Donghae’s POV

            We headed to Yoseob’s neighborhood in the evening to eat dinner. It was Yoseob’s idea to not let the girl know of our surprise visit. The only risk was that she wouldn’t be there, but Yoseob seemed pretty confident that she would be. I’ve never seen Yoseob so worked out about a girl before, and I couldn’t help but feel like he saw her as more than a friend. I almost felt rude for not knowing her name even now, but I figured it’d be more appropriate to ask for it when I met her. Throughout dinner I couldn’t help but feel like this was a really strange thing to do. Why did Yoseob want me to meet her so badly? Anyone could share the same interests, but since I felt like I owed Yoseob for always helping my family, especially my mom through her depression, I agreed to come tonight.

            “Just leave the dishes on the table I’ll clean them when I come back.” Yoseob informed, glancing at the clock and then pulling on his jacket.

            “She usually goes at around this time—actually, she should already be there.” He sounded more like a stalker than anything, but since they were both friends I tried to overlook how creepy it seemed and followed him. We walked down the sidewalk with nothing but dim streetlights illuminating the darkness of the streets until we saw a path at the corner of an intersection. Yoseob pointed at it and then went ahead, signaling for me to follow.

            When we peered through a crowd of trees by the end of the narrow path, Yoseob was shocked to see that no one occupied the double swing set.

            “Strange… she’s always here…” Yoseob mumbled, frustrated as he scratched the back of his head. Her absence didn’t stop him from entering into the clearing, but I didn’t quite follow directly behind him. I stayed still covered by a few trees and scanned the playground. Just as Yoseob predicted, she was there, but not at the swing set. She had managed to climb up onto the monkey bars and sat securely on top, stargazing. From this distance she looked as how I would imagine Lee Sukyi too if she were still around. The sudden thought made tears begin to push out my eyes, but I didn’t want to cry—not here.

            “Hey!” Yoseob, like a child, snuck up behind her and screamed. The sudden volume change made her lose her grip on the monkey bars and slip a little, almost falling off.

            “Sorry!” Yoseob chuckled sarcastically after, and then turned to face me, his eyes urging me to come.

            “I brought someone for you to meet.” Yoseob revealed, stepping aside as I walked onto the gravel of the small playground. She looked at me, surprised at first, and then her shocked expression slowly changed into a warm smile. By instinct I smiled back. My neck was craned up to see her face and it was amazing how much she looked like Sukyi. Was she a doppelganger? Surely the heavens wouldn’t be playing this cruel joke on me again. Even in the darkness amidst the moonlight I could see that they had the same eyes, her left eyelid slightly bigger than her right. The only different was that she lost a lot of baby fat in her cheeks and dyed her hair brown. The rational part of my mind however, would not allow me to believe that she was Lee Sukyi. The girl only stared back at me when I failed to start a conversation. If it was Sukyi, she would have no doubt recognized me… Wouldn’t she?

            “How did you learn to climb monkey bars?” I asked to break the silence. Yoseob had gone over to the swing set and swayed back and forth trying not to make noise so he could eavesdrop incognito.

            “I don’t really remember… I just always could.” She replied after a few seconds of struggling with her thoughts. Her voice matched Sukyi’s perfectly, and it made me shudder. When we were young, I would always take Sukyi to the playground when our mom was napping and taught her how to sit on monkey bars. She loved being in high places, close to the skies and the stars. She once told me that it made her feel more at home—more safe, if you would believe that heights could make someone feel safer. I always knew that she was a peculiarly unique child.

            After my question, she maneuvers off the monkey bars and lands balanced on the plastic-rubber platforms. I stood beside where she sat, and she didn’t seem to mind that I was here. She did what Yoseob said she’d usually do when we came to this place; star gaze. My eyes followed hers up to the beautiful night sky, trying to catch which star she was looking at. Or perhaps she was staring at the moon and its craters, each with its own story to tell. If Sukyi had never left, maybe I really would have had someone to share each story with, but because she had left so soon I could only hide them away and preoccupy myself with other things.

            “What’s your favourite star?” I asked finally, now staring up at the sky just as she was.

            “That one,” She replied simply, pointing straight at Polaris.. Sukyi loved Polaris too. When I first taught her the name, I told her that Polaris was the big brother star, representing me. Like a proper older brother, I told her that Polaris would protect her and watch over her. It was a little tale I made up for fun, but at that time I knew she believed me.

            “Polaris?” I asked for clarification, though no part of me doubted that it was the star of her interest.

Sukyi’s POV

            The moment he said the star’s name, my body froze. Regardless of all that felt familiar about him, his voice when he breathed those 3 syllables sparked a memory that I couldn’t zone out. I knew where I was and who I was with, but my eyes didn’t seem focused on what was in front of me. Instead, my mind replayed a kind of story in my head that I had to pay close attention to.

            Two little kids sat on a grassy hill side; a girl and a boy.

“They’re pretty!” The little girl smiled, her voice bubbling with passion and delight.

“Which one’s the prettiest?” The little boy asked; creating a frame with his two hands and closed one eye, squinting with the other.

“That big one! It’s my favourite!” She gushed, pointing excitedly at the largest star in the vast black sky.

“That star is named Polaris,” The little boy explained with informed intelligence well beyond his age. He had a protective and proud smile in response to the little girl’s clapping.

Donghae’s voice was just like the little boy in that story! I couldn’t help but feel confused. I’d never read a story like that before, and it certainly couldn’t be a memory, could it? The kids were too young, and my memories did not trace back that far. I suddenly believed that it was possible, and it scared me. What if what I just saw was a memory? I knew without a doubt that the boy in my short vision was nothing close to Shin Soohyun, but the little girl resembled me too much to be a coincidence.

I looked down to examine Donghae’s face. Despite the silence I created, he didn’t emit an awkward aura. He wasn’t looking directly at me, but his eyes were in my direction. They were dark brown, shaped just like the boy’s in my memory. How could Lee Donghae be in my memories? I couldn’t quite put the pieces together, and the longer I tried, the fewer things made sense.

“I’m guessing you already know my name, but what’s yours?” He asked casually and a little embarrassed. I nodded to answer the first half of his question and then cleared my throat,

“Sukyi,” I still ended up choking out. I muffled my name so horribly that I was almost certain he’d ask for a repeat. Immediately, his face changed into a troubled expression.

“S…Sukyi?”

“Ne, Shin Sukyi.”

A/N: Sorry if Donghae's perspective was confusing to read. He didn't know Sukyi's name until the very end of this chapter was knew that she resembled his sister, but didn't realize it was actually her. The little excerpt in italics is a flash back to show one of Sukyi's memories coming back.