I had no idea what came to us at that time, but right after the busking session was over, Yonghwa and I decided to walk around the quieter areas of Belfast. We ended up returning to Lagan River, the one located near the Big Fish. We walked on the bridge suspended over the vast river, not really having any particular destination in mind.

“Your friend,” Yonghwa began. “Can’t he remember you?”

There was a brief pause, and then I looked at him, before saying, “At the moment, he can’t.”

Yonghwa nodded away, and he had this apologetic look in his eyes. I guess he regretted for even bringing himself up. “But then again,” I said, trying my best to recover the lost conversation. “I’m in the mood of reminiscing right now. Will you listen to me, Yonghwa?”

He looked at me with those crescent eyes of his, and a boyish smile escaped from his lips. “We’ve time to spare.”

Sighing, I looked at the neat line of apartment complexes ahead of us. “I think you already know that my friend is from Busan, right?”

“Yeah,” he replied.

“I met him when I was eight,” I said. “He was floating paper boats by the river.  We just clicked, Yonghwa, and we became the best of friends. We made a pact with each other but we ended up breaking it, anyway.”

He didn’t say anything. I let the silence linger around us for a while longer before saying, “Like you, he has a passion for the guitar,” I carried on. “He could sing, as well. My friend’s witty and he has the ability to make the best out of everything. For a kid, he was pretty mature, too,” I paused, looked up thoughtfully and then added, “His actions are childish most of the time, though.”

“He seems interesting,” Yonghwa remarked.

I scoffed. “I guess he is.”

The both of us stopped walking and we leaned on the bridge’s rail. The autumn wind blew softly, caressing my face. I didn’t have the guts to tell him the truth, in all honesty. I couldn’t just look at him and say, “So you think that friend of mine is interesting, huh? Well, sorry to break it in to you, but my best friend from back then was you, Yonghwa.”

All of a sudden, I felt something warm against my cheeks. I focused on reality once again and I realized that Yonghwa was wiping something away from my face with his thumb. “You’re crying,” he pointed out.

I quickly brushed his hand away and I wiped the tears myself. “Am I?”

The two of us grew silent, and then Yonghwa scooted nearer to me, closing the distance between us. “I don’t usually do this but,” he looked at me with a gentle smile gracing his lips. “You can cry on my shoulder if you want to.”

I swallowed, but I didn’t refuse his offer. That was one of Yonghwa’s promises, after all.

I will let you cry on my shoulder when we get a little older.

<:>

At the end of the day, no matter how much I hated it, Yonghwa and I had to separate. He made his own way back to their hotel and I tried to locate the bus stop I should be going to. The ride was quick, and finding the university wasn’t difficult, either, considering I didn’t have to enter any winding alleyways and stuff.

I messaged Donghyun, telling him that I’ve finally arrived, and he replied to me, saying that he, together with Jinki, will meet me at the entrance. Several minutes later, I saw the two of them emerge from the red-bricked building. Donghyun’s dyed hair clashed beautifully with his blue coat which reminded me of sapphires and Jinki ran with his portable HD video camera in hand.

“What took you so long?” Donghyun asked.

“I looked around,” I answered with a little smile on my face.

“Alone?”

Donghyun’s sincere eyes bore into mine and Jinki had this confused expression on his face. I gulped, before replying, “No.”

“So you met someone along the way?” Jinki chimed in, in hopes to lift the solemn atmosphere.

“Your Busan boy,” Donghyun finally pointed out. He didn’t ask—he downright stated it out like a fact. “You bumped into Yonghwa, didn’t you?”

I slightly nodded. Jinki already walked off, testing his video camera by taking a shot of the falling leaves from a tree nearby. I clenched and unclenched my fists, then—an indication that I felt uncomfortable.

“Did you enjoy it?” he asked quietly.

“We busked and ran across the pavement fountain,” I answered vaguely.

“You busked,” Donghyun repeated. “So did you sing?”

“Yeah,” I muttered.

An indescribable silence instantly fell upon us. A slow, sad smile graced his lips. “You sang, huh?” he said. “I kept on asking you to sing with me back then, but you never did.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, looking down on the ground.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” he pointed out. That was what made things worse. Donghyun sighed, and then he tousled my hair. “Don’t look so miserable, Shin Hye. It makes me sad.”

“Don’t look so miserable, too…” I returned.

“La!” Jinki cried, as he threw a handful of crimson leaves over us, causing us to step back and shake away the tense atmosphere we shrouded ourselves with.

“La?” Donghyun repeated, after an awkward silence.

“Things are awkward, so I said la,” Jinki replied.

I didn’t know why, but I ended up laughing. I laughed so hard I had to cover up my face with my hands and swallow my chortles. The two just stared at me for a while, with an amused smile on their faces. Finally, I stopped.

“Are you done?” Donghyun asked.

I nodded, biting my lips.

“Then we should go to the Botanic Garden,” Jinki said, the smile not fading away from his lips. “The autumn leaves look nice in there.”

Donghyun and I nodded, and we followed his lead. It wasn’t that far off. The place was right beside Queen’s.

“It’s not much to look at now,” Jinki said, as he paused to shove his video camera in his traditional black-and-white, checkered Vans backpack. He rummaged for a little more and his eyes flashed while pulling out a Nikon DSLR. He then lifted his head to look at us. “But when spring comes, it’s really beautiful.”

We ambled on to the deeper parts of the garden and everything was just soaked with the shades of orange, yellow and red. The golden yellow sunlight shone down on us, making everything it touched glow like amber.

“What are the two of you doing, anyway?” I asked, while watching Jinki set up the camera. He was biting his lip in sheer concentration, so he didn’t really hear me.

“He’s taking some shots and video clips of me,” Donghyun answered, as he shoved his hands into his coat’s pockets. “Jinki has to do a short film and submit it next week.”

“He’s right,” Jinki chimed in, grinning. “Shin Hye, I sort of need you, too.”

“Me?” I blurted out. “Why?”

“I’m the director here,” he playfully snapped. “Come on, Shin Hye. I need this to get an A star.”

I rolled my eyes, but nodded, anyway. Jinki grinned widely, and just like that, we began to take snapshots and video clips. The things he wanted me to do were simple, really. I just had to walk behind Donghyun in a safe distance and admire the falling leaves with a gentle smile on my face. I didn’t have a difficult time following his requests, since I did drama in my A levels.

“It’s a good thing that the both of you are wearing something blue,” Jinki remarked, as he browsed through his camera. “At least the motif isn’t ruined—ah, this is a nice shot,” he turned to us again. “That’s a wrap! As a reward, we can go—” he pointed at the huge building near the main gate—“To the museum!”

<:>

The three of us ended up eating at Nando’s somewhere in Dublin Road, which was adjacent to the BBC station. The sound of the rhythmic banjos and percussion drifted around the room while we waited for someone to usher us. I looked around the store and my eyes landed on the huge portraits hanging on one of the walls. It was made out of bin bags, I figured, and from here, it looked like grease, threatening to dribble down the bright walls. The waitress led us upstairs. I smiled when I saw the lights hanging from the ceiling. They were shaped like chilli peppers. There was the traditional mural telling its readers about the story of Peri-Peri and several more framed mosaics hanging on the walls. A shelf, decorated with African-inspired pots, separated the widest part of the floor into two. The waitress pointed at the table located in the inner room and after saying thanks, we all sat down comfortably on the long sofa. Jinki excused himself first (he needed to go to the toilet), leaving Donghyun and I alone.

“The concert date’s closing in,” Donghyun began. “Are you excited?”

I looked at him, long and hard. It was silent for a while, but then I broke it by asking, “Why do you that, Donghyun?”

“Do what?” he returned.

“You keep on asking questions you don’t want to ask.”

There was a slight pause, and then he said, “No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are,” I pushed.

“I’m asking the things you just want to answer,” he said.

“You’re making things difficult,” I pointed out.

“You just can’t forget that letter I gave you last spring,” he replied.

The two of us grew silent, yet again. He was right. I was still bothered by it. I couldn’t help it, though. How could I tell him I actually had the time of my life with Yonghwa earlier when I absolutely knew how he felt about me?

“You’ve no say about it, huh?” he murmured. “I guess that answers my question, then,” I glanced at him and I could’ve sworn a solemn smile graced his lips. “You don’t see Yonghwa as your long lost best friend, right?”

I didn’t reply.

“You see him more than that,” he gently pointed out. I clenched my hands into tight balls of fists. “It’s okay, though,” he consoled. “I’m not stopping you or anything, Shin Hye. So can you do me a favor?”

I looked at him straight in the eye and he stared back.

“Don’t tell me to stop admiring you, hm?”

“You’re hurting yourself,” I choked out.

He slowly shook his head no. “What I’m doing now, Shin Hye, is called pouring my heart out.”

“But why do you do that, Donghyun?” I asked.

“So that I can make space for a new love,” he quietly answered. “From the very beginning, I acknowledged the fact that you belong with Yonghwa. It’s only a matter of time before he realizes it, too, so please hold fast, Shin Hye.”

I nodded a little and Donghyun’s face lit up when our tray of Peri Tamer and chips arrived. Exactly at that moment, Jinki showed up, too, with a bottle of sauce in hand. “I got this from the shelf over there,” he said. “The glasses are here, too. Let’s get some soda.”

<:>

We arrived home at six in the evening, since Jinki toured us around the city a little more. We had a pretty long day and the chicken we ate was as good as dinner. However, Donghyun messaged me, saying that they were having a DVD marathon. Quickly changing into comfortable pajamas, I dashed out of my apartment and frantically knocked on Jinki’s door. Donghyun was the one who opened it and I instantly smelled the scent of popcorn from inside the unit.

All in all, we watched a variety of movies. We switched from the fluffy Disney movies to the enchanting world of Studio Ghibli. Of course, things wouldn’t be complete without the horror films originating from our country. We finished four movies at that time and Donghyun kept an eye on me as I opened the door of my apartment at two in the morning.

“Have a good rest,” he said.

“You, too,” I replied.

We looked at each other for a while longer, and then he smirked.

“What?” I asked.

“You never changed,” he answered. “I still can’t get to frighten you with horror films.”

I scoffed at his remark. “You can try again next time,” I said. “Good night.”

“Good night.”

I locked the door behind me, and sighed before heading back to my room. Since there was nothing better left to do, I decided to remove the things from my bag. I stopped short upon seeing a piece neon green paper fall on the floor.

“What is this?” I muttered, bending down to pick it up. I unfolded it carefully and my eyes followed the ink lines on it, making sense of the words inside my head. After reading it, I realized that I had tears in my eyes.

<:>

This might seem weird but
this letter, in haiku form,
is for you, Hannah!

When I was a kid,
I received something like this
in front of our door.

It’s pretty cool, huh?
I’ve been doing this since I
was a kid, you know.

I want to thank you
for making my memories
in Belfast worth it.

I’ll never forget
your voice. It’s warm, like summer!
I wish you’d sing more.

It was fun when we
ran across the fountain! Let’s
do it again, hm?

To be honest I’ve
never done anything as
outrageous as that.

Thanks to you, Hannah,
I was able to act like
a normal person.

Being a singer
is difficult but worth it.
I’m just glad we met.

I’m writing this as
we’re resting, just in case you
wonder, Hannah-ssi.

Do you know that your
hair sparkles under the sun?
It looks golden, too.

I hope we can busk,
run through fountains and talk more
in the days to come.

I hope your good friend
will finally remember
the moments you shared.

I hope your smile will
carry on gracing your lips,
outshining the sun.

I hope you treasure
our limited moments here
in Northern Ireland.

Most of all, I hope
in the next summers to come,
we’ll float paper boats.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
- James 1:2-4

I am so overwhelmed by your comments ;A; It's so warm and it makes me feel fuzzy inside! Though I can't reply to all of you individually at the moment (I'm doing my homework and replying to everyone takes more time than writing a chapter itself), I swear all of you left an undeniable mark in my heart. God bless you!