Intertwining Vines

featuring random artists with the people that I ship them with. Haha.

~

Coincidences are really something cosmically interesting, huh?

i.

Junho always fancied the smell of the freshly roasted coffee beans that filled the air of the small, rundown café. Somehow, it became his trademark scent and he was always laughed by his friends.

“Come on, go somewhere else other than the café. You practically smell like…”

“Coffee?” Junho answered. He was expecting that question, anyway.

“My point, exactly.”

He laughed at the thought of it. It was funny anyway, that he used to be quite a coffee-anti. Now, he’s a big fan of it. He didn’t actually see this coming though. In his opinion, he thanked this particular girl for making him love coffee all of a sudden.

He entered the café once again and paced to an empty table located quite near to the counter. He sat down, facing the counter of course. She was busy, so he decided to not disturb her working. Somehow, it’s pleasantly calming for him to just watch her.

She’s beautiful every time.

When the coast was finally clear, he walked over the counter. He kept stopping though. He adjusted his shirt, which was slightly crumpled, and fixed up his hair as well. He needed to look at his best.

“Thank you for coming here, mister,” he heard her thanking the customer. “Have a great day with your tasty coffee!”

The customer returned her with a tight smile, as if he was hurting. “I’ll try,” he muttered.

Well, that was weird, he thought but he just shrugged it off. He liked seeing her being a workaholic. When it was finally his turn, he propped up his right hand onto the shiny counter (which she had just wiped it).

“Hey,” he asked her, the girl that he had a crush on for quite a while now.

“Hey yourself,” the girl answered with a giggle escaped her lips. “So you’ve become quite an addict huh?”

He laughed as well. He liked her. She knew how to joke around, and the fact the both of them were getting quite comfortable with each other. He didn’t mind being sarcastically funny with her. “I guess so,”

The corner of her lips curved upwards. “So what would you like then?”

“I want the one I ordered always,”

“And what is it, actually?” she asked with a hint of playfulness in her voice. A smirk formed as she pretended to not know what he was talking about. She even looked away, avoiding his gaze.

Junho gasped, almost feeling his heart drop. “Suji-ah! I thought that you knew, or might at least remember me for a while now…” his voice trailed off. A small pout was formed by him because he was being overly disappointed right then.

Suji laughed out loud after successfully pulling a prank on him. “Of course I remember, silly,” she said as she rushed off to prepare his favourite drink from the café. Vanilla-infused coffee, it began to be his favourite.

Junho sighed in relief as he placed his hand onto his chest. She didn’t know what she meant to him.

“Suji-ah, you don’t know the effect that you have on me,” he quietly said with a smile on his face. And he was pretty sure that the smile wouldn’t go away at the very moment.

ii.

“Thank you for coming here, mister,” she thanked him, the customer. “Have a great day with your tasty coffee!”

The customer returned her with a tight smile, as if he was hurting. “I’ll try,” he muttered. With that, he walked away from the café. He carefully sipped on the hot coffee. The bitterness lingered on his tongue. He kind of liked it, in a way that even himself couldn’t quite understand it.

Somehow, the bitterness matched that day itself.

Bitter, bitter.

He wondered what was happening to her at that particular time. Was she being sad like him as well? Was she reminiscing that particular day as well? Was she dying to be with him once again? Or was she being perfectly fine, happy even, without him?

The restless but killing thoughts ruined his mood.

Almost instantly, he found himself in the middle of a park. And this saddened him more.

“Woohyun-yah,” she nudged his shoulders. He was being such a lazy bum that day.

He ignored her as he continued to (or pretended to) sleep on the bench.

“Woohyun-yah,” her voice was getting higher now. She even shook his arm which was holding onto her hands. Impatience was controlling her.

He ignored her again.

“Don’t make me want to leave you,” she threatened him with a voice so scary that Woohyun himself was afraid that she really meant it.

He shot up from the bench as he stared straight at her petite self. “Okay okay, I’m sorry.”

A smirk was formed on her face, feeling accomplished by successfully pranking him.

“I’m Park Chorong, so that’s why you can’t lie to me,”

He sighed out loud, not believing that she could be quite cocky. But he didn’t mind. In fact, he lightly brushed off the stray hair from her forehead before planting a soft kiss on top of her forehead. He smiled while kissing her. He always did.

“Of course you are. And that’s why Nam Woohyun love you, Chorong-ah,” he said with a voice that Chorong couldn’t help but to fall in love with more.

With that, Chorong replied the kiss with a peck on his cheek.

“I love you too, Nam Woohyun.”

His thoughts were disrupted when he felt himself bumping into someone.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said as he saw the man he bumped himself into.

The man shook his head. “Nah, it’s okay,” he paused, looking at Woohyun’s dejected face. “Dude, are you okay?” he asked after looking at his friend’s face who was quite concerned over both of them.

Woohyun sighed. “Really?” he paused. After seeing that guy giving him a nod, he straightforwardly answered, “Today, something bad happened to me before on the very same day…”

The guy he bumped into gave him an apologetic look before he decided to give Woohyun an encouraging rub at the shoulders. “Well, hang in there.”

Woohyun was touched by the random stranger’s sincerity.

“Thank you,” he said before walking away from the guy and his friend (or girlfriend, he wasn’t sure).

Woohyun found a large tree and there were no one there. With that, he plopped himself under the shady tree and cried.

“Chorong, the stranger before was so kind to me. He reminds me of… you,” he cried, talking to Chorong even though he perfectly knew that she wasn’t there. But he needed her. He needed her presence so bad.

He cried in streams as he reminisced the happy days he spent with Chorong before.

“Chorong, I really miss you,” he said in between his sobs filled with pain.

“Chorong-ah, come back.”

iii.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he heard the guy say to him apologetically.

In return, he shook his head. “Nah, it’s okay,” he paused, looking at the man’s dejected face. His eyes wandered to where his best friend was standing. Somehow, she detected that the guy was in pain, and she felt sorry. “Dude, are you okay?”

He heard him sighing. Pain, again, filled his voice. “Really?” he asked. A long pause followed suit. “Today, something bad happened to me before on the very same day…”

Oh, no wonder, he thought. Out of sincerity, Chansung rubbed the man’s shoulders. “Well, hang in there.”

“Thanks,” the sad man replied before dashing off to who-knows-where.

Chansung and Jinri exchanged questioning glances.

“It’s your fault!” both of them blamed each other at the very same time. Upon noticing that, both of them instantly giggled in amusement.

“Okay fine, maybe our kindness creeps him out,” Jinri bluntly said to her best friend, matter-of-factly.

Chansung laughed upon listening to Jinri’s so-called explanation. “Well, maybe he might. Not every stranger is really trustable, though.”

Jinri’s fall fell. “Oh.”

Upon realizing his wrong choice of words, he quickly apologized to her. “Wait! I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Oh. Is that so?”

“Well yeah, because you can’t really be too nice to random strangers all the time, Choi Jinri.”

“It’s Sulli, okay?” she coughed out the words, because sooner or later, she will change her name to Sulli (but not now, she thought). “And thank you for calling me nice, Mr. Hwang Chansung,” she chuckled.

Both of them continued to laugh as they strolled along the fairly-crowded park. While strolling around, she thought of how in the world she became friends with such a dorky boy like Chansung.

Jinri stared absent-mindedly at the small group of boys who were playing with paper planes. Her eyes were seemingly attracted to one of the taller boys from the clique. Somehow, his Italian-like looks made him… weird enough. Suddenly, the Italian boy made eye-contact with her, as if he had a sixth sense or something. She blushed, looking down while continued to play with the hem of her dress. Then, she continued to play around with her doll.

She was new at the neighbourhood. And because she was shy, she couldn’t make any friends with any of the kids even though it had been weeks. Somehow, she couldn’t click with the girl clique. All of them, according to Jinri’s point-of-view, were too girly for her liking. They were too stereotyped and boring.

Her train of thoughts was disrupted when she felt something which was flying, landing near her feet. The plane was awfully familiar. Without any hesitation, she took the plane into her hands and examined it curiously.

“Um, sorry but the paper plane’s mine,” she heard a very boyish voice coming from in front of her.

“Oh,” she muttered as she met his large eyes. “But it’s a nice plane,” she gulped.

A satisfactory smile crept on his face. “Of course it is,”

“But I can make one better,”

“Oh really?” he questioned the quite daring girl that he never seen before. “How about showing how to make one?” he said as he led her way to join his gang. “I doubt that you can, though,” She smirked, not trying to ruin the hidden surprise she had in store for him.

“Haha,” she laughed dryly but she continued to walk with him, side-by-side.

“I’m Hwang Chansung, by the way,” he handed his hand gingerly.

She smiled gratefully at him. “Choi Jinri,” she said as she also took his hand and shook, marking the start of their friendship.

Since then, they became quite good friends that no one could ever break their bond.

They grew up to be quite comfortable with each other. In fact, some even speculated that they are dating due to them being together almost all the time. Some even thought that he compliments her, and vice versa. Maybe both of their personalities match, or maybe both of them are just great together.

“Hey Jinri, want to go to the airport?”

She got giddy and excited. “So we can get to see airplanes?”

He chuckled. “Of course, since airplanes are the ones that got both of us together.”

“But I like paper planes better,”

“Too bad, because we are grown-ups now,” he bit his lip nervously. “And besides, we should spend the last few days together anyway. We do have our own colleges to attend, after all.”

Silence enveloped the situation, with only the buzz of an airplane filling the air. Both of them looked up and noticed that the airplane was going to land at the airport nearby. It’s their favourite past time, looking up and admiring the gigantic metal birds that filled the sky sometimes. But it’s going to end.

And that’s the bitter truth that both of them couldn’t deny even though they tried hard.  They were together since they were little, and they had grown up now. With that, Jinri’s afraid of losing her best friend. She was afraid of having no one to be dorks together now.

Growing up was not as good as what most people said it would.

iv.

“Good to see you again, Seoul,” she muttered alone.

She breathed in the fresh air of her home country. She missed it, yes she did. But right at that moment, she felt like the world was crashing on her. She returned there only for a reason; her parents’ memorial. As from then, she’s an orphan.

She felt like she wanted to cry out loud when she heard the news, hence booking a flight home as soon as possible. Australia when there’s no one to accompany you there. She felt terribly alone at first, but then she met quite a number of Koreans as well; so she didn’t mind (but she still missed her only family, her parents.).

“Welcome back, Soyeon,” a voice welcomed her. And it was a very, very familiar voice. She whipped around to face the face she missed a lot too. A smile crept up on her plae face upon meeting him.

“Hey,” Seungho waved his hand at his best friend since they were in diapers. “Was Australia great?”

Without saying anything, she quickly lunged forward and hugged him, burying her face into his chest.

He didn’t move; he froze under her sudden contact. But he knew what she wanted. Comfort. He knew how rough it had been for her for the past couple of years, and with the fact that her parents suddenly passed away made it a lot tougher for her.

“Sorry,” he simply said, but she understood what he meant. He patted and rubbed her back as she let her tears being absorbed by his shirt. She needed it, anyway. “And it’s not your fault.”

“I’m a bad daughter, Seungho. I wasn’t there for my parents when they needed me the most,” she sobbed. She regretted that she wasn’t for them even though she called them almost every day.

“No, you are not Soyeon. You did go to Australia because your parents wanted you to,” he comforted her. It’s what best friends should do. “Fate wanted it to turn out to be this way, and you can’t change fate.”

“Seungho, why must your words be too… philosophy-ish?”

He chuckled slightly when he heard her confessing about it. So his best friend never did change.

Soyeon finally finished crying after quite a few moments. She recollected herself and grabbed her bag, but Seungho took it for her. She smiled at his kind gesture.

As they were walking to Seungho’s white Hyundai car, she laced her hand with his to feel his warmth. She was still fragile, and only Seungho understood it. He never let go of her hand though.

He placed her bags into the back of his car as she get inside the passenger seat, next to the driver seat.

“Ready?” he asked her as he got himself ready at the driver seat. He stared at her, nodding to signal that everything’s going to be okay.

“Everything’s going to be okay, Soyeon,” he assured her once again when they were already halfway throughout the drive back home. Then, she looked down at their intertwining hands. With that, Soyeon smiled genuinely at him for the first time that day.

And after all these time, she still believed in him.

Because Yang Seungho is always Park Soyeon’s best friend.

v.

She crossed her arms over her chest angrily as she let out a rough sigh. She was frustrated that he didn’t get what she was saying. Instead of talking to her, he focused on driving his black Toyota.

“Why won’t you listen to me?” Nara angrily asked him.

“I’m trying to drive here, Nara,” he muttered quietly. Truthfully, he didn’t want to think about it. It’s painful enough for Eunkwang to hear about her parents talking about separating both of them. It was ridiculous. They were both grown-ups. Both of them could do whatever they wanted to. “We will talk about it when we get back home,”

Ara turned to face Eunkwang. “What if it’s too late? You know that they have forbidden us to see each other since last week!” she didn’t mean to shout the words at him, but the words slipped out before she could stop them. “And I don’t want to break up,”

His heart softened at her words. “Me too, Nara. Me too,” he answered as he grabbed her hand and squeezed it softly.  “But we have to. We can’t do anything to stop them. You know your parents,”

She retorted her hand and nervously played with the hem of her shirt. “We must, Eunkwang. We must,” she paused for a moment before the light bulb of her mind lighted up, signaling that she got herself an idea. “Let’s run away,”

His eyes opened out wide upon hearing her suggestion. “Are you kidding me? No way, Nara. You must stay with your parents.”

“But I don’t want to,”

“Well, that’s too bad. Because I want you to stay with them,”

She grunted. “Why aren’t you fighting for me? I thought that… you love me,”

He sighed inwardly after hearing her words. “I do love you, Nara. But, I want you to always be safe and happy. So that’s why you need to stay with your parents,” he paused before continuing. “It’s the best for you,”

“But I love you more!” she exclaimed as she ruffled her hair in frustration. Eunkwang shot a deadly glare at her, ignoring to look at the road ahead. All of a sudden, Nara shouted, “Look out!”

Eunkwang turned to face the road, but to his horror he was too close to a white Hyundai. Quickly, he spun the steering wheel out of the way. He drove onto the opposite lane.

Just then, a large truck came into their direction at a terrifying speed, crashing scarily into them.

“Nara, I’m sorry,” he mumbled at her before exhaling his final breath while gripping onto Nara’s cold hand, hard.

vi.

“Thank you,” Sungyeol said bitterly as he paid up for the white coffee. He walked out from the hospital’s cafeteria and decided to walk around the large, white but terribly cold building. Somehow, he hated the scent of medicine that was overwhelming the building. Especially today.

All of a sudden, two badly-bleeding people, a girl with beautiful brown locks and a handsome, blonde guy, were wheeled in his direction. Maybe they were in the same accident, he thought. But he couldn’t look at them. Blood was all over them. Sungyeol didn’t like to see blood. It terrified him. He decided to walk over to another part of the hospital that he never went before.

He found a bench and decided to rest himself there. Apparently, at that particular area, there was no scent of medicine and this pleased him. He continued to sip his coffee, tasting the bitterness with his tongue. The bitterness was especially noticeable today.

Suddenly, he heard someone coughing next to him. He turned to the right, only to see a girl who looked a few years younger than him sitting while coughing up. She was wearing the hospital’s pajamas. So she’s a patient here too, he concluded.

“Are you alright?” he suddenly asked her. He didn’t know why he asked though. He wasn’t the type of guy who liked to talk to strangers. But this girl, she looked different. She looked… vulnerable, and this made him curious.

Startled, she turned to face him slowly. “I think I’m….” suddenly she coughed again. In response, he moved himself closer and patted her back to ease the coughing. She was startled by the sudden gesture, but he seemed nice. So she didn’t stop him. Fortunately, the coughing stopped.

“Thank you,” she mumbled quietly and her cheeks reddened in embarrassment. Sungyeol laughed a bit. The girl was being funnily cute for no apparent reason. Maybe he was scaring her, but he decided to continue laughing. He needed to laugh, especially today.

“Why are you laughing?” the girl asked the guy in curiosity.

He turned his head over to her direction. “Just because,”

“Oh,” she paused. “But why?”

“Something sad, very sad, happened to me today,”

“I’m sorry,”

He gave her a tight smile. “But it’s okay, I guess. I could use some cheering up,”

“Oh,” she repeated. She paused as an idea came into her mind. “Follow me then,” she said as she stood up. She held onto his hand as she led the way.

“Where are we going?”

She winked at him. “You will see,”

The door creaked open as he could see children filling the room.

“Children’s ward?”

She just chuckled as she pulled him to sit down on the floor. “Hi kids. Today, you have a new guest,” she smiled as she nudged Sungyeol’s shoulders, signaling him to introduce himself. “We will be playing with him today,” she said as the children clapped their hands in excitement.

“Oh, hi. I’m Sungyeol,” he gave them, the children, a tight smile. He didn’t really like children though.

So he followed her around, occasionally joining in the kids. He paid attention to what they liked to do and just went with the flow. He admired the children’s genuine laughs as they played together with that girl. He could feel genuine happiness overflowing himself as he let himself enjoyed his time with the children.

Somehow, the children and the girl cured the bitterness he felt today.

“Thank you,” he said wistfully to her, thanking her for what she did. “You helped me, like a lot, today,” he gave her the first genuine smile for the day.

“You’re welcome,” she flashed a smile at him as well. “You seemed like you really needed it. If it isn’t really bothering you, what actually happened?”

He pondered whether he should just admit what really happened to him today. But he decided that he should just tell her, instead of keeping the pain only to himself.

“I’m dying, due to leukemia,” he said bitterly.

She held onto her heart, as if it had just stopped. She wasn’t really expecting it. “I’m sorry,”

He rested his back on the bench, staring at the ceiling of the hospital. “No need to be sorry. In fact, I should thank you for making me happy in my final months,”

“Me too,” she finally admitted. “Lung cancer, and I don’t even know why,” she said bitterly, almost like a whisper. “Thank you for willing to hang out with me. None ever did, to be honest, after I was diagnosed,”

“What a small world, that both dying people met up,” he said. “But I’m glad that there is companion,”

Both of them smiled at each other.

“I’m Sungyeol,” he held his hand at her.

She smiled as she took his within her, intertwining their bony fingers together. “Hong Yookyung,”

“And let’s hope that we can breathe out our last breaths together as well,”

“It’s real life. You might not know who you might encounter with today, or what will happen to you in that day. But one thing’s for sure, is that not every day is a great day for all of us. Some may laugh, some may cry. Some may even die. So, learn to be appreciative and kind. It is real life, and anything can happen.”

~