Two days. That’s exactly how long he had before his birthday. Kim Sung Gyu looked at the calendar hung in his kitchen and let out a sigh. He’d been doing that a lot lately, and for some reason it was always the kitchen, always at the calendar and since recently, always at the thought of his birthday. An image of a certain person smiling smugly at him kept playing in his mind, and he realized, the kitchen had never seemed so empty in the mornings like it did now. She must be in there; complaining, laughing at him, bickering or just standing there blankly staring like she always did. The absence of her in the place she had reigned for over a year now seemed like a gaping hole in his home, and perhaps, also in his heart. Sung Gyu missed Eunji. He didn’t know how and when it had started. But he missed not doing the things he did for her the past year; he missed opening the door for her and grumbling his complains. He missed her endless whines about missing items in the fridge or the pile of dirty dishes he’d left the previous night in the sink. In fact, the dishes were still there, increasingly rising and had fairly reached his height. The fridge was basically empty and the counters which used to be shining clean were now littered with empty take away containers. And he felt empty. His heart felt empty. He felt like he had suddenly faced a bad break up, and he wasn’t even enthusiastic for his birthday. Without Eunji he felt like his birthday celebrations wouldn’t be as fun as he thought they would be.

She’s been missing only for a week, actually. Not so long. Of course, Eunji no longer came in the mornings; but that’s been fine since she did come in the evenings in her fancy teacher’s dresses which consisted of tight skirts and hair done in stiff buns (A get up that he kind of fancied for all the wrong reasons which felt right regardless). But that was alright since she’d still put on an apron and do the dishes for him; she’d still go down to the market and get relevant grocery and prepare dinner for him. It might have felt a little too domestic that he had grown to like it, like her presence too much. All was good until one-day Eunji announced to him that she’d be going away to Busan for some time for his father’s memorial and also to keep her mother in company. She’d been sick, as it happened; and Eunji, reluctantly so revealed to him as far as that. And also, annoyingly so, that she’d be going to Busan with Howon who’s a former Busan resident, and that somehow became double whammy for him. Sung Gyu’s been feeling irritated for days now, and whenever Howon’s smug straight face and way-too thick eyebrows (Sung Gyu could swear his eyebrows were thousand times better) appeared in his mind, he felt an increasing urge to launch at him; all for a reason he couldn’t fathom. Sung Gyu simply blamed it on the dirty pile of dishes in the kitchen and their unhealthy meals since she left. And also, on the fact that she hadn’t contacted him the whole time. Not. Once.

Sung Gyu finally climbed out of his chair, letting out yet another long sigh. Eunji had circled the day of his birthday sometime around Sung Jae’s, so he hadn’t even the need to do so, but Sung Gyu treasured this particular occasion than any other that he had circled it again with a blue felt tip and had even drawn a couple of measly stars around it. He sure hoped people will remember it; especially that silly Myung Soo kid who forgot it for two consecutive years (and Sung Gyu had taken revenge from him by not wishing him on his birthday, as childish as it may sound, he deserved it) even though this year around, Sung Gyu hardly felt like celebrating it.

He hadn’t thought he’d be turning thirty-three like this; lost and hopeless and very much tired of life. He wished he had a spark somewhere, lightening up his life. Instead, the lightening he actually had were lightnings of virtual rainstorms.

“Appa?” Sung Jae’s small voice came from the hallway, sounding louder than it ever had, echoing throughout the large, empty condominium. It seemed much brighter with the presence of a woman roaming inside (though she wasn’t much, so to speak) and now, without her, the place just seemed…gloomy. So were the looks on their faces. Sung Jae didn’t have his usual morning smile of early sunshine. He looked like the sky before a hale. Glum, emotionless and moody. Sung Gyu was certain he looked quite the same. They didn’t even have breakfast at home that day. They hardly ever have breakfast at home; simply because Sung gyu didn’t feel like doing anything in that empty, dark kitchen confines. Even if he did make anything, Sung Jae just wouldn’t eat it. So, they’d always grab something on the go.

“You’re ready?” Sung Gyu asked, finally picking himself up and wandering away from the kitchen. It felt odd, leaving the house devoid of people. It almost seemed like it wasn’t their own. The once bright and joyful atmosphere had significantly abated, and its worse that he had nothing to do about it.

“Yeah” Sung Jae nodded slowly and arranged his bag on his back. Sung Gyu nodded back, reached for his jacket and then when he turned back to turn off all the lights, his heart felt morbidly heavy. Their house was never supposed to be like this. Perhaps, there was a time…but it changed to the point it will never be the same again. It hurt him to realize that they’ve landed back where they used to be. With a sigh, he turned his gaze away from the darkened hallway and stepped out of the house. Sung Gyu was certain things will change. He sure did hope it will happen soon.

As they did every morning, the two of them stood in the line with the rest of the usual early morning breakfast rush. Sung Gyu got himself only a warm mug of coffee, a smoothie and a sandwich for Sung Jae; and since they had more than enough time at dispense, the two of them quietly sat in the terrace and devoured on their food while the rest of the world unfolded before them in a languid pace. Since Eunji has been missing from school for a week, Sung Jae hadn’t any exciting news to share; except for the mundane student related things which Sung Jae himself didn’t have the heart to divulge to his father. They talked about other things; still, like games and TV shows and what they could do on the weekend. That morning, Sung Jae was asking his father what he wanted to do on his birthday, which was supposed to be happening that weekend, but strangely Sung Gyu wasn’t exactly looking forward for it.

“Grandma will make a cake, surely” He told his son without much interest, his mind leisurely wandering far away. “We’ll go to their place and do something” he shrugged.

“Can we go to an amusement park?” Sung Jae asked him brightly, certainly in hopes that it would somehow inject some life into his evidently listless father. “We didn’t go to one in ages”

“Amusement park?” Sung Gyu asked, finally averting his gaze from looking among the crowd and turned to his son. “Hm, that sounds like a plan. Let’s ask your grandparents first”

“I’m sure they will agree” Sung Jae nodded enthusiastically and brought his short clad legs up onto the bench so that he could reach his father even more. “In fact, appa, they said we should”

“They did?” Sung Gyu looked at his son, a little confused. His parents were no different from himself. The truth was, they were much like him, both of them, and something all three of them had in common was that they passionately hated anything and everything related to Amusement parks, and that included the notion of people celebrating their birthdays at amusement parks. He wouldn’t say that to Sung Jae of course. He, strangely so, had not inherited the ardent hatred for the place from his father and grandparents, and Sung Gyu sure didn’t want to crush his little wishes. If he wanted to go to an amusement park, they’re going to one, regardless of whether Sung Gyu hated it or not. And he also felt that if his parents really have suggested they went to one on his birthday, it really had something to do with Sung Jae subtly yet endlessly mentioning it, casually slipping it into their conversations, just like he did right now.

“Mmhm!” Sung Jae nodded quickly, his doe eyes glimmering with excitement and Sung Gyu just hadn’t the heart to say no. He would probably have a cardiac arrest upon nearing those gut wrenching rides the parks were equipped with, but still, he was a great parent, and a great parent would always make sacrifices for their children.

Even if it was supposed to be on their birthday.

“A new one opened on the beach appa!” Sung Jae was telling him, his excitement increasing by the seconds as he chattered away. “It’s around uncle Woohyun’s place, he said. There’s a beach deck and all, and some of the water park rides are in the ocean!”

“O-ocean?” He felt his throat tighten at the mention of it. If there was anything else he hated as much as he hated amusement parks, that was the sea. And any humongous vessel of deep waters that had the ability to kill him. Sometimes it also included swimming pools. And the two things he hated being combined together…

In his honest opinion, whoever built this place must have had the idea of killing Sung Gyu in his mind the moment he put the incentives on it.

Sung Jae still hadn’t taken note of Sung Gyu’s distress, still, as he went on telling him how exciting the whole beach side arrangement of the amusement park was. “Like in Hannah Montana!” He exclaimed enthusiastically, his dreamy eyes staring far ahead as if he was recalling a beautiful memory. But Sung Gyu was confused. “Hannah-what?”

Sung Jae’s face finally changed and morphed into a look of annoyance. “As in the movie baby sitter and I watched the other day” He said, shrugged and returned to sit in his previous position. “We don’t have to go” he said in a small voice, a clear indication that he had, indeed noticed his father’s distaste on the parks and quietly dug into his sandwich. He spirit was slowly waning away, the gloomy stance from that morning was again overtaking him, and it already had consumed Sung Gyu the moment Eunji was mentioned, that even though he desperately wanted to bring back the somewhat jolly atmosphere from moment ago, he just didn’t know how to. It was as if he’s been deprived of all the joy in life.

Once their breakfast was done with, still a lot of time in hand, the two of them wandered through the slightly crowded corridors of the plaza, Sung Jae looking around the morning rush rather curiously while Sung Gyu was plunged deep in his thoughts. It wasn’t crowded, so to say. It was simply the usual, most of the people they recognized to be residents of the apartments. Then and there, they could catch a few odd, unfamiliar faces. Some were high school girls who have come for a coffee before school started, or college kids grabbing a quick breakfast, among all of them, a familiar face, one they’ve both been longing for, was so hard to miss.

Sung Gyu would have thought that he was seeing things; but the fact that Sung Jae too had had a glimpse of her just proved it. Eunji was there. But then again, she wasn’t; as if she was a ghost or an illusion which disappeared as soon as it appeared. One moment, Eunji was standing in the heavy crowd, her long dark hair curtained on her sides and her bangs in her wide doe eyes; unsmiling but observing. The next moment, she wasn’t there anymore.

“Jae, did you see baby sitter anywhere?” Sung Gyu asked his son for further clarification, whom he was certain saw her as well since he was staring at the direction that he was looking at that moment, a rather curious look on his face. When he asked, however, the look of curiosity never left, but the sense of it simply flew out the window. “Baby sitter?” He asked his father.

“Yeah, over there” Sung Gyu answered, pointing at the darkened intersection on the side of the corridor leading into another set of stores, the place where he thought his sighted her. Sung Jae pouted, narrowed his eyes and stared at the darkened space for a little longer. “I thought it was a mannequin”

“N-no! I-,” Sung Gyu began, gesturing at the corridor and looked to the general direction of it once more. But then, true to his words, there was a mannequin of a nearby store, kept outside for god knows why, and it had a similar mane of thick dark hair and long bangs, clad in a long summer dress and a jacket, a creepy smile on its face.

Regardless he could swear he saw her. It couldn’t have been just a mannequin. For one, she wasn’t in a long summer dress. She was in a short…summer dress. Second off, her smile wasn’t creepy and plastic. It was genuine, honest and beautiful. He would never miss it, not even in a throng of rushing morning crowd. But when he looked around, his eyes searching for her in rare desperation she wasn’t there anymore, as if she had finely disappeared into the thin air.

Or it could have been all in his mind.

Kim Sung Gyu’s seeing things. That’s the conclusion he could finally come into as he slipped into his car and felt the weight in his heart than ever before. He hadn’t gone this long without greeting Eunji good morning; he hadn’t gone this long without bickering with her and getting into petty arguments. Sung Gyu missed her; so much so that he had started seeing her in his mind.

*

From where he sat inside the coffee shop, Woohyun gave her a rather loud scoff and rolled his eyes. He couldn’t quite believe how stupid this girl was, and also how stupid he himself must be to allow her to drag him along with her on her silly childish expeditions. He had so, anyway, and currently he was in Sung Gyu’s apartment complex, in his usual coffee spot, devouring a warm mug of cappuccino and trying not to be the rude and unhelpful older brother who laughed at his sister’s fruitless attempts of discretion and not being seeing. Eunji was rather stupid. She’s always been a bit short in understanding, but he never thought it would go to this extent where she’d believe she was being subtle and secretive as she stood smack dab in the middle of the corridor, all for the target to see.

“Way to go, Jung Eunji” Woohyun sang under his breath and turned away, now focusing on ripping out a chunk of his half eaten cinnamon roll; the food that Eunji had paid for with her salary from her new job. Eunji wasn’t particularly the kind to treat people. The only reason why she had treated him with snacks and coffee was that he had, even reluctantly so, agreed to help her in winning Sung Gyu’s heart. He had no idea why he had told her yes at that time. He didn’t remember what happened at that moment even. All he had was a vague recollection of memories where the two of them were discussing love and life in general over a bottle of wine and he had quite stupidly suggested that they worked on changing Sung Gyu’s mind, and when she’d asked if he would help, he had somehow said yes. Which brought him to this point, and he was now none too happy about it.

He lifted his head only as she made her way towards him, a mystified look in her eyes. She pulled out the chair before him, fell into it and ripped off a piece of cinnamon roll for herself. Woohyun would have complained, but he couldn’t because she had, for once, paid for it.

And then, all of a sudden, Eunji fell across the table, her arms limp on her sides, head pressed onto the table and groaned loudly, which earned sidelong glances from the passers-by.

“Yah” Woohyun said mildly as he poked on her head with the back of a spoon. “What are you doing? Sit up!”

Eunji made an unmistakable sound of a depressed cry. “I can’t believe it!” came her muffled voice from against the table and she vigorously shook her head. “I can’t believe it that they actually miss me!”

Woohyun rolled his eyes. Trust Eunji to assume things which had no possibility to be true. “Yah, they don’t miss you. They just miss home-made breakfast”

At this, she finally lifted her head, only to rest her chin against the table, pouting hard. “Really? Not me but homemade breakfast?”

Woohyun scoffed in response. “What do you expect?”

“Well I thought…?” Eunji tilted her head contemplatively, and then shook her head dismissively, changing her mind. “Ah whatever, it doesn’t matter” She said, clasped her hands together and leaned over the table, a determined look on her face. “What’s important Woohyun-Ssi, is that this is going to work out extremely well”

The truth was that Eunji was putting up this whole act of being stuck in Busan only so that she could plan a wholly glamorous birthday surprise for Kim Sung Gyu. Woohyun knew for a fact that he hated birthday parties, and parties in general of all sorts; but no matter how much he tried to convince his younger sister-in-law, she was quite stubborn and held onto her wits, believing that it will all work out for the best. Ever since this new amusement park opened up in an Ansan beach, she’s been obsessed of taking little Sung Jae there, and somewhere along the line of this, the brilliant idea of planning a birthday party for Sung Gyu there on the beach had emerged, for which she had pulled off a stunt of being away in Busan, and as it turns out, it was only Sung Gyu who didn’t know of this while even little Sung Jae was able to act as if she hadn’t been to his school the entire time. Sung Jae’s been in the plan all from the beginning, bound by the promise that he would have a great time at the amusement park, and it was incredible that his hyung still hadn’t caught the strings of it. Somehow, Woohyun felt that his best friend was stupider than he thought.

“So,” Woohyun clasped his hands and moved forwards to lean against the table himself. “What brilliant plans do you have up your sleeve, Eunji? Will there be a magician? A petting zoo?”

“No Pbft!” Eunji rolled her eyes rather dramatically as if she couldn’t keep up with Woohyun’s level of stupidity. The determined look from before returned to her face once more. “Even better. I will make him ride all the rides he’s afraid of”

“W-what?” Woohyun spluttered, stifling a delightful laughter. He was rather pleased of himself. He knew how much of a coward Sung Gyu was when it came down to amusement park rides, and he suddenly felt like he had hired his own stunts man for pleasure of his own. “Well then, you’d be doing every single one of them, trust me” He said, chuckling softly, and added in a rather stern voice. “And you’d be partially deaf by the end of the day. Hyung is particularly very vocal during these rides”

“How so?”

Woohyun raised his brows, recalling an incident where he had dragged his hyung to a ride in a college carnival and then regretted it, immensely so. “He calls for his mom”

“Aw!” Eunji swooned and fell back onto the table. “How can he be so cute!”

Woohyun already had a hard time coming into terms with the fact that Eunji actually fancied him. True, Sung Gyu was quite handsome and he really knew how to treat a girl, but he wasn’t anything special, so to say. He was ordinary. He was everyone’s guy-next-door, the guy you’d meet on the street. He was dull and boring and his life was pretty darn nondescript. What was it about him that she even liked?

So Woohyun asked her; “What do you even like about him?”

Eunji didn’t even take time to think, which was a first. She raised her head, and her eyes were glimmering in delight; it sent a chill down his spine, just how smitten the girl seemed to be.

“He’s cute” She simply replied.

“Cute” Woohyun sneered in response; regardless, he felt that it did quite make sense. His hyung was cute, unlike himself. Woohyun always thought he was more of handsome and romantic, that he had the heartthrob vibe that many girls happened to find alluring. Sung Gyu, on the other hand, with his tiny eyes which disappeared behind the apples of his cheeky sunshine smile, seemed to catch women’s hearts left and right without an effort. Somehow, though, through the thought of this, Woohyun realized, that no birthday surprise planned by someone who had a crush on the one to be surprised held more surprises than one.

“So, are you going to confess?” Woohyun asked her rather bluntly.

Eunji frowned; yet her cheeks went considerably crimson, even as she tried to hide her face behind her palms. Her lips pouted, brows furrowed, and she shook her head. “No…it’s too early…” She sighed dramatically, her glassy eyes looking far ahead. “Besides, I don’t think I ever would. I’d look at him from a far, be happy for him, and always wish only the best will come on his way” She met his eyes. “Isn’t it what true love is all about?”

Despite being a psychologist or whatever, Eunji was rather stupid. “Eh” Woohyun groaned, stood up and hit her head with the back of his spoon once more. “You’re an idiot” He said and made his way across the café towards the door.

“What, why?” Eunji asked as she caught up with him. “He’s Sung Gyu, Woohyun. He’s dated someone like Yoora. I’m way out of his league”

Woohyun stopped, pursed his lips and turned to scrutinize the other. Then he shook his head. “Then you don’t know him very well” He said, and proceeded to stride out of the store.

“What does that mean?” he heard her question him, but he feigned ignorance, not attempting to enunciate his claim. Sung Gyu was different; and that difference, Woohyun supposed, she had to find out on her own.

*

Later that day, in the afternoon, exactly, Sung Gyu hurriedly strode down the pavement, his shoes rough against the gravel and eyes set far ahead. He had escaped the office without Woohyun noticing him, yet again. Woohyun anyway had avoided him, more or less, for the past few days as if he was hiding a secret of some sort, and Sung Gyu assumed that him doing the same in return did no harm anyway. Besides, if he knew what Sung Gyu was about to do, or had been doing for a while; precisely, Sung Gyu was sure Woohyun wouldn’t speak to him again. Sung Gyu knew how his best was like; he knew how he would react, he knew what place she had in his mind. But the truth of the matter was that sometimes, only just sometimes, your best friend’s opinion didn’t matter. It could be that you knew better, that you knew what exactly you wanted to do with yourself.

The moment that she came to him days after she disappeared off the radar, the moment her hand clasped in his, Sung Gyu’s resolve and good reasoning had altered, and somewhere during that time, had completely disappeared. Give a couple of days, Sung Gyu was yet again, secretly going out with Im Yoora.

He didn’t know how it started or when it started. He didn’t even know where the two of them stood as a woman and a man. They haven’t really gone beyond spontaneous dates as of now. They’ve held hands only that once; they haven’t kissed or hugged or had actual dates so to say, except for sudden secretive meetings in small, unobvious cafes and restaurants. They haven’t spoken about life, about their lives, about who they were for each other or where they would go from this point on. Everything was uncertain still. Even themselves as a pair. They weren’t exactly sure what they were doing; but still they have resolved their disputes and misunderstandings, they no longer argued and was capable of maintaining a civil conversation. They were obviously heading somewhere, and despite knowing where exactly that would be, Sung Gyu believed that it was all that he could ask for.

She was Sung jae’s mother after all. And for that reason, he wanted to be in good terms with her as much as he possibly could.

The two of them never met at the same place, all for the reason of being discreet. Sung Gyu didn’t even take his car when he was heading out of work, in case Woohyun or Howon caught him in midst of escaping. He always took a taxi or the bus; if it was in walking distance, he would walk. There were also the occasions that Yoora herself would come around and pick him up a few feet away from his workplace. And on that particular afternoon, they were meeting at a small fast-food joint, something hardly noticeable, especially with afternoon commuters gathered in the bus stop in front of it. Sung Gyu had escaped the same moment that Woohyun went off with a couple of other investigators to the cafeteria downstairs, and here he was now; hot and sweaty and in mild panic, slowly easing into the cold confines of the restaurant.

Yoora’s shimmering dark mane of hair was hard to go unnoticed. Upon his arrival, she raised her hand and her elegant lacquered fingertips beckoned him towards her. Sung Gyu gave her a warm smile and took a deep breath. Somewhere during that time, he had had his own doubts; what was he doing, where did he plan to go now, what would everyone else think of them? There were occasions that he had doubts about his own feelings; but with each time they met and his eyes fell into hers, every moment they’ve shared together returned to him and holding him there within a whirlwind, the doubts he had disappearing one after the other. Now he was certain. He wanted to see her smile every day, to hear her voice, to feel her, to know her and own her the same way he did all those years back. The dream he’s always had of a perfect family had returned to him stronger than before. And this time around, he’d achieve it. He’d give it everything that he could.

“Hi” Yoora greeted as he eased into the chair before her. The place was rather small, and there weren’t many people in there, which was perfect for a meeting like this. And Yoora in all her exquisiteness and glamour seemed odd in a place so dull. She’s always been like this. There was no person or a place which did justice to the perfection that she was. He had often felt so himself.

“Hi” he greeted back, and his voice sounded oddly hoarse. He eyed her, took her in; a sight he would cherish in the days to come. She was in a simple black and white get-up, her hair loosely done, lips tinted fiery red, strikingly contrasting with her pale skin. She looked expensive, beautiful; whereas he-,

“You look great” Yoora commented, and he immediately found himself looking down at his blue suit, crumpled grey shirt and a mismatched tie. All things considered, he looked like a retired businessman, bad with his fashion sense. “Ah, thanks” Sung Gyu nodded, regardless, feeling a little flustered at the comment. He could feel her eyes on him, scrutinizing him as she always did. Yoora had a habit of trying to read people through the way they behaved; it was scarily fascinating and peculiar at the same time.

“So?” She asked, placing her elegantly manicured fingers against her cheek. “How has work been for you?”

Their conversations have always been quite menial; the topics varying from work to homes to everyday activities and at most parts, their child. They’ve never really touched the sensitive bits; about dreams, life and love; the kind of things that Yoora and Sung Gyu nine years ago have talked about. But still, Sung Gyu felt comfortable in her presence, knowing that she’s been someone ever so significant in his life. Things have changed, undoubtedly so. Yoora has changed. She hadn’t many stories of adventures to share like she did back then. The Yoora now was matured, more down-to earth and settled. The things she talked about weren’t of childish excitement that the young Yoora used to hold. They were now all grown up and eloquent. Sung Gyu could hardly come into terms with this, with getting to know Yoora. The first few days were difficult. But now he’s gotten used to her, started to like this new version of her, just the same.

Like always, within the limited time they had, they talked about so many things. Somewhere during that time, they’ve made their orders and had quite a lunch. Yoora didn’t eat anything heavy, and it was another new change that he had to get used to. The Yoora he knew was more on the chubby side. He had pampered her unlike most boyfriends, feeding her and letting her eat anything she desired. He used to love all her baby fats and fluffy cheeks. The Yoora now was tall and skinny and elegant; also she stuck to a diet of less carbs and more nutrients. Even that afternoon, she had a simple Caesar salad. But Sung Gyu had to eat more. He had finished his burger and fries already, and was now nursing a tall glass of smoothie as they spoke.

“So, your birthday is around the corner” Yoora commented with a little smile, and her eyes crinkled beautifully on the edges. “Have anything planned?”

Sung Gyu thought hard, and realized that his dull life had nothing to offer, not even on his birthday. The only exciting bits he had as of now were those secretive date escapades; so he thought, on his birthday too, they could have one of those. “Not really” He shrugged, and gave her a smile. “Unless you have something planned”

“I know how serious you’re about your birthday” Yoora deadpanned, and laughed softly in response. “That’s what I thought…it’s been so long that we celebrated your birthday together, isn’t it?”

Sung Gyu nodded, and recalled the last time that they did so, all those years back. The last time they did, Sung Gyu was a tensed mess with his assignments and projects piled up. Yoora had invited him to her flat since they hadn’t the time nor the money for anything extravagant. They’ve cut cake, had dinner, and were about to take things from there, from a long, heated kiss and thereon, but were interrupted with Yoora’s lousy drunk room-mates returning home; and that ended there. It wasn’t anything much to remember. But Sung Gyu still sure did.

“Hmm, true” He nodded and turned to her with a warm smile, his eyes glistening. “This is the first time we’re celebrating with Sung Jae”

It must have been only him, but upon this, her face slightly…changed. “Oh, yeah…you’re right”

“So?” Sung Gyu asked excitedly, shifting a little in his chair. “Do you have anything in mind?”

Yoora smiled in return, warmly as she saw the young, excited and adorable Sung Gyu she loved still alive within him. “Yeah…and I think you’re going to love it”

The gleeful shine in his eyes only grew a tenfold, and it was beautiful. He almost looked like a child. “Really? Tell me”

She pursed her lips, appearing to be deep in her thoughts. “Well…I thought I will surprise you, but-,”

“Yeah?” Sung Gyu prodded on, and she shrugged in response. “Well, anyway, you look so excited, I can’t help telling you”

A large, contented grin appeared on his face. “You’re too sweet. What is it?”

Yoora tilted her head to a side thoughtfully. “You remember that time when Woohyun organized a party for you at his place and then we ran away?”

Sung Gyu laughed, reminiscing that incident. Sung Gyu used to hate parties, and Yoora used to hate places too many people gathered for no good reason. His best friend, on the other hand, had a massive house and was obsessed of parties and filling every corner of his place, so he organized big house parties every occasion he could. That time around, Sung Gyu’s birthday was the victim; but thankfully, his girlfriend had better things planned up her sleeves.

“That secluded beach…in Ansan” Sung Gyu nodded, smiling heartily.

“Yeah” Yoora nodded in return. “And…well, so much has changed about this place. But still, I thought that maybe we could spend your birthday there…you know, some packed dinner, cake and wine on the beach…just the two of us”

The last bit sent a little thorn into his heart. There hasn’t been a single occasion where he had spent his birthday without Sung Jae ever since he was born, and though things in his life have certainly shifted, he didn’t want that bit to change. Sung Jae was a constant, and him being there, with him, was important to him, more than anything else.

At that moment, still. He didn’t want to tell her this. She looked hopeful, and truthfully, he hadn’t given her the right attention and the right amount of love, the very reason why things have turned out to be in the way they were now. Had he tried harder, things would certainly have played out differently. And so, just this time around; he was going to try. He was going to put the right effort, and that included keeping lots of things to himself, at least until the time would come.

“Right” He nodded, took a deep breath and smiled. “Just the two of us…sounds like a plan”

Yoora smiled at him, he held his breath, and that was that.

*

“Psst!” Eunji hissed from her place behind the wall of the teacher’s rest room, just as she saw a couple of kids from Sung Jae’s class pass by. “Hey! Kid!”

The kid turned in a flourish and peeked at her through curious eyes. She returned him a wide grin, nonetheless, feeling less like a teacher and more like a fugitive that had crept into a grade school. Quite frankly, Eunji was still having a hard time getting used to this entire teacher business. She had never been a teacher before, let alone a counselor; except for that time she was a lousy kindergarten teacher, a job which she got because of connections, so it hardly ever counted. Initially, the job description had only included the position of a counselor, and for a primary school, she hadn’t though that there would be much work to do so her plan was to laze around in her own office in smart dresses and answering calls or whatever, occasionally talking to a couple of troubled kids when she had to work and have the rest of the time for herself. Apparently, the school administration hadn’t felt quite the same. With the school’s Ethics teacher being on an indefinite leave for some chronic sickness or the other, they haven’t had a choice but immediately appoint her, the counselor, for the post, assuming that her expertise in the field of psychology would suffice in teaching a bunch of kids some ethic related studies. She did that quite well, alright. But being a teacher also meant that she couldn’t always hang out in the counselor’s office (as it happened, they used it only when the children needed counselling, not particularly the place for one to laze around) but spend most her free time in the teacher’s room, listening and sometimes getting involved in all their boring, grown up conversations. Eunji despised them. Eunji despised having to share her lunch with the smelly gym teachers and loud mouthed old ladies, she hated being asked every ten seconds if she were married and had kids; therefore, every once so often, she sneaked out of the staff room and wandered the corridors, spending time with the kids (and the kids loved her) and most importantly, having a nice chat with her favorite kid in the world.

And it was also how the two of them managed to come up with a feasible plan to drag Sung Gyu to the new Amusement park in Ansan; a plan Eunji was rather proud of. According to Sung Jae, his father surely would agree to come, because he almost always gave in whenever Sung Jae suggested it and peppered it up with a bit of his adorable aegyo (truthfully, Sung Jae was so cute that Eunji herself would give in, even if he suggested pairing to commit a murder). Today, she had to meet up with him before school ended and find out how the progress was of him convincing his father…and also a couple of other logistics.

“Where’s Sung Jae?” Eunji asked the kid casually; trying her best to maintain the whole teacher stance.

“Sung Jae?” The kid scrunched his face, thoughtfully tilting his head to a side. “Umm…’

“There he is!” Exclaimed one of the other kids in the bunch, pointing at the other end of the corridor. And true to his words, there he was, yawning cutely as he dragged the bag containing his gym clothes across the corridor. “Sung Jae-ah!” Eunji exclaimed, making her way towards the boy who looked up, finally being pulled out of his exhausted trance. “Hey Sung Jae!” Eunji began to poke on his arm and he began to wriggle and pull away from her.

“Quit it baby sitter, we’re in school!” He muttered, trying to sound annoyed, but the small giggle which escaped his lips simply gave him away.

“That’s teacher to you, Kim Sung Jae” Eunji said firmly, but her act soon disappeared, her lips forming a gentle smile. “Tiring day huh?”

“Yeah” Sung Jae groaned, stretched his arms and stuffed his gym bag haphazardly into his locker before turning to face the other, a glimmer in his eyes. “It’s self-study time! Can we go have some cookies?”

Eunji laughed at the very look of delight which was now blooming in his face. “Oh, you only love me for the cookies!”

“Baby sitter, we’re in school!” Sung Jae reprimanded, yet again, his cheeks going slightly red, and began to walk ahead. “You’re always being weird at school. You’re a teacher!”

“Right” Eunji straightened her posture and pulled off a stiff, school teacher demeanor as she made it along the corridor with Sung Jae beside her. “So, student, what is the matter you want to talk about today?”

“Cookies” Sung Jae simply replied with a shrug and walked ahead.

Once they’ve arrived at the counselor’s office and Sung Jae’s gotten his share of cookies, they got down to work. The counselor’s office was in the far end of the corridor near the band rooms, a place that people hardly roamed about unless they had a particular reason to, so the two of them could have their jolly time in the office without anyone, not even the higher-ups interrupting them. And the office was equipped with a small fridge which had a couple of boxed fruit drinks, milk cartons and some cookies for the troubled children as a comfort treat; but since there weren’t many children who needed that comfort, Sung Jae had the chance to devour on half of them.

“So, you told your appa about the amusement park?” Eunji asked conversationally as she wiped cookie crumbs off the child’s fluffy cheeks.

“Mmhm!” Sung Jae nodded with a full mouth and swallowed hard. “I told him grandpa and grandma wanted to go”

Eunji laughed, throwing her head back as an image of his elderly parents buckled up on one of the rides, his father screaming ‘mum!’ on the top of his lungs. It was a rather disturbing image, so to speak, not one she could exactly share with the young child. “Anyway, what did he say?”

Sung Jae’s face fell perceptibly, and with his head lowered, he began to wipe off the crumbs on the table with his palm. “He didn’t say anything”

“He didn’t?” Eunji said slowly, feeling her heart fall all the same. She knew that convincing her boring, stubborn, hard-headed boss to go out and have some fun was farfetched, but she had thought there was still a silver lining to it. “Maybe we have to try harder” She said.

“Maybe we can tell him we’re going somewhere else, and take him there” Sung Jae said, lifting his head. “Appa wouldn’t know. Appa is very bad at directions”

“Yeah..” Eunji smiled as an idea struck to her. “Maybe we can get Woohyun to kidnap him and take him there!”

At this, Sung Jae grimaced, looking rather unimpressed. “I don’t think it will work, baby sitter” he said quite gravely. “Appa will find out anyway, and he would be mad”

Eunji looked down at the younger and sighed dejectedly. “Yeah…you’re right”

For the next few minutes, the two of them sat quietly in the empty, vast counselor’s office, brainstorming. Eunji’s mind was blank, unable to figure out a convincing way of taking him while Sung Jae distractedly finished more than half of the jam cookies in the jar. A few silent minutes passed by, and soon the music indicating the end of school rang. Eunji huffed and climbed up on her feet. The entire surprise planning hoo-ha had drained her energy considerably, and she hated it even more that she couldn’t even go to the Kim’s place after school like she did, for a couple of days because of her stupid plans. She regretted it now. She realized that the whole arrangement of hers was rather stupid, and she could have easily been quiet and discreet in planning the event while still going to Sung Gyu’s on the evenings. But now that she had lied and she was anyway in deep with it, Eunji really hadn’t a choice.

“I’m going to class!” Sung Jae announced, hurriedly making it towards the door, simultaneously wiping off the evidence of his misconduct on his face.

“wait!” Eunji called out, and the child briskly stopped at the foot of the door. “Yeah baby sitter?”

Eunji gulped hard. She hasn’t spoken to Sung Gyu for a week already, and she felt like a part of her had died inside and she needed his voice, his presence to resurrect it. But how could she possibly say that to a nine-year-old child?

“Is you father coming to pick you up?” Eunji asked instead, and her voice was strangely smaller than she had thought.

“Yup” Sung Jae nodded hurriedly. “And I have to go!”

“Okay, just-just tell him-!” Eunji started, her voice trembling and small. But all before she could get her words out, the door slammed shut, and Sung Jae had already gone on his way. Eunji sighed deeply and fell back into her chair with a scornful shrug. “Just tell him that I missed him…” She said in the end, all to herself.

*

His father was already outside the school when Sung Jae traversed the school lawn, leaning against their car, smiling weirdly at his phone as if it held something really funny. His father’s been doing this a lot since recently; smiling at his phone or his computer screen. And it wasn’t even the kind of smile he gave when someone on the TV said something comical or when Sung Jae told him something funny that had happened at school. It was a different one; more like the smile he gave when Sung Jae did something super nice for him or when baby sitter made him his favorite dish. Sung Jae had wondered a couple of times the reason behind his silly smiling face. He had even peaked in to his phone and laptop screen a couple of times; but each time he’d either be told not to look at his things or he’d find nothing that so amusing, except for some measly messages. Even at that time, his father was so immersed into the phone that he didn’t even see Sung jae coming. He had to call out for his father to get his attention; which wasn’t something he had done so often because usually, all his father’s attention was on him.

“Appa?”

“oh!” his father’s warm gaze finally fell on him, a soft smile gracing his lips. The past few days, he’s been rather grumpy and moody in the morning, yet, come afternoon, he’d be all smiling and cheery. Sung Jae’s seen people who acted like that on TV documentaries, and he was worried if his father was becoming one of them. Spit personality…or something. “Hey, Sung Jae!”

Sung Jae only pouted as he made his way around the car and climbed in. After the big accident, his father wasn’t allowed to drive; his grandmother would always make a fuss. But now that he could, it was a relief that he could finally go home comfortably. The fun about public transport didn’t last a long time, as it happened.

“How was your day?” asked his father as he slipped into the driver’s seat beside him. He was smiling, his eyes disappearing and all; it was beginning to get a little creepy.

“It was okay” Sung Jae grunted, throwing his bag over his shoulder onto the back seat.

“How is the new home room teacher?”

Sung Jae’s home room teacher left, all of a sudden, and nobody knew what happened, neither did anyone care. Anyway, the good thing about that was that the new home room teacher, a very young teacher named Lee Sung Jong, with his long hair and big eyes, was really nice, and treated everyone really well. He could be a little strange at times, and his skin was inhumanely pale. But that was fine, as long as he didn’t treat him like trash, like the previous teacher used to.

The two of them talked briefly about this and that during that short ride from school to his grandparent’s place. He didn’t spend the evenings at home, since then he would be all by himself, with the baby sitter still hiding out, and after that one time when he went to his father’s office and sent an email to uncle Woohyun from his father’s computer, asking where the toilet is, and it accidentally went to all the people in the office, his father refused to take him there again. It was fine, though. At least he got to have some good food and a nap.

They were stopping at a color light when his father suddenly asked him; “Jae, that amusement park you told me about, the one on the beach…?”

Sung Jae’s ears perked up cautiously, and he tried not to let his enthusiasm show as he turned to his father. “Yea appa?”

“Well, did you say it was near uncle Woohyun’s place?”

“Mmhm!” Sung Jae nodded, hopping a little in his seat. He couldn’t help it, He could hardly keep his excitement to himself. “Uncle Woohyun told me about it the other day. There are water parks and a huge aquarium-!”

“It’s in Ansan…” His father, who was hardly paying attention to what he was saying, muttered under his breath. There was a moment of quietness, Sung Jae wondering of what other things he could say to fill up the silence. But all before he could say anything, his father beat it to him, telling him the most exciting news there’s ever been.

“Sung Jae…would you like it if we go there on my birthday?”

Sung Jae whooped in response, earning a laughter from his father and he near missed driving off when the green light appeared. Sung Jae was excited beyond words. He felt like he just heard Christmas was coming sooner. “Really? Can we go appa? Can we go?”

His father continued to chuckle and ruffled his head. “You’re excited for my birthday more than I am!”

“Of course!” Sung Jae exclaimed, hopping in delight. “I can’t wait to tell baby sitter!”

“Hm?” his father perked up, giving him a brief, confused look, and only then it hit him that he near blew her covers. Sung Jae then soon launched into rescuing the situation; so, he added, in a louder, slightly exaggerated voice. “I can’t wait to tell baby sitter all about it, when she’s back! Which is…whenever!”

Thankfully, though. His father wasn’t paying attention much. He was smiling at his phone while they waited in the traffic, yet again. Sung Jae was proud of himself, nevertheless. It was great that he acted upon impulse. Also, it was a brilliant save.

*

On the day of Sung Gyu’s birthday, which was on a Sunday, Sung Gyu woke up a lot earlier than he usually did. The sun was barely up, or so he thought since he couldn’t see from their windowless apartment anyway, and the clocks said it was just a few minutes past seven. He stretched and groaned, flailing around his stiff limbs, and fell back into his covers with a happy sigh. His birthday. The day of his birthday. The day he was turning thirty-three. It was his favorite day of the year.

It’s not that people didn’t love him or anything. In fact, Sung Gyu had always believed that he lived to receive love from everyone, which he truly did without cease. But on the day of his birthday, people loved him a little more than they did all year around, and also, he got presents and cake and a whole lot of wishes on his phone and SNS. It was a good day.

Just as always, his inbox was filled with messages, wishing him for a very happy birthday. They were from his friends, from family, distant cousins, colleagues and a couple of his clients whom he was still in close terms with. He replied to each one of them, which were quite a lot, though he’d say himself; with a wide grin on his lips, a smile which grew larger and larger along every message he read. This many people loved me; he thought as he went through all of them as well as all the calls he had received precisely at twelve AM (mostly from his mother, but that didn’t matter because all birthday wishes were important) There were another couple of messages on his SNS too, Woohyun had posted and tagged an edited photograph of him from college days (Which he ignored, of course; because it was rather ugly, and he was later going to kill his best friend for that) and Myung Soo, for some strange reason, had remembered him and asked him if they were meeting for a drink later in the day.

All was good about this day, and he had a very pleasant feeling about how the rest of it will turn out to be. So, he had a rather feasible plan, one that Woohyun or his parents wouldn’t even guess. In the morning, till late afternoon, he will spend time in leisure at the amusement park with his parents and Sung Jae, and once evening approaches, he will get Woohyun to come and drop them over at his parents’ place. He even had a good excuse for letting them go without him. He would tell them that he was meeting an old friend from school who wanted to see him on his birthday. Sung Gyu’s met old friends enough times that they hardly ever questioned him about it, so assuming that they will still play along with him, he would be getting ready for his date with Yoora.

And about Yoora…well, he was strangely looking forward to it, though he didn’t quite like the whole idea of not having Sung Jae joining him. Regardless, if he were to keep the truth about their meetings a secret, at least for the time being; he hadn’t much of a choice but do as they plan. Besides, Sung Jae was still young, and they’ve only recently met again, after a long time of being apart. They had a lot of time to bond and also since Sung Jae wasn’t entirely fond of her, he had to be kept in her company little by little. In that sense, a party by the beach, only the three of them, wasn’t exactly ideal. He told himself these, amongst many other things, trying to have a solely positive outlook on his birthday. Many good things were coming on his way, and he was going to have lots of fun, with his family as well as with his past love. Things were supposed to turn out for the best.

But why did he still feel rather hollow in his heart?

Upon approaching the darkened, somber kitchen confines, all his qualms were answered. The dirty pile of plates from that week, cabinets littered with fast food wrappers; that stench of rotting food in the bins (which he hadn’t taken to the garbage chute that week, simply because…well, he didn’t feel like it) everything which implied just one and only one thing. Or a person, precisely. Eunji. Eunji whom he missed now, terribly so, and also, Eunji who had evidently forgotten his birthday. He was going to hate her for that, possibly as long the time would allow him to (which wouldn’t be so long, as it happened. Sung Gyu simply couldn’t hate her) and he would deliberately forget her birthday as well, and pretend it didn’t matter. But nothing smothered that eccentric hollowness in his mind, a feeling that he couldn’t exactly put into words. It could be that he missed her, that he longed for the only person who gave him the kind of attention that he needed. Regardless, he also realized that on this day, he wouldn’t spend a second of this important day, worrying about people who didn’t matter to him anymore. Eunji had Howon anyway; and he was sure she was having the time of her life with him, her mum and his stupid eyebrows.

He fell into a kitchen chair with his mug of coffee in hand and sighed heavily. His eyes fell on the circled date on the calendar. Today, his birthday.

Anyway, whatever. He was going to have a splendid time, and by the end of that day, Eunji wouldn’t even matter to him. Sung gyu shook his head, averted his gaze and also his mind into better thoughts about how he was going to have a great day and quietly sipped his coffee, basking in the new-found freedom in his empty house.

Which lasted only for ten more minutes until Sung Jae emerged from the doorway and exclaimed; “Happy birthday Appa!” Before he launched on his father, hugging him from his side.

“Hey! You’re up early!” He exclaimed and kissed warmly on his tuft of dark hair. “Thank you, Jae! I will spend it well!”

Sung Jae laughed and shimmied away from him, making his way towards the fridge, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “How old will you be, Appa? Fifty or something?” He turned to his father with an excited glimmer. “Is it the Golden Jubilee?”

“W-what?” Sung Gyu spluttered, nearly chocking on his coffee. “How do you even know those things?”

Sung Jae merely climbed onto a kitchen chair with his own glass of orange juice and an apple and shrugged. “Because I’m smart”

Sung Gyu laughed and reached out to ruffle his dark hair. “So, are you looking forward for today?”

Upon the mention of the day’s impending events, a bright smile appeared on his face. “Yup!” He nodded excitedly. “I even packed my bag yesterday!”

“Packed your bag?” Sung Gyu raised his brows. “Why, you’re planning to stay in the amusement park?”

“No” Sung Jae replied, distractedly. “Just some…stuff”

“Okay” Sung Gyu chuckled, made his way to the sink and dumped his empty mug onto the large pile of unwashed dishes. “Well, grandma and grandpa must be waiting. I’m going to have a shower. You too wash up and get ready, okay?”

“Okay!” Sung Jae yelled at his direction from the kitchen, and Sung Gyu shook his head, a fond smile on his lips as he made it into his room and closed the door behind him.

Right. He nodded to himself. Time to get ready for his birthday, for the first and the last time he’d ever not mind going to an amusement park.

*

“You’re mad, Eunji” Woohyun told her as she gave the staff the last of her instructions on the birthday surprise. She kind of felt if she had planned too much, if the whole thing was too extravagant to his liking. She had also toned down a bit in the last minute, but there was still a whole lot of brilliant, exciting things bound to happen come the end of the day.

At around Eight PM, exactly; because it was around that time he’d been born. Sung Gyu’s mother told her that.

“Mad?” Eunji asked the other, a cheeky grin donning her lips. She wiped her dusty hands on her jeans, some of the glitter still glimmering on her pale skin, and now on her clothes. “This is not mad, Woohyun. This is commitment”

“Eunji” He gave her a rather irate look. “The next time you say something like that, I swear-,”

“You’re exaggerating” Eunji moved past him, making her way through the still thin morning crowd. It was almost nine in the morning and the park had opened just half an hour ago. The place’s been put up under a contract with Woohyun’s family’s old company, the one which his parents sold away, so it wasn’t difficult for them, with the Nam’s help, to pull some strings and get the workers to coordinate in planning the surprise. It was large in scale. Eunji’s spent quite a lot. But it was all fine for her since in her opinion, it was the effort that mattered, and he was worthy of it all.

“What time is it?” Eunji asked the other as the two of them approached the entrance. According to Sung Gyu’s mother, the four of them were supposed to arrive by nine, and thus they should be already there, had they kept to the time.

“Nine past…umm” Woohyun surveyed his watch. “Eight…like?”

Eunji felt the nervous sweat forming on her warm skin. She’s spent two weeks planning the whole thing; from morning to night, every single event to be well executed. What’s left now was the final performance, and the nervous fit she felt was that she was afraid if even one thing would fail, and she would never forgive herself.

“Hey, relax” Woohyun told her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Everything’s fine. Besides you being so jittery is basically giving things away”

“Okay” Eunji nodded and composed herself. Of course, she’s planned everything well, and double checked them as well, to the last bit. There was no way anything could possibly go wrong. Besides, it was only a birthday. “Okay...” She breathed hard, and nearly jumped when Woohyun’s phone began to ring on his side.

“Oh! It’s hyung” Woohyun informed her as he looked down into the phone. “They must be here…oh yeah, hyung!”

No matter how much she tried to stay calm and composed, she just couldn’t help herself. Eunji’s been severely Sung Gyu deprived for as long as she remembered (though it’s been only a week) and even the thought of seeing him again made her excitement grow tenfold. She could feel her skin prickle in anticipation. She followed after Woohyun, nonetheless, as he pushed through the thickening crowd, still talking on the phone. Sung Gyu’s parents’ been advised not to buy entrance tickets because Woohyun’s already gotten them package tickets due to his connections, and so he had to be there at the gate to produce them.

And as planned, Eunji slipped into the ticketing booth, the old lady behind it gladly giving her the space. That’s been the plan; her magically appearing from the booth and exclaiming ‘Surprise!’ in the loudest, most excited voice she could muster.

But only, Sung Gyu never came. Eunji patiently waited for a few minutes, wondering what on earth Woohyun must be doing instead of leading the birthday boy to the rightful place. She sat there and drooped, basically, annoyed even more so that she could hardly see anything from where she sat, except for people’s chests and stomachs, which wasn’t quite a sight.

A few minutes later, then, a familiar voice sounded; and just as always, Eunji’s heart picked pace. After not hearing it for such a long time, his voice simply was music in her ears.

Followed by his voice (saying incomprehensible things) came his hand, pushing through the slot of the booth, and Eunji held her breath. She was about to get her covers blown. Instead of reacting to that, she needlessly gawked at Sung Gyu’s tanned arm.

“Excuse me? I’ve been told that this is a packaged-,”

It was time for the beginning of the final performance.

“Happy birthday Boss!”

The hand retrieved, and soon she was greeted by a mop of soft, dark hair, and the surprised look on his face. Sung Gyu’s eyes were wide and perplexed, lips slightly parted, brows shot up and they nearly reached his hairline. Eunji was delighted, contented; overwhelmed with emotions that she could hardly keep herself from laughing. This is what she’s been wanting to see from the moment she had decided to give this surprise for him. Although there was so much more still waiting for him, the look on his face was more than enough to begin a good day.

“Eun-Eunji?”

“Hi!” Eunji giggled, covering with a hand and the bracelets on her wrist happily jingled, just as happy as she was at that moment. “Are your surprised?”

“What are you doing here?” Sung Gyu said ignoring her, the disbelief in his voice not waning once. “You were in Busan! You are supposed to be in Busan!”

“Nope!” She said with yet another giggle, and he frowned. “You…you planned the whole thing, didn’t you? You tricked me!”

“Uh…” Eunji smiled unsurely, and gave him a huge, trembling grin. “Surprise?”

“You, come out of there” Sung Gyu ordered, beckoning her with a hand and an authoritative tone in his voice. “Come out here right now”

Despite not exactly being in the plan (she was supposed to come out on her own accord, while Sung Jae, according to the schedule must be with Woohyun, doing…whatever he’s supposed to be doing) she heeded to his wishes and stepped out of the booth, allowing the nice lady to take her place. Sung Gyu wandered away from the gate, an unreadable expression on his face and around her she could feel all the eyes directed on her; his parents, Sung Jae, Woohyun, some of the staff; all curious as to what will happen from this point on.

And as she made her way towards him, she took in his appearance, an image of him so clear and vibrant, only so that this moment could remain in her mind forever. A striped navy T-shirt with sleeves rolled up, jeans and sandals, his hair messily done and his skin with a healthy summer tan. It was as if she’s been truly deprived of him for longer than she imagines, for the more she looked at him, the more beautiful he became, and she felt herself falling in love once all over again.

Once he stopped, a good few feet away from the emerging crowd from the gate and his family, Sung Gyu turned around, rested his hands on his hips and stared at her. His eyes bore into her, looking right into her soul, and she felt capitulated in his gaze. But then, he threw his head back and began to laugh. He laughed so hard that his eyes turned red and cheeks tinted pink; and once he had finally composed himself, he shook his head in disbelief. “Wow, Eunji. Just this morning I thought you were having a jolly good time in Busan, forgetting my birthday, but here you are!” He gave her a pointed look, tilting his head to a side. “Should I be happy or upset?”

“Um, I don’t know” Eunji shrugged, raised her hands and squeaked in a happier note; “You can be surprised, maybe?”

At this, Sung Gyu’s face grew softer, milder, his gaze so warm and mesmerizing and she felt herself melting before his eyes. The smile which appeared on his lips, then, was beautiful beyond words. “I am, Eunji, I truly am…Thank you. You didn’t forget me after all…”

Eunji smiled back warmly, trying to match the tenderness that he gave away before finally gathering the courage to do exactly what she’s been longing to do for the longest time. She stepped towards him, threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into a warm embrace. Just as always, his warmth engulfed her, his strong musky scent seeped into her lungs and she felt herself being intoxicated and dragged into an endless whirlwind. Eunji closed her eyes and sighed, being exactly where she wanted to be. “Happy birthday…boss, and the best dad in the world”

Sung Gyu chuckled softly, the sound reverberating in his chest against her, and his arms too, encircled around her waist. “Thank you…Eunji. I never expected this but…thank you”

Just as she pulled herself away from him, the next step in the plan made its appearance; the bit Sung Jae contributed with and couldn’t wait to do it himself. It wasn’t much, but-

“Surprise!” Exclaimed little Sung Jae on top of his voice, and the moment Sung Gyu looked up, a look of confusion on his face, Sung Jae pricked the balloon he held over his father’s head, and a rain of glittering colorful confetti rained all over them.

“What-?”

“Good job kid!” Woohyun exclaimed, chuckling, as he finally put down the boy he was carrying in his arms. Sung Gyu hurriedly dusted off the confetti on his clothes and hair, and while he did so, something flashed across his eyes; realization. He turned to his son, narrowing his gaze. “Wait…Sung Jae, you were in this too?”

Sung Jae giggled and nodded proudly, earning a delightful laughter from the small crowd circled around them. “In fact, Appa. Baby sitter and I planned everything together!”

“Oh, so that’s why you talked about amusement parks the entire time!” Sung Gyu exclaimed, finally, finally putting two and two together. Despite being a detective, Sung Gyu was rather slow. Eunji still thought that the evidence of their scheme, albeit secretive, was obvious. It’s Sung Gyu who never came around to realize that. “Oh! Oh!! And you!” He pointed a finger at his best friend. “You were avoiding me! The whole time!”

Woohyun shrugged, a small, apologetic smile on his lips. “I didn’t think I could keep a secret”

Sung Gyu laughed, perhaps at his own stupidity for not being able to string all the obvious signs together, and pointed at her. “And you, Eunji. You were in Busan! With-with Howon! Was it all a lie?”

Eunji’s smile faltered a bit at the mention of Howon, remembering that she had quite neglected him the whole time during the planning, but she didn’t want that to sour up the mood. The smile returned to her face. “I mean, I was in Busan for dad’s memorial but I was here the whole time!”

“Wah…wah” Sung Gyu muttered, looking about him in disbelief. It was rather cute, except for his kind-of creepy muttering under his breath. His parents approached him the very moment and his mother watched him with a fond smile on her lips. “And he’s thirty-three, can you believe it?” She told the rest of the congregation, which immediately grabbed Sung Gyu’s attention. “Wait…mum, you were in this too?”

She shrugged in response. “We all were…”

“Wow” Sung Gyu dropped his arms to his sides limply, looking around him in some kind of wonderment. “I’m really surprised, really truly…and I…I can’t… I don’t know what to say…”

“Well” Eunji smiled, stepping towards him and grabbed his hand. “You haven’t seen even a half of it”

Sung Gyu’s eyes widened even more than they were, not paying attention to the fact that they were basically holding hands.

“T-there’s more?”

“Of course!” Eunji grinned wildly, relishing in the moment, taking the best out of it. “And it’s for you to find out! Come on!”

*

Kim Sung Gyu was ecstatic. He didn’t know up to which extent and to which multitude it was, but all he could say that it was the most beautiful, the most unexpected occasion he had ever imagined in his life, and he could swear he was brought to near tears.

All his life, Sung Gyu had deemed himself as not important and largely insignificant in people’s lives. He’s always had a dull, uneventful life; everything which happened to him were normal, unexciting and nondescript, and for this reason, he had imagined that not many people took note of his existence, for not many people he truly mattered. Sung Gyu wasn’t any special, so to say. He wasn’t exceedingly good looking, he wasn’t a celebrity, his talents weren’t much to speak of, he hadn’t made any scientific discoveries or an invention which would matter to humanity or something. There was more than one reason why he would have simply blended into the rest of the world and escaped anyone’s eyes. As much as it scared him, having lived a life exciting and important as a dusty old encyclopedia, he also knew that it was his life, and it was also the life he loved.

Through this thought, however, Sung Gyu had failed to grasp what really, truly mattered. And that was that, though the people who loved him weren’t many, those who did, loved him for everything that he was, no matter what. And on that day, on the day of his birthday, knowing that the people who really mattered to him had put all that effort to make him happy, he realized that he had more than enough love to live by and strive on.

And Sung Gyu’s birthday has never been so exciting before. Usually it was only his parents and Sung Jae, cutting a cake that he’s brought from store (or in some occasions, made by his mother) having a hearty home-cooked meal, long conversation in the kitchen or the living room while his son slept soundly in his old room, and that was that. But this time around, it was a in a wholly different level. For the first time in years, Sung Gyu found himself truly enjoying himself; and that didn’t even matter that he was being forced into all sorts of scary, bone chilling rides that he’d been afraid of all his life, for today, it was his day, the day that people who loved him had planned for him, and for once, he’d let himself loose, see what life was truly about, and be happy. On the other hand, he hadn’t even imagined that Eunji would actually do something like this for him. She’s gone all out, planning a number of unexpected surprises in every nook and cranny that it was sort of like collecting puzzle pieces. Finding one would make him anticipate the next, and doing that he was finding a lost bit of childish contentment within. He was grateful for her beyond words, and frankly speaking, the whole reason why he was bitter about her not being there for his birthday was simple. It was her who brought color to his dull life, who made it brighter, better; and his birthday, he realized, wouldn’t be as exciting without her in it. And now that she was there…

“You’re the very worst shooter that I have ever seen” Sung Gyu commented as he stood beside the baby sitter and his son going together at a dart shooting game. The game was to flip a couple of image cards to reveal the surprise behind them, and the one to get them all right would win a plush toy. It was rather frustrating to watch all the darts missing the target and landing elsewhere (one even landed on the stall keeper’s bald head) especially since he was a good shooter, being an investigator and all. But he wasn’t going to step in and ruin the kids’ chances of winning some stuffed toy, so all he did was standing on their side, delivering his brilliant commentary.

“You aren’t being helpful, boss” Eunji exclaimed as Sung Jae busily filled the gun. “At least we managed to hit one, shouldn’t you be proud?”

Sung Gyu shrugged, smiling fondly and shook his head. “I mean, I am proud and all, and I’d love to stand here and watch, but it’s so frustrating when you miss…I can get you popcorn while you’re at it” He made it to leave, realizing that Sung Jae might need something to recharge his energy on, but then Eunji reached out and tugged him back with his sleeve.

“Nah-huh, you’re staying, and you’re having a go at it” She told him.

“And I don’t want to play it anymore” Sung Jae whined from his spot, a look of distaste on his face. “But I want the toy!”

“See? The kid needs his toy, boss!”

Sung Gyu looked at his son, at the baby sitter and back at his son, both of them staring at him expectantly. He really hated to show off his gun shooting skills and go about explaining to everyone that he was a trained investigator, but the looks on their faces were driving him. In fact, he strongly felt his patience slipping, and-,

“Okay, fine” He let out a sigh and took the place behind the gun in his son’s stead. “But only this once” After assuming his position, Sung Gyu took a perfect aim. The distance was a piece of cake comparing to what he’d been trained on, so he could have easily shot with his eyes closed. Sung Gyu didn’t want to make a show of it, thus he just took his go with much nonchalance.

Whoosh! The dart hit the board with force, but the pressure was too much that the board made a three-sixty turn and returned to its place.

“That’s all three chances down!” the stall keeper informed pleasantly, and being a little frustrated that he couldn’t win the game, even with his superior skills, Sung Gyu scowled and ed a few coins at the keeper for another chance. The gun was refilled, yet again, and this time around, Sung Gyu took a step back, aimed perfectly on point at the board, squinted his eyes and shot. This time, however, the board flipped around, revealing the surprise hidden underneath.

“What the hell!” Sung gyu exclaimed, covering his reddened face in embarrassment. There, another surprise snuggly hidden from his eyes revealing itself to him. A photograph of Sung Gyu as a toddler, gleefully perched on a swing with his tiny legs off the ground and eyes disappearing behind his chubby cheeks greeted back at him. The stall keeper, who had obviously known the secret was grinning widely as he beckoned Sung Gyu to take the remaining two chances. Instead, however, Sung Gyu doubled over and began to laugh. His childhood photos revealed to a whole bunch of strangers. He didn’t know what was surprising in that, but he was still duly amazed, as he was upon all the surprises he had come across, to think that Eunji and Woohyun had done this all for him.

“There’s two left” Eunji informed to him meekly, and he turned towards her, still laughing, pulled her to his side, threw a hand over her shoulder and squeezed her against him. “You’re mad, Eunji. Plain, bloody mad”

“Money to the swear jar!” Sung Jae announced cheekily as if he really didn’t mean it, and gestured at the two remaining targets. “Appa you need to shoot the other two for the toy”

“Of course!” Sung Gyu exclaimed, taking his place yet again behind the gun. “of course, I have to, Sung Jae” And he did shoot them, both of them with single skillfully executed shots, and them too, revealed varied stages of his childhood, from that one occasion where he stood half in the rain praying (for god knows what a two year old has to pray for) and from the day of his birthday in a cute hanbok and barely sitting. All here of them brought back a plethora of beautiful memories, all spent well in the warmth of his parents, and after more than thirty years had passed, they were still vivid and beautiful to recall. Sung Gyu was thankful for her for bringing them back to him.

All her surprised were along the line of this. They were somewhat insane, completely unexpected surprises; like pizza toppings based on his favorite dishes (a Kimchi-Galbi special) and a breakfast menu named after his favorite songs. At one stall (where they had to shoot arrows) Sung gyu managed to win them a plush toy, which was a duck with a name tag, and apparently it was mister Quick-Quack from the park they often visited. And at another point, he was taken to a whole kennel full of cute puppies, but since he was afraid of them little beasts, he didn’t exactly enjoy that bit of the surprise. Once all the stalls were done, it was the time for the rides.

The rides, too, that he’d rather not take part in.

“Look, we can go on the merry-go-round” Sung Gyu said, pointing at Woohyun who was happily riding a pony with a gleeful expression on his face, pretending to be a Pegasus (which was rather foolish) “It’s fun, it’s safe, and nobody will end up getting sick”

Eunji and Sung Jae both turned to look at the said ride and grimaced as Sung Gyu’s parents waved at them in utter delight while, both perched on ponies and his mother hanging onto the pole for her dear life.

“It’s boring” Eunji commented.

“It’s for old people” Sung Jae added.

“Now, Sung Jae, that’s not nice. There’s no age to have fun, is there?” Sung Gyu reprimanded, in hopes that he could go off topic and lead the two towards the safest ride in the park through misleading conversations, but they weren’t ones to easily give in.

“But still!” Sung jae exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air in frustration. “There are much more fun rides!”

“Exactly” Eunji nodded in agreement, adding more hay to the fire. “Besides, I think the only reason why you don’t want to go on the other rides is because you’re scared”

“N-no of course-!” Sung Gyu started helplessly, feeling his ears burning red. Of course, he wasn’t afraid of those high, frantic…blood chilling rides. He only thought it was rather stupid to put yourself through those harsh and dangerous conditions just because people deem it as fun. There were better ways to have fun in his opinion. And quite frankly he thought that the completely harmless Merry go round is one way of having good fun.

Apparently, though, his son didn’t agree. Nor could he believe that his father was a coward who didn’t want to go on these rides. Well, at least until someone said it, and he believed it now.

“Appa you’re scared of the rides?” Sung Jae questioned him gravely, as if he was told that his father had suddenly decided to bald his head and go into exile.

Sung Gyu rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. It was almost as if he had no way out of it. “Okay, fine…” He relented in the end, feeling his head already throbbing at the thought of what he’s about to do. “Which one do you want to do first?”

The both of them, Eunji and Sung jae raised their hands without thinking twice and pointed at something which was way above the level of his head. He gulped hard, not even wanting to imagine the state of the ride he was being suggested, and slowly turned around, only to see a large crane up in the air, quite literally flipping those who are seated in a full circle, raised high up in the sky. His eyes were getting bleary and cold sweats formed on his skin. Sung Gyu wasn’t scared of the rides. He just thought that they were foolish. But at that moment, the latter flew away, leaving the former behind with him, and he realized that it will be a long, long day.

*

Jung Eunji was ecstatic, and that was for more reason than one, reasons which keep piling up as the day progressed, quite literally making it almost the best day in her life. First off, the success of her surprise turned out to be beyond her expectations. Eunji knew how Sung Gyu was like. Although he cared, he wouldn’t honestly let it show on his face, taking it with mere nonchalance. She would have been disappointed had it been the same reaction to all her efforts that day. But no; Sung Gyu was practically glowing. He loved everything that’s been done for him, and it all effortlessly appeared in his eyes. He was beaming the entire day, smiling and laughing and enjoying himself the whole time. Each of the surprises she had planned earned the same delightful expression of sheer befuddlement, an emotion she realized, she hadn’t come across quite so often before. Sung Gyu loved all that attention, undoubtedly. He loved the fact that, for a day, the entire world revolved around him. What he didn’t really know, however, was that Eunji’s world truly did revolve all around him. She wasn’t going to tell him that, of course. He didn’t need to know. Instead, she would quietly and peacefully recline in the moment. Secondly, she did, somehow, manage to maneuver him to all the rides she and Sung Jae wanted to go on. Possibly because he was too excited by the events of the day, he yielded to every one of their pleas effortlessly, taking every ride, though dramatically and with full of nagging and complaining, without once saying no to them. And it was all good. In more occasions than one, Sung Gyu had unconsciously held her hand. He’d held Sung Jae’s hand as well, as though he was the child of the two, and so her hand being held couldn’t have really meant anything, but it was more than enough for her, especially when he’d freak out to the extreme and start calling for his mom which was undeniably adorable. There were moments when Eunji herself was scared out of her wits herself (okay, she’d admit she was a coward sometimes too) but then he would be twice as terrified as she was and would grab hold of her hand, squeeze his eyes tight and bury his face on her shoulder. Though the moments were rare, Eunji would find revel in them, seizing the opportunity the best she could. She’d breath in every trace of him, remember every inch and in every sense so that one day, when she’d grow old and lose every memory she had, when she would no longer remember her name, he would still and forever remain imprinted in her heart like a photograph.

And then thirdly and lastly, Eunji fell more and more in love with him. With his smile, his laughter, every tiny little detail which defined him but she had failed to grasp. The way his eyes glimmered like clusters of brilliant stars, the way his smile took the brilliance of the sun, the way his hair, dark and soft shimmered gently in the breeze, the sound of his voice, the touch of his breath on her skin; every, single, detail of him, everything about him, she breathed in and stored in the deepest corner of her heart.

About ten exhausting rides later, Eunji and Sung Gyu were in the final few minutes of a bumper car ride; her, Sung Gyu, Sung Jae and Woohyun in a frantic battle to win over the other on ‘who bumped who the most’. As it happened, Sung Jae and Woohyun had long given up on the game, the two of them leisurely riding out the last seconds on their own. Sung Gyu and Eunji, on the other hand were madly chasing and bumping each other, their laughing feast underlying the rough drag of metal and crashes in the ring. Eunji was on the losing end, of course, since Sung Gyu was much stronger when he was competitive, but she still didn’t fail to wind him up and drag the game the longest she possibly could.

“Loser! Loser!” Eunji sang as she whooshed through a line of lazy riders as Sung Gyu relentlessly chased her. Her face was red from laughter, sweat trickling down her warm skin, and every now so often she had to let her concentration falter and push the wet bangs off her eyes. It was also distracting, the fact that Sung Gyu was soaked in perspiration, his dark hair sticking to his tanned skin. With a perpetual smile donning his lips, it was an agonizingly stunning combination.

“Bam!” Sung Gyu yelled along with the loud echoes of rubber crashing on rubber as he bumped harshly on her car from the back. She’d been distracted and lost in her own world that she had significantly slowed down, letting Sung Gyu to catch up with her, and by nook or by crook, he had managed to catch her, right as their turn was ending. As if on cue, the moment she returned to her senses, the bell indicating the end of their round echoed, and both of them laughing in pleasure, drove the cars back to their designated place.

“That was stupid, but I had fun” Sung Gyu informed her as he climbed out of the car. She was still in hers, struggling to get her sandal clad feet out of the tiny space while Sung Gyu stood beside her, laughing. “Right” Eunji grunted, finally tugging out her legs from the small confines. The ride sure was enjoyable, but it was also quite intense that she’s still left in a bit of a haze. Her head still buzzed with the loud crashing noises and the grinding of metal and electricity, and having been kept in the same position for too long, her legs were wobbly and barely keeping up. She blamed them, her legs, when she tried to step out of the car but tripped and fell back into the seat with a thump.

“Oompf!” She groaned, rubbing her sore ankle as Sung Gyu doubled over in laughter, finding the unfortunate incident rather amusing. “That has got to be the best part!”

“Shut up and help me out” Eunji growled, yet again, struggling in the small space. The cars would start moving soon, and they were seconds away from being approached by the keepers and embarrassingly getting dragged out of the stall; yet, Sung Gyu still had time to spare to make fun of her.

He was still laughing, even as he extended a hand towards her. She took hold of it, albeit giddily, but then, it was as if the entire universe was standing against them (or even for them, if it’s looked at in perspectives) that the moment he pulled her towards him, the bell indicating the next ride rang, and in a frenzy, she climbed up on her feet without warning, sending him stumbling backwards, and soon she found herself with her face smack dap on his chest, the beating of his heart against her and both his arms securing her in a warm embrace. The laughter, however, was long gone, now replaced by utter silence and sheer surprise. They didn’t move, not even as someone pushed past them and caught the last remaining car, not even as the last bell rang and the cars began to move carrying the cheerful screams and laughter. Sung Gyu pulled away then, slowly, his arms retreating from their original position of holding her, but still he held her in place, his gaze moving downwards and meeting her eyes. Eunji saw her entire universe in them, glimmering vigorously, all the stories told and untold hidden underneath that perpetual shine. She found the lost pieces of herself, afloat in that universe, waiting for her to leap in and hold onto. She realized her hands too, were still pressed against his chest, the warmth and the slight dampness of his perspiration seeping onto her skin. She didn’t move, regardless. It was as if she wanted the moment to last longer. A moment, she knew, she had waited, perhaps, for her whole life.

But then-,

“Appa!”

It was only at that moment that Sung Gyu finally moved away from her, taking a hurried step back, and then another before he fully turned away. Behind the railing on the other side stood Sung Jae and Woohyun, a look of irate on the child’s face and an unreadable expression on the other. When Eunji met his eyes, she could swear Woohyun gave her an unquestionable wink. Eunji blushed, but her heart did fall when Sung Gyu walked ahead, leaving her behind with her thoughts as if nothing happened between them a minute ago, as if they never shared that magical moment back then. But she also understood that it was a part of the entirety of loving him. A part, even with pain, that she had to accept and move on.

The next couple of rides weren’t as high and scary as the others that Sung Gyu deliberately avoided her and the possibility of any more mishaps by accompanying Sung Jae on every one of them. They did the tea cup ride next, which was pretty dumb, and then they went to the haunted house where, instead of getting scared, Sung Gyu went up and conversed with each and every one of the props, even with the inanimate ones, just to make sure they weren’t people pretending to be bats and spiders. Afterwards the four of them went for the last before the final ride, the UFO. It’s also this silly one where everyone is standing pressed to the wall of a humongous dish while it rotates in the air. The best part of that was, well, it had no restrains, no belts, nothing so basically everyone just held hands.

Eunji was particularly looking forward to that one.

Only the three of them joined the queue since Woohyun had wandered off claiming that he had to do something or the other and the ride wasn’t for the faint hearted as his parents; and while Sung Gyu nagged and grumbled under his breath, bringing out every reason why the ride of incredibly stupid, Eunji stared at him, watched him rather, even though the things he was talking about hardly made good sense, she loved watching him like this in the oddest, unlikely moments when the sun shined the brightest and beat down beautifully against his pristine skin. His soft, dark hair danced softly in the breeze and his eyes had narrowed into tiniest crescent slits. She realized, had she not taken note of it before, his skin was very, very gold and eye lashes were very, very long. It was ridiculous. Sometimes he appeared to be prettier than Eunji had ever believed herself to be.

“What?” His voice came to her suddenly, ripping through her distracted thoughts. It took her a while to realize that she’d been staring, creepily so, the entire time.

“Oh, nothing!” She exclaimed, blushing furiously and hoping that he wouldn’t catch the faint tint of her cheeks through his narrowed eyes. He didn’t, which came to her as no surprise, and when the queue moved, she willed herself to not be distracted again, especially not allow it to wander off to that particular moment from just a while ago when she had admittedly believed that they could have been a lot closer hadn’t they been interrupted.

She’d thought he was going to kiss her. True, that must be her heart thinking, not her rational mind, but every gesture, every emotion etched in his eyes seemed to lead her to the same conclusion over and over again. There’s only so many things one could do by holding a woman intimately in his embrace, and since they had gone beyond the time that one would take to gather their bearings after an unexpected encounter, it was fair, from her part to feel that way. Was it why he was fervently avoiding her now? avoiding every occasion that they’d be tossed into the element together again? As much he seemed make it look as subtle as he could, the signs were obvious. He was trying to be far, far away from her.

But that wouldn’t be quite possible at any case, now, given that they were basically huddled together in the overly crowded UFO dish. As they located their places and firmly pushed against the cushioned walls, Eunji realized, they were just an arm’s length away, only Sung Jae keeping them apart, and with both of them holding hands with the child in the middle, they were basically holding onto each other. Sung Gyu seemed completely oblivious, having his eyes closed tight and praying for the ride to end soon. For Eunji, however, it was a reason to let a small smile appear on his lips. As the ride whirred to life, she giggled softly to herself and grasped Sung Jae’s hand tighter. Holding hands, indirectly in this way, made it look even more intimate in her eyes.

“Okay, everyone!” the ride operator’s voice blasted through the loud speakers above. “Hold onto your places because we’re up for a rough ride!”

The crowd in the closed confine cheered in response, except for Sung Gyu of course, who looked far from being cheerful, and also Eunji, who was busy watching her crush not being cheerful, while the child between them applauded excitedly between them. Soon the dish slowly mounted, raising up in the air, starting its rotating frenzy. Eunji closed her eyes tight and pushed back against the cushion as further as possible; beside her, Sung Gyu muttered under his breath.

“I’m going to regret this”

*

I’m going to regret this, I’m so going to regret this; Sung Gyu’s mind whirred and his inner voice resonated in his head endlessly as the hateful ride came into life. If there was anything he hated more than the whole concept of amusement parks, that definitely had to be taking the rides in amusement parks since more than half of them made no sense to him. And while some of them seemed to make some sense (like the haunted house. The whole purpose was getting scared out of your skin but Sung Gyu rather enjoyed wondering about the employers and the amounts they earned out of scaring people) most of them made no sense at all. For one, the only thing one could get out of standing in a rotating dish was a bad stomach and a splitting head ache; and if you were lucky, someone’s puke (or your own puke) across your face.

And Sung Gyu hated it, hated every second of it. The only thing he wanted right now was get out of this thing, sit down somewhere calm and peaceful with not a single ride a sight and revile in that freedom. He had long decided that this part of his birthday surprise was absolute torture. The only reason why he gave in was, well…

“…and the spaceship has now finally taken off!” Eunji yelled on the top of her lungs, doing some unworldly gesture with her arms, to which Sung Jae reacted in the same manner with a determined look on his face. They were quite possibly pretending to be aliens, a game which Sung Gyu couldn’t be involved in since he was hanging onto the back of the dish for his dear life. The two of them, on the other hand, was freely moving around despite the other riders ‘annoyed glances. They were already lost in their own worlds, and how they could move around in spite of the ship’s excruciating pace was beyond him.

“You’re being attacked by the mighty aliens, baby sitter, I bet you can’t fight them!” Sung Jae exclaimed haughtily and launched at the other. The dish was still spinning, yet Eunji and Sung Jae found the strength to push and pull through the crowd for a few minutes, making Sung Gyu wonder if he should take control as a responsible adult, but then Eunji decided to return to her place and paste herself against the cushion. He’d thought she’d finally realized the need to act her age, but then she slid down the back wall, screaming a really ugly one and Sung Jae staggered towards her like a zombie and attacked her with a growl.

That, that was why he had agreed to do this. Every one of the ride they’ve taken, both Eunji and Sung Jae, together or each of them, had managed to keep his mind off the horrifying rides and his fear of heights and speed by doing their own childish things. They’d either play games, role play their conversations or endlessly make fun of him until he couldn’t take it anymore. As annoying as it was, at some point, he grew accustomed to it, realizing that these were the kind of games he had gone home to, almost every single day, and had always warmed his heart. Sung Gyu wanted them to have fun, to enjoy themselves. And somehow, he also understood that him just being there, awkward, stupid and scared, still made him a necessary accomplice.

As the ride grew in intensity and the dish sped up, the two of them could barely continue their playing. Sung Jae hugged onto his leg at one point, the dish took a sudden turn, placing itself in an insolent angle, and then almost without warning, Eunji stumbled on her steps in her attempt to find her place again, falling right against him. Instinctually, her hands clutch onto his shirt, pressing further against him in a manner that not even a hair thread of a space was left between them. She buried her face in his shoulder, ashamed, a soft groan coming from her which drowned in the noise surrounding them; and also, possibly the sound of his incessantly beating heart. He hated to admit it himself, and he’d blame it all on her, for having been missing from his life for longer than he allowed her to, but the sweet, fruity scent of her hair which seeped into his breath deliciously made his head pound in a desire he was too embarrassed to admit.

Sung Gyu didn’t know how or why it happened. He didn’t know when it started or what started it, but as of late, perhaps since that morning when Eunji crashed back into his life after disappearing for too long, Sung Gyu desired to kiss her. He wanted to feel her, to know that she’s there, in tangible, seeable distance, to initiate an intimacy he never had imagined himself to sought after. It wasn’t so obvious in the beginning, when all he wanted to do upon seeing her was hold her close and make up to all the time he had missed her; but then the closer she was to him, the closer he became, he felt it growing and nourishing within him like a vine winding around him, holding him in place. Earlier that day when she had fallen in to his arms, he had felt himself gradually unwind, almost, almost giving into what his heart wanted. He knew better of himself to be conscious than be driven by his heart. He knew where to stop, when to move away, where the limit to his desires fell. At that moment he was able to pull away from her, bury his wanting heart deep under his moral understanding; he kept his urges at bay, reminding himself that distance was a virtue.

But at that very moment, he felt his patience and good reasoning slipping away, stripping his wishes stark , and it felt to him, strangely so, that it was god’s plan all along.

But why would he want to kiss her? Was it the fact that he’s missed her and he had almost physically felt that pain? Was it that she was, has been for a very long time, the only and the closest female companion he had that he had naturally accepted that it was, somewhere in that time, bound to happen? Or was it…

…was it the rosiness of her lips, the breathtaking pink dust on her cheeks and the brilliance of thousand galaxies glimmering in her eyes? Sung Gyu would have moved. He would have bent down and captured those wanting lips with his, folded her in his embrace, promise her that it was where she belonged for the rest of her life. But no, Sung Gyu knew better of himself. Somewhere during that time of seeing her, knowing her and missing her, Sung Gyu has started wanting her. Though it appeared to be an obsession in the beginning, it might not have been the case at all. He lied in bed on long, sleepless nights, his mind wrapped around everything which made her, slowly realizing that it was far beyond an obsession. He also knew, through all his thoughts of her that she deserved a better life. A better man who could give her everything in the world she desired, a good life where all that she’d always have is happiness. Sung Gyu knew, being him, living in his circumstances, he was far from giving her what she truly deserved. The arrangement was simple. The strings of their lives never connected each other. The only one whom he connected to was her, and so he pushed himself on the path to the woman he deserved.

That was fair for the both of them. In his eyes, it was the only way he could work it out, the only way which made sense. Eunji deserved better. Much better than he could ever give her.

“You should be careful” Sung Gyu told her, finally finding his composure and good reasoning to move away. Eunji didn’t say anything, the embarrassed blush never left her face; and she was beautiful. So he pushed her, albeit gently, away from him. “You wouldn’t want to fall on your face, now, do you?”

He had unconsciously placed an arm around her, which he soon retrieved when it appeared that Eunji probably wasn’t going to make a move soon; flustered, embarrassed, so he gave her a softest of a smile and moved to bring his son between them, instead. She got the message only then, that he needed his personal space, and thankfully, just as she stepped away from him, the ride came to a gradual halt.

In a way, Sung Gyu felt that being denied of all his opportunities to devour her was somehow god hearing his pleas.

The dish came to an absolute halt, a bell rang and the crowd began to file out listlessly. Sung Gyu took Sung Jae’s hand in his, made to step out of it but then stopped upon realizing that Eunji wasn’t following them. He turned to her, only to find her lost and perplexed within the swarming crowd. He shook his head all to himself, reached out and took hold of the shoulder strap of her bag. “Come on”

Eunji followed after them only then, but quietly so which gave him the impression that there was possibly something more to her, something little more than being flustered that Sung gyu most willingly refused to find out.

Later that day, after having quite a hearty lunch of a stew of seafood freshly from the ocean below, Sung Gyu let Sung Jae be accompanied by Eunji and go on the water park rides. He had had enough rides to last a lifetime and there was nothing in the world anyone could do to make him do anything related to dunking into deep (or even shallow, he hated to choose) water. While the two of them played around in the warm, shallow pools, running around the tall fountains and sliding down endless water slides, Sung Gyu and his parents sat in beach chairs, Sung Gyu with his shades on, devouring a mocktail and relishing the early summer ambiance. He didn’t understand people who spent their entire summer vacation dipping in cold, salty water, basically drowning themselves in fishes’ and even human dirt. His idea of a good summer vacation only consisted of sitting under the sun, getting a good tan, having a cold drink and if he really needed to be in water, have a cold shower afterwards. But that didn’t stop him from letting his son have all the fun.

He had another good reason to avoid the pools (despite his obvious rivalry with large water bodies) and that was that he most definitely didn’t want to be in the same place as and remotely close to Jung Eunji in a bathing suit. It wasn’t that revealing, so to say; she’s been considerate enough to throw on a T-shirt covering her upper region, matched with shorts. Even still, the rest of her which was aesthetically emphasized by the dampness was somehow doing funny things to him. He tried his best to not spare a single glance at her, and his attempt to concentrate elsewhere has somehow put him in an uncomfortably brief sleep. By the time he woke up, both Sung Jae and Eunji were properly dressed and having ice cream.

“Where’s mine?” he asked them groggily, at which point his mother ed a store-bought ice-cream cone in a plastic container towards him. He’s never had ice cream right after a nap, so the brain-freezing sensation was in a wholly new level. He looked through his phone while holding the slowly melting ice cream in one hand, and froze when he saw a couple of missed calls in his log, all from Yoora. He looked around, surreptitiously looking if he had unnecessary attention from people in particular, before picking up his phone, ringing her number and walking away. Yoora picked up soon, as if she’s been waiting for it to ring the whole time. He apologized, telling her that he was having a nap, and when she laughed at him, elegant and graceful like everything else about her was, a small smile appeared on his lips, his heart felt lighter. It’s as if all his feelings for her had been tucked away snuggly in a bundle in the bottom of his heart and now has resurrected after she came back into his life. Although a large part of him was still hanging onto Eunji, unaware to him, he was going to hang onto even the little love he had left for Yoora, and make up for all the time they missed.

She asked him what kind of people napped on their birthday and he almost told her about the amusement park, but something made him hold back. They talked about Sung Jae very briefly, her not sounding very enthusiastic; if anything, she sounded very unsure and obligated. Sung Gyu decided to ignore the strange tone in her voice. They talked about the plans for that evening, he promised to meet her on that particular strip of the beach at six in the evening; after the call ended with briefly exchanged goodbyes, Sung Gyu consulted the time and then decided to summon his best friend to deal with the rest of the day.

By the time Woohyun turned up from wherever he disappeared to, it was already past six thirty and Sung Gyu was supposed to meet Yoora by seven. He couldn’t have him or any of them hanging around unless he wanted his secret out in the open before he admitted them himself so he hurriedly bid good bye to his parents who were absolutely tired and couldn’t care less, and hugged his son for a very long time. The expression on his face was…unreadable. His eyes were droopy, lips lopsided as if he’s upset about something but Sung Jae’s moods changed every ten seconds and he was much like himself, getting petty over even the smallest matter, so he held him, kissed him good bye and promised to be back home before late. Woohyun waved him good bye as he led his family out the entrance, but before he left, he stalked over to him in a rather haughty manner, gave him a brief hug and wished him a happy birthday. “Have a good time, hyung!” he told him, but by the time Sung Gyu registered the sense of what he was just told, Woohyun had already disappeared through the crowd.

It left him only Eunji to be sent off too, and he was unable to comprehend why she had stayed back when she could have accompanied Woohyun as well. He approached her, nevertheless, bearing in mind that he had to be quick, stuffed his hands in his pockets and feeling a bit flustered in a way he never had before, Sung Gyu shifted from one foot to the other. The evening was slowly beginning to turn to night, and the sun in the twilight was breathtaking. It was even more beautiful as Eunji stood there, the sunset setting a perfect scenery behind her. It was strange, but Sung Gyu was immediately reminded of Venus, the morning star, the one star to appear the first every sunset; the one star named after the goddess of love. Sung Gyu wanted to reach out and hold her hands then, but he couldn’t because he was pressing of time and he also had to send her home safely. He assumed that she had come by her own car (which he totaled but ended up helping her getting it repaired) and only stayed back for a proper goodbye.

“Well?” Sung Gyu voiced out, realizing that their prolonged silence and him seeing her even longer could possibly derail his heart. “I guess I should-,”

“I-I’ll…be back!” Eunji stammered suddenly and immediately became flustered once she realized his eyes had widened in shock. She pursed her lips, that same tinge of pink dusting her cheeks. “I mean, I’ll be back soon”

Though it appeared a rather peculiar way of bidding farewell, Sung Gyu accepted with a small laughter anyway. “Okay” He said, narrowing his eyes against warmly setting sun. “I’ll wait for you”

“R-really?” She responded to him, making this entire exchange even more perplexing. He didn’t think much, imagining that she was just playing it out, just the way that he did; so he gave her a warm smile and a brief pat on her arm. “Of course, I always do” He imagined that she was talking about coming back to his place after being missing this whole time, and the very thought made his smile wider, his heart lighter, and he realized, true to his words, he would, indeed, always wait for her.

“Okay” Eunji squeaked, quite literally and did a little embarrassed hop on her feet, like a bunny and it made his heart do funny things. She took a step back, then another, walking backwards towards the entrance and barely missing other patrons crowding the gate, and before she took her exit she turned back to him, cupped and called “I’ll be back soon!”

“I’ll wait!” Sung Gyu responded, cupping his mouth the same way as she did and realized it was for the best that they parted without an embrace. He would have held her closer and longer then, and that would have changed a lot of things. For the moment, he thought, lifting his hand in the air, giving her a quick wave, that briefest of a good bye will suffice. She was coming back again; whatever she meant at that moment, Sung Gyu knew by heart, he would always wait.

*

The sun has begun to set in the western sky, and slowly twilight turned into dusk. A single table sat on the shore, a silvery white cloth hanging from each side and slowly dancing in the wind. In the middle of it sat a container, a small cake inside. Sitting on the shore behind all of it, the inanimate objects being her sole company, Yoora hugged herself even further into her scarf and let out a sigh.

She knew it was a mistake to come early, especially given that she had always known Sung Gyu as someone who got consecutively late. But the time she had in dispense had given her the opportunity to prepare everything ahead of time and allow her mind to settle down from its incessant nervousness and uncertainty. Yoora’s been looking forward for this moment still. She’d put extra effort into it only so that she would be able to see him smile again. She could still recall that moment, contentedly so, the innocent, childlike smile and the hopeful glimmer in his eyes at the mention of his birthday. Sung Gyu might be three years older than her, but between them he always behaved younger, innocent and childlike. She had constantly found herself giving into his adoring charms, back then and maybe even now, despite him being the father for her son. And if anything, she treasured him in a way she had never imagined she would.

Yoora didn’t think it would happen the day she picked up the pieces of her shattering life and went in search for the only solace she could think of. The solace in her mind at that time definitely wasn’t him. In fact, it was more of her fulfilling a quest, a final attempt to put back the breaking pieces of her life together. She wanted her child back, not for any other reason. Yoora only wanted to prove a point, solve a problem which never should have come up. Somehow during that struggle of hers, the part of her life which she tried to save anyway broke away from her, floating further and further away. What surprised her was that she didn’t even try told it back and put them both together again. She let it go, and it took far too long to realize that one thing had led to another and that she no longer wanted to prove a point to anyone. There was only and only one thing she truly desired, and that was to yet again be important in someone’s life.

Even still, Yoora never realized, as she fought with him day and night, every single occasion they met, that she’d end up falling in love with him. He wasn’t important to her at first. In fact, he was more or less a mere fragment of her past and nothing more. But as time progressed, the old feelings slowly resurfaced, and she began to see the man she loved all through his uptight demeanor and exhausted eyes. He still was the Sung Gyu she knew; warm, kind, witty and considerate. The same Sung Gyu whose make up was only insecurities and complexities which Yoora had protected him from for so long. Underneath all that hardness, Kim Sung Gyu had never changed, and so her love renewed.

And no, she didn’t want to let him go again. Yoora knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Times have passed, things have changed, and the importance she held in his life was very little compared to how large the part Sung Jae played in it. But there was no competition; after all, Sung Jae was the result of all that they were. Though Yoora still had a difficult time coming into terms with the fact that a small nine-year old boy will always stand between them, she was definitely going to try.

The sound of footsteps behind her brought her back to her senses, and instinctively she felt his presence behind her. She had anticipated him, but deep down she had that fear he might still hold the grudge from all those years ago and probably not turn up tonight; so him actually being there was somewhat unexpected for her. She waited patiently all until he was close enough. A warm hand pressed on her shoulder, the touch sending an ecstatic sensation right through her skin. She looked up; his eyes brightened up by the gentle nightfall was beautiful.

“You’re here” She told him.

“I said I will come”

Yoora smiled, leaned over and kissed softly on his cheek. “Happy birthday”

*

Sung Gyu told her that he’d wait, she was certain that it was what he said, what he meant, that she didn’t hear it wrong; but when she returned and looked for him everywhere she could think of, there wasn’t a trace of him left. He hadn’t waited for her, he has left.

Right after Sung Gyu sent the rest of his family away (that wasn’t exactly in the plan. Sung Jae was supposed to stay. But how could either of them say anything when what’s to come was a surprise?) Eunji’s wishful thinking had imagined that he had wanted to spend the rest of the time alone with her; only the two of them together. She had imagined that, whatever he had insinuated throughout the day was going to flourish at the end of it, that lots of things were about to change. But what she didn’t realize was that there was no way that any of them could be true. Sung gyu was in love with the woman whom he’s been in love with his whole life; and even a second spent with Eunji in a moment of sheer intimacy was nothing but a fragment of imagination in her mind.

She went back home according to plan, and fetched the cake she had made for him earlier. It wasn’t much, and her baking skills weren’t much to speak of, but this particular cake held so much of meaning to her, to the both of them. When she was carefully placing it in the front seat, Woohyun’s car pulled into the drive way. He gave her a knowing look as he passed by, halted near the doorway and came back to her.

“So, he stayed back at the park?” Woohyun asked her, eyeing the container with the cake set on the seat.

“Yeah” Eunji nodded, recalling the last exchange they had, which was magical in a very eccentric way. “He said he would wait…”

“Hyung’s mother said he stayed back to see an old friend”

“Well, I don’t know…” Eunji shily tucked a fringe of hair behind her ear. “He said he’d wait” she tried not to think of the tone he spoke in at that moment, when he said he’d wait, when he said that he always did…

She smiled to herself, one which was inevitable and beyond her control, just like the beating of her heart. Every thought and memory of him seemed to drive her crazy, and more than anything, all she wanted was to see him again. “I better get going”

Eunji had almost made it into the car when Woohyun reached out and held her back with her arm. There was an unreadable emotion etched on his face, yet Eunji realized it was similar to the one he wore when he became the undeniably possessive older brother. Eunji knew what that meant. Woohyun was always a step ahead of her in perceiving things.

“Eunji” he said, retrieved his hand and tucked it inside his pocket. “I don’t know what’s happening, but if anything…well, if it doesn’t go as planned, just…just talk to me, okay?” Woohyun’s ears were red as he awkwardly scratched the back of his head. Woohyun was well capable of being the overprotective one, but he still failed immensely in trying to be the caring kind. “I…don’t want you to be worrying on your own”

“Okay” Eunji smiled, patted on his arm, got into her car and drove away. During that drive, she had imagined hundred many scenarios, all of them involving her and Sung Gyu together. She had been immersed in her thoughts of him so much so that she wasn’t even prepared for it when she arrived and couldn’t find Sung Gyu where she left him. Mild panic settled in the pit of her stomach, together with sadness and confusion. Eunji could swear that she heard it right; Sung Gyu said he would wait, he said that he always did. But why wasn’t he waiting for her now?

After having gone to every nook and cranny of the over-crowded amusement park, Eunji’s energy and will was considerably drained. She sat down on a lone bench, all by herself among so many people, their worlds so different from her own and looked at the elegantly lit sky before her. The horizon was illuminated by the lights coming from the harbor, yet the stars were brilliantly visible up above. In a matter of a few minutes, larger, more brilliant stars of various colors and patterns will litter the dark sky, and she imagined everyone would be delighted. Everyone except for her since everything she’s planned for had already drowned and disappeared. Onto the side, the Ferris wheel stood magnificently against the lavender sky, rotating slowly as the time passed. If she looked closely she would see a massive rolled up taffeta hung across its diameter, ready to be unfurled when the time comes. Letting out a long sigh, Eunji balanced the cake slowly on the bench next to her and looked down at her watch, there was only fifteen minutes to go. In fifteen minutes, the truest celebration of his birthday would begin, but only, he won’t be there to see it all unfold.

The very thought of having everything ruined brought tears into her eyes. She didn’t realize that she’s been blocking up her emotions the whole time, trying to hold onto the thinnest hair-thread of hope that he would finally emerge from somewhere and tell her that he did indeed wait. But as the time ticked away, she couldn’t hold on any longer. It was as if she was in love with a man who would only and always break her heart. Eunji didn’t imagine that she would be soon reduced to tears, but when her vision blurred, she knew that she had.

That’s exactly the moment when her phone rang, and Eunji soon wiped off her eyes, thinking that it was him who waited for her, now trying to find her. Never had she ever been so disappointed upon seeing Woohyun’s name in her contact display.

“How is it going, Eunji?” was the first thing he asked her; but hearing his voice made her realize things that she had failed to grasp, and that was that Woohyun had always been right. That made her heart break even further.

“I can’t find him, Woohyun” Eunji muttered to him, her voice cracking as she broke into tears. “He told me he would wait but I can’t find him”

*

Sung gyu stood by the edge of the shore, watching the cold waves as they lingered on his bare feet. There was a small, contented smile gracing his lips, and though his hands were buried deep in his pockets, they were clasped in tight fists, something he did when he was embarrassed as well as undeniably content. It was strange, how he felt happy and sad at the same time. It was as if his life had finally fallen into the right tracks, but still he was unsure what the right tracks were. On his right, her long, expensive scarf flailed vigorously in the wind. Yoora was beautiful tonight; her dark hair cascaded down her shoulders but still danced elegantly in the wind, and a contented smile remained constantly on her petal-soft lips. She had gone all out on his birthday, and he couldn’t help but think all the way back to that day when they stood on this very same beach, hand in hand, imagining an entire life together. Lots of things have changed since then. The Yoora who stood there wasn’t the Yoora who was with him on that memorable day so many years ago, but knowing that she was there in an arm’s distance was enough for him. It felt great to finally belong to someone, to know that she would go out of her way to make him happy.

They’ve already cut cake; a small store-bought one with layers of fruit and cream on the top, but that was okay because Yoora hadn’t been the best cook anyway. Afterwards they talked, they talked a lot, and for the first time ever the two of them finally touched the topic of who they were for each other. Who was she for him? Who was he for her? Where did they stand in each other’s lives? Where will they be if they continued to see each other? Sung Gyu tried to be as honest as he could be, but disbelievingly so, he was in love with two beautiful women at the same time, and that wasn’t exactly something he could possibly admit. Sung Gyu was afraid to admit it to himself, and for him, now, the only way it made sense was making that choice to be with Yoora for once and forever. It wasn’t a difficult decision to begin with, but he found himself telling her that he had only her in his mind. Somewhere during that time then, Yoora had looked up at him, their eyes met, and his heart skipped a beat when she smiled. She asked him then, in almost a soft whisper; “Sung Gyu, would you like us to start all over again?”

And right now, as he stood on the shore, his bare feet sinking into the damp sand, that’s what he was thinking about. Did he want to start again? With her? All from the beginning? He was taking longer than time allowed him to, to think it through. He didn’t answer yet, his hands still in a tight fist, holding in all of his anxiety as he plunged into his thoughts.

“I think I want to” Yoora told him all of a sudden, interrupting his thoughts. He turned to look at her, and her eyes shined under the lights coming from the ocean ahead. “I want to start all over again, Sung gyu. It’s something I’ve given a lot of thoughts on; if I was ready, if it was the right way. But the more I thought, the more the realization came to me, that you and me together, the three of us as family was the only way things made sense…”

A sad smile curled up on his lips, realizing that it’s been exactly what he’d wished for, all his life, and exactly what she’d run away from. A family, the three of them together. That’s the only way it made sense in his mind as well, but hearing it from her, the very same person who ran away and crushed that dream of his, Sung Gyu was adamant and afraid to admit the truth. He was scared if she would pick up and run away again. She still didn’t seem comfortable with the idea of Sung Jae being there between them. It didn’t appear as if that’s what she truly wanted in her life.

“I don’t know…Yoora” Sung Gyu sighed and finally lifted his gaze up at the night sky. “I don’t know you…or anything. Everything is just standing on the pin point of a needle and I just…don’t want to jump into a decision just yet”

Yoora nodded, pursing her lips and taking her time to think. “Is it because of that girl?”

Sung Gyu turned to her and gave her a sharp look. “It’s got nothing to do with that girl”

She nodded again, the shine in her eyes have begun to dissipate slowly. “It’s because of me, then. You think I’d run away again”

His eyes fluttered close as he pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose. “Yoora, you don’t have to put it like that”

“That is, isn’t it?” She pushed on, smiling sadly and took a step towards him. “You think I’d suddenly disappear”

Sung Gyu took a moment to compose himself, but he couldn’t. She had already gotten to the bottom of his nerves and he had no reason to hold back, nothing to lose. “Well what if you do? What if you do leave me and Sung Jae behind and disappear again? What am I supposed to do then?”

Yoora’s face darkened, realizing that it had taken a certainly unexpected turn. “Sung Gyu…”

“What will I do, then, Yoora?” Sung Gyu pushed on, taking a step towards her. “You know how much I searched for you, you know how much I suffered. It took so much and too long for me to finally get over it, and I don’t-no-I can’t let you mess me up again, Yoora”

A moment of utter silence followed afterwards, the only sound between them being the slow rumble of the crashing waves. Yoora took a step towards him, Sung Gyu had turned to face her somehow, and now they stood just inches apart from each other. “What if I do mess you up…Sung Gyu?” She asked him, and then, without warning, an unworldly sensation prickled under his skin. Sung Gyu didn’t respond, Yoora took yet another step towards him. “What if I do mess you up…in the best way possible. Not running away from you, staying by your side for the rest of my life…what if I do mess you up again?”

Sung Gyu could swear his heart stopped beating the minute he met her eyes, and soon he was falling, further and deeper into the world she held within them. “Y-Yoora…”

“Let me try, Sung Gyu…give me chance, just this once….” She took a step towards him, and then another until they stood pressed together; hands on hands, hearts beating in sync, and when Sung Gyu slowly lowered his head, the tip of his nose brushed against hers. It occurred to him, then, that the only woman whom he would kiss on that day would be her. Yoora threw her arms around his neck and brought him close to her. “Just this once…and I promise you, I will be with you, every passing day. I will make you happy again. Would you let me do that?”

Sung Gyu didn’t respond to her. He didn’t have to. Not with words, at least. He leaned down, put his arms around her, closed his eyes and captured her lips with his. He felt her respond to him, just in the same way, the same passion and intensity. But the moment of intimacy could last only so long. When his phone vibrated incessantly in his pocket, Sung Gyu had to pull away from her.

“Don’t take it” She told him.

“I have to” He said, not looking up at her. “It’s Woohyun”

And the first thing Woohyun told him upon him picking up was; “You ing Jackass”

Sung Gyu frowned, lowered his phoned, his frown deepening at it, pressed it to his ear again and walked away from her. “Woohyun?”

“Bloody, bloody jerk. I knew I should have never trusted her with you”

“W-what?” Sung Gyu shook his head, perplexed. “What are you talking about?”

“You, of course!” Woohyun exclaimed angrily and Sung Gyu would have thought he’d fling the phone across the room. “You told her you would wait, and she’s still ing waiting for you hyung!”

“Who? What?” Sung Gyu really wasn’t following.

“Eunji, you ing jerk!”

It took a moment to put two and two together but nothing made sense. He did say, somewhere in that evening, that he would wait. But that didn’t literally mean that he would. He was only answering her question when she asked…

“” Sung Gyu said. “So when she asked-,”

“She was actually coming back for you, hyung. Now she’s there all on her own while you’re…I don’t know, doing god knows what!”

A strange emotion which he could exactly pin point seeped through him, one he could only relate to protectiveness, fear, and he clutched onto the phone even harder. “Woohyun, where is she?”

“I don’t know, she wouldn’t tell me!” Woohyun sighed as if he was trying to gather his patience. “Hyung, she’s out there in the park, somewhere, and if you don’t find her right now, I swear to god-,”

Sung Gyu didn’t wait to hear the rest of what he had to say. In fact, he didn’t wait for anything. He took off just the very instant, not even stopping to excuse himself from Yoora, or to grab his sandals. On his sheer bare feet, Sung Gyu made it up and across the shore, towards the amusement park, straight in through where he came from and searched for her in every nook and cranny he could see. He had to find her, or he’d never, ever, forgive himself.

Sung gyu searched for her everywhere he could think of; and being on his bare feet, there was only so many places he could go to, and even if they hurt, he couldn’t care less; knowing that Eunji was probably hurting even more. The crowd in the park had thickened as the night progressed, and the fact that the water park was closed, lessened the places that he had to search in. He looked in the rides, every hut and every bench he could remember. He asked around from people who cared to respond (that was very little, considering that he looked very much like a mad man) He couldn’t reach her on her phone; every time he called, he was led to voice mail. After searching until he had no energy left, Sung Gyu stood smack dab in the middle of the dispersing crowd, hundreds of faces he had never known, and him lost among them. He tried to catch his breath before he would try to call her again. He did try, the phone, this time around, seemed to connect but his patience was slipping as it took so long. Just at the moment a crackle sounded on the other end, a loud explosion came from behind him. The crowd around him began to loudly respond, making his irritation grow a tenfold. It took him a moment to register that bright, colorful lights have started to illuminate everything around him.

Up in the sky were hundreds and thousands of small, blistering stars, stars of all colors and shapes, exploding on and on. They started with a hiss and inflated into massive, brilliant hues of colors. Firework. It didn’t take long for him to realize who was responsible for them, whom they were for, and that very thought gave in indescribable pain wrenching his heart. “Eunji…”

Sung Gyu could see it all now. That’s what she meant when she left. In a moment of excitement and frenzy, she hadn’t managed to get the message through; but that’s what she truly meant. She was coming back to him, he was supposed to wait so that he could see the rest of the surprise together with her, just as she had it all planned.

All until Sung Gyu had gone ahead and ruined it everything.

It took a moment for him to realize that his phone was still pressed on his ear, and that she had picked up from the other end. The excited chatter of the people along with the hisses and explosion of the firework could be heard from the other end, but she didn’t speak.

“Eunji? Eunji!” Sung Gyu exclaimed into the phone, walking further away from the loudly conversing crowd. “Eunji where are you?” And with a thick gulp, he added; “I’m here. I’m sorry I couldn’t wait, but I have to find you…”

Eunji’s soft voice, even through the incessant chaos around them, was enough to lift his heart. “I…I don’t know…”

Sung Gyu stood up straight and started to run his eyes through the crowd. “Wait there, just wait there and tell me where you are…what’s there around you?”

She didn’t tell him much; just that she could see lots of people and that there were benches and that she could see the Ferris wheel from where she stood. Sung Gyu swarmed through the crowd anyway, trying to catch even a glimpse of her as he did, and he finally came to a clearing, a clearing which was lined with benches, people seated in a few of them, and the Ferris wheel right in his visible distance…

That’s when he saw it. A large red and white banner hung right across the Ferris wheel, slowly dancing in the wind. The wheel had stopped moving entirely and the words; “Happy birthday to world’s best dad” on the banner stood out in the darkened sky surrounding it like a beacon. Sung Gyu held his breath and staggered backwards until his feet pressed on a stone bench, and he sat down, trying to compose himself.

Eunji did it for him, she did all of it for him, but he had wrecked it all. He looked far ahead, at how the fireworks still peppered the dark sky in tiny, sparkling stars of brilliant colors, the rest of the world watching it, not knowing that it’s been all for him. He couldn’t believe that he had abandoned her, left her behind for the shadows of his past even after she’d done so much for him. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t found her, and told her just how much her and everything she’s done for him, meant to him. So, he finally willed himself to ring her again. Soon, he could hear the familiar ring tone erupting from his right. He looked in the general direction of the sound, and warmth settled in as well as relief. A small smile spread across his lips as his eyes fell on the familiar sight of her. She picked up the phone but didn’t speak again, so he told her, albeit gently; “I found you”

*

When she was still a little girl, Eunji’s father took her to amusement parks and carnivals myriad times. The thing was though, Eunji was a free spirit who always wandered off on her own, and almost always, she’d found herself standing in the middle of a crowd of nameless, faceless people, utterly confused and lost. It took ages for her father to find her, and in case she’d wander further away from him, Eunji was instructed to stay exactly where she was the moment she realized she was alone. “Just wait there, I will find you” was what he always told her. And the moment that he did, though it had taken him so long, Eunji would always feel that great sense of protection and relief enfolding her, and she’d know, right at that moment, that she’d be okay in his arms.

That’s exactly what she felt at that moment when years later, the time when a rather grown up Eunji lost herself in a nameless, faceless crowd, Sung Gyu found her and closed her in his strong arms. “I’ve got you, okay?” he whispered in her ear, and Eunji felt like breaking into tears then and there. She didn’t think he would come for her, she didn’t think he would be there. But the moment she heard his voice over the phone, Eunji knew, she had expected him to come to her, find her, from deep within her heart.

Nothing had ever been more comforting and reassuring than the warmth that she felt in his embrace. He didn’t hold her for too long, and that was fine because if he did, she could swear she’d start crying. But still he did have his arm around her as he spoke to Woohyun and promised him he wouldn’t let her drive by herself. It took them a moment to settle down, and by the time they did, the next round of fire works had already begun.

Sung Gyu sat beside her on the bench, and when she looked down, she saw it. His feet were bear, and it made her heart tighten. She didn’t know where he must have been, this whole time; quite frankly, though, she didn’t really care. It could have been that he made a mistake; perhaps they both did, provided that it was her who hadn’t given the message through; but there was only so many people who would go to the extent of searching for on his bare feet. Sung Gyu was a man who had so much of fried, so many things at stake, and to think that he would still do this for her…

“I’m sorry, Eunji, I’m sorry I ed up” Sung Gyu told her after a moment, and it took so much of her will-power to hold herself back from holding his hand. His voice was so soft and so…painful. Eunji felt an indescribable amount of regret within her. She had acted up for no reason at all.

“Don’t say that, I’m at fault too…” Eunji responded, and she sounded smaller and more exhausted than she had imagined. “I should have told you first. It’s my fault, honestly”

“But still” Sung Gyu sighed and started to tug at each of his fingers. “You planned this all for me and I ruined everything”

“You didn’t” Eunji reassured and tried to smile. “It’s still going on…see?”

And true to her words, a second round of fireworks was illuminating the sky above them in brilliant lights of different colors; only the Ferris wheel started to move, and the banner was crooked to a side.

“But it’s not the same. This is not how you had it planned” Sung Gyu pushed on in a sincerely apologetic tone. “I’m sure you had so much more in your mind”

“Sung Jae was supposed to be here” Eunji told him before she could stop herself, because whatever happened, she still didn’t think it was fair to part with him. Then she added quite uncertainly; “And the three of us were supposed to watch the firework, cut cake and celebrate together”

“cut…cake?” Sung Gyu asked in a voice even more pained, and Eunji remained quiet but he still managed to find the cake still in its plastic container, sitting on her side. An expression full of regret crossed his gentle features, and he ran a hand through his dark, damp hair. “Oh god, Eunji, I’m so sorry”

“Don’t be, it’s just a cake” Eunji smiled, but that didn’t seem to lessen his guilt.

“I’ll make it up to you, I promise I will” Sung Gyu told her, looking determined. “I ed up bad, Eunji, and I’m truly, honestly-,”

“It’s okay, boss. We all make, mistakes” Eunji told him in response, and patted sloly on his and, trying to act the best she could to give him the impression that she didn’t mind, even though, deep down, she still might.

“It was a terrible mistake” Sung Gyu continued and looked up at the sky. “And the fireworks are over. I missed half of it, Sung Jae missed all of it…”

“It’s just fireworks, boss. It’s no big deal”

Sung Gyu was quiet for a moment, staring ahead, his eyes gentle but distant. Eunji looked down at his bare feet; pinkish and evident red spots where he had hurt himself. It wasn’t so difficult to forgive him. In fact, even if he never came to her, she would have forgiven him anyway. Eunji didn’t have the strength or the heart to be mad at him for too long.

“Eunji…” he voiced out after a moment, turned to face her and even though she was avoiding his gaze, she could feel him bearing his eyes solely on her. “Please don’t act so tough in front of me, I know you’re hurt and upset, I know I did wrong, and-,”

Eunji bit on her lip, hard. “That doesn’t change anything now, does it?”

Sung Gyu took a deep breath. “Eunji…”

The last of the firework exploded in the sky. The banner had completely fallen off its hinges and someone was on a crane, rolling it up again.

“Let’s just go home, boss” Eunji told him in the end.

Later on, Sung Gyu held onto the sleeve of her jacket as they threaded through the crowd in silence, and Eunji held the container with the cake in, securely against her chest. He didn’t tell her where she being led to, and Eunji didn’t dare ask him since, for some reason Eunji could imagine where he could have been before he came in search for her; his missing sandals gave her an inkling. She refused to think further than that.

Just had she had imagined, they soon approached a small strip of a secluded beach, just lining the overly-crowded amusement park. It was more peaceful and calmer there, the wind carrying the salty scent was chilling but pacifying. He stopped just above the shore, turned to her and placed a hand on her arm. He seemed so conflicted, uncertain, but she didn’t dare say a word. “Stay here, okay? Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back in a second” Eunji nodded. She didn’t ask anything. She didn’t wonder whom he could have been with. She didn’t think about what could have transpired within that time. She just nodded, and gazed after him as he disappeared down the slope.

It didn’t take him much long to emerge from the beach, and except for the sandals now fastened on his feet, nothing seemed to have changed. The conflicted expression was still on his face, and maybe a look of slight confusion; he wasn’t exactly in his sense as if something bad or unexpected had happened. Eunji decided not to ask him that either, not even whether he was alright. He was quiet as he grasped her sleeve again and pulled through the soon thinning crowd, all until they arrived at the car park; and only then did he speak, solely to ask what they were going to do with her car. The manager and staff had promised to keep an eye on it, and was securely parked within the curbs of the director’s office before they left. Eunji quietly slipped into the driver’s seat, the cake still in its container placed carefully in her lap, and focused her eyes only on the night sky and hurriedly passing strip of the ocean beyond them. She was relieved to find the road almost empty and traffic-less. It took them less than thirty minutes to finally reach her place. The gates were already open, but Woohyun’s side of the house was only lighted by a single lamp. He had already gone to sleep. Sung Gyu, unlike the other times, pulled straight into the driveway. Usually he stopped outside the gate, drop her to the door and wait until she went inside. She imagined that it was his way of making up to her, doing small, meaningful things in the best way he could.

But then, much to her sheer surprise, Sung Gyu climbed out of the car, following her, and when she had thought that he was only going to drop her to the door, he went straight ahead and proceeded to enter the pass code. Eunji clutched the container further against her, looking at him, perplexed. “You’re coming in?” She asked him in a small, confused voice. “Woohyun’s gone to sleep though…”

“Well…” He began, turned to her and gave her one dazzling smile. “Let’s just say that I have something to do here”

The door clicked, and they went in. But he halted just in the hallway, turned to her and took the cake gently from her hands. “Do you have candles?”

“What?”

Sung gyu smiled again and walked in the direction of the kitchen, a place which Sung Gyu, having been there for countless times, it seemed, was very well accustomed to. He was looking through the cupboards when she finally went inside. “What are you doing?”

“We, Eunji” Sung Gyu answered distractedly as he retrieved two forks from a kitchen cabinet. “Are going to celebrate”

“N-now?” Eunji asked, her eyes immediately going to the clock. Sung Gyu followed her eyes and gave her a non-committal shrug. “There’s fifteen minutes left”

In the end, Eunji found herself giving into him because, well, it was Sung Gyu and she almost effortlessly, always did. She found herself seated in the large but quiet kitchen, illuminated by only the lamps in the garden, Sung Gyu seated on chair before her and the cake placed on the table between them. On top of the cake was a single lighted candle, its flame dancing gently and forming shadows behind them.

The cake was her best attempts on the first one she made with Sung Gyu for Sung Jae almost a year ago. Thinking back to that time, she could still remember how much she hated him, how much she despised just going there in the mornings. It was hard to believe how everything have changed, how her least favorite people were now the ones she loved the most, and how the place she didn’t want to be in has now become her safe haven. When Eunji looked at him upon revealing the cake, she couldn’t let out a small giggle. He was duly surprised by her creation a tinge of nostalgia flicked through his eyes, never to appear again. But he told her in a whisper, lest they woke up the baby, that he’s impressed she had mastered the art of making the infamous ‘strawberry Jell-O cake’

Eunji’s sour mood had considerably waned away ever since he entered their home made the dull place thousand times brighter with only so much as a single smile. She smiled more frequently, giggled in odd occasions and laughed quietly when he’d break a joke in a whisper, followed by pressing a finger on his lips though he couldn’t hold his laughter himself. In more than one occasion, she found herself gazing at him; warmly, lovingly, thankful that still had him in her life. Even right then, at that moment, she watched him without batting an eye, watching him expectantly as he was about to blow the candle.

He closed his eyes, she smiled and whispered; “Make a wish”

Sung Gyu nodded to himself, leaned over and prepared to blow the candle away. He was quiet for a while, his hands clasped together before him, head lowered, like he was praying. Eunji imagined that he had a wish which was rather long so she waited patiently when all of a sudden, he fluttered open his eyes.

“I wish…” He began, and Eunji held up a hand. “You shouldn’t say it out loud!” She hissed at him.

“Why not?” Sung Gyu raised his brows. “It’s for the wish granter to hear it loud and clear”

Eunji put down her hand and laughed. “You’re mad boss”

Sung Gyu smiled in response, looked ahead and cleared his throat. “Dear wish granter…my only wish on my birthday is that…” he trailed away, and slowly, the atmosphere shifted, his eyes met hers, no longer smiling but an expression so sincere and enthralling was reflected in his eyes. “Where she is, whatever she does, whoever she is with…I want Eunji to be happy. I want her to be seen for her truest worth, I want everyone to know what an incredible person she is, and I want her to know that…no matter what happened, she is important, she is precious, and it’s her happiness which mattered the most…”

Eunji didn’t realize her tears were already trickling down her cheeks. It wasn’t the first time. He had told her, pointed out to her, reassured her that she was a lot more than she had imagined herself to be; but every time he told her, it was like the first time. Just hearing from him meant so much to her, just knowing that she was indeed an important person, a large part in his life was enough to lift her spirit, make her happy. It was enough to make her see her worth, and to know that if there was one reason worth her living, that was him.

Eunji didn’t reply, nonetheless. She didn’t want to ruin the magical moment, so she only smiled. Sung Gyu smiled back at her. “And also, I wish she will come over even in the mornings. I know it will be difficult but I…we missed her. We miss her a lot.”

“I…guess the wish can be granted” Eunji whispered in response, holding back her tears.

“Okay” Sung Gyu whispered, smiled, leaned over and blew the candle away.

*

Monday mornings weren’t any better than the rest of the week. If anything, they were duller, darker, sleepier, and the house only seemed as twice as somber than it did on every other day. What Sung Gyu didn’t realize, when he trudged into the kitchen, doing his tie in a haste and looking at the large pile of dirty dishes dejectedly, that their Monday morning were going to soon completely change.

It started out, as always, with an incessant ringing on the front door. Sung Gyu hated the early morning visitors; and the fact that the Kim’s residence didn’t really have many didn’t occur to him once as he hurried across the hallway and pulled open the front door.

“Hi!” A loud but an increasingly familiar voice greeted him. It took him a moment too long to register that Eunji, his baby sitter was standing there, in person, at his front door after having been missing from this place for far too long.

“You came” Sung Gyu told her distractedly, and Eunji gave him a perplexed look. “You asked me to”

“Nope, I didn’t” Sung Gyu told her, already feeling the sour mood from that morning slowly wash away. “I just made a wish”

“Same” Eunji rolled her eyes and walked down into the kitchen, her dark hair swishing back and forth behind her. Sung Gyu could swear, just by her appearance in his place, the house had become brighter a tenfold. “Where’s Sung Jae?”

“He’s still in the bath” Sung Gyu told her as he sat down in a kitchen chair and watched her, as if etching an image of her existing in his kitchen was all he needed to last a life-time. Perhaps it was the truth.

Eunji didn’t say anything. She merely hummed, walked further into the kitchen and stopped right before the mountain of dirty dishes and cutlery in the sink. “Why am I always coming home for a pile dirty dishes, for god’s sake!”

“Must be fate” Sung Gyu responded with a smile. She called it home, she called their place home, and Sung Gyu would never admit it to himself but her coming home to him was truly a fact he could always live by.

Author's note

Apologies for taking too long and I hate to give excuses but i'm giving anyway I have seven cats and three of them got the flue, the oldest had it really bad, and I had to tend for her for a week. Also, I wanted to focus a bit on other stories and I thought a break on this one would do it good. I guess that's true.

On the other hand, thank you from the bottom of my heart, everyone who supported me all throughout this journey. It has come a long way (2 years) and also have very little left to go. I don't want it to drag. It would lose its colors; so another 5 to 10 chapters, maybe? Anyway, while reading this, I would really, really appreciate it if you support my other stories too. They won't be much different from the rest.

Don't hesitate to talk to me if anything, and you can reach me whenever you wish to. I'm always around.

Loads and loads of love,

Achini.