The first thing Seyong does, is leads me to the mall. He energetically drags me in and out of the various stalls, and animatedly points out and shows me all of the things that he likes, dislikes, or finds funny. Due to my short responses, I think he thinks that I might be feeling bored, because he suddenly starts pointing to certain clothes and cute accessories that he thinks I should try on, or how nice those rollerblades look.

I want to smile, but I’m still a little gloomy, and when I look down at our connected hands, I feel confused.

“Hey,” I begin, which catches his attention right away. “This,” I say, and then hold up our interlinked fingers, “Is not part of the deal.”

Seyong pouts and I can feel him give my hand a slight squeeze. “It took a lot of effort to get you out of your room,” he says. “I don’t want all of my hard work to be a waste, if you decide to ditch me or something.”

Groaning, I mumble words of exasperation under my breath.

“Fine, you know what?” he speaks up, from out of nowhere. “If you’re going to mope all day like this, then I guess I’m just going to have to let you cry it all out.”

I give him a puzzled look, but he just smirks at me.

Giving my hand a tug, he then changes his direction, and begins to lead me elsewhere. We soon end up in front of a restaurant, and once inside, we get seated right away. I take the menu to have a look, but the only thing that Seyong allows me to order is water. My eyebrows furrow at him, but he says that the food will be a surprise, so I don’t have much of a choice, but to go with what he has in mind.

The food shortly comes out, and as wonderful as they all taste, I feel as though my tastebuds are about to die.

Everything is just so spicy!

It’s so hot, that it’s enough to make us both teary, but we don’t stop eating, even though it feels as though we’re setting our tongues on fire, and this is when I’m aware of what he means by ‘letting me cry it all out’.

When we finish eating, Seyong lets out a satisfied sigh. “So do you still want to cry some more, or should we go and cool down?” he jests.

“I think that’s enough for the day,” I reply, with a little laugh. “But thanks for letting me cry over my dying tongue.”

Seyong shrugs, “Hey, at least our chilli tolerance has increased.”

When we get the bill, Seyong pays for the meal at lightning speed. He then takes a hold of my hand to snap me out of my thoughts, and then begins to lead me out of the place, and then back down the streets. My eyes land on out interlinked fingers, and I stare at it for a while. Seyong’s hand feels nice and comforting in my own, and I slightly smile at this.

It’s actually not so bad...

My eyes then look up at his face, to see him pondering to himself.

He appears to be searching for something, and I feel myself soften; I guess he must have been really worried about me, to go out of his way to cheer me up.

“Oh, there it is!” perks up Seyong’s bright voice.

I look towards the direction of his gaze, to see an ice cream shop.

“Come on, let’s go!” he encourages, while giving me a tug.

I don’t fight back, and just let my legs follow his lead. We soon reach the glass doors, and giving it a push, Seyong is such a gentleman, because he lets it hit my face, as he had only opened it wide enough for himself to slip through.

And to make matters worse, he suddenly starts cackling at me, once he realises what has happened.

“You are a horrible person!” I yell out, while giving my forehead a rub.

“Oh God, I’m sorry, but it’s just—hahaha, your face!” He cries out, “It was all squished on the glass and—bahahaha!”

I growl, fuming at his laughter. “Okay, I’m leaving,” I simply say.

This makes Seyong stop. “Huh?” he says with wide eyes. “No no no, I did not take you all the way out here, just for you to head back home so quickly!”

“And I didn’t allow you to take me all the way out here, just so you can laugh at me!” I defend.

“Okay okay,” he surrenders. “I’m sorry for laughing at you.”

I give him a sceptical look, because his ‘apology’ doesn’t sound sincere one bit.

And I’m right, because he suddenly bursts out laughing again.

“I’m sorry, but it was just really funny!” he says, in between his sniggering.

I roll my eyes at him, and, leaving him behind, decide to make my way over towards all the ice cream, to see the available flavours.

“Hi,” greets the male worker. “What can I get you?”

Hey, he looks kind of familiar…

“Hey, um…” I dismiss that thought, as my eyes begin to skim over the flavours, “I’ll get a…”

“Hyeri-yah, what are you getting?” questions Seyong, as he bounces towards me, and then proceeds to casually drape an arm over me.

I give him a weird look, just before shrugging his arm off of my shoulders. “I don’t know, everything’s a little overwhelming,” I truthfully admit. “What are you getting?”

“Hmm,” Seyong hums out loud.

I watch as his eyes travel over the many different coloured boxes in thought, and as this happens, I can feel something, or more like someone, staring at me.

“Hey…” says the worker, rather cautiously. “Your name wouldn’t happen to be Lee Hyeri, would it?”

I blink at him, and reply in a cautious manner; “And what if it is…?”

His eyes brighten up slightly, “Really? Then is it really you, noona?”

Seyong is startled by this, as he gives me a “Who is this crazy guy?” look, and because I’m just as surprised, I give him a subtle shrug back, as if to say, “How am I supposed to know?!”

Because really, how am I supposed to know?

“Riri noona, it’s me,” continues the worker.

And once I hear that nickname leave his mouth, I gasp.

There was only one person who called me Riri noona, and it was—

“Daehyun?!” I blurt out.

Baffled, Seyong turns to stare at me in bewilderment. “You said you didn’t know him!” he hisses, only loud enough for me to hear.

I easily brush his remark away, as I go to study the ice cream worker’s features, now knowing why he looked so familiar. “Daehyun-ah, oh wow, I just...wow,” I ramble a bit, still having some slight trouble of taking in this random encounter. “You’ve…you’ve grown a lot!”

And by a lot, I mean a lot.

He use to have jet black, mop-like hair, and would only reach up to my chest. We use to run around and play hide and seek together, until he and his family had to move back to Busan. But now he has bleached blonde hair, cut into a messy style that really suits him. Puberty had also deepened his voice, and has allowed him to stand a head or so taller than me.

Who knew that I would be seeing the same little boy from many, many years ago, working at an ice cream store?

Daehyun smiles at me, (a really handsome smile, I might add) and it’s only then that I notice just how good puberty had been to him. “I’ve been very well, thank you,” he answers. “And how about you?”

“Good,” I say, “I’m getting ready for my last year of school, and I just know that it’s going to be crazy, ugh.”

He chuckles slightly. “But noona, I know you’re smart, so you can do it,” he says. “I know you’re capable, by just looking at you.”

I let out a giggle, and then flick my wrist at him, “Oh stop it, you silly thing.”

“Ahem,” interrupts a voice from out of nowhere.

Daehyun and I stop smiling at each other, and then turn to a certain red-head. “Look, I hate to break up your little reunion thing, but there’s people waiting behind us,” Seyong points out. “So let’s quickly order, so we can leave, yeah?”

“Oh, would you like a menu?” offers Daehyun. He then turns his attention back over to me, “If you eat here, then we’ll be able to catch up.”

Beaming at him, I nod at the idea, liking it very much. “Wonderful!” I agree, and then grab a copy of a menu. “We’ll be sitting over there!”

Daehyun nods, and then starts to take the order of a mother and her two kids from behind us, as I proceed to make my way towards an empty table.

Plopping myself into the booth, I then begin to read over the other possible ice cream desserts to order. Seyong eventually sits down next to me, (but rather reluctantly) and for some reason, I feel as though the room’s temperature has suddenly dropped by a few degrees.

“So, do you want to fill me in on who that is?”