England.

England.

England.                                                                                                                                        

Miyon lay sprawled on her bed, tossing over to see the red stick figures forming the time: 9pm. She didn’t mind the idea of studying there abroad, as her parents said she would; still, a settled gloom rising to her face had cast doubt on her former claim.

And it was Valentine’s Day, too. But no one gave her a Valentine—much less being familiar with any guy in hopes of the latter falling head over heels with her.

She was home-schooled.

Miyon sat up in her bed and decided to sneak out of the room. A night wouldn’t hurt. It was her last night, after all. Her final night in Korea, and she wasn’t going to spend it couped up in her room, ‘sleeping’ just because her parents told her to.

She wanted to drink.

She wanted to party.

But most of all, she wanted to go to the Valentine’s carnival.

“An hour to go.”

The boy nodded curtly to the older man who was slightly taller in height, a man who cared for him so; not like the others. He shot the plastic clown that filled up the balloon.

“I know, I know.”

“I’ll meet you at the Daegu harbour. We’ll escape from there. I have to go and get my family now, so I’ll see you soon. Don’t be late, remember that—otherwise the mafia will find you. Now I’m actually worried whether to take you with me…”

“Just go; I just want to have some fun here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! Don’t worry about me; I’ll get there in time.”        

“Okay…”

The boy was tired of hiding, though.

The carnival was busy, of course. With the night gently flaming into darkness, countless of red and pink lights illuminated the night as if it were still late evening. Miyon tread on the tall grass that would momentarily graze against her ankles before she would take another aimless step, as she wondered about the carnival. Kids screaming, couples passed by her—hand in hand, and the Ferris Wheel stood tall, spinning at a terribly, but romantically slow rate.

Then a small bump drew her out of her enthralled moment and she had realised that it was a boy, a younger boy than her—about fifteen in age whom she had knocked into. She noticed that he was just about to leave after paying a large sum of money to the man; he was playing one of the games where one would shoot water into a clown and the balloon would fill up immensely.

It was an awkward moment.

“Sorry! I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.”                       

Miyon smiled and left him standing but too shortly turned back, possibly with the most bizarre question lingering in her mind. The boy met the expectant gaze which was plastered on his face, and wondered what she was going to ask.

“One night,” she said.

That wasn’t a question; he gave her a look which instantly showed his confusion.

“What?”

“Are you meeting with anyone?”

“Why?”

She smiled and shrugged, “For fun.”

He still didn’t understand her.

“For fun?”

Miyon scratched her head, eyes falling to the white Nike shoes that he was wearing in contrast to his black wife beater and denim jeans.

“Ah, I know it’s kind of stupid that I’m asking a random stranger like you, but I just want to have fun with someone for one night, where nothing is off-limits, except and our given names.” Miyon laughed.

The boy blinked almost a million times, letting the slightly older woman’s response sink into his thoughts. And in that while Miyon had observed his flawless features, who smiled upon realising what she was asking all along.

“I’ll go out with you.”        

So they had walked alongside each other’s shoulders, awkward at first in the first five minutes, but soon the boy intertwined his hand with hers, giving a shocking sensation throughout her body. She looked at him as he lifted their hands up in between their faces.

“For one night, I want to have fun, too.”

Almost instantaneously, the boy broke into a grin and dragged her to one of the biggest rollercoasters this carnival had own. Miyon almost rumbled with fear when she watched the super fast speed of the ride that even her eyes couldn't follow, and surprisingly when the boy fished out more money than the rollercoaster had cost, they were in for a hectic ride. The bars had locked them in, and the boy was holding her hand for reassurance. He could see the fear crossing her features, much to his delight.

"It'll be fun, don't worry."

"I hope so...!"

Miyon pressed her back against the discomforting spoon-backed seats as the sudden push of the lever (by the owner) caused the red train to travel towards the vertex of the tracks. She inhaled a cold stream of air, before realising that it had vigorously shot down at a sickening, I'm-going-to-die! speed. She let out a painful set of cries while tightening her grip on the boy's hand, who was 'wooing!' the whole time. There was honestly nothing to 'woo' about. This boy was insane. Miyon was not used to this kind of adventure. She was always confined within her own home, surrounded by detached maids and butlers—however, it was a thrill that she could not describe.

Finally, the ride was over. Oh god, Miyon looked like she was going to burst in tears; she could just imagine her hair sticking up from the highest degree of shock. Meanwhile, the boy casually got out of the train, and like a gentleman pulled Miyon out of it as well.

“Ah, I think you broke forty of my fingers during the ride."

“That was so scary, though!”

“Note taken—we’ll never go on that ride again. I play the piano with these fingers, you see.”

Miyon laughed weakly, and didn't take long for her to recover from the heart-flying-out-of-your-chest ride and soon began walking around the carnival, before he had joined their hands, again. It was such a satiated feeling, joining hands—with a guy, too! It was such a bold move to display publicly, she thought, and she found herself secretly with a complacent smile because she was holding hands with a guy. A handsome boy.

The silence emerged between them, but was constantly invaded by the nonsensical chattering amongst the other people. The boy looked at her, after the slow minutes had stretched interminably. He had noticed her small smiles reserved for a certain couple—the woman hitting the man because he couldn’t win her anything from the basketball game.

“So umm… during the ride, I was thinking, you see, and I thought, what’s a girl like you doing here in the first place?” the boy asked.

“What?”

“Just the way you dress—you look like, a rich girl of some sort.”

“Valentine’s carnival is indiscriminate. It’s for everyone.”

“But why are you here alone?”

Miyon looked at the boy and smiled, “I don’t know. Hey, so where do you want to go next?”

The boy knew exactly what Miyon had wanted. "The basketball hoop game. I'll shoot you a prize, and I’ll assure you that I’m not going to end up like that man you were looking at just now.”

Miyon blushed.

The boy led Miyon over to the game, almost incredulous when she had seen the boy fish out almost three million won. Even the owner seemed shocked.

“Keep the change.”

“How many games are you playing?! I mean, I thought it was just a one off thing at the rollercoaster, but how come you’re spending so much money?”

“It’s alright, really. Don’t get your knickers in a knot,” he laughed. Shortly after that, he seemed so into the moment while shooting that Miyon started to withdraw this impulsively-giving-money-away fact of his and started to cheer for him.

"Eugh, so close. Keep going! I WANT THAT PONYO PLUSHIE!”

Eventually, he did get it in. Two red moons glowed on either of her cheek when the man gave her a huge Ponyo plushie. She had remembered watching the movie before. After revelling in the thought of owning a Ponyo plushie, the boy looked at her amusingly.

“You like it?”

“I do—I really, really like it!”

“I’m glad.”

The boy started to become fond of her smiles now. They were kind of cute. It gave her this positive aura, if that was what people had awkwardly called it. Miyon snuck a glance at him every now and then, and showed a look of concern when he had suddenly paused in his tracks in the middle of the path.

“Hey, do you see that mini-van over there?”

Miyon traced his gaze and indeed saw a hidden mini-van blended far into the dark wilderness from the carnival, “Yeah?”

“Wanna take a sneak peek at the celebrities? Do you like DBSK?”

“Yes, oh my god, let’s go!”

They quickly advanced towards where the darkness was drawing them in, tiptoeing once the noise from the carnival began to recede. They could almost hear the isolated cricket chirps in the night, and the moon was shadowed behind the faint fragment of the clouds. The white door wouldn’t budge, though.

“Hey, I can’t open the door…”

“Oh my god, run!”

The instant moment in which portly security guards had jumped out of trees like failed ninjas caused her to gasp. The boy dragged her back and started sprinting towards one of the capsule booths for hiding. They both panted for breath, Miyon was clutching onto her plushie tightly.

“I can already foresee us being banned in this carnival—my first carnival, and I’m banned.”   

“Eh, they’ll get over it. Valentine’s carnival is only held once a year, after all.”

The boy popped his head out to see countless of people walking past, but none were identified as any of the security guards. Well, they were portly, after all. He stuck his head back inside the booth, feeling a little confined with the small area that was available. He watched Miyon peruse the camera, and then turned to the boy, “By the way, what is this small place?”

“Caps—you don’t know it?”

“No. I don’t go out a lot.” As a result of her parents.

“Wow, you’re missing out. You want to try?”

“Erm…”

With a sleight of hand, the boy inserted some money inside the machine before he let Miyon respond. “Say cheese!”

Click.

“No, you have to—“ Pose.

Click.

“No, that’s not how you do it—“ Pose.

Click.

“Look, it’s this easy—“ Pose.

Click.

“My god, woman—you really don’t know what—“ Pose.

Click.

"I'm not going to bother anymore." Pose.

Click.

When they exited the booth, the boy was laughing his head off because of all the strange, almost confused expressions that Miyon had pulled in the small photos printed outside. Meanwhile, the boy looked stunning, cute, and y with his wink (since he kept posing milliseconds before the camera clicked at them). He placed the caps inside his pocket.

“I don’t know how to pose, why do you keep laughing at me?”

“Everyone poses! It’s so overrated that no one feels ashamed of ‘posing’. But hey, I’m kind of curious now, what else haven’t you done, or went on?”

“The Ferris Wheel…”

The boy nodded. “Ah yeah, girls like it for some reason—do you want to go on it, though?”

“Yeah, do you mind?”

“I don’t mind.”

When the boy turned around, he immediately turned back and informed Miyon, “But we might have to do that some other day, because the security guards are watching us.”

Miyon stuck her head over the boy’s shoulder, “Oh snap.”

“Let’s just get out of here.” Linking hands with her again, he led her towards the exit of the carnival, the entry in which she had come in—almost ironic that she was now leaving with possibly the most exhilarating boy she had ever crossed paths with. They walked at a more comfortable, leisurely stroll as they had found themselves in the isolated streets, and the reasonable distance in which they had saw the carnival soon disappeared into the darkness.

“A quick night, isn’t it?”

“Yep.”

Soon, the silence fell in favour of their presence. It was nice being out for once; the quietness gave Miyon some time to think. A sense of confinement was released into the air, and she just knew that being with this boy was the root of it all. She smiled at him; he noticed this.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

“C’mon, what’s worse than asking a stranger to hang out with you, especially when the so-called ‘date’ had stretched into this desolated area of the night?”

That did sound a bit naïve of her, when he had put it that way.

“Hmm. I’m just—well, I was just wondering why you really agreed to go out with me this one night. You could have just walked away, or something.”

“I wonder that also, but does wondering get you anywhere? No.”

“By the way, what do you hate in this world?”

“Random question, but okay. Let’s see, what do I hate…” the boy suddenly descended in a small chuckle, “Okay, I’m trying to think up of a unique answer and well, all I can think of are digital cameras.”

“Really?”

“Mhm. You know how you can pretty much retake a picture, because they think they look ugly in that photo or something? That’s annoying, because you cannot redo a first-hand moment. That’s why I like caps, and how I’m going to keep this forever and post it on every website to let everyone know how ugly you are.”

Miyon glared at him, “You’re funny. Give me half.”

“Okay.” He chuckled as he ripped it in half, a messy one at that and gave it to her. She broke into a small smile before pocketing it.

“What you had said though, just now, that was pretty deep. Do you often think a lot, about the important things in life?”

“Every day. You wouldn’t believe it.”     

The boy fell into a pensive silence and looked at his watch. Ten minutes to go. Finally, the boy spoke after the slow minutes had stretched interminably, “What are you thinking about?”

Miyon kicked a can that glimmered under one of the street lights, “My parents, and how they would kill me when they find out that I’m not in my room, sleeping.”

“Badasses, are we?”

“Totally. I eat left-over pizza for breakfast, and I actually stay up really late under my blanket surfing on the net. I am what badass defines.”

The boy laughed. He loved her witty responses.

Their aimless direction had conveniently led them to the arrival at the beach—ironically for its autumn seasonable warmth, the distant sighs of the wind made the hairs on her arms stand, and Miyon shivered. The air was quiet and still as they sat on the cliff overlooking the iridescent sea, the silence temporarily broken by the violent roars of the waves.

“Your look says otherwise. By the way,” he looked down and dangled his feet over the cliff, "was this the sort of ‘fun’ you wanted to get out of tonight?”

“Uh-huh. It’s perfect. It truly is.”

“Really?”

“Mm.”

“What do you think was fun, though? Was it the actual games we played or how we got chased by those fat security guards or what?”

Miyon had replayed everything that had occurred tonight thus far. Her head swirled until her thoughts had clashed with each other, but it was more than obvious what had made tonight fun.

“It was you. You’re what made tonight ‘fun’.”

Miyon looked at him, and smiled.

“I’m fun,” he repeated.

“You’re fun.”

In that moment the boy tried to suppress his irrepressible smile. Soon, it lapsed into a raucous laughter. It seemed almost abnormal when his laughter wouldn’t fade after ten seconds had past.

“What?”

“I just—I don’t know. Don’t worry about it.”

“No, really—what is it?”

The boy turned his gaze towards her, “I just feel, you know…”

“You know…”

“I feel... happy.”

The boy turned his gaze back and let out a heavy breath, as if to release all his tension that he had built up within him. Miyon pressed her lips against Ponyo’s head, almost as a way to bury her reaction from the boy.

“Hey.” He said.

“Mm?”

“About tonight… you said we’re only doing this for one night, right? Are you going somewhere?”

It almost broke his heart the moment he had raised that question; he didn’t like the prospect of being unable to see her after this night.

“Perhaps,” Miyon lifted her face and pulled on the grass, demolishing its structure, “but I kind of want to be with you.”

Upon hearing this, the boy looked at Miyon who had met his gaze. Under the moonlit silence, the boy suddenly braced his nerves, digging his nails into the dirt; he didn't know what to do. What to do...

Finally, the boy had resolved to listen to his human instinct, like any other person would have reasonably done. He had gradually closed the distance between them, and Miyon could feel her heart beat accelerating at the point when they were sharing the same breath. In a brief moment the boy paused, as he was just gazing at her small, soft lips, before he had suddenly turned and pecked her on the cheek.

“It’s late, isn’t it? Do I need to take you home?”

Miyon smiled wistfully, “No. My house is near here; I didn’t tell you that, though.”

“Oh, right,” little laugh, “bye... stranger.”

Miyon laughed, “Bye… Happy Valentine’s Day, by the way.”

“You too.”

Miyon stood up and left the boy who had plopped himself down on the ground. When he looked at his watch, he knew that it was already too late. He watched the moon unveil itself from the tissue-like clouds, which had shone fully onto his pale skin.

The boy had finally felt like he was living.

Miyon would have been grounded for two years since she had found her parents waiting in the living room that night, but because she was now on the plane to England, that sentence had to be delayed. Miyon was glad. She looked at the caps of the boy and herself from her pocket; she wished she had gotten his name, but the mystery was what kept the attraction alive and radiating between them. She settled in her seat, smiling with her eyes gazing onto the small screen:

‘We are here live in Gwangju, where a body by the name of Kim Jaejoong, sixteen, was found dead inside the ‘caps’ booth just located at yesterday’s Valentine’s Carnival. He was alleged to have conned the eminent mafia, ‘Big Bang’ through which they had made a deal concerning the exchange of guns and money. No proof is evident that Jaejoong was a part of this deal, but police speculate that the money—in a total sum of 50,000,000 won (approx. $50,000) was distributed all over the carnival yesterday. Further details of the investigation will be later revealed.’

“Kim Jaejoong…”

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading! I don't know how I thought of this one-shot and I know that Valentine’s is supposed to be, you know… happy, but I got sick of happy stuff. Wow, I sound so sadistic just now. This is probably one of the hardest one-shots I have ever written, though. You have no idea—I kept editing, adding… it’s so, eugh. I’ve never written something with the element of crime (as in the ending), so I hope I did well :D