Hwa-Young was a sweet girl. In fact, she was wonderful. Always cheery and kind. Though, she wasn’t always that girl on the inside. She was insecure about herself and that was why she carried those complements around.

Other than that, she was still sweet as honey. We met each other in café once upon a time. She worked there and spilled her coffee over me. Cliché, yes, but after that we developed feelings for each other.

We started to date, actually. Our relationship was sparkling at first. But as September came, the sparkles faded with the fall’s chilliness. We broke as good friends… I assume.

I watched Hwa-Young over the edge of my coffee cup. Her deep brown eyes flickered nervous around in the room, avoiding my gaze.

Her hair color had changed from red to a light blonde, since I last saw her. But then again, it was several months ago.

Something about her attitude had changed too. It was like all her insecurity had vanished, and a confident girl had risen instead.

She used to avoid eye contact with every person she met. The only gaze she avoided now, was mine.

I didn’t know why, though.

“Would you like something to eat?” the waitress kindly asked us.

A moment later, our ordered cookies arrived. Hwa-Young politely nodded at the waitress and started to nibble her cookie between her fingers.

“So…” I started to break the silence. “What have you been doing lately?”

Hwa-Young looked up and finally met my eyes. A small smile formed on her lips by, I assume, her upcoming words.  

“You remember that dream I had about getting accepted to Seoul Actor School?” Hwa-Young asked me. I nodded.

“It actually happened!” Hwa-Young couldn’t hide her happiness and turned into one bright smile. My eyes widened. “Really? But I thought--“

“I know!” Hwa-Young beamed. “But, you know, I met this man. And then suddenly he said…”

It was obvious that she was incredible excited about her growing career. As soon as I asked the question, she ranted so fast, that I had to hold on tight to understand her.

In the middle of her flow of words, she suddenly dropped her cookie on the floor. Her cheeks blsher red and flustered picked up her cookie from the floor.

But her weight on one side of the chair put the chair out of balance. With a loud “bomb” Hwa-Young landed on her directly on the floor.

It seemed that everybody in the café noticed Hwa-Young’s clumsiness and all the talking in the café vanished.

Hwa-Young looked around in the room with big eyes. It was like the hold café was pressed on pause.

Hwa-Young broke the silence, herself. She broke into a loud laugh. “What are you guys doing? Just laugh at me! Admit it, this was funny”, she grinned.

Hwa-Young looked so happy and unworried in that moment. Soon the people in the café laughed with Hwa-Young.

Between the laughs, Hwa-Young caught me gaze and grinned at me. And honestly, that grin kinda made me fall in love with her all over again.