December 31^st, 2002.

The Songs and the Heos were escorted to a table of six near the back of the restaurant. The mothers sat next to each other with their respective husbands on their other sides. Seon Yul and Young Saeng sat next to their fathers and consequently next to each other too.

After everyone had placed their orders, pairs of conversations started to form at the table: the women babbling away at the latest gossip and the men commenting on sports from across the table, leaving the teenagers in slightly awkward silence. Seon Yul hated this kind of awkwardness and resolved to break the weird atmosphere. When she turned to her right to position herself better for a conversation with her best friend, her legs knocked Young Saeng’s, who must have turned earlier as well. “Ahh,” she blushed. “Sorry, Saengie”

“It’s OK. I’m surprised you haven’t knocked over a chair or something yet,” he commented humorously.

“Yah! It’s not my fault: who has to put chairs and tables so close to each other?” Seon Yul had a habit of never being able to make it to her desk in class (which was oh so conveniently located right in the middle of class) without having at least some kind of injury or bruise on the way there.

Young Saeng laughed. “How is school going anyways?” he asked for lack of better conversation.

They talked about school, classes, and friends until their food came. Seon Yul was thankful to have an excuse to keep quiet for a while as she ate. Young Saeng’s father, however, kept trying to make small talk with her, inquiring about school again to pick up where the conversation left off with Young Saeng. She gave short answers and many nods as he reminisced about his days in school.

“Appa~ You’re boring us,” Young Saeng whined.

“Ah,” his father chuckled. “I see how it is.” Seon Yul thought he might be a bit offended but instead he went straight back into conversation with her father about cars this time.

“Seonnie. Do you want to do something tomorrow, since it’s gonna be your last day here and all?” Young Saeng asked.

Seon Yul didn’t think he would bring it up, especially since her leaving seemed to affect him more than her. “Um, sure. Do you have anything in mind?”

“Nah, not really. Let’s figure it out tomorrow?”

“Spontaneous,” she laughed. “Alright, sounds like a plan,” she joked.

The awkwardness that started off the dinner was gone and Seon Yul found it was much easier to converse with him. It was just like old times when they talked about anything and everything so freely. “I’m going to miss this.”

“What was that?”

Crap, did I just say that out loud?

“I said, ‘I’m going to…’” she hesitated for something to fill in the blank.

“Kids, time to go,” Seon Yul’s mother said.

“Oh, let’s go,” Seon Yul said quickly and got out of her seat. In the process, she hit her knee under the table. “Owww~” she groaned, but nevertheless kept walking with a slight limp.

“Hey, wait up,” Young Saeng said. He took the coat she had left hanging on the back of her chair and headed out of the restaurant in the same direction as Seon Yul. Their parents had rushed to the counter and were battling out who would pay for the bill. He found Seon Yul outside in the cold with her arms wrapped around herself and using her hands to create friction on her arms for warmth. “You forgot this,” he said as he wrapped her coat around her. His hands lingered on the coat for a few moments even though he knew she had a hold of it already. When he heard the door behind him open, he let go and turned around to make sure it was their parents that had come out. “Who paid?” he asked.

“50/50 deal. It was more civil that way and we wouldn’t get as many weird stares from the other customers,” Seon Yul’s father replied.

They arrived home but no one was in the mood to get back into normal clothes. Instead, Young Saeng’s parents pulled out some chairs and placed them on the front lawn. The parents sat outside to enjoy the night sky. Seon Yul and Young Saeng sat with them for a while, but Seon Yul found her outfit not be able to prevent the coldness from seeping through.

“I’ll be back in a second. Just gonna go put some warmer clothes on,” she said and then left to go home next door. She went to her room and pulled out a pair of black sweat pants. She pulled off her stockings from under her dress and tossed them onto her bed. As she bent to get one of her legs into the sweats, she heard someone coming up the stairs. When she looked up, she saw Young Saeng at her door. Seon Yul stood in an awkward squat/bend with one of her legs halfway through the sweats.

“Sorry; I thought I left something in here. My bad, I’m just gonna…” he stumbled. He turned and ran right into the door frame. His body made a painfully audible collision with her door frame. “Owww~”

“Are you OK?!” Seon Yul threw the sweats aside and rushed to him.

“Yeah, nah, yep, no, I’M FINE,” he said while rubbing his head.

Seon Yul rolled her eyes. “Here, sit on my bed.” She guided him to sit down and she ran downstairs to grab an ice pack from the freezer. She returned upstairs and made him hold the ice pack on his injury. He cringed as the coldness made contact with this skin, but nevertheless kept the ice pack there. He sighed and laid back on Seon Yul’s bed.

“Sorry, Seonnie.”

“Nah, it’s alright. It’s not your fault you’re just as much of a klutz as me.”

“Lies~” he retorted and sat up again. “Ahh, my bad again…” He dropped back onto the bed.

Seon Yul pursed her lips together to keep from smiling and finished pulling her sweat pants up under her dress. “Relax, oppa. You’re not seeing anything anyways.”

Seon Yul heard the front door open and heard their parents bring their conversation into the living room. No longer feeling obliged to look dressed up, she grabbed a sleeping shirt and her sleeping robe to the bathroom to finish changing. When she walked back into her room, she saw that Young Saeng was no longer laying on her bed. He had discarded the ice pack onto her bedside table and was standing at her shelf where she used to display her photo frames. He held the one remaining picture she had purposely left unpacked until the last minute. It was a selca of the two of them one spring day in the park. Seon Yul was holding up a flower next to her face while Young Saeng took the photo. The sun’s rays were radiating from behind the flower, so the photo came out brightened by the light. It was definitely an amazing photo.

“Those were the days, weren’t they?” Seon Yul reminisced.

“Yeah…” Young Saeng put the photo back in its place. “You know, it’s almost New Years Day,” he said.

“Yeah, just about midnight soon,” she agreed.

Young Saeng looked at Seon Yul intently and she tried to gaze back. As he stepped towards her, she stepped back. When he took yet another step towards her, she stepped back on the string of her robe and fell back. Young Saeng swooped down to check if she was alright.

Instead of groaning in pain again, Seon Yul just laughed, and Young Saeng joined her.

“Is everything OK up there?!” someone from downstairs called.

“Yeah!” Seon Yul called back. “All good.”

Young Saeng helped her up and this time she was the one laying down with the ice pack. Young Saeng kept her company by sitting on the bed too. They heard their parents pop open a bottle of champagne in celebration downstairs.

Seon Yul turned to her best friend. “Happy New Year, Young Saeng,” she said with a smile.

He returned a smile. “Happy New Year, Seon Yul.”

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A/N: FINALLY AN UPDATE!!! I'm sooooo sorry; I can't even fully blame school this time, I've just been a total lazy arse x(

Anywhooz. I finished off the dinner scene. It's not very interesting coz it's not significant so I sorta just rushed through it. I was supposed to post this so much earlier tonight but I got sidetracked chatting XD

It's the KPOP Fest in Sydney...today (it's like past 1am now). AND I'M NOT GOING. WAHHHHHH DX So yeah, I've been really depressed about not going. Which is sorta why I finally updated, coz I needed to get my mind off of the concert. I'm contemplating staying offline for the whole day too (doubt it'll happen though).

Enjoyyy~ PS. 11/11/11 =D

-Melody~xoxo