“Are you coming?”

“Where?”

“The magic show down the street.”

Soojung shakes her head with a sigh. “No, Jinri. I thought you know me.”

Jinri grabs her by the shoulders. “Oh come on! You’re no fun!”

Soojung rolls her eyes, slightly irritated with the paler girl. “You come because of the young magician and not for his little tricks.”

“Partly yes, partly no. Oh, come on! It’s Friday!”

Soojung sighs. Jinri could be really annoying, but she couldn’t deny the fact that she’s kind of cute when she’s pleading one with the big eyes and pouty lips. So, she nods her head, letting Jinri to pull her to wherever the magic show takes place, not to forget sighing over and over again along the way.

They reach at Hongdae precisely 15 minutes later and it’s 7 in the evening. The sky starts to turn dark with a slight pink, orange, purple and blue cast all over it. People are everywhere on the streets, and she’s sure she won’t be staying there even for an hour because she hates crowded places. She will pretend that she’s sick to Jinri when she feels like going home.

“Where’s your magician guy?” Soojung hisses, it’s almost 7.30 but there’s no hint that the magician will come very soon. She cranes her neck, slightly tiptoeing as she wanders her eyes over the crowd and looking for the possibly magician guy. She thinks that he would dress up in a black, tall hat with white buttoned-down shirt and red bow and black mantle, and not to forget a creepy-liked make-up.

“Hey, isn’t that Minhee? And Sungjong? And Woohyun? Wait, why there’re many our schoolmates—“

Here? She continues in her mind when she feels a sudden grip on her forearm and a light squeal that comes from none other than Jinri, and she looks to where the taller girl looks at, and she gasps, so softly that only she could hear.

The magician stands there, looking so ordinary like how a normal guy should look, and not like the imaginary magician that she had in her mind just now. He dresses up in a plain white T with dark blue jeans and a pair of grey Converse. And that’s it. No extra accessories, no white powder on the face or dark shadows on the eyes, no creepy but a gentle smile with slight dimples that captures her eyes the most.

And somehow, the magician guy looks so familiar to her.

She reaches out to grab Jinri and ask her, but she’s nowhere to be found. Blinking, she realises that she’s the only one who’s left behind while the others are already a few steps in front of her, forming a circle, he’s in the middle, she knows even though she can’t clearly see him.

She spots her schoolmates though, and she wonders why everyone’s here while she doesn’t even know a thing.

She wants to see more even though she dislikes magic, but more people gather around the already big circle, and she hates that, so she steps back, turns around a