Their final year at high school goes by too quickly. Hyukjae dates a string of girls. Donghae doesn’t, but he listens to Hyukjae go on about his various girlfriends (there’s really something special about her this time, Donghae, don’t you think she’s got great legs? Donghae, she’s not right for me, we’re over, I’m never going to find anyone), and they still walk to school together, eat tacos together (until Hyukjae finally puts his foot down and insists on ramen for a change) and study together (okay, they don’t really study a lot either). They give each other high fives or fist bumps at the end of evenings spent in each other’s company, and Hyukjae thinks about the snow, and Donghae’s lips on his cheek and stares down at the faded friendship bracelet around his wrist.

High school can’t last forever though.

They have applied for different universities.

At the time it seemed distant and unreal, not worth worrying about. But when their acceptance letters come and they realize they will be living so far apart, they don’t know how to deal with it. So they pretend it’s not going to happen.

That works until mid-December, the day before Donghae is due to move. Then he declares he doesn’t want to go to university after all and plans to get a job in the city where Hyukjae will be studying. Hyukjae tells him not to be stupid, and Donghae is upset and angry and he knows Hyukjae is right, and that yes, they both have phones, and Hyukjae is just as dismayed as he is.

‘You don’t care at all,’ Donghae says anyway. Hyukjae is already messaging his current girlfriend (his fifteenth that year – they never seem to last more than a week or two) to tell her he won’t be able to meet her for their date after all, but Donghae stops him.

‘Tell her to bring a friend for me,’ he says, and is rewarded by the brief jolt of surprise on Hyukjae’s face. Hyukjae dates all the time but Donghae has never shown any interest in their classmates.

‘But,’ Hyukjae says, ‘You leave tomorrow. I was going to- I mean, after Yungmi and I see a movie real quick, I thought you and I-’

Donghae folds his arms stubbornly. He can’t really complain; Hyukjae is always cancelling or forgetting his various girlfriends for him (the previous one dumped him when Hyukjae left her mid-meal at a restaurant because Donghae was having a crisis after failing his driver’s license for the third time).

The current girlfriend, however, is excited at the idea of a double date.

‘I’ll bring Soojin,’ she says. ‘I can’t believe it! Donghae-oppa is so handsome! Everyone is gonna die when they hear he’s finally got a girlfriend!’

‘It’s just a date,’ Hyukjae tells her, and somehow he feels a bit unsettled. Everyone thinks Donghae is handsome? Since when?

‘I’ll wear this,’ Donghae is saying sulkily, helping himself to Hyukjae’s clothes. ‘You can pay too. I don’t have my wallet.’

His wallet is clearly with his jacket, discarded on Hyukjae’s bed. But Hyukjae is looking at him and trying to see him how their classmates see him and he feels even more unsettled. Donghae has filled out; his shoulders are broader and his arms are far more muscular than Hyukjae’s. His face has changed too (when did that happen?), youthful softness reshaping into stronger, sharper, undeniably attractive features. Hyukjae has been aware, on some level, that Donghae has quite a fanclub amongst the girls at their school, but he’s never really taken the time to appreciate why.

Donghae’s still short, though. Hyukjae feels pleased about that.

The plan is to see a movie, but when Donghae and Hyukjae turn up in Hyukjae’s battered old car (Donghae still hasn’t got his license) the two girls pile into the car.

‘My parents are away,’ Yungmi says, pulling at Donghae’s arm to get him out of the passenger seat so she can sit beside Hyukjae. ‘Let’s go to my place!’

Soojin, a classmate they don’t know very well, beams at Donghae as he slides into the back seat with her and holds up a plastic bag that clinks.

‘Soju!’ she says. ‘We’ll have a goodbye party for you guys, just the four of us!’

Hyukjae looks at them in the rearview mirror. Donghae doesn’t usually drink, but he’s in a stubborn mood and pretends not to notice Hyukjae.

‘Sounds great!’ he says.

Yungmi lives in a nice neighbourhood.

‘Make yourselves at home,’ she says, ushering them into the living room. She gathers shot glasses and pours the first roun