~ Ladies & Gentlemen, now We're approaching Seoul where the local time is 1930. At this stage you should be in your seat with your seatbelt firmly, fastened. Personal television screens, footrests and seat tables must be stowed away and all hand luggage stored either in the overhead lockers or under the seat in front. Please ensure all electronic devices including laptop computers and computer games are turned off.~


Ah, finally. After almost 4 years away from my home, here I am waiting to be landed at the gracious land of Korea. I looked out the window and saw the amazing view. My heart was thumping as I was a bit excited at the thought of being home and met with family and friends. Nevertheless, a stinging ache was still there in my heart as a certain memories came back into my mind. The memories that caused me to leave.

As pathetic as it might sound, I’ve left because of a girl. Ya, I know. Pathetic right? Just because of a girl whom I love, I decided to leave. Why?

Well, as people said, love made you do stupid thing. Is it true? What is love actually? Hm... Love? It’s kind of complicated, but I’ll tell you this, the second you’re willing to make yourself miserable to make someone else happy, that’s love right there. And how do I know this?

Been there. Done that.

That’s why I’m here. But, why am I coming back here? Well, if it wasn’t because of my stupid tall gigantic best buddy’s wedding, I won’t be here. I won’t be coming back and faced the possibility of meeting the girl who had shattered my heart.

I don’t know whether, I’m still so madly in love with her. I mean, it’s been almost 4 years. But one thing I’m sure is that all this time she still in my mind. Well, you can never really stop loving someone. You just learn to try to live without them. I believe that cause that’s what I’ve been doing all this time. Trying to live my life without her.


+++++


“BABE!! OVER HERE!!”

A loud familiar voice caught my ears as I was pushing my trolley and walked out from the arrival gate. My eyes quickly scanned around and soon I found the girl who was waving excitedly at me. It wasn’t that hard to recognize her as she was towering the other people who was standing around her. I quickly made way towards her.

“Yah~ You’re finally here.” She pulled me into a tight hug as soon as I've reach her. “I miss you so much buddy.” She whispered as she buried her face onto my shoulder.

“I miss you too, Soo.” I slowly said as I wrapped my arms around her. I really missed this shikshin buddy of mine. She was the one who helped me through my darkest time. I’m glad that I still have her as my buddy.

We broke the hug after awhile and I greeted her fiancé who was standing and watching our bonding moment just now.

“Hey.”

“Hey to you too.”

“Pretty much the same.”

“Huh?”

“You haven’t grown much since I left.”

“YAH!!”

Sooyoung and I laughed hard while her fiancé, Sunny slapped my arms for few times. I loved to tease Sunny who was also a friend of mine before she and Sooyoung became an item. So, I’m pretty closed with this couple.

“Yah! Yah! That’s hurt, Sunny-ah!” I rubbed my arm while Sunny was pouting in front of me. “You're still as violence as I know. But—“ I paused as I watched Sooyoung wrapping her arm around Sunny’s shoulder and tried to console her sulking fiancé. It was such a warm sight to see as I smiled at them. “You’re still beautiful as ever. And I miss you so much.”

Sunny smiled immediately as she pulled me into her arms.

“Silly. You’re more beautiful than me. And…I miss you too,kid.”


~~~~~


“Okay, now…let’s have some dinner first before we go back to my place.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll be staying at the hotel. I already made a reservation.”

“Huh? Why?” Sunny turned to face me while pouting.

“Oh come on. Your wedding would be in few days. I don’t want to disturb you two.”

“Yah! Since when you become a disturbance to us! It’s been years since we got to spend time together. And now you still want to be away from us?”

I chuckled lightly as Sooyoung complained. She was right though. Sooyoung and I used to live together since college. Then when she met with Sunny and got serious with her, she moved in to her place. But before that, the two of us spent lot of time together and there were lot of memories shared by us. In fact, during the first few months she moved out, I felt really lonely. I would always call her and sometime spent my night there. Same goes to her. We were really closed. We were inseparable. And even when I left, I was having a hard time adjusting myself there in Brooklyn. But somehow, I made it through.

“I’m sorry, Soo. But don’t worry. I promise that I’ll come to your place as much as I can. And you’ll be seeing this pretty face of mine for a lot of time. Don’t try to complain when you feel bored with this face later on.”

Sunny laughed at our interaction. I ruffled Sooyoung’s hair which caused her to grunt as her eyes were still fixed on the road. She could be a little kid sometime.

Soon, I just sat back while watching the two girls in front of me talking to each other. I smiled at their lovingness. How I wish I could have that. I stared out the window as I watched at the cars, building and people that we passed by. And then a certain memories passed by into my mind as I recalled back a certain set of time that had passed in my life.



+++++


-Flashback 1-

She was like an angel.

That was my first thought the moment I saw her walking into the meeting room. Her expression was a bit cold but the moment her hand touched with mine, I could feel how warmth it was and her voice was so soothing to my ears.

“Hi. Nice to finally meet you. I’m Jung Jessica. You can just call me Jessica.”

Jessica was her name. As lovely as the person was.

I was stuck on my words and if it wasn’t because of my cousin, Kwon Yuri, who nudged me, I would have stood there like a fool. After awhile, I managed to calm myself and got my mind on to the discussion. Yet, I couldn’t let my eyes off her.

God. Did I just fall in love at the first sight?


~~~~~

“I’m really serious about her dude!”

I glanced at my cousin who was sitting beside me. After the meeting that we had with the Snowflake Entertainment representative, Yuri had been head over heel with the representative who also the daughter of the CEO of the company. Yes, Jessica. The girl who I’ve set my eyes on.

And being her only close cousin, I knew her too well. Kwon Yuri was not the type of girl who you wanted to be messing around. She was a very competitive, high spirit, hardworking girl who always tried her best to get what she wanted. Unlike me who was a little calmer and a bit conservative than her. Our personalities were opposite each other.

I took a sip on my coffee as I continued reading on my Ipad. Getting a little bit piss with my ignorance, she took away my Ipad from my hand.

“Yul!”

“Can’t you just give your attention to me for awhile?”

I let out a sighed.

“Okay, fine. What is it?”

She grinned goofily; satisfied that she finally got my attention.

“It’s about that blonde girl.”

“What about her?”

“I think I like her.”

“You think?”

“No! No..” She shook her head vigorously. “I like her.”

Hearing Kwon Yuri saying that she like someone was a common thing for me. In fact, it could be almost every week I heard the same thing. I’ve lost count how many girls that she liked already.

“Okay. You like her. So?"

She stayed silent. But her eyes told me something. And being with her since we were young, I could easily guess what it meant. But, I was really praying so hard that I was wrong.

“I’m gonna make a move on her.”

No. Not her.

“I’ll make her mine.”

It wasn’t because the fact that I’m also in love with the same girl. But the fact that Kwon Yuri had just declared her word made me worries. Cause like I said, Kwon Yuri wasn’t someone who you should be involve with.

She was the biggest player.

And I’m just worried that my angel would be one of her collection.


~~~~~

I watched the two girls running on the beach. It has been almost a year since the two of them got together. Although it hurt me a lot when Yuri called me that night to tell that she finally managed to steal Jessica’s heart, I still could smiled at them and accepted the fact that Jessica was not for me. I’m happy to see that Jessica was all happy whenever she was with Yuri. I could see that she had feelings for Yuri too. And I’m just glad that since they got together, Yuri had changed. For better.

As for me, I still stuck with my feeling. But, I’ll just keep it to myself. Loving her from afar was enough for me.


~~~~~

“We had a fight.”

Well, like the saying, they sky won’t always be bright. Sometime, there would be rainy days too. That’s what happened to them. Whenever they had an argument, Jessica would always come to me. Sometime, she would cry while telling me about the fight. It hurt me a lot to see those pretty face got wet by her precious tears.

“Hey…it’s okay. You know Yuri right. She never meant to do it to you.”

Just like any other time, I would always try to console her and cover up for Yuri. That stupid cousin of mine who didn’t realize how precious this girl was.

“But—she…”

A hug was all I could give to her as I silent her in my arms. How I wished I could have you and protect her from any harm.


~~~~~

“You’re really funny!!”

I pouted as I watched her laughing so hard at me.

“It’s not funny!”

“It—It is..Look at you all white!”

I shook my head and I could she the flour off my hair. I grinned cheekily when I thought of something.

“Sica-ah. Wanna be a snow white?”

Yes, Sica. We’ve got a little be closer each day as we managed to hang out more.

“Wh—what do you mean?” Her laughed stopped as she eyed me suspiciously.

I didn’t answer her as I took the flour in my right hand and ran towards her.

“YAHHH~~~~”

In the end the kitchen was a complete mess. The idea of helping her baking cookies was such a terrible one. We ended up playing around.

“Gosh! Yuri must be freaking out when she saw this mess.” She said as she got up from the floor. Unfortunately, the floor was a bit slippery as she lost her balance and fell.

And fortunately, I was still sitting on the floor and quickly caught her. We both ended up on the floor once again but this time she was on top of me. We both fell into a silent as I looked into her eyes.

Gosh…how bad was I if I just kissed those lips.

“What the heck happened here?”

Both of us were startled off the silent as she nervously got off me while dusting her clothes.

“Hey baby. You’re back.”

Yuri looked at us. “What were you doing?”

“Well..we were—“

“Cooking class, Yul. One word for you, never let this girl alone by herself in the kitchen. It could turn to a disaster. Bad at cooking. And clumsy too.”

Being an attentive kind of person, I knew that Jessica could still be in surprised at our encounter just now. I tried to act nonchalantly as I made excuses for her. I knew how jealous Yuri could be sometime.

“Yah!”

She stuck her tongue out at me while making her way to Yuri. “You go get shower first. I’ll clean up this mess first.” She said lovingly while giving a soft peck on Yuri’s lips.

Hurt. Yes. It hurt a lot seeing her being all so loving to my cousin.

Yuri nodded her head as she head out from the kitchen. But before she left, she glanced at me and gave me a meaningful look in her eyes. Yes, I got what she meant.

- Jessica is mine. Stay away from my girlfriend.-


~~~~~

“Stay out of this. It’s between me and her.”

“There is nothing between us, Yul!”

I stood there in the middle of the fight. Yuri was standing and looking furiously at me while Jessica was behind me. I chose be the wall for her.

“Sica baby…please listen to me…”

“No! I had enough of this. You’ve changed back to who you are before Yul.”

“I’m not!! I still love you Sica.”

“Stop it!!” Jessica was sobbing hard as she looked at Yuri. “How can you say you love me when you just sleep with another woman?!”

“It was a mistake baby…I know. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have left you when we had the fight that night. I was wrong. I should stayed by your side…I—“

“But you didn’t.” Her words sounded cold. “Instead of doing that, you’ve just went to the club and f*** other girl.”

Yuri was at loss of words. She knew it was her fault. She tried to reach for Jessica’s hand but the latter backed away.

“Yul. It’s better for you to go.”

I calmly said. As much as I wanted to hit her for breaking Jessica’s heart, I still kept my composure. I knew that Jessica wouldn’t want me to do that.

“You, shut up!”

I could see the angered that was building up in her.

“You, I know you had feeling for her! I know it! But luckily you’re too coward to confess to her. That’s why I beat you to it. But still, the feeling is still there right? That’s why you’re always there for her. And now! You must be happy that she’s breaking up with me right?!!”

“Yuri. Control yourself.” I said sternly. I could see the shock expression on Jessica’s face.

“Sh**! Didn’t I tell you to back off!!”

Two hard punches were thrown at me as I fell to the ground. And another sound was heard as I turned to look at Yuri.

“I hate you. Get lost from here. I don’t wanna see you ever again.”

Yuri stared at Jessica with her redden cheek. “Sic—“

With that she helped me up and went inside her apartment, leaving the stunned Yuri outside.


~~~~~

“Is it true…?”

I was about to walked out of her room after tucked her in her bed when she suddenly spoke. I stopped and turned around to face her. There she was, looking at me with tears in her eyes. It pained me to let her know my feeling in this kind of way. I never plan of confessing to her. I just wanted to be there for her without expecting anything in return.

The sound of the clock ticking at the living room could be heard. That was how awkward and intense this silent was for me. Slowly, I walked to her and sat beside her.

“…yes…”

“Since when?”

I looked into her eyes as the moment where I first met her played in my mind.

“Since the first time I saw you. At the meeting.”

She slowly nodded her head before looking away. We fell into silent yet again.

“I don’t know what to say or do…”

I kept silent.

“You’re such a kind person, Yoona. But—“

“Shh…” I put my finger on her lips as she stared at me. “Don’t. You don’t have to say or do anything. There’s too many things in your mind right now. And I don’t want to add another one. So, let’s just forget about this, okay?”

Slowly, she nodded her head.


~~~~~

Since the break up, I always went to meet her. Not that I wanted to replace Yuri’s place. But I just wanted to be there for her…be her crying shoulder.

“She came again yesterday.”

We were walking at the beach after I took her out for dinner.

“Oh…are you okay?”

She nodded her head.

“That’s good.”

I said as I looked back to ocean. The moon was shining brightly on top of the sea. Suddenly, Jessica grab my hand which caused me to stop on my track.

“Sica?”

She didn’t reply or even looked at me. Her eyes were looking down at her feet. Yet, I could feel that her fingers slowly slipped into my. I was caught off guard. I looked at our intertwined hand.

“I told her that I’ve someone else beside me now.”

Confuse. Yes, confusion was all over me as I stared and waited for her explanation.

“You.”

“Me?”

“Yes you.” She stepped closer to me. “Am I too late to ask you to give us a chance?”

That was the most unforgettable night I ever had. The night where for the first time, my lips touched someone’s lips. Someone who I’ve been loving from afar for so long.


-End of flashback 1-


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“Why didn’t I get an invitation card?? Even my name is not in the list! Ya—Ouc