Two years didn’t seem long enough—that’s what Jessica thought as she put down the handset of the phone for the nth time. While she was through with clerical work, then with the finance and accounting department, her job at the human resources department definitely tested her temperament.

Twenty phone interviews had passed and she still couldn’t pick out a possible graphic designer for the company she was working in.

“Anything good yet?”

A head popped into the wall of her cubicle, startling her and sending some of the resumes and application letters under her desk. 

“You scared the hell out of me!”

Jessica quickly picked them up and put them back on her table, like they were really just sheets of paper she soon won’t remember putting there.

“My boss is scaring the hell out of me, too. If I can’t find a suitable graphic designer to work with for the incoming company event, I might as well just see you around.”

The dry remark: Jessica was sure it was Yuri’s. She looked up and smiled to herself for being almost correct. Almost, because Yuri had grown to be someone who would utter a curse, hang out with guys and still find the wrong one, and slowly ditch arcade games for a drink at the bar.

“Look, we’re almost done for today. Honestly, I can’t find a good one. All of them are pretty much amateur, and the concepts they’ve previously worked on are all--”

“All over the place?” Yuri interrupted. She picked up a random sheet of paper from the old pile on Jessica’s table and balled it with the palm of her hand.

“I think so.”

Jessica chuckled nervously at her best friend. She leafed through the papers inside the remaining folder and tried to read through the resume with the prying eyes of a critic, but it was already six in the evening and after hours of facilitating interviews she knew she was bound to be at her worst critique skills.

“Okay, so I think we saved the best for last.”

“What?”

Yuri’s eyes lit up, and so did her mood, because as Jessica read on, Yuri threw the ball of paper on her head. The force of the throw was not bothersome to Jessica, but the mess that Yuri added to her desk somehow irritated her at that moment. Being the best friend that she was, Jessica merely blew off the bangs on her face, picked up the balled up paper, and went to read a resume that would, hopefully, interest her.

“This one’s good,” Jessica mumbled without looking at Yuri, “He graduated at a prestigious university, with honors, and he had five years of experience in graphic design at the age of twenty-three. Impressive.”

Yuri slapped Jessica at the back. “Hey, that’s supposed to be my line! I’m a deciding factor here.”

“I thought ‘impressive’ wasn’t in your dictionary.”

The younger girl was about to throw another ball of paper at her friend, but a thought crossed and changed her mind. Of course, Yuri had standards higher than the Petronas Towers for that matter, and not even her boss fits her criteria for a potential boyfriend. In fact, no one ever suited her tastes so far.

“I know. I was just overwhelmed, to say the least. You sound like the boss.”

Jessica shook her head and, out of curiosity—let’s just say it’s out of boredom—she opened the ball of paper and flattened it on her table. Yuri stood still on her spot, looking down on the ground to wonder on her own complexities in life.

Just then, Jessica looked up and gave Yuri a grin, and Yuri couldn’t tell if her best friend was happy or flustered.

“Look, all feelings aside, I think we have to hire him again.”

Jessica showed Yuri the piece of paper that knocked her head off earlier, and as she expected, Yuri’s lips contorted into a frown. No wonder the paper smelled like two years ago.

“Is this a bad joke?”

Yuri would have laughed.

“No. I mean, seriously--”

Jessica’s words trailed off as Yuri began to walk away from the cubicle partition.

“I think I’m tired, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Come on, Yul, I’ve talked to twenty people on the phone and they were good, but he’s the best man for the job. No one’s been crazy as he is, his ideas are out of the box, and he’s been here for--”

“That’s what you think. What I think is I never want someone who had once got this company into trouble to ruin everything again.”

At least that’s what Yuri said. On the contrary, she stayed rooted to her spot a few feet away from Jessica’s cubicle.

“We all know it wasn’t true.”

“It gave him a lesson, Sica: Don’t drink while taking bad job offers. And he can’t even bring himself to learn from it.”

“That was two years ago, Yuri.” Jessica insisted, still holding the crumpled out paper.

“Two years is quite short, don’t you think?”

Yuri turned around and started walking away again, hoping to end the discussion on that note. Jessica, on the other hand, was quick and persistent enough to follow Yuri’s loud, swift steps towards her office.

“Is that a ‘yes’?”

“No.”

“Then I’ll talk to your boss. Maybe he’ll give it a go.”

“Are you really my best friend?”

Yuri arrived at her office, and was about to open the door when Jessica’s dainty hands surprised her by pushing the door shut again.

“No, that’s why I’m risking your outputs for your upcoming event,” Jessica shot back. “I’m making things simpler for you, and I think you’d better grow up and out of your feelings and learn to fix things, too.”

“What feelings?”

Before Jessica could answer, Yuri had already swung the door open. She quickly closed the door behind her and strode towards her table, trying to calm herself down. 

“That was two years ago,” she mumbled softly. 

Yes, but two years is quite short, isn’t it?

She looked around her and saw old magazines, old books on her shelf, old papers, everything to remind her of what used to be. She was surprised at how long she could keep them along with the ‘feelings’ she long denied herself two years ago.

She bowed her head down and stared at the wooden table surface, lazily tracing the lines and creases. Slowly, she was beginning to think less of the guy Jessica was reading about in some random resume, and more of the friend she lost to the past.

---

“Hello? Sungie-oppa?”

Yoona tapped softly on the door of her apartment—no, his apartment, but he told her it could be hers, too. Her shift as a hotel receptionist had ended at five in the afternoon, and she was getting tired and impatient. Her boyfriend had to open up the door soon, so she could at least give him a peck and retire to bed, or maybe tell him again to get a life.

“Sungie?”

Yoona knocked on the door this time, but after a few minutes the door was still closed in front of her. She whispered a curse, blaming herself for leaving the keys in her room early that morning.

“Oppa! Open the door now!”

She was close to calling the apartment manager when she heard footsteps shuffling nearer towards the door.

“Finally,” she sighed as a tall guy swung the door open and ruffled his hair, hoping to fix it after a good sleep.

“You look terrible,” Yoona said, putting her arms on his shoulders, “But that’s what I like about you.”

“Well, I think this is how you met me for the first time, so,” the guy muttered, and he smiled as Yoona gave him a peck on the cheek, though it was rather habitual. “But how’s your day?”

“It’s good. There was this wedding reception at the hotel that we had to take care of.”

The guy nodded. Not that he cared, because all he could see was Yoona’s smiling face, the one thing he loved to see every day.

“I heard they’re hiring a new management trainee at the hotel, and he’s going to work tomorrow, I think.”

Yoona took off her heels and stepped inside her apartment, dropping her shoulder bag, some groceries on the couch before turning around to face her lover again.

“That’s good,” he answered as he took Yoona again by the arm and pulled her close. “All the more that we should celebrate now.”

“Now?” Yoona gave him a quizzical look. She glanced at the clock, and noticed something wrong.

“Why?” the guy asked.

“I’m tired. And don’t you think you’re half an hour late for work?”

The guy raised a brow and looked up at the ceiling, pretending that he was thinking about it. Yoona found it cute, but she nonetheless stared at him blankly.

“Work can wait.”

“Come on, Sungie, you can’t be this sluggard again.”

“Well, I’m not, and work is fine at the photo center.”

Yoona suddenly pulled away from her boyfriend and went to pick up her things from the couch. The guy shrugged his shoulders, confused at her gesture.

“What’s wrong?”

“See, this is why I don’t see my future with you.”

The young lady strode across the living room, walking away from him, but he was stopped by the guy’s wrist on her.

“Look, I’m trying to get my life back,” the guy mumbled. His arm tightened around Yoona’s arm, although he knew he couldn’t make her turn around to face him. But he didn’t need to. Yoona looked at him, rather annoyed, and it spelled he was going to be lectured again.

“Kim Jong Woon. You should find a real job.”

“Why should I?” Jong Woon’s voice was a notch higher than the usual. He didn’t like another sermon from his girlfriend, but he also didn’t like it when he’s starting a fight with her. “I got myself the motorbike I dreamed of, this luxury of an apartment, and triple my pay--”

“Just for taking scars and blemishes off people’s faces, right?” Yoona interrupted.

“That’s not a bad thing.”

“Well, it’s bad, because you don’t seem like the talented person you were before.”

“I think I’m better than before.”

Yoona pried Jong Woon’s hands away from her arm and went to the kitchen to unload the groceries.

“We’re not fighting, aren’t we?”

Yes, they were, because Yoona now had that game face on, the same one she used whenever they fought over little things before. 

Yoona swung her head a “no”, instead, much to Jong Woon’s relief.

“I’m just telling you to fix yourself.”

“I’m not who I used to be, Yoong. I’m not the guy I was until I met you.”

Jong Woon’s voice was much calmer this time, and Yoona knew there was no point in fighting anymore. She took a quick glimpse of how he used to be, and thought the Jong Woon should’ve been a better version of it.

“I think you should go back to graphi—“ 

Yoona was cut off by a phone ringing somewhere in the living room. Jong Woon knew it was his phone; he glanced at the living room, then at Yoona, giving her an inquiring look.

“I think it’s a sign from heaven. Get that.”

Jong Woon sprinted back to the living room as the phone rang even more. Yoona, on the other hand, started rummaging into the groceries she bought, not knowing that, in a way, she was right about the phone.

---

Jessica hated train rides, especially the part where one had to get herself crammed into a lot of people and squeeze her way in or out of the train. But it’s the only mode of transportation that could get her to the office building faster, without having to endure the morning rush of traffic.

Well, a crowd of cars is worse than a crowd of people, right?

As Jessica had debated with herself about that matter, she waited for her turn in a queue of passengers buying their train passes at the ticket booth. Jessica craned her neck to see the length of the line and began to think she was better off stuck in traffic.

She was tired and she wanted to go home, fast.

“Miss.”

She ignored the voice at first.

“Miss.”

The sweetness of the voice caught her attention. She turned around, finally, and saw a tall, lanky guy a few meters away from her.

“Is this the end of the line?”

“Yes.”

The guy smiled and walked behind her. At first, Jessica didn’t mind the way he looked over his shoulder, because she thought it was some friendly gesture, or maybe because he was cute and she didn’t want to sleep letting the chance of being near him pass by.

After all, when did she last like a guy: college?

From the corner of her eye she finally noticed that the guy wanted to ask her something.

“Where are you headed to?”

“Home.”

“Oh,” the guy said, “Well, how much will that train ride home cost?”

“I get stored value tickets,” Jessica answered, matter-of-factly, “That way, wherever I go, I wouldn’t have to line up here every trip.”

“Oh.” The guy looked at the ceiling momentarily. “It would take you anywhere, right?”

“Yup.”

The guy grinned again, and Jessica turned her back to him with a mischievous smile to herself. It had been a long time since somebody smiled at her like that. Jessica almost forgot that it was her turn at the counter. She paid the cashier, grabbed her tickets, and walked slowly out of the line, her smiling eyes fixed at the guy tailing behind her.

Wait, she had to know his name.

“What’s your name, by the way?”

“U-um,” Jessica turned to him again, trying hard to hide her blush, “I’m—“

She wasn’t fond of giving her name to anyone; well, that’s because no stranger had ever asked her name before.

“I’m Jessica.”

“Oh, hello, Jessica,” the guy greeted her with an open hand, “I’m Donghae. Lee Donghae.”

Jessica took his hand immediately and shook it lightly. She shouldn’t have, but the stranger was too kind, not to mention he was cute. She had yet to grab another opportunity to get to know him more. Besides, in majority of the movies she’d seen before, she never saw anyone who refused a handshake.

“It’s nice meeting you, Donghae.”

Jessica should’ve known better that not all handshakes end happily, because when she released her hand from Donghae’s grip, he already had her ticket and ran towards the gates.

It took a while for Jessica to realize how much she had to pay for that stored value card.

“Hey! You thief!”

But it was too late: Jessica was still behind the gates, screaming, calling out, hoping for the cute guy named Donghae to return her pass, while Donghae had already swiped the card off the gates and gotten off to the platform.

“Get back here!”

Jessica became more desperate when she saw the train stop in front of Donghae. She looked around and looked for a way to get to the platform, until she was left with no choice but to jump as high as she could over the gates.

“Miss! What are you doing?!”

And she did jump, alarming the security guard, passengers and bystanders nearby. She barely lost her footing on the floor before buckling her leg and running again, trying to catch up with Donghae. But she couldn’t see him anymore; it made her feel so foolish and stupid, and somewhat hopeless.

“Damn it.”

Jessica wasn’t fond of uttering swear words, but the incident was a cherry on top of her “perfect” day. No, it wasn’t yet, because as she walked back to the ticket counter and apologized to the guard for the commotion, she couldn’t find her purse anywhere in her bag.

“Damn it,” she whispered again. She was patient and kind, and composed, but this situation stripped her off of her good qualities and now she felt like she wanted to strangle the guy for ruining her day.

She hated that evening from that moment on. She lost her wallet, got robbed of a train ride pass, and—well, she hated wondering if she would ever see the guy named Donghae again.


---