"What did they say?" I asked, watching as Jihyuk, followed by Sunmi, walked out the doors of the restaurant.

Instead of answering, Jihyuk clasped her hands together and stretched them out in front of her. She looked up at the night sky and said, "Let's just walk." And I threw her sister a quick glance because I was not a mind-reader. But Sunmi could only shrug. And so we just walked. Walked and walked along the straight path turning sharply to the next street where they lived separately from their parents.

Shoving my hands in my pockets, "They didn't like me, did they?" I asked, somehow assuming what could have happened nearly half an hour ago when I was asked to wait by the door while their family talked. I was confident that the subject of discussion was none other than me. I knew the reasons then, and I could enumerate them myself: I was too quiet, too shy perhaps. Have I been disrespectful and rude at one point? All these possible reasons were flooding my mind yet Jihyuk wasn't answering any.

"They like you. They really do," she exhaled with a sigh. And she smiled. I held her hand and tried lifting it above her head, ready to twirl her any minute now. But she gently pulled her arm back. Something was clearly wrong. And we stopped walking because we were already in front of their house. "They adore you." Jihyuk rubbed her eyes and walked up the porch steps without another word, leaving me frustrated and confused all at the same time.

Suddenly, a light arm patted my shoulder. "It's true," Sunmi said. "They absolutely adore you. They like how bright of a future you have and how well you get along with us."

"But?"

She took a deep breath and we both stared at the front door that had slammed shut. "They just think she's forcing herself to be with you."

“What—" I scratched my head. "I don't understand."

"Our parents think she's pressing on you too much and you're just too kind and polite to decline. They told her to stop or else this and everything else will end badly." Sunmi smiled. "You know she hasn't stopped talking about you since that day at the library. 'That bastard,' she will always say." And I remembered how I didn't want to meet her parents in the first place. She was pushy and too in-your-face and too confident sometimes that she comes out as aggressive and cocky and I didn't like that.

Sunmi must've noticed me slipping away, so she asked, "Are they right, then? Is Jihyuk just forcing herself to you?"

And I pondered about it for a minute or two. "Can I go inside?" I asked, and was more than glad when she nodded in agreement. The both of us went inside, Sunmi walking in her own room and me proceeding to Jihyuk's. A few sound knocks but still no answer. Had she fallen asleep? Before my fist could land on the wood, the door opened, revealing a Jung Jihyuk wearing the same outfit. She seemed surprised to see me. "What are you still doing here?" she asked, her voice heavy and thick.

"Come with me," I said, dragging her out of the room and into the empty streets.

"Where are we going?" she asked, following close behind me.

I turned to look at her. "To my house," I said and flashed her a bright smile, which she didn't return. Instead, she trailed behind quietly. The night was silent and so was she. The only noise that came from her is when she would step on dried leaves and they will crackle under her feet. We walked and I held her close, hoping she will tell me what she was feeling without me ever having to ask what they are. The temperature was quite higher than expected — the tropical night phenomena getting more real each passing day. Typical Seoul. It was the kind of weather that wouldn't let you go to bed unless you sleep with a blasting air-conditioning unit. The silence stretched on even after we arrived at the apartment. She took her shoes off as discreetly as possible and advanced to the couch.

"Please talk to me."

But she didn't. And so I kept waiting for her to open and speak like before, like on the phone every night before we go to sleep. "Tell me what you told them," I said. Jihyuk didn't even turn to look at me. "Tell me what you told your parents. Tell me what you told them when they said you should stop seeing me." Then I sat beside her on the couch.

She was sitting so stiffly as if it was her first time being here. As if we weren't sitting on the same couch just a few days ago. As if she didn't have her head on my shoulder as we sat on the same couch and she started talking about love and about destiny and about fate. "You don't believe in those, do you?" I remembered chuckling at the thought.

Jihyuk frowned. "But it's love. It's not fairies or unicorns or Santa Claus."

And I didn't say or do anything more except kiss her briefly to avoid any more arguments. Now we were back to this. Taking a deep breath, "You're not forcing yourself to me, do you understand?" I held her hand and tucked away her hair behind her ear with my free hand. "Haven't...haven't your parents ever heard of destiny?" I asked.

She looked at me sternly for a moment, her brown eyes melting and then freezing and then dilating. A combination of surprise and confusion and amusement flashed across her face, and in the end she let out a laugh. "Did they put something in your food for you to talk like that?" she asked.

Rolling my eyes at her, I hadn't expected her to take me seriously. But perhaps seeing my pleading expression, she softened. "Since you told me about all those things, I just kept thinking about them." I admitted. "Before everything else, I just thought it was all coincidence, you know? I can't just simply correlate something life-changing to a simple event. I can't find the relationship between me passing the board exams and a leaf falling off a tree. And then when you told me about it, it got me wondering. What if... what if I woke up late that day? Would I still have met you? What if you hadn't felt like going to the library that day, too? Would you still have brought me to meet your parents?" But I had already stopped talking because she already had her arms around my neck as she kissed me.

***

Short and not edited T_T SS5 in Manila!!