A/N: title reads as "Unmei" meaning "fate" in Japanese.

The ammas and appas laughed very loudly. They always laugh loudly but it was very loud this time. Maybe it was a joke. And their toy that gave burnt food and black clouds made snake sounds when someone poked it. How rude, Minjung turned to look and thought with a frown. You should never poke someone like that.

"Your feets are dutty," Gwiboon pointed importantly. Her finger dipped in and it was cold. She made a mouse sound when she pulled away. Minjung picked her frock up and looked. Sure enough, there were sticky leaves and twigs swimming in the small water, and when they came to Minjung's legs they stopped there for a while. She wiggled her toes like during bath time and some mud loosened from the bottom of the small water.

It was yuck.

She checked the other's legs then and said with her own finger, "Your feess are dutty alsso."

"No! Only you are dutty!" Gwiboon stood up and jumped like she did when it rained and some rain went to sleep in the roads. Water also jumped with her and landed on the other girl. Minjung felt it go in her eyes. It hurt. She rubbed it. It still hurt. She rubbed it again. Then it burned. She began to cry for amma.

"Amma!" she said. "Boonie put dutty in my eyess!"

"Shh, no baby, it's OK we'll wash it out. Don't cry," amma said back. Then she did magic with other water. And then the burn and hurt were gone. It was so strange. When it was OK again, Minjung skipped and went to play with pretty bugs sitting on the leaves. But she didn't call Gwiboon to see and laugh. Because Gwiboon was mean earlier.

She looked sorry afterwards.

Minjung skipped rope with the other girls from the colony. Her last record was thirty-seven but she was going to break it and reach at least fifty this time. The boys jeered at them and made faces while riding their big bicycles in circles. Stupid boys, Minjung thought. They can't do anything without acting like monkeys.

"You girls are such idiots" Gwiboon cycled out from between some of the boys. Her Kim aboji had cut her hair short recently because it was summer. She always played games and shouted with the boys, and when the girls tried to invite her for a game she pushed them to the ground. She was so rude, no body wanted to be friends with her except the boys--and even then only the really bad ones who got slapped in school. Minjung stopped skipping to glare at the other girl.

She was gross.

"You're the idiot! You still have side wheels on your bike how stupid!" Minjung shouted.

"Shut your mouth, girly!" Gwiboon yelled back and cycled straight at Minjung, who ran a little ways before she fell on her front. The cycle went over her leg twice. Minjung cried out in pain and the girls and boys all circled her to stare. Not all of them though, because someone must've had the decency to call Choi eomoni by intercom.

"Ma!" Minjung cried. "Boonie rode her bike on me!"

"I know, darling, I know..." Choi eomini consoled, running to the car with Minjung in her arms. "I'll talk to her ma about it, alright? We'll scold her for you, baby, don't cry," she hushed and cooed all the way to the hospital, where they found out Minjung's leg wasn't broken. Just bruised. It still hurt a lot, though. She wouldn't able to skip rope for a long time. And it was all Gwiboon's fault. Minjung told Minseok oppa to flatten the other girl's bike tires and this time he did. All the boys stopped playing with her.

Gwiboon looked lonely afterwards.

The Chois had enrolled their daughter into ballet classes, because the taekwondo dojo Gwiboon went to was already full. It was a relief for Minjung because they were in the same section at school already. But they still had to walk to and from the club together every week. How awful, she thought. I have to be seen in public with this terrible one.

"Don't hold my hand!" Gwiboon whipped her palm away and out of reach. Minjung started to explain how she was only following her parents' orders when the other walked ahead of her in a huff, white uniform flapping in the wind and short hair lifting up off her forehead. Minjung tried keeping up but the other always ran forward in short spurts of avoidance. So she gave up and wrapped her arms around herself, pouting at the paving stones of the sidewalk.

She was moody.

"Don't think I expect you to protect me or anything. I want nothing to do with you if I can help it..." Minjung grumbled under her breath.

"I'd never protect you either!" Gwiboon whipped around and spat. "I wish you get kidnapped right now so I never have to see your face again you... you...! !" she insulted with a stomp of her feet before dashing off in the direction of their building. Minjung gasped and covered . She wept all the way home. And when she reached their door she didn't wait another second for her mother to help her with her bag and things. She ran straight into her room.

"Ma..." Minjung whined when Choi eomoni caught up to her and worriedly asked what was the matter. "Boonie called me a bad word!"

"Ah, I'm sorry, sweetheart," her mom cradled her and rocked to and fro. "I'm sorry darling, sometimes people say things they don't mean. Sometimes they throw their anger onto someone else, we should forgive them." But Minjung never forgave anything. She decided to make other friends from both classes, and walked home with them instead. And every time she saw the other girl standing alone outside her taekwondo class since then, she'd scowl hard in her direction and then walk away.

Gwiboon looked sad afterwards.

The last day of school before summer Minjung was assigned prefect duty behind the school building. She hated it because a lot of people threw stuff from their classrooms and it landed here. It stank awfully of garbage. I should talk to the Head Girl about changing my shift, she thought.

"Well, well, well," Gwiboon's drawl reached her before the sight of the girl did. Minjung stiffened in her place but then walked on, peering here and there in caution against the other. She did her best to avoid Gwiboon under any circumstances. Carefully circumvented eye-contact, stubbornly shifted seats to the opposite end of the classroom--she'd gone as far as having Choi eomoni write their Math teacher a letter excusing the two from pairing up for a project.

Gwiboon was trouble.

"I'm right here," the said girl waved her arms wildly, calling from the ground. "Aren't you the student council's official asskisser? The head girl found a new to train, did she?" She sat sprawled on a paved path that lead to the maintenance duct, her uniform shorter than allowed, her hair dyed red on the inside and... Minjung narrowed her eyes at the roll of paper fitted between two slender fingers. Issuing smoke and smelling like contraband.

"That will get you expelled," Minjung informed.

But Gwiboon chuckled and shook her head. She stood from her place and walked to the prefect, taking a long and leisurely drag of her joint. When she exhaled from behind a mischievous grin, the smoke hit Minjung square in the face. She pulsed away with watering eyes, coughing wildly.

"Nooo~" Gwiboon sang, flicking her fingers through the pips of Minjung's pinafore. "You will get me expelled. You will ruin my life and you will flush it down the gutter. It's what you do best. It's what you've always done best. My talented little Minjunggie~" she cupped the other girl's chin and made her straighten up so their eyes were level. "Aren't you the worst in this entire pin code? Your parents must be so proud."

"School rules are supposed to be for your own good," Minjung angrily reminded. "You've brought this on yourself, don't make me the villain." She watched the other change color with rising anger and backed away. "You're responsible for the problems you face," she justified. "You're the only reason for all this trouble, I have nothing to do with it. If you don't clean up your act you're going to ruin your life just like th--"

"You worthless idiot," Gwiboon cut in, shaking her head. "You have absolutely no brain or heart do you?" She grit her teeth. "You'll only rest after you've killed me, won't you? Won't you?!" she screamed, then threw her still-lit joint on Minjung and stomped away. A few steps off she turned around and yelled again. "You're a useless ing prude!"

"A-and...!" Minjung hesitated before retorting. "And you're a useless ing !" She couldn't contain herself, should couldn't let the insult slide. She could let nothing slide. This felt like the best way to get back for all those earlier times. This felt like deserved revenge. Gwiboon had to be taught a lesson. She had to be shown her place. And when she heard those words and shivered with shock, she probably did learn her place.

Her place in Minjung's life, at least.

"Ma..." Minjung whispered many hours later when she was home. "Boonie got hurt today... because of me."

Choi eomoni was silent for a while. But then she faced her daughter and spoke softly. "If you think it was a mistake, apologize. If you think what you did was right, stick to it. But you can't take your words or actions back, love. Remember that. This is why we have to always be careful," she explained. Minjung accepted the advice like a sponge but it never exuded from her. Even when she found out Gwiboon had been suspended for two weeks she remained static in her demeanor and continued to keep her at an arm's length.

Gwiboon looked broken afterwards.

"So, Boonie yah," Choi aboji continued his inquiry. "How does living in Paris feel? Is it as romantic as they show on TV?"

Minjung carried a tray tea and snacks into the living room and let her eyes flick momentarily in the other girl's direction. Red lipstick, fashionable clothes, sharp hairdo... she almost hadn't recognized the other girl when she'd first opened the door. But the appearance of the Kims on either side of her finally explained it. Besides, those fox-like sharp eyes and that slightly gravelly quick wit were unique to only one person. Minjung had nothing to think of, so she only stared at the other in short intervals of five seconds.

"It's like any other city really," Gwiboon shrugged. "The weather, the people, the food. It's special but it's also somehow the same. Nothing very exciting about it, once you've been there for a while." Something had changed about her, something was off. It was so difficult to point out since she was saying so little and speaking only when spoken to. But Minjung finally realized it. She finally saw it when Minseok passed a silly comment about couples kissing in front of the Eiffel Tower as a promise of their love and he got no reaction from the girl except a polite smile.

Gwiboon was indifferent.

"It must be fun. To study fashion designing in the fashion capital," Minjung ventured by herself. She was offered a nod and another smile, unchanged from its predecessor and completely impersonal. "
You must be really excited about the shows you'll get to attend and the models you'll get to meet. I'm excited just talking about it, aren't you?"

"Hmm," Gwiboon nodded again and then looked away.

The rest of the evening passed in a similar fashion. Their parents laughed loudly, the plate of food made plenty of rounds among them, Minjung was kept busy in the kitchen to serve their guests and Minseok took charge of entertaining everyone with football jokes. Meanwhile Gwiboon drifted from conversation to conversation like a torn raft that was better off sunken to the bottom of the ocean.

Later in the evening, as Minjung checked up on their dinner she saw the other girl enter the kitchen from the corner of her eyes. "Anything I can help with?" she offered. Her perfume smelled like something expensive but her feet still slapped against the floor when she walked. Just like Minjung remembered. She held on to that lone shred of memory and turned to face the other.

"No, just help with eating it all up, that's all," she jovially offered to an unmoved soft smile and shrug. "So," she shifted on her feet and took a more responsible stance. "How are you?"

Gwiboon looked mildly surprised for a moment but then shook that away as well. "You know, that's the first time you've ever asked me that. How are you. There was a time I'd die to hear those words from you. But now..." she clicked her tongue. "Better late than never I guess, huh?" She skipped up to sit on the kitchen counter. "I'm OK, how are you? How's Konkuk treating you?"

Minjung weighed her response before she gave it. "I've... been OK, too. I've been thinking a lot about you. Recently..." Their eyes met at that, and it felt like they shouldn't have. Minjung suddenly wanted to her words back inside. She dropped her gaze. "You know, just... how you're doing. If you're eating OK in a foreign city and all. Do have friends there. Have you... have you met someone." She smiled to appear casual. "You know, things like that."

"I..." Gwiboon started, then hesitated before going on. "I always wanted you to look at me," she revealed. "To notice me. To smile at me. To play with me. To laugh with me. To be friends with me. I wanted us to be best friends. And..." she shook her head. "I didn't know how I could make you do it. You wouldn't do it. You never did it..." She swung her legs to and fro in the air, looking at them and seeming to lose herself in heavy thoughts.

"So I got in trouble. I did stupid to make you see. Make you look at me. At least look at me once, even if its with disgust. Even if it's to look down at me. I hurt you, I insulted you. I did everything I could. I did so much that one day..." she raised her head and smiled at the wall cabinets in front of her. "One day I wasn't even worth looking at."

When she looked at Minjung and saw her watery eyes she tilted her head and smirked. "I only ever wanted to be friends."

"B-but you only ever made me your victim," Minho whispered.

Gwiboon shrugged. "That's that, then."

She slipped off the kitchen counter and coolly walked back to the living room. And they never spoke to each other again for the rest of that evening.

"Ma..." Minjung sobbed in the middle of the night while she got her hair braided. "Boonie broke my heart today."

Choi eomoni offered no widom this time. She held her daughter close and let her weep.

Gwiboon looked unreachable afterwards.

Minjung crawled into bed and sunk her head against Gwiboon's stomach, hugging her waist contently. "Hmm, what're you laughing at?" she asked in a lazy voice.

The other shook her head and lowered the photo album. "Minjunggie," she rubbed her hand on the other's soft hair. "You were such an ugly baby," she teased before a swatting match ensued.