Photos are not mine; credits to the owners... :)

10 YEARS LATER

ONE SHOT

“OH MY GOD!!! SOOJUNG!! ITS REALLY YOU!!!”

“JUNG SOOJUNG!!!”

“SOOJUNG-AH!!!”

I stood up from my seat with a wide and excited smile on my face, welcoming my friends whom I haven’t seen for the last 10 years. The four of us hugging each other so tight while shrieking like we were still High School students who didn’t see each other the whole winter break.

“Oh my goodness I can’t believe this!! You are really here…” I leaned back to look at Luna’s face and saw her tearing up. Awww… Sunyoung…

“Hahaha… can’t believe I’m alive?!”

“SOOJUNG!”

“Kidding Sunyoung!”

“Its Luna now FYI…”

“Vic unnie!! I missed you! Awww!!!~~” this ahjumma! She smacked my pretty head playfully then gave me a tight hug again caressing the part she smacked. Really physical this ahjumma until now… she haven't change all these years.

She was crying in my arms and leaned back holding my shoulders, her eyes studying my whole face intently while she let out sniffles. I gave her a happy smile and grinned like a kid like I always do back then when she scolds me about homeworks.

“How are you Soojung-ah?! You didn’t contact us when you left for San Francisco after your graduation 10 years ago! You made us worry! No phonecalls! No e-mails! No text messages! No letters or postcards even!?”

“Vic unnie…~~”

“Unnie, maybe we should take a seat first before this coffee shop became flooded with your ahjumma tears…” Jinri winked at me and reached for my head patting it. “Hey twinnie… I missed you so bad.”

Tears started pooling in my eyes looking at them three… three…. just three. The four of us holding each other’s hands while we huddle in a small circle, all of us looking at each other. The longing and excitement, happiness to see everyone again written all over my face.

Its not that I wanted to leave like that… I have no control in my life back then, I was 18 and still under my parents' supervision. After High School graduation they whisked me away in a van and brought to the airport, jetting me off to San Francisco without even saying goodbye to everyone I left behind.

My friends, classmates, neighbors…

HER.

I smiled at them pinching their cheeks one by one while tears are streaming down on my smiling face. “Are we just going to stand here and cry?! Come on girls let’s have a seat! What do you want to order?” I wiped my tears with the back of my hand and ushered them to sit, the same table inside the cafe where we hang out when we were still teenagers. I motioned for the server to come and they gave their orders to her, still the noisy bunch they are like back then.

Vic unnie or Song Qian jiejie like how we call her then is 2 years ahead of us. She’s the Editor-in-Chief of the school paper where me, Jinri, Sunyoung, and… HER… are affiliated. When she graduated and went to study in a University (she got in at Yonsei University Journalism Major) she remained an adviser and contributor of the school paper that’s why its like she didn’t left completely.

Jinri and Sunyoung are contributors, I’m the photographer and sometimes contributes an article or two because I wanted to be a Photo Journalist and writer then, and… HER… she was the graphic artist of the school paper and also doubles as a Photographer like me.

After the server went back to the counter to make their orders, I took a sip of my Cold Brew while looking at them three. Vic unnie still looks young even though she’s already at her early 30s, Jinri and Sunyoung’s face matured perfectly. Gone are the baby fats and chins, Jinri is still tall and now a famous ramp model and fashionista. Travelling around every year during the Fashion Week. New York, London, Milan, Paris. Add Barcelona and of course Seoul. She’s the total IT Girl now not just in Korea but globally. Even though we didn’t have any communication for the past 10 years I still follow what she does since she’s always in magazines and TV, even in SNS.

Sunyoung… her dream before is to become a TV Reporter. She didn’t just became a TV Reporter, she became an awarded Journalist. Tackling issues about the environment, politics, and animal rights. Her last documentary with partnership from National Geographic won a Gold Medal at the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award when they went on a trip to Antarctica to save the penguins stuck in a melting ice shelf. Of course I knew everything about them… I’m their biggest fan!

My lovely and caring Vic unnie is now a respected Journalist at Chosun Ilbo, one of the most respected newspaper at South Korea. I have a subscription of the newspaper even though I’m in the US because I’m keeping tab of all her stories.

I know what is happening about them but they don’t know anything about what happened to me for the past 10 years…

Those 10 years where I learned everything about life. The hardships, heartbreak, the tears I cried, the hiding, all of it.

But its all in the past now… as the saying goes…

There is always a rainbow after the rain, and at the end of that rainbow is a pot of Gold for you to claim.

Five days ago, I was