Their Golden Heart

8 - Lin Yeona

I pick my phone up from the floor, sighing from relieve when I find no new scratches on it. My relief is quickly replaced by confusion. Why didn't it crack? It fell 8 feet only to land on a few roots, yet it doesn't have a scratch. But the second I lay my phone down with a little too much force my screen acts like I threw it out of a plane. 

I turn my phone over a few more times, still wondering how it survived that fall, when Jisung finally hops out of the tree. I stretch my arm out towards him, handing him my phone. He reluctantly takes it, giving me a small smile before typing in his number. When he returns me my phone I quickly press the checkmark in the upper right corner to safe his contact. My fingers swiftly move over the screen, opening the camera app and turning the camera to selfie-mode. Raising my hand I quickly snap a picture of me sticking out my tongue with Jisung in the background. 

"Why did you..." Jisung starts catching my attention. Turning to him I see his shocked, almost scared expression which confuses me. 

"Don't worry, I'll just send it to you. You know, so you know that it's me." I give him a bright smile and show him my phone as I send the picture to him. His phone buzzes right after and he takes it out, adding me to his contacts as well. I look at his phone over his shoulder to see him use the picture I send him as my profile picture. 

The two of us sit down the same way we sat last week. Our backs facing the tree and our eyes locked on the starry sky above us. We just sit there in silence for a few minutes until I've had enough of it. I push myself off from the tree and turn so that I'm facing Jisung. "Would you rather live in the mountains, on a beach or on the moon?"

His confused eyes lock on mine before he burst out in laughter. "What?" He say between chuckles. 

I smile at his reaction before saying: "I thought that we should get to know each other, so which one will it be? Mountain, beach or the moon?"

Jisung shakes his head while smiling, thinking about his answer before answering: "The moon sounds really cool, but it's a bit lonely, so that's a no. The beach or the mountains... Both do have a beautiful view, so I can't really choose. I think it's up to my-" He pauses for a short second, before continuing as if he never paused at all.  "friends, I want to make sure that they move with me."

"Are you close with them? Since you want them to move with you." I ask him, watching his genuine smile, that appeared as soon as he started talking about his friends. 

"Yes, the eight of us are really close-"

"Eight?!" He looks at me confused, my own eyes probably wide open from shock. "You have eight friends?!"

"Seven, I'm the eighth, but yeah?"

My mouth falls open. Seven friends... "And they all like each other? So not two or three groups? They can all hangout without you as well?" He just nods happily. Wow, that sounds amazing. How did that even happen? How do you find eight people who all like each other. "Tell me more." I say, leaning towards him, smiling brightly. 

"Uh, okay. The eight of us know each other for five years now. From those years we've been living together for four and a half."

This causes me to stare at him in shock once more. They live together?! "Boys and girls combined?" 

"No, we're all guys." 

"Eight guys live together?!" I blink a few times trying to process this information. "Isn't it always a mess?" 

Jisung snickers at me. "Occasionally yes, but most of the time it's pretty clean." 

"Wow, that sounds amazing." I smile while leaning backwards, laying down on the ground, staring up at the stars that shine through the leaves of the old willow tree. "I wish I had a friend group like that." 

Jisung looks at me and asks, curiosity laced into his eyes: "And you? What about your friends?"

I give him a soft smile. "Just friend, not plural. Hyeon is my only friend and he has been for the past eight years."

"You know what they say about friendships that lasted more then seven years right?" I shake my head at him in response. "They last a lifetime." 

I can feel myself smiling brightly. I can't imagine losing Hyeon, so I hope that he is right. Losing him would definitely break my heart. "Well then you guys have only two more years to go."

He looks at me with confusion before he realises what I mean. "I guess we do." 

With that the both of us return to the comfortable silence once more. Both lost in thought remembering our friendships, at least that's what I'm doing. Memories from Hyeon and me flash through my mind like small movies. Moments like all the times we got ice cream at our favorite shop, or when we had dinner at each others places. I remember all the movie-nights we had and how our stomachs ached from eating to much candy. How nervous we were when we went to the club for the first time and how Hyeon failed miserably at hitting on a girl. 

"What about you?" Jisung suddenly says, pulling me out of my thoughts. I give him a confused look. "You asked me if i'd prefer to live in the mountains, at the beach or on the moon, but what about you?" 

I smile, not expecting him to return that question. Maybe I should have thought of an answer before asking it in the first place. "Probably the mountains. The beach is often so crowded, the mountains on the other hand, are so large, there is always a silent place. Where you can enjoy nature with only the rustling of leaves and the chirping of birds to accompany you." 

I look at Jisung who seems to be thinking of my answer, before nodding lightly, probably agreeing with my response. 

"What is your favorite color?" I ask him, curious to know more about him. 

"Wow, you're really into the deep questions, huh?" He says chuckling. 

I shake my head, smiling at him. "So what is it?"

"Red. And yours?"

"Yellow. Like the sun. It reminds me to be happy, because life can sometimes let you down. But even though the sun might not be visible, that doesn't mean that it's not there."

"Apparently it was a deep question after all..." 

I giggle, hiding my head in my hands. Typical me, talking something like a favorite color way too seriously. I spread my fingers, peeking through them to see Jisung looking at me with a soft smile. I quickly close my fingers again, scolding myself for rambling about a color. 

Jisung suddenly grabs my wrists, pulling them away from my face. "Get out of your head, I liked it. You made me rethink my own favorite color, I wish I had a reason for it like yours." His words calm me down instantly. I'm glad someone apart from Hyeon accepts my weird quirks and random rants. I can't help but smile at that thought.

- - -

I'm laying on my bed, huddled up with pillows and blankets all around me. My mind returns to an hour ago. Jisung and I kept talking for an hour more after my still-embarrassing-rant-about-my-favorite-color. We just talked about our families and he told me more about his friends. Turns out that two of his friends are from Australia. I've always wanted to go there, after I told him this he said that the eight of them went there last year. He spent twenty minutes explaining to me how beautiful it was and how much fun they had. I've to say that I loved hearing him talk about it, but at the same time it got me really annoyed. I now want to go there even more then ever. 

Realising how late it was we both walked back through the trees, most of the walk was in silence, both of us clearly tired. We both went our own ways when we got back into the city. Jisung had offered to walk me home since it was so late, but I convinced him that it was fine. He told me to be safe and to call him if anything happened. His concern for my safety made me smile and is still does when I think back to it. We've only met a week ago, yet he already acts like this. It shows me that he indeed is a good guy. 

When I arrived home I had sent him a text, telling him I made it home safely to which he responded with a 'I'm glad, so did I' which made me smile. I wished him a good sleep before turning of my screen and tossing it next to me on my bed. And that's where I'm now, laying in my bed trying to fall asleep, which turns out to be quite hard with an active mind like mine that keeps replaying today's events.