When the traffic had finally cleared itself, Yuri pulled over to a public parking lot. The tanned girl stepped out of her BMW and squeezed her way into the streets. It was afternoon by then when she had gotten off the hospital and the streets were tightly packed; being a surgeon was a tough job, a thoracic surgeon to be exact. People like her needed to save lives, considering the fact that they had to cut open their patients and them sew them back properly.

But as tough and intelligence required as the job could demand, Yuri always seemed to be too stupid to her colleagues. She, graduated from Yale, earned a lot for living, owned a lot of trust funds, had a warm family, but still that was not enough to prove to her peers that she was not stupid.

And as ridiculous as it sound, the thought of proving them wrong just for once couldn't help but make her feel proud. Yuri would prove to her friends that Victoria was truthful to her. Victoria would never lie to her or take all her money and use it all for herself, right?

Yuri shrugged.

No...

Yuri scrunched her nose and shook the thoughts away, she must've spent too much time with all her friends, to be exact surgeons and psychotherapists that made her become so doubtful about the relationship. Yuri was sure for it would to be stable, and she was also sure she could prove them wrong.

After debating to herself with eating ramyun or bibimbap, Yuri ended up looking along the street market like a lost fool until when she came out of the McDonald stall, fully filled to the sphincter. Well, how could we say this, she couldn't let her stomach grumble for too long and so she took a toll of eating saturated fat instead of healthy nutritional stuff that she spent years studying. And so resulting in being lost in a street she didn't know.

Strolling around to kill time and find her way back before she went to work the afternoon shift. Yuri studied the place, it was a one kilometer long street and from looking, it could take the whole day of observing and walking to make it to the end. Yuri stretched her hands slightly as she walked, and with this wonderful lively place, she decided to make a little tour to entertain herself.

Oh, the crisp thin air of winter and Christmas always cheer her up before entering the sterile room with a knife.

And with lots of shops to the side

Yuri smiled eagerly.

Maybe...

Just maybe...

She could find, just the perfect gift

 

The restaurant was filled with people when Taeyeon and Tiffany settled down on a little meal of fish and chips.

"Decide to be a British today?"

Tiffany mocked cheerfully, slicing her piece of once in the sea creature.

Taeyeon smiled dearly and stabbed her fork on a pea on the side of Tiffany's plate.

"Yes my lady"

Oh still, her English accent was an absolute fail. It caused Tiffany to laugh out loud, though it was a mock. This, in a certain way, didn't anger Taeyeon, she grinned in response. Taeyeon always loved how Tiffany laughed. The meal carried on with a cheerful element, both of the two girls exchanged talks about the hospital, mainly the gossips because, you know?

Other than the ability to slice patients open with fruit knives

Surgeons...

Like to...

 

"So."

Tiffany started; she put her fork and knife together signaling the waiter to get her plate removed.

"Yuri is at it again?"

Taeyeon nodded, eating her last piece of potato.

"Yeah, it's still Victoria"

The girl emphasized the name.

"Don't need to sound posh"

Tiffany gave a cheery guffaw and leaned back on her chair, she raised her hand for the desert menu.

"Well, how could I not?" Taeyeon gave a shrug, doing the same as Tiffany. "I think this girlfriend of hers will Yuri dry. Twice as fast!"

"Yuri could not be dry…"

The girl shook her head and made a low tone with her voice, her hair brushed side to side as she looked down at the menu list. Tiffany spoke in a light hearted tone.

"She could be as rich as Bill Gates perhaps,"

"I know." Taeyeon titled her head, still indecisive of what desert she would pick to eat with Tiffany. "But, I want my friend to know what true love is."

"She could be encountering it right now." Tiffany bit her lower lips ignoring the word true love completely; she made a mental mark in her head next time to come to this restaurant with a good French to Korean dictionary because everything on the list is illegible to her capability. "God I can't make up my mind with this dessert"

"Me neither..."

"You can't read French"

"I look at pictures"

Taeyeon stuck her tongue out playfully.

"But I doubt about that Victoria"

"Oh stop thinking negatively"

Tiffany put her menu down and propped her elbows on the table, slightly gazing into Taeyeon's eyes.

"I'm not; if I am I wouldn't be with you"

The girl gave a chuckle.

"You are really cheesy aren't you?"

Tiffany nudged her girlfriend out of embarrassment.

"Well you just need to stop being cute then." Taeyeon said, "so yeah I doubt that Victoria…"

"Mhmmm" Tiffany was staring at a certain picture on the menu. "WAITER!"

"I don't want Yuri to get hurt again."

"Seriously, that girl is too stubborn to help." Tiffany answered; she glanced over her shoulder and shouted. "WAITER!"

"And that is where we come in!"

Taeyeon gave out a silly grin and shouted together with Tiffany.

"WAITER!"

"Yes miss!"

"We?"

Tiffany quirked an amused eyebrow, she leaned in to listened, intrigued.

"Yeah... this Victoria name sounds so familiar"

Taeyeon carried on with a skeptical look.

"I think I had heard her from somewhere once, and its getting all fishy when Yuri stray from talking about where Victoria work"

Tiffany lifted her chin and look across her table, just about outside at the people walking in the street, to think. Taeyeon could have made a good point, Yuri could be used, and as a friend in help, they need to stop that from happening.

"I seem, I think remembered that name too." She said, "So what do we need to do?"

Taeyeon smiled when her girlfriend agreed on her course of studying.

"Remember our friend?"

"Ah..."

A satisfied grin plastered onto Tiffany's face.

"Yes"

"We," Taeyeon said with a pause. "Should call her."

The waiter came out in a rush with pen in his hand. "What do you want miss?"

"Melon ice-cream." Taeyeon said, "You Tiffany?"

"Strawberry, with pink waffles like this one." She pointed at the one in the menu; the waiter fiddled with his pen and wrote down the orders.

"Will be serving it in a minute miss."

"Good." Tiffany gave a smile and dismissed the young man.

"And we should start right after we finish this shift."

Taeyeon suggested picking up the napkin and clipping it on to her collar shirt.

"It's nearly Christmas, and I'm sure Victoria is going to do something to Yuri right on that day."

"Alright then," Tiffany paused to think. "But there is still one thing Taeyeon"

"Yeah honey?"

Taeyeon straightened the napkin.

"I think we need to buy a French-to-Korean dictionary soon..."

The waiter came onto their table with a bucket loaded of cheese.

"Damn, being a brain surgeon ..."

 

30 minutes before getting back to work, Yuri still could not find a gift. Well, she could but it hits the banality of the norm, there were jewel stores aligned down a whole block of the streets and Yuri was definitely sure that her girlfriend wouldn't like it. It was proven back then when she had brought more than four pearl necklaces for the girl. Even though Victoria had handpicked it herself, Yuri could not understand why the girl would suddenly be bored of them and left it to be consumed by dusts in the latter's apartment.

So jewelry? No...

Yuri imagined in her head, a list of gifts she have once gave to Victoria. The girl was surprised, she thought that her list could circle the whole globe, well hypothetically. It was long, and there were only a few things that Yuri could give to the girl. And Yuri wasn't sure which one to choose.

The girl's gaze lingered from sign to sign on the shop, one was decorated with reindeers, the other was with Santa, and some other with Christmas trees standing outside the shops. Yuri smiled at the mood; Seoul was always pretty busy during these festive times of the year. Even though some people were not Christian, the thought of getting presents from Santa still occupied every kid's mind even for the last curve of the three hundred and sixty five and a quarter days.

Talking about Christmas, Yuri thought and stride down the hill slope street, she wish Santa could drop down with his rein deer and think of a gift for her. It's like, Santa knew what each child wanted. They even wrote letters to him before Christmas and Mr. Santa will deliver them down the chimney for the little kids to have. And if that could happen to Yuri, she would be more than ecstatic to celebrate Christmas at the hospital during a surgery.

But to the girl's dismay, there was no Santa, 'dreams crushed', and there, poor Yuri was left with only her brain to figure out what gift Victoria wanted to have.

For Christmas

So dependent on her luck, Yuri decided to follow the haphazardly placed tiles on the street. It was like when she was a little kid, she loved to jump around on same coloured tiles, and with her little imagination of a kid.

She jump

From one tile to another

And to her surprise, she actually stopped at a decent shop. The sign made her smile like a freak.

Gift shop

Perfect, she thought with a grin and entered the shop without hesitation. However, to find an empty store with no one except a little kid playing at a corner, Yuri frowned. She glanced at her watch, 20 minutes left, it was only 5 minutes drive from here to the hospital.

Well, taking a look around wouldn't do any harm…

She sighed, and walked to the middle of the shop.

The store, if she were to describe it, had a high ceiling, giving out a cozy feeling of European homes. The walls were made of stern Oakwood planks. The floors were parked with little shelves parked showing various kinds of gifts, some large like teddy bears, some small like that little song box, some exotic like that green thing Yuri didn't know the name off. There were things that Yuri had never seen before in her life, all cramped together in such one small area. And in the corner, where was a little kid playing with her toys, there was a big rocking horse, with pink saddles and a horn stuck to its head next to her. Yuri smiled, this place ought to be a little playground. Yuri eyes then trailed to a spiral staircase, which let up to the second part of the store.

Bored, Yuri decided to take a look, and it would also kill time she assumed. When she reached the top, there was a rail in front of the door which stopped people from entering. She pouted, and glanced over her shoulder; there was no one right here in the store, no staffs. And like Yuri, she felt that she had turned into a kid once again. Her curiosity got the best of her when her hand reached for the door knob with her feet tiptoeing...

"Stop."

"Huh!? Ah!" Yuri tripped, she found herself hung on the rail, feet from the floor. "Ouch..."

"You should've listen to me"

It was a voice of a kid, Yuri could tell from the squeaky sound. She turned around and there was a kid with her arms crossed across her chest looking directly at her.

"Excuse me?"

"Follow me"

The kid said monotonously, her hair was short about shoulder length with bangs tugged to the side with a cute strawberry clip glamorously show casing her flick-able forehead. The kid then walked down the spiral stair case with a confounded Yuri left behind.

"What?" Confounded Yuri said.

"Follow me."

Yuri followed and ended up being led to a counter with a cash machine situated on the very end.

"You know ahjumma, you should not walk around this store without permission"

Yuri raised an eyebrow, and stared at the latter who was about an arm lengths shorter than her. The kid crossed her arms again and stared straight into Yuri's eyes, talking about respect here. All gone.

"Ahjumma?!" She gawked, shocked. "I'm still young!"

"You look like an ahjumma" The kid stated, simply.

Yuri narrowed her eyes, "I'm not one" She grunted and crouched down on her feet pulling a scary face at the kid. She locked her fingers against her lips and pulled it down, nudged her nose up a big and stuck her tongue out.

"Yoona! Stop bossing the customers around... please..."

A foreign voice came from behind the store, back through the curtains. Yuri leaned into see who was there, oh that was such an angelic voice.

"M-mummy! Mummy!"

The kid screamed and ran to the back of the shop, scared. Yuri smirked, that kid was so full of herself, good for her to learn a lesson; she thought and stood up to straighten her shirt.

"Yoona... seriously, haven't mummy told you to stop behaving like this? Now who would come and buy things at our shop?!"

Yuri smiled at the motherly tone of the woman, it reminded her of mum, very demanding and commanding one of the best traits she could clearly tell to distinguish her mum from the other ahjummas.

"I'm so sorry... My daughter is pretty naughty. You need to understand..."

"Oh it's okay... I'm used to-"

Yuri was awestruck when the figure came out, dressed in white, the hem of her dress wavered as she walked out. The doctor; couldn't believe her own eyes. That person, who just came through the curtains, was not a middle-aged woman.

But a lady...

Just around her age...

She was so beautiful, the most beautiful Yuri had ever seen...