Chapter 4: Good Day

        After dressing up nicely and warmly, Taeyeon and Sooyeon headed out of the apartment. Taeyeon packed her backpack with all sorts of important things again, but she made sure that it won’t be too heavy since she did not want to get tired while roaming the city. She also lent Sooyeon some of her warm coats to make sure that she would be warm too. The temperatures were still dropping steadily that coldest month of the year, so they wore their gloves, bonnets, and scarves to prevent getting a chill or a cold.

          Just as Taeyeon said, she does know her way around the city quite well. She memorized the Seoul subway map routes and transfers even as an eleven-year-old. When there were times that her parents could not pick her up in school, she would always take the subway because it was fast and efficient. As for Sooyeon, she knew absolutely nothing, so she just followed after Taeyeon when it came to using the subway cards and taking the long flights of escalators and stairs.

          “First, let’s go to Namsan Tower. Then we can go eat at this nice cheap Chinese restaurant for lunch, and then let’s go see one of the Joseon palaces, and for the rest of the day, let’s just stay by the Han River and watch the boats and ships sail under the bridge,” Taeyeon said as they sat in the subway train.

          “Let’s not exhaust ourselves,” Sooyeon suggested. “I can’t really walk around too far. I get tired easily.”

          “We’ll rest if we get tired, don’t worry.”

          Sooyeon still wasn’t very sure about everything, but she went along anyway. After riding the subway, they had to climb out of the underground. The flights of stairs easily tired out the weak Sooyeon, but she dared not to show any sign of weakness. This was supposed to be a fun day for them. Although she was rather slow at walking and climbing stairs, Taeyeon was considerate enough to walk at a favorable pace for her. Sooyeon probably wasn’t used to this kind of public transport anyway.

          After getting out of the subway station, Taeyeon and Sooyeon rode a taxi to the Namsan Tower cable car. Sooyeon enjoyed the sights as they drove with the friendly taxi driver through the city. When they were finally dropped off by the foot of the mountain where the cable car was set, Taeyeon bought the tickets and together they rode the cable car up to the mountain. Sooyeon found the sight of the city fascinating as they got higher and higher up. The buildings, the cars, the roads looked tiny, and the aerial view of the leafless winter mountain shade looked amazing too.

When they reached the top station, they both saw a lock stall named "Love Locksmith." Taeyeon and Sooyeon went to the stall to buy one locck.

"Hello cute little children!" exclaimed the kind lady on the counter. She had a big wide smile on her adorable face and her eyes shaped into crescents facing downward.

"Hello, we'd like a lock please," Taeyeon said to the lady.

"Which one do you want? I have locks of all shapes and sizes... What about this pink one? I love pink! Pink is a nice color!"

Due to the lady's insistence, they bought the small pink lock and thanked the lady.

          “Let’s write something on it before we lock it,” said Taeyeon. “Any suggestions?”

          “How about our names?” Sooyeon suggested.

          “You do realize that if we write our names on it and lock it here, we’ll have to be together forever, right?” Taeyeon said with a goofy grin on her face.

          Unexpectedly, Sooyeon’s expressionless face showed a hint of sadness, as if she regrets something. Taeyeon really doesn’t understand why Sooyeon suddenly becomes gloomy like that for no reason.

          “Oh, come on, don’t give me that look,” Taeyeon said with a playful pat on her friend’s shoulder. “This is just for fun. Loosen up.”

          Sooyeon just gave her a wry smile and wrote her name on the lock. Taeyeon also wrote her name on the other side.

          “So, let’s find a good place to lock it on.”

Taeyeon grabbed Sooyeon’s hand and together, they climbed up more flights of stairs in between the leafless mountain trees. Again, Sooyeon easily got tired but they made it up the place where people—mostly couples and tourists—latched the locks. Plus, the view and the air from up there were amazing. They could see the city buildings from the mountain and see silhouettes of more mountains past the horizon. For a moment, the awesome view made Sooyeon forget about the cold and the fatigue from being outside too much. Even Taeyeon could tell that Sooyeon was enjoying herself. In all honesty, she never thought that the outside world was this much fun.

As Sooyeon watched Taeyeon fix the lock on the railing, she could not help but tear up. Before Taeyeon could see her crying, she quickly wiped away her tears and showed her consistent poker face.

          “Ha! There, now we have made our mark at Namsan!” Taeyeon proudly exclaimed.

          Later, Taeyeon went to the place where she and her parents last placed a lock on Namsan. Although she thought she would not see the lock anymore amongst all those other locks, she eventually found it rusting by the corner.

          “Wow I can’t believe that it’s still here,” Taeyeon said with tears streaming down her face. “This is just amazing.”

          “You really miss them, don’t you?”

          “Yes,” Taeyeon said as she wiped her tears. Then she said with a sincere smile, “And because I lost them, I don’t ever want to lose anyone again. I don’t want to lose you too. We’ve locked our names here. You’ll be my friend forever now, right?”

          Instead of answering Taeyeon, she just smiled with eyes filled with sadness. The longer she stayed with Taeyeon the worse she got at hiding the sadness in her eyes. Without promising anything, Sooyeon just gave Taeyeon a gentle hug. She has never hugged her or anyone before, but right now, she also felt like crying, so she did it subconsciously since it felt appropriate at the moment. Sooyeon honestly felt touched by how much Taeyeon cherishes her even though she doesn’t really reciprocate much. She had never felt wanted by anyone in her life at all until Taeyeon came.

          For lunch, Taeyeon and Sooyeon ate at a restaurant called Xiah Dragon Noodles. This time, they rode a bus to the streets of Jongno Sam-Ga. The ride took longer than the subway train, but at least Sooyeon can rest from all the walking out in the cold. When they hopped off the bus, they walked through the tree-lined streets and entered a small hidden-gem of a restaurant. They were greeted by six nice men named Kim Junsu, Kim Jaejoong, Kim Heechul, Kim Youngwoon, Kim Jongwoon, and Kim Ryeowook. These brothers are the restaurant owners. They pretty much run the restaurant on their own.

          “Oh, hey, well if it isn’t Miss Kim Taeyeon!” they said to her upon seeing her. She and her parents were regulars at this restaurant so they know her by the face already. “You’re here with a friend?”

          “Yup!” Taeyeon said with a smile.

          Taeyeon sat on one of the soft dining chairs with the wide-eyed Sooyeon. Sooyeon was intrigued by the intricate drawings of dragons on the beige walls of the restaurant and the red paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling. At the edge of the room was a small stage with two huge speakers on each side. Taeyeon told Sooyeon about how there was supposed to be live music during evenings on that stage. The Kim Brothers and some other hired unknown musicians would sing there once the sun has set.

          “So, what do you kids want to order, huh?” asked Kim Heechul, the funny looking guy with the long hair. Taeyeon always liked him more than the other brothers.

          “I want Jaejoong Oppa to surprise us with something that’s not in the menu if that’s alright,” Taeyeon said with a smirk. Then she winked at Sooyeon, who was still quite clueless as to how she ended up eating in such a nice place. Again, this is a new experience for the “sheltered” Sooyeon. “And we’ll have strawberry smoothies as drinks and banana split for dessert.”

          “Brilliant. Ice cream during the winter, huh? Now that’s rebellious…,” Heechul said as he wrote the orders down with an amused grin. “Anything else?”

          “I know you only have live music during evenings, but can someone please sing for us while we eat?”

          “You’re a classy little lady, aren’t you?” Heechul said as he tapped her nose. “I’ll ask one of my brothers to sing. Don’t worry about it.”

          A few seconds later, Kim Jongwoon stood on the stage by the microphone. He had a messy hair-style and lazy-looking eyes but his smile was really adorable. His brother, the sweet-looking Kim Junsu, also sat on the mini grand piano bench to accompany him. “Any requests?”

          “That’s Jongwoon Oppa. He’s really good with ballads. And that’s Junsu Oppa by the piano,” Taeyeon said as they waited for their meal.

          “Well if that’s the case, maybe he can sing a sad ballad,” Sooyeon suggested.

          “Really? You want to be depressing now when we’re having such a great time?” Taeyeon just could not believe how pessimistic this girl is.

          Jongwoon just smiled at the both of them from the stage and said, “Well, then, a sad ballad it is! Perfect for the winter season!”

          In no time, Junsu’s fingers tickled the black and white keys. Then Jongwoon began to sing a sad ballad with his purest emotions:

(너 아니면 안돼 – Yesung)

          Taeyeon frowned upon hearing the lyrics. It was too depressing that it reminded her of her parents. She did not want to hear of sad separations ever again. As for Sooyeon, she still had the same expressionless face on. It was quite hard for Taeyeon to read her feelings.

As they listened, Heechul the waiter served the dish personally prepared by Chef Jaejoong. Taeyeon and Sooyeon had a feast. They had dumplings, hot noodles, and mouth-watering soup. They both ate as much as they can. In fact, Taeyeon had never seen Sooyeon eat that much. Usually she did not have much of an appetite, but for lunch, she ate as much as she could. Then they were served with dessert. All the sweet sugar their little tongues could ever want was given to them just by the swipe of Taeyeon’s debit and credit cards. She really had no sense of money value yet, so it did not matter to her how much their orders cost.

          For the last song while they were eating dessert, the other Kim brothers went on stage to perform a more uplifting song at Taeyeon’s request. Again, Junsu was behind the piano and everyone else was on the small platform.

(소원 – TVXQ)

After lunch, they got to enter Changdeokgung and saw the vast palace compound. Since it involved a lot of walking uphill and downhill on uneven Korean terrain, Sooyeon and Taeyeon easily got tired that they did not get to see the whole place. Still, it was great to see how Joseon Period looked like in real life and not just in television dramas. The colorful palace buildings and quaint ponds had been preserved so carefully. They both found it fascinating.

With tired legs, they rode the subway until they reached Han River. The ride to Han River at least eased their short legs for another adventure. Later, they walked together against the cold breeze, admiring the beautiful view of the glistening water and the majestic bridge of Han River. When Sooyeon got tired, they would sit on the wooden park benches and just watch some of the boats passing by. They had so much fun just wandering and doing absolutely nothing. For that day, Sooyeon was actually smiling and laughing with Taeyeon, as if her cold, frozen heart had melted. She had never had this much fun in one day. Truth be told, it was actually pretty exhausting, but fun. She does not remember any other time that has made her smile like this in her life.

Since it was getting colder and windier that late afternoon by the river, Sooyeon had been uncontrollably trembling. Taeyeon had already hung her own scarf around her friend’s neck, but she was still cold. Finally, Taeyeon asked her, “Are you alright? Is it getting too cold for you? Do you want to call it a day?”

Unexpectedly, Sooyeon shook her head and said, “No, I don’t want this day to end yet.”

Taeyeon scooted closer to Sooyeon and gave her a warm hug but immediately let her go. “You enjoyed yourself, didn’t you?”

“I never had so much fun in my life. Thank you, Taeyeon,” Sooyeon said with a sincere smile.

“You seem quite tired though,” Taeyeon said as she noticed Sooyeon’s shortening breath. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I said I’m fine,” Sooyeon insisted.

          “Okay, if you say so. Are there any other places that you would like to go to?”

          Sooyeon stared at the river intently, as if in deep thought. Then she said, “I want to see the ocean.”

          “Hmm… the ocean huh? Well, the nearest beach is probably a few hours away by bus, and that’s outside the city. I don’t think it’s a good idea to go at this time. Plus, it will be quite cold out there and it might be hard for us to get transportation back to the city…,” Taeyeon said in deep thought.

          “You don’t have to take me there.” Sooyeon shook her head. “I just said that I want to go. You don’t have to make me happy as an obligation.”

          “Maybe we can’t go today, but when it’s warmer, like during the summer or something,” Taeyeon said optimistically, as if forgetting that they were just two runaway rascals.

Sooyeon could not help but sigh as she looked to Taeyeon with sad eyes, her breath puffing up like smoke in the cold winter air. “Never mind.”

“No, seriously we can really do it someday. If not in the summer then when we are older and still friends, we can go together and have fun just like we did today. It will be great!” Taeyeon said, already thinking about the far off future. “I promise you, I will take you to see the ocean someday.”

Later, Taeyeon and Sooyeon finally decided to go back to Taeyeon’s apartment. As usual, this involved a lot of walking in the subway stations and climbing stairs. That was always how Korean public transport worked. It was no wonder that most people were healthy because of the walking exercise. However, Sooyeon seemed to be getting quite exhausted by this even after resting. Taeyeon just paced her walking to a slower rate for Sooyeon to catch up. She thought that maybe Sooyeon’s stamina was just weak because she was not used to the outdoors, but later, she was badly mistaken. Upon climbing the flights of stairs out of the subway station near Taeyeon’s apartment building, Sooyeon had been trudging up way too slow. Taeyeon could not help but get worried. Sooyeon has walking slower than the grandmas and the grandpas taking the subway with their canes.

“Sooyeon, are you sure you’re okay?” Taeyeon asked once more.

Sooyeon did not answer. Instead she continued trying to climb out of the subway.

“We’re almost there though,” Taeyeon said as she held Sooyeon’s hand and supported her.

Finally they got out of the subway and continued walking slowly. After a rush of chilly air that went straight down their spine, Taeyeon stopped in her tracks. Sooyeon collapsed right before her. The other passersby saw it too. They cannot ignore it. A little girl just fell down the cold ground.

Taeyeon gasped and tended to Sooyeon right away. She was rather shocked and in a state of panic. Sooyeon’s face was pale white, and her breath was very short and shallow. Something has gone terribly wrong. This was supposed to be a good day, and it was supposed to end well. How...?

“Sooyeon!”

Author's Note

Xiah Dragon Noodles is our (Ninzz127 & Yomiatot) imaginary fanfic restaurant so please don't use that restaurant name anywhere else. Thank you :D

The lyrics translations are my own translations. If there are any corrections, please don't hesitate to tell me and explain it. Thank you :D