interpret what she said before bursting into fits of laughter, his arms clutching onto his stomach.

Besides him Eunmi silently glares with a tomato red face.

Her eyes travels to the leftover of the cake and with a swipe of her fingers, she collected the soft white cream and wiped it onto the face of the hysterically laughing figure.

The laughing stops as Baekhyun, touches the cream on his face, making sure it was what he thought it was and playfully, he sends her a warning glare. Eunmi childishly sticks her tongue out at him and immediately bolted off into the masses of fireflies that swarmed around her.

“Yah! Park Eunmi!”

She turns back to see Baekhyun still at the pavilion, both hands filled with mashed up bits of cake and cream. He makes his way down the steps, running after her. Squeals filled the air as the two ran through the long grass, surrounded by the fireflies.