"So, Mark, do you really not recognize me or are you just ignoring your childhood best friend?"
When her best friend moved to Korea to become an idol, their contact died down and they soon started living lives completely separate from one another...
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Reuniting with her family was therapeutic for Gyuri. Getting to hug her mom again and see everyone in person was long overdue, and she was extremely happy seeing them walk through the gates at the airport. They spent a few minutes hugging and saying hello before they all collectively moved to Gyuri's car.
As they drove through the city, they caught up on everyone's recent stories and shared anecdotes with each other. Not a moment went by when they didn't know what to talk about since they didn't get a chance to speak in person often. They had so many things to talk about, it felt like everyone was fighting to get the next topic of conversation started. Her mom was extremely interested in how Gyuri's friends were doing, especially a certain Canadian boy she knew very well herself.
"He's doing fine, mom. I haven't seen him in a few days, he's very busy at the moment. You'll see him at the Christmas dinner," she told her mom to hopefully divert the attention away from Mark because her mind was already way too caught up with the boy. Anytime he'd pop up in her head or in a conversation, she felt her heart make a small jump and she hated it. It felt so strange and unusual that Gyuri just wanted to figure out how to deal with her feelings without thinking about him too much.
She hadn't given herself a chance to process things ever since her conversation with Nia two days ago. She badly wanted to talk to Mina about it all, but hadn't come around to it since Mina herself was also very busy with the holidays coming up. Gyuri thought maybe Mina could help her find a way to deal with these feelings because it had been so long since Gyuri had felt them that she didn't know where to go from here.
A small part of her told her to take the leap and confess to Mark. To tell him about her feelings in the hope he'd be willing to try it out, try them out. But no matter how dreamy that scenario sounded, a way bigger part of Gyuri told her to keep it to herself. She knew he liked her back, so if she confessed it would be pretty sensible for the two to start a relationship. But if that ended, no matter how friendly, things would never be the same. It would always be awkward and weird. Then, she would truly lose him without any chance of getting him back. And so, she'd rather live with some strange tension between them at the moment, in the hopes that it would resolve itself eventually, than confess with the risk of losing him for good.
With that in mind, Gyuri kept it all to herself. Now that she had admitted her feelings to herself, she must be able to get over them with enough time. Who knows, maybe in the time that it would take Mark to get past the awkward tension between them, she could move on and start thinking of something else than his face and his smile. She kept noticing how the image of him crept into her mind any time she didn't occupy herself with something else, so Gyuri made sure to keep herself as busy with other things as she could.
After a few days of fun activities, meals, and long walks with her family, it was now finally Christmas, and the whole city radiated love as thousands of fairy lights lit up the streets and houses. Everywhere, couples, families, and friends were having fun together on their day off to celebrate the holiday. Walking along any street, you could easily spot all the Christmas trees through the windows of the houses and apartments.
