P  u  r  e    L  o  v  e 

Blouses, cardigans, dresses, jewelry, shirts, shoes, and skirts... Chaerin had seen them all... but at the same time, she hadn't.

For the past thirty minutes or so, Chaerin had been mindlessly looking and rummaging through an immense display of clothes. Yet saying that she had been making an effort in being helpful to her sister, would be completely untrue.

Truthfully, it wasn't intentional, but neither it was avoidable. The frenzy of thoughts that were endlessly crossing through her mind at all speed, didn't let her focus on any other thing.

In other words, she was all over the place.

And as much as she tried to disguise her mental unstableness, in the end, to her sister, Chaerin was as translucent as crystal. Maybe it was a personal quality she possessed, or maybe it was because they were siblings and grew up practically glued to the other. Either way, Harin could see through her sister more than anyone else. Therefore, to Chaerin's disadvantage, this was no exception.

“Hey, what do you think of this dress?” Harin held a green polo dress in order to test her sister.

“It's nice” Chaerin replied without putting much thought into the attire.

Harin squinted her eyes and stayed silent for a pair of seconds as she observed the distracted young adult standing in front of her.

“Then, what about this one?” The teenager now held a hideous draped dress.

“It's okay” The older one replied without even paying a look at the dress, as expected.

With all of her patience being drained, Harin helplessly sighed and put the dress back into the rack with anger.

“Are you serious? That's all you have been saying for the past forty minutes. 'It's okay', 'it's nice', 'looks good'... You are not even paying attention to what I'm trying on or what I'm looking for. If I wanted to have this type of help I would have asked dad to come with me instead” Harin sighed out of frustration. “You're not even behaving like your true self ever since I saw you today at home, what happened?” She added.

Chaerin ruffled her hair and deeply exhaled after hearing the confrontational words.

What happened?...

The words echoed in her mind. It was something that had been happening to her lately. Thousands of words echoing. Words from the past, words from a long time ago, words from a couple of minutes ago, all of them resonated at the same time.

Frustrating at the least.

“I'm sorry Harin”

Any other person would have rolled their eyes at such response. And that was because others wouldn't be able to see the depth of those words. But Harin could. She knew her sister was not only apologizing to her, but most definitely, to someone else as well.

Something happened.

“Come on, let's go” Harin extended her hand towards her sister's.

“What? Where?” Chaerin looked at her with a puzzled expression.

“Something's up with you, let's talk” Harin grabbed her sister's hand and pulled her out of the clothes shop.

Chaerin quickly stopped her tracks and released her hand from Harin's grip before they could walk any further.

“No talking for today!” Chaerin's words alarmed and confused her sister. But before she could say a word in her defense, Chaerin added: “Sorry for being so distracted today, it won't happen again so, let's go back in and pick a good outfit once and for all please” And returned to the store, hand in hand with Harin, who couldn't have a word on the decision.

Pants, wedges, hats, blazers, scarves, this time Chaerin really made an effort to see them all.

In the end, they could find a beautiful, pale pink dress. Also, they decided to accompany the attire with a beige cardigan and some flats. It was simple, delicate, and girly, just like Harin.

After arriving to their home, Chaerin offered to do her sister's hair and make up for the special occasion, to pay her back for her improper behavior. Harin was happy to accept her sister's help. Yet on any other occasion, Harin would have insisted her sister to talk to her about the issues that made her behave so oddly that day. But that day, she couldn't help being more preoccupied about her first date than about her sister's dilemma. That made Chaerin feel relieved, since talking about what was troubling her mind was the last thing she was willing to do.

The clock hanging in Chaerin's room indicated the two girls that it would soon be a quarter past nine, and in other words, it would soon be time for Harin's date to arrive.

Harin started to breathe deeply, as her heart pounded fast against her chest. She couldn't help but fiddle with her fingers and nervously bit her lip.

“Stop! You are ruining the lip gloss” Chaerin scolded, annoyed at her sister's behavior.

“Sorry...” Harin quietly replied.

Chaerin shook her head in disapproval and pressed her lips together, a gesture she always did when she was focused in something, for instance, applying mascara in Harin's stubborn eye lashes.

Suddenly, the awaited call at the door that Harin had been waiting for appeared.

Harin's nerves were doubled, her breathing became unstable, and her heart felt like it would jump out of her chest in any minute.

Her stomach suddenly started to feel funny.

“Don't worry, it's the nerves” Chaerin calmly assured her. “I'll go open the door... here, spray some perfume on yourself” She handled her sister a bottle of her favorite Gucci perfume. Harin smiled at the gesture. Chaerin rarely let her sister wear her perfumes, but this was a little exception that Harin was more than glad to accept.

Meanwhile, in front of the entrance door stood quite a nervous guy. His name was Kang Seung Yoon. He had lived next door ever since both Harin and him were kids. It warmed Chaerin's heart to see how Harin and Seung Yoon eventually ended up developing feelings for each other, and it rejoiced her to see her young sister going on her first date with such a nice boy.

“Come in, Harin will come out in a minute” Chaerin happily announced as she smiled at him, stepping to a side to give him space to enter.

The two took a seat at the sofa. Just like Harin, Seung Yoon fiddled with his fingers and breathed deeply. Chaerin chuckled at the sight.

Without much delay, Harin shyly stepped into the living room without daring to look at his date in the eyes.

Chaerin observed how Seung Yoon stared at her sister in awe, as if he was mesmerized by her presence. He quickly got up from his seat and walked towards Harin.

“Hi” Seung Yoon nervously uttered.

“Hi” Harin replied while shyly smiling at him.

Unsure of his actions, Seung Yoon scratched the back of his neck and gulped. “Should... should we get going?” he offered.

Harin quietly nodded, with that smile plastered on her face like the make up she was wearing, and so they soon left the place, timidly walking hand in hand.

Once alone, another smile crept in Chaerin's lips, but now with a hint of sadness.

Seeing her sister experiencing that beautiful moment brought Chaerin a mixture of feelings. Pride, happiness, tenderness... but there was something else...

Nostalgia.

Seeing the young couple surely brought her nostalgia.

Chaerin softly sighed and walked towards the kitchen to prepare herself a good cup of the strongest coffee.

It was probably not the best time to be drinking such thing. Anyone who had a night of sleep in their plans would certainly not be drinking coffee at those hours. But Chaerin knew more than well that with or without the coffee, she would not be able to sleep that night... or any of the following ones.

She stirred the dark liquid without much enthusiasm and gulped a good amount of it. For some reason, the coffee felt more bitter than ever.

Unexpectedly, her phone's screen lit up with a notification and a beeping sound ringed in her ears. She held it in her hands and observed the content of the notification, a message.

The name 'Bom' was written in the screen.

"Chae, remember what day it is tomorrow. I'm coming at 8 with chocolate cake, your favorite!”

Chaerin bit her lower lip and massaged her left temple.

Tonight she would have to sort out her thoughts so as to make an intervention the following day. She knew it already, but now it was confirmed that she could no longer wait or avoid things.

Time was ticking.

~

“Knock knock” Harin said as she stood next to Chaerin's bedroom door, while wearing her favorite pajamas, the ones she fancied wearing only when a memorable event had occurred.

Chaerin, who was lying on her bed, noticed the type of clothing and patted a spot on her bed while uttering the words “come in”.

“I have something to tell you” Harin contentedly smiled as she sat in her sister's bed.

“Go ahead then” Chaerin kindly smiled back.

“Today I had my first kiss... well... not first, but first real kiss” The young girl's cheek adapted a pink tone as she shyly smiled.

“...He told me I was very beautiful, and that he had been waiting for this day to come for a long time... He was also nervous, but I thought it was very cute” Harin chuckled at the memory. “Then, he put a strand of my hair behind my ear, like this” She reproduced the scene on her sister “and then... it happened” The chuckles kept escaping from “It was a little one but I think it was perfect, and it was the first time I felt it was special, real...” Harin let her body fall backwards in the bed while letting a happy sigh escape from . “I think I'm in love...”

Chaerin chuckled at Harin's last words, of a teenager's innocent and pure type of love.

Such a painless love... she thought.

A/N: Yes, the Kang Seung Yoon in this story is the Kang Seung Yoon from Winner, not as in Kang Seung Yoon's singer Winner, in the story he's an ordinary guy, but it's so that you can picture him in your minds as that person if you'd like to, besides, he's a sweetheart, who wouldn't like a sweetheart as a character in their story? Haha, bye guys. P.S.: Here's a picture gif of him as the character I want to portray.