She shrugged off her shoulders as she saw some couples passing by her in this quiet railway station. They looked cute. She couldn’t think of anything than that. Well, that didn’t matter for her, at least for now. She had broken up with her boyfriend four years ago, and still she had no one to replace him. It was not because she couldn’t forget him, it’s just because she was not ready to be in a relationship for one more time.

She wondered what would happen to her if she met someone who totally took her attention.

Ah, she should forget her desire to meet someone attractive in this railway station. She was just here for 40 minutes anyway, waiting her train to come. And well, she was also waiting for her partner, Minseok, to come. Today they had trip to Busan, they got holiday from their boss. Minseok probably came 5 minutes before the train went to another destination.

Well.

She tried to put her attention to a self motivation book she always brought everywhere which had yellow hard cover. She needed to kill the time. It was no use since she had her mind on something else which she didn’t even know. Probably she was still thinking about those couples. Or, the scenario she wanted to happen.

“Ah, young lady.” She almost jerked from her chair as she had a woman smiled at her politely. She then fixed the way she sat and smiled back at the older woman. The woman was probably 35 years old and looked so beautiful. She was immersed in the beauty of the older woman before she realized that the older woman was not alone. The older woman was with two little girls, who one of them was probably 4 years old.

“Can I help you?” she asked the older woman. The older woman nodded quickly without any hesitation.

“Could you please take care of my nieces for a while? I need to use the toilet.” The older woman replied, smiling shyly. “I hope you don’t mind that I disturb your activity.”

She shook her head and smiled widely. “It’s okay. I will take care of them.” she glanced at two little girls in front of her. They looked so cute and they looked confused to find a stranger like her. well, she didn’t think she looked scary but these kids maybe thought that she did.

The older woman nodded, smiling. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” she giggled.

“Where’s the toilet?”

“Ah, it’s over there.”

The older woman left, now it was just her and these little girls. They looked nice, she thought.

“Just wait here until Auntie comes back, okay?” she told them. They nodded slowly in response. She smiled a little, but didn’t understand herself why she didn’t want to have a chat with them as she always did to every kid she met. Today was different, she guessed, and she wasn’t in the mood to talk with kids. She led them to sit next to her. And just like that, she was once again busy with her book. This time, she was really immersed in her reading, and then she felt a pat on her hand. She turned around and saw one of the little girls, who was 6 years old, looked at her confused.

“Hey,” she greeted the little girl,”where is your sister?” she asked when she didn’t find the other girl behind.

“I want to ask you, Miss. Where is she? She was here with you.” the little girl said,”I bought her candies there.” The little girl pointed at a kiosk near the exit door. “When I came back here, you were alone and she was gone.”

She felt her heart fallen. She looked around her and she just realized that another little girl was not with her. She was so shocked till her palms went cold and wet. What? The little girl is missing? Oh, God! What should she say to their Aunt? The girls were her responsibility at the time their Aunt left them with her. She was so careless! All she could do at the time was just cursing herself, she was so careless, and she was so stupid.

Stupid

Stupid

There was no thing she could do except…

She took the little girl’s hand with her shaky hand. “Come on, we have to find your sister.”

It took times to wander around this railway station to find a little girl. People have come to this place, and it was hard to find the little girl among these adults. She grew panicked all the time when they reached a place but they couldn’t find the little girl. She kept cursing herself why she was so careless while she asked some people about the missing little girl. They said they didn’t know about the girl, that made her even frustrated. She was thinking places probably the little girl went but then a thought came, that probably the little girl was kidnapped.

NO! she argued mentally with herself. No, she can’t be kidnapped. No.

She had imagined how the Aunty reacted over this. She must be blamed by the Aunt and all the family members. She must be hated by all of people.

Oh, no, she was freaking scared.

As the answer of her prayer, she then heard the little girl with her squalled.

“Ah, she’s there!”

The 4 year old girl was playing with kids around her age, they played paper windmill together. The little girl looked so happy, yeah, she didn’t even realize that she was missing.

She let out a relieved sigh as she let the girl reaching her little sister. She hid her face with her palms. She was really thankful that finally the little girl was found. As soon as she led the kids to the wooden chair, where their Aunt met her, the fear was gone. the Aunt had been waiting for them. She decided not to tell the Aunt about the missing of one of her nieces. The aunt said thank you, and then they left. It was her all alone once again, and in a minute, Minseok came.

“What’s with your face? You look pale.” He commented.

She got up from her seat. “Nothing. Come on. We almost miss the train.”

“Let me bring your luggage.” Minseok cheerfully offered. She just nodded. She felt like she lost all her energy this morning. She was daydreaming when they got in the train and when they found their seats. She was like a zombie, she was still shocked and quiet. Minseok didn’t realize her weird action until the train left the station.

“Are you okay? You are like you’ve seen ghosts or something.” He said as he waved his hand in front of her.

She tried to smile. “I’m okay, no need to worry.”

Minseok pouted. “Of course I worried. You look pale like a paper.”

“Don’t make fun of me, Minseok.” She chuckled. She then heard someone in front of her also chuckled. She realized that it was not just her and Minseok here. There was another passenger.

She tried to focus her sight. She saw a guy with wet brownish hair had a seat in front of her. He smiled warmly at her, making her had butterflies in her stomach. Oh my God, what is this feeling? She thought. Who is he?

“Oh, sorry to make you confused.” Minseok then interrupted. “This is Luhan, my college friend. We just met again in this train after some years.” He giggled happily like a little boy as he pointed at the stranger guy in front of her. “And, Luhan, this is my friend. We work in the same company, and she’s my partner.”

She saw that Luhan guy reach out his hand. She then shook his hand. She didn’t get it why she was all groggy in front of him.

“N-nice to meet you.”

That Luhan guy smiled even warmly. “Nice to meet you, too.”

Why did it have to be awkward like this? she thought. She tried to smile politely. She was surprised when suddenly Luhan said

“I’ve seen you before. You were the one who looked for a missing little girl, right?”

She blinked.

How did he know that?

That only meant one thing.

He saw her at that time.

Luhan was still smiling, sweet and warm.

O-oh, it’s hard not to fall for the guy.

She was dizzy because of job she needed to handle this morning. She hadn’t eaten breakfast yet lunch. She decided to have a cup of tea first, before she thought of what she wanted to have as brunch. She wasn’t that hungry, but she thought she needed to eat. Minseok suddenly entered their office. She knew Minseok had gone this morning to some places. Well, he was indeed busier than her.

“Have you eaten lunch yet?” she asked casually. She took a seat on the sofa. Minseok just stared at her as he put down his bag from the shoulder.

“I haven’t. Have you?” he looked at the cup of tea she was holding. “Of course you haven’t.” he answered his own question. She just laughed. She was easy to predict. Minseok just knew her too well. Before she could ask him about good place to have lunch, he said

“Ah, I met Luhan again. You remember him, right?”

She blinked many times. Luhan? Ah, that guy from the train. Of course she remembered him. They just met a week ago. She still remembered him, even though they didn’t have so much talk at that time.

“Yeah, what’s with him?” she started to have a sip of her tea.

“He asked me about you.”

“What?”

She didn’t understand why Minseok giggled like a crazy person. Minseok then took a seat next to her. “Yeah, he asked about you.”

“Why did he ask about me?” she furrowed her eyebrows.

Minseok shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Maybe he wants to get to know you.”

“Why does he want to get to know me?” she was even confused this time.

“Maybe he likes you.”

“What?”

She couldn’t predict that Minseok was lying to her or not. He chuckled evilly at her, that meant that he wasn’t serious about his words. Why did Luhan like me? she thought. She was sure she wasn’t the type of girl that guys could fall for the first sight. There was nothing interesting in her.

“Does he?” she found herself asking. “Does he know me?”

“Of course, he had met you before, remember?” Minseok looked enthusiastic. “I then asked him if he had girlfriend or not, and he said he had years ago, but it was already over.”

She furrowed eyebrows in confusion. why did it lead to relationship and all? Did Minseok tell him things about me to Luhan? She couldn’t help but thought about it. Really?

“Do you want me to make you two a couple?” Minseok giggled.

“Don’t be silly, Minseok.” She slapped his left arm.

“Why not? It’ll be nice to see you two together.” Minseok smiled widely. He nudged her. “I’ve offered you an opportunity, what do you think? I know you are not in a relationship, and he is the same, so,” he smiled evilly,”what do you think? Luhan is a good boy.”

“I think it’s better if fate takes control of this kind of thing.” She said without thinking twice.

“Aw, really? If you’re not trying to fight for it, you can’t have it. Fate can’t do anything for you except you try to do something.”

“Fate has its ways, Minseok.”

“I’m not sure of it.” he sang. He then rose from his seat. “Don’t forget my birthday party tomorrow at 6 pm.” He said before he left the office.

Minseok has gone and now she was thinking if she had made wrong decision to refuse his offer. Luhan was indeed a good guy, everyone could see it. But, it didn’t mean he was really meant for her. She sighed. Let the time answered everything.

Minseok’s birthday party. He didn’t invite all of his friends, but his close friend did come. She knew some of them, like Kris, their boss, he was Minseok’s high school friend. And there was his neighbor who looked like panda, Tao. And eight other noisy friends. Minseok had invited some girl friends, but they probably came late. She was the one to come, it’s because her flat was not that far from Minseok’s.  They had eaten the cake and chicken, drunk the cola, and the boys started to talk about things she didn’t even understand. She then remembered that she hadn’t signed her gift for Minseok. She wrote a note on the gift with a foreign language she used to write randomly. She also remembered that she had things to do due to her work, while Minseok had no one because he had finished everything.

She then bid goodbye to Minseok.

“You have to go now?” Minseok looked disappointed. She just shrugged and smiled a little.

“I’m sorry. I have to do the reports for tomorrow. Even Kris is here, he will be angry if I haven’t done it. I haven’t finished it this evening, so it has to be finished tonight.” She tried to explain.

Minseok seemed like mumbling something. “…Luhan hasn’t arrived yet..”

Even she was confused, she pointed at her gift on the sofa. “Your birthday present is there. I hope you like it.”

Minseok just nodded, but he still looked disappointed. “Take care on your way home.”

“Finally you came, Luhan. Almost no chicken for you.” Minseok laughed as he patted Luhan’s shoulder. Everyone welcomed Luhan warmly, even though he himself didn’t know most of them. Minseok then led him to sit on the sofa.

Luhan smiled. “It’s okay for me. At least I still have the cake.” He laughed. He then took a seat on the sofa. He almost sat on a something. “Ah…”

“Oh, it’s my birthday present.” Minseok said without Luhan asked.

“O-oh.” Luhan looked puzzled. He kept staring at the present, looking at the note. “Who wrote this note?”

Minseok blinked. “Why?”

“It’s written in Japanese.”

“Oh. It’s her.”

“Her?”

“Yeah, it’s her.” Minseok replied casually without even explained more. Of course Luhan understood who Minseok was talking about.  “Can you write in Japanese?”

Luhan looked hesitated. “I could do it years ago, but these years I haven’t written anything with Kanji, Hiragana or Katakana. I can’t do it anymore.” he told Minseok. Minseok nodded in response and smiled widely.

“She’s good at Japanese. You can learn it from her. What a pity she had to come home early because of work. If she’s still here, you guys could talk.”

Luhan looked at Minseok, then at the note on the gift. He just smiled.

Along the week, she felt different atmosphere in her office. All her friends in the same office , telling and asking her about Luhan. She didn’t understand how they knew about Luhan and why they with him. She was totally puzzled.

“Don’t you go to a date with Luhan?” even her boss, Kris, asked this.

“How do you know about Luhan?” she asked, wrong question. Her friends giggled at her. She blinked clueless.

“Is that really that you two have become a couple?” Jongdae asked, he looked curious.

She widened her eyes. “No, no! That’s not what I mean!” she panicked. How could these guys think that way?

“Ah, it’s okay. Don’t try to hide it from us.” Kris interrupted, making her widening her eyes even wider.

“Kris, me and Luhan are not a couple. He’s just Minseok’s college friend.” She tried to explain, but she got nothing but giggles from her friends.

“A college friend of Minseok whom you like so much.” Jongdae concluded it for her.

She blushed. “It’s not that, Jongdae!”

Her friends laughed at her satisfied and left. She was dumbfounded. How could it turn out like this? it gave her headache. Her friends at work were so noisy that they kept bringing it up everyday, every second, every hour they spent in their office.

Not except Minseok, who she thought was the one who started all this. It’s only Minseok who tried to make her and Luhan a couple.

“I don’t know anything, really!” he said when she asked him about their friends who kept bugging her with mentioned Luhan’s name all the time. “I don’t know how they start to tease you with Luhan. They just met Luhan once at my birthday party, and at that time, you were not there. It has nothing to do with me.”

That made sense, she thought. “I wonder why they bring Luhan up in every conversation.” She mumbled.

“Don’t ask me, I don’t know the answers.” Minseok shrugged.

“Well…” she was still confused to find this kind of thing happen around her.

“Ah, by the way, Luhan will come here.”

She turned around to face Minseok. “What?”

“Luhan will come here.”

Probably she heard Minseok wrong. “Who will come here?”

“Luhan.”

“..come..here..?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“In 10 minutes.”

Why in the world does he come here?