December 31^st, 2002

 “Wow~! This place is very nice,” Seon Yul’s parents gushed. “Don’t you think so Seon Yul?”

“It looks… familiar,” Seon Yul said with her eyebrows furrowed. “Have I been here before?”

“Yeah you have actually,” Young Saeng answered. “My parents and I took you here a few years ago, remember?”

May 23^rd, 2000.

Seon Yul laid on top of her quilt and let the music from her mp3 player increase in volume until it was loud enough to block out any outside noises and any floating thoughts in her mind.

It doesn’t matter,her mind screamed over her music. It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter… And the more she said it to herself, the more convinced she became – that it really didn’t matter.

She closed her eyes and let herself get lost in the music. The “serenity” of the moment was almost enough to put her to sleep.

Suddenly, the music ceased and her eyes flew open and she snapped back into reality.

“Your music’s so loud I can hear it from next door.”

Seon Yul saw Young Saeng standing there with her earphones in his hand and a fake scold on his face.

“Oh, and happy birthday, Seonnie.”

“Thank you, oppa,” she said as she sat up and roughly fixed her hair.

There was a bit of silence as neither of them really knew what to say next. Young Saeng could sense that something wasn’t right.

“What’s wrong, Seonnie? It’s your birthday; you're supposed to be happy. Hence the ‘happy’ in ‘happy birthday’,” he joked in attempt to lighten her mood.

“It’s nothing,” she replied monotonously.

Young Saeng had a feeling he knew what it was. “Alright, fine. I’m gonna get something to eat from your bathroom alright?”

“Mhm,” Seon Yul replied and flopped back onto her bed with her music again.

Young Saeng rolled his eyes at how little attention his best friend was devoting to him. He walked passed Seon Yul’s parents’ room before heading downstairs into the kitchen. He headed straight for the fridge and scanned through the various fridge magnets and family photos. His eyes stopped on a handwritten note that confirmed his suspicions.

He knew she had plugged herself back into her mp3 player, so she wouldn’t notice if he went missing for a few more minutes anyways. He jogged back to his house next door and discussed something with his parents before running back into Seon Yul’s room where she was in the same position as he had initially found her.

“Yah,” he said as he shook her.

“Whaaat?!” she whined angrily as he had now interrupted her for the second time.

“Get dressed; we’re going out soon.”

“Whhhy?!”

“Because I refuse to let you waste away your day in your room on your BIRTHDAY,” he answered with special emphasis on the last word. His expression softened. “Come on, oppa’s trying to be nice. Let’s have fun today alright, Seonnie?”

“OK then…” she responded without sounding too reluctant.

He left to go home and get ready himself. Seon Yul chose a nice knee-length flow-y skirt and paired it with a blouse. She topped it all off with a cardigan. Looking at herself in the mirror, she wanted to leave some of her hair down and ended up settling for a half-up hairdo. Satisfied with her appearance, she packed a small handbag, left a note for her parents, and left her house.

Seon Yul, Young Saeng and his family spent the car ride in amiable conversation. His parents left the kids to talk amongst themselves. Seon Yul took the opportunity to ask, “Oppa, where are we going?”

Before he had a chance to answer, his parents announced that they had arrived at their destination. Seon Yul got out of the car and saw a nice Korean restaurant slightly lit up in the fading evening. They entered as a family of four and took their seats in the centre of the room. While the Heo family looked at the dishes on the menu, Seon Yul gazed around the busy restaurant and admired the splendour of the place. Young Saeng tapped her arm and smirked. “Get off of Cloud Nine and choose something to eat!”

She stuck her tongue out at him but proceeded to choose something from the menu. The waiter took their orders and went back to the kitchen, leaving them alone again. Young Saeng excused himself from the table and Seon Yul was left to converse with his parents. They asked about how she was doing at school and what she thought of this restaurant. “It’s really nice,” she beamed. “Thanks for taking me here today.”

“It’s no problem, Seon Yul-ssi. Young Saeng was really determined to get you out of the house for your birthday so there was no way we could refuse him,” Young Saeng’s mother laughed.

Young Saeng returned just in time as the dishes arrived. They ate, talked, laughed, and Seon Yul found that the night was passing by in good spirits.

Young Saeng stretched with both arms raised above his head and swayed left and right. “Ahh~” he exhaled and settled back down with a smile at Seon Yul. She gave him a quizzical look before laughing.

“Hahaha, what the…? Weirdo,” she said.

Suddenly, a group of waiters and waitresses burst out of the kitchen and headed towards their table while singing “Happy Birthday”. Seon Yul shot a surprised look at Young Saeng and he returned it with a mocking look of surprise.

“You—” Before she could accuse him any further, the waiter at the end came forth at the end of the birthday song and placed a cake in front of Seon Yul. The cake was chocolate covered in a thin layer of chocolate icing with strawberries and other various fruits decorated on the sides and around the words ‘Happy Birthday Seon Yul’ written in what looked like a gelatine substance. Both the ‘1’ and ‘2’ candles were on the verge of melting onto the cake, so Seon Yul made a quick wish and blew them out. Everyone around her clapped and a few neighbouring tables did too. The waiters and waitresses left and Seon Yul used the knife to make the first cut in the cake. Young Saeng’s father cut up slices for all of them and asked for a box to take the rest home.

Seon Yul and the Heo family left the restaurant after a wonderful night and headed home. Seon Yul thanked Young Saeng’s parents again for the dinner when they all got out of the car at Young Saeng’s house.

“It’s our pleasure Seon Yul-ssi. We had a good time too.”

“Young Saeng, maybe you can walk Seon Yul to her door?”

“Sure,” he replied. They walked just next door while his parents went inside their own home. Seon Yul saw the light on inside and knew that her parents must be home.

She turned to Young Saeng as they stood on her doorstep. “Thank you for today Saengie oppa~ It was really fun.”

“You’re welcome. Umm…” He hesitated. They heard footsteps approaching the door from inside. He hugged her and said, “Happy Birthday Seonnie,” before leaving as suddenly as he had hugged her.

The door opened her and her mother stood behind her. “Oh, Seon Yul-ah. Where did you go?”

Seon Yul smiled, completely forgetting why she was in a bad mood earlier, and told her parents about her night with Young Saeng’s family.

December 31^st, 2002

“Ohh yeah~ I remember now. It’s been renovated, so maybe that’s why I couldn’t recognise it,” Seon Yul said.

“Or maybe it’s just your not-so-bright memory,” Young Saeng teased.

“Yah!”

Their parents laughed at their playfulness and the two families entered the restaurant together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: OMFG I AM BACK. YESSSSSS. First and foremost, I am SO sorry for not updating in heaps long! x( I've been really busy and writing here just couldn't be on my priority list. But since I really wanted to update and I had some time to spare, here it is~~

As for this chapter, I've got a lot of explaining to do. Yes, it's crap and very rushed. But let me try to explain! In my major desire to update, I decided to cut this chapter off here and post this part now as Chapter 7, and the continuation of this chapter will be in Chapter 8. So bottom line is; I really wanted to update! I got lazy so I only skim editted this (so errors are rather prone here). Yes, it's short, and I believe the continuation chapter may be a bit short too. But just know it's because it was originally meant to be ONE chapter. PLEASE FORGIVE ME.

Hopefully, Chapter 8 continution will come soon!

I have a lot more to say, but it's getting late so I'll leave it at that.

THANKYOU TO MY SUBSCRIBERS AND READERS!!!

- Melody~xoxo