🌟🌬⚘️☀️

I got home with a gloomy mood, and it even got gloomier that there was no one at home as I opened the door.

I recalled that the four of us all had different plans the night before: the Fairytale Night at Pyeonghwa for me, the Year End dinners with Eric's family for Yongsun, another dinner with her current producing team for Byulyi and a VIP wedding to take care of right on the last day of the year for Hyejin.

Usually I didn't find the fact that we had our own stuff and couldn't be at home at the same time something sad, but now it only added more sadness to my already heavy heart.

Or is it just the side effect of hangover? I'd rather so.

I climbed upstairs, opened my room's door and jolted right away with a startling exclamation.

     "Oh shit! Ahn Hyejin! You freaked me out."

     "Home already?"

Hyejin didn't even look a bit startled. She glanced at me with raised eyebrows and then turned to look at her in the mirror, taking off the green jelly face mask, the color of which did startle me the moment I saw it, and grunted to herself as she realized that she took it off too early.

     "Urgh, I hate this kind of mask, taking too much time and too sticky."

     "You're using it anyway." - I commented and walked inside, taking off my jacket and plopping onto the mattress. - "Why whining?"

     "I didn't buy it, ok?" - Hyejin replied me while she was busy with the next step in the facial routine. - "It was a gift and at least I should use it once to have something to feedback for the giver. I can't just take it for granted anyway."

     "That sounds cool of you, Hyejin ah."

I complimented her and stretched my legs and arms, moving them as if I was making a snow angel on the mattress and let out a sleepy yawn.

     "Oh why am I so sleepy on the New Year day like this?"

     "Party too hard, eh?"

I inhaled for a second and replied her with a nod.

     "Yes. You gotta see how twenty people ended up consuming nearly thirty bottle of wines, not to mention beers." - I sat up and spilled an interesting fact, to which Hyejin just replied with a brief pout of amusement. - "And we had, like a 3 hour karaoke session. It was exhausting, but fun, to be honest."

     "You're getting to enjoy life more and more, eh?" - Hyejin smirked. - "What or who should I credit to for this improvement?"

I shrugged and copied her pout to reply nonverbally.

I don't know.

Because my mind had been clouded after what happened last night.

At that moment, I suddenly smelled fried chicken. It was weird. I mean, there were only me and Hyejin in the house right now and there was this delicious smell. Hyejin had the same concern, her brows knitted as she turned to me.

     "Do you smell that?"

     "Chicken?"

     "Yes."

     "I do. Is there anybody else home but you and me?"

     "This ain't a scary movie, Jung Wheein." - Hyejin rose up from her seat confidently and started walking towards the door while sniffing continuously to identify where exactly the smell came from. - "Perhaps. . . "

Even before Hyejin could reach it, the door flung open and all of the sudden, Yongsun's head peeked out with a big grin, followed by a shriek and a series of random curse words from Hyejin, to which I yelped, flinching at the loud noise.

     "Holy shit unnie" - Hyejin cried out. - "That ain't fun at all."

Yongsun's grin even got bigger as she held up a big plastic bag. That was where the delicious smell of fried chicken came from.

     "It's lunch time, girls.", she said, dimples peeking from her mouth corners.

I reached for my phone and double tapped the screen. The phone's clock showed 11:00.

And nothing else.

What am I even expecting?

     "Because the chicken smells so good. . ." - I darted back to Yongsun and chinned up, an effort to wipe away any unnecessary thoughts and worry - ". . .I'll forgive you for being creepy!"

     "No way Wheeinie. . ." - Hyejin snapped - "You can't be that easy. Where's the beer, unnie?"

     "You know how to negotiate, Hyejin ah" - Yongsun's eyebrows raised as she said with a flourish - "Ta-da!"

She then left her "hiding" place and walked to the threshold, showing me and Hyejin a full view of her other hand. It was holding another big bag, dripping droplets of water onto our newly washed welcome mat, signaling fresh and cool beers.

     "Are you all ready for lunch now?", she said, shaking her shoulders enthusiastically.

     "What about Byulyi unnie?"

I asked, scrambled down the mattress.

     "She's on her way." - Yongsun checked her watch - "Perhaps in 10 minutes."

     "But unnie. . ." - Hyejin, being the critical one, shot Yongsun a skeptical glare. - "Any reason for this treat? I'm smelling something unusual."

Yongsun looked at Hyejin, and then me. I realized that she had been beaming all happily ever since peeking out from behind the door. Something was definitely there, the reason for her being that overjoyed.

     "Girls. . ."

Yongsun said nonchalantly but her words came out firmly instead.

     "I and Eric have decided. Our wedding will be next month."

○●○

별 바람 꽃 태양 그리고 너야
Star, wind, flower, sun and you

그래서 다 너야
Yes, it's all you

같은 하늘 아래 오늘 같은 날에
Under the same sky, on a day like this

마주할 수 있다는 것만으로도 감사해
I'm thankful for the fact that we can look at each other

I sat cross-legged on the chair, an unfinished chicken drumstick on my left hand and a cool can of beer on the other, mouth stopped chewing so that ears and brain could focus 100% to the melody played from Byulyi's phone.

Next to me, Hyejin and Yongsun had the same reaction while Byulyi just put on a shy smile as the demo song gradually reached its final note.

     "That's it." - She tapped on the phone screen and closed the music player. - "Once Yongsun unnie approves, we can start rehearsing this song for the wedding."

     "What's it called, unnie?", asked Hyejin.

     "Our names. Star is me, Byulyi. . ." - Byulyi shrugged as a matter of fact and her gaze went to each of us as she listed - "Wind - Wheeinie, Flower - Hyejinie and of course Sun is our Solar, Yongsun unnie. So it's Star Wind Flower Sun."

I felt my lips stretching into a smile. Genuinely. A beautiful song and a meaningful title for a special occasion.

I had thought Byulyi spent her New Year partying with her team but instead, she used those moments to hone the lyrics and record a demo for the song she had been working on since Eric's proposal.

     "I just had a feeling that I would need it soon so I tried to complete it before midnight."

Byulyi said, her face relaxed as she reached for her first chicken drumstick. She must have been a little anxious waiting for our reaction that she hadn't even touched a single piece of food.

     "And why do you guys have to think of separate wedding gift when we could prepare our own?"

Byulyi went on, directing the suggestion to none but me and Hyejin. It was a great idea. I hadn't got over the overwhelming emotion of the surprised news, not to mention thinking of a wedding gift.

Therefore, I nodded in agreement to Byulyi while Hyejin gave Byulyi a thumb up.

And then, without a word, we all looked at Yongsun, having been silent the moment the song ended. Her lips pursed but I could see her eyes flickered, as if trying to hold back.

     "Sup, unnie?" - Byulyi threw her arms across Yongsun's shoulder and tugged her into a side hug - "Do we have a crying challenge going on here?"

I caught her joke and turned around, pretending to look for some hidden camera.

     "Do we? I can't see any recording signal from here?"

     "Stop joking, you little bitches!"

Yongsun cried out and she burst into tears. In between her tears, she was grimacing and then smiling at us, her face was mortified but she just didn't care. She isn't crying for pain. That's what I could feel.

I stood up and left me seat to come over her place. I wrapped Yongsun and Byulyi in my arms, carefully used my wrists to pull them into a hug instead of the fingers full of oil and sauce. Hyejin also followed me for a silent group hug.

     "You guys. . ." - Yongsun sobbed with shaky voice - "Are you still ok if I'm no longer here?"

I felt something block my throat. My eyes slowly got teary and my lips pouted. Gosh, I am crying.

     "Who are you talking to?" - I hissed - "Of course we'll be fine."

     "Are you sure, Wheeinie?", she asked, her gaze at me looked like she didn't believe I said so.

And I nodded.

     "Uh, even if it's not, we'll learn to be fine."

     "Geez, it's not that she'll be moving to the US after that."

Hyejin, as always, was the realistic one. Yet she might not read the nuance in Yongsun's question.

Once she got married and moved to live with Eric, she wouldn't be present for me whenever I needed, just like she had been doing for the last 7 years.

But after all, I still had to learn to be fine without her - or even anyone else in my limited network, Hyejin, Byulyi, Hyojin or Seulgi - being by my side all the time.

It'd be a challenge for sure.

Nevertheless, I had to accept it first.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. And as the group hug finally detached, I took a sneak peak of the incoming messages.

     "!@#$%^&*()"

I found myself frown at the random cuss words Hongsol threw, which was not her usual style, and then found my eyes bulge out at her next messages.

   "F***ing crazy, unnie yah"

   "He drove me to Ilsan overnight."

   "and that f***ing bastard told my parents that we were dating."

   "I'm doomed."