8 Days before Christmas.

“So, what do you want to do?” Sung Gyu asked me, his voice quiet over the still loud mingle of the street. We have walked ourselves back into the urban part of the city, back in our thick coats, among the Christmas crowd, an odd pair with clothe bags in our hands. It was cold out, and somewhere past midnight; the mass was perhaps already over now, and I thought of my parents who were probably searching for me. I had my phone turned off and buried in my pocket. I tried to think about nothing else but the small bubble we were in. This moment, this point of time in my life, nothing more.

“I don’t know, really” I shrugged. “I just don’t want to go home yet”

Sung Gyu nodded, narrowed his eyes and stared ahead thoughtfully. “Is it Christmas yet?”

I looked down at my watch. It was way past midnight, and most certainly the chimes of the churches nearby had since long ceased. “Oh, we’re past Christmas”

“Christmas ain’t not over until the day is over” Sung Gyu grinned and he stopped in the middle of the street. I followed, and thankfully there weren’t many people in the sidewalk at this time of the day. He looked down at me, I held my breath as he smiled.

“Merry Christmas, Eunji-Ssi” He said.

“Oh! Merry Christmas to you too” I giggled giddily, and he laughed in response. His laughter made my heart warm, a jovial, refreshing sound echoing in my ears.

We walked on for a moment, the streets almost empty and quiet, most stores closed for the holiday night. A few Gangnam street night clubs were open, an occasional patron in their thick coats and musky scents passing by. All during the walk I was acutely aware of Sung Gyu beside me, quietly observing the surrounding, mind far away. We walked on for a moment, and as we came to a four-way junction, he halted.

“Let’s do this” He said to me all of a sudden, and I narrowed my eyes as I looked in the direction that he did. It was the glimmering neon sign of a convenience store, deserted save for the drooping young cashier, idly sitting in the front on his own.

“Let’s do what?” I asked.

“Show, not tell” He smiled, and before I could protest, he grabbed my hand and dragged me off to the store.

Having been raised in a luxurious household which never really had any convenient needs, I have been to convenience stores only a handful of times in my life. It was so empty in the night, almost ghostly. There was the lowly sound of a radio playing old Christmas songs, and the young cashier was deeply engrossed in his phone, glancing up to only look bleakly at the new shop-comers and returned to his phone. As it was quiet, even our footsteps made a sound loud enough to make an echo inside. Sung Gyu walked slowly, so did I. He picked up a shopping basket and proceeded to toss in a couple of cans of beer and chips into it, wincing every time as the foil packets made a loud crackle whenever he touched them.

“What are we doing?” I whispered at him, not understanding anything from his show-not-tell.

“Christmas shopping” he whispered back, inspected the back of a packet of marshmallows, winced at the sound of the polytene crackling and tossed it back onto the rack.

“Well, if you are expecting any Christmas presents from me, sadly I have only myself to present to you...I’ve been robbed” I informed him in a sharp whisper, following him in small steps as he slid his way towards Christmas decorations. He looked over at me, looked me up and down and raised his brows. “Not half as bad, I’ll take it” He said. I stifled a snort and punched him on his arm. He started to laugh himself, and suddenly it was all loud and lively inside the store, my heart becoming warmer and garnering the attention of the cashier who narrowed his eyes at us suspiciously.

“Oh look, these are nice” Sung Gyu gestured at the Christmas decorations on sale. On the top shelf were Christmas accessories; masks and head bands, a sort of an ugly Rudolf nose, glittery Santa hats, Santa beards, and elf hats with tiny led lights attached to its hem. As Sung Gyu reached for a Rudolf headband, the little tinsels on the antlers made a soft tinkling sound. He placed it on his head and his eyes crossed when he tried to inspect himself, then he tilted his head side to side. I couldn’t hold back my laughter; at the way his eyes stayed crossed, the way his hair fell to his eyes. He was adorable, and I was laughing so hard that I almost chocked.

He then reached to the top shelf and picked up a Santa hat. With the hat held carefully in his hands, he leaned over to me, so close to my face, and I saw his eyes bearing into mine; so, so brown, his irises carrying a soft golden light. They were like an entirely new universe combined. And I held my breath.

“Here’s for your best Christmas ever, Jung Eunji” He muttered, and slowly eased the Santa hat on my head. He pulled it down too far that it covered my eyes. When he noticed that I couldn’t see anything, he spluttered out with a laughter. I joined him, it was hard not to. And then for a moment we were both laughing, occasionally dragging a sharp breath. And it must have been when the cashier served us with his curious gaze; from under my hat I could see Sung Gyu pressing a finger on his lips and go “Ssh!”

But that didn’t stop either of us from laughing.

As the laughter died down, I raised my head, and Sun Gyu proceeded to fix the hat on me. He lifted it so my eyes were out, and then his eyes were on mine, warm and beautiful, bearing into mine for the longest time. I felt warm inside, a prickling sensation coursing right through me, taking me into a place entirely of our own. His gaze was doing things to me; his smile, his words, his warmth. Just him. I had met plenty of men myself, but nobody has ever, ever made me feel this way. He cracked open my heart, eased himself in and turned my entire world upside down. He swept me off my feet. He wrote my story in a way that nobody else in my life ever did.

His fingers slowly reached my face, and as I held my breath, he fixed my bangs underneath the hat, put them in place and tilted the hat to a side. My heart hammered so hard, bouncing off my ribcage frantically, and I began to feel light in my head. Perhaps this was the alcohol finally kicking in. Perhaps this was just the magical night taking its different turns of making it more and even more memorable. It was strange, really. A strange, strange thought. But I felt...I felt as if I had fallen unconditionally and undeniably in love.

He tilted his head to a side and inspected his working on me, and then he smiled, nodding approvingly. “That’s better” He said and reached for my hand. “Come on, time to pay”

The cashier glowered at us as if we were a pair of lunatics. It was quite a funny affair, honestly. We were both serious and quiet as he rung off our things. Sung Gyu took off his head band, I took of my hat, but as soon as they were rung, Sung Gyu picked them up, ripped off the price tags and put them back on our heads. The cashier boy looked at us from our heads to our feet. I suppose he concluded that we were a pair of drunk Hobos and would most probably wonder if he should ring the police once we’re gone.

Much to the cashier boy’s chagrin, perhaps; we didn’t really leave. We settled down in the plastic chairs outside the store and breathed in the cold air which kissed our warm skin with a prickle. Sung Gyu set down the bags on a table, pulled out a chair and I followed the same. Then he pulled out two cans of beer, cracked them open and handed one over to me. For a moment, we were both quiet, save for the sound of Sung Gyu’s antler headbands tinkling. Sometimes I laughed when I heard that and Sung Gyu giggled too. Soon we fell into a moment of comfortable silence. We were both engrossed in our thoughts, the kind of a silence that we both needed in a long, eventful night.

“I’m sorry...for being an before” Sung Gyu’s voice cut into the quiet all of a sudden, and when I looked at him, he glanced back; the Antlers tinkled, and regardless of how serious the moment was, I sputtered out with laughter.

“What?” He raised his brows and tilted his head, intentionally making the antlers do the sound again, appearing completely oblivious.

“Nothing” I wheezed and urged him to carry on. Which he did.

“Well, I didn’t mean to be an . You know, I guess, with the whole running away thing, I was just a bit agitated”

“No problem” I replied honestly, my eyes down casted as I did. “It was understandable...” I thought about it for a moment and added. “I’m sorry too...because of me you couldn’t...do as you planned”

He shrugged. “This is much better I guess”

Although the sense of his words wasn’t much, I felt my heart doing somersaults. I knew it was, yet again, superfluous of me to think that I made his night any better. If anything, it was him who did for me. He was the quirky, funny one, he was the one with exquisite stories and so much to tell; he was the life of the pair of us who kept the dull night alive, he was the hero, while I was just there, hanging onto him like a leach striving on the ample of energy that he had. I wasn’t sure how I was making anything better for him. But I didn’t dare to question, lest it ruined the moment.

“I did think you were an though” I admitted in order to take the conversation in a different direction.

“You did?” He looked at me and laughed. “I kind of knew you would, I thought you were a stuck-up”

“That’s alright” I grinned. “I thought you were a proud, entitled ”

I thought he would take offense in this but Sung Gyu was too light hearted to take offense in anything. He just laughed, his shoulders jostling, the antlers continued to make the tinkle making it all the more funnier. “That’s fair, even I would have thought so too if I were you”

“Oh yeah?” I wheezed.

“I sure did act like one”

“I also thought you were a busy person heading somewhere important, but then I saw you playing games on the phone”

He raised his brows. “Oh just because I was playing games doesn’t make it any less important”

I looked up at him, saw him glowering mockingly with the antlers on his head, and I laughed even more. I didn’t think I had laughed so much in my life before. I didn’t think anyone had made me laugh so much. Perhaps it was my alcohol kicking in. Perhaps it was just the effects of a magical night.

Once the laughter died down, however, I asked him, what suddenly appeared in my mind.

“Sung Gyu-Ssi” I called him.

“Hm?”

“Why didn’t you just leave me there? Why did you stay?”

He glanced over at me for a second. “That’s a good question”

I shrugged. “Honestly”

Sung Gyu pursed his lips. “If I knew, I would have told you”

I thought about it for a moment, the response, and then recalled back to that moment. The driver’s words happened to echo in my mind. It had happened only a couple of hours ago, but it suddenly felt so far away.

“Was it because of what the driver said?”

“Hm? About what?” He perked up.

“You know” I shrunk into my coat. “About leaving me behind and... stuff”

He went quiet, perhaps recalling that moment, and stared ahead. “Not really” He said in the end. “I guess...I guess it was because of the purse thing...you know, leaving someone in need is against my social responsibility” He shrugged. “And you know, you kind of collapsed”

I blushed at the memory, the panicked and frantic me collapsing at the thought of having no money for the rest of my journey, Sung Gyu grabbing hold of me and me acting like an absolute damsel in distress. Sung Gyu was, from that moment on, my prince in shining armour. Although only a few hours had passed since then, I felt like so much had happened between that time and now; two complete strangers who despised each other were now sitting together in a time when everyone else were asleep, sitting in old plastic chairs of a desolate convenience store, sipping beer in Christmas hats. When I walked out of my house that night, never had I thought that it would take this turn.

I suppose what they say is true; sometimes an unfortunate event could come as a blessing.

“What are you thinking?” Sung Gyu’s voice floated into my mind once again, and I glanced up to see him gazing at me; that disarming gaze which melted everything inside me. His smile was gentle, and bright in his eyes. He seemed to be getting more and more beautiful every time I looked at him, if that was even possible.

I shook my head and looked away.

“I think it was after you told me the truth” Sung Gyu started, suddenly, and the antlers tinkled when he turned away. “You don’t meet many grown ups who run away every day. And when you told me I just really connected”

I swallowed and decided to avert the conversation again. For some reason, I was afraid to hear more. There was a spark between us, there was no doubt about that; and it was what which scared me, pursuing this strange, surreal connection that we’ve formed between each other just over a couple of hours. It just felt...fragile to me, and I was afraid I’d break it if I step towards it even further.

“Oh, so it wasn’t because I collapsed” I pointed out to him.

He chuckled. “I can’t be someone who leaves a collapsed person either”

I nodded and hummed, he nodded too. And then we fell quiet again. I thought about us, everything between us, and it gave me an indescribable amount of pain that I didn’t think anymore. In a couple of hours, morning will arrive, and I had no choice but to return home. Sung Gyu and I would part ways, and I would return to my old life. This little bubble of a universe that we created would soon evaporate, only fragments of it will remain as memories in our hearts. Sung Gyu would go away, soon return to Thailand, perhaps, and this would be probably the last time we would ever meet. I would live with this heartbreak for the rest of my life.

“You know what Eunji-Ssi?” Sung Gyu called after a moment and I hummed as I glanced at him. “I know you’re thinking...about things. So, we’ll do this”

“Do what?” I raised my brows.

“Pretend to be somebody else”

I looked over at his antlers and snorted out a laughter. He laughed in return, making that sound with the antlers again, and it took us a moment to settle down.

“No, what I mean is, let’s not be us...you know. Let’s be different people tonight, so our stories will be different”

Stories. My heart picked up. Why? I wanted to ask him. What benefit would we have in doing that? But then I almost knew the answer when I thought about it. Almost. And when I looked into his eyes, I could see it floating inside them like a silent prayer. So our stories would be different, so our destinations weren’t apart. So, we won’t end up being memories in the end.

“Right” I sighed and looked over at him. “So, Sung Gyu-Ssi, if you weren’t a ‘A lawyer who doesn’t go to court’ what would you be?”

“Hm, me?” He said, his voice going up an octave, and stared up at the starless sky thoughtfully. Then a mischievous smile spread on his lips. “A stripper” He said.

“Not bad” I spluttered out laughing. “Although it will be difficult with that face”

“What’s wrong with my face?” He asked in mock offense, and I laughed in response.

“Nothing...nothing” I muttered, wheezing. After my laughter died down, however, Sung Gyu had returned to being all grave and solemn. He looked ahead and sighed. “I’d be a comic strip artist”

“A comic strip artist?” I reiterated.

“Hm” He nodded, appearing slightly crestfallen, and when I remained quiet, he looked over at me and smiled. “When I was a kid, I used to be obsessed with comics, especially the one which you get in the newspapers, the funny comic strips; even the political ones. I used to have a scrap book and collect them, and I always wanted to draw comic strips for newspapers, but all I could do was draw them in my note books...” He sighed again. And there was something magical about his eyes as he talked; the way they sparkled, the way he appeared distant and happy, engrossed in memories that he sincerely cherished. There was something about him when he talked about the things he loved...and I thought it was beautiful.

“So...what happened?” I asked him, he looked over at me and smiled sadly. “I went to law school”

I nodded, and for a moment I couldn’t say a word. I suppose what my mother said was the truth. Everyone we met had their own story. I thought she was always talking about love. Perhaps it was too; a love towards something that he always wanted to be.

“Tonight, Sung Gyu-Ssi, you’re a comic strip artist” I informed him.

“Aw, I thought we were going with stripper”

I rolled my eyes. “Draw me something”

“You mean, like, a comic strip?” He raised his brows.

“Something like that.” I shrugged. “You know the best”

He was quiet for a moment, contemplating it, then he smiled. “I actually like that...do you have a pen?”

“Not on me”

Sung Gyu glanced back at the store where the cashier boy was yet again, waiting idly for possible late nightly customers, and looked back at me. “Hold on a moment” He said, and he climbed up on his feet. He took long strides back to the store and bowed apologetically at the cashier boy. As I watched him cautiously, Sung Gyu disappeared behind the aisles. A couple of minutes later he hurriedly emerged, approached the cashier and rung off his things. Then he quickly made his way out of the store towards me, a thin permanent marker in his hand, and no paper.

“Paper?” I raised my brows. He paused and threw his head back, closing his eyes. “”

We both glanced at the store and saw that the boy had disappeared from the counter. We were quiet as we waited for him to return, which he didn’t, and Sung Gyu ran a hand down his face. “Sorry about that”

I wondered if I had any stray paper on me, Sung Gyu tried to work on the bill from our previous purchase which was smudged with dew. Then I looked down at my arm; an idea. I pushed back my coat sleeve, undid the sleeve button of my blouse and exposed my pale arm to the winter cold.

“Here. Draw on my arm”

Sung Gyu looked at me warily. “But this is permanent ink” He said.

“That’s the whole point”

He stared at my pale arm for a moment and then smiled. “Ah, now I get it”

“What?”

“You’re whiter than a sheet”

I mock glowered at him. “Oh, just draw”

He didn’t launch at it straight away. He moved his chair closer to me, and daintily took hold of my arm. His fingertips were soft and cold against mine, almost ticklish, and he was so close to me that I could almost breath in his intoxicating citrusy scent. He worked slowly, as if anything he would do could break my skin. The tip of the felt pen was cold on my arm, and as he concentrated on my skin, I watched the black ink forming wonderful patterns. He drew a small figure; a man with a chubby face, hair pushed up, in a coat too long and just tiny slits for eyes. I immediately recognised him as himself, and that made me smile.

“Is that you?” I asked him slowly, and he nodded his head. As he did, his hair grazed my cheek. I could see it up close; dark and messy, a tinge of brown in odd places. I wondered how it must be like to run my fingers through it.

“I’m drawing the two of us” He explained as he continued, his voice slightly muffled. “When we first met” He glanced up at me, and then he smiled. Seeing it up close made my heart stop instantly; just how beautiful and enchanting he was. “I thought it was a memory you’d want to keep in permanent ink”

“Yes, especially when you were being a big ” I replied, and he chuckled before he went back to his work.

“While we’re at this, Eunji-Ssi” He started after a while and glanced up at me for the briefest moment. “If you weren’t a nurse who saved occasional chocking drunkards, what would you have been?”

Truthfully, while we were in the topic, I had wondered it myself. I wondered what I would have wanted to be. I never really had a choice, to be honest. All the decisions in my life were up to my parents, from the day I was born and brought into their arms. I hadn’t the liberty to chose for myself, not even the path I wanted to pursue or people I wanted to love. They said that love and passion was a choice; but that wasn’t so for me. They always pushed and pulled me around, a puppet on a string. They wanted me to get into the best college, the profession that they deemed suited me, and marry the person who benefitted them more. Having lived a life which was not my own, I had never really thought of what I would have wanted to be. Sung Gyu had a passion; I could see it in his eyes. He was a deeply passionate and determined person, who strived to achieve what he desired over what the rest of the world wanted him to be. Perhaps he’d had a few hurdles, I couldn’t tell by how much I already knew about him, which was just an iota of everything that he was. But that wasn’t me. That couldn’t be me. I didn’t have anything that I wanted to be; all I had was everything that I was supposed to be.

But then I thought about my mum again, about the person that she had created, which was me. She had planted that small childish desire in me, that love to listen to a beautiful story every night as a child, that obsession to create stories of others, that craze to write a story of my own. Slowly then, it dawned on me. Perhaps I always wanted to be a story teller myself. Perhaps all I ever wanted was to create my own universe, my own story, the story of what I could have been, would want to be. It took me this so long to understand that my truest passion was this. Stories.

“I like stories” I told him without thinking any further, and noticed how he halted for a moment, the tip of the felt pen hovering over the unfinished picture on my skin. He glanced at me and smiled. “A writer, then?”

I thought about it for a moment, and I shrugged. “I don’t know, really. I’ve never really thought about what I wanted to be. I just knew what I am ought to be, that’s all”

“Childhood ambition?” He glanced at me.

“Never had any” I shook my head. “I had a pretty dull childhood....” trailed off, my mind recalling my younger days, my teen years working my days away, striving to be the best in my parents’ eyes; nothing more. Now that I thought about it, its quite sad, really. I haven’t had a life. “...well, my entire life’s been dull, to be honest. Never had the liberty of choice”

“Not dull” Sung Gyu said distractedly, again working on the comic strip. I tried not to think about the feel of his fingers on my skin lest I lost my good reasoning. He was now drawing a girl with lousy bangs and huge doe eyes. I was pretty sure that my eyes didn’t look anything like them. But that was me. He glanced at me for a second and smiled. “Not dull, Eunji-Ssi, it just lacked a bit of colour”

“How would you know?” I asked for the lack of better things to say, and he grinned. “I just do”

I tried to hide my blush as I looked away, but I was pretty sure he could feel just how hard my heart was hammering inside me. Sung gyu kept doing things to me, things I had never felt before. With his words, with his smile. I was beginning to a see a side of me that I had never known to exist.

“So you said you liked stories” Sung Gyu said, filling the silence between us. “What kind of stories do you like? a?”

I spluttered and shook my head. “Of people. To be honest, when I meet people, I try to think of their stories...I try to create them sometimes. I don’t get them right, of course”

Having finished the figure of the girl, he gazed at me for a moment too long, and I died inside a little. “That’s nice...” He smiled. He placed the tip of the pen on me again, and I clenched my fist as it tickled. “Did you try to create my story?”

I recalled what my first impression of him was and glanced down at his hand. He was drawing carefully, paying attention to even the simplest details. There was a story being created on my warm, pale skin; the story of us. I gazed at the way his hands worked, quick and precise, not a single amiss. I had initially thought he was an artist, a story teller too. And I was right.

“I thought you were an artist...and perhaps even a novelist”

He raised his brows and looked up at me. “You saw right through me”

“I got it wrong” I shrugged. “You were a lawyer who didn’t go to court that whole time”

At this, he chuckled softly which died as soon as it came. “You saw what I wanted to be, at least” He said to me, not meeting my eyes. “Besides, lawyer who doesn’t go to court doesn’t exactly pass as a good story, does it?”

“I guess not” I pursed my lips.

“You know sometimes people want the others to see what they actually are...” Sung Gyu went on distractedly as he concentrated on the comic strip. “It’s a comfort when people see what they want to be...”

“I just assumed you were an artist” I muttered.

“That’s what I am, now, ain’t I?” He said and met my eyes. Then, for that one moment, we were in sort of a parallel universe, him holding my eyes, his on my arm, and me deeply lost in the world he was creating for me. He was an artist, and I saw him through. But the question was, just how much could he see me through? Did he even see me beyond the layers that my parents had laid upon me Was there even an actual person beyond them? Was there even anything to see? To love? What if there was nothing; just the dull old me, the puppet on strings, and that was the entire reason why I never seemed to have a story of my own.

“Despite what you’re saying, Jung Eunji, I think you’re one remarkably beautiful woman” he said then, and I felt my heart stop for a moment. He looked away. “Don’t let anyone make you think otherwise” He continued, and he returned to his drawing as though he hadn’t said anything that would affect me captivatingly. “It could be that your parents have created you entirely. But still there is you, the real you somewhere underneath it all’ He glanced at me briefly then, and he smiled. “When you really let your guards down, the real you comes out. You’re smart, funny, beautiful...you’re you”

For a moment, I was rendered speechless. For the years of myself meeting people of all sorts, not one had ever said anything more...beautiful. I have heard people appreciating me enough times. I knew I was attractive in physical attributes, men especially liked it that I was involved in an occupation which left me powerless in their hands. They loved that I was raised this way, to be easily pushed and pulled around so that they could take control. But not once ever in my life had I met anyone who even attempted to see right through me.

Then Kim Sung Gyu did just that.

Suddenly I was acutely aware of his presence beside me to every fibre of his being. I felt his touch to be magnetic, the sensation coursing through me right down to the core. His words reverberated in my ears, thoughts of him filled my mind. I concentrated on the way his fingers moved gently across my skin and wondered how they would feel on every other part of me. I realised, with a pang, that I desired him. I desired him in a way that I had never desired anyone ever before.

“So” He broke into the quietness, and I noticed that now he was working on the background details; a car, trees and buildings in the back. As he continued, he asked me; “How did it come about? Stories, I mean”

It took a moment for me to absorb his words. “Oh...um, when I was young, my mum used to tell me stories every night. And I loved it. She told me once that everyone in this world had their own story, and since then, every time I see or meet a stranger, I try to work out their story”

“Fascinating” Sung Gyu grinned. “So there you are...you like to make stories”

I went quiet at that, my mind engrossed in recalling all the stories I knew. The reason why I truly developed this obsession was because I always strived to have my own. I didn’t own anything I had, not even my life, not even my choices, my rights. Perhaps this was the reason why I at least wanted to have my own love story, a small tale of secret romance, like my mother’s chance encounter. I looked down at Sung Gyu’s head lowered as he worked on the script, and my heart picked up at the superficial prospects of a different story. I knew it was wishful thinking. Perhaps it was just me, perhaps it was just how I felt and interpreted it all. But Sung Gyu and I, right here, right now, were a story of our own.

“I wanted to write my own story” I said to Sung Gyu before even I could stop myself. “Not like novelists or anything. Just...” I sighed, and he straightened up, my arm still in his hand. “Well, my mum; she always tells me about how she met my dad in a Karaoke bar and they...they fell in love...ever since I heard it, I’ve wanted to have one of my own...”

I felt blood descending to my face, and I wanted to disappear, melt away. But instead, I was sitting there, completely transparent to the man who now held my heart.

“So, write it, Eunji-Ssi” Sung Gyu told me, softly, quietly, and I found myself gazing at him. He stared back, his eyes fixated on mine, and my heart began to hammer so fast inside me. “Tonight, you’re a story teller, and nothing is stopping you”

He returned to the comic strip then, and I saw him writing something in a corner of the drawing. He let the pen hover above my skin for a moment, the quietness so loud for that one moment between us. Finally, he pulled away and sat up straight. “Done”

I smiled at him weakly, and my eyes ran over the comic strip decorating my pale skin. There was him, the tiny man with chubby cheeks and slits for eyes, and then there was me, long hair and messy bangs, starry doe eyes which looked nothing like mine. We were staring at each other, and there was a taxi parked behind us, a seemingly old man sticking his head out the shutter. There was a vague sketch of the city behind us, street lights and Christmas decorations; the road stretching behind us. Somewhere on the top, what appeared to be the sky, were dots as stars. It was when I looked closely that I realised it; there was a tiny line of hearts above the drawings of us, and on the corner, he’d written in terribly unreadable writing; “Our Story”

“Oh...” I gasped, holding my breath. They said that love came to you in the strangest ways. That fate had funny ways of making things work out for you. I didn’t look at Sung Gyu. I didn’t have the sheer capacity to, but I was aware of his gaze, fixated solely on me, expectant and awaiting my response.

“Well?” He asked softly. I glanced at him just for a second and set my eyes on the fine details on my arm. I felt him move, just a slightest, subtle movement; and then we were close, so close. Would I turn to face him, I would be just an inch apart from him, and I would not be able to hold myself back. I would want to take my chances and kiss him.

“It’s...nice, honestly” I muttered in response.

“Do you like it?”

I nodded.

Silence. And-,

“Jung Eunji”

“Hm?”

“Look at me”

I closed my eyes, breathed in deeply, and slowly turned my eyes towards him. He was gazing down at me; warm and enchanting. That brown not so prominent in the dimness of the streetlight but still, so much alive. He smiled that exact same smile, the one that’s tugged the strings of my heart from the moment we met and continued to watch me; expectant and quiet.

“Tonight, let’s write our own story” He said.

A few minutes later, we were back on the street. We walked on without direction or a destination in mind. Our hands brushed past each other but none of us was brave enough to grab hold of the other. Sung Gyu had both our bags in one hand, and though I’ve battled to have mine to myself, he persisted. Instead, I had a small grocery bag laden of the things we’ve bought along with the Christmas hats. As we walked, we tried to tell other people’s stories. The grumpy old man who sat outside a store had his family abandoning him and now lived with a small, loyal dog. That particular girl who emerged from an underground store of some sort which provided the kind of deals that we didn’t aspire to take, was trying to make her ends meet and afford college education so she could have a better life. We created super heroes, real life super heroes, the ordinary people who struggled every day of their lives. But still we didn’t talk about our own story. We were afraid to, as it still remained vibrant and quiet in the back of our minds.

“He has a wife and three children at home” Sung Gyu muttered in my ear, his hot breath fanning against my skin, as we passed a lonely old security guard of a hotel, idly watching as the world passed by. “I bet one of them is a high school girl” I added. “And she wants to be a singer when she grows up”

It was comforting, honestly, to be involved and invested in a different world than ours as it held us back from diving into qualms of our own. It’s been minutes since we left the convenience store after having watched it being closed down, the lights flickering off and the boy leaving his shift for the day. It was as if another chapter of this story was closed, paving path for another. It was Sung Gyu who suggested taking a walk, and I, having not much of a choice, simply agreed. It was again him who suggested we tried to work out people’s stories, and this we’d been exercising for the past couple of blocks we passed, religiously.

“What do you think of that girl” Sung Gyu asked, and he gestured at a twenty-four-hour coffee shop where a lone girl was sitting on the other side of the glass panel, a mug in her hand, deep in thought. Her eyes were distant, and there wasn’t much I could deem looking at her, except for that she was, perhaps, lost in the cross roads of her life.

“Student loans and exams” Sung Gyu muttered as we passed the coffee shop and moved ahead. “The kind of problems that we’ve never had...” A moment of quietness, and then he smiled, almost sadly. “It’s strange to think that we all have problems that others probably don’t”

“Problems that have solutions...sometimes” I added, almost mindlessly. For people who were struggling making the ends meet, covering up their daily expenses and students’ loans, perhaps, these problems weren’t the kind that actually had solutions. For Sung Gyu and me, however, we actually did. I had to escape my parents’ toxicity, Sung Gyu had to fall in love. It was just that easy; and yet here we were, running away from our lives as people with actual struggles strived to live the best way they could.

“Problems are difficult for their own” Sung Gyu muttered softly, staring ahead.

“Maybe it’s about how we all try to solve them” I told him in response. “Some of us try to run away”

Sung Gyu chuckled softly in response. “It’s funny to think that some foolish decisions have the best consequences”

“True” I sighed, thinking back to the night that we’ve had. We were nearing dawn, as the nights were shorter in the winter days, and our time together would soon come to an end. As heart-breaking as it was, we’ve established our connection already, and our parting wouldn’t mean that it would actually fade away. There were things that could work, and if our encounter truly was fated to happen in our lives, then it would last longer. All we had to do was try.

We walked on quietly for a moment, and then all of a sudden, Sung Gyu halted. So did I, and then I realised that Sung Gyu was staring up at the lamp post above us. I followed his gaze, and for a moment all I could see was tiny dusty specs floating in the golden light. And then soon, is started to descend in torrents; torrents and torrents of flakes of snow.

“Oh...” Sung Gyu muttered, held out his hand and watched as the snow descended onto his skin and faded away. “It’s snowing...”

“Didn’t hear that in the weather forecast” I laughed and tried to catch them in my hands myself.

“The question is...” Sung Gyu met my eyes. “Whether you even saw the weather forecast”

I laughed. “Course not, I was too busy planning to run away”

“Worked out pretty well, didn’t it?” He said softly, his eyes shining, a pair of beautiful crescent moons. I found myself lost in his gaze for a moment, he appeared to be lost in mine. There it was again, that imperceptible connection; effervescent, almost magical. Sung Gyu took a step towards me, still holding my gaze, and he lifted his hand before he slowly dusted the snow off my hair.

“Who would have thought?” I muttered thinking back to the moment we met, completely unplanned to fall in love towards the end. “Hm?” Sung Gyu looked into my eyes once more, and I shook my head, smiling. “They don’t say the important things in the weather forecast, do they?” He added after a while.

“Things like what?”

His hand which was on my hair slowly descended to my face. “Things like...meeting a girl like you...”

I bit my lip, staring straight into his eyes. “Maybe it wasn’t important enough”

He shook his head, his fingers moving downwards even further, tangling up in my hair and running through it. He had moved even closer, and the brown of his eyes was so eminent up close. He gazed at me warmly, quietly, and I tried to work out just what he was thinking. He was still so guarded, despite everything he had told me. I couldn’t see past that silvery sheen of his eyes, as though it was a little secret he was hiding, and I wished this little secret was exactly what I wanted it to be.

So I decided, bravely and boldly, to test my boundaries, work things out for myself. We were in the middle of the street. Although its still too early in the day, there were people, so many strangers, and I didn’t want us to be imprinted in their minds. So, I reached for Sung Gyu’s hair first, dusted the snow off him, and as more and more of it fell upon him like silvery fairy dust, I reached for his hand. “Come on” I told him and dragged him behind me as I took off in a run.

And then we were running. We were running and running, the cold wind against our faces, a force against the still falling snow. It stained our hair and shoulders, became slippery beneath of shoes; but still we were running, down and across the street without destination, laughing and mindless as his hand held warmly onto mine. Somehow, he had taken the lead of our escapade, him running before me. Soon we slowed down, and it gradually came to a halt. We’d stopped at a darkened alleyway, a lonely food stand at the very end of the road and dark, murky walls surrounding us; secluded from the rest of the world. A sole lamp post remained, flickering regularly and the snow still falling created a heavenly effect underneath its lights.

Sung Gyu and I stood there, panting and struggling to catch our breath. He was laughing, so was I. His eyes were fixated on me as if he couldn’t possibly look away. As we gathered our bearings, it was clear, what point of our little journey we had finally come to. The air between us had invariably shifted, and we didn’t appear to each other the same anymore. For me, he was the start and end of everything. I was aware of every big and tiny detail of him. I was aware of the way the brown edges of his irises melted into the white, the smallest smile donning his lips, the slightest specs of brown in his hair and the disarming gaze that he always, always held me captive in. I was aware of the way he never looked away from me, even as he made his way towards me, even as he dropped our bags somewhere by his feet and propelled me backwards without even laying a hand on me. I was expectant, gratified and captivated by the very sight of him. I stepped backwards until my back hit the brick wall behind me, the rough, cold surface grazing my skin. He halted just a step away from me; smiling the slightest, yet not saying a word. I stared into his eyes, he gazed into mine, an enigmatic moment. Slowly but surely, then, I lifted my hand, caught a handful of his shirt and pulled him down towards me. He followed my silent plea, his warm breath fanning against my skin, and soon he closed the gap between us. All that I saw before my eyes fluttered close was the pink and prominent shape of his lips, parted, and descending towards me.

Sung Gyu kissed me, then and there; sweet, long and beautiful. His lips were cold and moist against mine, prying them open and attempting to unveil everything that I held untold. He tasted sweet, a tinge of booze and certainty, his movements so sure and so precise. I gasped against him as he tugged my lower lip between his teeth, and he smiled upon my reaction, his eyes forming crescent moons. I closed my eyes even longer, granting him the permission as he desired. He soon pressed closer against me, and we continued.

It was the kind of a kiss where time stilled, monarchs fell, and continents drifted without even us noticing. His arm was pressed to the brick wall above my head as he stood towering me, the other on the curve of my waist, his fingers pressing onto my skin over the few layers between us, and I felt him to the very core of my being. My own hands ran up his chest, around his neck and tangled into the dark locks of his hair. He tilted his head to a side, ran his tongue past my lips and I breathed him in. The time was invariably stilled between us, and we were lost in a moment so long. By the time we finally pulled away from each other, the street light above us had flickered one dozen of times, the world was covered in a silvery white sheen of splendour. I stared into his eyes, a beautiful golden sunset in the depths of them, and my fingers unconsciously traced the shape of his lips. He was truly beautiful, Sung Gyu was. At the very sight of him, the feel of him pressed against me, his heart beating almost rhythmically along mine, I couldn’t hold back everything I felt towards him. It raised in multitudes, like a rising tide; the desire that I had for him, so strong. I closed my eyes as his lips brushed past mine once more.

“Let’s be reckless tonight” I whispered to him, my own words echoing in my mind. His eyes met mine enigmatically, and I breathed against his lips.

“Just how reckless do you want to be?” He asked me.

I looked up at him and caught a blazing fire in his eyes. He desired me, I could tell, just as much as I desired him. I smiled.

“Disgustingly, mind-bogglingly reckless...”

Sung Gyu smiled back, his lips moving against me, and I felt his hand warm on my neck.

“That can be arranged”

Then I hummed as he caught me in yet another whirlwind of a kiss.