December 31^th, 2002.

For the next few days, Seon Yul busied herself with packing per room and the rest of the house as well. With only herself and her parents, progress was kind of slow. Any free time she had was geared toward putting items away in boxes either to be shipped to their new home in the States or to be donated to charity.

When everyone was tired and decided to take a short break, Seon Yul headed upstairs to her almost empty room. Her cell phone stood in its usual place on her bed side table. She sat on her bed and had a momentary staring contest with her cell phone. She blinked, concluding their little game, and she reached across to grab it. Inhaling, she pushed a button to activate the screen. Her eyes almost bulged out of her head with anxious anticipation when she saw that there was one unread message. She quickly unlocked her phone before cautiously opening her inbox. Her face and her heart fell when she saw that it was just a late reply from one of her vacationing friends.

Three days, she thought miserably. Before she could fall into another one of her mini-depressions, her mother called her from downstairs. “Seon Yul-ah!”

“Yeah omma!” she called back. She dumped her phone on her bed and rushed downstairs.

“Seon Yul-ah, I need you to take this box to the donation centre a few blocks down. You know the one by the grocery store?” Seon Yul nodded. “Good. There are two boxes so you might want to make two or three trips depending on how much you can carry at once.” Her mother was going to suggest bringing along a certain friend for assistance, but she knew better and kept her suggestion silent. “Anywhoo, off you go. I’ll handle the rest of the packing for now.”

Seon Yul looked at the boxes and decided to make three trips. She sighed. “Oh well, I kind of need the exercise anyways.” She didn’t like to exercise, but she was becoming less and less fit with every drama she spent on the couch watching.

She took some things out of the boxes and stacked them on the bigger box which she planned to split in half for her other two trips. She went back upstairs to grab her cell phone and iPod touch for music.

“I’ll be back!” she yelled to no one in particular. Her mother was already in the backyard, probably scavenging for more boxes.

She closed the front door behind her with a kick of her leg and began her journey to the donation centre. She tried not to glance at the neighbouring house or look back at it when she passed. She continued walking to the company of her music.

After about two songs, Seon Yul heard her phone’s text message alert go off. Thinking it was her mother, she stopped walking and held the box under one arm. She unlocked her phone’s screen and almost dropped the box after opening her inbox. Young Saeng's mochi cheeks and peace sign appeared next to a No Subject text message. She clicked open and read two words:

Turn around. – Saengie.

She made a 180 degree turn and saw her best friend standing several feet behind her with his phone still in his hand. Seon Yul stood frozen in shock with her phone still in one hand and the box under her other arm.

Young Saeng walked toward his frozen statue of a best friend. She still didn’t budge even when he stood in front of her. “Maybe I should text her again,” he muttered and pretended to compose a new text message.

“Saengie.”

He looked up when he heard his nickname. Seon Yul was unfrozen and finally acknowledged his presence.

“Before you say anything more, let me say my speech. I’m sorry for blowing up at you like that. I just— I couldn’t believe it and it came all of a sudden; both the news and my reaction. You're my best friend; my Seonnie. We’ve known each other for as long as I can remember. I trust you with everything and anything and I don’t know what I’m gonna do when you're gone. Anyways, I guess what I’m trying to say is: forgive me?”

His explanation seemed to come out all in one breath and if Seon Yul wasn’t paying attention, she would have missed half of what she would have interpreted as blabber.

“I—” she sighed. “Of course I forgive you Saengie.” She wanted to repeat everything he had just poured out to her, but she didn’t think she’d be able to get everything out of her system like he had. Plus, the weight of the box still under her arm brought her back to reality and reminded her of her task at hand. She stuffed her phone in her back pocket and distributed the weight of the box into both of her arms. Immediately, Young Saeng took the box from her.

“Hey, I’ve got it,” she assured him and tried to get the box back.

Instead, he side-stepped around her and continued walking. “Let’s go; we’re almost there.”

“Aish, stubborn kid,” she muttered under her breath. She stopped her music and the two walked beside each other. “How did you know I was out anyways?”

“I just happened to be looking out the window,” he replied nonchalantly.

They kept their conversation casual, neither of them bringing up the Song’s departure in two days. They reached the donation centre within minutes where Seon Yul informed the lady that they would be back with more boxes.

When they returned to Seon Yul’s house to retrieve the other two boxes, Seon Yul’s mother was busy with more packing. When she caught sight of Young Saeng, the two greeted each other with their usual familiarity. At first, Seon Yul could’ve sworn she was seeing things, but she couldn’t shake off the fact that out of the corner of her eye she saw her mother giving Young Saeng a yay-the-plan-worked kind of wink. I need to get more sleep, she told herself. It’s screwing up my vision and logic.

“We’ll be back soon, omma,” Seon Yul informed her mother.

“I can help you guys with packing too,” Young Saeng offered.

“Oh well thank you Young Saeng-ssi, but it’s not necessary—”

“No no, I don’t have anything better to do anyways,” he assured. “Let’s go Seonnie,” he motioned for her to go out the door first.

The two of them retraced their steps to the donation centre and dropped off the last two boxes. On their way back to Seon Yul’s house, they took their time walking.

“It’s New Years Eve today.”

“Ahh yeah, it is isn’t it?” Seon Yul had lost track of the dates for the past few days. “Doing anything special with your parents?”

“Nope; how about you?”

“Nothing that I know of. At least they're at home and not working.”

“Yeah, that’s good. Maybe, if your parents are up to it, our families can go out for dinner tonight. Remember when we used to do that a lot?”

“Yeah,” Seon Yul smiled. “Good times.”

“You ask your parents and I’ll pop home and ask mine.”

“Okay, then meet back at my house.”

Seon Yul went home and saw that her father was back, helping her mother with more packing. “Omma, appa, are we doing anything tonight?”

“Not really. Why?” her mother asked.

“Young Saeng suggested that our families go out for dinner since it’s New Years Eve today.”

“Oh! That sounds like a great idea! We haven’t had an outing with the Heo family in a while. Tell Young Saeng-ssi we’re up for it.”

“He should be back here—” Ding dong. Young Saeng rang the doorbell to announce his arrival but opened the door for himself.

“My parents are good with it too,” he said.

“Cool. Where are we gonna go?” Seon Yul asked.

“My appa has somewhere in mind already,” Young Saeng answered. “He didn’t tell me where though, so we’ll all have to wait and see.”

“That’s alright. Shall we get a bit more packing done in the time being?” Seon Yul’s father suggested.

They all agreed and got back to work, but before they knew it, most of the house was packed and cleared.

“Should we start getting ready for dinner?”  Seon Yul asked Young Saeng.

“Yeah we should. My appa texted me and told me to tell you guys to dress nice. I’m gonna go home and get ready too. I’ll bring my parents over here when we’re ready.”

“Alright, see you soon then.”

Seon Yul chose a black dress that reached about a hand length above her knees. Because of the winter coldness, she put on a pair of skin-coloured stockings so her lower body wouldn’t freeze to death. She picked out a white coat and laid it on her bed while she sat and applied makeup. Since she wasn’t in the mood to do anything too fancy to her hair, she plaited her hair to the side and let some hair loose to frame her face. She put her coat on and sprayed on some perfume. She found a clutch and packed some necessities in it before taking one last look in the mirror and heading downstairs.

Young Saeng and his parents were in the empty lounge room talking to Seon Yul’s father and catching up like old friends.

“Even though we live right next door, it feels like we haven’t seen each other in ages!” Young Saeng’s mother remarked.

“About time too kiddo,” Seon Yul’s father joked when he saw her. “At least you beat your omma.”

“You look so pretty Seon Yul-ssi!” Young Saeng’s mother gushed. “Doesn’t she Young Saeng?” She turned and winked at her son.

“Omma…” Young Saeng muttered.

Seon Yul cleared in embarrassment, but at that moment, her mother came downstairs and spared the moment.

“Everyone’s here already? It’s good to see you,” she greeted Young Saeng’s parents.

“Good to see you too,” Young Saeng’s parents replied.

“Let’s head out now,” Young Saeng’s father said. “You can drive behind and follow us alright?”

“Sounds good to me,” Seon Yul’s father said. “Let’s go.”

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A/N: I'm finally back! In the time that I was gone, I think I gained a bit under 100 more views for this story =D Which is awesome considering I was kinda on hiatus. Exams are way over, and my vacation turned into a permanent move back to my hometown. School starts in about a week, so I hope the workload isn't super heavy so I'll still have time to write and update ^^

Thanks to anyone who subscribes to my story ^_^ Thanks to anyone who even just reads my title! Haha, I'm forever grateful =)

- Melody~xoxo