“Hyung, you see that group of girls?” Jonghyun asked as he pointed to the group of five that has caught every male’s attention since they walked inside this café.

“Hmm. What about them?” I replied as I took a sip of my Americano.

Jonghyun and Jungshin looked at me in disbelief. What? Did they expect me to join the bandwagon and act like a helpless pathetic fool who’s obviously smitten by one of those five?

“Hyung! What is wrong with you?!” they accused me.

“Nothing. I’m a perfectly healthy, living, and breathing human being.” I answered them nonchalantly.

“He’s impossible. You deal with him, hyung.” Jungshin shook his head and decided to leave me alone to focus on that strategy game where you have to get that 2048 block. He asked me to play it and it only took me one try to win. I offered to help him but a man’s got to protect his pride so he declined. It’s been a week since then.

I shrugged my shoulders and said,

“No point chasing after one of them when I still have a blind date scheduled in two weeks’ time.”

This time, the two of them groaned.

“Please don’t tell us it’s the same girl.”

“It’s not.” I replied.

“REALLY?!” They seemed so ecstatic and relieved that I felt a little bit guilty for that white lie.

“Well, that’s what you told me to tell you.” Honesty is the best policy, or so they say. Judging by the look on their faces, I think this is one of those you could consider an exemption.

“HYUNG!!!” they yelled and I could feel all eyes were on us. I smiled and waved at the annoyed crowd apologetically though deep inside, I was embarrassed.

My eyes scanned the crowd in hopes of finding at least one who doesn’t have this judgmental/demeaning facial expression and that’s when my gaze locked with hers.

One of the five. The one who caught my attention the minute she stepped inside this café. The girl with the prettiest, most angelic, and innocent face. The one who I presumed as the youngest amongst them. That cute pink headband. Those eyes. It was just a split second before she looked away.

Koi No Yokan. An untranslatable Japanese term that refers to the sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall in love. This isn’t something like “love at first sight.” It’s just an instant attraction, that feeling or intuition of a possible inevitable love in the future, in contrast to the concept of love at first sight.

“Koi No Yokan.” I whispered, my voice obviously filled with awe and curiosity.

“There he goes again. You should start working on that dictionary of yours, hyung. I’m sure you can rival Webster.” Jungshin commented.

I snapped back to reality and tried not to fall back into the state I was in a few seconds ago when I blurted out that term. I tried to act cool and unaffected as I said,

“Nah. Webster and Encarta are my references. They’d sue me for plagiarizing their ideas.”

“They can’t sue you otherwise they’d chase Oxford too or any other company that publishes a dictionary. The meaning of the words remains constant. It’s the matter of the presentation and explanation that would set your work apart from their’s.” Jungshin replied, still not taking his eyes off that game.

“Whoa. I told you, Jong. This maknae is a lot more of a nerd than he pretends to be. Kang Minhyuk would be so proud!” I . Jonghyun and I shared a high-five. Jungshin hissed, not because he was annoyed at us but because he lost that game again. He started playing another round before he replied to us once more.

“I’m not a nerd like you hyung and Minhyukkie will be proud of me regardless of anything. That pabo is like a walking sunshine…” he trailed off and didn’t have the heart to continue. None of us did. None of us probably ever will.

There was a momentary silence until this maknae decided to break the ice.

“I just happen to hang around you a lot hyung and that’s why your for knowledge is unfortunately seeping through my subconscious.”

The looming sadness was gone in the blink of an eye. I laughed and this time, it was Jonghyun’s turn to air his complaints.

“Okay, just STOP! Please, stop! for knowledge? Seeping through my subconscious?! I can’t bear to sit here and listen to the two of you battle it out with your “intellectual-sounding” choice of words for a conversation. Let’s get back on track. Now where were we?”

“The girls over there.” Jungshin nodded towards the right corner.

The two of them exchanged knowing looks and right at that moment, I recognized my impending doom.

“Hyung…”

No. The last time they used that tone on me was right after we were released from our mandatory military service, at the time we were going to apply for college. As a result, I ended up in this career.

It’s not that I don’t love my profession, because I do. I wouldn’t really take it back. However, I think my 20 year old self would beg to differ. When we got out from the army (where we met and eventually became close since we got assigned to the same post and barracks), we didn’t know what career we wanted to take. All we knew was that we wanted to be in the same university, and when we graduate, we’d all work in a similar setting, though of different fields of interest.

We decided to write down areas wherein we’d like to work: bank, office, broadcasting network, ent