Jiyeon walked the bustling streets on her own, pulling the collar of her royal blue toggle jacket, more tightly around her to keep the frigid night air away.

As she walked along the sidewalks, she passed lighted window shop displays. Signature robin’s egg blue boxes from Tiffany and Co. Jewelry, mannequins dressed in the finest Prada suits,

Fully accessorized with Gucci scarves, and Burberry purses. For many young women of her age, their eyes would light up at the sight of all the sparkly jewelry and high end clothing.

But Jiyeon merely gave the windows a quick once over glance, before continuing her way down the street. Passing the night markets selling pat bing soo, samgyupsal and dukbokki, she finally arrived at a quaint little karaoke bar, the smell of cigarette smoke and beer lingering around the vicinity.

As she walked through the front entrance, a sensor dinged cheerfully, signaling her arrival. Moving towards the front desk a portly middle aged woman with a warm smile emerged from the back room.
“Jiyeon ah! It’s been awhile!” The ahjumma told her loudly, and glanced behind the girl. “Eh? Where’s your handsome friend that sometimes comes with you?” She asked.

Jiyeon smiled sheepishly. “Oh, he’s busy lately. Can I get a room please?” Jiyeon asked. The woman nodded many times and led her through the hallway, giving her one of the larger rooms to herself.

After adjusting the mic volume, and entering a few songs into the sound system, Jiyeon started off with Wondergirl’s “Be My Baby” to try and cheer herself up.

However, the lyrics “please be my baby. ‘Cause I’m going crazy,” was making her think of Joon so she moved onto the next track, a sad ballad of her good friend IU’s, called “Alone In The Room”

Last night, the only sound was the rain, in my ears,
I can hear it trickling, trickling
Tears in the rain is good so they can flow slowly, slowly
From now on, I’ll be waiting for the reason of this breakup
I still don’t know
You left me and won’t come back
I’m scared, I hug myself with my two arms
Alone in the room, I can’t see anyone, nothing. It’s too dark
Crying to the night sky I sleep among the sad moon and stars
I have been waiting all along, your face crosses my mind
I tear up again. I miss you

As Jiyeon sang with her whole heart, she felt a lone tear slide down her cheek. Wiping it away quickly, she sniffed and tried to smile. 
Whatever Joon decided to do with Hyuna was none of her concern.

Clutching the mic with her fingers tightly, she could hear people in the next room singing GD and Park MyungSoo’s “I Cheated,” drunkenly and very out of tune.

Wincing she changed to the next track, singing an upbeat tune, Brown Eyed Girl’s “Mine.”

-
Two hours later, Jiyeon was all tired out. She paid the friendly ahjumma and stopped by the shaved ice stand to eat some pat bing soo by herself.

While drowning her sorrows in condensed milk, shaved ice, jello, and red beans, a familiar face popped up and sat down beside her.

Jiyeon fixed her downcast expression and smiled. “Seungho sunbae” She said, surprised. Seungho wasn’t buying it though. 
“Jiyeon ssi, I saw that look. Still broken up over your friend?” He asked her. She was starting to notice that Seungho always got straight to the point, and it was going to take some getting used to.

She scrunched her face up at this. “Come on.” He told her, taking her by the hand. She quickly got up from the table, bringing her shaved ice with her.

“Wah. Wait. Where are we going?” She asked, trying to keep up with his walking pace. After a few more blocks they stopped at the park’s playground.

At this hour, it was deserted. He took a seat on one swing, and held the other one out to her. She sat down and started to swing beside him, slowly.

“Komawo” Jiyeon told him with a small bow. Seungho nodded and they said nothing more, and just swung for awhile, the autumn leaves crunching beneath their shoes, as they swung back towards the ground, and up towards the sky, again and again.

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Isabel Santos Copyright 2012.

All rights reserved.