On an autumn night in October 2008, I entered the pub where I used to hang out with my underground rapping friends. The pub was also the place where I had met the Untouchable hyungs for the first time. That day was the day of the Untouchable hyungs’ debut, and they had invited me to their small celebration party, which was why I was there.

I walked in and looked around to find Untouchable hyungs. And I saw them near the counter table. So I walked to approach them.

At that moment, I saw a girl talking with Untouchable hyungs. She was sitting at the high chair between them and laughing with them as Kim Sung Won hyung told his joke. She seemed to know them well enough. I stopped as I saw her and thought who the girl was. She was wearing tight tank top with blazer and tight jeans which showed the curve of her body. But her face looked innocently young with minimum make-up. Probably she only used foundation, powder, eyeliner and lipstick for her make up. But with her dress, she looked mature. Somehow this girl had raised my curiosity.

But then, one of the hyungs noticed my presence. He was Kim Sung Won, the oldest member from Untouchable duo.

"Ah, Yong Guk-ah." He raised his hand to greet me.

So I smiled at him and walked closer. Of course, that girl turned to see me too.

"Hy, hyung." I greeted him with our special high-five.

"Hey, Yong Guk. So you come too,” another hyung, Park Kyung Wook, said.

I smiled. “How can I not come? Today is your debut day’s celebration. And I come to congratulate you.” I said then I looked at the girl.

She was looking at me closely and nodded at me when I shifted my gaze to her. I nodded back. She just smiled slightly before she turned to Sung Won.

“I think I’d better go now,” she said with a calm voice. She turned to put her glass on the table. “Don’t drink too much, okay.” She went down from the chair. “You guys will have an interview tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Sung Won hyung replied her.

She smiled. And as she smiled, she looked so sweet. She turned to see me and somehow I felt that my body had become stiff.

“Please look after them. Otherwise, their manager will be in trouble,” she said to me in friendly way.

“Yah, why do you not trust us a little?” Kyung Wook hyung complained as he smiled.

The girl chuckled. “Araseo,” she said. “See you.”

She looked back at me. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said then walked away.

I turned to see her as she walked away. “Who is she?” I asked then looked at the hyungs.

“Ah, she's the new girl in our company. Her name is Kim Seo Yul,” Sung Won hyung said.

“Hoo…” I just muttered.

“She’s cute, right?”

I looked at Sung Won hyung as I heard his words. But I didn’t deny his word and just smiled. “I guess she is,” I said.

But then, I admitted that she was cute. On my eyes, she looked nice, smart, modest and younger. She seemed to be a nice girl. She was a sweet and cute girl with nice eyes. At first, I thought she gave mysterious vibe and daring too. But after she smiled and talked with me, the mysterious vibe disappeared and I felt closer with her.

But it wasn’t the only time I met her. On the next couple of days later, I saw her again when I had my stage on the pub with my friends. I caught her presence among the audiences who came that night. She was there with a digital camera on her hand and shooting some performances that night. But her appearance was different. She was using a t-shirt and jeans with a sling bag across her body. Her hair was tied on a pony-tail. She looked like an ordinary girl.

After my performance, I went down from the stage and took a little detour before I reached her place. When I arrived there, she was looking at her digicam’s screen and pouting. She seemed to engulf with the video that she recorded until she didn’t realize that I had come to her side.

“Enjoying the video?”

She gasped in surprise because of my voice and quickly turned. But then, she looked relief as she saw me. “Oh, gosh. You’ve scared me.”

I smiled. I couldn’t blame her to be surprised. My voice was low and husky. “What are you doing here? Untouchable Hyungs are not here right now.”

She closed the camera screen and put the camera in her bag. “I know.” She said as she closed her bag. “They have a shoot on the TV station right now.”

“Then what are you doing here?” I asked again.

“Just looking around,” she said. “There are plenty good talents here.” She looked around then looked back at me. “You’re good too.”

I smiled. “Thank you.” Somehow I felt embarrassed to hear her praise on me. I dropped my gaze.

“Ah, I haven’t introduced my self on the other day,” she said then stretched out her hand to me. “My name is Kim Seo Yul.”

I shook her hand. I was surprised to know that her hand was small. But of course, she was a girl after all. “I know. Hyung-deul told me your name. My name Bang Yong Guk,” I introduced my self politely.

She seemed to recognize me. “Ah, from Soul Connection, right?”

It surprised me when she knew about my underground hip-hop group. I started to think whether she was a fan or not. I smiled.

“Are you a fan?”

“Anni,” she said then tilted her head. “I ever heard Soul Connection’s songs.”

She scratched the back of her ear and dropped her gaze as if she was embarrassed. The way she acted really made me think that she was a fan of Soul Connection. It also made me smiled because I thought that she was cute.

“But anyway, it's nice to meet you,” she said. “And you’re good.”

“Thank you.”

It was the first time I had a conversation with her. At that moment, I didn't know who she was or how she would become the most important person in my life. But she had this easy-going personality, so I could get along with her easily. We became friends so quickly that day. We kept in contact for around 1 year. But then, she started to busy with her job as the manager for the new girl group on her company. Then, we were talking lesser and lesser than before. But I had never known that she would fill up my days 2 years later.

And at that time, I knew nothing about her. There were some facts that I didn’t know about her when I first met her.

A few days later, I was trying to write lyric in the pub as I watched some performance that night. Some girls recognized me and asked me for autograph. Of course, I gave them and other than that I kept on writing.

“Ah, that’s a good one too.”

That sweet voice surprised me. I gasped and quickly looked around. My heart was beating faster because of it. But it turned out that it was Seo Yul who was talking. She was already standing beside me.

“Omo, you’ve surprised me.”

Seo Yul just chuckled then took the chair beside me as she apologized. “But that lyric is good too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You don’t believe me?”

I smiled. “Anniya.”

She smiled too. Actually Seo Yul had seen plenty of the lyrics that I made since I knew her and she made a lot of comments for the lyrics, telling me which words that I supposed to use or which were not. She also gave a lot of inputs for my improvement. So I felt comfortable of showing my lyrics to her. I had to admit that she was good in song writing. Somehow she became my mentor in a short time.

“So how are you today?” She asked.

“My age is lesser by days because of you.” I joked.

But because of it, she laughed and I smiled when I saw her laughed. She was really sweet and cute. But actually I didn’t know how old she was. Judging from her appearance, she might be younger than me. But then, the Hyungs ever told me that Seo Yul was working at the entertainment company that took care of them. So she might be older than me, probably by 2 or 3 years.

“Hey.”

I turned because I heard the voice of Sung Won hyung. And yeah, I was right. He was coming closer along with Kyung Wook hyung.

“Seo Yul-ssi, what are you doing here?” Kyung Wook asked as he slung his arm across my shoulder.

“Just came out from the office?” Sung Won asked.

Seo Yul nodded. “Ah, it’s hard. Timjang-nim* keeps me working till late lately.”

“He must be expecting a lot from you.” Sung Won said again.

“Want some drinks?” I asked as I pushed my glass of soju to her.

“She doesn’t drink alcohol.” Sung Won said.

It surprised me. “Wae? Are you underage or something?”

“Anni. I just don’t like it.” She said.

Then I felt a pat on my shoulder. I looked at Kyung Wook hyung.

“She’s a lot older than you think.” He said then looked at Seo Yul again. “How old are you now? 29? 30?”

She pursed her lips because of the numbers that Kyung Wook hyung mentioned. “Yah, I’m not that old.”

Then how old is she?

At the moment I had that question on my head, she mentioned her age.

“I’m still 27 years old this year.”

Mwo?! 27? It means that she is 8 years older than me?!

I looked at her from top to bottom because of it.Seriously she didn’t look like the woman on her late 20’s. When you looked at her appearance, you might be thinking that she was younger since she got sweet and cute look like a young girl in early 20's or probably maximum around 25 years old. But I guessed appearance could deceive people.

I giggled because of hearing her real age and made her looking at me with narrowed eyes.

“Seriously. 27 years old?” I asked.

“Yah, it’s not something that I’m proud of,” she said as if she was feeling offended.

I tried to stop my smile. “Sorry.”

“So…” Kyung Wook said as he leaned himself on me. “You must to call her noona.”

“Yae,” I replied with smile.

“Yah, you two,” she complained. “Can you let me enjoy the time where I can hang out with younger people without concerning my real age?”

But then, her complain made us laughed. She was so cute and I liked seeing that cute side of her. But it was true that she would make people thought that she was younger with her appearance and attitude. Besides, she was easy to talk with. It made me guessed that her age was around my age.

But what I didn’t realize at that moment was the fact that I had fallen in love with Seo Yul. I didn’t know when it started. But she managed to climb up from a friend and a mentor into someone that I cared so much and I would like to spent the rest of my life with. I couldn’t take my eyes off from her.

Ah, yeah… you can call me a fool. But I fall in love with someone older and she is 8 years older than me.

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* Timjang-nim = Team leader

I revised this chapter since I think it's not good enough~ ^^ And please remember that Korean Age system is +1 year from the International Age system.

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