When I finally exit the shower and get dressed, I feel the slightly awkward air between us when I step out of the bathroom. Tiffany is sitting by the sofa reading a magazine, but I can tell she isn’t really reading it, but I don’t say anything as I get ready.  Another minute or so passes by in complete silence until I finally get myself to say something, anything to avoid it and the tension along with it.

“So… you wanted to go outside?” I ask as I tidy up the kitchen, my face hidden behind the open door of the cupboard. I place a couple of things inside and stall the moment by unnecessarily moving some boxes and cans. Tiffany hums in reply, probably putting the magazine down before I can feel her eyes on me. I always have this kind of feeling that makes me just know when she’s looking at me, even if I can’t see it. It’s kind of funny, actually, but still pretty odd.

“You changed your mind?” Tiffany asks and I finally close the small door before looking over at her, shaking my head. “No, I’m still up for it. Where do you want to go?” I ask in reply, sitting down on the counter with my legs swinging. “I heard there’s a market, but I’m not sure because there were so many words on that poster that I didn’t understand, but by the pictures it looked like it,” she says, and I jump a little in surprise when I suddenly see her in front of me, standing there closer than I thought she would. I look at her, before clearing my throat.

“Uh, yeah, I think I know what you’re talking about,” I say, remembering that it’s the annual November market in town. It’s a time where people gather up in the streets to look at different stands, containing everything from food to small trinkets and usually Christmas decorations, after all the holidays are soon approaching.

Wow, has time already passed this quickly?

I went there once many years ago with my mother and Krystal and I admit, it was pretty fun, but I never thought much of it later on. It’s a really nice place, and most of all, it’s very cozy to be there, especially when it’s getting dark and all of the lights are lit up. “We can go there, it’s only a fifteen minute walk, if I remember correctly,” I get to say before I get interrupted by Tiffany leaning in to give me a small peck. I look at her a little confused, but soon let out a faint smile. “You could at least warn me,” I say playfully, and Tiffany only laughs lightly. “What can I say? I have a beautiful girlfriend.”

There she said it again, that term that made my heart swell up in happiness and my stomach explode in butterflies. However, there is also something else that I’ve never heard her say, which adds to the lovely feeling inside; beautiful. Although the whole compliment is overused, beautiful being a pretty common word, I have never actually been called so myself, never, and it’s odd to hear it. Because the comment is for me, and not for the one next to me or someone else…but for me, and it makes the smile on my face even wider.

“So shall we get going?” Tiffany asks with a cute smile and I laugh a little by her adorable antics, before I get off the counter and we head towards the hallway, taking on our shoes and jackets. I frown a little by Tiffany’s attire, thinking that she could at least wear a scarf, but as usual she won’t listen to me. “It’s not that cold outside, Jess,” she says and I simply shake my head. “You say that now, but when you start freezing don’t come begging to me,” I reply before we step outside and start heading towards the park. We decided to walk through the park as a short cut, but also as a place to walk with nice scenery. Although there were no more leaves on the trees and the sun wasn’t as hot anymore I still like watching the nature progress like this from one season to another. I like watching the colorful leaves rustling with the wind and the sun shining through nearly bare branches. I enjoy it a lot, actually, even more then I am aware of I suppose. We walk like this in a comfortable silence, and I’m happy that the previous awkwardness has withered away and that we’re back on the right track at least.

As we walk I suddenly feel a soft, yet cold hand in mine, and when I turn my gaze I see Tiffany simply smiling as she’s looking ahead. “I want to hold your hand, if that’s alright with you?” she asks before looking at me, and I only nod with a faint smile before interlacing our fingers and continue on walking, knowing that there aren’t many people around anyway to bother us about it.

“By the way, what are you doing during Christmas?” Tiffany asks as we pass a grand tree hovering above us, some leaves flying with the wind on the concrete. I look at her slowly, wondering what to say. Come to think of it, I never do anything special during Christmas; I just use the holiday’s to sleep and relax, probably catching up on some books. I haven’t really celebrated Christmas, the only thing I really do is place some small decorations around the living room, and eat a little more cookies than usual. Other than that I don’t really do anything special; I never really celebrated Christmas when Krystal and my mother were around either.

There is this one thing I remember us doing every Christmas Eve though. That was lying on the carpet with Krystal; both of us sharing a thick blanket and using our pillows, using it as a make shift bed. When we were kids we believed that we could see Santa Claus enter and leave us presents, but when we grew older we stopped waiting for Santa Claus, but we still slept in the living room.

Though we were both excited for the morning after, there was one thing that always got us to calm down, and that was listening to my mother sing a Christmas carol she loved when she was a kid. Her voice was always so sweet and gentle, and could probably bring world peace if it could. And every time she sang we were always lulled into a deep slumber; I slept the best during Christmas Eve like that; even if the carpet was itchy and the floor was hard. It’s just something we did every year until we woke up to open the little amount of presents we got. It wasn’t much, but it still meant the world to me, no matter what it was.

The memory places vividly in my head, but when I hear a faint calling of my name I snap back to reality. I must’ve zooned out a little, and then I remember what Tiffany originally asked me. “No, I don’t really celebrate Christmas,” I reply honestly, not having anything else to say. I can see Tiffany nod from the corner of my eye, before she speaks again. “Well, I’m going to my grandparent’s house, and I wondered if you wanted to spend Christmas with us?” Tiffany sounds a little nervous, probably been thinking about this for a while as I keep silent, thinking about what she just asked.

A part of me wants to say yes, but another part of me is a little scared because how would they react? One thing is celebrating Christmas as friends, but we’re not actually friends in that sense, and wouldn’t it seem pretty suspicious? What if we do something that wakes suspicion?

“I know my parents don’t know about us, neither do my grandparents and I know you’re probably thinking that it might wake suspicion, but I don’t think they’ll really mind. They’re pretty open people, and of course we don’t have to tell them about us anyway,” Tiffany says in one go and I barely get everything inside my head, because my thoughts are a little everywhere. “I’ll think about it,” I say instead of anything else, not really having an answer to that. Tiffany smiles, although a little strained, and I hate myself for saying that to her, but it’s better than turning her down or giving her an empty promise. I still didn’t know what to say anyway, and I felt as if I really had to think about it.

A faint strum of a guitar is heard from the distance, and I let my gaze drift towards a young boy playing on the said instrument, his guitar case containing a small amount of coins. We get closer to the player, and he keeps on playing a song that sounds so oddly familiar, yet I can’t place my finger on which song it is. And not only the song, but something about the player seems pretty familiar as well.

I halt my steps and listen, trying to figure out which song it is and Tiffany abruptly stops as well, noticing that I’ve stopped walking. I can feel her giving me a confused look, before stepping closer towards me. “Jess, are you- oh, I love this song!” Tiffany interrupts herself and I turn my gaze towards her, and she lets out a faint smile before faintly humming along, until the song actually starts and she does something that surprises me.

“I was scared of flying on this plane called Love that carries us
I already know it will fall down soon,”

Tiffany gently sings, and I look at her with bewilderment, not understanding how she could casually sing like that in public. She can sing, she has a beautiful voice, but I would never dare do that in front of people. The guitarist doesn’t look up as she starts singing the first lines, but I do catch a smile on his face as he continues playing. I look over at Tiffany, who gives me a nudge as if to join her. I give her a look, clearly saying no, but of course she kept on nudging until I simply gave her a small glare, but still found myself singing the next part.

“The rising feelings can’t be hidden, can’t be stopped until where will it go?
Everything I know is being with you,”

I sing along, albeit not as loud as Tiffany because I honestly don’t want the attention. My prayers go unheard as I can see some people looking over at us, clearly hearing the impromptu performance Tiffany initiated.

“Past the tall forest of buildings,
across the horizon, feeling overwhelmed.
The air currently shakes, close your eyes and come with me,”

Tiffany actually sings louder, successfully gaining even more attention as the guitarist keeps on playing. It almost seems as if he is encouraging us to continue and I feel a little out of place, but at the same time I love listening to Tiffany sing; she seems so carefree like this, really, with a smile on her face.

“Come with me, Airplane, Love,” I find myself singing those three words once, and Tiffany repeats it after me with a smile on her face while doing a small dance. I laugh a little by that, playfully pushing her before singing the next part of the chorus.

“This plane that flies in the sky, that twirls the wind,
that walks in the clouds, has taken off, but I believe in you, the one miracle,
the only person whose hand I hold,”

When I hear someone whispering, I timidly turn around and see a few people around us, intently watching and actually stopping to listen. I feel shocked, although they’re only about ten of them, but still it feels like a lot. Tiffany turns around as well, but she seems more surprised in a happy way than I am. I look over at her when we hit the chorus again, smiling softly as I see her singing along, not really caring if people watched or not. She didn’t even seem fazed when more and more people stood there and watched us.

“Ecstatic flying, flying, feeling faint
even in joy, and now I’m falling, falling,” I sing again, finally feeling that shed of nervousness leaving me bit by bit until I honestly feel a little careless, smiling along as Tiffany starts doing something that resembles a dance, but more for fun than anything else.

“Believe in our love,” she sings with a smile, looking at me with a certain gleam in her eye, which causes me to smile as well. I sing the next part, still looking at her, and honestly I believe we only did see each other during the last bit of the song. And no matter how cliché you will find this, how cheesy and probably cringe worthy what I’m about to say is actually true; the only thing I really saw, heard, felt in that moment was Tiffany.

“This plane that flies in the sky, that twirls
the wind, that walks in the clouds, has taken off but
I believe in you, the one miracle,
the only person whose hand I hold,”

It almost sounds like Tiffany is singing that part to me, as if what she’s saying is something meant for me to hear. A faint smile appears on my face, as I turn to end the song, feeling the lyrics actually match the exact thoughts I have of her.

“The flight that twirled the wind; that walked the clouds is over,
but I believe in the long-time fate, I believe in eternity,
The only person whose hand I hold,”

And so the song ends, the guitarist playing the last strum, but we still look at each other with probably stupid smiles, before the loud sound of applause enters my ears. And when I tear my gaze away from Tiffany, I notice that many, many more people were now circling around us with smiles on their faces, and my eyes nearly fell out when I saw someone with a teary eye.

A huge amount of coins ended up in the guitar case, to say the least, and when the crowd died down and started to move along I turned to Tiffany in shock. “Did we just do that?” I ask her and she only laughs before hugging me. “People actually liked it!” she says instead, nearly crushing me in that hug but I don’t really mind, enjoying the warmth.

When we finally part I hear a voice talking to us, and I turn around, finally realizing why the guitarist sounded so familiar. “That was pretty good,” he comments with a small, barely visible smile on his face. It doesn’t surprise me though; I’ve never seen the boy smile. “Thank you,” Tiffany says, still grinning from ear to ear and I nod, not really knowing what to say. I never talked much to him, and I haven’t really seen much of him since the day he kind of protected me from Hyuna.

“Myungsoo,” someone calls for him from the distance, and all of us turn to see a tall boy at the other side of the park, probably older than us, waving one of his hands with a huge gummy smile. I don’t recognize the person at all, to be quite honest, but it’s none of my business anyway.

The said boy smiles a little by that, before getting up on his two feet and collecting his items. “No problem,” he says while slinging the case over his shoulder. “See ya around,” is the last thing he says, and then he walks to the tall guy that called for him, and they both disappear from our sight somewhere.

I look after him a little, something odd running through my veins as I do. One thing I never understood is that unsettling, out of place feeling every time I’m just near him. My heart beats a weird way, but not in that pleasant way as when I’m with Tiffany, but still not that uncomfortable either. It just feels a little… tense? It’s as if I know something about him, although I really don’t. One could probably think we should act or feel the same because, as far as I know he’s probably as “anti-social” as I am, but even then I don’t really know… But I decide to let the thought rest for another time.

We stand there for a while, until Tiffany takes my hand again and we head towards our original destination; the market. Since winter is approaching the sky turns darker earlier than it usually does, so by the time we actually get there, the lights by the stands are already on.

There are a lot of people, but it’s not crowded either, so it’s comfortable to walk down the street with stalls. We start from the first one and work our way up the narrow street, the smell of food filling the air and the sound of music everywhere.  “Oh my, you should totally get one of those!” Tiffany says as we look at a bunch of hats, all shaped after some sort of animal. Unsurprisingly she picks the pink one (shocker) with cat ears and whiskers, and places it on the top of my head, laughing by the sight. I give her a small pout, but when I turn to look at the mirror I understand why she’s laughing; I look kind of ridiculous.

I let my gaze wander at the rest of the hats until I find a black and white one shaped like a penguin, laughing a little I place it on her head. When I look at her properly, I almost laugh more by the sight of her in that hat. We both look at the small mirror on the table, laughing and commenting each other’s “fabulous” attire, until the seller comes to view and asks us if we’re going to buy them. I’m about to say no and take it off, but that is until Tiffany suddenly interrupts.

“We’ll take both of them, please,” she says with a smile and I give her a weird look, but simply shake it off as the seller calculates the price. When he tells us the price I’m about to take my wallet, but Tiffany beats me to it and ends up paying for both of them. I look at her with a confused expression. “I could’ve at least paid for my own,” I say, but Tiffany only smiles. “No, I wanted to; see it as a gift from me to you,” she says cutely, poking me on the tip of my nose. I laugh a little again by that, until we get interrupted by the seller.

“You seem to be very fond of each other,” he muses and we turn to look at him. I don’t really know what to say after his pretty stoic expression, wondering what he really thinks of us, but I keep my silence. Tiffany just smiles politely, but doesn’t reply either, and we both secretly move away to the next stall.

A couple of stands later with various items we come across one containing a lot of necklaces, rings and other jewelry. There’s a woman eagerly talking to some customers as she hands them a bag, probably something they purchased, before she waves them goodbye. When she turns to look our way I let my eyes look down at the various necklaces, not really wanting eye contact.

“Jess, do you think I’d look good with these?” Tiffany holds up a pair of earrings, and I turn to look at her, studying them before slowly nodding. It doesn’t really matter what she wears though; Tiffany always looked gorgeous, in absolutely everything.

She places the earrings down, deciding not to get them after all, and I laugh a little. “What? They didn’t have pink stones?” I ask her a little teasingly, earning a playful shove. Then Tiffany starts nagging, claiming the polar opposite, and as she continues to I simply look at the way her lips move as she speaks. After a while of her talking like that I carefully go closer and kiss her to shut her up, but also because she simply looks too adorable for her own good. Tiffany seems surprised, but smiles into the kiss nevertheless.

“Oh my, what a lovely couple!” someone says cheerfully, causing us to part ways, and I feel the heat in my face of embarrassment. Cautiously I turn to look at the intruder; the woman who’s selling the items, who keeps on smiling. I simply stand there not knowing what to do and I see Tiffany smiling politely, but she seems just as lost as me to be quite honest.

My gaze goes back to the lady, who’s still smiling before looking at the hats. She laughs fondly, a totally different reaction towards us than the man at the previous stand. “You know, we have some couple bracelets. You can even engrave something on them, that is, if you want to,” the woman says before guiding us both to see various leather bracelets on display, all having a small silver patch on them; some already containing common names while others were left empty. The colors ranged from typical brown and black, all the way to yellow and red.

They’re very pretty actually, the multiple colors everywhere and the silver reflecting the lights. I’m about to ask Tiffany if she actually wants one, but I don’t really have to ask as I see her trying on a few already. “What’s your favorite color?” Tiffany asks while trying on an orange one, looking at it before shaking her head and placing it away. “White,” I simply reply; the simplicity and plain shade something I’ve always liked. Not that I wore a lot of white clothes, but I like it nevertheless.

“Then let’s get the white and pink one!” she shows off that eye smile of hers again, and I simply shrug, not really caring. “I suppose you’re getting the pink one?” I ask and Tiffany shakes her head, and I give her a really confused look. “What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word pink?” Tiffany asks, and when she does a picture of her actually pops up in my head. I let out a small chuckle by the thought, and Tiffany probably already knows what, or who, I’m thinking of.

“So when you look at it, you’ll think of me!” she smiles brightly and I try not to laugh again, suppressing it, but a smile manages to escape my lips nevertheless. “Well, that’s not going to be a hard task I suppose,” I say after a while. “But you already got me a pink hat; we don’t really need to get the bracelets as well,” I say as I point towards the top of my head, still wearing the pink cat hat thing.

Tiffany doesn’t listen, and looks over to the seller with a questioning smile, before leaning over and whispering something in the lady’s ear. It doesn’t take long before they both start giggling together, and I raise a brow in suspicion, but it doesn’t help asking; it’s Tiffany after all.

“It should be done in about half an hour, so you can just come back later,” the woman smiles towards us, still containing that gleam before basically skipping towards another one who probably worked there, sending it off towards the actual jewelry shop that’s only a couple a meters away from the stand.

Tiffany drags my hand away as we head further down the street, probably to kill some time until the bracelets would be done. I look over at her as we walk, wondering what they were laughing about together. And when I ask her that question, I nearly frown by her reply. “You’ll see,” she simply says with a teasing smile, and I look at her with a small glare, but soften up anyways; it’s not like she’s going to change her mind.

We spend the next minutes eating by a random stand that sells skewers with various types of meat; I take the one with seafood, whereas Tiffany is munching on one with chicken. We don’t say much as we stand there and consume the hot meat, the smoke emitting from it. “Can I taste yours?” Tiffany asks, and I hand it over to her as she simply takes a bite on some shrimp, enjoying the taste and giving me thumbs up. Then she hands the one with chicken over to me, but I simply shake my head.

“I don’t really like chicken,” I say as I look at her. “You don’t?” she asks and I nod as we stand there, the many lights illuminating the street. I glance over at the clock hanging on one of the walls, indicating that it’s already gone thirty minutes. “You want to go get the bracelets and then head back to the apartment?” I ask, noticing that it’s getting quite late by now, and the amount of people are decreasing. Tiffany simply nods before we throw away the now empty skewers and head back towards the stall, where we see the woman greet us with a huge smile.

“Just in time,” she says before getting a small box up from the shelves and placing it on the table. I look at it as Tiffany takes it in her hands, before opening it to look at them. She’s standing a little distance away from me, and as I’m about to peer over to get a glimpse myself, she suddenly shuts it and tucks it in her pocket.

“How much?” she asks as she’s about to take out her wallet, but before she does, the woman simply shakes her head. “Oh no, you can just have them,” she says and we both look over at her surprised. Why would she do something like that? “No, I’ll pay,” Tiffany insists, but the woman still says that she doesn’t have to pay. They go on like that until Tiffany finally gives up, a grateful smile on her face nonetheless. “Thank you very much,” Tiffany says with a huge smile and a bow, and unconsciously I do the same.

The woman simply smiles in return before bidding us goodbye, and I look at her for a while until we turn to leave. My gaze then lands on Tiffany, who’s still smiling. “How nice of her to let us get them for free; I really didn’t expect that,” she shares as we walk out of the market street and down towards the park again. I nod in reply, but my mind wanders elsewhere than that.

“So what does it say on them?” I ask curiously, but Tiffany only smiles that secretive smile again. “You’ll see,” she repeats the same thing again, obviously not answering my question and I frown again. Normally I wouldn’t care, but this time I really wanted to know. “But I’m curious.” I admit as I look at Tiffany, before she lets out a small laugh. “Curiosity killed the cat,” she says and pokes my nose again. I playfully shove her hand away, looking at her before giving a teasing smile as well.

“But satisfaction brought it back!” I reply before playfully nudging her with my shoulder. “Come on, tell me,” I drag my words, trying to sound desperate, although I kind of am, but that’s another story. It doesn’t really help though; Tiffany just keeps her lips shut and acts like nothing.

She doesn’t even give in when we sit down on a random bench, and no matter what I say she simply dodges the question and starts talking about other things, just to annoy me. I want to pester her, just to annoy her actually, until I notice her shivering. “I’m cold,” she says as I predicted her to, and I simply sigh, knowing this would happen as I take off the scarf around my neck and wrap it around her. I instantly get colder by the lack of warmth around the area, but I don’t really mind, I suppose I can bear it.

Tiffany seems a little better by that, but still very cold. I really want to say I told you so, but refrain myself as I try to warm her up, seeing her shivering body I honestly feel a little bad. This can’t be comfortable for her, not at all, so I place on of her hands inside of my pocket. “Come on, let’s get back inside,” I say and I am about to get up, but Tiffany stops me. “No, sit down,” she says stubbornly, and I try to convince her but again it’s Tiffany. So I sit down next to her, still trying to warm her up as the wind blows.

“I heard it’s going to snow today, I want to see it,” Tiffany says with a smile, and I simply shake my head while lightly chuckling. For me it’s just snow, but I remember that after all Tiffany just moved here from California, so after all maybe she hasn’t seen it before. “I haven’t seen snow before; actually, it never snowed where I lived because it just rained,” she shared and said just hat I thought. I nod understandingly, and I look up at the sky, seeing a bunch of clouds above us and maybe she’s right, it’s going to snow. My gaze drifts towards Tiffany who also has her eyes on the sky, before turning to me.

Then she digs into her pockets until she takes out that box, which I oddly forgot about and hands it to me. With a smile on her face she holds it in front of me, until I carefully take it in my hands. “It’s not really something much, but I hope you’ll like it,” Tiffany says and sounds a little shy actually, something I never thought I’d hear as I turn to look at the purple box.

I place it on my lap, and with one hand I open it up, as the other hand is too busy trying to warm up Tiffany’s cold ones. When I finally do I see the same bracelets that we looked at; the pink and the white ones, but instead of seeing engravings of our names or anything like that I see something totally different.

I pick up the pink one that Tiffany wanted me to have and start reading the neat writing on the silver plate with a phrase that’s pretty familiar.

“These are the days of our freedom,” it simply says, nothing more and nothing less. I’m about to ask until I flip the bracelet around, and on the back side it’s a simple heart on it, but I still smile because honestly it’s probably the best gift I’ve ever gotten. I look at it with a fond smile, studying it carefully before looking at the white one, which I suppose Tiffany is going to wear, but oddly enough it doesn’t seem to say the same thing. I lift it up as well to notice it further.

“These are the days of our lives,” I read out carefully, and I want to flip it over as well, but Tiffany stops me before I can though, simply smiling and taking it in her hand. “Nope, that’s only for me to know,” she says teasingly again, but this time I don’t complain, still mesmerized by the one I got. I let go of Tiffany’s hand to put the bracelet around my wrist, simply admiring how it perfectly fits as I look at it. She silver reflects the streetlights above, simply lighting up by the contact. And as I keep on studying them I notice something white landing on the bracelet as I hold my hand in the midair, and another white spot until I look up to see a bunch of white, fluffy dots falling from the sky.

It’s snowing.

I look over to Tiffany with a smile, and she seems eagerly as happy and fascinated by the cold snowflakes, as she reaches out her hands to grab them. I chuckle by her childish behavior as she suddenly gets up to catch even more snowflakes in her hands, running around cutely.

I let my gaze wander back to the bracelet, the words still haunting me as I smile again. To think that Tiffany actually did this to me makes me feel a hundred times happier than I did before, if that was even possible, and I feel my insides warm up despite the cold weather. My heart beats a little faster by the whole gesture, and I get lost in my own thoughts as the snow falls down like a blanket on the concrete.

“Jess, it’s so beautiful,” Tiffany says absentmindedly as I look up at her. I’m about to get up and join Tiffany, who stands there with her eyes at the sky again. I smile as I look at her dazed expression, but before I can even get up my heart nearly stops. I see her collapsing right in front of me, landing on the thin layer of white snow, her pale skin nearly blending with the color.