The phone rang again, but this time it was Suzy.
"Hey, here is your shameful neglected, sensational Friend.

"Here is your shameful neglected sensation-seeking friend. Today has probably been a lightning strike?"
"You think so?"
"We didn't trust our eyes, you were gone so suddenly."

Lightning strikes? I remembered the story that Minzy has told me many times. Gaston, the young farmer from her village, who had fallen asleep during the harvest period on the day after a party under an old cork oak. Not even a thunderstorm could wake him from his deep sleep. "Gaston, come away from there, you idiot", roared his friend Jacques when he finally spotted him under the tree. But it was already too late.

"Seline are you still there?"
"Of course. I just philosophized about lightning strikes."

"Don't get crazy. Rather say something definite to the state of things."

"I do not even know what to think of it. "
"Youngbae thinks that Jiyong would perfectly suit you. And he is surprised that it didn't happen earlier."
"And what do you think?"
"I've always wished that my best friend would fall in love with the best friend of my boyfriend."
"I don't know if I'm really in love. There are just so many emotions and it's a little too much for me."
"So What? It's exciting isn't it? Enjoy it."
"Why do you wish that I fall in love with him? You've never told me that.
"Who would not talk about boys any more? You would have thought that I want to set you up, even if I had only made a suggestion."
"Right. But what if things work out between me and Jiyong?"
"That would simplify my life tremendously."
"Egotist."
"I think not only of myself. Surely you're going to have an exciting time with Jiyong."
I have the feeling, that you're right. For tonight he has already proposed to me a whole program. Let's see, maybe I'll call you when I'm back home."
"You can wake me anytime.
"okey then maybe till later."
" Ok bye Seline."

Jiyong was honking like a madman. Do not overdo it. I don't like it when someone is possessive. Exceptionally, it did not make me mad, that CL intercepted me in the hallway and asked if I can go to the hardware store tomorrow after school to bring white paint.
"Ok I'm doing it."
 Today I was pretty mean to CL. So I thought I could at least do her a favor. As Jiyong saw me coming, he jumped out of the pizzataxi, came up to me and hugged me really hard. Finally he said, out of breath: "My boss has borrowed me the car until tomorrow."
"That's not a reason to crush me to death."
"Sorry." He tried to look contrite.
"Do you work regularly for the pizzeria?"
"Two to three times a week. Depending on how much is going on."
"Good store."
"Otherwise I would not work there. By the way, the best thing about the store is the pizza taxi driver of today."
"I would never have guessed that."
He grinned broadly. "Let's start with the festival?"
"Why not?"
In the car he whistled Summertime. Sometimes he looked at me from the side, as if he wanted to convince himself that I actually sat next to him and eventually he murmured. "I can not believe it."
I did not ask what he meant.
He parked the car a fair distance from Festival Square. He took my hand and we walked hand in hand to the festival grounds, straight towards the ferris wheel.
"I have a great desire for a ride," I said. I always enjoyed driving ferris wheels. "
"Me too." He tilted his head back and laughed a little. "Seline," he said softly.
"Seline"

I searched in my memory, if someday anybody ever had pronounced the combination of these five letters even close like that.
And had looked at me like Jiyong. But I remembered no one. It was almost as if he had given me a new name or my name would be something special, unusual.
This pleased me and made me uneasy at the same time.


Hopefully he did not expect too much from me. Our cabin was moving towards the highest point and the Ferris wheel stopped a few seconds. Fifty-six meters high, the man at the checkout had said . An incredible view.
"When I was a kid sitting in such a thing, every time I've dreamed of flying from the top into the wide world," Jiyong said, and turned for a long moment in the earnest child of those days. "I imagined the wide world like a cross between Alps and Cockaigne, because I wanted to be a ski jumper and also was  greedy."
"Greedy, you? You don't look like it."
"It has given itself over time."
"And now? What do you dream now"
"Still of flying. Preferably with you."
He laughed, we slowly glided down, I heard the people in the shake and roll scream and saw below us a balloon seller.
I see the city lights in the dark flash and imagine that someone has lit it just for me, for me and for you, Jiyong. You're sitting right next to me. Your hair falls into your forehead, your face glows. The dark eyes light up. Our thighs are touching. A strand of your hair tickles me on the ear. I'm excited, turned up, high-spirited.
A bewildering liveliness surrounds me like a new dress, which I still do not know whether it is the right size.