"White Sand Castles"
by Aramis



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Date: September 4, 2003
Weather: sunny
Mood: happy
Today I met a man who belongs in my life.

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Date: September 4, 2003
Weather: not a cloud in the sky
Mood: hopeful
Today I met a girl who stands out in my mind.

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Chapter One

People say that true love comes when you least expect it. Perhaps that was why Kim SungEun didn't think that it was love, the feeling that she shared with her longtime friend Hwang YoonSuk. She would peck him on the cheek, murmur "I love you," and always wonder if she meant it - at least in the way that he wanted her to.

He was an affectionate person and was always ready to surround her with his warm arms and hold her tight, smiling when he heard her say those precious three words, and yet she wondered if he knew that when she said "I love you" she mentally added "like a brother" each time.

It he knew... would it hurt him?

She used to tell him - before the epochal decision to date him - that he was like a brother to her. He had always given her the same tightlipped smile when she said that, muttering, "I know, SungEun."

So she used to think that it hurt him; she told him he was like a brother, he told her just as often that he was in love with her. It was an uneven equation, and one day she had decided to even it out. Everyone told her she made the right decision when she finally accepted YoonSuk, but if often made her wonder if she should make her decisions or allow others to make them for her.

Her mother had been the most thrilled. YoonSuk is a doll, she had crooned at her only daughter, the Kims and the Hwangs had known each other since before the births of the two children in question. It was like - fate.

Not only is he sweet, her mother had added, but he was one of the most eligible Korean bachelors in the Pismo Beach community.

Eligible because of the wealth he would inherit.

SungEun was used to being rich, that was probably why her mother's argument failed to move her heart. She had not accepted YoonSuk to please her mother; she had done it - why? Was it merely because she did not like to see sadness on his face? Or was it, like her mother said, a question of security? Even now, she wondered.

But each and every time she had doubts, she always pacified her mind by telling herself that YoonSuk was a great friend and quite possibly could end up the only male figure in her life besides her father and her older brother.

She couldn't possibly pass her days as an old maid, could she? That wasn't the lifestyle she had been taught to pursue. Ever since she was a child, she had been told left and right that she could marry well and live comfortably for the rest of her living days.

She never told anyone that the word "comfortably" was not the most appealing word in the book. In fact it used to disgust her. Who wanted to live comfortably when there was life waiting for her to seize, to experience, to conquer? Besides, most adults referred to money when they said that disgusting word.

As a child, when YoonSuk was not yet a candidate for her hand, she had envisioned the perfect man in her eyes. He had to be taller than her yet not so tall that gazing at his face was uncomfortable. He should be intellectual and be able to hold long, interesting conversations with her. He should have beautiful eyes that resembled the darkest, deepest, most intriguing part of the ocean, sparkling with reflections of the sun's morning kiss. He should have long, exquisite fingers that when they touched her face, they felt like the softest of silk.

As she grew older, she tried to match this model to her longtime friend, longtime next-door neighbor YoonSuk. He was taller than her and was one of the smartest guys she knew. But his eyes were more like dewy daisies than the deepest depths of the ocean, and his touch was more like the cotton security blanket she once owned as a child than rich silk.

All this SungEun considered as she sat mesmerized in her English class, fifth seat from the right in the fourth row, her heart beating furiously because she had just met the man of her dreams, the one she had always envisioned.

He was the perfect height, just a head taller than her so that he could one day rest that chiseled chin on the top of her head.