When You Make a Promise to Meet Sehun after 10 Years

You sat up abruptly, breathing heavily. “Who is he?” You muttered. You turned your head to the digital clock on your nightstand. “4:15 AM” it read. You groaned before slamming back down on your pillow. “This wasn’t the kind of sleep I had in mind when I filed for a leave.”

Ever since you returned to South Korea, the strange dreams came to you more often. It wasn’t the psychotic kind of weird. There was nothing peculiar with cherry blossom trees and frozen rivers, but that face, that boy. Who was he? Realizing that you could no longer fall asleep, you grabbed the glass of water beside your bed and headed towards the built in wooden seat by the window. You hugged your knees, your peach knitted sweater tickling your exposed thighs as you let yourself get carried away by the world in slow motion.

It’s been thirteen years since your surgery, and all you had from before that were fragments – fragments that only started flooding your memory recently.

“10 years?”

“Hmm, 10 years. I’ll be 18 and you’ll be 17 by then. We can be a legal couple already.” The boy grinned making you blush. “Stop being ridiculous.”

“Why, do you hate me or like me?”

“I like you.”

“See, but we can’t be together right now so,”

“You know what that meant! That was a trick question!”

“Okay, okay.” He laughed, but suddenly turned serious.

“10 years, no matter where or what we are, we’re going to meet again. Promise?”

“Promise.”

“_________-ah, don’t go.” An 8-year old boy cried. His hand was reaching out for you, but an old lady was pulling him back. You were shedding tears as well, but you had no choice. It was either you leave now and come back who knows when or leave later and never return at all. “Oppa, I’ll be back. Wait for me, Oppa!”

“Let’s go, _________-ah. The plane might leave us.”

“Oppa! Se-“

Before you could remember the name, the vision vanished. Your head started aching. “Ahhh,” you cried.

_________

“Oh Sehun, get in the van!” Suho shouted. The trending idol group, EXO, had just wrapped up a fan meeting in Jungnang-gu which happened to be one of the most eventful places for the youngest member. “Y-Yeah, Hyung.” He gave the park one last glance before boarding the van.

“What’s this? Lee Yura’s currently in Seoul?!” Baekhyun exclaimed, creating a fuss among the members except Sehun. “South Korea’s top ranking model and 2014 Victoria’s Secret Angel SM’s Lee Yura travelled back to her mother country for a vacation.

“Yura’s never taken a break ever since she entered the industry back in 2010. When she asked for a leave, though it was so sudden, we granted it to her. There are no arrangements of continuing activities in South Korea, but please patiently wait for and look after her.” SM’s US Representative stated in a press conference yesterday. She left Los Angeles two days ago, and no one knows why, where or how long she’ll be staying there…” The vocalist continued to read, while the rest crowded over his phone. “Yah, take your seats.” Their manager scolded, but they paid no attention to him.

“When Oh Sehun’s behaved, the rest are not. How troublesome.”He muttered, catching Baekhyun’s attention.

“A break sounds good.” Sehun side commented.

“Maknae-yah, how can you not be interested in this?” Baekhyun flashed his phone to Sehun with a look of disbelief. “You know why-“he was about to shrug it off when he did a double take. He grabbed it from the older one, intently eyeing the photo. “Yah, yah,”

That angle.

            “Do you think I can become a model?” You asked as you twirled in your knee-length bohemian dress. You and Sehun were in a park beside his house in Jungnang-gu. “Definitely.” He grinned as he watched you through the lens of his camera. “Too bad I have no plans of becoming one.” You sighed. “Why not?” He asked quizzically. “I want to be a painter.” You smiled. You raised your head up, closed your eyes and breathed in the fresh air. Sehun knew he had to snap that moment and as you made a move to turn he captured it.

As Sehun stared at one of the photos from the Spring Collection of the infamous model Lee Yura, your image from that day thirteen years ago popped in his head - a similar dress, your brown naturally wavy hair held in a loose half ponytail, only half of your face seen, your small smile as you held your chin high, your closed eyes. The only difference was this time you had makeup on.

Any other man would’ve said that it wasn’t anything extraordinary, and Sehun would’ve too. But suddenly visiting that park, remembering that moment for some reason made his yearning a tad bit stronger this time around, and he wasn’t going to let this slide.

Baekhyun was finally able to snatch his phone back. “Cold prince my face, ha! See, no one can resist the charm of Lee Yura – not even Oh Sehun who’s only ever had eyes for one girl, an 11-year old girl at that. Now, you have your own phone. Fan boy with that instead, hmm?”

            ‘__________-ah, where exactly are you?’

_________

You grabbed your gold-framed Versace sunglasses, a red wool scarf and a black cap to top of your beige trench coat and white turtle neck dress. It wasn’t winter, but it wa