Soojung shuffles at the foreign airport on her own. Her luggage trails close behind her as she pulls it against the marble floor. It’s been a while since she’d been in an airport – the last time was when she had a summer vacation with her family a year ago. And she feels strange because this time she’s all alone, even though she had experienced this a few times before when she was taking her diploma. It’s still a good kind of strange, though, knowing that she’s a step closer to achieving her dream.

She sits at one of the seats inside the huge airport, eyes following the movement of people that come from every inch of the world. Hair and eyes from various colours, languages that she doesn’t really understand linger in her ears as a conversation after another drags by, and suddenly the strong urge to buy a ticket back to California is so tempting. How could you be surrounded with people – way too many people – and yet you still feel so alone? Is it because there’s no familiar face there? She has no idea. She heaves a sigh before she takes out her phone and dials the number she has known by heart.

She places the device at her ear, and within 3 rings, the call is answered, follows by a cheerful, and yet dull scream. “Soojung-ah!” it’s her mom. She smiles immediately hearing her voice, and somehow, she misses them all a tad too much already – even though it has been only 11 hours and 16 minutes.

“Hey, mom. I’ve just arrived.”

“I figured.” she replies, and she knows from the voice, her mom is on the verge of crying. “I should’ve just followed you there.”

Soojung chuckles even though her eyes are teary, too. “It’s okay, mom. That’d be too hard for me, don’t you think? To watch you leave me here if you ever come in the first place. Besides, it’s not like we won’t be seeing each other soon, right?”

The call ends a few minutes later, with her mom constantly reminds her to take care of herself there – from the food to her studies and all that stuff – and when she’s ready, she hails a cab and tells the driver her destination.

+

Soojung is busy settling down her things when the front door flings open and a blonde, tomboyish girl comes in with a backpack hangs in front of her, a luggage in her left hand. She knows immediately she’s a girl despite how big her shirt is or how short her hair is. She offers the other a welcoming smile, knowing the fact that she’d be sharing the dorm with the said girl. The blonde sends her one back, a tired kind of smile.

“Hi, I’m Soojung.” she says as she helps her with the luggage.

“Amber.”

They could sense a vague of awkwardness in the air, but it soon is vanished when the two have dinner at the kitchen later that night – ramen and plain water, with Amber’s choice of music plays at the background.

The begin to talk after that. Soojung tells Amber that she’s doing writing, and it’s been her dream ever since she was a little. Amber tells she’s majoring in architecture and that it’s not her dream, but her parents’. “I’ve got it all planned for me, you see, and I thought it was a bad thing, but the more I learn about it, the more I seem to drawn into it, so I think, why not, right?” Soojung nods. She then continues to tell the short-haired girl about her life – that she’s Korean living abroad, and how she hates cucumbers to death, and her friends back there in California; Jongin and Naeun. Amber listens intently, nodding here and there upon hearing to her, and when Soojung seems to not have anything to say anymore, only then she speaks up, “And who’s behind that?” she asks, her voice Soojung notices a bit deep for a girl but still sounds wonderful nevertheless, as she follows the direction to where her index finger points to – the black, cheap ring on her ring finger, just plain without any shining diamond on it – the kind of ring you’d never give a second glance when you see it.

Soojung, who couldn’t fathom her question, stares at her questioningly, “Huh?”

“Who’s behind that? I don’t think it’s Jongin, right? Since he’s your best friend and from your story, I could tell he’s with that Naeun girl. And don’t lie to me, alright?” she laughs teasingly. “You’ve been gazing at the ring with full of tender, and you’d caress it every so often ever so softly, as if you’re afraid your skin might damage it, in a way. What’s the secret?”

Soojung laughs too as she looks at the ring on the finger. Truth to be told, Myungsoo has one, too. They got it when they went for a date at a closing summer festival – during the last week of summer, which is only like a few days ago. She smiles at the fragment of the memory. Myungsoo won it, actually – through a game that required skills and patience; two things that she’s not really good at. She doesn’t know if the game’s got a name, but it’s a game in which you have to catch a fish with a scoop, she thinks, with the net isn’t made with plastic but with paper instead. They watched how the game was played for a while before Myungsoo decided to try, and she thought he’d failed, since the paper would tear once it came in contact with the water and she laughed when he kept asking for a new scoop but eventually, he made it – after his 17th attempts. He got to pick a free gift, and among the big bears and remote control airplanes, he gladly picked the couple rings instead. “You’re giving me a free gift?!” she dramatically shrieked as he slipped the ring to her finger. “It’s the efforts and thoughts that count, you spoiled brat. And besides, it’s not free, you see. I paid for every damn scoop.” He replied as he pinched her nose.

She smiles widely at the thought. She agrees with what he said – it’s the efforts and thoughts that count. She thinks it’s so lovely, so thoughtful of him. He asked her to wait, of course, and she said yes, as if there’s no any other answer for that question. To be honest, he doesn’t really have to ask her that. She’d wait for him, even though, when you think of it, he’s the one who’s actually waiting. And if you’re wondering, she said yes, in the most indirect way. The moment when he offered her his last name, she was dumbfounded – speechless, and all she could hear was, somehow, the waves of the ocean (she didn’t know why, though) and her heartbeat. But, she managed to do a nod. And after that only she came up with a reply, “So, it’d be ‘Kim Soojung’, huh?” and then a chuckle. “That sounds wonderful,” another chuckle slipped out from . Of course they didn’t get married straight away. The ring, he said, is a temporary one while he’s saving up to buy a real one. “Use that as an excuse when someone tries to hit on you,” he said before her departure at the airport, in which she replied him with, “use that as an excuse when someone tries to hit on you, too,” she thinks she’s lucky. I mean, of course she is. The person she loves, decides to love her back. Not everyone would have that – to love a person, and be loved in return by the same person. Not everyone’s as lucky as her to encounter that kind of collision – a collision between two atoms which causes a bigger aftereffects of blending in together, instead of exploding into small pieces until there’s nothing left, except for tiny, meaningless particles.

“People like you make me want to fall in love so bad, at least try to put myself in such situation, you know?” Amber voices out her thought, bringing her back to London ground and not California anymore. Soojung looks straight to her in the eyes then, a hint of smile is still there on her lips. “You make it seem like love is no dangerous at all. As if being in one is a harmless, strange phenomenon.”

“Of course it’s dangerous. Things related with feelings are always dangerous – especially when it comes to love. But, I promise you, it’s worth the risk.”

“I have always thought that when you love something, you must be prepared to lose it. And that’s why I’m afraid.”

Soojung frowns. “Have you dated before? Or loved someone?”

Amber shakes her head. “I’ve seen it before, you know. My girl friends cried for boys. My boy friends cried for girls. It’s like the end of the world. It’s such a terrible sights. And, I, knowing better, for sure don’t want that to happen to myself. I mean, why would I let some du