The scientist - Coldplay

Soojung-ah, how have you been? I can't help calling you even when your name sounds like an opening wound.

Soojung-ah, how have you been?  This season is dreadfully long, be it winter or the void you left me with.

Halfway along their ten year friendship, Jongin wished they weren't best friends. But even if they weren't to begin with, would it change anything between them?

Jongin's memory about Soojung began vibrantly. From San Francisco, she and her mom moved to an ordinary Seoul neighborhood one day in December. Pale sunshine caught twinkle rays on white snow and the little girl's red hair.

They stepped out of the car, Soojung and her pretty, sorrowful mother. The daughter held on clingily to her mom's hand. Her sharp eyes wandered curiously back and forth the narrowed street where Jongin and a bunch of young boys were picking up a mini fight. She lived in the house next door to his.

Loud little boy Jongin was the first to ask for Soojung's name. She was either shy or distant but even red hair and sharp eyes couldn't prevent his interest on the secret weirdo. With Jongin, Seoul was no longer the forest full of strangers for the girl from overseas.

Athletic boy Jongin was so amused to see how a girl that could run fast, jump high like Soojung did on their PE class. Their teacher immediately picked her to the athlete team of the school in which Jongin was a member. And with the time they practiced with the team, Jongin saw her in a different light. Soojung might have the look of a little princess, or act like a witty brat at times. But when her hair was tightened into a bun and her forehead beamed with bead of shimmering sweat , she had the attitude of a soldier. Jongin innocently thought she was a boy in disguided, so easy to play with.

Number twenty seventh Kim Jongin, enjoyed going to school and back home with number twelve Jung Soojung, to which, she was secretly thankful for. The daddy's girl once wished to be Choi Jinri so that she could be fetched by her father after class. Though, she didn't have to envy much. Jinri might have to go home by herself because her dad had business to do but Jongin never leaves Soojung alone on their route, even when he was sick.

Outgoing boy Jongin rode Soojung on his bicycle to the hill at the back of the city where he proudly called his secret playground. Soojung held closely to the hem of his shirt. Humid wind blew her laughter and his cracked voice away to infinity. On top of the hill, they sat side by side under an old tree, taking in warm odor of wet grass.  It had rained the night before, the last rain of summer. The sky unfolded carefreely without a signal of clouds above their head.

"Jongin, I heard your mom yelled at you last night. New PC games again, isn't it?"

With years living in US, Soojung spoke Korean with a light accent. A single leaf flipped in circles and landed on her hair. Red hair went black. Shaft eyes went soft. Soojung had being Soojung, but gradually, she wasn't the way she had been anymore. Long black locks drew somewhat mature and mysterious touches on her baby face. Jongin couldn't get why she looked so familiar yet so strange those days.

"This game is incredibly awesome. And I've been saving for two months for it. Guess what, one day I’ll make such splendid game like that.”

He grinned ear to ear as he took the leaf away. The boundless land of imagination and illustrations is forever a fairytale to the young boy. PC games are works of art. Jongin didn't solely like playing games, he wished to be a game developer one day, to have his name being played on the credit tapes.

Friends laughed at him and his mom didn't even bother to offend. She believed this was just a typical unrealistic dream of a teenage boy and he would change it instantly. 

Likewise, Soojung said it was the coolest to have something he want to do and go fight for it, for which automatically Jongin felt mutual about her. Years later, thinking back, Jongin was still amazed at the young Soojung. Either because she was raised by foreign education and society, or she herself was clever but her points is innovative for kids at that age.

"Ah, so you skip breakfast for it. No wonder why... Tks... Tks... Okay, noona will ride Jonginnie later when we get home. Noona feels pity for you, our poor Kkamjong must be tired."

Soojung squinted a mischievous smile at the corner of her eyes while she tilted her head and patted his hair. Soojung always knows his sore points. Out of nowhere, she would jump out and easily get on Jongin's nerve.

"Yah, stop it. Soojungie, oppa's tanned. People actually pay to have complexion like mine. And oppa's birthday is four months before yours."

He barked. Lucky Jongin, because he was "tanned", she didn't notice tint of shyness on his face. Jongin was getting taller very fast during the summer but Soojung was five centimeters faster.

"Who cares? Noona is always taller than you."

The little girl stuck her tongue out as she stood up and walked away, giggling. Soojung's height had grown a lot from the first time they met. The hem of her floral skirt  merrily waved like plenty wings of butterflies across her milky thighs.

Jongin quickly took his backpack and chased  his friend down the road until he could threw his arm around her shoulder.

"Wait and see. Oppa will be much taller than you soon. And when oppa becomes Prince Charming, don't fall for me Soojungie."

Soojung shoved him off her shoulder. Their laughters dissolved into the downhill road.

Just like that, Jongin, fifteen, became Soojung's bestfriend naturally like breathing.

And Jongin, ordinary boy, was so ordinary that he really thought being the child of a broken household was not as hard as it said to be. The concept of a divorce was foreign to him. He had never seen any married couple divorced except for a TV program that he once watched with his mom.

People said divorce was dramatic. Kids would be affected the most. On the other hand, Soojung told him nonchalantly about her family while they were eating tobokki on the street. A little red sauce stained on the corner of her lips. No tear was shed, no sign of pain. As if it wasn't her parents that had been divorced. As if it wasn't her who had to leave her sister Jessica, her dad and San Francisco behind. As if it wasn't her that missed the other half of her family so much that it hurt.

"Is it so sad then? I mean, isn't it a tragic story when your parents aren't together anymore?" He asked, pointed on his face to stimulate where Soojung should brush to clean the stain.

"Sort of. But we learn to accept the things we're unable to change."

She said simply when finally Jongin gave up and wiped it with his thumb. Just like that, Soojung is a deep ice river. Under the peaceful icy surface, water streams in fast current that Jongin never actually knows its direction.

We were once so vivid, weren't we? I wish those days can last forever but time doesn't wait for anyone. Sooner or later, we have to confront the world. And we won't be beautiful anymore.

Along with several kids from the neighborhood, Sehun, Jinri and Chanyeol, they got into a famous high school in the area which they had been dreaming of. The entrance exam was hell. But being accepted to that school was the first thing Jongin wanted that bad. Back then, with Soojung fighting together, he felt like  conquering the world.

Soojung spent her first summer break in high school with her dad and Jessica in US. And when coming back, she hardly recognised her best friend. Strong forehead, flirty eyes, vicious lips, lanky frame and almost twenty centimeters higher. Jongin finally became one typical man lead of a young love story. All the girls in their school would pump their shoulders into his and swoon to receive a charming smirk or a nod back instead of saying sorry.

But not only because of that, some of the boys wished to be Jongin. Soojung didn't need make up or being a bubbly bloomers like to be a stellar among the girls. People might find her difficult to approach for the chic and mysterious aura around her, but friends knew she was cute and shy. Her shyness might be mistaken as cold and arrogant attitude but even despite of that, Jongin would easily find his fellows or senior stared at her ponny tail in absolute amazement. Soojung would find flowers, candies or love letters inside her locker once in a while. Obviously, being ice princess and the infamous Kim Jongin's best friend couldn't keep some secret admirers from showing her with their affection in vicinity.

One late afternoon Soojung was waiting for Jongin in the musical room as usual. He got detention that day for kicking a ball a into glassy window while playing in their break time. The incidence created such a fuss among the kids and those who took part in the game had to clean the second floor after class.

He stood outside the room for a while and crossed his arm. Debussy's Clair De Lune echoed in the empty corridor even more beautifully and poeticly than those Sunday's afternoons when she played the pieces at home and he lied on his bed, smiled along with the song. Jongin knew she played it for him to listen. This was his most favorite piece