( ❋ )
message in a bottle

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Yeonhee walked slowly along the riverbed, her hand intertwined with her best friend Luhan's. They had been best friends ever since Kindergarten when they were paired up by the teacher for a jigsaw puzzle challenge. Strange, I know. But they fit together just like that jigsaw right away. They'd sit together everyday, laugh at every joke they made — witty or not, share each other's lunches. It was natural of them to do everything — and when I say that, I mean everything — together.

High school came and although females' views of boys changed, Yeonhee's never did. They still faithfully sat together, and would chat about all sorts of things. Sometimes, she'd fangirl over Super Junior while Luhan loyally listened, although he wasn't too interested himself. They would go everywhere together and would always buy ice creams — strawberry for Yeonhee and mango for Luhan, it never changed — everyday after school. Ahjummas and ahjussis, and even the younger ones such as their schoolmates, would look on jealously and fawn over the perfect couple, although they were convinced they were 'just friends'.

Yeonhee wasn't too sure herself. But she went along with it. Every time a kind ahjussi would tell them they were the perfect couple and he wished he and his wife were like that, Luhan would just grin and say, "Oh no, we're just friends." Yeonhee would smile too, nodding along, but inside she cringed bitterly and her heart would twist and tear into a thousand pieces.

It would mend soon after though, when Luhan looked down at her and shot her a heart-stopping smile only seconds later, with Yeonhee fanning herself inside.

Now, Luhan was leaving. Her faithful best friend of 14 years, a fresh graduate from the Daeyoung High School, had gone to study law in a prestigious Chinese university that had offered him a scholarship, which he gladly accepted.

Yeonhee of course didn't get one; she wasn't smart enough for top universities.

"Yeon." Luhan's voice was calm. "I took you to the Han River for a reason. I want to show you something."

Yeonhee just silently nodded as tears streamed down her pale face. She was still clueless as to why Luhan wanted to leave her. Why he chose a university in China... so far away from her. Why didn't he just choose a really good Korean university? Even Busan, which was on the other side of South Korea, was fine compared to China.

"My father showed me this when I was young." Luhan explained softly. "I come back all the time. When I have a confession, when I'm depressed, when I need to pour it all out. I call it message in a bottle." He rummaged in his MCM backpack, the one that Yeonhee had gotten him for his 19th birthday, finally pulling out a small glass bottle and a piece of slightly crinkled notebook paper, which Yeonhee immediately recognised as one of the pages from his maths notebook. "All it takes is a piece of paper and a glass bottle."

Yeonhee raised an eyebrow. "What are you going to do? Smash the bottle with paper?"

Luhan just smiled, stifling a laugh at Yeonhee's ridiculous statement. "You'll see, Yeon."

He took another piece of paper and a glass bottle, identical to the other — except Yeonhee noticed with her sharp eyes that there was a pink label on the bottle marked with his signature messy handwriting, perhaps in permanent marker. She couldn't exactly read it though, and it looked like Luhan was keeping it at a fair distance away from her deliberately so she couldn't read it.

"That one's yours." He gestured to the first bottle and paper, making sure to keep his bottle out of sight. "This is what you do, my pabo. Grab a pen and write anything on this paper; anything you want to confess or let someone random know, maybe if you want to pour something out of your heart." He threw a pen at her, keeping one for himself and demonstrating, but Yeonhee still could not see the writing on the label, no matter how much she craned her neck.

She nodded and thought for a moment, then after some pondering, she put her pen to the paper. All the words flowed out immediately. Her feelings graced the paper as her pen slid neatly over the blank lines.

Suddenly, she narrowed her eyes. "Luhan. Where does this go?" She definitely didn't want Luhan to read this; why, she was embarrassed at even the thought of him reading it.

"Of course I'm not reading it," he said hastily with a grin, reading Yeonhee's mind. "No, silly. It goes into this bottle, you pop the cork on it, and just throw it into the water." 

Yeonhee gasped. "Really? But then you'll lose it!"

Luhan gazed at her with an amused expression on his face. "I knew you were dumb, but I definitely didn't think you were this dumb." At this, Yeonhee pouted and punched him playfully. "Aish, Luhan."

"Pabo, you're supposed to lose it, that's the thing. Like you're letting your thoughts out. Confessing to the world. One day, it will wash up on a random shore, maybe in Timbuktu —" he laughed at this thought "— and someone might find it and read it. Of course, they won't know who you are, unless you put your name. They won't know what on earth you're talking about." He gave her a genuine warm smile that made Yeonhee fangirl. Oh gosh, she swooned in her head. She pinked and looked away.

"Okay then, I'm ready," Yeonhee said nervously. She slipped the notebook paper into the glass bottle, and slid the cork in easily, fiddling with her fingers anxiously.

"Great," Luhan sent her another heart-stopping grin, "I'm done too. We'll throw ours in together, yeah? Ready, set, go!" Yeonhee squealed as she threw the bottle into the water, making a loud splash.

"Did you like that, Yeon?" Luhan stared at her seriously. "I really hope you did. I wanted to share this with my best friend so much." Yeonhee winced as the pain of the words 'best friend' hit her again and shattered her heart. She stared into silence for a few seconds, letting out an inaudible sigh as she rested her arms on her cheeks.

"Yeonhee?" asked Luhan when he heard no reply. "Yeon? Yeeeooooon? Hellooooo?" he asked, waving his arms in front of her face in an attempt to catch her attention. Still there was no reply. He sighed. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, then suddenly —

"YAH! IM YEONHEE! Get down here right now! I will never forgive you for this!" Luhan yelled angrily with a hint of laughing, a furious but absolutely adorable expression gracing his face. "You push me into the river? Take this, you pabo!" He got up onto the banks of the river and grabbed Yeonhee by surprise, pulling her by her ankles into the river.

"Yah!" she pouted, splashing water at him as he did so back. They laughed and played around like small children, reminding her of the times when they were in Kindergarten and played childish games like this. She reminisced in bliss, then suddenly flinched as a huge wave of water splashed at her. "LUHAN!"

Hours passed and soon it got dark. Luhan's flight to Beijing would be in an hour. Yeonhee's expression darkened as she thought about letting her dear Luhan go. She thought about her life with Luhan, recalling the times when they played pranks on other classmates, fed each other lunch once and even once landed on top of each other after being pushed. She saddened, tears b her eyes, as a single crystal-clear tear rolled down her pale cheek. Her hands did not fly to her face to wipe the tear; she left it there.

Yeonhee felt Luhan caressing her face, wiping her tears, gazing at her adoringly. "It's okay, Yeon. We'll still keep in touch, promise. I don't let friends that have been with me for 14 years slip out of my fingers easily." He reached for her perfect hand, gazed at her. His eyes finally travelled to the place they had been trying to avoid for years; her flawless pink kissable lips.

Without a second thought, he leaned in and kissed her passionately, promising himself he would remember this moment forever, taking a visual photo in his mind of his most favourite scene in the world that would never be beaten by anything — yes, you heard it; anything.

This was the moment he had been waiting for ever since Kindergarten when he first saw the girl he dubbed 'the most beautiful girl in my dreams' and begged God to be partnered with her; his prayers were answered and he'd been given a bonus blessing — a chance to be her best friend and a kiss with his only girl.

The biggest surprise of all, the one he had been pleading with God all his life to happen, was that the girl of his dreams had kissed him back.

As his spirit was immersed in the passion of the kiss, his fingers sneakily caressed the water, trying to find Yeonhee's message in a bottle. They were successful, and he carefully hid it, hoping to bring it with him to China and cherish the precious piece of treasure forever.

Finally he broke away regretfully, wishing he could hold on for longer. "Yeon," he said softly, holding her soft doll-like face. "I have to go."

Yeonhee was silent as he got out of the water and dried himself, but Luhan knew she was crying; he didn't even need to look at her to know her eyes were very red. As he got dressed into his change of clothes for the airport, seeing as he thought his school uniform was indecent to wear — also since it was all wet now — he pretended to busy himself with the zipper of his jacket as he fiddled with Yeonhee's bottle, his back her.

For a minute he was slightly guilty. Yeonhee, I'm so sorry I had to ruin your first message in a bottle. But please, just let me read this, before I go and I slip away from your grasp forever. He unfolded the paper that was contained inside the little bottle, and read it.

I love Luhan so much, and I never want him to leave. — Im Yeonhee.

Luhan smiled, making a mental reminder to thank God a million times on the plane, as he pocketed the special note and picked up his backpack. He uttered a single "Goodbye", tears undoubtedly rolling down his cheeks too, as Yeonhee watched his silhouetted figure in the distance become smaller and smaller. "Goodbye, Luhan," she whispered sadly.

Yeonhee was about to get out of the water when something caught her eye and she remembered Luhan's bottle and the mysterious pink label he kept hiding from her. Now was the chance to read it. She decided not to tamper with the contents of the bottle, just see the label.

It occurred to her for a moment that the label might be meaningless, that it might just say the original brand of the bottle or maybe Luhan's name.

But she decided to pick it up anyway. And she was glad she did, because honestly, it was definitely far from meaningless.

Saranghae, Im Yeonhee.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE » and the oneshot is finished. c: happy valentine's day! i really hoped to start on this before valentine's day, as this is a present for IGNORANCE & _XIAOLUS, two of my good aff friends ( well i first met joyce in real life otl ) who both love luhan ( and as an extra, soojung seems to love yoona too and the name yeonhee orz. ) i really hope you enjoyed this oneshot. it's really crappy, and i finished it within an hour because i procrastinated and i was determined to finish this before valentine's day was over, so here you go! hope you like it. happy valentine's day, joyce & soojung. o/