NETIZEN

ZeRo-DaY I

"I'm here for Kyung Gi. Your brother would have never wanted you to spend your 18th birthday alone. I don't want you to spend your birthday alone. So you are going to come and eat this cake that had me running all over Seoul to fetch."

Jun Ho gave her a stern stare filled with determination. Soo Yeon surrendered and sat down.

The season and the day itself were tiresome, school, Netizen, it was one of those days where Soo Yeon just wished to become oblivion.

"Good, let's eat," Jun Ho said with a smile and the enthusiasm of a child on his way to Disney.

"Did you bring Soju?"

"Why would I bring alcohol?

"Geez, I'm 18; you really suck," Soo Yeon said, getting up and going to her fridge to fetch a bottle of Grapefruit soju.

"You drink, and what did you say I suck? Since when do you speak like that?" Jun Ho said in shock.

"Get over it, Jun Ho, and no, I don't drink. I just bought it earlier."

"You can drink in my presence. Only drink in my presence."

Jun Ho's sentence made Soo Yeon roll her eyes.

"What did your boyfriend get you?"

As soon as the sentence came out, Jun Ho regretted it.

"I don't have a boyfriend."

"Then who was the boy who kissed you?"

Jun Ho wanted to bang his head against the wall, shamed by his indiscretion.

"You saw it? You spied on me?"

"I wasn't stalking or spying. I happened to see him kiss you," Jun Ho said.

"He violated my private space, and he stole my first kiss."

Soo Yeon still couldn't digest despite the budding feelings she had. She felt as though he had trespassed on her territory.

Jun Ho pounded his fist on the table, "I'll kill the scoundrel."

Surprised, Soo Yeon laughed nervously, "you really think you're my brother, don't you?"

Jun Ho didn't know what to answer as he wondered who he was for her, "eat," he replied.

Soo Yeon took a fork and cut a piece. If Jun Ho weren't there, she would have rolled on the floor like a rolling pin glorifying the taste of the cake. But she just blushed at the thought and continued eating and drinking.

"Don't drink so quick," Jun Ho said. He had barely touched his glass. He watched 18-year-old Soo Yeon become red every second. He turned his hand to look at his phone, which vibrated.

Caller:

HONG GA EUN

Jun Ho put his phone on mute.

As he turned back to look at Soo Yeon, his face was blinded with a white splurge of cream. Soo Yeon giggled, falling on the side as she watched Jun Ho's reaction to his newly creamed face.

"오, 좀 웃기네. Is this funny, Soo Yeon?"

"Yes, it is," Soo Yeon replied.

Jun Ho had never seen her like this even before; she was so different. Grown-up, Hye Mi was other; it was only there as she laughed that he realized how long her hair was. He observed her; she was thin, maybe too skinny.

Did she eat properly? Jun Ho wondered.

If her arms were not a little muscled, giving them an athletic aspect, one could have sworn she was boney. But she still had the babyface, which sulked a little. And how he heard her giggle, it too was a first. It was with amused eyes that Jun Ho gazed at her before realizing the giggles were cries.

"Hye Mi, Hye Mi."

"Appa, Oppa, Eomma 보고 싶어 [bogosiepo], I miss you all so much why did you all leave me?"

The man awaited anything except this outburst, which paralyzed him. The last time he saw her cry was on the Han River, where she ran away. Now she rolled on the floor crying, covering her eyes with her elbow.

Jun Ho approached, gently taking away her elbow from her face, "Hye Mi, I'm here; you are not alone."

She stopped sobbing, opening her eyes to find Jun Ho's face hovering over hers. They stayed in the same position for a minute, with him holding back her elbow, gazing into her eyes. It was like a close encounter of the third kind, as Jun Ho met Hye Mi, not the shy, awkward seven-year-old but the young woman.