Ye Jin’s silver Audi careened down the highway, illuminated by the yellow streetlights, towards the general hospital. She had changed out of her bride’s maid dress and into a crisp white shirt and black pants. Her feet had also been given some relief, resting in comfortable black leather flats. As she glanced at the rearview mirror, she could see her dress draped over the seat and her purse, along with Soo Yeon’s bouquet.

Kai, the name began to echo in Ye Jin’s head again, at the remembrance of the bouquet tossing just an hour earlier. Ye Jin had been utterly stunned by Kai’s actions. He had given the bouquet to her, when he could have given it to anyone else. Ye Jin shook her head as her heart began to pick up pace again. Don’t even think of getting hopeful, Ye Jin warned herself. Just because he gave it to you doesn’t mean anything, Jin-ah. It’s because you’ve known him for longer, maybe; Ye Jin reasoned to herself, trying to get a grip on her heart and emotions. As she gripped the steering wheel, she could still feel Kai’s grip on her arm as he pulled her towards the dance floor earlier that night. You’re never going to see him again after this, Jin-ah; she tried to refocus herself again, but to no avail.

It had always been like that with Kai, even back when they were still kids. Ye Jin had always possessed considerable concentration and focus, but with Kai, all of that came undone. No matter how cool and detached Ye Jin made herself to be, she never seemed to be able to do the same with Kai. It was as if Kai exposed Ye Jin’s vulnerability and was a reminder of the past she would rather forget. No, Kai did not expose Ye Jin’s vulnerability, he was her vulnerability. He seemed to be the only person who could still make her feel like the lost, timid and inferior girl she once was back in Junior School.

Kai and Ye Jin had been classmates since Year 2 of Junior School, when they were only 6 years old. They had been recess buddies and would take the bus home together after school. Being neighbors, they used to do their homework and play around the neighborhood together often; so much so that their parents used to tease them that they would one day grow up and fall in love at the rate at which their budding friendship was going. Ye Jin had seen Kai as her only other trusted friend besides Soo Yeon - who studied in another Junior School, but that did not seem to last long.

As they progressed through Junior School, Kai took up Tennis as his extra-curricular activity and soon became the star athlete of the school. With that achievement, came popularity and his inclusion in to the popular and ‘cool’ crowd, whilst Ye Jin, introverted and socially awkward, remained a wallflower. As Kai grew into a handsome lad and won popularity within the school, Ye Jin stood on the sidelines, always watching and admiring her friend from afar, slowly beginning to nurse a secret crush for him. When Kai had first joined the Tennis team, he still occasionally hung out with Ye Jin after school, catching up after long periods of his busyness in training. However, as time progressed and his training took up more hours and days, Ye Jin had begun to feel herself drifting away from her friend, exacerbated by the fact that he had become part of the popular crowd, who shunned students like herself – athletically and academically inferior. The turning point in their friendship came when some of the popular girls accidentally chanced upon Ye Jin’s diary where she had confided about her growing feelings for Kai and how they had been friends, years before he became popular. Ye Jin quickly became the ridicule of the class, being teased and picked on because of her awkwardness and her feelings for Kai, all whilst Kai failed to stand up for her and feigned ignorance at her existence. That had been what stung the most, not so much the bullying and teasing, but the fact that her trusted friend and love had betrayed her in the face of trouble. It was with that broken heart and crushed spirit that Ye Jin had braved through the last years of Junior School, her pain growing exponentially as she witnessed Kai hanging ou