https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fduHRrRum_E

Kim Sunggyu was sitting gloomily on his chair. He must be feeling happy right now. His best friend just announced that he would be getting married. Yes, Nam Woohyun would get married next month. Sunggyu sighed, he did not feel that happy just because Woohyun would get married first. And it was because until reaching this age, Sunggyu still had no girlfriend. It was frustrating actually. He was old enough to get married but he was still single. His parents have been asking him many times when he would get married. They said they really wanted to have grandchildren. Sunggyu has reminded them that they already had grandchildren from his noona, but his parents insisted that they wanted to have grandchildren from Sunggyu as soon as possible. Oh, that was really frustrating.

And now, out of blue, Nam Woohyun was announcing he was getting married.

Darn it, Woohyun.

“Who’s the lucky girl?” Lee Sungyeol, who had got married a year ago, asked. Sunggyu furrowed eyebrows as he remembered something. He looked at all his friends. He just realised that he and Woohyun were the last to get married. If Woohyun got married, it was only Sunggyu the last single man. Darn it. Why did he become the last one among his friends? He couldn’t stop cursing to himself.

“I will let you guys meet her.” Woohyun answered. The others cheered happily but then Woohyun said,”But not now. She’s not in town. She’s at her parents’ house.” Disappointed voices came in the room.

“It’s too sudden, Woohyunnie. Don’t you know that?” Dongwoo, father of twin daughters, asked. Sunggyu glared at him. He just realised that fact. Dongwoo now looked even happier after he got two daughters. Uh. Sunggyu sort of felt he hated it.

“Have you decided the date? Please not after the date of my baby’s delivery.” The silent Kim Myungsoo, who recently talked much about his wife, said. His wife was pregnant about almost nine months. Myungsoo was so so happy and often asked his friends good names for his soon-to-be-born child. He was informed that the baby was a male and he rejoiced that there would be Kim Myungsoo junior. O-oh. That fact annoyed Sunggyu.

“It’s on 18^th next month. We’ve decided it.” Woohyun told them, smiling. “You guys must come. And Myungsoo, you don’t need to worry, I know your wife is predicted to deliver the baby after the 25^th. And Dongwoo, it’s not that sudden. I’ve planned it months ago.” He chuckled.

Lee Sungjong, the youngest among them, spoke up. “How long you’ve been together with her?” Sunggyu made note that Sungjong had been married first among them and he already had three children, two sons and a daughter. Sungjong really has such a happy family, Sunggyu thought.

“Four months…?” Woohyun replied uncertainly. He then laughed. “I’m not really sure. I’ve known her years ago. But I started to have feelings for her after I met her again six months ago.”

“Aren’t you guys in hurry?” Lee Howon teased. Oh, Sunggyu remembered Howon had get married two years ago. He had one year-old son who looked exactly like him. O-oh.

“Oh come on, Howon, I’m old enough to get married.” Woohyun replied, which made Sunggyu felt something slapped him. He was actually older than Woohyun. “I’ve proposed her, and she agreed to get married just in two months.” Woohyun added.

Sunggyu felt miserable, thinking that he was the only one who hasn’t planned about getting married among them. His friends sure forgot that fact. It was really frustrating. When would he meet the one who would be his bride?

“Gyu hyung, you must come no matter what. You’ve said you will sing some songs at my wedding.” Woohyun said suddenly, giggling.

“Yeah, Gyu hyung is really good at singing! I should have asked him to sing at my wedding back then.” Dongwoo laughed.

Sunggyu smiled bitterly. “Of course I’ll come.” He said.

“Gyu hyung, you should bring your girlfriend!” Sungyeol said.

Somebody finally brought up this topic. Thank you, Sungyeol. Sunggyu rolled his eyes.

“Does he have a girlfriend?” Myungsoo asked innocently. Darn it, Myungsoo.

“I bet Gyu hyung will come with his girlfriend at Woohyunnie hyung’s wedding!” Sungjong squalled.

“No, he will come alone.” Sungyeol stuck out his tongue.

“I bet he will come alone.” Myungsoo commented.

Dongwoo and Woohyun raised their hands. “I bet he will bring someone!” they said in unison. Then the room became chaos since they were busy debating.

“Guys, guys, stop betting on me.” Sunggyu sighed hard.

“Hyung, you should get married as well after Woohyun hyung.” Howon said, and the others laughed. Sunggyu couldn’t even say any words.

Secretly Sunggyu made a bet to himself that he must bring someone at Woohyun’s wedding, who would be introduced as his wife-to-be.

But, who was the one Sunggyu would go with to Woohyun’s wedding?

Aish, he really didn’t know.

Woohyun’s wedding was in twenty seven days and now he was here at his shop, not knowing what to do with his own bet. Sunggyu sighed. It was not good on planning something which would never happen. He meant that it was not easy to get someone to go with to a wedding. Hey, should he contact some of her female cousins to be his fake girlfriend? He frowned. No, it would be bad. It was not even the solution of his problem. He really needed a girl to be his wife, and he would never find the right one in such short of time. It was not easy.

It was never easy, and it was really frustrating.

“O-oh, I’m sorry!”

Sunggyu came into reality as a costumer of his photo print shop dropped some photos from the table. The costumer quickly took all the fallen photos on the floor and put them back on the table. Looked like the costumer did not intentionally drop the photos. Sunggyu’s shop was kind of busy today. He got not many staffs working since he gave them a day off. He didn’t know today’s business would be this busy since he had spent most of his times teaching at the college. Since the students were on holiday for this semester, he decided to help at the print shop like he always did. He was thankful since the business was busy every time he was here. But, the bad thing was with not many staffs working, he got himself daydreaming most of times. Yeah, about the bet about girlfriend thingy. He got to say this many times, yeah, this was really frustrating.

“No problem. I can take care of that.” He said. As the costumer looked up at him, he just realised that the costumer was a girl. The girl smiled apologetically. For some seconds, Sunggyu was mesmerised. The girl in front of him right now was still smiling. She’s got a short hair with bangs. And hey, he felt like he knew her. That face, it was not that familiar, but he thought he knew her.

“Do you remember me, sunbae?” the girl asked suddenly, smiling.

Sunbae?

She knows me?

“Do we know each other?” he furrowed eyebrows in confusion. The girl burst into laughter. He got puzzled seeing her action. Hey, she really knows me or not?

She was still laughing but right then she slowly stopped,”O-oh, you don’t know me, sunbae, you must forget me since we don’t actually know each other.”

“What do you mean?” he was still puzzled. “But, are you really my hoobae?” it really confused him. He had lots friends in his class at that time, and he also got many juniors whom many of them he was not familiar with. And this girl is one of my juniors?

The girl giggled. “Sunbae was famous back then, all people in the college knew who sunbae was.” She said. “At the time people mention Kim Sunggyu, everyone knew who you are.”

Sunggyu blinked. She really knew him. Ah, he remembered. He has become an assistant for his lecturer for some semesters years ago when he was still at the college. That was maybe why his juniors knew him. O-oh. He blinked. He saw the girl chuckling.

“Did you remember when I came to your graduation ceremony?” the girl asked again.

“You came?” he blinked many times.

The girl didn’t reply his question. “Did you remember?”

At that time, some costumers called him, asking for their photos. The girl smiled at him and suddenly rose from her seat.

“I’ll come again tomorrow, sunbae.” She said and exited the shop.

She came to his graduation ceremony?

Sunggyu thought hard about it. He met many people at that time and he didn’t remember who he met. He just remembered that he met his family and friends. He didn’t remember any of his juniors meeting him. He sighed and lay down on his bed. He was so curious and he couldn’t stop thinking about it unless he remembered whether he met her at the ceremony. Did he really meet her? Or she was lying? He couldn’t remember anything about her. He—

He suddenly got up and walked up to his desk. He put some photos of his graduation on his desk. He looked at the photos intently. There was a photo of some flower bouquets he got from his friends. And in the photo, he saw a single rose there. He didn’t remember who gave him the flower. But then he slowly remembered the moment.

The ceremony was over. Sunggyu was looking for his parents and his friends. The hall was so crowded and he couldn’t find them. He exited the hall, still looking for them as he thought they were already outside. He met Myungsoo, Sungjong and Dongwoo and he was told that his parents were still inside. He saw bunch of his juniors coming inside and he went inside as well. He was still looking everywhere to find his parents. And then…

“Sunbae, congratulations!” someone reached out a hand in front of him.

He looked up and saw a familiar face smiling at him. He instantly smiled and took her hand. His junior smiled with delight at him. “Thank you.”

“Ah, sunbae, this is for you.” She gave him a red rose. “Congratulations!” she then turned around and left.

He was left speechless, but then he forgot about the flower as he met his parents with Sungyeol and Howon.

Ah, she was that girl!

Sunggyu smiled to himself. For some more time he was curious who exactly the girl was, but he had no time to think about it as he started taking care the print shop owned by his father and looked for job in some schools in town. And now she came back to his life. Did it have some meanings?

Sunggyu grinned. He wondered if she was the right one he was looking for.

“Hi, sunbae!”

Sunggyu turned his head and saw the girl from yesterday was waving at him.  He couldn’t help but smile. He was happy she really came. He didn’t expect that she would actually come today. She came to the desk and greeted him once again.

“You came again.” He said, smiling slightly.

“I haven’t taken my photos.” She grinned and looked around. “Yesterday I just submitted more file photos. You know, I’ve just found some photos of my childhood. And I’m thinking to scan and print them out.” He didn’t understand why she told him about that. But seemed like she just liked to have chit-chat with everybody she met. Yes, she was that kind of person, a very friendly person.

“Is that so?” he looked at her. She nodded enthusiastically and she ended up smiling.

“Did you remember me, sunbae?” she asked suddenly.

“We were not close, were we?” he didn’t reply her straight away. He smiled secretly.

She shook her head. “We’re not close. But, we often took the same classes and you became lecturer’s assistant in some other classes.”

“Really? We took the same classes?” he blinked. He just got this information. He now understood why she looked familiar. She looked even familiar for him.

This time, she nodded.

“But why did you give me the flower?”

“It was for you, to congratulate you, sunbae.”

She smiled again, it was so beautiful.

What am I thinking? Sunggyu slapped himself.

She then talked about the classes they have taken at that time. Talking with her, he felt like watching the memories again. The memories of his college days came alive once again. It was not the end of their encounter. They have promised to meet some other alumnus of their department in three days. And Sunggyu was so excited about this, and he didn’t know why.

Sunggyu didn’t expect that in their next encounter, he would meet his old classmates and some of his juniors. He was surprised yet happy to see those familiar faces, it had been years he had not met his college friends. He didn’t know how she succeeded to contact them, but it was really great. Seemed like she was still in contact with everybody. The meeting was very fun. As they remembered the college days, they also shared their experiences after graduated from the college. Sunggyu also shared his story, that after graduation, he looked for jobs as a chemistry teacher in some schools, and then he got one at a high school. Since he got not many hours to work at that time, he came to help his father doing the business at the print shop and he did it until now every time he was not teaching. He was now working at their college as lecturer after he got his master degree a year ago. His juniors looked amazed with his story.

“You know it’s not easy to be a lecturer in our college, sunbae.” One of his hoobaes said.

“It is.” Sunggyu nodded. “But I’m happy I can be back to the college.” He chuckled and the others laughed. He turned around at the girl,”your turn.”

The girl said her story was not that impressive. She said after graduation (she graduated a year after Sunggyu), she looked for job in some companies and she waited for so long to be contacted for interviews by the companies she submitted her proposal into. During that time, she just spent her time at home, or sometimes she helped some work of her older brother who worked at a hospital’s pharmacy. Recently she got a job in a foreign company.

“Do you already know about me working at the print shop in my free time teaching?” Sunggyu asked her when they were heading to a bus stop. Surprisingly it was only two of them who had the same direction.

“No, until I saw you there.” She replied. “You’ve taken my photo files, but you didn’t recognize me. But I don’t blame you, sunbae.” She laughed.

He wondered why he wanted to smile every time he heard her laughter. Unknowingly he wanted to smile every time she smiled. And he must be crazy. Yes.

“And why did you ask me whether I remember you or not?” he asked, curious.

She was still chuckling. “I thought about this, that you perhaps remembered a weird hoobae whom you did not know giving you a flower at your graduation ceremony. But I guess you didn’t remember anything about me. It’s so silly, right?” they laughed together.

“I’m sorry, I tend to forget people’s faces easily.” He rubbed the back of his head.

She nodded. “I understand. You meet many students every day, also customers at your print shop, and it’s not easy to remember everybody’s faces well. I often forget people’s faces, too.”

She laughs again.

She got off first from the bus. She was waving at him and smiling widely. He waved back at her and he couldn’t stop smiling until he reached home.

Speaking of printing and scanning photos, that girl really came often to Sunggyu’s print shop. Surprisingly she brought more photos than she usually did. After the encounter with alumnus, they two got closer and got along very well. Perhaps that was the reason she came again and again. Sunggyu liked the fact that she came again. She did not only come to print her photos, but she also came to visit him. He had a friend to talk now, and it was fun. The other reason why she printed all the photos was because she was going to move house and she found some old photos taken at her house that couldn’t be left there so she would never forget the memories there.

“I decided to scan them again.” She told him at that time. “And I will save them in photo albums and bring them to my new house.”

He smiled at her words, even though he didn’t ask where her new house was. They talked about many things, like they never run out of topics, which made him glad. She always came in the evening after 4pm, after her work was done. And she came to scan and print many photos of herself, her family, her cousins, and he realised she had such a big family. Sunggyu himself didn’t understand why he felt calm and happy whenever she was around, and he barely felt this way to someone. This sounded not right, as he just felt everything in his heart moved so fast. He didn’t believe himself falling for the girl in such short time, but seemed like that was the truth, the truth which he never expected before.

Now he was thinking, would she like to come to Woohyun’s wedding with him? Yes, he knew this was too fast, but looking at how they were close like now, it was not a bad choice. She was really nice and he thought she wouldn’t mind to come to the wedding with him. Yeah, it was not as a ‘girlfriend’ or ‘wife-to-be’, but just as a ‘friend’. If they were meant for each other, if God let him to spend his life with her, there was always a way. Who knew if after he took her to the wedding, they would spend more time together and know each other better, which made them ending up being in that relationship. O-oh, Sunggyu was daydreaming once again.

But he didn’t want to stand still and didn’t do anything, at least he should do something.

Yes, at last he should ask her if she wanted to accompany him to the wedding.

She had some photos left at the shop which had been printed by Sunggyu’s employee this morning. Sunggyu knew she would come to take them this evening, but he had told her that they could meet somewhere since he would close his shop and go to meet his friends. They two agreed to meet at a bus stop not too far from his shop. He was humming some random songs, with an envelope in his hand. He couldn’t wait to see her again.

“Ah, she’s there.” He mumbled to himself. His smile grew wider.

A bus stopped on the stop and there were some people getting off the bus. Even from this distance, he could see her there clearly. He was about to shout out calling her name as he saw someone approaching her and covering her eyes from behind. A guy was covering her eyes from behind.

W-what is that guy doing!?

Sunggyu was so speechless.

She turned around and the guy smiled widely at him. The guy spread his arms and they hugged each other tightly. The guy kissed her forehead lovingly. As they pulled away, they talked about something Sunggyu didn’t know since he couldn’t hear them. She looked like pointing some direction which Sunggyu thought was his print shop, but the guy pointed different direction. They talked some more before waving to each other and the guy left to the direction he pointed earlier.

Sunggyu froze.

He didn’t want to see this, he didn’t want to face this reality, but he had no choice.

He slowly opened the envelope he was bringing. It felt like something punching him on his head as he saw the photos.

They were photos of her, with his best friend, Nam Woohyun.

Sunggyu bitterly laughed to himself, cursing why he was so silly to have some feelings for her. He didn’t know, Woohyun didn’t tell him it was her. Woohyun didn’t tell him anything, but today was the day Woohyun would introduce her to him and the others. Sunggyu felt his heart hurt so much. He couldn’t think properly for some seconds, and he was still standing there like an idiot.

There was the only thing he knew.

The bet he made to himself, he lost it.

Fin

July 21^st 2015

P.S: This is the first one-shot I wrote this year \m/ I’m so happy I’m able to write one-shot again since recently I just write chaptered-stories (which I barely write). I got many ideas for other one-shots, so wish me luck, everyone!