Minhee obediently closed the door, then the moment she closed it she heard Tiffany break into wails again, “Sir, what exactly is happening here? Why is Tiffany crying so hard?” Minhee asked angrily, “You didn’t do anything bad to her, did you?”

“No.” The man sighed, “I’m afraid it’s a lot worse than that. Here,” the man gestured to a seat in front of him, “Take a seat. This is going to take awhile.” Minhee obediently, once again, sat down in front of him and gently placed her right hand over her left hand. “Miss Im, I’m afraid your condition is what your friend here and your doctor has feared it would be.”

“And that would be…?” Minhee said curiously, tilting her head a little. She just heard the man sigh and then watched him as he passed his clipboard with what Minhee presumed to be a sheet of results on it over to her. Before she could read what was on it, or rather see the pictures that were on it though, Tiffany snatched the clipboard away with a stubborn look on her face.

“Sir, can’t we see if we can find a… ‘matching one’ first before telling her the results?” Tiffany said pleading with the man.

The man simply shook his head and said, “No. Miss Hwang, I think it’s best we tell her now.” He pulled the clipboard back away from Tiffany who was still stubbornly trying to hold onto it, refusing to give it up without a struggle. After he finally pulled it away from the stubborn Tiffany, he handed it to Minhee who stared at the pictures on it. “Those pictures are what we saw of your blood sample underneath the microscope.” He said simply, “Do you understand them?”

“Well yes… Somewhat…” Minhee said slowly while staring at them, “These are white blood cells, aren’t they?” She said while pointing to large furry looking balls in the picture, “But I thought that white blood cells only make up about 1% in blood… Why is there so many?” She questioned, then looked up at Tiffany’s face, which was still a mess with her puffy red eyes and red nose.

“Miss Im… I’m afraid to say… You… May… Have developed…” He slowly drew out his words.

“Yes?” Minhee asked with bright eyes, which the man found made him even more guilty to say the next word and bring her down.

“You may have developed… Leukaemia.”

----

“Look, it’s okay Fany!” Minhee said while patting Tiffany on the back, “Didn’t we already learn that we just have to find someone with a matching bone marrow to go through a bone marrow transplant and I’ll be fine?” She said optimistically, “Stop crying… Please?” She pouted at Tiffany.

“What if we can’t someone with a matching bone marrow? And even if we did find someone with a matching bone marrow, what if the transplant fails anyway? Oh no…” She said, then broke off into another fresh set of tears again.

“Tiffany Hwang.” Minhee suddenly spoke to her in English, using her full name, “I demand you to shut up and stop crying this instance.” She said in an annoyed tone, “I’m not even crying, why are you?” That caused Tiffany to suddenly gasp and stop crying. “Now look here, Tiffany. I will be fine. Repeat after me, Minhee Im will be completely fine.”

“Minhee Im will be completely fine…” Tiffany followed after Minhee.

“Yes, now that we’re done with that, let’s go home and bake!” Minhee shouted and then laughed, “Tiffany I feel like some of your soufflé again!”

Tiffany looked pointedly at Minhee and sighed, “You’re such a strange B blooded person. Nobody ever says B type blooded people are cheerful, but then there’s just you.” She chuckled, “And what was that about ‘let’s go home and bake’? It’s never let’s, but always me baking, you pabo who would burn the kitchen down if she were alone!” She ruffled and messed up Minhee’s hair slightly which caused Minhee to pout at her and whack her hand away.

After they arrived at the apartment complex they both lived in, they both stepped out of the car and Tiffany suddenly realised that they had no more chocolate at home, “Ah. Minhee. That’s right, the Hwang household is out of chocolate. Does the Im household have any at the moment?”

“Nope.” Minhee said, popping the ‘p’ sound in the word, “Can I have that coffee and praline soufflé that you made for me and Kwanghee on Christmas last year then?”

“We’re out of almonds too...” Tiffany said, tapping her chin and puffing up her cheeks, “You know what, let’s just go to the supermarket Minhee. Come.” She gently held onto Minhee’s right wrist with her left hand, and the two girls walked to the local supermarket.

After the two girls entered, Minhee ran straight to the candy section. “Aigoo, Minhee! You little pig!” Tiffany laughed, “Thank god your metabolism is godly, or rather goddess-ly, or else you’d be a chubby little thing!”

“Don’t call me little, Tiffany Hwang!” She pouted, “I am taller than you by 2 centimetres!” She laughed, “Even though I do look shorter because you always wear high heels and have such nice long legs.” She pouted.

Tiffany looked sternly at her, “My dear Minhee. I’ve told you many times that you have nice legs too, you just refuse to show them off. Anyway, let’s go home and have this debate, not here in the middle of the supermarket.” She curtly finished off and headed off towards the nuts section to take a look at almonds.

Minhee just blinked a few times in daze, then ran back to the entrance to grab a trolley and then started throwing in all the junk food she felt like buying. She made sure to grab lots of good-quality dark chocolate so Tiffany would have plenty enough to make lots of soufflé in the future. She then moved on to the fruits section and saw that lots of citrus were on sale. “YAH! FANY!” She shouted across the supermarket, causing many people to stare at her weirdly. Tiffany blushed and bowed and apologised to lots of old people who were tutting at Minhee, “THE CITRUS IS ON SALE!”

Tiffany quickly rushed over to her before her best friend started to shout again, “Yes, yes? What about the citrus?” She asked with rushed breath, “Don’t shout in public, okay Minhee? People stare at us weirdly.”

“So what?” Minhee pouted, then she pouted to the lemons and the limes, “Isn’t ahjumma’s favourite type of cake lemon and lime meringue cake?” Minhee said brightly, “Let’s buy some t make some for her!”

“Ah, yes.” Tiffany nodded, remembering her mother’s favourite type of cake, “We’ll get some then. Minhee what have you bought so f-… MINHEE! SO MUCH JUNK!”

Minhee quickly ran away toward the fridges with the dairy products at the back, while sticking out her tongue at Tiffany, “Thanks Fany! I’ll go buy the dairy products we need!” Minhee looked at the dairy section carefully while thinking. “The cake will need lemon butter, the soufflé will need thickened cream, and we’ll need lots of butter in general… What about milk?” Minhee mumbled to herself then groaned, “I can’t be bothered thinking.” She announce out loud to nobody in particular, then she just grabbed a 500ml carton of thickened cream, 2 packets of 500g butter, 2 3L cartons of milk and a 400g jar of lemon butter. She then ran to a random aisle and saw that it was the aisle that sold tea and coffee, and she randomly started buying bottles of iced tea and packets of coffee beans for her coffee machine at home.

At the end of her buying frenzy when she and Tiffany met up, Tiffany’s eyes bulged out at how much she bought, “Yah! Im Minhee do you think we’re rich or something!” She asked loudly, even though she already knew the answer.

“Yup!” Minhee said, while laughing, “Rich enough, I guess!” She said, then her laugh stopped short when she heard her phone ringing.

“Is it 4:30 yet?” Tiffany asked with a look in her eyes.

“Nope!” Minhee popped the ‘p’ in the word once again, “It’s 4:04…” She said with a confused look on her face, “Why is he calling me already?” She said then picked up. “Yeoboseyo? Oppa?” She asked.

“MINHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~!!!! BOGOSHIPDA!” She heard someone shout so loudly from the other end of the phone that she had to hold her phone 1 metre away from her. Tiffany could hear the voice shout from the other end of the phone, so she chuckled.

“Looks like your ‘oppa’ misses you, Minhee.” Tiffany said with a wink, then took Minhee’s trolley along with her own shopping basket over to the counter to pay.

“Oppa! Don’t shout so loudly!” Minhee said, with a slow rose colour creeping onto her cheeks on her downturned face while she was slowly following Tiffany to the counter, “It made Fany laugh at me!” she said with a pout.

“Are you pouting by any chance, jagiya?” She heard the person at the other end of the line say with a tinge of laughter in his voice, “And who cares if Tiffany laughs. She’s just jealous of you who has such an awesome boyfriend!”

“Ani! Oppaaaa!” She said with a whinging voice, “Oppa please stop teasing me all the time! And who said you’re awesome! Fany’s way more awesome!” She said while looking at Tiffany who looked like she was holding back a laugh. Suddenly, Tiffany grabbed the phone.

“Yah. Who said I was jealous, pabo? And why do the two of you act like that every day anyway? It’s seriously so amusing.” She said, still sounding like she was holding back a laugh.

“Nice to see… Or rather, talk to you, Tiffany.”

“Nice to see… Or rather, talk to you, too, Junkyu.” Tiffany said, “Awww…  Minhee looks like she wants the phone back. You miss your oppa, Minhee?” She said with a chuckle, “Here.” She said while handing the phone back to Minhee, “Personally, I think your oppa is sick of talking to me as I am with him, I think he wants to talk to you too.” She said with a wink, then faced back to the store counter ahjumma who seemed to be looking at them amusedly because she had finished adding up the sum of all the items.

“145,260 won please, pretty young miss.” She said to Tiffany.

“145,260 won!? Im Minhee!” She shouted crossly to Minhee who quickly turned away and pretended to be too busy on the phone. Minhee heard Junkyu chuckled from the other end of the phone.

“Minhee… Have you been buying lots and lots of junk food again?” He said with a strict voice.

Minhee just pouted. “Oppa! You know that I eat healthy anyway, though! I just like to stock up on junk food whenever I go! You know that!”

“Yeh, yeh. I know that.” He said with a chuckle, “So. Have you been keeping healthy? Have you been taking care of your body while oppa has been gone? Is everything going well? Anything you need to tell me?”

Minhee thought for a bit while walking towards Tiffany who was starting to walk out of the supermarket with the trolley with a phone in hand, which Minhee presumed to be on the line to the chauffeur. “Ani. Nothing big’s happened…” She said softly, hoping that Tiffany wouldn’t hear, but unfortunately, Tiffany turned around and gave her a cross look and shook her head at her disapprovingly and Minhee wondered why her best friend had to have such good hearing.

“Ah, jinjja? Then that’s good. Stay healthy. Oppa will be back in 4 months when he’s done with his studies, okay?” He said cheerfully to her, while her face, unknown to him, darkened slightly, “Now oppa’s got to go again. The teacher’s nagging at me to get off the phone with my girlfriend again.” He said with a pout, although Minhee neither detected it or saw it, “Bye bye!” He said.

“Bye oppa!”

“You hang up~” He said to her cheerfully.

Minhee sighed and just said, “Alright then.” And hung up. What she didn’t know is her boyfriend Junkyu was laughing at the other end of the line in Beijing.

“Oh that girl…” He thought to himself, while getting back up and heading towards his teacher, “So straight forward. I love her so much.” He softly smiled to himself while his teacher tapped her feet impatiently at him.

------------------

“How come you didn’t tell him!” Tiffany shouted at Minhee while they were in the car again, “Doesn’t your boyfriend deserve to know that his girlfriend has managed to develop leukaemia… Aish… I seriously do not understand you.” Tiffany mumbled to herself, “Most girls want their boyfriends to fawn over them and take care of them…”

“But I don’t want Junkyu oppa to get worried!” Minhee exclaimed desperately, “He might cancel his studies in China and fly all the way back here just because he’s worried! I don’t want him to do that! Please don’t tell him anything, Fany, please don’t!”

Tiffany simply covered her face and sighed, “I won’t do anything you don’t want me to, unless the situation really calls for it. How long did he say he was going to be in China for?” Tiffany uncovered her face and stared into Minhee’s eyes with her piercing glare, unnerving Minhee.

“Well… He said he was going to be studying in China for 6 months, and it’s been 2 month, so about another 4 months?” Minhee said slowly, already knowing Tiffany’s reaction.

“Minhee!” Tiffany shouted, “You do still remember what Doctor Jin said after I called him about your results right!”

“Yes…” Minhee meekly said.

“Exactly! If worse comes to worse, then you might not even last 4 months! What will you do if by the time he comes back you’re already on your death bed! Is that even fair to Junkyu!” She screamed her head off at Minhee who was trying to back as far away as she could in the space of the confined car, “His girlfriend’s dying, while he’s in another country peacefully studying! And before you start and say that people close to him won’t get bad, if none of us who actually know him think he’s bad for doing that, other people will think bad of him! And what about him! How do you think he’ll feel!? His girlfriend was hiding such important news from him!!” She finished screaming at Minhee and just panted.

“Mianhe Fany…” Minhee said with tears at her eyes, “I didn’t think of it like that…” Tiffany saw that her best friend was on the verge of tears, so she calmed down.

“I didn’t mean anything bad by it… I’m just saying, that I think you should call him again now and tell him…”

“No!” Minhee said a little louder than she intended which surprised Tiffany, “I mean. Everything you said has a point, but I think we should keep this news from him for just a little bit longer… I’m sure we’ll find someone with a matching bone marrow! I want him to make the most of his studies, okay?” She said a little desperately, “So Fany, please work with me here and don’t tell him anything yet… Please?”

Tiffany just sighed and said, “Fine. But your family definitely has to know, you know…” She said, giving Minhee a pointed look at which she gave in.

“Of course…” She said and pouted.

“There’s a good girl.” Tiffany said, and patted Minhee on the head.

--------

“Have you girls been watching too many dramas again?” Kwanghee said while he and Woong Jae battled it out on the Xbox 360 on some game that neither Minhee nor Tiffany knew the name of, “Did you seriously think we’d fall for that ?” He said with a laugh, which Woong Jae joined in with.

“But I’m serious oppa!” Tiffany shouted at him.

“Sure…” He mumbled while he pressed some controls on his controller which brought a sword to some monster’s neck and the monster evaporated into dust… Or at least that’s what Minhee thought it was.

“But. I. Am. Hwang. Kwang. Hee. And. Im. Woong Jae…” Tiffany said in a frustrated voice which still received no response from the two boys, “YAH!” She screamed at them in a voice so loud that Minhee and the two boys had never heard from her before, which caused both the boys to jump up in fright and fall off the couch they were sitting on.

“Woah, woah, woah!” Woong Jae said, picking himself back off the ground, “Tiffany, I’ve known you for what? 10 years?”

“11.” Tiffany replied curtly.

“Yeah. That. But, I’ve never heard you use such a loud voice before. What in the world is wrong?” He said, while plopping himself back on the couch.

“What in the world’s wrong? What. In. the. World. Is. Wrong?” She asked angrily, “Don’t you care about your baby sister? She’s sick! That’s what!”

“What baby sister…” Woong Jae said mumbling and then continuing, “If you mean Minhee, she’s more like a baby brother than a baby sister… And if you’re serious, then why isn’t Minhee saying anything? Yah! Minhee! You’re the one with a disease.” He said jokingly, “Don’t make your best friend do all the speaking!”

“I’m serious, okay?” Tiffany menacingly said, suddenly grabbing Woong Jae and Kwanghee both by their shirt collars. Tiffany who had never been the rough kind of girl, suddenly grabbing boys’ shirt collars? Well unexpected is an understatement. “Im. Minhee. Has leukaemia. We even went and got her blood tested.”

All the colour drained out of Woong Jae’s face, and Kwanghee looked like he’d seen a ghost. “So… It’s not a joke?” Woong Jae asked warily.

“No.” Tiffany said with a grim look upon her face, “It’s… It’s no joke…”