Mina was 16 when she met Jeongyeon. Mina met Jeongyeon on her sixteen birthday in a hotel where they had held her birthday party. She had left to the rooftop alone to get some air after 3 excruciatingly boring hours entertaining her father’s work colllegue and fake friends. She was tired of everything. Tired of endless fake people trying to get her attention. Tired of people hogging after her parents’ wealth. Tired of everyone’s expectation on her.

She leaned across the railing and stared into the beautiful night light of Incheon. Footsteps and metal door squeaking open startled her out of her mind. She jerked around and her eyes met with another hazel ones.

Jeongyeon’s hand rested on the handle and foot partially halted. She blinked at the beautiful stranger standing by the rail, eyes glistening and shoulder length hair flowing with the wind. She contemplated if she should turn around and leave the stranger alone.

A girl standing at the rail in the rooftop all alone on the verge of crying? Definitely does not sit well with Jeongyeon.

Mina watched the girl with bleached blond hair stepped closer cautiously, as if Mina was going to do something dangerous.

“Hey.” The blonde girl said as she stopped a few feet away from the brunette girl. “What are you doing here?” She gestured around. Mina stared blankly at the stranger. She was taught not to speak to strangers. Jeongyeon started speaking again when she realized the latter wasn’t going to. “Are you okay?” She pointed at her own eyes.

Mina realized the latter was talking about her own teary eye and quickly wiped them with her wrist.

“Everything alright? Do you need me to call someone?” Jeongyeon’s hand slipped behind her pants to the phone in her pocket. “Don’t do anything you might regret.”

It took Mina a full 10 seconds to realize what the blonde was saying. She blinked once, twice, and watched the other girl with mouth agape.

She thought…

Jeongyeon funbled her phone with her flimsy fingers, which resulted her in dropping her phone.

“! !” She dropped to her knees and stared at her phone. The phone she had worked overtime for 3 months for.

Mina watched the girl practically crying while cradling her broken flip phone. She carefully stepped closer and stood in front of the kneeling girl.

“Are you okay?” Jeongyeon stopped grieving over the death of her Samsung SGH-T100 and raised her head slowly to meet the soft pair of alluring eyes. It was the first time the girl had spoken. Her voice was sweet, smooth and incredibly smoothing. It sounded like music to Jeongyeon’s ear.

“Yeah.” Jeongyeon replied dumbly. They looked at each other for some moment.

“Uhm, I wasn’t really,” Mina pointed behind her to the railing. “trying to kill myself.”

“Oh!” Jeongyeon jumped onto her feet and rubbed the back of her neck. “You looked really sad and you were there by that railing and I just automatically assumed you…” Jeongyeon started rambling while blushing furiously at her false assumption.

“It’s okay.” Jeongyeon was blessed with an angelic smile from the stranger. “I was just being my depressed self, that is.” She sighed.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Jeongyeon offered with an eyebrow raised. She was genuinely curious about what made this beautiful young girl around her age so sad.

Mina blinked and looked at the girl with blond hair tied in a really small ponytail. She was just a stranger to Mina. She might not see her again after this. Mina figured there is no harm in telling her.

“My parents are socialltes and are well known and loved by people.” Mina started. “I’m their only daughter, so it is expected of me to be like them. But I’m not like them, I don’t like attending parties, I don’t like meeting people of high social status, I don’t like being expected of things I would never be.” Mina walked over to one of the benches at the rooftop and sat down. Jeongyeon followed suit and sat down beside Mina.

“I’ve always done what my parents wanted me to do. I gave up on ballet for business and science tuition. I have friends that were introduced by my parents. Eventhough I have so many of these so-called friends, I feel sad and lonely sometimes. I can’t tell people how I’m feeling. I’m like an outsider in my own family and social circle.” Mina buried her face into her palms, her hair falling like curtain around her. Jeongyeon hestitated, before placing an arm around the girl’s shoulder.

“Yeah, life’s a .” She muttered lowly and heard an ungraceful snort from the other girl. She smiled a little. “Your life may be ty, but certainly not as ty as mine.” Jeongyeon leaned back against the bench to stare at the moon. “Care to hear mine?” Mina lifted her head and looked at the blonde girl. It was the first time she had noticed how pretty the short haired girl really was.

“Are we competing on whose life is tier?” It was Mina’s first time cursing. But who cares?

Jeongyeon chuckled.

“You wouldn’t stand a chance.” She said, folding her arms around her back and glancing at the night sky. “My dad was an alcoholic gambler. He was always a gambler for as long as I could remember. He used to beat me and my mother whenever he lost money. Then my mum ran away one year and he went bat crazy. Started drinking alcohol and stuff. He stopped going to work, and I had to earn money instead.” Mina was now paying full attention on Jeongyeon. She saw sorrow and pain in those hazel eyes of hers.

“I quit high school and everything to work free-lance jobs al laround. They wouldn’t let a 15 year- old kid had a fulltime job.” Jeongyeon gave Mina a cheeky grin. Mina was surprised that Jeongyeon had only been 15 when that happened. She was right. Her life was definitely tier. “That was 2 year ago. Now I’m working part time in this hotel.” She gestured down her body. Mina noticed now that Jeongyeon was wearing a chef uniform.

“You’re a chef?” Mina’s eyes jerked in surprise.

“Nah, I’m only a helper. My dad used to be a chef before all that crazy stuff. He did taught me a thing or two.” Jeongyeon gave Mina a wink.  “Speaking of work,” Jeongyeon glanced at the watch on her hand. “, it’s way past my break time. The head chef’s gonna kill me.” Jeongyeon stood up abruptly before glancing at the brunette one last time. “See you around.” Jeongyeon gave the girl a someone sad smile. The girl returned with one her own.

“Goodbye.”

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It was a week after that night when Hotel’s manager had called her as she was about to leave after a long tiring shift.

“Ms. Yoo Jeongyeon?” Park Jihyo, the hotel manager called out when she entered the staff room.  Jeongyeon quickly zipped her bag and slinged it across her shoulder before turning to face the woman.

“Yes, Ms. Park?” Jeongyeon said as the manager strolled over to hand her a paper bag. She reached out curiously and took the bag from the manager’e hand. She peaked inside to see a rectangular box.

“Someone left you this.” The manager said simply before turning and leaving the room hastily.

Jeongyeon arched a brow before taking the box out of the paper bag. She opened the box and widened her eyes when she noticed a new phone inside the box. It was the same model as the one she had dropped that night. She quickly switched on the phone to make sure it was working.

It was a hunch, but Jeongyeon’s hand clicked and brought her to the contact list. There was only one contact in the list. The name was saved as ‘Mina’. Jeonyeon hadn’t remembered knowing anynone with the name Mina. Then her memoryflashed back that night and the girl she had shared her story with.

She quickly pressed call and listen as the line connected before a coy ‘hello’ was sounded. She remembered the honey smooth voice.

“Hey, ‘Mina’.” The name sounded foreign in her own tongue.

“Hey, Yoo Jeongyeon.” Jeongyeon was shock that the other girl had known her name. Her full name!

“How did you know my name?” Jeongyeon asked. “Did you stalked me?” Laughter was heard from the other line.

“Your manager told me just now.” Mina grinned on the other side of the line. She had remembered walking into the hotel alone with the paper bag in her hand, wondering how the hell should she find the girl she had talked to that night. She walked up the receptionist and spoke to the head manager. She remembered asking for a ‘tall, blonde, young chef’.

“Yoo Jeongyeon?” The manager had raised an eyebrow under her round rimmed glasses.

There was a pause between them.

“You don’t have to do this.” Jeongyeon broke the silence. “It wasn’t your fault the phone broke. I was just being clumsy,as usual. You wont believe how many plates I had broken since working here. The manager probably remembers me so well because I accidentally grabbed her s once when I fell on her.” There was silence between them again before Mina broke out in laughter.

“O-oh my goodness.” Mina spoke between her laugher. “You did that?” Mina now remembers the scowl on that manager’s face when she asked her about Jeongyeon.

“Yeah, and she was pretty big too.” Jeongyeon chuckled along with Mina. “Hey,” Jeongyeon blurted out after their laughter seized. “I quite enjoy talking to you.” She said, nervously thumbing the box. “Can we like talk and hang out sometimes?” It was quiet for some time on the other line. Jeongyeon sighed in dejection. “You know what? Don’t mi-“

“Sure.” Mina’s reply halted Jeongyeon’s words and a smile worked its way up Jeongyeon’s face.

“Cool!”

“Cool.”