............

 

"Oppa would be really grateful if you were able to give this to Yuri sunbaenim," the younger girl explained as she handed over a small box with a sticker on top.  "I know it might be hard to convince her to open it, but oppa said it's important for him," she continued as the other woman received the present. 

 

"Yeah, it'll definitely be a feat considering what happened last year, but I understand that it helps him and unnie,...... so we'll try our best," the other woman replied. 

 

"Kamsahamnida,  Seohyun sunbaenim.  I have to go record for Music Bank now, but thanks again for this.  I'll tell oppa about this as well," and with that, the younger girl bowed and left to the elevator.

 

Closing the door behind her, Seohyun walked back to the living room with the present. 

 

Your eyes, nose, lips

Your touch that used to touch me, 

To the ends of your fingertips. 

I can still feel you.

 

"Wow, that's his second award for his song already," Sunny said as the TV news report continued its recap of the MAMA awards just a couple nights ago.  Hearing the door close, she turned back around in her seat, saying, "Seo, who was it at the door?”

 

"It was one of our hoobaes from Apink, Eunji-sshi.  She brought a present from..." 

 

"Yah, keep quiet about her, Seo!," Sunny whispered.  "I know she's a nice girl, but remember what happened last year with Yul?  It's not good to mention Eunji-sshi.  Same for even Hyosung-sshi..."

 

"Too late, unnie," Yuri said before yawning and fixing her hair, clearly showing that she woke up just recently though it was already noon.  "Whatever it is you guys are talking about, leave me out of it." 

 

"But unnie...," Seohyun tried to reason.

 

"Leave me out of it, Seo!  Please.  It's my birthday and I'd love to spend it happily this year, unlike last year.  It’s not going to be hard though since I got a man who is actually faithful.”  Yuri saw the shocked faces of Seohyun and Sunny, as well as the rest of her members who just came out.  “I’m sorry, but we should get this place ready for later please,” Yuri said before making her way back to her room.

 

“Sunny, what happened?,” Taeyeon asked as she made her way to the couch.

 

“Eunji-sshi stopped by with a present for Yuri from Taeyang oppa,” Sunny replied as she took the present from Seohyun. 

 

“She said it was important to him for the present to get to Yuri unnie,” Seohyun explained further.

 

“Makes sense if Yuri started to act like that,” Tiffany added.  “But don’t you think Yuri sort of dragged out her grudge against him for it to last this long?”

 

“Maybe it started again with oppa’s song though?  Isn’t it about Yuri in the first place?  In fact, aren’t most of the songs in his new album about Yuri?  That could be it,” Yoona replied.

 

The rest of the members seemed to agree with this theory, as they started to nod their heads. 

 

“Well it’s not like Yuri is going to open it, so maybe we should…,” Sunny started.

 

“But unnie, what if it’s just for Yuri to see?,” Seohyun reasoned.

 

“It should be fine.  Knowing oppa, he probably knew this would happen,” Taeyeon defended Sunny’s action.  Following this, Sunny proceeded to remove the top of the box.  “See?  I told you, Seo,” Taeyeon said as she removed a small paper addressed to Everyone but Yuri.

 

Sooyoung read the short letter for Taeyeon:

 

Annyeong,

 

This is Youngbae, and it’s been a while, hasn’t it?  Knowing the circumstances, Yuri probably wouldn’t want anything to do with this present, huh?  Well, at least you guys are there, right?

 

 A nosy, talkative and snoopy bunch of girls. 

 

Who I still care about deeply as an extended family to this day.

 

Anyways, joking aside, I hope that you guys help me in returning, no actually giving, Yuri what was rightfully hers before everything that happened.

 

Kamsahamnida,

 

Your Youngbae oppa.

 

A silence was amongst the Soshi members, particularly because of his last statement.

 

“Help him in giving Yuri something was rightfully hers?  What else is in the box?,” Hyoyeon questioned.  Sunny carefully removed another letter, addressed to Yuri specifically, and found a smaller box with a lock keeping it shut.

 

“We’ll have to find out later, it seems.  But first, we should get this place ready for Yul’s birthday party tonight.  After that, we will make this present a priority,” Tiffany said.  “Now let’s clean this place up.”

 

“Congrats on your engagement, Yul!  I didn’t even know you two were that intimate already!  However, I can see the love in your eyes!  Hope you guys do well together!,”

 

“Thank you, Victoria unnie!  Hopefully Seung Hwan oppa and I do, since we will have to get married when he returns back from enlisting.  Have a safe trip home, unnie!,” Yuri thanked as Victoria soon left.  She turned back to Seung Hwan, her now-fiancé, saying,” Thank you for making this birthday the best one yet, oppa,” hugging him in the process.”

 

“Anything for you, babe.  Now I have to go, I have filming to do tomorrow, so I don’t want to oversleep tonight,” Seung Hwan responded.

 

“Of course, go on ahead, oppa.”  Seung Hwan gave Yuri a small peck on the lips before releasing her from the hug and leaving the dorm.

 

Yuri closed the door behind him before looking down to her left hand, smiling happily at the sight of her engagement ring.

 

“Yul.”

 

Yuri turned around to see her members behind her in the living room.  “What’s up, guys?,” she said as she took a seat on the couch next to Taeyeon.

 

“Congrats on your engagement, Yul, we know you’ve wanted this type of present for a while,” Taeyeon started.

 

“And nothing can probably top this, not even what’s his name made me this happy!,” Yuri gloated, with a bit of hatred being hinted towards someone.

 

“Well what’s his name had a gift brought here earlier by Eunji-sshi and…”

 

“You guys want me to open it?!  Sure, it doesn’t matter anymore, right?!  I’m engaged and there’s no need for me to associate myself with that guy anymore!  It’s the least I could do!”

 

“Uhhhh, sure then,” Sunny said, shocked by Yuri’s unusual behavior.  She handed over the box to Yuri, who removed the top of the box and revealing the letter addressed to her.

 

“Is this it?!  A letter?!  Not like I expected anything else from him, actually,” Yuri spat.

 

“Yuri!  Just read the letter and stop just badmouthing oppa!,” Tiffany scolded.  Yuri looked to Tiffany before sighing and nodding her head in agreement.  Yuri opened up the letter and proceeded to read:

 

Annyeong, Yul (or should I say Yuri?)

 

It’s your….no.  It’s just Youngbae.  How have you been?  I’m guessing great actually now that you have a guy who can take care of you for the rest of your life.  Someone who’s not me.

 

“Yeah, you’re right actually.”

 

It probably would have been faster for you had it not been for my album, huh?  Having almost a whole album being about you must have slowed the process down a lot.  Well I can’t really blame you for hating me for it.

 

All I wanted to do with this present was to explain everything that happened before….well you know.  Our break-up.  Not to make me seem like I was the victim, but to clear any misunderstandings about my album, as well as Eunji and Hyosung.

 

“Like this will really do anything,” Yuri said underneath her breath, only to get slapped softly on the shoulder by her unnies.

 

First off, my album, since it’s more recent.  I said this in interviews multiple times, but I doubt you’d ever want to read up on me anyways, so I say here.

 

“Well that’s not necessarily true.  Not like I didn’t care for your music,” Yuri said.  This showed everyone else that maybe the normal Yuri is coming back a bit.

 

Although most of the songs didn’t have me named as a writer, I was the one who came up with the overall feeling of the songs with the theme being you.  However, I never intended for those to be chosen for release, as Love You to Death is the only one I wanted of those chosen.  Those were to be kept in secret, as a way to remember the times we had and the love we used to enjoy.

 

I wanted a more upbeat and club feel for my album.  Sajangnim, however, wanted the emotional songs in instead to build off my last album’s success.  And I can’t blame him for that.  He wanted something to appeal to a broader demographic, and he got his wish at the cost of our privacy.

 

Yuri started to tear up a bit, as she remembered the songs that she did attempt to listen to before stopping due to the emotions.

 

Second, Hyosung and Eunji.  Truthfully, I don’t know what happened either.  I just had mutual friends like Seungri and my dongsaeng Seungyoon.  Both of them said that they had a friend who wanted to become friends with me.  And I agreed to meet them.  Turns out, they were friends with each other as well, and that made it easier.

 

The problem was that you thought I was unfaithful with you because of these two girls.  And again, I can’t blame you.  I started to hang out with them more than you, and I would take phone calls with them even though we were on a date.  I admit that that was all my fault, but I honestly wouldn’t change a thing, other than being a bit more honest with you.

 

“What does he mean?  This isn’t really helping his case at the moment,” Sunny said.

 

All this time, you were the one who knew about who’s dating who, but you never once noticed that both Hyosung and Eunji were dating already.  In fact, even longer than the two years we had.  All the times that I spent with them, I was getting advice about our relationship, although I didn’t mention specifics.

 

The one important time that I did mention something to them, was the day before your birthday last year.  I mentioned that we started dating on my birthday in 2011, and that I had something planned for your birthday to make it your best ever.  They were supportive of my plan after I explained it, and I went into the next day with high hopes.

 

But it didn’t end that way, huh?  I guess not being with you the night before your birthday was the last straw?

 

Anyways, congratulations on your engagement with Seung Hwan hyung.  I was happy to help him when he asked me what to do for your birthday, Yul.

 

P.S. The lock code should be simple, right?  What’s today again?

 

Reading this, Yuri went back to the box and held the lock, pressing the number of her birthday in order.

 

12.  5.  89.

 

There was a click and the box could be opened, revealing another box within.  Yuri started to cry immensely at the sight as she pulled the box out.  It was a box, just the right size for….

 

“Omo, an engagement ring!, Yoona said as Yuri opened the box up.

 

Yuri pulled the ring out to read the inscription of the ring through her tears.

 

“To my one and only Yul.  May we live together forever, in this life.  And the next one if God allows it.  I love you,  your Youngbae.”

Sad, huh?  I know it’s Christmas (at least for me right now), but the only way I saw this fitting Taeyang’s comments of his song and album was a sad story.

 

Aaaaaand I felt like adding Eunji and Hyosung just for the hell of it, mostly because they are within my top 5 biases now after this year, but also for some background story type of stuff.

 

Anyways, thanks for reading and I should be able to work on my other two stories soon, so until next time.

 

- Justin (Daemon6)