I can feel the wind blowing past as I stand outside the bus stop. I take another look at my watch and its a couple minutes past the time Mina texted she would meet me.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have come so early…?” I thought to myself.

I get nervous and start to twiddle my thumbs around as I sit on the bench.

“Jeongyeon!”

I hear someone yell out my name in a tired voice. I turn my head and see Mina sweating a little and breathing hard.

“Mina are you ok!?” I get worried and sit her down next to me on the bench.

“Yeah I’m fine, I’m just running late again!” She laughs, “I’m so sorry, were you waiting long? We didn’t miss the bus did we?”

“No, don’t worry we’re fine.” I reassure her.

She rests her head on my shoulder and closes her eyes.

“If you don’t mind I’m just gonna rest for a bit ok?”

My back stiffens up as I make sure not to move so I don’t disturb her. I wasn’t expecting something like this to happen so soon, or at all if I’m being honest. I look at Mina as she continues to take deep breathes. Her face is so close that I start to see things I never noticed before, like the mole on her nose. She moves her head in closer and I can smell the lavender scent stronger than ever before. My heart beats faster and faster, and I don’t want this moment to end.

“Mina…”

She opens her eyes and looks straight into mine with her head still on my shoulder and we stare into each other’s eyes for a few seconds.

“What is it?” She says softly.

I open my mouth, but before I can say anything the bus comes and the doors open.

“The um…the bus is here.” I let out.

“Oh! Let’s get on!” Mina runs up the steps of the bus and puts her money in faster than I can think. She takes a seat and pats the seat next to her. I take a deep breath and sigh, sad that our moment ended so soon. I get up and pay the bus driver and sit next to Mina.

“You sure got rested up real fast.” I joke with her.

“Yeah well I got excited when the bus came and I got a huge adrenaline rush.” She laughs and shows off her gummy smile again.

“So Mina, where are you taking me?” I say as I look around the windows trying to determine our destination.

“I told you it’s a secret! I can’t just show all of my cards right off the bat!”

“Well I’m just saying you can’t leave me hanging forever.” I say feeling a little nervous.

This is my first time hanging out with Mina off of school grounds. Actually, this is really my first time hanging out with Mina at all. I mean I talked to her these past few days, but just now it hit me, we don’t really know each other at all.

“So Jeongyeon…”

I turn to her quickly, snapping out of my trance.

“Yeah Mina?”

“Tell me about yourself! This is our first time hanging out really…I wanna know more about you! I’ll tell you about me in return of course.”

She asks me this question as if she was reading my mind, it’s crazy.

“Um well…I was actually born in South Korea, my parents and I moved here when I was about 3 years old. I couldn’t wait to get out of the house so I moved out and went to college right away and here I am I guess.”

“Oh are you and your parents not close?”

“No we’re pretty close, it’s just they had so many rules that I just couldn’t keep up. They made me clean every single day, it was so bad that I could probably clean the whole house with my eyes closed to this very day.”

“Oh wow, that bad huh?”

“Yupp, the only bright side was that both my parents are chefs so I got to eat really good food every day, I was just the one to clean it all up afterwards.”

“Hahaha at least you never went hungry!” Mina giggles.

“Yeah I guess, I do miss their cooking a lot.” I look outside and wonder how my parents are doing, “So Mina, your turn, tell me about yourself.”

“Well, my parents came together from Japan before I was born, about a couple years later they had me. My mom enrolled me in dance classes and from then on I fell in love with it, so yeah here I am with a dream to be a dancer, boring, but it is what it is.”

“Boring!? What!? No way! I think it’s awesome that you’re pursuing your dream to be a dancer, and to think it was one of the first things you fell in love with? Most people fail to follow your dreams, but no you, you’re doing it!” I say in full support.

“Aww Jeongyeon, thank you so much.” She looks away, seeming to hide a smile, “What about you? Was it always your dream to be a song writer?”

“Oh, well yeah sort of.”

“What do you mean by sort of?” She says looking confused.

“Well, if I’m going to be honest, I’ve always loved singing, but I never had the confidence to really express my voice. I just don’t think it’s that great. My friend Nayeon though, oh man you should listen to her, she got some pipes! So together she decided to take over the music industry, using her voice not mine. I’ve been working over my skills as a song writer, because if I can’t use my own, I’ll just write everything I feel and let Nayeon be my voice.”

“Oh wow that’s really cool, but now I’m intrigued, can I hear you sing Jeongyeon?”

“What!? No of course not! This is our first time hanging out together, I’m not going to scare you away like that already, don’t even joke about that ok.” I say turning away from her.

Shocked she comes closer and pulls me in, “Oh I’m sorry Jeongyeon I didn’t know you felt that strongly about it, I won’t bring it up again, I promise.”

I turn back around and see the concern on Mina’s face.

“It’s ok, I may have overreacted a bit, I’m just not that confident on myself, maybe one day you’ll hear me sing, just not today ok?”

“Yeah of course! I’ll wait patiently.” She smiles at me again and I sit here and wonder what I did to deserve seeing such as sight so many times today.

Before I know it, the bus stops and Mina grabs my hand and tells me this is the stop. We make a run towards the door and as we step off the bus I see this huge ice skating rink in the middle of a park.

“Is this what you had planned Mina?” I ask in awe.

“Yupp! Have you ever been ice skating Jeongyeon? It’s so much fun!” She jumps up and smiles.

“Honestly no, I haven’t. I didn’t even know this place was even here before, where did you find it?”

“I’ve been here before with my friends last year, you could say we really bonded here, so I figured you and I could do the same if I took you here. C’mon let’s go!” She grabs my hand and we run to the kiosk where the guy rents out the skates.

We pay for our skates and run straight to the rink. I’m a little reluctant, because I had never done anything like this before. Mina looks like a natural and I watch her as she skates circles around me and even throws in a few spins just to taunt me.

“Ok Mina, I get it, you’re a wonderful dance and an ice skater too. Now help me out here!”

“Haha ok fine!” She laughs at me as she skates forward.

The lights in the area start to change colors and it reflects on the ice, making everything glow bright and almost iridescent. The light shines down and different shades of pink light start flowing everywhere.

“Here Jeongyeon, give me your hand.”

She reaches out and I hold on to her hand tightly as I close my eyes as we move slowly step by step.

“Jeongyeon! Open your eyes! I can’t have you falling while I’m holding you!”

Slowly I open my eyes and I see Mina staring at me with a smile as we move across the rink together.

I can’t help but just watch the way that she moves with every little gesture she makes. I want to be with her, like this, forever.

When I close my eyes, it gets clearer
I look at you and I still miss you
Do you know my heart?
I want to be pulled, don’t let go of this line
So we can fall more into the pink light
Fill up my heart

du nun gameul ttaemyeon deo seonmyeonghaejeo
bogoisseodo bogo shipeun
nae mameul neon alkka
danggigoman shipeo i jul notchi marajweo
deo ppajeodeulge pingkeubicheuro
nae mameul chaeweojweo

두 눈 감을 때면 더 선명해져
보고있어도 보고 싶은
내 맘을 넌 알까
당기고만 싶어 이 줄 놓지 말아줘
더 빠져들게 핑크빛으로
내 맘을 채워줘