“What are you doing?” A sleepy voice murmured.

Yonghwa froze and quickly closed the book. “Nothing, just looking at the pictures.”

Seohyun frowned and he sighed. She always knew when he was lying. “Did you look at the Winter Album?”

“Maybe…”

She grabbed the worn book from his hands and tossed it in the trashcan before climbing back into bed. “I’ll see you tomorrow Yonghwa oppa.”

“Wait, that’s Taeyeon’s. It has all of her memories in there, why throw it out? She carried it with her everywhere.” He reached to dig it out when she got up and shot him a glare scarier than he had ever seen before.

“Don’t touch the book. It has all of her winter pictures, which are the most important to her.”

“Then that’s an even better reason to keep it.”

She pushed him out the room. “Sometimes, the most important things are better kept a secret. Goodbye oppa.”

He winced as the door slammed shut in his face. *What was so important about that book? It’s just like the millions Tae had.* That was when he realized that he needed to get that album. Seohyun must know what was in it, she must’ve been hiding something.

That night, his parents had taken Seohyun’s parents out to dinner to make sure everything was alright. He knew his next door neighbor’s precise movements. She did the same things every night, just like clockwork.

The first thing she would do was do her homework until exactly 8 Saturday night. He looked at the clock and saw that it was 7:58 and sneaked into the little pathway in between their houses.

Just like he had predicted, the light in the bedroom went off, followed by the light in the staircase turning on.

After studying, Seohyun would go downstairs for a snack (something goguma flavored) and then she would go practice the piano for a couple hours before going to bed at exactly 10:55.

He grinned to himself as the light in the kitchen turned off and a shadow moved down into the basement music room. Was it bad if he was breaking into his neighbor’s house? Probably, but he needed to see what was in the album and why both Seohyun and Taeyeon didn’t let him look at it.

Lifting up the broken window latch, he slipped inside, climbed up the stairs and grabbed the book where it was still sitting in the trash can.

“Ne umma. I’m fine. Yeah I’m practicing for that recital. My voice? Oh I’m just walking upstairs to get my piano book.” Seohyun’s voice drifted ahead of her, causing Yonghwa to panic.

He flung himself into the closet and buried himself under a pile of clothes.

Seohyun came in a few seconds later and was talking to herself. “Now where is that book? Did I leave it in my bag?” She opened the closet door and sighed at the mess. “Now I don’t even have unnie to yell at for messing up the closet.”

Yonghwa closed his eyes. Why did everything have to happen to him? That was when he felt something jabbing him in the side. It was a 400 page piano book. He poked it through the pile and hoped Seohyun didn’t see the sudden movement.

“Oh here it is. Maybe I should clean up the mess…No Seohyun stop stalling. You need to go practice. How can you even think about procrastinating? Unnie did plenty of that.”

Holding back a laugh, Yonghwa listened to her berating herself and walk out of the room. He hugged the leather-bound book to his chest and hurried into his own house.

He flopped onto his bed and started to look. The first page was of a snowman, a snowman cake, and his house. Looking at the date, he realized that it was the day he had first moved into the neighborhood.

It’s the first snowfall of the year. That counts as winter, right? Anyways, we have a new neighbor that’s finally my age! His name is Jung Yonghwa and he came from Busan. The dialect is a little different from everyone in Jeonju, but it’s not too bad. I think he’s pretty good looking for someone younger than me. I think I’ll still call him oppa though.

Yonghwa grinned. *So Taeyeon did like me as a kid* He looked at the pictures and remembered what had happened.

His dad had gotten a better job in Jeonju, so their whole family moved. The only problem was, his parents didn’t like the city atmosphere anymore. Probably because of all those old Chosun and Silla movies they watched. Personally, he didn’t like them. The way they spoke was too weird, but the action scenes were okay.

“Look outside Yonghwa, our house is one of these.” His mom called from the front of the car.

The eight year old looked out the window and frowned. “These houses are too short.”

“They’re styled like the old homes. The floors are better insulated and heated in the winter so we won’t waste so much money. Oh I think this one is ours.” His father answered and pointed at a house at the end of the street.

Yonghwa was bored. He had finished his last comic book and the cold was making it impossible to even think about falling asleep. At least the house looked warmer than the car.

He jumped out and looked around. Snow covered the ground, the trees, and every square inch of the houses. It looked like a winter wonderland.

“Come on Seohyun-a! Let’s build a snowman!”

He watched as a pretty girl around his age dragged her younger sister out into the cold.

“But unnnie! I wanted to finish my book!” The younger girl pouted as she zipped up her pink jacket.

The older girl, hair neatly tied into pigtails versus her younger sister’s pony tail, met eyes with him and grinned. “Annyeong!” she waved.

Yonghwa waved back as his parents got out of the car.

The girl walked over to them and bowed to his parents. “Annyeonghassaeyo. Are you our new neighbors?”

His mom grinned. “Yes, I am Mrs. Jung, this is Mr. Jung, and this is our son Yonghwa.”

“My name is Kim Taeyeon and this is my sister Kim Seohyun.” She beamed and turned to her sister who had arrived behind her. “Say hi Seohyun,” whispered Taeyeon a bit forcefully and helped the younger girl bow precisely 90 degrees.

“Annyeonghassaeyo.” She whispered and gave a small smile.

“Sorry about her, she’s a bit shy.”

Yonghwa nodded. “That’s okay.” Mr. Kim came out to greet his parents and help them move in. He turned back to the girls and raised an eyebrow. “Is there anything fun to do around here?”

Taeyeon snorted. “It’s a winter snow day. What else do you want for fun?”

“Well there aren’t any beaches here like in Busan. There’s noth—“ he was forced to stop when a snowball flew into his face. Shaking it off, he looked to see a giggling Seohyun with her pink mittens covered in. “Yah.” He glared at her as she ran away to help move the furniture.

“Seohyun-a! You can’t just do that to our new neigh—“ she turned around, snow falling out of her pigtails and stared at Yonghwa.

He gulped at her glare “Whoops. I was aiming at your dongsae—“ he rolled his eyes when she threw a pile of snow in his direction, a few flakes dusting his face. “Aish jinja. Do you not even know how to throw a proper snowball?”

Taeyeon shook her head, pigtails bobbing as she smiled. “I’ve never seen snow before.”

Smirking as only an eight year old can smirk, he started to pack the snow into another weapon. “You live in Korea and you’ve never seen snow before?”

“Ani, I went on vacation every time it snowed so I’ve never seen it.”

“Then how does your sister know?”

“Oh, she likes to read and there was this snow book our parents got her. Isn’t that weird?”

He shrugged. “I don’t like reading, but I don’t really care.”

Taeyeon grinned and started to copy his movements, shaping the snow into a perfect sphere. “I like taking pictures instead. I just got a new photo album. What do you like oppa?”

Leaning back, Yonghwa looked at her. “I like to sing I guess, video games, and sports. And how do you know I’m your oppa? Maybe I’m younger than you.”

“I don’t care. I’m the oldest out of all my cousins so I have lots of people calling me noona and unnie, but I’ve never been able to call anyone oppa. So you’re going to be my oppa now Yonghwa.” She spoke in a bit of a commanding tone, as she was used to being in charge. But her smile made up for all of it.

He nodded. “Okay then, I’ll be your oppa.”

Seohyun ran up to them, cheeks pink from the winter winds. “Umma made cookies unnie! Yonghwa can come too!”

Yonghwa grinned at how fast he had made 2 friends. He got up and threw the snowball up in the air, causing snowflakes to rain down on them. He perked up at the thought of cookies. “Yay! Oh and call me oppa Seohyun-a!” He noticed that she had turned bright red, but blamed it on the gust of wind that blew them all towards the door.

He ran inside and bowed to Mrs. Kim before seating himself at the table. The girls followed suit and squealed as she brought something out.

It was a plate of Christmas cookies and a pretty snowman…cake that looked too pretty to eat. Taeyeon screamed, causing everyone to back away. “Don’t move!” she yelled before running out of the room.

Yonghwa frowned and looked at Seohyun. “Is your sister always like this with food?”

She giggled and kept her hands in the air. “Unnie likes taking pictures, especially of pretty things like snowmen cake.”

Taeyeon came back with a camera in hand and snapped a photo. “Okay, now we can eat it.”

Shaking her head, Mrs. Kim cut it for them. “Don’t forget to print that out and put it in your new photo album Taeyeon-a.”

“I won’t umma!” Taeyeon her fork and ate a few chocolate pieces. “Hey let’s go build a snowman exactly like this after we eat!”

Yonghwa snorted. “You don’t even know how to make a snowball, how would you know how to make a snowman?”

“You and Seohyun will teach me, right?”

Seohyun nodded like a dutiful younger sister and he smiled. “Sure, why not.”

Yonghwa looked down at the pictures again and could almost taste the frosting he had eaten almost 8 years ago. Mrs. Kim, though he would never admit it, was a better cook than his mom. If he even voiced that thought aloud…he would probably starve and then get kicked out into the streets.

He sighed and brought the book downstairs and rummaged in the pantry for a package of cookies. There was no way he could get a snowman cake at this hour.

Wah lots of readers! keke so yeah the picture at the top will hopefully have something to do with the memory. Things in bold italics are things that Taeyeon wrote while the italics will be Yonghwa's memories and the *sentence* will be whoever's thoughts.

Comment to tell me how I'm doing! I'm kind of scared I won't be able to finish but I'll try my best and waste all of my free periods writing this but whatever.. And as always, it's not a crime to subscribe and comment (you even get karma points hint hint)

thanks so much for reading!

- chocolate-notes :)