A Thousand Purple Stars (JinJi)

Catching Up

It was the day after their essays were due. They were asked to write up to 1000 words on what they wanted to be when they grew up. At that point, Jisoo had no idea. She had always liked books and coming up with fanciful stories, but her father had discouraged her from thinking of it as a serious job. Mr. Hong, after reading her essay, called her to his desk after school one day and praised her essay.

Jisoo had written about her mother's death when she was eight, and how the loss of a single person made her realize that life was unpredictable. It could be long or short, smooth or rocky and oftentimes, a combination of both. In the grand scheme of things, a person's lifetime would comprise just an infinitesimal speck in the history of the universe. Therefore, she believed that the best she could ever hope to be when she grew up was happy. Happiness, that's all.

Jisoo tried to hold in her tears as she read the closing words of Mr. Hong's letter: "I hope you're happy, Jisoo. If not, then I hope you'll find happiness. And when you do, I hope you'll have the courage not to let it go."

In his post-script to her, Mr. Hong wrote: "Please, try to get in touch with Park Jinyoung. I wanted to have lunch with the two of you before I passed, but since I won't be here much longer, I'll trust the two of you to meet up without me."

Jisoo folded the letter back up gently and then looked at Jinyoung. He'd been watching her while she read the letter and there was a curious expression on his face. Jisoo cleared her throat.

"He really did want the two of us to catch up over lunch," she conceded with a sharp tone. Jinyoung didn't appreciate that.

"Why would I lie about that?" he said. Jisoo narrowed her eyes at him.

"I don't know," she said, putting the letter down and crossing her arms. "People lie about all sorts of different things, you could be a liar, too."

Jinyoung scoffed. "No," he said, leaning forward. "That's you."

Jisoo rolled her eyes.

"Look, if it's alright with you, I'd like to actually enjoy my lunch break and remember my favorite teacher fondly. We don't always have to be fighting."

Jinyoung shrugged. "That's fine with me."

A waiter came by to fill their glasses with water and deliver a basket of bread as an appetizer. She promised their food would be out soon and then left them alone to converse.

"Since when do you go to Southern Tech?" Jisoo asked, grabbing a breadstick. Jinyoung took a drink of water.

"Since four years ago," he answered.

"Let me guess," Jisoo said, her mouth half full of bread. "You're studying to be a litigator or something."

"A doctor, actually." Jinyoung picked up a small flyer at the edge of the table and started reading the back of it. Jisoo tilted her head at him

"Huh," she said. Jinyoung furrowed his brows at her.

"What?"

"Nothing," Jisoo said, raising her arms in surrender. "I just didn't have you pegged as a 'saving lives' kind of guy. Who knew? Where's the precedent for that?"

Her comment hurt. The promise of being able to save lives was precisely what drew Jinyoung to the pre-med program at Southern Tech. It was exactly why he wanted to be a doctor in the first place. Did he really seem like the wrong type of person for it? He shrugged.

"I guess it runs in my family," he said.

Jisoo paused, midway through spreading butter over a roll. She looked up at Jinyoung slowly and didn't miss the look of hurt in his eyes. Shit. She'd forgotten that there was a nerve there. She'd forgotten that his father was the fire chief who died.