“But, why?  Why do you have to leave?” Seul Mi asked with a childlike pout on her face.  Too young to understand why her friend would have to move away, she felt sadder than ever before.

           “I have to go live with my dad for a while now.  He lives down south.  Near Busan, I never see him, so now I will go live with him,” Kwangmin answered, shrugging his slender shoulders.  He, too, felt terrible about leaving his very best friend.  Kwangmin’s figure blurred as Seul Mi’s eyes filled with tears.  “Don’t cry,” he mumbled.  His attempt at wiping away her tears with his fingertips only made the tears fall faster.  He pulled his friend in for a close hug.  “Seul Mi, please stop.  Don’t be sad.  My brother is going to come live here with my mom while I’m with my dad.  Maybe you could be friends with him,” Kwangmin suggested.

            Seul Mi shook here head, still clinging to him. 

            “Come on,” he urged.  His hands rubbed her back soothingly.  “You could try.  He’s my twin.  We’re practically the same.”

            “Not the same,” she muttered.  “You’re my best friend.  No one is like you,” she added, peering up at him.  He laughed lightly.

            “Well, if anyone could come close, it would be him," he joked.  She swatted at his arm.  "Ok, just try to be friends with him.  He’s cool.  Really.”  He poked her lightly in the side.  Against her will, she giggled.

            Kwangmin moved in with his father and Youngmin came to live with his mother.  At first, Seul Mi avoided Youngmin.  He wasn’t Kwangmin even if they did look nearly exactly alike.  She missed her friend.  Her friend was Kwangmin, not this new replacement.

            Eventually though, Seul Mi warmed up to Youngmin after remembering her promise to Kwangmin.  And Youngmin was a nice guy.  He and Seul Mi did become friends.  It was an odd friendship though.  Youngmin liked Seul Mi just fine.  She was sweet and cute and fun to be around, as was Youngmin, but Seul Mi couldn’t get Kwangmin out of her head.  It was a completely impossible fate considering the brothers’ likeness.  However, their physical appearance is where their similarities end. 

            Their personalities were polar opposites.  Youngmin didn’t do anything the way Kwangmin did.  And Seul Mi couldn’t get over it.  She couldn’t help but point out that fact every time it popped into her head.  Likes, dislikes, habits, traits.  Youngmin did this, but Kwangmin did that.  Youngmin liked this, but Kwangmin hates it.  Youngmin reacts like this.  Kwangmin would never do that.

            That aside though, Seul Mi and Youngmin became close friends.  They had a lot in common and went well together.  Seul Mi was just so caught up in comparing Youngmin to his brother, she was blind to that one fact.

            Seul Mi giggled as her character on the video game won the race yet again.  Glancing over at Youngmin, he was frowning with his eyes still glued to the screen.

            “I win,” she informed him, teasingly.

            He turned to face her and narrowed his eyes at her.  “I see that,” he pouted.  She reached over and poked his protruding lower lip.

            “Don’t pout.  Kwangmin doesn’t pout,” she told him.

            He heaved a heavy sigh and slumped back against the couch.  “Thank you, I know Kwangmin doesn’t pout.  I was just kidding with you,” he grumbled.

            A sudden silence moved in.  Seul Mi’s smile faded a little.

            “Do you want to play again?” she asked.

            “No, you’ve beat me enough for one day,” he replied, letting his controller fall to the floor and using the remote to switch the TV from game output to just TV.  A movie was on.

            Seul Mi made herself comfortable next to him to watch the movie she assumed he wanted to watch.  But Youngmin was watching her.

            “It’s been years, do you still miss him that much?” he wondered aloud.

            Her eyes flickered away from the TV screen for a second before turning her whole body to face him.  She shrugged casually.  “He was my best friend.  Yes, I still miss him sometimes.”

            “Do I remind you of him?”  Youngmin’s tone wasn’t questioning.

            Seul Mi felt her cheeks flush a little.  “You’re twins,” was her only answer at first.  Youngmin laughed lightly.  “You and Kwangmin are nothing alike.”

            “You say that like it’s a bad thing.  Every time you point out our differences, you make it sound like he’s so perfect and everything about me is wrong.”  He bit down on his tongue.  He hadn’t meant for his tone to get so accusing.  He was bitter, but he didn’t want to start a fight.

            “Oh!” she sounded, sitting upright a little.  “No, no, Youngmin.  I’m sorry.  I never meant it like that.  It isn’t a bad thing and nothing you do is wrong.  You’re just different.  You and him.”  She shrugged.  “I miss him.”

            So you’ll never see me, Youngmin said mentally.  Instead, he just smiled and nodded.  Giving her a playful shove, he focused back on the movie he didn’t actually care about.

            A couple weeks later, Youngmin invited Seul Mi to go to the movies with him.  It was the first weekend after they finished their junior year of high school.  It was now the first week of summer.  His feelings for Seul Mi were bubbling up inside him more often these days and it only added to his irritation when she would mention his brother.

            Especially after he found out the news from his mother.

            Youngmin waited just inside the cinema for Seul Mi to arrive.  A smile immediately turned the corners of Youngmin’s mouth up when he saw Seul Mi hurry through the doors.  She looked so cute in his eyes.  She shouldered her purse and smoothed her hands down her knee length summer dress as she shuffled over to where he stood.  She was excited to see her friend.  He’d been acting a bit weird lately.  She couldn’t figure it out.  He wouldn’t talk to her about it.

            “Sorry,” she breathed.  “Were you waiting long?”

            Youngmin blinked, trying to turn his ability to speak back on.  “No, not long.”

            “When Kwangmin and I used to meet, he’d always be late.  I got used to not having to rush,” she recalled with a giggle.

            Youngmin’s shoulders slumped.  “Kwangmin, of course,” he muttered.  “Come on, let’s go.”  He turned and practically marched over to the ticket counter.

            “Youngmin!” Seul Mi called to him, chasing after him.  He kept walking until she caught his arm and tugged him around to face her.

            “Are you mad at me?  You’ve been really weird lately, you know.”  He looked into her eyes.  She looked concerned, but all he could think was that she only saw Kwangmin when she looked at him.  She only cared about the one person in the world who looked exactly like him, but was nothing like him.

            “I’m not mad,” he answered flatly.  Her hand was still on his arm.

            “Why are you like this?” she pressed.  “You look mad.”  Before he could reply, she crossed her arms over her chest and mumbled, “At least Kwangmin would talk to me.”  That was it.  Youngmin couldn’t take it anymore.

            “Kwangmin, Kwangmin, Kwangmin!” he blurted out, flailing his arms and not caring if other people were looking.  “I am so sick of you talking about my brother!  I’m not him.  Our personalities aren’t anything alike.  We have different tastes and hobbies and everything!  I feel like you only became friends with me to replace him!”

            Seul Mi’s eyes widened and rounded.  “Youngmin, I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

            “You are forever talking about him.  Thinking about him.  ‘Oh, Kwangmin wouldn’t say that.’  ‘Kwangmin doesn’t like that.’  ‘Kwangmin does it like this.’  ‘Kwangmin does this.’  I am Youngmin!  You look at me and you only see him!”  Youngmin sighed and shook his head, but his eyes were still on fire.  He closed the distance between them and placed his hands on her shoulders.  “Well, you know what?  I know something Kwangmin wouldn’t do,” he whispered almost in a growl.

            She opened to question him, but he leaned in, covering with his before any words could come out of .  He kissed her right there in the middle of the cinema.

            And he was right.  Kwangmin would have never done that.  As Seul Mi’s eyes fluttered shut and Youngmin pulled her against his body, her heart raced.  And it all became quite clear.

            Seul Mi missed Kwangmin.  She missed her friend.  Youngmin was different.  What she felt for Youngmin was different.  She’d never felt like this for Kwangmin and she’d never even thought of it, but she realized then that this felt right with Youngmin.

            It would never have even crossed her mind to kiss Kwangmin like this.

            Youngmin pressed a few more quick kisses to before pulling away completely.  His eyes wide and his face a little flushed.

            “I’m moving back with my dad, Seul Mi,” he confessed.

            Seul Mi blinked rapidly.  “W-What?”

            He reached out and pushed some hair behind her ear.  “Our parents talked and they thought enough time has gone by and that we should switch again.  I’ll go back to live with my dad and Kwangmin will move back in with Mom.”  He shrugged, an almost hopeless expression on his face.  “Kwangmin is coming back.  Aren’t you happy?”

            “This is how you wanted to do this?” she demanded, her voice low with anger.  “You kiss me and then tell me you’re leaving?”

            “I didn’t know what else to do.  I found out yesterday, but I’ve liked you for so long, I figured I would just kiss you.  If you hated me for it, I was leaving anyway and you’d have Kwangmin back.”

            Her eyes narrowed as she studied him.  It really hadn’t occurred to him that his actions would have any other outcome.  He did, however, look a little sheepish just then after hearing his explanation with his own ears.

            “And what if I didn’t hate you?” she asked.  Youngmin blinked in reply.  “What if you kissing me just made me realize you were right?  Everything about you and Kwangmin is different.  Including my feelings?”

            “Seul Mi,” he said shaking his head.  “I didn’t think it-”

            “You’re right.  You didn’t think,” she cut him off.

            Unsure of what came over her, she then turned and bolted from the cinema.

            Seul Mi paced in front of her yard.  Her parents were at work and Youngmin asked to see her.  For the last time.  Today, this morning, he was leaving.  She’d been so mad at him since that day at the cinema, she hadn’t spoken to him for days.  Nearly two weeks to be exact.  But Youngmin asked her, pleaded, to let him say goodbye before he left.

            And before Kwangmin came.  Glad to have her friend back, but sad to lose the first boy she’d really liked, Seul Mi was torn.  And aggravated.

            She turned to pace the length of the sidewalk that ran from her front door to the street, she froze.

            “Kwangmin!” she chirped.  He grinned and continued his stroll over to her.  She clapped her hands and hugged him tight when he reached her.

            Her excitement at reuniting with her old friend slightly dampened by the pang of wanting to see Youngmin that she felt in her chest.

            “Kwangmin, I missed you!  You look good!” she told him, stepping back to get a good look at him.  He smiled.

            His smile was the one thing Seul Mi realized wasn’t like his brother’s.  Well that and the hair, but that aside, his smile.  Seul Mi smiled brighter thinking of Youngmin’s smile.  Not allowing herself to get sad thinking that he may have already left without saying goodbye to her.

            “You do too,” he told her with a nod.  “You look happy.”

            “I do?” she questioned.

            “Yeah, your face.  Your eyes,” he explained oddly then shrugged his shoulders.  “You just look happy.”

            Some timing, she thought miserably, but laughed it off.

            “So are you happy to be back with your mom?” she wondered.

            “Sure, yeah, I missed my mom.  I’m a little sad to leave my dad and I’m really sad my brother and I can’t live together like brothers, but…” his voice trailed off and he chuckled awkwardly.

            “Ah…” Seul Mi sounded.  She looked away from Kwangmin’s eyes.  “Speaking of your brother, he said he wanted to say goodbye to me, did he already…”

            Kwangmin said nothing until she finally looked back at him.  He was frowning.

            “He told me what happened between you and him,” he stated.  Seul Mi’s eyes fell to the ground again.  “Do you like him?”  She nodded.  “More than me?”

            “It’s different, Kwangmin,” she answered quietly.

            “We’re twins.”

            She smiled lightly and looked him in the eye.  “It’s not the same.”  He nodded.

            “But we’re still friends, right?  We’ll still be friends?”  His voice held traces of sincere concern.  Seul Mi rushed forward and hugged him tightly again.

            “Kwangmin, you were always my best friend!” she assured him.

            He patted her warmly on the back and stepped out of her embrace.

            “Just checking,” he said cryptically as he took a few steps backwards.  Seul Mi stepped forward.  Why was he leaving?

            Just then, from the twins’ mother’s house across the street, Youngmin came jogging over.

            “Youngmin!” Seul Mi squeaked, excitedly running to meet him on the sidewalk.  She charged into his arms, forgetting all about being mad at him before and reveling in the comforting feeling of being able to say goodbye to him.  “You didn’t leave without saying bye.”

            “I’m not saying bye,” he told her, glancing over at his brother standing off to the side.  Kwangmin arched an eyebrow.  “Mom didn’t tell you?  Dad didn’t tell me either.”  Seul Mi moved out of his embrace, but he left an arm around her shoulders.

            “What are you talking about?” Kwangmin asked curiously.

            Youngmin squinted and pointed to an approximate spot in the distance down the street.  “That house way down there on the corner of this street?  Dad bought it.  He’s moving to Seoul, into this area.  Mom and Dad aren’t getting back together, but they decided it wasn’t right to keep us apart.  We’re brothers, we’re supposed to be together.  Mom just told me.”

            Seul Mi clapped excitedly as she moved out of the way so the twins could share a celebratory hug.

            With one more hug to Seul Mi, Kwangmin ran back to his mother’s house to talk to his parents.  Leaving Youngmin and Seul Mi alone.

            “Youngmin…” she began, a little embarrassed.

            “You’re sorry for being mad at me?” he guessed, teasingly.

            She nodded.

            “You’re sorry for running away from me and not speaking to me?”

            She nodded.

            “And you’re sorry for comparing me to Kwangmin all this time?”

            She nodded again.

            “You’ll let me kiss you all over to make up for it?”

            She nodded before fully realizing what he said.  She froze and swatted at him.

            “Youngmin!” she pouted, feeling her face grow warm.  He laughed.

            “I really like you, Seul Mi.  I was hoping you’d be my girlfriend.  I understand you and Kwangmin are good friends, but me and you…”  He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans, suddenly feeling shy at what he was saying.

            “It’s not the same,” she finished for him.  “He’s my best friend, but you…”  She came closer and pushed up onto her tiptoes to plant a quick kiss to his lips.  “You’re my boyfriend.”

For: Blossy

By: ZoE aka ret097