Myungsoo stared at the notebooks Suzy compiled in front of him. The roads were frosty at that time, and everything in Suzy’s neighborhood seemed to be at a standstill. Having nothing better to do on a lazy weekend, the brothers accepted the Bae family’s invitation to have them over for the day. On the way to their house, however, Myungsoo figured out that even if they had something to do on that day, he’d rather spend his time at Suzy’s warm household.

   “You wrote all of this?” he asked, dumfounded. They were in the living room, then, while Sang Moon and Daehyun were upstairs, playing. Mr. and Mrs. Bae were still in the local supermarket, buying the necessary ingredients for lunch.

   “Yeah,” she answered, grinning broadly. “It’s cool, huh?”

   He ran his hand across the lined up spines of the bounded pages. There were forty-nine all in all, varying in thickness.

   “It’s supposed to be fifty-one notebooks,” Suzy said.

   “Where’s the other two?”

   She smiled. “One is the first story I’ve ever written. Sunggyu has it. He said he proofread it and made his own personal copy. And the second is the one I gave to you. The best one I've ever had.”

   Myungsoo smiled a little. He was very delighted to hear something like that come out from his friend's mouth. “What is it about? The first story, I mean.”

   Suzy sighed, and took the space beside Myungsoo. The both of them were staring at the blank television screen. “To be honest, I’m starting to forget what it’s about. All I remember, now, is that the girl is composed of summer while the guy is made out of winter. They’re separated by this…glass wall and when they managed to break it—when they were finally able to hold hands—they realized that they’d hurt one another because of their clashing elements.”

   “Tragic,” Myungsoo remarked.

   “I guess you could say that.”

   “How old were you when you wrote your story?”

   “I was fourteen.”

   “It’s quite remarkable.”

   Suzy scoffed. “You think?”

   He nodded. “What pushed you to write it?”

   She shrugged. “All I know is it was somewhere around that time when I realized I admired Sunggyu in that way. I couldn’t really express it verbally, so I wrote my feelings down, instead. Soon, it became that story.”

   Myungsoo kept quiet. He looked up at the bright ceiling.

   “I guess you could say even at that time, I was already contemplating about my emotions. I’ll burn him. He’ll freeze me over. And if we endure, we’d end up turning into vapor,” Suzy bit her lower lip, before adding, “I don’t want that.”

   “Sensible enough,” he said.

   She looked at him, and gently shoved her friend by the shoulder. “What about you? Have you ever felt this way towards a person before?”

   Myungsoo smirked. “Why are you girls so interested in such things?”

   “Just because.”

   He sighed, and shook his head no. “I’ve always thought that those emotions are not worth thinking about. That’s why…whenever our music teacher asks us to compose a love song, I always fail.”

   “You’ll hurt both ways,” Suzy said.

   “How can you hurt if you’re empty?” he returned.

   With this, she kept quiet. Myungsoo suddenly chuckled, and this caused her to stare at him once again. “What’s the matter?”

   “You said you were supposed to have fifty-one notebooks.”

   “That’s about right.”

   With the warm smile not fading away from his lips, he gazed at her collection. “Have I told you before, Suzy? I once named you ‘Miss 51’.”

   Her eyebrows met at the middle out of confusion. “Why that name, of all things?”

   “You were the fifty-first person I’ve called that night.”

   Suzy’s eyes slightly widened. “Myungsoo…do you usually call like that?”

   “Before? I do,” he admitted. “I was so freaking lonely back then, and all I wanted was for someone to listen to me. I guess you could say I was really desperate, considering that I was fearlessly dialing random numbers here and there.”

   “But you stopped,” she pointed out.

   “Of course I stopped,” he said. “Because I finally found someone who would listen.”

   Myungsoo nodded at her. “You.”

<:>

   “I enjoyed it very much,” Jieun said, while handing the paperback to Sunggyu.

   “That’s good to know,” he replied. He looked at her, and asked, “What do you think about it?”

   There was a pause, and she answered, “I think…the author is talking about forbidden love.”

   “Forbidden love,” Sunggyu repeated. “How interesting.”

   “The ending…is quite open-ended, though. Where the wall completely dissolved, and they just stood there, staring at each other.”

   He smiled, before placing the book in his drawer. He began to organize the folders on his desk. “If you were given the chance, how would you like the story to end?”

   Jieun bit her lower lip. “I think…it would’ve been better if they didn’t meet at all.”

   “Ah.”

   “I was never really a risk taker, Sunggyu.”

   All of a sudden, Sunye’s face flashed in front of him. He remembered why he decided to be with her in the first place. He never wanted to take the risk of chasing after Suzy.

   “That makes the two of us,” he muttered.

   “Then what about you, Sunggyu? What ending do you prefer?”

   He thought for a moment, before answering, “The glass shouldn’t have melted away in the first place. That way, the two wouldn’t have to hope of having something more. You tend to get greedy once you see an opening of something you desire. You tend to want more.”

   “Are you greedy, then?”

   “And cruel,” he added. He took three folders from the bulk, and handed it out to her. “These are the finished manuscripts. Hand it over to Woohyun. He’s in the office next door, I think.”

<:>

   “Sunshine noona,” Daehyun began, as he lifted his head from the book he was reading in Suzy’s room. “Do you remember Ai?”

   Her eyes slightly widened. “Of course I do, Daehyun. But how do you know her?”

   The young boy smiled. “Hyung helps the people in the subway whenever it gets a little difficult. He gives them food and blankets. Ai is in there.

   “She’s really smart, noona. She likes to read a lot. She has a grandpa in there, and she said she doesn’t want to go to an orphanage because of that.”

   Something seemed to break inside of Suzy. She never knew this side of Ai’s story.

   “But she was really glad because of the things you gave her. She was really smiling back then.”

   Suzy tousled Daehyun’s hair. “I’m glad she smiled.”

   Sang Moon then knocked on his older sister’s door. He poked his head into the room, and said, “Daehyun-ah, it’s time to go home.”

   “Okay,” he replied. He stood up and returned the books he took out from Suzy’s shelf. With a smile he briefly—but tightly—hugged her. She hugged him back, and patted his back twice.

   “Noona will see you again, all right?”

   “All right,” he said. “Bye-bye.”

   They let go of each other, and the young boy waved. Suzy could only grin while waving back. “Bye-bye.”

<:>

   The Bae siblings were hanging around in the living room, watching a documentary concerning third world countries.

   “Noona,” Sang Moon began. “I saw a set of photographs from the Internet before. It shows children from North Korea.”

   Suzy looked at her brother, genuinely interested as to where the conversation would lead them to.

   “It’s really sad. They’re very malnourished and there are even stories where the prisoners are heavily tortured, along with corpses of the ones who attempted to escape, floating near the border of the country,” he carried on. “Knowing that those things are happening nearby, I just can’t help but to reflect.”

   “You certainly grew up, Sang Moon,” Suzy remarked.

   He scoffed. “You think? I wouldn’t even think about it if it weren’t for Daehyun.”

   “What did he tell you?”

   “He mentioned something about the homeless people in the subway near Myungsoo hyung’s place. It was really unexpected, how that topic came out all of a sudden.”

   “Those brothers…” she muttered. “Are really something, aren’t they?”

   Sang Moon nodded in agreement. “Noona?”

   “What is it?”

   “Why don’t we help Myungsoo hyung out? Providing for the homeless, I mean. Winter’s closing in, as well.”

   “I’ve been thinking of the same thing,” Suzy admitted. “Why don’t you take care of Dad while I take care of Mom?”

   “Call,” Sang Moon said, grinning.

   “And maybe in the future, we can help more people,” she mused.

   “Or maybe even the world,” the younger one added.

   Soon, the two sat in silence, wondering just how they would approach their parents. And just how far they could go.

<:>

   Suzy was in the kitchen, together with Mrs. Bae, while Sang Moon went to the grocery store with their father. Both mother and child were preparing the ingredients to be cooked when out of the blue, Mrs. Bae asked, “What do you want for Christmas, Suzy?”

   She bit her lower lip, and said, “It might sound weird.”

   Her mother could only smile. “You’re still my daughter nonetheless.”

   “Mom,” she began gently. “There are some homeless people in Myungsoo’s area that he’s been helping out for some time now. It’s really getting cold, and Sang Moon and I are hoping that we could help, too.”

   Mrs. Bae could only stare at her daughter with sparkling eyes. “What made you think about them?”

   She shrugged. “I can’t really explain it, Mom, but I think being able to get what I want during Christmas for the past eighteen years is more than enough. This time, I want to share.

“This time,” Suzy looked at her mother. “I want to be a blessing.”

   A soft smile graced Mrs. Bae’s lips. She hugged her daughter, and said, “I’ll talk with your dad about it. Is this the reason why Sang Moon suddenly decided to go with him?”

   “Yes,” she replied with a giggle.

<:>

   Mr. and Mrs. Bae looked at each other that night. The siblings were already in their respective rooms, fast asleep.

   “Sang Moon said something earlier, and it’s a pleasant surprise,” Mr. Bae began.

   “Suzy did, too.”

   “Did they conspire?” he asked.

   “What do you expect?” she answered with a hushed chuckle. “But what they want right now is really something else.”

   Mr. Bae smiled. “I’m relieved, though. At least I know we did a good job.”

   His wife closed her eyes to ponder. “I’ve recently heard, as well, that Sunggyu’s orphanage is looking for sponsors to assist them in their charity this winter. It’s aimed at the homeless people.”

   “That could work,” he said. “Should we ask Sunggyu, as well?”

   “Let our son have some space first,” Mrs. Bae said. “He’s still adjusting in there. Let’s not burden him for now.”

   “Good point,” her husband replied. He kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll meet with the head of the orphanage tomorrow, then.”

   The couple held hands, and said a silent prayer.

<:>

   The brothers were staring up at their bedroom ceiling, where the glow-in-the-dark stars stayed. Five days had already passed since they last visited the Bae household.

   “Sunshine noona’s house is really warm,” Daehyun remarked. “I like staying in there.”

   “I like it there, too,” Myungsoo admitted.

   A smile graced the young boy’s lips. “I looked at the calendar earlier, hyung. There’s only twenty-four days left before Christmas.”

   “Are you excited?” he asked.

   “I am,” Daehyun answered.

   “What gift would you like?”

   “I’m okay with what I have,” the younger one said. “I can ask for toys, but I have loads of them already. I’m just happy I get to be with you like this, hyung. I’ve always wanted to have an older brother.”

   Something seemed to tug at Myungsoo’s heart. How Daehyun said it sounded so honest and warm. He couldn’t help but wonder how a child like him could pull out the strongest emotions Myungsoo struggled to hide.

   “Hyung,” Daehyun said, a little brighter than before. “Let’s stay together for a very, very, very long time, all right?”

   Myungsoo smiled. “All right.”

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."
- Proverbs 19:21