Today is my birthday, was the first thing NiMa thought after opening her eyes this morning...
Today I will be 21!
NiMa was excited about her party, she couldn’t wait for the evening, when her friends would come over to celebrate...
Today was the day that she was wanted to tell YeSung about her feelings for him.
She would make it easy for him, if he had been too shy to tell her, he wouldn’t be after today...

Although NiMa was excited, she felt there was something not right too...
She knew it was because of DaMae, but she tried hard to ignore the feeling, so it would hurt less.
It was obvious that DaMae cared more for her own feelings than that of her best friend.
It was possible DaMae didn’t even think of NiMa as her best friend anymore...
Who could know?
Surely ChangMin was the reason their friendship failed...
If he had never showed up, DaMae would never have gotten absorbed into ChangMin’s world.

The most ironic maybe, NiMa had foreseen ChangMin was no good.
DaMae wouldn’t listen though...

NiMa closed her closet.
This should be it...
A red, sleeveless shirt with ruffles beneath and a low cut décolleté.
Underneath that a pair of black skinny jeans and high heeled, red / black sandals.
Dress to impress, that should be the saying!
After taking a shower she put on her clothes and started to pin her hair up.
Then her door was being opened.
A disappointed BoMi appeared.
‘I was hoping to find you still asleep!’ BoMi exclaimed...
‘Why?’
‘I wanted to bring you breakfast! The only time I was going to do that for you this year... Now I won’t do it the whole year!’ BoMi grinned and stuck out her tongue...
The next moment she was gone, leaving the door open.
‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY!’ BoMi’s loud voice sounded from the stairs she was descending.
NiMa sighed with a smile, her little sister was being so energetic, it was still early in the morning...
BoMi seemed excited for something too.

~ Meanwhile at DaMae’s house... ~

DaMae awaked with a heavy feeling...
Today was NiMa’s birthday, but DaMae wasn’t coming to her party.
She did every year, from kindergarten till now.
This would be the first year they didn’t celebrate it together...
Yesterday evening DaMae had send NiMa an email to explain everything, but she had gotten no email back yet.
It was difficult, but DaMae wouldn’t sit and cry, she was going to spend the day with ChangMin...

DaMae went downstairs to eat some breakfast.
When she took the teapot from the cooking-range DongJae came walking into the kitchen...
It was really early for his doing.
Normally he would get up as late as he wanted or as his alarm clock allowed.
In the weekends he would sleep all morning...
‘Wow, you forgot what day it is? It’s Saturday, you can go back to sleep!’ DaMae joked as she was filling her mug with tea.
DongJae grinned and gave his sister a hug.
‘AISH! Watch out! I’m spilling tea on the table!’ DaMae yelled, a bit shocked about his sudden weird behavior...
‘Good morning to you too!’ DongJae smiled.
He was in a way better mood than usual...
Something was up, and he was really excited about that, she could tell...

~ At NiMa’s house... ~

When NiMa came downstairs a delicious smell entered her nose.
Her umma was baking a cake.
‘Happy birthday sweet heart!’ She greeted taking off her oven mitts.
‘Kamsahamnida!’ NiMa said smiling.
‘Sit, sit, have a bite of the cake!’ Her umma started rushing her into a chair...
Then her appa entered the kitchen with a folded news paper in his hands.
‘Smells good!’ He complimented his wife.
‘Then sit down too! I was about to give some to NiMa!’
Appa gave NiMa a kiss on her forehead.
‘Happy birthday, my oldest daughter, you are a grown up now... We expect you to make wise choices and be a respectful lady. Just like your umma and I have tried to raise you.’
NiMa nodded.
This was one of the few times her appa spoke in an educational way to her.
Her appa was a teacher at a primary school, but never really treated his own children in an educational way.
His wife had taken the responsibility mostly to herself...

‘Mashiso!’ NiMa said after taking a bite from her slice of cake...
Both her umma and appa were smiling at her.
‘Where is BoMi?’ NiMa asked, suddenly remembering the family wasn’t complete with three people...
‘She went out...’ Her umma said.
‘She wanted to go to the mall, she said, she wanted to buy something’.
Probably forgot to buy a present, NiMa thought...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BoMi’s POV:

I looked everywhere in my closet, but there was nothing suitable for the date...
I even attempted to search NiMa’s closet, but unfortunately she was already awake...

Isn’t the bus coming?
Late again, eh?
I should get my drivers license quickly!
This endless waiting makes me anxious, it’s bad for a person to have to endure this!
Ah, finally there comes the bus...

Eh, another reason to get my own car, there’s so many smelly people at the bus...
If someone comes to sit next to me who doesn’t smell nice, I feel like using my deodorant on them.

Happily for me, at the next stop I will leave the bus!
Then it’s clothes shopping...
It’s my sister’s birthday and I’m giving myself presents, paying for them too though...
Oops! I haven’t bought my sister her present yet!
Then I’ll buy that too!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NiMa was looking at her watch...
The morning had passed very quickly and it was noon for quite some time now.
Since NiMa had unwrapped all the presents given to her by her family, prepared the last things for her party and checked the time frequently, there was nothing for NiMa to do anymore...
NiMa was getting impatient, she had to find something to do to kill the time before her party was going to start...
Her friends would be there around 8:00 p.m.
Still 5 hours before she would see YeSung...
NiMa decided to write a new chapter to her story, she had just started writing a love story, waiting for YeSung gave her inspiration...

________~END OF CHAPTER 29~________