Oscar Cameron moved to South Korea at the age of sixteen. By eighteen, it has been decided that he was to go for business studies - except his grades were absolute shit.
That's how she came in.
She got him into university.
She took the blame when...
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It has been seven years since he had spoken to New York.
Seven years since she sent him that message he did not respond to: I don't want to feel like I'm fighting to exist in your life, Oscar.
Oscar knew that she had a partner – someone who worshiped her on Valentine's Day, someone who celebrated birthdays and anniversaries, someone who could give her what he could not.
"Hey!"
"Oh God. Jesus, Dana!" Oscar exclaimed, jumping up in his seat when he heard her voice. He looked back and screamed.
Dana was peering down at him with a gorilla mask, snickering behind it like a villainous ape. She pounded on her chest twice for dramatic effect before removing it and giving it to him.
"For you," she said. "Happy birthday, kiddo."
"I'm twenty-seven. I'm not a child," Oscar snapped.
There was something about people referring to him as a child that would always trigger him.
Maybe it was something he always tried to grow out of.
Maybe it transported him back to eight years ago where he stood hand in hand with New York on the streets of Hongdae, the day of the first snow when she used her wish on him.
Dana rolled her eyes and plopped on a chair beside him. "Matthew said he came in to tell you that your album ranked first, and you looked at him like he was crazy."
Oscar stayed quiet, leaning back against the swivel chair.
"I told him that maybe there is something else that's going on, so he sent me here to find out," Dana said bluntly, and Oscar blinked. "I'm not even going to hide it from you. You know me."
Oscar did know Dana – She preferred to be straightforward and laid her cards on the table for everyone to see. Honesty was her virtue and sometimes, it helped them save time and effort. Dana hated games.
"Fine," she said. "If you won't tell me, let me tell you what I've observed—"
"Dana," Oscar said tiredly massaging between his eyes. "I—"
"Every Valentines you get moody and sulky even if it's your birthday. I, at first, thought it was because you didn't have a girl to celebrate it with. The ones that you do would last at most three days. Last night while you were in the meeting room, I saw you scrolling through the Instagram profile of someone so familiar, I wondered if I have ever met her before...."
Oscar looked down.
"Then I realized: New Year in New York? Isn't that song about the girl I met in the bar when I first met you?" Dana rambled on. "Where is she? Your ride and die? So I searched her up since I do remember her real name. She said it meant 'butterfly' in Korean. Guess what I found?"
