Chapter Five: The Day

Mi Ja hops into the bed later that night, after Taehyung mentions to her that he’s going to give her a surprise tomorrow, on her birthday. She couldn’t sleep a wink, although she’s had countless of yawns. Her mind’s preoccupied with thoughts of possibilities about what his surprise is going to be. A bag? No, Taehyung once bought a bag for her birthday and he got depressed when Mi Ja doesn’t use it for school. It was a hiking bag, for goodness’ sake. A scrapbook with all the stolen pictures and baby pictures of Mi Ja and him? Heck, Taehyung is anything but artistic. What about a huge birthday cake? Hmm, not bad but Mi Ja doesn’t think Taehyung would buy something so extravagant.

What if he’s going to confess his real feelings to Mi Ja?

Oh wow, how did she come up with that? Just like that, Mi Ja laughs at herself while stretching out her legs to reach the ceiling. She lies on the upper deck of the bed surfaced at the corner of the room, and of course, because Taehyung talked to her and delayed her time to check out the hotel room when they had arrived, Soojung was already sleeping on the lower deck when Mi Ja arrived. Mi Ja doesn’t regret anything, though.

Losing the lower deck was worth it because that way, she got informed of Taehyung’s surprise for her. Losing the lower deck was worth it because that way, she saw how Taehyung’s cheeks blushed as he admitted that he has a surprise. Everything was worth it because that way, Mi Ja thinks that maybe tomorrow, she will receive the greatest gift. If fortunate, and if it goes the way she wishes and assumes, then maybe she really will. And the more she thinks about tomorrow, the more it tempts her to sleep and wake up to a new day and a new age. But she sadly just won’t sleep, maybe not tonight. Because even if she wants to, she can’t.

Her surroundings are silent, but her inside is exploding with the sound of her heart beating loudly like the skies are dropping bombs internally. She touches her hair, the portion where Taehyung kissed earlier, and smiles. It’s supposed to be a normal act between best friends, but it’s just so wrong when the one is holding a different level of feelings towards the other. And that’s how it is to them. Mi Ja rolls around her bed, making loud squeaky sounds on the mattress and apparently, wakes up the lion.

Soojung shrieks out of frustration, like a lion celebrating for its catch for today but in her case, rather than celebrate, she’s boiling angry. Her heart of ice pumps out warm blood that fills up her face with redness, not the blush-kind of red. It’s the red that scares you because the face it paints is solely crumpled. Soojung climbs up to Mi Ja’s bed and yells, “Save your for tomorrow! I’m reaching the climactic part of my slumber, you horse!”

Mi Ja backs away, stands up in surprise and hits the ceiling with her head. She chuckles slightly, because she’s just too indulged in her good mood for her to ruin it by arguing with Soojung. Mi Ja raises both of her hands in mockery and acted as if she’s a criminal who has just been caught by a feisty policewoman. She grins, “Okay, okay, I’m going to sleep now. You go back, too. Good night.”

Even with Mi Ja’s attempt to get into Soojung’s good side by talking to her sweetly as she said her good night, Soojung doesn’t seem to mind—or rather, she doesn’t seem to give the slightest care. She furrows her eyebrows and harshly hits the light switch with her slippers, and miraculously, the lights turn off. Mi Ja could hear the loud slamming of her back on the soft foam and fluffy pillow, and that’s when Mi Ja forced herself to sleep. Sometimes, happiness can be so clingy that once you’re with it, it’s not going to let you go until sadness makes you drift away again. That was, by far, the most accurate description of what’s happening to Mi Ja right now. She finally floats into oblivion but then, although it seems so short, she hears the alarm clock bomb her ears.

“Wake up, ladies! Next stop, the zoo in Korea that placed tenth in terms of spaciousness in all of the zoos of the world… Seoul Zoo!”

Mi Ja sits on one bench, sneezing uncontrollably just after they passed by the wild cats’ section. She’s always been weak towards furry things or so to say, she’s allergic to furs. When her nose started feeling the scent of fur tickling the tip, she started getting red and she even pinched her nose to put a halt. But Soojung found this kind of funny, when someone who disturbed her sleep last night was now turning red and on the brink of sneezing, and having no emotions in her face, she pokes Mi Ja’s sides. And that’s when Mi Ja exploded out. She garnered all of the people’s attention with her series of sneezing that could almost hold a record in the world record.

Junmyeon finds himself peering at her as he tilt almost half of his body because his and Taehyung’s group walked faster than the group Mi Ja’s in. Junmyeon wears the simplest attire he had found after rummaging through his luggage; a black three-quarter length shirt and the usual ripped jeans. He wears his shades coolly, trying not to attract any unwanted attention from high school girls but ending up attracting almost everyone anyways. Through his tinted glasses, she could see a red-nosed Mi Ja resting on a bench, wiping her nose harshly.

He looks around before innocently sneaks out from the crowd of people. He slips into a new swarm of people and scooted down to avoid getting noticed. When the swarm he’s inserted into nears Mi Ja, he hops out casually and clears his throat before plopping himself beside her. He smiles cockily, “Hello there, Rudolph.”

“Hello, Santa,” Mi Ja sniffs crunchily, playfully punches his cheek. He cranes his neck slightly to the side, pretending to be affected greatly by her punch. She growls at him and says, “What are you doing here?”

“Oh my goodness, the reindeer talked!” Junmyeon guffaws loudly, catching few eyes for audience. Mi Ja mimics him, except with a crinkled nose and warped words. She pushes him away and says, “Why are you here?”

Junmyeon takes a few while before he finally gathers the courage to stop his excessive laughter and then he places his hands into open air, palms facing upwards, before he orders, “Hand.” Mi Ja, in response, looks at him wincingly. She glares at him and asks, “What are you going to do with my beautiful hands?”

“Eat it, maybe.” Junmyeon chortles, making Mi Ja pull her hand away hastily in fear of Junmyeon’s unpredictable plans. He scrunches his nose as he grows impatient and gently shakes his palm, depicting that he wants her hand on his now. Mi Ja complies, hesitantly placing hers on his palm. Once the contact sent chills into both of their spines, everything dimmed down and the only ones glowing were themselves. They meet eyes and Junmyeon smiles at her, this time, his smile might be the gentlest she has ever seen. He whispers, “Happy 18th birthday, Mimi.”

For a moment there, her heart skips a bit and she feels her cheek warm up. There’s a strange warmth coursing from their fingers entwined with each other to their chest. It’s the same warm feeling she feels whenever Taehyung makes her smile but it’s not the same. The whole feeling is not the same. His crescent eyes staring back at her lovingly sent a tingling sensation inside her. Her lips curve upwards and she giggles softly, tightly gripping into his hand, “Thank you.”

Junmyeon leans forwards and smiles, “A miscalculation?”

“What?” Mi Ja nervously asks, pulling her face farther to place a distance between their inch-apart faces. He lets go of her hand and places his hands into his pockets, “Aren’t you going to ask where Taehyung is? I was sure you’re going to return my super sweet birthday greeting with an annoying Taehyung-this Taehyung-that statement.”

“I’m sure he’s doing fine somewhere,” She snorts, trying to project it out funnily but ends up looking desperate as she pulls up the curtains of façade to veil her real feelings up. She recalls what happened yesterday and suddenly a feeling of paradise suddenly blooms inside her. Taehyung has a surprise, and she knows, maybe, that it’s going to be beautiful no matter what.

Because she believes in Taehyung that she will never disappoint him.

And if we’re allowed to question how long does forever last, does that mean we can question the longevity of never?

“I’m in Seoul Zoo,” Taehyung swings his legs as he sits on the director’s car nonchalantly, holding a cellphone near his ears. He wears a plain white shirt caped with a linen jacket and sunglasses snipped on his collars. Jinri, from the other side of the line, says that she’s currently in the middle of a trip to somewhere close to where Taehyung and his school stay. She chuckles, a bit fizzy due to bad signal, “Wow! Say ‘hi’ to the penguins for me!”

“I’d do that,” Taehyung giggles before she talks again.

“I can’t wait to see you,” Jinri says, in a dreamy way, making Taehyung blush and acquiesce, “I can’t even stay still anymore. I am dying to meet you again.”

Jinri then adds up, “I have something to tell you later, and I wish you could hear me out.”

“I’m all ears for you.” Taehyung then lies down on the roof of the car, his back resting against the surface. He feels completely nervous and lucky and everything else mixes up inside him. Everything inside him is topsy-turvy and he doesn’t know how to untangle the knots inside his stomach. He bids, “I’ll see you later.”

“I’ll see you,” she whispers a reply, “Later.”

And even if the call has already ended for minutes, the smile plastered on Taehyung’s face remained unwearied. His being ecstatic seems to overflow out of his lips, and it looks like his bliss can almost last forever. Later, Taehyung reminds himself, I will tell her I love her.

Mi Ja is side by side with Soojung as they marched down the rocky moist path surfaced in a pond-like area in the zoo. Their tour guide doesn’t seem to care as she just watched them struggle on their own while she effortlessly leaped through it all. Soojung mentally curses the tour guide, and looks like Mi Ja is doing the same, too. Mi Ja passes through earlier than Soojung so she tries offering her help. As a guardian of her own ego, Soojung doesn’t accept her offer and instead, flips her hair on Mi Ja’s face. Mi Ja breathes in heavily, “You are an immature brat.”

“And you? You think you’re mature?” Soojung frankly asks her, and then points out, “You’re openly flirting with that supervisor from the other group. To think that he’s the one you were saying you loved.”

“He’s my childhood friend,” Mi Ja flatly says to her, feeling a bit disgusted when she heard the word ‘flirt’ and a pronoun referring to ‘Junmyeon’ in one sentence. She glares at Soojung, “Why are you suddenly—?!”

“Oh my god,” Soojung realizes something and she feels extremely chomped in by guilt. She curves her shoulders a bit, because maintaining a super straight posture while walking on a not-so-flat land isn’t an easy task. Soojung mumbles, “It’s your birthday, right? Happy birthday, I hope you trip.”

“You ,