A night view of the Seoul Tower is shown. Its lights bright against the city's. Yet the stars brighten the winter sky without the light polluting it. The view slowly zooms in, showing a guy with red hair and a girl with black hair. We can't see their faces nor hear them, they seem to be talking to each other in whispers. Then the guy leans down and kisses the girl. The scene slowly fades, the lights becoming too bright, but all of a sudden they dim and everything plunges into darkness.

 

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

 

“Have you ever been to Seoul Tower?” a male voice is heard and from a bird's point of view we see the same couple from before. Only this time their faces are clearly shown and the girl seems to have let her hair down. In the background we notice the Seoul Tower from afar.

 

The girl mutters, “Ani,” barely opening her pale lips as the wind blows her long straight hair in a frenzy. “There's no reason enough to go up there.”

 

The guy stares at her incredulously as she gazes back at him questioningly. “You live in Seoul, yet you've never visited this landmark?”

 

“Wae...” she says instead of asking, turning away from him and sets her eyes on the high rising building they are talking about. “What's so special about it...”

 

“People say,” he starts, clearing his throat and then turning his back to the scenery. “If you write both your name and your lover's on a padlock and lock it on the terrace fences, your love would last forever.”

 

“Don't make me laugh,” the girl glares at him, something awakening in the brown of her eyes, igniting her gaze as if she could set him on fire.

 

But the guy doesn't catch this because he is not looking at her. He feels a chill down his arm though as he rubs them up and down to keep warm. “It's true. A friend of mine and his girl friend locked a padlock with a promise that they will stay true to each other forever. They have been together for almost ten years.”

 

“Your friend must be really old,” she says and faces the evening panorama of Seoul again.

 

“He is,” he chuckles at a memory that crosses his mind at that moment and smiles. “I've known him since I was small. But that's not the point.”

 

“So forever equals ten years, huh,” the girl sighs, white mist erupting from her lips and into the air in front of her. “That's quite short of ever.”

 

“Why do you have to be so skeptical when it comes to love?” he glances at her and keeps his eyes fixed on her.

 

“Because the lover's padlock thingy is just mythical crap made up by some bored person to give false hopes to gullible lovers,” she says this with a hint of anger in her words and the guy notices this.

 

“How can you say that?” he asks, his eyebrows furrowing as he tries to come up with the right words to say his thoughts out loud. “A lot of people believe in it and you call it crap?”

 

“What would you call it then?” the girl asks, still an edge to her voice. “What would you call something that you really believe in, but then it turns out that it wasn't even true after all? Your friend might be one of the few people who can keep their relationship alive, but what about the others? Do you know whether they are still together or not?”

 

“…” the guy is silenced after her outburst. He then stares straight ahead at the tower, its lights already on as the day gets darker the longer they talk.

 

“I didn't think so,” she let's out a breath, as if satisfied with his inability to answer. “See, even you're skeptical about it, you just don't want to admit it.”

 

“But that doesn't justify anything,” he says in a low voice. “Because even you don't know for sure whether it's true or not, right?”

 

This time the girl stays silent. Her cheeks suddenly turns a slight shade of pink. He sneaks a look at her and then sighs. Rubbing his hands together, he takes out a pair of gloves from the pocket of his jacket and puts them on.

 

“Anyway, I brought up Seoul Tower because there's this girl who asked me if I wanted to go up there with her tomorrow night,” he announces, keeping his eyes on the tower. “I think she wants to lock a padlock with me.”

 

The girl remains silent for a while, her expression changes a bit but we're not too sure what to make of it. “Wow, Kim SungGyu actually got asked out by a girl. So are you going?”

 

“I wasn't sure before, but now I think I will. I'll prove to you that the lover's padlock isn't just some mythical crap,” SungGyu says.

 

“So you're going to use this girl just so you can prove to me that this myth is true?” she scoffs. “That would be cheating, not to mention a jerk of an experiment.”

 

“I'm not going to use her! I just”

 

“Mwo? Are you even in love with this girl? Can't prove it if you're not in love.”

 

“Well, maybe I do love her, you don't know that!”

 

“HyunAe-noona!” a boy comes running to the arguing couple. His eyes in the shape of upside down crescent moons, his short black hair blowing in the wind, and his mouth in an awkward smile. “SungGyu-hyung!”

 

The girl, now we know her as HyunAe, smiles at the sight of the boy. “Oh, Myungs. You done with band practice?”

 

“Eo,” Myungs nods as he comes to a stop in front of SungGyu and HyunAe. Then he gave the two a squinting look. “Don't tell me you two were arguing again.”

 

SungGyu says, “Ani,” but HyunAe continues, “We were.” Both of them give each other an annoyed look and Myungs just chuckles at the exchange, shaking his head.

 

SungGyu then turns his attention to Myungs, “So, how was band practice, MyungSoo?” This lets us know that Myungs is most probably a petname and his real name is MyungSoo. It could also be a hint that HyunAe is close enough to him to call him that.

 

“As usual,” MyungSoo responds, shrugging and then links arms with HyunAe. “Noona, I'm hungry. Fix me a nice pot of hot ramyeon and eggs when we get home?”

 

“Anything for my dongsaeng,” HyunAe replies affectionately making it clear to us that their relationship is sister and brother. “Let's go then.”

 

“Aren't you going to invite me along?” SungGyu pouts, but has a 'not that it really matters to me if you ask me or not' expression on his face.

 

HyunAe shakes her head, “Ani. Chalga.”

 

“Well, it wasn't like I wanted to eat your soggy ramyeon anyway!” SungGyu calls out as the two siblings walk away from him chuckling.

 

The neighborhood is shown from various angles as the day comes to a close. Then the camera settles on the sight of the two siblings again as they converse.

 

MyungSoo asks, “So what were you guys arguing about?”

 

“Nothing much,” HyunAe shrugs. “SungGyu just wanted to brag about a girl who asked him out.”

 

“You know SungGyu-hyung likes you, right?” he looks at his sister with a look of disbelief.

 

“Ara, I know,” she says.

 

“Wait not just like, but he loves you,” he goes on, watching her with anticipation.

 

“Ara.”

 

“And you love him too, right?”

 

“…”

 

“I don't get why it's so hard for you two to admit that you love each other!” MyungSoo says exasperatedly, raising his hands in the air for emphasis.

 

“Love doesn't work that way,” she gives him a sideway glare.

 

“Yes it does.”

 

“For other people, possibly, ne.”

 

“Well how are you two so different then?”

 

“I'm not, it's him. He's not like those other people.”

 

“I'm surprised you didn't say it the other way around,” MyungSoo tilts his head to one side and then shoves his hands into his pockets. “Anyway, aren't you going to stop him?”

 

“Stop him? Wae?”

 

“Because he was clearly asking you to.”

 

“He didn't say such a thing,” HyunAe scoffs.

 

MyungSoo sighs, “Of course he wouldn't be able to tell you that directly. Because he wants you to do it on your own accord.”

 

“So.”

 

“So stop him if you love him, noona.”

 

“...”

 

“Noona, are you goi”

 

“Shut up, Myungs.”

 

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

 

Sunlight streams into a room from a window where its curtains are halfway open. Just next to the window is a clean and tidy desk with a chair. HyunAe comes into view, she is sitting on a bed with a blanket around her shoulders despite the weather. She seems to be in deep thought. But we don't know what she is thinking about because her face shows no trace of emotion whatsoever.

 

We guess that she is probably thinking about SungGyu. But that is only our guess, she might as well be thinking of something that has nothing to do with him at all. The door suddenly opens and MyungSoo's head sticks out from the gap.

 

“Noona.”

 

She looks up at her brother but still shows no sort of expression whatsoever.

 

“You're troubled,” he states, clearly knowing his sister well enough to read her mind. “Why don't you just go now?”

 

HyunAe stares straight at her brother for a while, then she gets up which brings a smile to MyungSoo's face. He opens his mouth to say something but she speaks up first. “We ran out of ramyeon last night, right? I'll go buy us some more.”

 

“Nooonaaaaaaa!!!”

 

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

 

HyunAe is seen walking leisurely along a road, with her jacket on it appears that she plans to take her time in reaching the destination. But we see that she carries no bag with her so it must mean that she doesn't plan to go anywhere far. Yet only now we can finally see her true feelings shown on her face. Her eyebrows are knit together creasing the area between them, and her lower lip is pulled in by her front teeth. She is obviously worried. She lets out a heavy sigh and looks at her watch, it is almost 6pm. Shaking her head, she inhales deeply and her expression is blank again.

 

We are not entirely sure what she has made up in her mind, but the more steps she takes in front of her the more her facade falters. Her decision is crumbling and she knows it because she keeps wanting to push away her feelings from showing on her face. Abruptly, she stops and drops her head. She stands in place for a full minute and the moment she lifts up her head we know that she is now determined to do something. Then her legs took a giant step and in no time she was already running down the road at full speed.

 

“Kamsahamnida, please come again~” says a voice and the scene quickly changes to a convenience store.

 

HyunAe bows her head slightly as she takes the plastic bag handed to her and then exits the store. The camera is zoomed in to show the contents of the bag she was holding. It is full of cup ramyeon and a few other packs of ramyeon. We come to understand that she is a person who is quite indecisive even when it comes to choosing ramyeon.

 

As she walks out into the street, she glances at her watch which tells her it is half past six. She sighs and sees something out of our view but then the camera shifts and we realize that her gaze is fixed on a certain car. A taxi. She watches it for a while more and then as it drives past her, her eyes also follows it. Sighing again, HyunAe takes out her purse and heads straight towards the side of the street.

 

Fast passing scenery from outside a moving vehicle is shown. HyunAe is riding in the taxi that she was watching earlier. She looks more calm and peaceful now, no worry lines her facial features in any way. But something outside the window makes her expression change even in the slightest, we can see a difference. It is snowing, and as if because of the snow she seems more assured, more confident, of what we do not know. Her destination tells us everything though, the taxi comes to a halt at a very familiar site.

 

HyunAe pays her fare and then gazes at the tower that stands at 480 meters from the ground. View of the tower is then moved to the cable cars that lead up the tower itself. Then the camera changes the sight of the tower and its surroundings from many different angles. From this we can see the beautiful scenery of Seoul city and the people that have come to visit the place. There are a lot people considering that night is slowly enveloping the soul of Asia.

 

This makes it difficult for HyunAe to find the person she is looking for. Her eyes search the sea of faces as soon as she gets off the cable car. The first place she goes to is the terrace. It is the only place where couples are the only people we can identify. Everyone is lovey dovey with each other except a certain couple which catches HyunAe's attention. A guy with red hair and a girl with black hair. She has her hair up in a pony tail, making her face clearly visible to us. It dawns on us that the girl shown earlier in the story is not HyunAe afterall.

 

They seem to be talking to each other in whispers. Then the guy leans down as HyunAe puts her right leg out. She gasps, her eyes widening but then she relaxes as she sees that SungGyu is merely removing snow from the girl's jacket collar. The girl is upset by this because we can see that she is pushing him away from her, after a few muted words she storms off. SungGyu sighs slowly and turns to go the other way when he notices HyunAe. His eyes light up at the sight of her, very much the opposite of the way he had been looking at the other girl.

 

“HyunAe...” he mouths though we cannot hear him.

 

HyunAe then nears him and gestures toward the direction where the girl had left. “What was all that about.”

 

SungGyu chuckles at her statement of a question. “None of your business,” he smiles, eyes disappearing. “What brings you here?”

 

“None of your business,” she mimics and then turns to leave but SungGyu grabs her arm before she could take another step.

 

“HyunAe...” he says, his voice soft yet deep. “Did you come here to...?”

 

HyunAe sighs loudly and faces him, “Looks like I didn't have to do anything afterall. Good thing the girl is cleverer than you.”

 

She turns to leave again but SungGyu is still holding her arm. “Wait, what do you mean?”

 

“The girl is obviously smart enough not to fall for your jerk of an experiment. I'm glad she holds on to her pride more than her feelings for you.”

 

“Mwo? That's why you're here? To stop her from wanting to experiment this padlock myth with me? You're not here because y–”

 

“Mwo? What did you think I'm here for?” HyunAe looks straight into his brown orbs and waits.

 

The sound of the crowd and the city suddenly gets too loud. Then SungGyu shakes his head and lets go of her arm. “It's...nothing...nothing...”

 

“Chalga,” she says and begins to walk away when SungGyu abruptly appears right in front of her blocking her way.

 

“HyunAe, tell me the truth,” he says, his gaze stern and hard on HyunAe's expressionless face. “Why are you here? Really.”

 

“Really?” she repeats, and he nods in response. “I'm here to stop the girl from getting hurt by your useless experiment. But apparently she avoided it without my help so I'm no longer needed here, so if you could just let me throu–”

 

He whispers, “Geojitmal, lies,” barely loud enough for her to hear. “Why are you even skeptical of your own feelings, HyunAe?”

 

“Then why are you doing the same thing?”

 

Her words made him speechless. He blinks multiple times before closing his open mouth. Silence is almost impossible at a place with so many people but the silence between them is real and it drags.

 

“If you really want to prove that crappy myth to me,” HyunAe breaks the awkwardness and averts her eyes. “Then why don't you just ask me to do it with you. At least that way I could probably start believing it.”

 

SungGyu is stunned by her words again. It is crystal clear on his face that he is taken by absolute surprise yet there is a trace of happiness as his lips curve up into a shy smile. “HyunAe...are you actually confessing to me?”

 

“What are you talking about.” she glares at him and then starts to walk away again. “I'm only suggesting this so you won't be a jerk to other girls.”

 

“HyunAe...” he chuckles and tries to stop himself from laughing any louder. “You know what that means, right?”

 

“Ara, I know...” she looks at him over her shoulder for a moment and then moves farther away from him. “So if you don't want to try it with me, better find someone who actually loves you.”

 

“Wait!”

 

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

 

A night view of the Seoul Tower is shown. Its lights bright against the city's. Yet the stars brighten the winter sky without the light polluting it. The view slowly zooms in, showing a guy with red hair and a girl with black hair. It is pretty much the same view from the start of the story, the only difference being the girl with long straight hair. We can't see their faces nor hear them, they seem to be talking to each other in whispers. Then the guy leans down and with a click, locks a padlock on the terrace fence. The scene slowly fades, the lights becoming too bright, but all of a sudden they dim and everything comes into focus again.

 

A red padlock in a shape of a heart is shown with two names written on it with a permanent black marker.

 

SungGyu ❤ HyunAe

Experimenting love since

16.1.2013