The sand was kissing our toes as we teased the gentle waves with the tips of our ghostly feet, dancing to a song that originated out of Krystal’s imagination and humming a tuneless tune together. 

The roar of the party was beginning to die down, just like the fire, and people were beginning to return to their tents for the night. But it seemed to me like night time was when Krystal really came alive. The moonlight rained down from the inky clear sky and shimmered over her body, casting a glow that looked so gorgeous on her that it was nearly sinful to look at. She had her hand loosely gripping mine, the elegant spidery fingers of her other hand combing through her windswept hair every few seconds.

I could feel her recklessness radiating through the warmth of her palm and her fingers, pouring into me like an unstoppable waterfall of emotion. There was just something about her that made you want to go crazy with reckless abandon. The aura she gave off made you wanna check off the crazy things you put on your bucket list, like go swimming with sharks in the Bahamas or go bungee jumping off the Grand Canyon, and the best part about her was that she made you feel like you could actually succeed at it. If Krystal was there, I felt like I could have swam all the way to the other side of the ocean.

I remember thinking to myself when she let go of my hand to stretch out her arms and pretend to be an airplane buzzing around, running ahead of me into the twilight, that she was an utterly perfect human being. I had only seen one side of her then, the side that she had kept a secret from everyone she knew except for me. Krystal could have chosen to be the chic city girl to everyone she knew, she could have locked her heart away, she could have chosen a different person to share her secrets with. But for some odd reason that I had yet to figure out, Krystal chose me. She showed the side that wiped the remains of my tears from my cheeks with a gentle finger, the side that took me out after our walk on the beach for some In-N-Out, the side that actually had a heart. I was special to her, for some reason.

We’d walked a pretty good strip down the beach from the fire when she plops herself down on a patch of sand to stare up at the inky star-ridden sky. While I settle myself next to her, opened for the third time that night. “If you could wish for anything on a star, Sulli, what would you wish for?” Most would think it a silly question, something only children would ask. But I took comfort in it and took less than a second to give my answer to the beautiful girl I had just met five minutes ago. “My family to move to the states so we would all be together again.” After a few seconds of letting my depressing confessing moment sink in, Krystal breaks into a grin and stands up, twirling around like a mad man. “Even when you could wish for a life-supply of mint chocolate chip ice cream?" She asks while she does a perfect hand stand. “Or for a private concert of your favorite band, or a million dollars, or for true love?” She’s doing cartwheels now, feet kicking at empty air, fingers digging into the sand, and I stand.

I join her, and soon she steals the homesickness away by challenging me to an intense cartwheel competition that lasted for more than five minutes. The two of us ended up in a heap of tangled legs and arms at the far end of the beach, sand coating our bodies from head to toe, laughing like hyenas. When the laughter died down to a few whispered giggles, I looked at her and she looked at me, and there was a silent recognition there. At the same time, the two of us shouted, “Last one back to the tent gets to buy me a drink!” And it sent us scrambling to be free of each other’s arms while we raced to get back to my solitary tent. I remember smiling the entire way as I watched her pull ahead of me for the second time that night. The only thing I forgot to ask her was what her wish would have actually been.

Looking back on that summer now, I’m certain that Krystal Jung Soojung was probably the best distraction I would have the pleasure of having during that fateful summer.