one year later
"did you forget anything?" my mom asked worriedly as i stood next to my two suitcases.
"mom, relax, i already got everything," i smiled.
"okay good," my mom smiled, kissing the top of my head. "the rest of your stuff and your brother's will be on the way to you soon. i can ask younghoon's mother if she wants to send him anything as well."
"can we make a list of snacks you can send?" i pleaded.
my mom laughed. "of course i can," she hugged me. "are you ready for your flight? hyunjae said he'd pick you up once you arrive."
"i'm ready mom," i nodded. "i'll miss you."
"i'll miss you too," my mom said. "you better get going. don't want to miss your flight. i love you seohyun."
"love you too mom!" i hugged her one last time before she headed back into the car and i waved good bye before walking into the familiar international airport terminal. i checked in quickly, leaving my two bags in the care of the airport staff before walking towards security.
"seohyun-ah!" a familiar voice called out to me.
"chaeryeong!" i hugged my best friend. "let's go!"
"time for uni!" chaeryeong sang in a sing-song voice. "seoul national university, here we come!"
"five hundred hours of vlogging, here we come," i sighed.
"hey, keep your subscribers happy seohyun. i'm one of them," chaeryeong joked. "five hundred thousand of us are waiting."
"shut up."
the two of us breezed through security and customs -- with some vlogging in between and a lot after -- making a quick starbucks run before finally ending our last moments in taiwan by sprinting towards our gate and making it just in time to board our flight.
"i swear, if that barista had to redo your whipped cream one more fucking time we would've never made it on this place," my friend laughed as we sat down in our seats. "she must've been new."
"honestly, i felt bad for her, which is why i told her i was fine with whatever it was like the hundredth time," i sighed, looking through my bag for my phone to text my mom that i was about to leave and then switch it to airplane mode. "shit."
"what?" chaeryeong asked.
"i lost my phone."
that ensued a little bit of chaos, as i tried not to freak out and we tried to look for it in our seats. mind you we had to do this quietly, since the flight attendants were starting to close the overhead luggage bins and telling people to sit down.
"where did you put it?" chaeryeong whisper-shouted.
"i don't know!" i hissed, frustrated.
"um excuse me, is this yours?"
i whipped around at the unfamiliar voice who was holding my phone. a huge wave of relief washed over me as she gave it back to me.
"thank you so much," i said gratefully.
"no problem," the kind stranger answered. "i was worried i wouldn't be able to find you, but thank goodness we were on the same flight."
"definitely," i nodded. "where was it?"
"starbucks," she replied. "you were probably using it while waiting patiently as that barista did your whipped cream for the nth time," she joked, making us laugh.
"i'm lee seohyun," i introduced myself. "this is my best friend, lee chaeryeong," i continued as chaeryeong waved. "you?"
"i'm kim sunmi," the girl smiled. "nice to meet you. fellow koreans, i assume?"
"you got that right."
sunmi actually turned out to be sitting next to us on the plane, and the three of us managed to have a very engaging conversation.
"and that's how i became ambidextrous," sunmi said making us laugh.
"breaking your wrist, hand, and arm, all in the span of five years is truly a story," i laughed. "especially since it's your dominant side."
"it was definitely an adventure," sunmi smiled. "oh, and by the way, i love your necklace!"
"thanks," i smiled sadly, holding the small waterfall charm in between my fingers.
"i actually have the same one," sunmi pulled out the same exact charm from beneath her shirt. seeing my shocked expression, she explained it quickly. "my older brother came here on a trip with some friends once, and him and one of his friends both bought this to give to another person. my brother gave it to me, but he won't tell me who his friend gave it to. must be special."
"that's so cute," i smiled. "wait, why were you here?"
"i'm actually just heading to korea for vacation," she said. "i'm going to uni in japan, and for some reason there were zero direct flights left from japan to korea so i had to take a slight detour."
"ooh."
after a little while longer of us talking, the plane suddenly began to lower itself. we were finally in korea!
once we landed, we got off the plane and quickly found our way around and got through immigration. after all that was done, we headed over to the luggage belts and found our respective suitcases, duffels, and other bags. after that, we walked out of the gates and to the arrival section, as chaeryeong and i attempted to find hyunjae and sunmi tried to find her brother.
"oh wait, sunmi, before this is over, could i get your instagram?" i asked.
"definitely!" the three of us then proceeded to take our phones out and exchange instagram's and social media usernames.
"yay!" sunmi exclaimed. "see you! we should meet up before i leave."
"definitely!" i smiled.
"yah, kim sunmi!"
the three of us turned around to see someone calling out to sunmi, who seemed to be her older brother. he walked over to us and as i got closer, i began to notice something.
"sunwoo?" my eyes widened at the face i had seen just over a year ago.
"wait, seohyun?" sunwoo replied, equally shocked as i was. "what are you doing here?"
"i'm going to uni here," i answered. "wait, sunmi, this is your older brother?"
"the two of you know each other?" both chaeryeong and sunmi asked.
"it's a long story," i sighed.
"mhmm," the boy nodded. "anywho, we need to get going kim sunmi."
"okay," sunmi began to walk. "bye!"
"bye sunmi!" chaeryeong and i chorused.
"bye sunwoo," i added, making the boy laugh.
"bye seohyun," he grinned. "nice necklace by the way."
*
"how do you know sunmi's brother?" chaeryeong asked as we sat down, waiting for hyunjae.
"he was one of his friends," i replied, looking down at the surprisingly not entirely nasty airport floor.
"who?"
"waterfall."
"oh," chaeryeong bit her lip. "you never heard back from him, huh."
"basically yeah," i mumbled, still looking down. "i just see him on instagram and with whatever stories and posts he puts up."
"doesn't he play basketball for snu?" chaeryeong questioned. "he seems popular based off his profile. basketball players are probably really popular there."
"i think so," i said quietly.
"then won't you see him? you're on a basketball scholarship too," chaeryeong pointed out.
i shrugged my shoulders slightly. "depends. i don't know if guy and girl basketball practices run at similar times. even so, it'd be weird. i've been so focused on building up my youtube channel and practicing basketball that i haven't really known what he's doing. what if he has a girlfriend by now?"
"true," my friend nodded. " but isn't he friends with younghoon and hyunjae?" chaeryeong asked.
"kind of," i sat up straight. "they don't really hang out or do much together. none of them major in the same things anyway. younghoon and hyunjae dorm together though, so that's why they have drifted apart."
"thank god we don't have to live in the dorms," chaeryeong sighed happily. "nothing like sharing an apartment with your childhood best friends."
"and your brother," i fake-gagged.
"yah, lee seohyun!"
chaeryeong and i whipped around to see hyunjae wearing a fake glare on his face, along with a surprising addition.
"younghoon!" i squealed, running towards him and hugging him.
"missed you too seohyun," younghoon hugged me back, ruffling my hair as we let go.
"woww, seohyun," hyunjae rolled his eyes. "hugging your brother's best friend right in front of him?"
"shut up hyunjae," i retorted, walking towards him and hugging him.
"missed you too you little shit," hyunjae hugged me back. "now, are you two ready to head to your new home?"
"yes let's go!" chaeryeong exclaimed.
"ew, you sound like a fucking wackass tour guide, jae," i snorted.
younghoon laughed. "honestly, i agree."
"shut up you two bitch asses," hyunjae grumbled as the four of us walked out of the airport.
the four of us stood awkwardly outside of the airport terminal on the sidewalk, watching all the cars go past. eventually, hyunjae managed to call a taxi over to the four of us, and after loading up our luggage and telling the driver our destination, we piled into the cab with younghoon sitting in the front.
"just this once, lee chaeryeong, did i decide to be courteous and get a cab instead of having us ride the subway," hyunjae said as we drove off.
"thanks," chaeryeong answered.
"how will you survive in seoul with this phobia of subways you have," younghoon said wistfully.
"correction," chaeryeong interrupted. "it's a fear of small spaces with lots of people, and to answer your question, i did some research before hand," chaeryeong answered. "there are some buses, but there's a lot of stuff i already around our apartment and school and such so i should be fine."
"nice nice yeongie," i smiled. "how far away is our apartment from school anyway?"
"like a five minute walk," hyunjae shrugged.
after that, the four of us stayed silent, with me and chaeryeong falling asleep eventually because of the flight. finally, i felt a hand grabbing my shoulder and shaking the life out of me as my eyes flew open.
"i'm awake okay!" i exclaimed, slapping my brother's hand off my shoulder.
"no shit," hyunjae mumbled, wincing in pain. "let's go."
the four of us got out of the taxi -- younghoon covered the seemingly expensive fare, thankfully -- and headed into the building. at the front desk, the secretary helped chaeryeong and i register our fingers with the touch id system in the building so we would be able to get in and out and use the elevators and other facilities whenever we needed.
"okay, um, lee hyunjae," i poked my brother's arm as we headed up the elevator to our apartment. "do me a favor and explain to me how the fuck our apartment is this nice when we're four broke ass college students."
"you can thank my uncle for that," younghoon winked. "he owns this building, and after begging for awhile he let us stay here. for a quarter of the price, because, family discount and shit."
"which means, missy," hyunjae pointed at me. "you need to get a job to help pay rent. you too," he pointed at chaeryeong.
"yessir," chaeryeong saluted.
"i already have a job bitch," i stuck my tongue out at him.
hyunjae sighed. "i don't understand how it only took a year for you to get half a million subscribers on your fucking youtube channel. what the fuck happened."
"girlie did some insane shit by posting a video about the waterfall as the first thing," chaeryeong said in a sing song voice.
"so in other words, we're living with a celebrity," younghoon mumbled as the elevator doors opened.
"nah, i'm still a broke just graduated high school student," i corrected him as we followed hyunjae to our apartment. "half a million isn't famous. plus, i bet no one in korea knows my channel, so we're good."
"speaking of korea," hyunjae snorted. "remind me why you're going to korea of all places to study english?"
"correction, i'm learning a bunch of languages to become a translator," i corrected him once again. "now hurry up and open the door bitch."
"chill."
hyunjae opened up the door and me and chaeryeong alike were shocked. we could already tell that the apartment building was fairly new, but it was still insane. naturally, it wasn't super big, but it was still large considering it was an apartment only for four college students. i began walking around the house and making a mental map of it for myself. there were four bedrooms and three bathrooms, with two bathrooms being adjoining "connectors" to two bedrooms each. there was also an amazing living room and kitchen/pantry/laundry room. what a crazy upgrade.
"holy fuck," i said, dazed.
"there's also a basketball court and swimming pool here," younghoon grinned. "time for the ultimate grind seohyun."
"oh hell yes," i said happily. "let's fucking go."
"you mean let's fucking go to your college tour," hyunjae interrupted. "it's in about a half an hour. you can unpack later."
"okay," i nodded. "can we just go now? is chae's at the same time?"
"i scheduled yours for you so i don't know about her," hyunjae replied. "and yeah we can go. younghoon can you help chae out with settling in?"
"definitely," younghoon nodded. "you guys can go."
"sounds like a plan," i answered. "let me grab my stuff and then we can go."
after grabbing my essentials, such as my phone and wallet, hyunjae and i headed downstairs and out to my soon to be school, seoul national university. once the short walk was over, i gaped at the towering buildings and the surprisingly decently large amount of students walking around the campus.
"i need to go to the bathroom, so just stay here, yeah?" hyunjae said as we walked down another hallway. "maybe you can go to the gym or something."
"okay," i nodded. "just call me and i'll let you know where i venture off to."
"sounds good," hyunjae ruffled my hair and walked away.
as my brother walked away, i decided to do as he suggested and found myself in the gym. people walked past me as i walked inside, surprised to only find one person inside. a guy in fact. a guy shooting hoops, wearing a tank top, doing a cute little dance after succeeding in shooting a three, with a very happy looking practice vibe as sweat ran down his face.
i walked closer to said guy, something in me just stopped.
my heart fell to my stomach.
my jaw dropped.
maybe it was the familiar muscular build. or the flow of how he moved as he ran and shot baskets over and over again.
or maybe it was the eye smile. the smile that showed a sense of satisfaction everytime a lay up was made or a three swished through the net.
"juyeon?"
my voice seemed to shake as i said the name. the name of the guy i hadn't seen in over a year, yet also the guy my mind couldn't seem to forget.
juyeon stopped dribbling, completely forgetting what he was doing, looking slightly shocked. he turned around and stared at me, making sure it was me, and then stared at it.
the waterfall.
"seohyun...?" juyeon walked toward me, keeping his eyes locked with mine.
"yeah," i nodded shakily, sensing tears about to flow.
the two of us ran towards each other, hugging each other, neither of us wanting to let go. i felt tears drip from my eyes as he held me as tight as he could, me doing the same.
"i missed you," i said quietly.
"me too," he whispered.
as our arms were around each other, i felt footsteps walking into the gym, seemingly running towards us.
"juyeon-ah!"
a/n: ahhhh so that was a semi anticlimatic ending~ comment if you want a sequel! waterfall is finally over, but i promise i have new ideas on the way -- and hopefully will muster up the motivation to complete my stories -- so we'll see what 2021 brings:)
{completed on january 30th, 2021}