“SeoHyun…! Ya, SeoHyun!”

I looked around frantically. Where is TaeYeon-unnie?

“Ya, SeoHyun! I’m here…!”

I saw a hand waving frantically in the air, and Taeyeon-unnie’s head bobbing up and down from the sea of heads in the crowd, as though she were jumping.

I laughed out loud, and approached where she was, pulling my luggage with me.

TaeYeon looked very annoyed. “Ya, did you become blind or deaf or what after 8 years? I’ve been shouting your name for minutes, people were looking weirdly at me!”

“Unnieee!!” I hugged her tight, and looked at her closely. “Unnie, it’s been 8 years, but you haven’t grown an inch!”

“YA!!!” Taeyeon moved as if to punch me, but I patted her on her head and walked away, saying “Let’s go, midget unnie!”

TaeYeon-unnie huffed angrily at me, but proceeded to follow me out of the airport.

“Hey,” she said, after we had gotten into her car, “how have you been? I’ve heard you’ve already earned your degree in Economics! How was it?” She looked naughtily at me, and said, “Were there any cute guys at Yale? I bet there were a lot! Kekeke”

“Ya, unnie”, I answered, “I was so busy getting my degree, I didn’t have time to look at all the boys at Yale!”

TaeYeon-unnie let out a long sigh. “Cham. I was kind of expecting that answer from you. Well, at least you fulfilled your dream of getting a degree at Yale—and with highest honors at that!” She beamed proudly at me.

I nodded. Yale was really my ultimate dream, and all of my hard work as a student back here in Korea was solely for this goal.

“All of our friends will be so happy to see you! It’s been 8 years since we last saw you, and I bet they’re gonna be all surprised that I was able to make you go back to Korea!”

TaeYeon-unnie didn’t tell all our other friends that I was coming to their get-together (which they do monthly), so she was very excited with her little surprise.

After a few minutes of silence, I ventured, “Um… unnie?”

“Yep?”

“Is everyone coming to the get-together?”

“Of course! No one is allowed to be absent from our monthly meetings—Jessica always tells her staff to free her schedule every 7^th of the month. SooYoung refuses any kind of photoshoot or modeling stint, Yuri makes sure that she has no CF shooting schedule, even Yoona, who is so engrossed with her new book, takes a break from her writing! So yeah, you get the general idea.”

My heart raced at the mention of her name. “Yoona… Yoona is coming?”

“Yeah, didn’t I tell you no one misses out on—“ TaeYeon-unnie noticed my pale expression, and frowned. “I know you and Yoona had some sort of history back then. And you know,Yoona told us what happened to the two of you…”

I looked down. That fateful night on the playground was still so fresh in my memory, as if it happened only yesterday. Her words, her goodbye. This is too one-sided…

Just a few weeks after we broke up, I got a letter from Yale saying that I was accepted into their university. Too hurt and ashamed towards Yoona, I didn’t tell her that I was leaving for the US. I know it was stupid, and that I should have at least said goodbye to her, but her words kept ringing in my head and I didn’t have the courage to face her, even for the last time.

You might ask, why was I ashamed? Because looking back, I believe I was the reason why we broke up. I was too… lacking. I realized that Yoona had already grown tired of putting up with me, of being patient with me. And I abused her patience, her kindness and her love. I thought she was just going to stay there beside me, patiently waiting for me. I forgot the fact that she was human, and that as a human she has her limits. And without me knowing, I pushed her too far.

I haven’t contacted her for the past 8 years. But I was still updated with her life, thanks to Facebook. I saw her post pictures of her first-ever book launch, and how her books became a national bestseller. I read her posts of how she struggled with writer’s block, and how she kept herself alive with caffeine for nights on end. I saw her post pictures of her travels to Jeju, to England, to Japan, and more

I saw all of these posts, but I never had the courage to even comment “Congratulations!” or “Don’t drink too much coffee, it’s bad for your health!” I didn’t even have the courage to even “like” her posts. I was just there, thousands of miles away, silently watching over her as she lived her life.

But what I noticed most was that, in all of her posts and pictures, she never had anyone with her. In all her travels abroad, she was alone; in her book launch, it was her mother who was beside her. She never posted about having a boyfriend or girlfriend, and on one Valentine’s Day she even posted a photo of herself, drinking coffee in a coffee shop that seemed full of happy couples.

Call me selfish or whatever you want, but seeing her alone made me happy.

It meant I still had a chance with Yoona, that there is still a chance that she might accept me and love me again.

Because after all these years, I am still in love with her.

I stood up from my desk, and stretched. Ohhh that felt good. I’ve been sitting in front of my laptop for hours, finishing the chapter that would outline the whole conflict of my novel. I looked at myself in the mirror, and saw the huge bags beneath my eyes. Sigh. I tried to sleep off my writer’s block last night, but as soon as my head hit the pillow all of the ideas for my plot came flooding inside my head, and I just had to write them down or else they’ll all fly away again, never to return. I typed them all feverishly into my laptop, and as a result I ended up having zero sleep.

I checked my cellphone, and saw that there were 39 unread messages, all from Sunny.

“Hey, today’s the day! Make sure to come early, coz I need help setting up the venue!”

“Ya, don’t forget, today’s our monthly get-together!”

“Someone please call Jessica at 9 AM, coz her alarm clocks might fail to wake her up again”

Oh, yeah. Another reason why I just had to finish that crucial chapter is because today is our monthly get-together. No one misses out on our get-togethers—I remember that one time that Tiffany-unnie missed out because of Nichkhun, the whole group threatened to shave off Khun’s eyebrows. He was only forgiven when he paid for a lunch buffet, a movie ticket with unlimited popcorn & drinks and a ride-all-you-can ticket in Lotte World—for all 8 of us. So yeah, missing out on our get-togethers is a mortal sin, and I know that they would all make me pay dearly.

I wanted to get sleep so bad, but I also didn’t want my friends to ostracize me for life, so I grabbed a towel and headed to the bathroom for a hot shower.

***

I arrived at the venue a few minutes after 8, and I saw Sunny setting up the tables and chairs. It was always Sunny’s duty to look for a venue where we could hold our get-togethers, mainly because we were all too busy to do so. After all, she’s the one who knows all of the good restaurants in town, mainly because she owns one herself. Her refusal, however, to let the restaurant staffs set up the venue for our reunions (though we always rented out the entire venue for the whole day) still baffle me up to this day.

“Good morning, Sunny!”

“Ya Yoona,” Sunny said, looking up from her cellphone, “I’m older than you, you should call me ‘unnie’!”

“Hmm,” I said, sitting down on the chair beside her, “you don’t look like my unnie, coz you look young for your age”

I knew Sunny could never resist flattery, and I was right: she immediately smiled, but tried to suppress it and just simply said, “ya, put yourself to good use. Put the table napkins here”

I smiled and did as she said.

“Um, SeoHyun…?

I was fixing myself in front of the mirror, trying to smoothen a stubborn crease in my blouse. “Yes, unnie?”

TaeYeon-unnie fidgeted on the sofa. “Well, you’ve been standing in front of the mirror for almost an hour now, and we’re gonna be late. And Sunny’s going to skin us alive if we arrive late—and she’s not going to exempt you, even though she hasn’t seen you for years.”

I sighed. Ever since TaeYeon-unnie arrived at my hotel room to pick me up, I’ve been so nervous. This is the day that I’m finally seeing Yoona in the flesh after 7 years. Actually, this is the first time I’m going to see Yoona after that fateful night at the park.

“Unnie”, I asked, turning around to look at her, “do I look okay?”

“Ya, SeoHyun”, she said, standing up to stand beside me in front of the mirror, “relax. I know you’re nervous because it’s the first time you’re going to see Yoona, but there’s no need to be so…” she struggled to look for the right word, “tense. And it’s not only Yoona who’s going to be there! All nine of us will be there! So relax, and just enjoy the get-together. Ok?”

I nodded, and before I could look again at the mirror, TaeYeon-unnie pulled me to the door, clearly afraid of being skinned alive by Sunny-unnie.

At around 11 AM, everyone started arriving at the venue. HyoYeon-unnie arrived wearing a loose shirt and sweatpants, indicating that she had just come from a dance rehearsal with a top idol girl group. Jessica-unnie arrived in a limousine like the CEO that she was, and immediately headed to the nearest table and laid her head on it, eager to catch some more sleep. SooYoung-unnie and Yuri-unnie were swapping stories about this and that celebrity that they met on their schedules, while Tiffany-unnie listened eagerly, the fashion magazine that she brought lying forgotten on her lap. And Sunny and I were just seated beside each other, tired after all the setting-up that we had done earlier in the morning.

“I’m hungry,” Sooyoung-unnie complained loudly, loud enough for Sunny to hear. “Aren’t we going to eat? It’s already lunch time!”

Sunny snorted and said, “You’re always hungry, Choi SooYoung. And besides,” she said, looking at her watch, “we still have to wait for TaeYeon. She still has 20 minutes to go until I declare her ‘late’, therefore forfeiting her right to eat.”

I chuckled. It has been a long-standing tradition in our group that whoever arrives late in our get-togethers doesn’t eat the food we ordered. This is the reason why Sunny makes sure to order the most delicious food, to ensure that no one arrives late because everyone wants to taste the food.

“Hey, there she is!” Tiffany loudly declared, earning her a scowl from Jessica, who was sleeping beside her and who now was woken unceremoniously by Tiffany’s loud voice.

We watched as TaeYeon’s Mercedes park smoothly beside my car, and saw her get out from the driver’s side. Surprisingly, the door beside the driver’s side opened, and Tiffany scowled.

“Ya, I thought we had a “no boyfriends allowed” rule during our get-togethers? ‘Cause it’s totally unfair if TaeYeon brought Baek—“

Someone got out from the car, and judging by the high heels that came out of the door, it’s definitely not BaekHyun. As TaeYeon waved at us happily from outside, we all watched transfixed as slowly, a woman got out of TaeYeon’s car and walked to the door of the restaurant with TaeYeon, smiling nervously.

It was Seo Joo Hyun. 

______________________________________

Author's note:

A new chapter! Yey! :D

After thinking it through and after seeing some of the comments, I decided that this story badly needed a sequel. But I couldn't write a short sequel, and so I decided to make this into a mini-series. Heh. I know there were a lot of unnecessary details in this chapter, but I badly wanted to write a little about OT9 (and yeah, this is how I hope ALL 9 will get together after some years. #wishful thinking)

I hope you also noticed that in all of Seohyun's POVs, she always mentioned Yoona while Yoona on the other hand doesn't mention Seohyun at all (except in tha last part). So I hope that I was able to show the difference betweeen our two leads. :)

Again, please do leave a comment. Thank you so much, and on to the next chapter! :D