Age 13

"Young In, are you ready to go?"

Young In looks up from her phone to see Mother standing in the doorway.

"Go where?  Where are we going?"

"To see Jongin."

"I saw him yesterday."

"But today is a special day," Mother says.

Young In flips onto her back and holds her phone above her face.  "I already congratulated him for passing the audition."

Mother sighs, her figure sinking into the door frame.  Young In knows that if she looks up, she'll see Mother's unapproved expression, so she keeps to her phone.  She doesn't understand why Mother is making her go see Jongin today when they see each other everyday anyway.  If she doesn't meet up with him today, she'll meet up with him tomorrow, or she already met up with him yesterday.  

She's wondering when she'll start getting sick of his face.

"This has nothing to do about passing the audition," Mother says.  "I'm serious.  If you don't see him today, it might just be your last chance."

Young In scoffed, sending another text.  "What is he, dying?  Did he eat too much?  Or did Sehun dare him to do something dumb again?"

"Jongin is moving.  Tomorrow."

Young In blinks a few times.  She doesn't sit up, but waits for Mother's words to sink in slowly.   She blows air into her cheeks and bites her bottom lip.  

"Where?" is all she says.  

"Away.  He's been wanting to see you since yesterday and all you did is sit on that phone of yours.  Worse comes to worse, I'll take that thing away from you."

Young In sits up now, cheeks burning.  She hates it when Mother bothers about her phone, especially in the middle of a text conversation.

She her lips and lowers her eyes apologetically.  She's having trouble deciding whether to cry about Jongin moving away or about interrupting a perfectly smooth conversation with the person she was texting.

It's an ugly feeling.

__

"When are you leaving?" Young In says, bouncing quietly on the edge of Jongin's bed.

"Tomorrow night," Jongin says, throwing a few books into an empty box.  "The flight leaves at 7:30."

"I'm jealous."

Jongin pulls his head out of the closet and stares at Young In with the best annoyed expression he can muster.  "Jealous?  About what?  I'm leaving forever."

Young In traces her toes in a circle on the wooden floor, glancing around the room.  

The walls are a lonely white color---missing the photo frames that Jongin used to have of his mother and his dance posters, leaving behind thumbtack holes and bits of tape that he couldn't get off.  The desk is empty, the computer and lamp gone.  Even the bed is different, now that it's been stripped of his clean sheets and single pillow.  

Everything looks different, even Jongin.   

"You get to leave and possibly travel the world while I'm stuck here, going to school and wishing I was you,"she says.

"I'm still going to school, you know.  London has those, too.  And trust me, you don't want to be me."

"London," Young In groans.  "You lucky peanut."

"Don't call me that."

"I wish I could go to London."

Jongin closes the box, now full, and pushes it toward the door.  "London is far, far away," he says, straining as he pushes.  "Far, far away."

"I don't care. I want to go far away."

Jongin stops pushing and stares at Young In again.  He can't believe that she still insists that moving away is a good thing.  Isn't she afraid that she'll miss him?  Or that he'll forget her?  Doesn't she understand how different things will be when they can't see each other everyday?  Where was the emotion in this friendship?  

"Where is the emotion in this friendship?" Jongin wonders out loud.  

"You mean you don't want to move away?  Why not?"

Jongin sighs.  His eyes don't leave her, as if she'll eventually figure out his thoughts if he stares long enough.  

He's going to miss her, that's why.

"Ooh, I know," Young In says.  "London doesn't have that dance program that you've been trying so hard to get in to.  Right?  There are other programs though."

Jongin doesn't know whether he should roll his eyes or just tell her straight out.  There's something even more important that London won't have.  London has a lot of things but once he moves there, he'll be missing someone that means even more to him than dance programs.

"Never mind," he says.  "I'll just go to London, and go to a brand new school, and make new friends, and make new people, and make new friends.  And leave you here.  All alone."

Young In rolls her eyes and shrugs.  "I can make new friends, too."

"Good. That's good for you."

Jongin turns away and continues to push out his box of belongings, all the way out the door.

15: 30 pm