The ride home was quiet and a little awkward. The music coming from Donghyun’s player filled the silence. I raised my hand and let the wind fly through the gaps of my fingers. I glanced at him, and he glanced back at me.

“You feel afraid of me now?” he asked.

“No,” I replied. “I just feel awkward.”

“You’re brutally honest,” he remarked.

“Look who’s talking,” I returned.

He grinned. “Shin Hye-yah, don’t let the things you discovered today get in the way of our friendship, hm?”

“I won’t,” I said. “But why would you tell me those things in the first place?”

“I learned from someone that when you disclose a secret, the thrill it holds becomes less effective,” he replied, as he took a left turn. “There was one girl who told me she liked me. Megan, do you remember her?”

“Yeah,” I said. “She’s from your form class, right? The American girl?”

“That’s the one,” he confirmed. “She told me she liked me when we had our formal.”

“She did?” I gushed, eyes wide. “Hey! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

He chuckled. “It’s more thrilling that way. Anyway, I guess she got a little drunk. She took me by the collar and she told me she liked me for several years now. She said she wanted to have my babies.”

I let out an abrupt laugh. “Are you serious? I could never see her telling you that.”

“Believe it,” he said, while nodding. “But a week later, she took it back, saying that the ‘spark’ was gone.”

“How did you feel?”

He frowned, and answered, “So-so. I could never take the girls here seriously, anyway.”

“Why is that?”

“They’re too easy,” he answered, as he gave me a meaningful glance. “But there’s this one girl who I could never catch.”

I didn’t talk anymore, and he reached out for the radio and increased its volume.

<:>

We were having supper then when I decided to open up a conversation with Yonghwa as the subject.

“Mom,” I began in a casual tone. “Are you still talking with Auntie?”

She looked at me, and judging from her stare, she was aware of what I was about to say. Dad stayed quiet and kept on eating. Mom let out a tiny smile, and said, “Why do you ask?”

I shrugged. “Do you know that Yonghwa’s in a band now?”

“No, dear,” Mom replied. Her voice became strained all of a sudden.

“I wonder if Yonghwa finally remembers me,” I thought out loud, as I twisted the pasta around my fork.

They didn’t reply, and I regretted for even bringing it up. Ever since I collapsed that day, it felt like Yonghwa’s name became taboo in this household. After eating and washing up, I headed straight for my room to do some essays that was due the day after tomorrow. I turned my computer on and while waiting for it to start up, I opened my closet and pulled out a huge box which contained traces of Yonghwa.

There was a photo of us by the river, with the summer sun shining down on us. His mischievous grin showed, and his hand was wrapped around my shoulders in a playful manner. I, on the other hand, held this retarded pout. I smiled at the captured moment. I set the photo aside, and pulled out Yonghwa’s first soccer jersey. It still smelled of the fabric conditioner his family used. There was a broken wristwatch, as well, and it stopped at exactly 6:15. That was the time when we had our first fight. I could still remember how it was a chilly spring evening and we were in our porch. He kept on teasing me and I ended up boxing him. Yonghwa blocked the blow with his arms and I ended up cracking the plastic cover of his watch. Ever since then, he kept on commenting that I had Amazonian strength.

There was a tape recorder, as well. I gulped, and seeing that a tape was inside the box, I placed it into the recorder and hoping for the best, pressed the play button. My eyes widened when it whirred to life.

“Hey, Park Shin Hye,” Yonghwa’s voice said. He cleared his throat. “You said that you couldn’t sleep at all, right? Well, I guess this’ll help you—even a little!”

He coughed, and after a moment, I heard him sing a song I used to love back when I was a kid. It was Sunset Glow.

“Looking at the red sunset, it reminds me of your sad face,
I drop my head, I couldn’t say anything because of my tears…”

I smiled. My favorite part was about to play, and he belted it just right.

“But I still love you, you are the only one in this world,
I shout out loud but only that unanswerable sunset is burning bright…”

My hands began to tremble, and tears began to fall down from my eyes the moment I closed them. I covered my mouth with the back of my palm to prevent myself from sobbing loudly.

“You can play it whenever you feel like you can’t sleep,” he said. “And drink milk!”

There was a clicking noise, and I figured that the recording ended. I ejected the tape from the recorder and rummaged the box again, trying to search for more tapes. Nothing. After wiping my tears away, I pulled out a shoebox. I opened it, and a smile graced my lips upon seeing that they were pieces of varying papers—these were the notes Yonghwa and I used to pass on to each other.

To Shin Hye

Should we float paper boats later on?

☑Yes ☐No ☐Maybe

To Yonghwa

Of course we’ll float paper boats!

To Yonghwa

Hey! I heard from Sunggyu that you like Mina. Is that true? Why aren’t you telling me anything?

To Shin Hye

No, that’s not true! She has cooties! That’s gross.

To Yonghwa

Do you swear that you don’t like Mina?

To Shin Hye

I swear! By the way, I learned how to do daisy chains from my Mom. You want to try it our later on? It’s really easy! I can teach you.

To Yonghwa

I always wanted to try that. Okay, let’s do daisy chains later on.

To Shin Hye

Why are your eyes red? Did you cry? What happened?

To Yonghwa

I don’t want to talk to you. Go away!

To Shin Hye

Are you mad at me now?

To Yonghwa

Yes, I am! I am mad at you but if English comes let’s make up. I didn’t do my homework. Can I copy yours?

To Shin Hye

Auntie scolded you for not doing your homework, right?

To Shin Hye

Why did I not receive your reply? Now I have to rip a leaf from my notebook! Auntie scolded you! Ha ha! If you need any help, I can teach you English. You just have to ask.

To Yonghwa

I will now talk in haiku.
I have decided
to focus more on English.

To Shin Hye

You’re doing it wrong.
It’s five-seven-five, genius.
Ha ha ha ha ha!

To Yonghwa

What do you mean?

To Shin Hye

Five syllables here.
Put seven syllables here.
Another five here.

To Yonghwa

Ah, now I get it!
Haiku is really easy!
I can do it, see?

To Shin Hye

This is pretty fun.
I will write in Haiku, too.
I am so hungry.

To Yonghwa

We have food at home.
I think Mom’s baking cookies.
We’ll eat that later.

<:>

It took me six hours to read all the notes, and I didn’t get to type up a single word for my essay homework. It was pretty funny how I didn’t regret procrastinating, though.

<:>

It was our night class several months later when a paper plane landed on my desk. I looked around the room, and Donghyun, who decided to dye his hair red to match the flares of the autumn season, waved at me. I smirked, and  unfolded the plane.

To The Girl with Autumn Eyes,

The Gentle Prince cordially invites you for a trip outside of London this half-term break. Do you accept his humble offer?

☐Yes ☐No ☐Maybe

I looked at him with narrowed eyes, and he pouted as he gave me this puppy dog stare. I shrugged. He looked at the teacher, who was still busy typing something and seeing that he still had time, he scribbled something on his pad and he tore it. Donghyun folded it up and he asked James, our classmate, to pass it on to me. I said a murmur of thanks as I accepted the paper from him.

P.S.

Your parents said yes.

I looked at him again, and he nodded at me. I stared at the checkbox, and after ticking something, I passed it back to him.

To The Girl with Autumn Eyes,

The Gentle Prince cordially invites you for a trip outside of London this half-term break. Do you accept his humble offer?

☑Yes ☐No ☐Maybe

<:>

When the bell rang, I approached him with my backpack slung on my left shoulder. Without saying a word, he took my bag from me and he carried it with his free hand.

“Where are we going?” I asked, in attempts to ease my curiosity.

He grinned. “We’re going to Belfast.”

“Belfast?” I repeated.

“Belfast,” he confirmed, as he patted me on the head.

“What’s there to see in Belfast?” I asked again, my eyes narrowing.

“Things you might not expect,” he said. “Let’s head home. I already booked our flight so the thing you have to do now is pack. Be sure that you’re prepared to go on Friday.”

I nodded blankly, and he chuckled as he gave my forehead a slight nudge with his index finger.

“Stop spacing out. People will be tempted to take advantage of you, Shin Hye-yah.”

“Do you not know that I have Amazonian strength?” I said.

He scoffed at my remark, and he took out his keys to unlock his car.

Three days later, we were ready to go to Belfast. The place was more than an hour away from London, so we didn’t have to wait that long. We killed the time by playing cards and we managed to do a few good rounds before the pilot announced that we were ready for landing.

The autumn air in Belfast was notably cooler and crisper compared to London—it was way colder, as well. With a week’s worth of clothes in our bags, Donghyun and I proceeded to go inside the city airport.

“We’ll be staying with a good friend of mine,” he explained. “He rents an extra flat, so that’s where you’ll stay.”

I nodded. He smiled. “After resting, do you want to go around Belfast? We can go to City Center if you want.”

I nodded again, and  came to a halt when I saw a poster of CN BLUE on the wall. I stared at it.

“They’ll have a concert here next week,” I said.

“Shoot,” Donghyun muttered, as he gave me a sheepish smile. “I guess my surprise is spoiled now.”

“Donghyun-ah, what do you mean?”

“The sole reason why I decided to come here is because of this,” he said, as he tapped on Yonghwa’s face. “Why don’t we go artist hunting, Shin Hye-yah?”

“B-But, how did you know that they’ll have a concert here?”

“Fan cafés, duh,” he answered. “Don’t tell me you don’t visit those kind of sites?”

I shook my head slowly. He smirked, and  urged me to carry on walking. “Jinki’s probably waiting for us outside. We should go.”

"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."
- 2 Peter 3:8

Okay so I set the location in Belfast. The reason why? I know the place well xD
Anyway, finally! Our Dooley couple will meet again ^^ But how? Now that's for me to know and for you to find out ^^ Now I'm a bit rushing because I have to sleep. It's already 11:22 in the evening here and I've school tomorrow ^^ JustBee, you're okay now, right? Like always, all of your comments really touched my heart and I feel so warm and fuzzy inside now ^^ I could see that some of you feel for Donghyun's unrequited admiration. Hee~ God bless you all ♥