After two glasses of water and some spicy deep fried chicken, I want something stronger to drink.

Hyoyeon is still in an interesting disposition from the booze, and Jessica is pleasantly red but still very coherent. Tiffany is the designated driver so she is entertaining herself with mocktails - which keep her complexion clear. Likewise, Sunny exudes a calm and cool aura as she flips through the song book for the noraebang. She doesn’t want me and Seohyun to drink alcohol, so we avoid it like the plague.

Of course Hyoyeon and Sunny didn’t know Seohyun as well as they knew me, so there was some awkwardness between both parties. Sunny gushed over how cute and polite she was during their introductions. They had seen her around school, and said that they always took her as the ‘polite quiet type.’ Not completely far from the truth.

Hyoyeon was perhaps the one who had been the most taken aback by Seohyun and gave her quite a few puzzled looks as we talked earlier in the evening. Seohyun kept talking formally, even when they told her not too. She just couldn’t speak banmal.

It didn’t help that our discussion topics were focused on things that Seohyun didn’t have a big interest in like celebrity gossip and dating. When Seohyun admitted she didn’t know much about any of those things, it was clear Hyoyeon was unable to fathom Seohyun’s existence. They were polar opposites in a way, but Hyoyeon was too nice not to like someone. Of course, things got even more interesting when Hyoyeon asked her about her romantic life which was practically non-existent. Seohyun didn’t go into detail.

The noraebang room is dim, with only a few faint yellow bulbs providing us with vision. It feels like we are in our own little world but it’s comfortable and has been a place for us to escape for the night. The room is furnished with leather sofas, hardwood floors, and clean egg white walls.

Staring in Seohyun’s direction, I see her nursing her cranberry juice and nibbling on some of the sweet potato fries that were always available at places like this. Oily foods were a perfect complement for alcohol, which was an even better complement for karaoke.

Hyoyeon and Sunny are getting ready to sing another song and Jessica and Tiffany are talking about performing a duet on the couch beside us. There’s time for us to wander.

“Do you want to get out of here?” I ask as I notice her hide a yawn behind her slender fingers.

“Sure,” she replies with a smile.

We bundle up into our layers and exit the room with a polite ‘be back soon’. The others all nod their heads and smile except Tiffany who gives me a cheeky grin and raises her brow. I’m not that smooth and we’re not even dating. Still, I smile back, knowing that she means well.

Getting out of the dingy basement halls of the noraebang, we head out of the lobby and up the steps that take us onto the bright city streets. It’s busy on a Wednesday night. Everyone is out celebrating the end of national exams. It’s safe to say that businesses were the ones that got the most joy from all this exuberance. Every store is filled to the brim, but there’s a gelato place that’s looking awfully lonely.

“Are you up for something cold?” I ask. Seohyun’s walking closely beside me because of the large crowds all around us.

“In the winter?”

“We’ll eat inside.”

I see her nod her head. She hates the cold, but she never really protested that much when it came to cold foods.

We cross the street and carefully make our way through the crowds that congest the side walks. The outside of the small gelato shop is a stark contrast from the rest of the street. There aren’t any flashing lights or loud music blaring through speakers, only a European oak exterior and clear glass windows that let people peer into the shop. I notice that the entire place is filled with wooden furnishings to match the outside of the shop. There are wooden benches and tables lined along the length of the shop like church seating. It’s not bright inside the shop, with only candle lights lighting the dining area – one at each table. Stepping inside, we hear the ring of a bell above us, and see the attendant all the way at the back of the shop look at us with a smile.

There are other people here and all of them seem like couples, but it’s nowhere near as packed as all the other cafes on the street.

We make our way to the counter and admire the rainbow of flavors that are displayed behind a glass freezer.

“What flavor do you want?”

Seohyun shrugs. “What’s good?”

“You’ve never had Gelato before?”

She shakes her head looking up at the prices that are displayed above us on a large chalkboard.

I move forward towards the server who’s patiently for us to order. “Is it okay if we try a few samples? It’s my friend’s first time having gelato.”

The attendant smiles. “Sure, what flavors would you like?”

I pick out a few flavors - toasted almond, black sesame and green tea matcha – which should suit her taste. The attendant gives us three small spoons of each flavor. I hand one over to Seohyun.

“What’s Gelato anyways?”

“It’s like ice cream. It’s good, trust me.”

Without a second thought, Seohyun takes a taste of the toasted almond and smiles.

“Do you like it?”

Seohyun bites on the spoon and nods her head. “It’s yummy.”

She tries the other spoons without any hesitation, and she settles on the toasted almond after careful deliberation. I order one big scoop since we’re in a celebratory mood and grab two pink spoons so we can share. We make our way to the middle of the shop and sit down. While dark, the candlelight at each table adds a nice little touch.

The tables aren’t particularly wide, so we’re surprisingly close even though we’re sitting across from one another. Seohyun watches as I stab the two pink spoons into the soft and creamy dessert.

She grabs her spoon from the mound and takes the first scoop. I join in, and pretty soon we’re just enjoying the food without worrying about everything that’s going on around us. It’s peaceful. The worst was over, the national exams were done.

Seohyun decides to be the first person to break the silence between us.“So you’re sure you did well on the test, right?”

I knew Seohyun would ask a question like this eventually. I point to the bracelet on my wrist and reply, “I’ve got my guardian angel remember?”

Seohyun stops eating and nods her head. “So you’re not stressed about it?”

“There’s no point stressing about it anyways,” I reply. “I’m sure I’ll at least get into one university, somewhere.”

Seohyun resumes eating. “What schools did you apply to anyways?”

“A few. Tiffany’s school, Seoul National University, and a couple of other fallback options.”

“Have you ever thought about writing the SATs?”

I try my best to hold in my laughter. It’s not because of her ridiculous proposition, but the fact that she’s got a smudge of toasted almond gelato just under her bottom lip. I grab a napkin and hand it to her. She grabs it and looks at me. I point to to my bottom lip and she pauses.

“You’ve got some gelato on your face."

Hearing me, she wipes the creamy dessert off and I feel a little guilty when I see her slightly red complexion. I didn’t want her to feel embarrassed.

“Anyways Seohyun, I’m not that smart. I mean I’m a lot smarter now then I was four months ago, but I’m happy with where I’m at.”

Seohyun seems reluctant to take another bite of the gelato. She merely just looks at what’s left of the mound as I finish the rest of it off. “It’s just something to think about. It’s not that much harder than the suneung, except maybe the English portion.”

“It’d be too much work. I mean, I just finished the suneung, and now I have to worry about another test? I probably wouldn’t score high enough to get into any schools that are actually worth travelling for.”

Seohyun shakes her head. I know she doesn’t believe it. She thinks that I can do anything, but I’m human.

“I’m not like you,” I reply.

Seohyun is stone faced when she hears those words come out of my mouth. “Don’t say stuff like that Yoona,” she retorts. “You can do it. I know you can.”

I nod my head like I’m a child that’s being nagged by their mother. I love her for her strong assertions that I’m capable of anything, but I just can’t see it.

It’s then that I notice the couple at the table behind Seohyun making out without any sense of decency for the rest of us. It sticks out to me like an eyesore. I try not to watch and I look around to see if anyone else notices, but they’re all acting like everything’s normal. I can feel my face flush at the sight, so I try to focus back on Seohyun - only at Seohyun - but it only makes me more flustered. I let out a gulp as she takes the last bite of gelato. She her lips to make sure another embarrassing moment doesn’t happen again.

I nearly flip out.

Changing the subject I ask, “Are you excited for the dance on Friday?”

Seohyun pouts her lips in thought. It’s her first time going to a dance. Ever.

“Did Yonghwa plan a lot of romantic things?” I joke.

“I keep telling you, we’re going as friends. He’s not that type of guy Yoona. He’s going to pick me up I guess, but that’s about it.” She sounds irritated.

Was she mad at me?

“How about you? Aren’t you going to go?”

I nod my head in defeat. Min Kyung got me a ticket, insisting that it’s my duty as her friend to go to such frivolous social events. She says she has a reputation to maintain and apparently I’m a part of that.

However Seohyun perks up at my response and it makes me feel slightly better about the whole situation.

“It’ll be fun,” she says.

“Yeah,” I answer sarcastically. 'Fun for Yonghwa.'

Seohyun giggles. “You know, you’re supposed to be the one who’s excited for stuff like this, not me. What happened to ‘gangnam style’ Yoona?”

Taking the final scoop of the gelato, to spite her, I reply, “Formals are less fun when you go alone.”

“You’re not going alone. All your friends will be there,” Seohyun says, confident. “Trust me. You’ll have a good time. What could possibly go wrong?”

Seohyun is probably right, but I’m still disappointed.

“Whatever.”

The couple across the table finally gets up to leave. Their public display of affection was way too long to be socially acceptable. As they leave, I glare at them with distain. Seohyun notices my stare and peers at them too. Confused, she turns back to me and whispers, “What? What’d they do?”

“Oh nothing,” I answer, giving her a smirk. “Just something that we should do some time – that’s all.”

Seohyun pouts again and I laugh as a response. She doesn’t like being out of the loop, but she brings the conversation to something much more sobering. “What did you say to Nichkhun by the way? Did you tell him how you feel?”

“I called him on the weekend. He took it well.”

“He did?” she asks.

“Yeah, you know, ‘let’s just be friends’, ‘it’s not me it’s you’. All that crap.”

Seohyun nods her head. “And he wasn’t sad?”

“I was on the phone, Seohyun. I don’t know how he was feeling, although now that you mention it he did sort of whimper and blow his nose from time-to-time…”

“Yoona, that’s not funny.”

I smile. She reads me well, but not well enough. It wasn’t easy for me to tell Nichkhun, just like how it probably wasn’t easy for Seohyun to turn me down either. I realized that as much from our past conversations. I tried my best to let him down easy, and even told him about why it just wasn’t possible for me to like him. Of course, I didn’t mention that the person I had in my heart was a girl, but I told him how I felt and he understood. Always the gentleman, he even wished me luck.

“Look. Me and Nichkhun are okay. Right now, we’re just sort of having that awkward gap before we start talking again.”

Seohyun has a look of relief on her face.

“Do you really think I’m that mean?” I ask with an insulted tone.

“You can be mean sometimes,” she says.

“Oh? Well, I think you’re pretty mean sometimes too.”

“I don’t disagree with that.”

“You’re also pretty infuriating at times.”

Seohyun nods her head and takes another bite.

I let out a sigh of frustration.

‘Why do I like you so much?’

We finish the rest of the gelato, not really succumbing to the romantic atmosphere around us, because it just feels like we’re in our own world when we’re together. Seohyun clears as we get up from the table to head back to the karaoke.

She asks, “Are you free tomorrow night?”

“Sure? What’d you have in mind?”

“I’m having dinner with Joseph. You know, the recruiter from the Italian restaurant?”

Joseph’s business card was buried somewhere in my room, probably under the mound of textbooks from the suneung, but he left an impression on me the night we met. Still, it was hard not to remember everything from that night, the hug, the words Seohyun whispered into my ear - all memories that I cherish.

As nice as Joseph was, I didn’t really see a need for my presence. That is until she adds:  “He told me to bring a friend.”

“Why me?”

Seohyun looks at me like I just asked the dumbest question in the world. It makes me feel good, to know that I’m wanted for things like this.

“Look, I know it’s kind of last minute, but I didn’t want to distract you from the exam. It’s a dinner party so you have to dress nice but nothing too formal.”

I remain silent, calculating all my options. Seohyun knows that the longer I think, the more inclined I’ll be to ditch. She starts persuading me.

“My mom will pick you up and drive you home afterwards.”

“Well…”

“There’ll be tons of food and drinks. He said that it’ll be catered.”

“I don’t know…”

“I’ll do whatever you want, okay? Just come.”

It seems like a hassle, but that’s when I feel the weight of the bracelet on my wrist yank at me, reminding me of just who she was to me. I look down to see the two dangling silver wings glimmering at me and I already know what I have to do.

“I’ll go, but you owe me.”

Seohyun has a wide smile on her face. “Thanks, Yoona. I’ll come over in the afternoon to help you get ready okay?”

“Get ready?” I ask with hesitation. “Is it really that special?”

“It’s special to me.”

I nod my head and offer Seohyun that last scoop of Gelato that’s left before we get up from our seats and make our way back to noraebang.

The streets are still packed, but we arrive back safe and sound. Hyoyeon pulls us on stage and hands us microphones. “You guys should sing!” She pinches Seohyun’s cheeks. “You’re so cute!”

Sunny is flipping through the song book but Tiffany offers to help pick one for the two of us. She enters a few numbers into the remote as we stand there with trepidation. She picks a song and the second I hear its familiar tune I know that it’s meant for Seohyun.

It’s the Keroro theme song.

I feel like a kid singing along and I can tell that Seohyun feels some slight embarrassment too as she gets some rather funny looks from Hyoyeon. Sunny has a big smile on her face and even if it embarrasses the both of us, at least we’re suffering together.

At least it brings back fond memories of our childhood together.

Once we’re done, Tiffany struts onto the stage and takes Seohyun’s microphone and lets her take a breather. She stops me from joining her on the couch and I can see her sporting a mischievous grin.

A song starts playing and it’s familiar but I can’t seem to remember it.

“What song is it?”

Tiffany’s eyes disappear as she smiles at me. “Just sing along.”

The lyrics are in English, so I try my best to pronounce the lyrics as they scroll by on the blue screen – that is - until a particular line pops up that makes me cringe.

I Kissed a Girl and I liked it.

∙∙∙

The ride up to Joseph’s house is surprisingly long since it’s at the other end of the city. Seohyun’s mom is singing along to a ballad on the radio, exuding a carefree youthfulness that’s beyond her years. Seohyun’s with me in the backseat and I can tell where she gets her childish side from.

“We’re almost there girls,” Seohyun’s mom announces, shooting us a smile through the rear-view mirror. I smile back, but hear my name from the seat beside me.

“Yoona, you have something in your hair.”

Seohyun leans in and picks a speck of lint off my noggin, showing it to me. I take a quick glance over at Seohyun and see her looking absolutely spotless. She’s wearing a white and black striped top with a purple skirt underneath, but her amazingly long and curled hair is the real centerpiece. She had gone to a salon before coming over.

“Are you going to have your hair like this for the formal?” I ask, admiring her flowing locks.

“I’ll try.”

Yonghwa’s a lucky guy.

Thankfully, we don’t have to dress too formal, just “smart-casual,” as she said. She helped me pick out my own little outfit, a snug red cocktail dress, and we were on our way.

I look down at the bracelet that I wear on my hand and admire it. In a way, Seohyun gave me something to cherish and I want to give something back to her in kind. There wasn’t anything that caught my eye, but I would keep a lookout.

Seohyun’s mom exits off the highway and uses her GPS to help guide us to our destination. She’s dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, free to go enjoy a night out while we worry about formalities. I envy her, but at the same time I was happy that Seohyun wanted me by her side.

Finally, we arrive in front of a large gated house at the top of a hill and can see several cars parked just underneath it.  It’s huge, slightly bigger than Seohyun’s place, but in a more traditional style.

“You guys have fun alright?”

Seohyun’s mom shoots Seohyun a kiss and she responds in kind. She gives me a warm smile. “Don’t break too many hearts okay?”

I nod my head.

“You guys look so pretty!”

I get up from my seat and close the door behind me, looking up at the house and another family that is dressed in much more formal attire heading up the steps. Seohyun walks beside me as we head up to the residence to see Joseph chatting with another family who is dressed far more formal than the two of us.

“I thought you said it was smart-casual?” I ask with hesitation.

Seohyun nods. “That’s what Joseph said.”

I feel out of place, but Seohyun reassures me, “It’ll be fine. I guess they need to keep an image.”

“Why’s that?”

“Cause most of the guests are prospective students.”

“But I thought you got in already.”

Seohyun turns to me with a faint grin. “I did.”

“Then who’s the prospective student between the two of us?”

Seohyun quickly grabs my hand.

“Let’s head inside. I'm getting cold.”