Dear JongUp Oppa~

I have some exciting news! I finished high school! I hope I got really good marks… because… well I am afraid the universities in Korea won’t take me if they aren’t good enough… And I can only stay if can study there…

You understand right?! Oppa! I am moving to Korea! We can go to school together again! It will be so much fun! We could even live together!

Would that be okay? I don’t know how people see that in Korea but here it’s fine if a guy and a girl live together… if you don’t mind that is… I mean… I can live on campus right? It won’t be too bad… Will it?

Oppa, I can’t wait to see you again! Three years is too long and photos don’t do justice! I just booked my flights and will be arriving in Korea at four in the morning on Sunday three weeks from now… So you should receive my letter just in time to prepare for me right Oppa?

Okay~ See you then!

(Do not sleep in and forget me JongUp Oppa. I will not forgive you.)

JiEun, aka LuLuLu

JongUp

We had been friends for years, since she first came to Seoul over three years ago. She had come over on exchange from Australia for six months. We had been pen-pals since she left and last week I received the most fantastic letter I could ever imagine. She was moving to Seoul to do her college degree!

I remember running around the house and telling the rest of my house mates, making sure it was fine with them. I assume it is because they never said any other wise. I think they think that if Lu comes their rent will be cheaper and we might be able to eat more meat.

She was finally going to see me again. How much I had grown up since that time… I have more muscle now. I have a well-defined six pack, I can actually dance now and my English has improved a lot since then as well.

I pick the letter off my bed side table again, by now I think I have read it around fifty times, the paper has been creased and un-creased, folded flat and shoved roughly into a draw only to be straightened out again.

I laugh reading her last closing line.

“Do not sleep in and forget me JongUp Oppa. I will not forgive you.” I read aloud and laugh again, remembering how I forgot to take her to school one morning because I had slept in too late to even eat my own breakfast.

“You read that a lot.” A voice comes from my doorway and I quickly shove the note under my pillow with the memories.

I look up to see JunHong in the door way holding his maths textbook open with a pen in his hand and sigh.

“Get stuck again?” I ask patting my bed and holding out my hands.

He nods and sits next to me, “Its question number five… I don’t understand it…”

I read the questions. It’s really simple algebra but he has been struggling with maths and science subjects since before I met him. I start to explain to him what the problem is, explaining that x is a number of unknown value that equals nineteen. He nods and writes it all down in messy Hangul, no numbers. JunHong struggles with numbers.

After some time of explaining he gets it and has an answer written down.

“Thank you Hyung…” he says, moving over to the door slowly, his head only a centimetre away from grazing the frame. He turns back, “Hyung… Why does she end the letter saying ‘aka LuLuLu’?”

I laugh, “You know that Japanese restaurant down in the middle of Seoul?”

JunHong nods slowly.

“They serve a dish called lululu, and it was one of the only things that JiEun had ever eaten, and it was the only thing she ate every time we went to that restaurant. And whenever we were at school she would just randomly whisper lululu as if she were dreaming about it.”

JunHong laughs, “Really Hyung?”

I nod, smiling, “She spaces out a lot and often says random dream like things. Now, Choi JunHong, go study!”

I throw a pillow at him and laugh, getting up and following him out and into the kitchen.

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JiEun

I sat waiting at the airport, sitting atop my three massive suitcases, peering at my watch and yawning slightly. It is six thirty to me… But to JongUp Oppa its four thirty and…

“That’s too early~!” I whine aloud, mimicking JongUp as best I can.

I sigh. It has been way too long. Mum wouldn’t even let come back over for a holiday… She missed me too much. And now that I am moving here… Well that freaked her out… A lot! Too much really. Mum shouldn’t really be that worried, I mean Dad is from Seoul, and she knows about JongUp and his family and knows that there is nothing weird there… but I guess that’s what happens when you are a mum… You get worried about losing your child.

Another yawn escapes me and I stretch out with my arms over my head. I can feel my jumper lift my shirt up with it and quickly put my arms back down. I look at my right wrist, checking the time.

Quarter to seven already… Oh! Quickly I push my watch back two hours.

“Of course you forgot to do that.” A soft male voice came from beside me and I jumped having not heard anyone walk up. I look up and see a young man, he looked about nineteen, he was rather muscly and his eyes looked small as he smiled. I would have been totally freaked out if it weren’t for the way his nose squished as he smiled and that freckle. Who could forget that freckle?

“Oppa!” I say, rushing over to hug him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and resting my chin on his shoulder.

I pull back pouting.

“It was better when you were squishier…” I mutter.

“Hello to you too then.” He says laughing; he reaches up and traces a slither of my hair. “It’s grown out a fair amount.”

I just nod and laugh. It has been three years Moon JongUp.

“So… Where to first? Breakfast?”

He nods, laughing and takes two of my bags, I grab the last and follow him to the car.

Even though it had been so many years it was still comfortable. I couldn’t believe it was him. I hadn’t seen much more than the occasional passport photo or one of those from the photo booths where he was usually with a really tall blond friend of his… Jun…Hyun?

Oh… That reminds me… Did he find a place to move into…?

“Oppa…?” I ask, falling slightly behind him.

“Yeah Lululu?” he smiles to himself; it has been too long since I heard that.

“Where do you live now…? I know that you were looking for some place to stay a while back but during the exams I lost track of everything… So… Did you find somewhere…?”

He stops in front of a large orange van and turns to face me. “I did… You remember JunHong?”

JunHong not Hyun… Gash darn it…

“You moved in with him?”

He nods, and opens the passenger door to the van slowly.

“And these guys.”