Daegu, South Korea – July 2008
It was a strange month.
The sun was bright and warm. Nari, Yoon-ah and Hae-won had just passed their eighth grade with flying colours. Yoon-gi was happily working part-time at a recording studio. Her grandmother got sick. Nari had to send a formal apology letter to YG Entertainment for backing out of the trainee program. Her flight to England was booked for the end of the week.
The house felt so empty. Everything but the bare necessities had been packed, leaving nothing but thin futons and a few kitchen essentials still to pack. Most things had been taken by waste management or donated to second-hand stores, other things had been shipped to the new house in England that Charlotte had picked out only a week after breaking the news to Nari.
Nari didn't like it. It wasn't going to be like her cosy Korean home. It was clean and modern, devoid of any sort of charm. All of her kitschy art, fairy lights, posters would look out of place in her new bedroom. Here, they looked like they belonged. After Nari had packed them up and had them shipped to England, she'd been having trouble sleeping. She couldn't remember the bare walls that stared back at her. They'd always been full, colourful and cheerful. Going to sleep without all of it staring back at her was strange and it caused many many sleepless nights. She wouldn't even see the pictures of herself, Yoon-gi, Hae-won and Yoon-ah for another week, as they too had been shipped off to England.
Charlotte and Ji-hoon had assured that they would make sure Nari and her friends would be able to keep in touch, maybe even visit, but that didn't mean much to Nari. Sure, technology had progressed enough that Nari and her friends could text, email, even Skype, but the traditional fruit container mornings and tteokbokki afternoons would be a thing of the past. Yoon-ah and Hae-won were devastated as well. The three girls had been friends since kindergarten, stuck at the hip, and now it was all going to end. When Nari had broken the news to them, the three girls immediately burst into tears. Even Yoon-gi, who usually didn't show that much emotion, had gotten a little misty-eyed when Nari had called him to give him the bad news. She could tell. His voice cracked a few times.
Her relationship with her parents hadn't been the same since. The normal bubbly energy that she and Charlotte exuded was gone. Dinners were tense, all the air was sucked out of the room when they both walked in, and they hadn't had a conversation longer than a few sentences for over a month. Even things with Ji-hoon had gotten worse. They never had a bad relationship, per se, but he'd never been a very present father. Since the announcement of their move, things had gotten worse. He barely spoke at all now. Nari had begun to miss the times he'd sigh, annoyed, or even the times where he'd lose his cool and yell at her.
What made Nari the angriest, however, was that Charlotte acted as if there was nothing wrong. Despite the tense feeling between her and her daughter, Charlotte constantly pretended that everything was fine. Everyone was upheaving their life to go to England, even her, but she was acting as if there was nothing major happening. If Charlotte at least pretended to acknowledge that this was turning everyone's lives upside down, then maybe Nari would feel a little guilty for being so mad at everyone.
"You sure you have to go?"
Nari nodded. She ate a piece of tteokbokki and sighed.
"I already told you guys we have a house and everything," Nari said. "I've even been enrolled at some fancy prep school."
"Ugh, English prep schools," Hae-won grumbled. "The internet doesn't have very nice things to say about them."
"Not to mention they're in England," Yoon-ah mumbled. "Your parents said they'd make sure we could keep in touch, right?"
"Yeah, I'll try to convince them to get plane tickets once or twice a year so that I can come visit, but for now we just have to email and Skype."
"The time zone difference is going to be a pain," Yoon-gi said. "England is eight hours behind us."
The three girls groaned.
"And we're all going to be busy with school," he continued. "Plus, I work, too. And—"
"Hey, Yoon-gi-ya, stop it," Nari whined sadly. "I don't need to be reminded of this."
"Sorry, kid."
"Plus, how's it gonna be when Mr Rap Man goes off and joins a company?" Hae-won said.
"That's true. Will he even be allowed to contact any of us?" Yoon-ah asked. "We're all girls after all. No matter if we're just friends, the rumour mill is a dangerous creature. The company may not want to take any chances with their trainees."
Nari put her cup of tteokbokki down and flopped backwards onto the grass.
"I hate this," she sighed. Tears began to prickle her eyes. "What if, even with all our efforts, we don't make it? What if we lose contact and then I never get to do this ever again?"
Yoon-ah and Hae-won put their cups down and lied down next to Nari, tears welling in their eyes.
"Well, we just can't let that happen," Yoon-ah said, voice quivering.
"Yeah, I'll rob a bank and get plane tickets myself if I have to," Hae-won added, sniffling. "We're not going to be broken up, all right? Never."
"You guys sound like you're in a drama..."
"Yoon-gi-ya!"
"Okay, okay—we're never going to be broken up," the boy said despite himself. He sighed. "For real though, it'll really suck if you're not here. No one else argues with me over my lyrical decisions."
Nari chuckled and wiped away her tears.
"Just send me copies by email. I'll make sure that I can still question your lyrical decisions from the other end of the world, gramps."
"Well, I'm definitely not going to miss that nickname."
"It suits you though," Hae-won said. "You really do act like an old man, sometimes."
"I'm sure it'll get worse with age," Yoon-ah giggled. "You're going to turn twenty and you'll be complaining about your joints or being tired all the time."
Just like that, it was almost as if the sadness welling up in each of them had vanished, if only for a moment. There were small smiles on each of their faces and wet giggles rising into the air as Hae-won tried to lighten the mood. Yoon-ah treated everyone to extra fancy tteokbokki to celebrate their final days together and, for a few hours, they forgot just why they had been crying.
Incheon, South Korea – The End of the Week
At this early hour, the airport was as serene as it could be. The people moved with ease, quiet rivers of humans freshly roused from their slumber. The floors were clean and white, reflecting the early rays of sunshine and the man-made lights within. But while the early morning airport experience was a joy to many, Nari was a breath away from tears.
Yoon-ah and Hae-won were at Nari's side, holding her hands so tight one would feer losing circulation. Yoon-gi was following quietly behind, hands in his pockets, watery eyes looking at the back of his friend's head. Charlotte and Ji-hoon were walking down to the terminal ahead of everyone, carrying all the luggage, seemingly blissfully unaware of the sadness welling up behind them. Two small gift bags were hanging from Nari's luggage, one from Yoon-ah and one from Hae-won—little tokens of affection given as a parting gift.
Nari, Hae-won, Yoon-ah and Yoon-gi sat apart from Charlotte and Ji-hoon as they waited to cross the gate and leave for the plane. The beaten-up audio splitter had been put to good use, one earphone in each friends' ear, half-listening to the music that Yoon-ah had put on. They sat in silence, occasionally muttering a few words related to the song, staring down at their hands and silently praying that the flight would be cancelled and they could procrastinate Nari's departure one more day. Alas, the call for Nari's flight came, as did the tears.
Yoon-ah cried first, crystal clear tears falling from her dark eyes. Then Nari followed and, despite herself, Hae-won began sobbing as well. The three girls held each other tightly, quietly whispering their goodbyes and wishes of good fortune. They broke apart and looked at each other with faces contorted in sadness and teary red eyes, then smiled sadly. When Nari turned to Yoon-gi, he was looking at the floor, kicking invisible dirt on the ground. Without a word, she went up to him and gave him a hug. He didn't return it at first, but he did eventually, and when they broke apart, he handed her a small box.
"It's dumb," Yoon-gi said, voice a little shaky. Nari looked up at him—his eyes were glossy. "Open it in the plane."
Nari nodded and smiled sadly. A final boarding announcement rang throughout the terminal.
"Go," Hae-won said. She wiped the tears from her face. "We'll see you soon, okay?"
"Bring us all on a Skype call when you start unpacking," Yoon-ah called. "We'll keep you company."
"Okay," Nari muttered, nodding softly. She turned away and handed her ticket to the agent. When she was cleared for boarding, Nari turned back to look at her friends one last time. "I love you, guys."
Yoon-ah and Hae-won let out a stifled cry as they returned the sentiment. Yoon-gi half-smiled and nodded once, a few tears shaken loose by the movement. Nari waved and then walked backwards into the hallway until she couldn't see her friends anymore. She took her seat at the end of the aisle, next to her mother, and she pulled out the box that Yoon-gi had given her. A muffled sob left her mouth but it turned into laughter almost immediately. Nari took out the small pin and attached it to her clothes then took a selfie, showing off her brand new tteokbokki pin.