"Hey, you are late!" a voice shouts at me as soon as I pick up the phone.
"I know. I kind of overslept," panicking I say to her.
I heard a sly laugh from the other line, "Ma'am said she won't be able to make it today."
"Oh? You are a lifesaver! I've been hurrying like crazy. I'll see you tomorrow then," I hung up the call.

I used to work as a stylist back home. It wasn't an easy job but it wasn't very tough either, it was fulfilling to both my heart and my mind. I loved my job. But, I was given a lifetime offer to intern at the 'House of Queen' (fictional) fashion house and so I moved here to this unknown country ten months ago. That girl who just called is also an intern here.

Should I go back? But there is nothing to do at the apartment either. I stop for a second to take in my surroundings. There are people decorating the giant Christmas tree in the town square. So, tomorrow is Christmas, huh?

I feel lonely all of a sudden. The painful reality that there is no one to spend Christmas with this year...

Quite a long time has passed by since I moved here but I still don't have any friends. It doesn't surprise me, I was always a loner. Being the introvert that I am I could never reach out to people first and waiting for others to make the first move, well, it just made me wait forever.

I walk to one of the benches at the side of the road to watch them beautifying the giant tree little by little with lights and ribbons and bells and dolls and everything.

Actually, there was one boy who reached out to me first. The one who turned my gloomy life bright and happy. It was during the second year of middle school that I met him. He was and still is an amazing person. He approached me saying that I looked pitiful always sitting alone with a book in hand. He was my first friend and my best friend.

A ray of light shone at my face blinding my vision. But oddly I don't feel bothered by it.

On our graduation day, he told me that he wanted to become a singer. At that moment, in that instant, the me without any dream found a goal in life. I wanted to become a stylist, to coordinate his outfits for performances and programs, to make him shine brighter in every stage and to stay beside him forever. That was my dream. And I was very proud when we both achieved our dreams. I was his stylist for two years.

Four children passed by me running and laughing together. It looked like they were playing something, tag maybe.

I truly thank him for coming into my life. I met an irreplaceable friend and also found my dream. But what was most important was that I made eleven other friends due to him. I could never get as close to his friends at school but these eleven were different somehow. Just two weeks together and it felt like I had known them since forever. They were very annoying at times but which friend is never annoying, right?

Oh no! I instictively stood up. One of the four kids tripped and fell down. But before I could rush to him the other kids came to help him up. They are running around again as if the fall never happened. I heave out a sigh relieved that nothing happened.I guess that's what friends do, they won't let the other fall and if they accidentally do fall then they help them get up on their feet again.

He found out about the internship six days before Christmas. I was hiding it from him and I don't know how he found out but he told me, "You should go. Take this chance to achieve higher, no, you will achieve the highest! I know you will make us proud." That serious expression on his almost all the time playful face, it is quite hard to forget. All this time, his that face is what kept me motivated in this alien land.

I feel a smile creeping up on my lips just at his thoughts.

I look up at the sky and, it might sound weird, I see his face smiling at me, his eyes almost crescent shaped and his mouth..! I laugh out heartily without caring what people around me might be thinking about me right now.

Truthfully, though, the sky is cloudy. It looks like it will snow for Christmas tomorrow. It didn't last year.

Even without the snow falling down from the heavens Christmas was still the merriest one last year, with all thirteen of us together it is one of my unforgettable memories. The manager oppas and other make-up and stylist unnies had plans with their families and friends. But the idol gang did not visit their home, though I cannot remember what the reason was, I'm pretty sure they never told me. We stayed up all night watching movies and singing our own made up Carols. Those boys sure made lots of noise, okay, I may have also been a tiny part of the noise, but I'm not kidding the neighbours came to us complaining six times that night.

I feel something wet on my cheeks. I took the mitten off of my right hand for a moment to wipe my cheeks. Water? Is it raining? No way.

I do regret leaving there to come here sometimes. If I was still there with them, would we be celebrating Christmas together again this year too? Oh! Who am I kidding? I don't even know if they are still talking to each other. You see, a lot of things happened since I left. One of the guys left the group. I can't even imagine what all of them must have gone through. I wanted to tell them to stand strong that they will ge