“Hwang Eunbi?”

“Kim Sojung?”

Funny how they first met years ago coincidentally at the exact same spot they bumped onto each other yesterday, what’s even funnier is that both happened to be there on the day they are supposed to celebrate their 5th anniversary if they are still together.

If

Nothing is ever good if there’s an if in a sentence.

“Remind me again why you still keep that album and why are you looking through it for I don’t know how many times it has been ever since yesterday?” Yuna who’s passing through Eunbi’s bedroom decides to barge in as soon as she sees Eunbi’s holding the album that comes back to existence since last night.

“There’s no reason for me to throw it away, Yuna” Eunbi closes the album and put it back into the box before sliding it underneath her bed to attend to her housemate “I just feel like looking back at the photos of me and her together” She continues while hugging her pillow, as if she’s hugging all the memories she has with the person they are talking about at the moment.

“For real, Hwang? After 3 years? I still can’t believe it that you still keep the album after all these years” Yuna looks at Eunbi, suspiciously. Upon seeing that unconvincing nods from Eunbi, Yuna knows Eunbi isn’t telling her the truth “Alright, I know you’re hiding something. We’ve been together longer than you’ve been with her, and I can assure you, you at lying” Yuna grabs another pillow from Eunbi’s bed and hugs it, making herself comfortable on the latter’s bed knowing that she’ll be there for a while and she ain’t gonna leave the room till she hears the full story.

Seeing how determine Yuna is and she knows how persistent her best friend can be till she digs out the truth from her, Eunbi bumps her face against the pillow trying to think what should she tell Yuna or where should she starts from. But there’s no point for her to hide the real story from Yuna either, the latter has been with her through her ups and downs ever since they first knew each other back in their first day at the university, and out of all people, Eunbi knows, Yuna is the only that she can trust on.

“I met her…” Eunbi lifts her face a little, not dares to look at Yuna who’s staring at her

“Her who?”

“Sojung… I met Sojung yesterday…” And then Eunbi covers her face with the pillow again

“You what? How? I thought you two stopped contacting each other after the break up?”

“Well, we did stop contacting each other though” Eunbi lays her back against the wall “We just met each other coincidentally yesterday”

“Coincidentally where?” Yuna isn’t satisfied with the details she’s gotten

“At the exact same place we both first met”

“You know Yerin is sooo gonna go crazy if she knows about this”

Upon hearing the name, Eunbi form a tiny smile on her face, looking at Yuna with eyes that the latter can already guess the meaning behind that gaze and smile

“Don’t tell me you two –”

Eunbi nods and says

“Yes, we broke up. Yesterday to be exact”

Yuna scoots closer to Eunbi, wrapping her left arm around Eunbi’s shoulder and gives the latter a light gentle squeeze

“Sorry to hear that. Mind if I ask you why?”

“Let’s just say we both are not meant for each other. How does that sound?”

“Pretty good for me. But why does it feel like you’re the one who ask for it?”

“As always?”

“Erghh” Yuna grunts “Come on Hwang. How many times it has been? You really can’t be with anyone longer than a few months, don’t you?”

This has been Eunbi’s 10th breaks up within the 3 years span

“Well… I can. If that someone is her”

“You surprised me sometimes” Yuna shooks her head, feeling disbelief with what she just heard “I don’t know how you can still be in love with her after all this years and after what had happened”

“Trust me, I can’t believe myself either” Eunbi lets out a tiny chuckle, finding herself and her situation funny “But my love for her remains even after all this years. Seeing her yesterday, makes my heart flutters like the first time I fall in love with her”

Love that blooms along with the cherry blossoms

“Why out of all days I decided to go there yesterday, why Sojung, why? And now I can’t keep her out of my head, damn it” Sojung’s plan on writing her project report progress is halted when the incident that happened yesterday keeps on messing around in her head.

The voice she hasn’t heard after 3 years.

The smile she has been missing after all those years.

The face of the person she loves since the first time they bumped onto each other.

The love she is still unable to let go of.

And before she knows it, drops of tears start to roll down and almost wet her shirt.

Her fingers, as if they can read their owner’s emotion, found themselves moving the mouse cursor towards that one particular folder, that Sojung always avoided but at the same time, not having the plan to delete it either.

The first photo that greets her, is their first photo taken together.

Her lips intact onto the cheek of the person she loves, and that one lovely smile exudes from the latter, the day they both decided to tell each other, that they’ve fallen in love.

Sojung has to stop browsing through all the photos when she hears a knock on her door, and she immediately wipes off the tears, and reposition herself on her chair before signaling the person behind the close door to come in.

When the latter reveals herself, Sojung smiles and she immediately stands up opening her arms wide, waiting for the latter to fall into her embraces.

It’s her little sister whom she hasn’t met for almost half a year.

“Did you come here as soon as you landed, Yewon?” Sojung tighten her hugs and lands a smooch on top of Yewon’s head

“I did. Mom and dad are sooo gonna yell at me if they know I came here” Yewon breaks loose Sojung hugs to have a closer look at her elder sister

“Well, you don’t have to tell them, that will save you from the yell” Sojung squeezes her little sister’s cheeks, feeling overjoyed till she forgets to hide her eyes that are still red from the latter

“Unnie? Are you okay?” Yewon asks as soon as she sees Sojung’s eyes

“What do you mean? Of course, I’m okay. I’m much better now that you’re finally here. Do you know how much I miss my little sister who is not so little anymore?” Sojung pulls Yewon into her embrace again, this time hugging her sister even tighter than before. But no matter how hard she tries, Sojung still lost to her own emotion when she finally breaks down in tears.

Yewon who’s worried about her sister, gently pats Sojung’s back to calm her down and when she feels like the latter is now a bit calmer, Yewon loosen their hug and walks her sister towards the sofa in the office.

“I’m all ears, unnie. You know you can talk to me about anything, right?” Yewon grabs Sojung’s hand and intertwine their hands together, holding it firms

“Sorry that I took you by surprised just now, Yewon. Things suddenly seems complicated for me” Sojung tries to vibe out a smile for her baby sister

“Mom is still mad at you for calling the wedding off?” Yewon makes her best guess

“I’m used to her nagging at me about that Yewon, plus it tones down a bit now that I’ve moved out of the house”

“Then what?” Yewon becomes curious

“I met her…” Sojung says, faintly.

“Her? Who?” Yewon digs for an answer

“Eunbi…” Sojung’s voice soften

“Which Eunbi are we talking about?”

“The only Eunbi I fall in love with”

“When?”

“Yesterday, unexpectedly”

“Where?”

“The same place we both first met”

“And you’re saying that was just coincidental?”

Sojung nods

“We didn’t contact each other at all after the break-up”

And Yewon knows why. The break-up isn’t what her sister wanted, things were just too complicated for the both of them back then and what they both wanted for each other, weren’t the same thing they both wanted for themselves.

“So, what did you two do yesterday then?”

“Nothing” Sojung looks at her sister for a short while before averting her eyes someplace else continuing her sentences “We just look at each other and then we both went separate ways”

“Do you still love her?” Yewon asks in a sudden

“I don’t” Sojung words are stuck at , unable to properly finish her sentence

“You don’t?” Yewon couldn’t believe what she just heard and so she asks again, just to be sure.

“I don’t know, Yewon” And hearing that, Yewon knows, her sister really hasn’t moved on from that particular person.

**

“Mind if I sit here?” Upon hearing an unfamiliar voice, Eunbi lifts her face and is greeted with a smile from the stranger that she remembers seeing the other day. And so, Eunbi scoots a bit to give some space to the person to have a sit right next to her on the bench beneath her favorite cherry blossom tree.

“Thank you” The stranger says once she takes a sit. Eunbi decides to continue reading the novel she’s holding not minding the stranger at all.

“Ahh, you love that story as well?”

“I’m sorry?” Eunbi looks onto her right, not getting the question very well to which the stranger points towards the novel in Eunbi’s hand

“Oh. This? You can say so. This is my second time reading it”

“Have you watch the movie?” The stranger continues their conversation

“Ehh, there’s a movie for this?” Eunbi is surprised because she never knows that her favorite novel has a movie version of it. Besides, she isn’t really the type to watch movie that much and the only movies she cared to spend her time watching is the Harry Potter series.

“It just came out actually. And I can assure you, the movie version is a lot better than the novel’s”

“Isn’t it usually the vice versa though?” Eunbi asks based on her experience with her favorite movies series.

“Well, it usually is. But this story is an exception. But maybe because I watch the movie first and then I read the novel, so I was a bit frustrated reading it when there are some scenes that were in the movie but not in the novel” The stranger explains and Eunbi realizes one thing about the former, her smile is an eye-catcher.

“Perhaps my reaction would be the opposite of yours if I were to watch the movie later tonight then”

“Say what. Let say if your reaction turns out to be the same as mine, would you go out for a walk with me here tomorrow then?”

Eunbi is taken aback by the unexpected invitation.

“What makes you think that even if my reaction is the same as yours that I’ll agree to your suggestion?”

And yet, Eunbi doesn’t really turn down the random plan.

“Well, I’m just taking my chances” The stranger says as she stands up “I guess I’ll know the answer tomorrow then” She exudes a lovely smile towards Eunbi before walking away.

The next day, Sojung comes to the park and she goes straight to the place where she met the stranger yesterday. Seeing the bench still empty, Sojung looks at her watch, she still has another 10 minutes before the clock struck at 6pm which was the exact same time they both met yesterday evening.

As the clock keep on ticking and the 6pm mark is getting closer, Sojung couldn’t help but to feel nervous. Well, there are two reasons why she’s nervous. First, because she isn’t sure if the stranger is going to come or not and second, if the stranger does come, honestly, she has no idea how to initiate their conversations later on.

What happened yesterday took her by surprise as well, the words suddenly came out so smoothly from in front of a stranger. Sojung herself isn’t sure what’s gotten into her yesterday evening, but she thought it will be lovely to go for a walk with someone she has been seeing from far away ever since the cherry blossoms started to bloom 3 days ago. Perhaps, she isn’t the only one who fall in love with cherry blossoms and never get tired of seeing the beautiful flowers every single day.

Sojung is playing around with the cherry blossoms petals that she collects from the street, observing the beauty of it even though it’s at the stage to wilt yet it still retains its’ beauty. It is now 15 minutes past 6 and the sight of the stranger is nowhere to be seen. Well, not until a shadow suddenly appears and the person she’s been waiting for is currently standing in front of her, biting her lower lips, scratching the back of her head in between, looking slightly amusing in Sojung’s eyes.

“The movie is much more lovely, isn’t it?” Sojung radiates a charming smile to the girl, feeling glad that the person she has been waiting for decides to appear finally.

“By a bit but I think I kinda get what you meant”

The stranger grins

“So, shall we?”

The stranger invites Sojung for a walk as she lost their bet from yesterday.

“Still surprised me that you decided to come eventually. You know that you can always like the movie more than the novel and you don’t have to accept my invitation, right?” Sojung continues their conversations as they start walking along the cherry blossom walkway.

“I know but since I’m coming here anyways, going for a walk doesn’t sound so bad”

“Say, do you like cherry blossoms?”

“Like is such an underrated word for a lovely flower though” The stranger stops and she bent down to collect two cherry blossom flowers that have fallen on the grass “Have always been in love with it ever since I was a kid” And she passes one of it to Sojung.

“They are gorgeous, aren’t they? Perhaps one of the prettiest flower to ever exist” Sojung accepts it with her heart tugging smile.

“They are but I love them because they reminded me of my first love” And for the first time, Sojung sees the stranger smiles.

“Ahh… You must really love her then because I saw you here every day ever since they bloomed”

“Love and miss are the two words I always used to convey my feelings for her”

“Where is she now? Will she be back soon to see the cherry blossoms with you?”

“Perhaps, she has her own cherry blossom tree somewhere in heaven” The stranger stops herself for the second time, now looking up at the blue sky, that are covered partially by the white pink ocean of her favorite flowers.

“I’m sorry…” Sojung says as soon as she realizes the reality the stranger is facing.

“Nothing for you to feel sorry for by the way. I’m sure my mom is at a place better than the earth” The stranger smiles, assuring Sojung that everything is okay as she remembers back on all the memories she had with her mom when she’s a little kid. The first time her mom brought her and her elder brother to see the cherry blossoms, she still remembers taking an hour train ride plus another hour of bus ride because they live a bit outskirt out of Seoul. The excitement not being able to sleep the night before and she kept on asking her mother, how many hours left till their journey will begin, only to force herself to sleep when her mother threatened her that if she didn’t, she will not be joining the two.

The next day when they arrived at the park, she’s in absolute awed seeing the white-pink colors filling in her entire views, left and right, front and back, whichever turns she took, the pretty sights that kept on taking her breath away.

Not wanting to make the situation awkward for Sojung, the stranger asks

“How about you? From what you said just now, seems like you’re here almost every day as well. Loving the cherry blossoms like I do perhaps?”

“I love them but for no particular reasons like you. Knowing how they only blooms for a period of time, makes me appreciate them even more”

“But aren’t all flowers like that though?” The stranger frowns, not understanding Sojung’s last sentence.

“Of course, they all are. But there’s this mysterious feeling that is hard for me to explain whenever I caught the sight of the cherry blossoms in my eyes. I don’t know what it is but they make me happy just by looking at them”

“You sound like a fool who’s in love” The stranger chuckles, finding Sojung’s answer slightly amusing but warming at the same time.

“Yes, I am. A fool who’s in love with cherry blossoms”

Hey mom, remember our usual walks underneath cherry blossom trees? How I love seeing you smiling when I walk you along the path, whenever the petals fell onto your lap and you grab it immediately before the wind blew it away? Years have pass ever since that day and I’ve never missed you any lesser. Jackson is getting busier and busier these days with his dance company, well, not these days actually, ever since you left us he’s been working so hard just to make sure I live well, and he hardly has free time to take a walk with me just like the three of us always did every year whenever the cherry blossoms season arrived, so I usually walked along our usual path alone. But today, I have someone who love the cherry blossom as much as I do walk with me along the route. Her smile reminds me of yours, mom. She fell in love with cherry blossoms just like you did, for no particular reasons,