Stirring softly, Tiffany slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was the tent she was sleeping in. Was what happening simply a dream? Tiffany questioned that to herself because everything that happened felt way too real for being a dream. She moved her hand and she was still holding on her phone. She raised her hand up to look at her phone. The flashlight that she used was already turned off. The glow from the screen as she raised her phone, mentioned that it was past midnight and she directly frowned when she still saw no reply from Jesse. What’s going on with oppa? She was literally a bit annoyed with it. She needed to talk to Jesse after she got a response from the latter because everything was just so strange. 

Tiffany directly squinted when the tent's flap suddenly opened up with a figure getting in and Tiffany needed to blink a few times to adjust her eyes with the sudden brightness from outside. Just then, she also realized that there was a piece of cloth on top of her head. She placed her left hand over it and took it off. Oh, maybe because I’m having a fever, the dream felt so real.

“Fany-ah, finally you are awake.”

Tiffany was greeted with a tight hug as the person buried herself into her. All this indeed brought a huge confusion to Tiffany. Actually what is going on?

“Yoona, what’s happened? I’m just having a fever. Nothing serious.”

“I thought… no… we thought that we are losing you when we found you not moving and being so cold.”

So, I was lost, wasn’t a dream at all.

“Thank you, for finding me. I thought I would remain lost there in the woods.” Tiffany sincerely expressed her gratitude with a huge smile on her face, the crescents in her eyes easily formed with the happiness that flooded inside of her.

“Yul and Seohyun are outside. While Seohyun and I take turn in checking on you. Mrs Lee is with them too. You indeed scared all of us.”

“Let’s go outside. It’s boring to be here by myself.”

“But…”

Before Yoona could stop Tiffany, the latter had gotten out of the blankets covering her and crawled out of the tent. Of course, the light was still blinding and she could hear footsteps busily getting closer to her before she felt hands helping her up.

“Unnie, you are supposed to rest.” Tiffany heard Seohyun worriedly spoke.

“I’m fine now. Don’t worry.” Tiffany patted Seohyun, hand on her shoulder, smiling widely to assure the latter that she was alright.

Tiffany turned to the opposite side of Seohyun and saw Yul looked at her worriedly. Tiffany smiled and shook her head.

“Trust me. I’m not lying.” Tiffany assured Yul and Yul’s demeanour relaxed a bit but she still could see the worry in Yul’s eyes. It’s just this time she would keep silent about it since she knew it’s pretty normal for them to feel that way. If she was in their shoes, she would also feel the same.

“You’re lucky that Yul and Yoona found you before it’s too late.” Ms Lee spoke as she patted the spot on the wooden bench next to her for Tiffany to sit before she took a clean mug on the wooden table and pour hot chocolate for Tiffany.

Tiffany walked towards the bench with the help of Seohyun. She actually could walk there by herself but it didn’t seem that her younger friend would let her do that by herself, afraid that she might feel lightheaded or something and she felt grateful for it, for having friends like them. Tiffany had a seat next to Ms Lee and Seohyun sat down next to Tiffany.

Yoona was crawling out of the tent and she was going to stand up but then she saw a hand in front of her and noticed that it belonged to Yul. Yoona was surprised by it, never thought that the latter would do such thing. Maybe he isn’t as bad as I think. Actually he is pretty good when he isn’t being a prankster. Yoona took the hand that was offered and Yul helped her up before they walked together towards where Tiffany, Seohyun and Ms Lee were. Yoona was a bit bothered by her own thoughts of Yul. She could never imagine that she would think of Yul that way.

“What’s actually happening? Why are you there at the first place?” Yul curiously asked, actually bothered by the fact that Tiffany ran out in the woods, in the dark with no company at all. He stepped over the bench before sitting down next to Yoona. Actually everyone was curious on how all of this could happen.

Tiffany upon being asked with that question directly glared at Yul. Seeing that, Yul definitely was confused. He didn’t think that he did anything bad that day. He couldn’t think of anything that he did which could make Tiffany upset. Seohyun, Yoona and Ms Lee directly looked at Yul as well.

“Why were you starting a fight? I went there to stop you but… in the end, I got lost looking for you.” Tiffany scolded Yul at first before her voice turned into soft mumble in the end.

“Huh?” Yul completely didn’t understand where this accusation came from.

“I guess all of this is a misunderstanding, unnie.” Seohyun said as she placed her hand on Tiffany’s shoulder.

“I was helping Ms Lee moving boxes in the kitchen with Minho. Then when I was done, Yoona told me that you couldn’t be found anywhere.” Yoona, Seohyun and Ms Lee nodded in agreement, telling that Yul didn’t lie at all.

“Then why did Eunjung tell me that?” Tiffany mumbled to herself, questioning the whole thing.

“For that… Eunjung told me that it seemed that she had mistaken that person as Yul after she heard about the news. Then, we started the search party but before we did anything, we saw Yul carrying unnie back.” Seohyun explained. “And she seemed pretty guilty about it.”

Yul however, didn’t really believe on what Seohyun had said. Yul sensed something else in it and it wasn’t a good one. He had been pretty good in sensing that kind of person, person who pretended to have good intention, person with two face. Still, what bothered him the most wasn’t about Eunjung. He pretty much could handle it if she tried anything. What bothered him right now was Jesse. The latter still hadn’t replied to his text and when he called Jesse, the line couldn’t be connected. Now he started to think that something had happened since Tiffany was also bothered by it this afternoon. For now, he would keep silence about it though. He didn’t want it to bother Tiffany and he would find what was happening because this was totally out of the ordinary. Usually, Jesse wouldn’t stay silent with the text Yul had sent him. Yul would directly get a response especially when it related to Tiffany. He even had memorized the pattern of it. From a text he sent, the next second he would get a phone call from Jesse and got a long scolding before Jesse would appear a moment later, if it’s close by and if not, Jesse still definitely came, it’s just Jesse would need a longer time to reach where they were. After they met up, Yul would earn another scolding.

Tiffany held onto the mug, feeling the warmth seeping to her hand before taking the hot chocolate to drink, sipping on it slowly. Then she gently placed the mug down and nodded.

“As long as everything is clear now, I guess it’s fine.” Tiffany calmly stated although it earned a glare from Yul, the guy didn’t insist on it further, accepting what Tiffany had decided.

“Next time, don’t just run off by yourself, Fany-ah.” Yoona said with a pout and Seohyun nodded. Clearly what happened to Tiffany affected everyone in her group.

The rest of the night they spent by talking about lighter topics and joked around before everyone went to sleep since it was already pretty late by that time.

***

Mist was still covering the scenery around the camping ground and the surface of the lake. It was still early in the dusk but someone had woken up and were sitting by the side of the lake, somewhere not too far from the camp, simply enjoying the view. When everyone had a really nice sleep, she couldn’t that day and so there she was. However, she didn’t feel disheartened by it. Instead, she was glad that she could wake up early as such view in front of her eyes was a rare thing to be seen in the city.

A guy was having his early jog around the lake side. He always woke up early to have his morning exercise, a habit he had grown up with. At first he did it with his father and lately he did it by himself since most of the time his father wasn’t at home but occasionally, his mother did join him for this routine. He slightly slowed down when he saw a silhouette of a lady in the mist and it brought a curiosity out of him. He didn’t think that someone would be up this early.

As he was getting closer, he could feel his heart beating faster. The silhouette was getting clearer for him to see. This back…This was what he had been looking for all this time. He never caught the face of the person and all he recognized was her back. One thing that caught his gaze as well was the baseball cap the female was wearing. It’s exactly the cap that he gave his childhood friend since he couldn’t have mistaken the black ink spot on the backside of it which resulted from the child him accidentally dropped a black marker and it landed on the cap that he placed on the table. Of course, the black spot wasn’t as clear as how it was in the past. Finally….

Taking silent steps closer to the female as Yul didn’t want to surprise his childhood friend. He was nervous, extremely. He never thought he would meet with her here after looking for her all this time. It’s lucky that he didn’t choose to give up although multiple occasion did tempt him to do so. As he was getting closer to her, he was thinking on what he should say to her. He felt himself starting to sweat from the nervousness, despite the coldness of the morning. In the end, he decided to just go with the simplest greeting.

“Hey.” Yul’s voice slightly shook from his nervousness but hopefully the female didn’t catch anything from it.

Yul could see that the female was startled by his voice, clearly the latter didn’t expect that there would be someone else such early in the morning. He also saw that the female slowly turned around to see who was the person talking with her. He could hear his heart thumping extremely loud as he couldn’t hear anything other than his heartbeat. It’s like a dream comes true to him as finally he could see the person his childhood friend had grown into.

“Yul?”

When the female turned around and he caught the face of her as the latter greeted him. From the tone of her voice, she clearly confuse on maybe the reaction she saw in him or maybe just didn’t expect him to wake up that early. This time, Yul’s surrounding turned silent as if his heart had stopped beating in his chest, contrasting with the loudness that he heard earlier. Impossible… that’s what came first in his mind. All this time… she’s this close and yet, I’ve never realized that it’s her.

“Are you alright?”

Yul could hear everything that she asked him and he tried to answer. However, there wasn’t word coming out of his mouth from the surprise he had. He tried to calm himself down but it’s not easy. If it’s someone else, he would probably go and hug the latter and cry his heart out for finally finding her after all this time. He would also tell his struggle to her. When he found out that his childhood friend was Yoona, his mind putting a brake on his body from running to the latter and lunging himself on her because Yoona was someone he knew and she didn’t know that he had been looking for her or that he was his childhood friend, not to mention that there’s a possibility of her had forgotten about everything in the past.

“I’m fine.” Yul weakly answered, hiding the nerves and feelings that was flooding inside him. “Just tired from morning run.”

Yoona didn’t push further on the matter and just nodded before turning back to face the still misty lake. Yul walked and stopped when he was by Yoona’s side before taking a seat next to her, copying her action, hugging his knees to his chest while looking ahead of him. So close and yet so far…

Yul tried figure out on how he should take care of this matter. The silence this time indeed helped him and he was grateful that Yoona didn’t ask about anything despite how awkward it must be earlier. Yul rested his chin on his knees. This had suddenly turned into the most complicated thing to him. His childhood friend was his close friend and enemy at the same time. Even if he wanted to start the talk about it, he didn’t think he could do so. It wasn’t the right time. Basically their relationship before him knowing the truth had already been awkward and tossing that in would only make things worse. Maybe he should just let it be like that, forgetting that he knew about the truth of his childhood friend and killed the feelings he had all this time for his childhood best-friend.

Yul silently looked at Yoona. His gaze was incomprehensible. Somehow, the female didn’t realize that Yul was watching her since she was literally hypnotized by the view in front of her. If Yul knew, Yoona was actually thinking of him, her childhood best-friend, reminiscing about the past. Still keeping hope that she would meet up with him one day, although she might not recognize him any longer as people do change as they grew older but she wished he would recognize her, especially when she was wearing the cap he gave her and the truth was she always carry that baseball cap around. It had turned into her good luck charm in a way.

Flashback

“Here, for you.” Yul took off the hat he was wearing and placed it on top of Yoona’s head, letting her wear his favourite baseball cap. He never went anywhere without it. It always kept him company. The white baseball cap with navy blue stripe and Y letter at the front of it perfectly protected Yoona’s head from drizzle of rain as they were in the school field after playing tag with their friends, now getting ready to go home.

“Thanks.” Yoona said while touching the baseball cap on her head and smiled at Yul.

“Let’s go home.” Yul held her hand and walked together with her. As usual, he was accompanying his best-friend back home. Everyone knew how close they were so it wasn’t something surprising or out of ordinary to see.

The girl simply nodded as the answer. She always had fun whenever she was with Yul. Ever since they met, they directly clicked and they somehow always had the same thoughts and ideas on what they wanted to do. Actually, she wanted to tell him that she would be moving out but seeing how happy her friend was, she didn’t have the courage to do so. She knew she needed to tell him since the day for her to do so was getting closer.

When they reached the front of Yoona’s house, the both stood there in silence. Yul had let go of her hand and waited for the latter to walk in. However, Yoona stood there still. Yul could see that the latter was contemplating on something. Yoona then looked at Yul and now Yul finally saw the tears that were threatened to fall.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Concerned, Yul asked Yoona, wondering what could have troubled his cheerful best-friend.

“Someone bullies you?” Yul directly made guesses, ready to fight anyone who made Yoona cried like this and he got a shake of head from Yoona as the answer.

“Then?” Yul was already impatient, wanting to know why.

“I’ll be moving out.”

Yul could hear thunder clashing with the news although he knew it was all in his mind. He felt uncomfortable with the news. He didn’t like the idea of not having his best friend, his partner, right next to him. He didn’t know for how long he remained silent to process the news.

“When?” That was what managed to leave his lips.

“End of the month.” Yoona weakly answered, trying her best not to cry. She had been crying a lot after her mother told her about the news.

“Two weeks more…” Yul spoke out in tiny whisper, as if speaking to his own self. However, he would try to be strong. He wouldn’t let her see him cry.

“Then, let’s make the best out of these two weeks.” Yul faced Yoona, smiling as wide as he possibly could. He fisted his hands that were on his sides, to stay strong.

Yoona weakly nodded, knowing Yul was hiding how he really felt for her sake. It wouldn’t be easy at all for the both of them. Yoona was going to take off the baseball cap and when Yul saw it, Yul shook his head.

“Count it as a present for you, to remind you of me and… I’ll definitely find you, no matter how long it takes. At that time, you better not forget about this best partner you ever have.” Yul confidently said, making a promise to her and himself.

“I’ll hold onto that.” Yoona smiled at Yul, believing what he had said.

“Let’s pretend that you moving out never happen for the rest of two weeks or we’ll just be sad.” Yul had decided that he would think that nothing had happened when that day came, he would just think of it as Yoona went for vacation, that way he wouldn’t be that sad and he would meet with her again. He knew that and he would wait patiently until that day came.

“I think it’s time for me to go home. The rain is getting heavier.” Yul said to Yoona, although he dreaded it after he got the news. But he would need to go back sooner or later.

Yoona nodded and ran towards the door before turning around and waved at Yul. “See you tomorrow.”

Yul nodded and smiled widely. “See you.”

For the first time, Yoona stayed back a little while longer and watched Yul running back home, instead of the opposite, how Yul always waited for her to get in before he went home.

Yul watched Yoona taking off the baseball cap she was wearing at the moment. It was so rare to see the latter so deep in thoughts and Yul honestly was so curious on what Yoona was thinking at the moment that he almost asked the latter on what she was thinking. Luckily he didn't and he could already imagine how awkward it would be if he did that.

Yoona ran her hand on the cap, she was holding. She missed him, a lot. She wanted to be able to meet with the latter. She did go to look for him when she came back, but when she went to his house, she was told that he had moved out and it broke her heart. Numerous times she wanted to give up in waiting but her heart always told her no and trust her best friend. It was weird to her on how feelings work at times. Most people would already give up with it, so it’s funny that she was still holding on that promise.

People soon woke up from their sleep and the voices came from the camp, disturbed the silence they once had. Yul and Yoona turned to look at the camp where people came out of their tent or some had even started playing around and some went to the cabin, most probably looking for breakfast. Yoona put the cap back on her head, making sure that her hair was perfectly neat. Then, she stood up and was going to walk back to the camp but she didn’t forget to ask Yul whether he was going back too or not.

Seeing that Yul, had gotten up from his position earlier, she had gotten her answer. Yul trailed along behind her as they headed back to the camp. How much Yul wanted to close the gap and talked with her like how things were in the past. Things had gone into a totally different perspective now for him. If he didn’t know the truth, he would still start a fight with her in every chance possible. But now, he didn’t think he could do that any longer.

When they got to the camp and Yul was going to start a conversation that might lead on getting to know whether Yoona was still remember of him or not, something or more to someone came to disturb that moment. Yul was honestly pretty annoyed by it and it only made Yul hated him even more.

“Hey, Yoona. Here for you.” Taecyeon came out of nowhere and handed Yoona a carton of chocolate milk.

“Thanks oppa.” Yoona kindly answered, smiling softly.

Yul felt like Taecyeon was on purpose doing so, again trying to charm his way on Yoona. Yul was glaring at Taecyeon for a moment before he walked away and purposely bumping his shoulder on Taecyeon as he was heading to the wooden cabin to get his breakfast, ignoring the shouting coming from Taecyeon and Yoona, asking him to apologize to the other guy.