" appa " Minju smiled at her father who suddenly entered her room " what is it? Does sleeping on the couch makes you feel uncomfortable? Do you want to sleep here instead? " she asks but her father just shook his head and sat down beside her.

Her father began to caress her hair, giving her that fatherly look " Minju-ah " Minju hummed and looked at her father very attentively " appa has something to tell you " he said, he sounded like he's doubting about it.

" what is it? " Minju asked.

" promise me that you won't get upset and do things that might hurt you again, alright? " he raised his pinky and with confusion Minju did a pinky promise with her father.

" appa is leaving " her father's smiling but worry and sadness were written across his eyes.

" what do you mean? " Minju confusedly asked.

" appa is going to the Philippines for good, you know that I have some relatives over there, right? I'm going to stay there and manage some of our business there " Minju kept silent " Philippines is not that far! If you need appa, I can always fly over here " he tries to cheer Minju up.

" can... can you not go? " Minju softly asked " can you just... stay with us? " she bits her lip as she suppresses her tears.

Her father smiled at her, pulling Minju closer to him. Minju rested her head on her father's chest " appa wants your eomma to heal completely and I believe she won't be if she would always see me around, I'm afraid she will never be "

" but how about you appa? You'll be alone there " Minju worries.  

" Chaeyeon-ah " Chaeyeon's mother knocks on her door so she lazily got up and opened it for her—

" mom its weekend can you not order me around? " she welcomed her mom with her whining.

" when did I ever order you around!? You lay down all day long— " looking at your phone, going out of your room just to eat, yadda, yadda, yadda. Chaeyeon began reciting what her mother is saying inside her mind, she had memorized it already.

" araso eomma, so what is it? " she asked when her mother's nagging stopped.

" you got a mail " her mother handed her an envelope " you kids are still doing snail mails? " the old woman shakes her head and left Chaeyeon.

Chaeyeon inspects the envelope on her hand, it looks very familiar to her— when did I see this again? She asks herself as she closes her door and jumps on her bed " from Minju? " she reads the name on it.

" ah! " she exclaimed when she remembers where she saw the envelope from.

2 years ago they wrote a letter for each other in the snail mail booth by the senior students. They thought the seniors just scammed them because the seniors said they will have it a year later but never received it last year.

" we paid so much for this! " Chaeyeon chuckled and began to open the envelope to read her letter from Minju. There's a little note inside of it, a note of apology by the seniors for delivering the letters late because they became busy with their college lives.

" well, understandable " Chaeyeon set aside the note and began reading Minju's letter for her.

Chaeyeon-ah, I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate having you in my life. For helping me through the bad times and being there to help me celebrate the good times, I cherish all of the moments that we share together. There aren’t enough words in the dictionary for me to tell you how glad I am to have you in my life. I am so lucky to have you by my side.

Chaeyeon smiles were all out. She can recall how Minju tried so hard to hide the letter she's writing, she can remember how annoyed Minju was when she was trying to peek on it. Now that she's reading what Minju wrote, she felt kinda bad for writing a very short and non-sense one for the latter.

" I should have done better " she regrets.

Those were the things I probably would want to say if what I feel for you were merely friendship if I only see you as my best friend like what we usually call ourselves but I'm not going to lie right now. I'm not sure if this will be really given to you after a year but if so, I wanted to write you a love letter. I know it’s a little silly but I thought I’d try anyway. I wanted to say what I think and feel about you as of right now.

When I try to think of a favorite memory that I shared with you, it is hard to pick just one. There are just too many wonderful memories to choose from. We met when we're just in elementary, you are one of the most popular girls, there's a long line of kids who wanted to be your friend but it's me who you chose to be beside you. You might not notice but we don't really have a lot of common interest but I tried hard to learn the things you're interested about for I was afraid that we would lose the connection between us. Don't worry, I didn't regret changing the things I liked to the things you like, I even thought that it made me go out of my comfort zone which is very nice.

I learned how to speak Japanese because you are interested about that language, I learned how to play sports but even though I failed to improve I'm happy that because of that we got a lot of happy memories. You were a social butterfly so I tried hard to socialize as well, although I'm not still good at it either. I don't eat ice cream but I learned to love it because you almost have it every meal and eating that cold dessert makes you happy.

" pabo... " Chaeyeon utters as everything began to make sense.

She recalls the day she told Minju her fondness about Japanese language and later that day, Minju bought a book to learn about it. When Minju whines about going to the ice-cream parlor but still accompanies her every damn time and when Minju tried hard for their PE class because Chaeyeon enjoys the said subject.

" I was so dense " Chaeyeon bashes herself.

Before you came into my life, there wasn’t much to me. I'm just a boring girl and you knew that exactly but with you being by my side, you push me to go outside my comfort zone, you guided me and let me show my real self to the people around us. I was afraid but you assure me that you'll hold my hand through everything that I'll do. I'm thankful.

Your smile was a burst of sunshine for me, your touch warms my heart and your presence was something that I want to have forever. You might be frow