Two cute Korean little girls wearing different opposite outfits were busy arguing at a shooting booth in the amusement park under the California sunlight. The girlish one was wearing a Milly Minis sleeveless fit & flare dress with a matching Burberry check print linen scarf and the other boyish one was wearing a  Burberry Langston dark skinny jeans, Burberry check espadrille sneakers, Stella McCartney’s gray cotton sweatshirt all topped with a khaki Burberry mini wiltshire trench coat. Not far from the arguing two, a couple of suited men could be seen looking intently at them while each were murmuring something in their state of the art headphones that are carefully hidden inside their suits all the way up to the back of their ears.

“Yah pabo! Stop looking at me and hit the target! I want to get that teddy!” the girlish one with a high pitch voice scolded the younger tanned girl beside her.

“I can’t help it Sooyeon ah, you’re just too cute in that dress! But it’s too short though.” the tanned boyish one smiled with her face full of admiration and irritation.

“Aish, I know right. But please seobang, I really want that teddy?” little Sooyeon pleaded to Yuri.

“Seobang?”  little Yuri asked in confusion.

“Why? You don’t like it?” little Sooyeon asked back.

“It means husband right? How can you call me your husband when were both girls?” little Yuri asked again.

“I don’t know. But my mom said that it’s possible since I heard her talking to a lady that kinda looked like your mother yesterday and she called her seobang. So I believe it would work for both of us right?”  Little Sooyeon explained.

“My mother? It’s not possible, she said she will be out for the rest of the week. But anyways, okay, I will be your seobang when we grow up princess. So don’t ever go looking for someone when we’re already grown up’s alright? Because I won’t.That’s a promise.” Yuri agreed and smiled sweetly. Sooyeon smiled back and hugged her a-couple-of-days-newly found tanned best friend.

“Let’s do a pinkie swear then to make it official.” Sooyeon said offering her pinkie finger to Yuri.

“Pinkie Swear.” Yuri replied and binds her pinkie finger to Sooyeon’s waiting one.

“Seobang/Princess.” They said together and smiled contentedly.

“Get me the teddy now then.” Sooyeon ordered remembering the giant brown teddy that awaits the winner who could shot the 5 targets off the wall.

“Aish.. why do you want it? It’s big, it’s brown and it’s ugly!” Yuri whined again.

“Because it reminds me of you, brat! A giant, and your skin has the same tone with its fur and it’s not ugly because it’s cute.. like you.” Sooyeon retorted and blushed.

“Me? I still don’t buy your explanation. And I’m too lazy to do the shooting. Let me just buy you one...or two...or I can even buy you a dozen, princess. Why do I even need to win this just to get you one?” Yuri argued.

“Because it means a lot to me if you worked hard for it. You got your money from your parents’ seobang ah so if you just buy one, it will just feel like they gave it to me through you. But if you play that game and won, then I’ll consider it as a gift that would be really from you because you worked for it and you earned it.” Sooyeon explained patiently to her childish friend.

“Aish. You win. Let’s just stop arguing and you will cheer for me, arasseo?” Yuri gave in and started to play. Sooyeon smiled triumphantly and started cheering for Yuri.

After 2 hours...

“Tada! Here it is, the symbol of our promise. One for you and one for me.” Yuri said childishly and offered a gray wolf stuffed toy to Sooyeon who’s sleeping on a chair beside the booth.

Sooyeon woke up slowly and plastered a big smile on her face upon seeing the wolf stuffed miniature.

“You won?” she asked excitedly.

“Yep. I did. I almost spent all my spare change. It’s just weird that they don’t accept my credit card.” Yuri complained childishly.

“It’s an amusement booth seobang so they really won’t accept one except for cash.” Sooyeon explained.

“Whatever. It’s inconvenient princess. And when I was about to get the prize, the ahjussi talked me into getting this than the teddy because he said it would be nice if we have a friendship stuff even if I really don’t get what he means by that.” Yuri frowned.

“Aww. I’m glad you exchanged the teddy for this. I love it.” Sooyeon said and hugged her new toy.

After scrutinizing their new couple friendship stuff, the two decided to go home and the driver opened the door of Yuri’s car.

“Are we going to play tomorrow? I got this pink doll house that my mom bought me yesterday.” Sooyeon shrieked excitedly.

“I’m sorry but I can’t princess. Father and I will be picking up my 2 best friends tomorrow from Korea.” Yuri explained.

“Do you really have to come with him?” Sooyeon inquired.

“Yeah, I have to. It’s been a month since I arrived here in San Francisco that I last talked to dad and besides, it’s an official order from him. I can’t say no.”

“But your best friends will be coming over. Does it mean we will no longer play with each other?” Sooyeon pouted.

“Of course not. I will introduce you to them okay? And we’ll play together. I promise.” Yuri swore.

“Okay then. Are you going back to Korea together?”

“Yeah.” Yuri said.

“How soon?” Sooyeon asked looking sad from Yuri’s answer.

“3 years from now? Because we will be studying here starting this fall. So that means I could spend more time with my new cute little unnie.” Yuri teased and Sooyeon just smiled sweetly not knowing that that would be the last time they will be seeing each other.

Jessica’s POV

I jerked awake from the bed, panting. I had a dream, the same dream that has been haunting me for all these years. I decided to calm myself first before moving. When I felt that my breathing’s returned to normal, I pulled up the sheets to get some water. When I tugged the hem of the comforter, I noticed that it was different from the one that I got at home. I looked around and saw a simple yet elegant unfamiliar room that’s made of glass and white wallpaper. I’m pretty sure that I’ve never been here before.

I glanced at the left side of the bed expecting to see a wall with a wall clock of some sort attached to it but instead of seeing one, I saw a wall sized aquarium with beautiful underwater ornaments and a single platinum arowana fish that swims alone in its spacious and luxurious man made habitat. On the lower right of the aquarium, I saw a name tag attached to the glass that says “Princess”.  Somehow, it reminded me again of the dream that I just had earlier but decided to ignore it just yet to explore more of the room. Then I roamed my eyes again from the left to the red drapes with white cloth in loose folds hanging elegantly, covering the huge glass from the ceiling down to the floor that serves as the main window of the room and to the right, you could see a plasma television silently sitting on the white wall in front of the black leather, overstuffed lazy boy. White feathery carpet covers the entire floor making it feel like you’re walking on soft velvet clouds.

Then a life size painting on top of the bed caught my eyes. It was a painting of 3 ladies somewhere in their late teens wearing the happiest smiles on each of their faces with their hands resting to one another’s shoulders. Then underneath them are six gorgeous women in their mid twenties doing wacky poses. I recognized the people on the painting and my smile couldn’t get any wider. It was SHY and us.

Then memories of yesterday’s events came flooding through my mind. Tyler hitting me on the car and Yuri was the one who saved me.

“Right. Yuri. I’m in Yuri’s house.” Upon hitting the realization, I looked automatically on the other side of the bed next to where I’m sitting. She was supposed to be there when I wake up today. I asked her to sleep beside me last night and she obliged but how come she’s not here anymore? Was last night also part of the dream I had or was it real? I’m pretty sure it was real since I could still smell her all over my body.

I pulled away the comforter looking for some clues that whatever happened last night was real and it didn’t fail me. I saw a post it paper underneath. Instinct told me to read it and I need not to be told twice.

Sorry for not waking you up. I’ll be out early today.

So that’s it? After spending almost 24 hours with me yesterday, that’s all I’m getting?

No “get well soon” wishes or “I hope you’re feeling better” speeches?

 I thought, no, erase that, I half expected that something between us might change even just a little or maybe she could remember just even a tiny glimpse of whatever we’ve shared from the past but I guess I expected too much. Maybe she will never really remember me at all. Unknowingly, tears started to escape my eyes. My gaze turned to the framed picture on the bed side table and I saw another photo of 3 little girls doing a merong. It was SHY 13 years ago. The kid who looked smug and bored will always be the same Yuri that I remembered on the short span of time that we were together and the other 2 in which I never had the chance to get to know in the past.

I fought so hard to forget the dream that woke me up but instead it zoomed in to my mind as clear as I could remember it, teasing and egging me to let my brain linger onto the past once more. It was like an old tape being played back in a cassette as my mind kept hitting the rewind.

My life became so complicated after Yuri came in…

My mom and her mother are the best of friends. When it was time for Yuri to learn the universal language as a part of her training to become a responsible and reliable heiress in the future, her parents decided to send her in California for language and culture education.  That’s where I came to know her. Whenever her mom was around, she never fails to visit my mom and bring Yuri along with her. I’ve never seen Yuri so happy when she was together with her mom because she once mentioned that she rarely sees her parents at home.

She was sent first by her parents since she’s the one who always had a hard time adjusting to almost everything. Hyo and Soo were sent last because their other siblings were graduating that time and they were required to attend it. They were supposed to follow Yuri after a month until that dreadful accident happened and everything became a mess.

Yuri was a snob when she was a kid but like most kids do, they can’t resist attention. She was 5 and I was 8 that time when I found her sitting on my favorite spot at our backyard when they visited my mom. At first she didn’t talk to me but when I started following her around, she gave in and we became really good friends after 2 days. We became inseparable. I don’t know what irked me to want to be friends with her but there’s something about her that’s manly, snobbish, arrogant but lovable at the same time. When her mom learned that we became good friends, they allowed Yuri and me to hangout almost every day. The two of us made an agreement that since she’s taller than me; she’s not allowed to call me unnie. She was really a possessive person. Since she started giving me her undivided attention, I have never been friends with any other kids because if I hang out with people that she doesn’t recognize, it would mean an instant fight. Little by little at my young age, I didn’t know that I was starting to depend on Yuri for every little thing I do and little did we know that she started doing it too.

After learning from my mom that it’s possible to be together with someone even if that someone’s not from the opposite crowd, I started to want Yuri for myself and was extremely happy when she wanted to do the same. Then we made that promise at the amusement park to be together when we grow up, not knowing that today, I  will be the only one who’s fighting so hard to keep that promise.

That day when Yuri was supposed to pick her 2 friends up at the airport, instead of going together with her dad, her mom accompanied her with plans of coming over into our house right after dinner. Based on the information that my little mind was able to cope, they got into a car accident and Yuri’s head got the major impact of the crash causing her to fight for her life on a death bed and escaping the cell of an untimely demise. I was supposed to visit her at the hospital upon hearing the news but both our mom’s prevented that from happening.

After checking out the accident scene, Yuri’s dad found her daughter’s blood stained wolf stuffed toy that Yuri was carrying along with her and his wife’s phone that was full of my mom’s picture along with their sweet messages for each other. And everything clicked. That day I told Yuri that I saw my mom calling someone her seobang; that someone was Yuri’s mom. Yep, you got it right. My mom and her mother are together. They’re not just best friends but they’re also secret lovers.

 Yuri’s dad was in fury. He confronted my mom and gave us a 24 hour warning to leave the country and disappear before he could make up his mind to ruin us. That very same day, me and my sister were casted as a trainee for SME and my mom agreed immediately to let us fly back to Korea and decided to use our American name to hide and live in shadows, away from Yuri’s father. I argued with my mom because I never wanted to leave California. For all I know, leaving my birthplace would also mean leaving Yuri. But I was young back then and I don’t have the power to win over the elders. My mom flew to Hawaii after me and my sister was set to train and since then, I wasn’t able to see Yuri.

I wanted to see her but I can’t. I can’t. That was all my mom would say. I wanted to understand why but my mom was stubborn enough to keep me in the dark. After years of searching for answers, I finally understood everything. What my mom and Yuri’s mother did was terribly unforgivable. My mother ruined a family and it left me wondering if Yuri had already found out about it that’s why he never even tried to look for me after all these years? I will never deny that young as I was before, I’m not sure if what I felt towards her was what people call these days “love”. I was confused. All I ever wanted was to stay close to her. But that simple want was never granted.

After training so hard for years, even once, I never stopped thinking of her. I still keep holding on to that promise. Our promise… Throughout my training years, all I could think of was to debut immediately, gain fame and money and start looking for Yuri all over Korea. She said that she would be back after 3 years right? What’s wrong with waiting? So I waited patiently. Her family’s influential enough so it would be easy for her to find me even if I already changed my Korean name to my American name. 7 years had passed and we have already debuted but I still didn’t hear from her. I wanted t