150423

There was something about mismatched socks that fit well with Mina, and Mark didn't really know what it was or why it was so but she always looked good in them as she'd sport those knee-high socks one different from the other. She did that before, she's still doing that now and to think she wouldn't because she was already in her twenties and not a teen anymore.

Though her smile was still as youthful as ever and Mark felt nostalgic to the bones.

He drops his luggage and pulls her in for a hug after she shrieked out his name with such joy and glee. "You're finally here." she tones her voice down to a whisper as they wrap their arms around each other, holding the moment and making it last longer by holding onto each other a little more tighter. 

"Yeah," he says, a little breathless already. "I am."

For what seemed like a time longer than eternity, they break apart and someone kicks his luggage slightly and he sees Mina glance over to it, but she stays put in his arms. 

"Look at you," it comes out as a whisper from his lips.

She smiles, almost a little too sadly for his liking. "Look at you,"

Mark shakes his head, smiling. "How I missed you so, Mina."

"Not as much as I missed you."

120821

"You're a pain in the !"

"You're a bigger pain! In the s!"

The boarding house wasn't always so lively and rowdy early in the morning. But when it was, you can bet your life that it's always the two troublesome, younger boarders who'd be the source of the ruckus and "fun". This time, they were bickering yet again and woke up poor Kim Jongdae who had trouble sleeping for the last three days and finally had a good six-hour sleep just last night and he was hoping to be sleeping longer but with voices as loud as a rhino's cry coming from the room beside him, it was near impossible to go back to dreamland.

He groans, a pillow over his head as he tries to close his eyes and envision a flock of sheep jumping over a fence in hopes of going back to sleep.

"I need my textbook back! I have a test tomorrow -"

"And I have a test today!"

"It's not my fault you lost your's!" 

Jongdae lets out a whimper; he's on the verge of crying now. He throws his pillow across the room and feels himself burning up. "Somebody stop them! Please!"

That somebody came running out of her room and trots down the stairs to their level. Even the boarders from upstairs, especially Park Chorong who was just situated above their fight, could hear them biting their heads off so early in the morning. 

"My, my," she shakes her head at them, glaring. The two immediately stop and shut their mouths closed at the sight of a red-faced, wild-haired Park Chorong. "So exciting for a Friday morning and it isn't even seven o'clock."

Kwon Mina drops her grip on the textbook Mark Tuan was trying to pry from her hands. "He started it!"

"I don't care who -"

"He barged into my room, stole my textbook and tried to write on my face with permanent marker!" she was like a child, admitting an older brother's fault in front of her parent. She sounded so wounded and angry and the sort that Chorong thought Mina would burst again any minute now.

Chorong sighs, thinking quickly of what to do and say so that both of them could shut up for good. "Okay, so. Mark, why did you -"

"I have a test today at 10! I've been studying my notes all night long, but they're not enough." he points towards Mina. "She lost my book when she borrowed it the other day in the university during her class!"

"I did not! I told you I placed it on your table that night!"

"Then where is it?!"

"I don't know! I didn't lose it while I had it, for your information!"

Chorong closes her eyes and rubs her temples, behind her she can feel the stairs pounding as numerous feet came barging down, declaring for peace and quiet from these two. "Okay, okay, Mina, stop shouting. Mark, stop it -"

"Someone make them shut up!" came a yell from Jongdae's room. 

"Okay, guys. Guys, come on. Stop that." Chorong steps forward, looking both into the eyes before they reached an agreement. Mina would let Mark borrow her book, to compensate for the textbook she had lost. ( "I told you I didn't -" "Shut up, Mina.") Right after the test, Mark would return the book to Mina in pristine condition. 

The two looked at each other, or more like glared at each other and neither one was backing down from this glare contest.

Behind her, she could hear the boarders snicker.

"Ah, the perks of being same-age friends." 

150423

He was looking out the window, where the scenery seemed so vague yet so familiar and it all blurred by as they traveled down the road and back to an even more familiar place Mark knew where he'd see even more familiar faces. The scene outside was different from the one in sunny California. Where Los Angeles was hot and bright and full of sun, Seoul was dark and grey and particularly rainy this morning. 

He realized how much he missed the rain and Seoul combined together. It gave off a much different vibe compared to one in Los Angeles. Both were cities where he grew up as a person and lived his life. Still, even after all this time, he realizes he cannot call only one of those two cities 'home', because both deserved the title. 

Mina was looking at him, despite herself. She knew she had to watch the road, all eyes on it, but she can't help but keep on sending him these glances from time to time, every minute at every red light, or even when she would steer to the right, and she'd just watch him from the corner of her eyes.

It's been a long time since they've been in a car together. 

It's been a long time since they've been together. Period. 

Mark catches her glancing, of course he does because he can feel her eyes on his tingling skin - watching him. He says nothing, just looks to her and smiles. Mina smiles back, and like that, they're submerged into a silence that neither doesn't need to break despite not seeing each other for over two years. 

They let the silence speak for them. 

121030 

The house felt like it was undergoing on earthquake because with Mark and Mina's combined running the floor beneath them felt like it was giving in to their weights. Mark runs faster, and he had a head start anyway but Mina is right behind his tail, her hand outstretched as she tries to grab on to the hem of his shirt or even a fistful of his hair.

"Give that back, Mark!" 

Mark replies with laughter, looking back at her with a silly grin on his face. He dangles the sock in his hands as they race up the stairs and Mina almost trips and Mark laughs even louder. "Come on, slowpoke. Come on, come on, come on, come on." he recites to her.

Mina, already angry, goes up two steps at a time and eventually has a grip on his hair. She stops in her tracks, forcefully making him stop as well. "You big fat jerk, give me that!"

"Ow!" he howls, his hand dropping the hello kitty sock she owned. He has both hands on his hair, trying to pry her's off from it. "Okay, ow! Let me go now - ow! Mina!"

Their butts are on the carpeted floor, Mina feeling exhausted from all