Minhyuk carries Yooyoung in his arms as they take a stroll through the city. For the longest time stood still for Joohee. the hoping, the waiting for a miracle that would come their way seemed to be endless. All the twists and turns on their journey, the setbacks and the disappointments that followed after made time stand still. She wanted time to stand still. The further she walked, the more she realised how different things were and how much had changed over the past four years, time kept moving and for her, this meant that time was running out.

 “How are you feeling?” Minhyuk glances over his shoulders

She forces a smile, breaking her train of thoughts “It’s nice” she stares at the beach from the railing, already a few meters behind Yooyoung and Minhyuk who had ran ahead onto the sand.

Finding a place on the beach Joohee helps Minhyuk spread the blanket across on the sand. “Donggeun and Nara will be able to find us here, won’t they?”

Minhyuk tries to scope the area for the couple but couldn’t see past the sea of heads. They were sitting in front of a stage, there was a movie airing through a video projector, but only a handful of them were paying attention. Especially when there were other attractions around, food, and carnival rides, the ferris wheel that was light up with Christmas lights. “Ahjusshi” Yooyoung tugs on his sleeve “I want to go on the merry go round!”

Joohee looks over at Minhyuk who mouths to her ‘Don’t worry’ “Are you sure you can ride it?”

She puffs her chests and curls her arm into the air “I can!” she grins

He nods his head and looks over at Joohee “Did you want to wait for Nara and Donggeun? I’ll take her on a few rides first”

Joohee sighs, hesitant to leave Yooyoung’s side until the little girl trots over to her “Please mummy” she pouts

“If you get sick, you -"

“Tell Ahjusshi straight-away” she puffs her chest and imitates her mother

“Just call-”

“Call you if anything happens, I know the drill” Minhyuk looks over sheepishly at Yooyoung who's hiding behind her laugh

Joohee looks over at them, unsure and uneasy but she forces a smile.

Minhyuk salutes with his two fingers and lifts Yooyoung up into the air with his arms. “Let’s go~” they both shout in unison.

Minhyuk lets her walk by herself, her hand comfortably wrapped in his own. It’s funny how sometimes Minhyuk even finds himself barely able to keep up with her. The line for the merry go round wasn’t that long at all, it was only a five minute wait before they were admitted. “The unicorn” she chases down the horse with the extravagant horn on its head. Happily complying he lifts her onto the horse and takes the dark horse beside her. “I’ll race you ahjusshi”

Minhyuk swore when he woke up two week ago that he’d start acting more like an adult. It was hard, there wasn’t a doubt about that, but hanging around Yooyoung made it much easier.

“Was that fun?” he lifts her off her ‘noble steed’

Yooyoung nods, “Can we buy some candy floss?”

Minhyuk nods, letting her hand rest protectively in the palm of his hand.

“Joohee!”

It was Nara, panting and puffing but still smiling as she ran towards the other girl.

“Sorry we took so long, parking is harder to find that we’d imagine”

Joohee nods sympathetically at Donggeun

“Where’s Minhyuk and Yooyoung?”

“She wanted to go on the rides, and we didn’t want to lose the spot”

Nara looks down at the picnic blanket spread out neatly on the sand and almost feels guilty “You should’ve gone with them” she takes a seat beside Joohee, hand falling backwards to catch her weight. “Go” she says

Joohee looks over at her, unsure of what she meant “She’s right Joohee – Go enjoy the festival, don’t sit here and watch a movie, there’s a lot to see!”

If it wasn’t for Donggeun and Nara pushing her off the picnic blanket Joohee would’ve found it easier to resist. She wouldn’t even know where to find them. Still she gets up on her feet and pick up her shoes there were placed neatly on top of the sand. “Where will you two be?”

“Well the movie is ending in two hours, meet us back here?”

Joohee nods.

“You’re so weak ahjusshi!” Yooyoung pushes him with a lot of force.

The slight sting in his arm makes him happy, that Yooyoung could even do that. He gathers himself together, left hand grips tighter onto his right wrist and throws another punch at the target. The numbers roll in, until the final number comes up – 400.

Yooyoung stifles a giggle and composes her in time just to congratulate him.

“Yeah-yeah kiddo, remember who got you that giant bear”

He points to the white rabbit she struggled to wrap her arms around.

Minhyuk takes a glance at his watch and wonders when he should start returning. Surely the movie would be starting any time now. Still to waste a perfectly nice day at the festival to watch a movie on a beach should be a crime.

“Yooyoung-ah”

“Joohee!”

“Umma”

Minhyuk almost feels disappointed that alone time with Yooyoung was too short.

“What are you doing here? Who’s looking after the things?” Minhyuk asks

“Nara and Donggeun insisted that I enjoy the other attractions of the festival, instead of watching a movie…”

“Great” Minhyuk and Yooyoung say in unison, leaving Joohee a bit confused.

“We wanted to go on the ferris wheel, but we wanted to wait for you” Yooyoung informs Joohee, tiny hands only large enough to wrap around three of Joohee’s fingers. The other hand she uses to grab onto Minhyuk.

Joohee’s almost jealous how comfortable Yooyoung is with Minhyuk. She’s taken to him so well in such a short amount of time. They’re almost spitting images of each other, from their gestures to the way they speak. It was strange how Joohee hadn’t noticed this before - their smiles were so alike, how she likes to scrunch up her nose, and even the tiniest things like gestures and catch phrases. Joohee comes to realise that they have one thing in common too – one way or another they’ll eventually end up leaving her.

“You ok?” Minhyuk looks over at her as he helps Yooyoung into their carriage.

Joohee forces a smile, blinking away her tears. “Fine” she croaks

“Five times! Really?” Yooyoung holds onto Minhyuk’s arm in disbelief.

“Yup, I paid him in advance so we don’t have to get off, you know how short ferris wheel rides are”

Yooyoung presses her face against the glass window, staring out into the world around her. Joohee follows and Minhyuk peers over her shoulder. They can see everything from here, the beach where Nara and Donggeun are supposedly watching their movie, the wharf where the games and food bars extend to and the lights that illuminated from each and every ride. It was a beautiful view of the town below but an even better one of the skies above.

It was clearer and with fewer lights so you could see the stars. “Do you think we’ll see a falling star tonight?” Yooyoung asks

“I don’t know” Joohee answers

“If you see a shooting star, what would you wish for?” Minhyuk asks

“To have three wishes” Yooyoung grins sheepishly

 “What are they?”

Yooyoung begins to list the first two without a problem “For me to not be sick, for mum to always be happy…” she pauses, fingers placed to her chin as she tries to contemplate on her last wish.

“You don’t want to wish for a castle?”

“No” she grins “I haven’t thought of the last one just yet!”

Yooyoung falls asleep when the ferris wheel makes its third lap. It’s the gentle motion of the ferris wheel and the excitement of the entire night that tires her out. So Joohee reassures her it’s ok just to close her eyes for a second (Just a second ok! You have to wake me up when the ride finishes so we can go on more), stretches her body across her side of the ferris wheel allow her to rest her head - with Minhyuk’s jacket around her body, Yooyoung falls asleep quickly.

“She’s an energetic one” Minhyuk laughs and Joohee nods.

“Where do you think Donggeun and Nara are?” Minhyuk looks behind him, trying to spot the beach again

“Let them be, we’ve occupied their homes for longer than we should already, they need some privacy”

Minhyuk nods, and turns back around realising that this is the first time in a while he’s been this close to Joohee. Shoulders pressed up side by side and Minhyuk just wants to pull her in even closer when he sees her rub her arms for warmth. “Cold huh?” he laughs.

The air conditioning in the ferris wheel was blowing directly above them, making it rather unbearably cold, especially for someone spending thirty minutes in the carriage. Still she puts on a brave face and shakes her head which leaves Minhyuk to try and stifle a laugh. He rolls his eyes when he notices her shift in a bit closer to him to avoid the breeze blowing above her and decides to stretch his arm across the back of her chair, using his arm to shield her exposed skin from the cold.

“It’s fine…” she tries to break away only to have Minhyuk tug even harder.

“We don’t need two sick people on this road trip”

“About the road trip…” she bites her lip, eyes fixed on Yooyoung.

“I know, she’s going to get sick…” he says “But you can’t lie and tell me you’ve seen her this happy in a while, even she told me herself”

“She did?”

“Mmhm” he smiles “She said it was great seeing you smile as well”

Joohee touches her lips and notices how the edges of curve into a smile at the thought “Let’s do it…”

“Really?”

“Let’s go all the way and back…”