It was obvious that none of us could wait for what was to come. A soft hum could be heard at the front of the room, but none of us paid it any attention. Our ears were far more concerned with another sound. Tick tock, tick tock. It seemed like the longer hand had been chasing the smaller hand for an eternity, doing anything and everything to meet with the other. Tick tock, tick tock. Closer and closer it drew, their fates would finally align and celebrations would be had. The bells rang through the empty hallways and in an instant, those hallways were flooded with frantic bodies. All of which were rushing as quickly as they could to the nearest flow of the fresh summer breeze. Some used doors, others windows, it didn’t matter, the wait was over and the hands’ fates finally aligned. However time is much like reality, nothing lasts forever. The long hand ticked over once more and began its’ next lap back towards the smaller hand. Move over Ross and Rachael, these hands were the ultimate ‘will they, won’t they couple’. I sat there in disbelief that a chapter of my life was finally over, but of course, the top student, ultimate teacher’s pet, and neighborhood sweetheart wasn’t letting this moment go so easily.  “I know that everyone rushed off from our class, but don’t take that to heart. You truly were an amazing teacher.” She said with her incredibly adorable smile. Every time she did so, a slight indentation would appear near her chin, which was only one of her many charming features. “Aww, Taeyeon you’re too kind. If I can be completely honest now that they’re all gone. You were always my favourite. Without you… I don’t think I could have ever survived their rowdiness. Thank you for being a great student.” The teacher smiled. “Oh yes, and do tell your father I love these new glasses. They are absolutely perfect.” The teacher added.

“No worries Teacher. I’ll be sure to let him know, I’m actually off to help him out now. Thank you again for the great years, Teacher. I’ll see you around.” Taeyeon waved her goodbyes and walked up to my table. I still sat there, simply waiting for her attention to fall on me. “You’re still here? Thank goodness, I thought I was going to have to find you through the ocean of stampeding students.” She laughed.

“I just couldn’t leave yet, feels surreal. We’re actually done.” I said with a sigh of relief.

“Well you better believe it. Now come on, my dad’s waiting on us.” She leaned out her flawless, milky white hand towards me and of course, I couldn’t reject her offer. I took hold of her soft doll-like hands and we were off to enjoy our last summer as teens.

Her father’s optometrist store wasn’t too far away from the school and we would often bike ride there in the afternoons. Taeyeon was an excellent bike rider, but I managed to convince her that she didn’t need one. We lived close enough that we could just share and from that day forward, we’d ride to and from school together. Let me tell you more about this girl, she was the kindest, sweetest and caring girl you would ever lay eyes upon. She had countless friends, I mean, who wouldn’t want to be friends with her? She would treat everyone with the same warmth. Her kindness wasn’t her only valuable trait, she also had a facet of talents at her disposal. She was top of the English class even though she wasn’t fluent, she had a great sense of humor, but her greatest asset was her angelic vocals. No matter who you were, no matter if you had a soul of a stone, her angelic voice would have you break into a million tears. She came from a family with great musical talent, but something about her was destined to be an astonishing singer.

We finally reached her father’s store and we could already see him dusting off the spectacles that covered the walls. “Dad, we’re here. Need any…” Before Taeyeon could ask, Taeyeon’s father was already shaking his head vigorously.

“Don’t be absurd Tae, you just finished high school. Go and enjoy yourselves. Go to the back of the store and I’ll call you if I need anything. Oh and, don’t be shy, have some of the ice cream I’ve hidden in the freezer. I know it’s not good for your throat, especially with your audition so soon, but I won’t tell mum if you won’t.” Her dad laughed. Without a single moment of hesitation, we dashed to the back of the store and dived into the freezing icebox to find that delicious cookies and cream. The ice cream didn’t last long, considering we were starving teenagers and it was a hot summer’s day, that ice cream vanished in the blink of an eye. “What do you wanna do now?” she asked wiping the excess amount of ice cream off of her perfect lips.

“Well I was thinking…” My thoughts were stopped when I noticed a small blob of ice cream still sitting at the corner of .

“Thinking about?” she asked.

“One sec.” I took my hand and held her face for a moment. I didn’t notice at the time since I was focused on wiping the last drop of ice cream away, but her face had flushed crimson-red and her soft cheeks were like warm marshmallows. “There.” Her face was rather blank, but her milky white hand innocently touched the cheek I had just held and the sight was utterly adorable. She was so pure, it honestly seemed like no one had ever done that for her before. “You okay?” I asked slowly, to make sure the sudden skinship with her didn’t step over our boundaries. She responded fairly quickly and said “Oh, yes, I’m fine. You were saying?”

“Ah, yeah I was saying that your dad’s been making a lot of glasses lately. Is there a reason?” I asked her.

“Yeah, apparently a movie set might need plenty of glasses and random varieties so he’s been working around the clock to finish them.” She explained.

“Wanna… try them on?” I smiled.

“What?... no… we… well, we could… no, we can’t. He’s worked really…” Before she could talk me out of my crazy idea, I had already placed one on and drawn a jagged thunderbolt across my forehead. “No, you’ve made a mistake. I mean I can’t be a wizard. I’m Harry, just Harry.” I stuttered. Taeyeon seemed hesitant to play along, but she let out a sigh and shrugged her shoulders in defeat. She quickly grabbed a nearby umbrella, wrapped her hair in front of her face to make a beard and said “Well, ‘Just Harry’ did you ever make anything happen? Anything you couldn’t explain when you were angry or scared?” she tried her best to do a low voice, but it ended up being a childish grumble. We both laughed at are childish cosplay. “What are we even doing??” She continued to laugh harder, so much so that her contagious ahjumma laugh appeared. Once that had escaped from , you knew it was going to be an afternoon full of laughs and tears of joy. I quickly removed the full circle glasses and replaced them with some half-moon ones. “Ahh, you see, only the person who wanted to find the stone, find it, but not use it, would be able to get it.” I giggled while trying my best to sound as old as I possibly could. I wasn’t the only one laughing my mind away though, Taeyeon was cracking up harder and louder than ever before. “Come on Tae… let’s…” I cracked up into laughter once more. It was really hard to control myself, but I had to persevere. “Come on Tae, let’s do it seriously. Come over to the desk and lie down like you’re in the hospital wing.” We moved over to Mr. Kim’s desk and moved a plethora of random bits and bobs he uses to make the glasses. Taeyeon laid down with her back towards the desk as I sat on the desk chair below her. I adjusted the height just enough so it seemed we were level sitting with one another. “Ahem.” I cleared my voice and prepared the old man impression once again. “Do you know why Professor Quirrell couldn’t bear to have you touch him?” she shook her head innocently.

“It was because of your mother. She sacrificed herself for you and that kind of act leaves a mark.” She slowly reached to the imaginary scar on her for head and I stopped her just before she made contact.

“No, no. This mark is one that cannot be seen. Because it lives in your very skin.” I smiled.

“What is it?” she asked innocently once more.

“Love, Tae. Love.” Once again, Taeyeon couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out into tears. I tapped her lightly on the thigh for ruining the almost perfect re-enactment. “Yah we were so close.” I laughed.

“I’m sorry, but you’re the one who ruined it.” She laughed. “You said Tae, instead of Harry.”

“Oh, I did?” I questioned. “Well, let’s do it again. This time for real, you know what. Ah, here.” I grabbed the full circle glasses I had previously and slowly placed them onto Taeyeon’s flawless face. It was strange, the closer I got to her, the warmer she became. For a second I found my hands cupping to the side of her soft and incredibly rosy cheeks. Our eyes met and we both paused. Just like the clock’s hands at school, the moment had aligned. We were at the perfect moment, the moment the long hand had been chasing for an eternity. “Taeyeon! The movie people are here to collect the prop glasses. Can you hand them to me please sweetie?” Again like the hands, the perfect moment, the moment that we had been waiting for forever, would only last a second and the chasing would begin once again. “O… Okay dad. I’ll be right out.” She said. She was the first to break the eye contact and as she did, I stayed there lifeless. Wondering what could have happened if that moment were to last just a tad bit longer than it did. She mindlessly collected the glasses up and placed them into a secure box. Even the pair that I had worn she grabbed up without hesitation. She lugged the box over her shoulder and made her way to the door. She looked back at me only for a second before she said “This was fun. I’ll… I’ll see you tomo… I mean next week.” She placed her had on the doorknob and hesitated one last time. But after that, she was gone and I was left there to an empty room and a container of melted cookies and cream.

A week passed and I hadn’t heard a word from Taeyeon. She was always so talkative for her to suddenly drop below the radar was very strange. I made it my own mission to visit her and hopped onto my bike and rode off into the fresh summer’s breeze. The weather was great, everything about this day was going well so far, but as I drew closer and closer to her house a change in the winds could be felt. I hopped off the bike and walked up the stone paved path that leads to the front of her white house. It wasn’t a flashy house, but it was home for her. I gave the door three knocks and received no answer. Knock knock knock. Again with another three knocks but still no answer. I was about to step down to find the back way in, until Mrs. Kim finally answered the door while wiping a tear from her eye. My attention was immediately drawn to this fact, it was strange as if I knew she was crying about Taeyeon. “Hey Mrs. Kim, are you okay? Did something happen??” I questioned.

“Oh, no everything’s fine. It’s just… well, I think it’s better if she explains herself.” Mrs. Kim let me through and escorted me to Taeyeon’s room. I had never been there before and under other circumstances, I would’ve enjoyed being in this lovely girl’s room. Three of the walls were painted violet, except the wall on which her bed touched, that wall was sky blue. She was always a fan of both colours, not only that though, various plushies of dookongs were arranged from smallest to largest along her bed. She loved those peas, maybe it was their cuteness she loved, but I liked to believe their symbol of togetherness was what she loved the most. My eyes were drawn away from the décor of the room and instead focused on her. Her face was blank, her usual chirpy smile was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she had a straight face while packing a giant luggage. I say giant, but it was only big in comparison to her. “Umm, Tae?” She quickly turned to my call but looked away just as quick.

“Oh, hey. What’s up?’ She asked nonchalantly while she continued to pack her bag.

“What’s… what’s going on Tae?” I asked slowly.

“Just packing. Getting ready to leave.” She said bluntly.

“Leave? Where are you going? When are you coming back??” I could feel my concern rising, but I had no right. She wasn’t my partner, she wasn’t my girl, so why was I so concerned with her activity? She also caught on to my excessive amount of and simply raised her eyebrow at me. “Umm, why are you asking so many questions? Isn’t me saying I’m going enough explanation?” Taeyeon questioned.

“Sorry, I… I just want to know if you’re alright. I saw your mum…”

“Look, this doesn’t concern you and I don’t even know why she’s crying. I thought she would be proud of me. All you need to know is, I passed the audition and I’m going to the dorm to be a trainee.” She finished packing her bag and jumped onto her bed in frustration.

“Why isn’t anyone proud of me?” She asked as tears began running down her face. This was the first time I had ever seen this girl cry. That happiest, most joyful and cheerful girl I had ever met was crying right in front of me. How could this be? I slowly made my way around her luggage and sat next to her. I turned to her direction and felt a great urge to comfort her. “Hey come on now. I’m sure she’s proud of you Tae. I am, I know your father is, it’s just so sudden, you know? One second we just finished high school and we were gonna have a lot of fun this summer. Then the next second you’re moving away to become a star. It’s a lot to take in.” I explained.

“You don’t think I know it’s sudden? You don’t think I’m scared to move off into the world without my parents right by my side? I’m terrified.” She rose up to scream in my face, but in the moment all I could do was hug her. She was extremely stressed and who could blame her. She was about to tread into unknown waters, go to depths she’s never swum in before and no one was encouraging that fact. I wrapped her in my arms, but she didn’t feel warm like she used to. She didn’t even return the hug to me. With a cold expression, she shoved me off turned away and said “I need to call the agency to pick me up. So can you leave?” She requested bluntly. This wasn’t her, this wasn’t the Taeyeon I knew. It must be the stress, right? She wouldn’t be so harsh on her friend she’s known for years. I’ll let her cool off, and in a few days, I’ll email her to see how it’s going. I wrote down my email and left it on the bed before I moved out of the room, little did I know that’s the last time we would trade words in a decade.