Living

Chapter 1, Life is Beautiful

Life is beautiful, 

When one is in love, live is beautiful. 

Se Hee-ya! are you listening to me. 

This was Jin Hee, Se Hee's elder sister. She wanted to tell the world that life was beautiful, and also that it was beautiful because of love. Jin Hee was two years older than Se Hee. The sisters were very close to each other, so naturally when Jin Hee fell in love for the first time, Se Hee was the first one to know. Even before Jin Hee herself knew. 

Lets go back a couple of months

Fall 1989

Jin Hee kept telling Se Hee about this really good looking sunbae in college, who was also the smartest in class. Jin Hee would mention sunbae in every conversation. The beauty of Korean language is that unless you complete the sentence, the message can change completely at any point and until you mention the gender of the person in a conversation, no one can tell if you are talking about a man or a woman. For the entire fall semester, Jin Hee kept talking about the charismatic senior who was the most intelligent student she had met in university. And with Jin Hee's track record, it was assumed by everyone that this sunbae was a girl. Except on Christmas eve, Jin Hee had pulled Se Hee out from her study desk to accompany her to the student gathering of all students who were still in Seoul during the break to have a little Christmas celebration. 

Jin Hee had put in a lot of effort in dressing up and chose to wear a blue skirt even though it was freezing cold that was biting through the layers that Se Hee had ever so wisely put on. Jin Hee was the manito (secret santa) for the sunbae and she had gotten a grey woollen hat as the present which she had beautifully wrapped as well. As they entered the cafeteria with a wide seating area filled with tables of students who were partying before the Christmas celebration, Se Hee noticed her elder sister turning red from blushing. As they neared the big table in the middle of the seating area where everyone had a hearty smile and multiple conversations were happening, she noticed her sister acting strange. Jin Hee was tucking her hair around her ears, and smiling coyly. Her Hi was met with Hi from only a few people on the table, just because with the level of noise in the cafe, only a few people on the table could hear Jin Hee. In all honesty, Se Hee knew her sister, she had the lung capacity and decibel levels to hail a taxi even in the busiest Kangnam (old name of Gangnam) district. But here, she was timid and soft and said the softest Hi of her life.

As Se Hee was trying to make sense of this bizarre display of manners from her sister she noticed a lanky guy from the other side of the cafe walking towards them with the widest smile she had ever seen. He was so tall it took him only a few steps to reach them from the corner and he came and said HI  and showed his teeth. Se Hee felt that she was invisible, this lanky tall guy and her sister were just looking at each other with weird smiles on their faces. After five seconds which felt like an eternity to Se Hee, who could not stand being awkward at all, Jin Hee said, 

Sunbae, Hi, have you been well?

This is Sunbae? 

Se Hee, thought she said these words in her head but she said them out loud and they were so loud that the buzzing cafe went silent. And this was the most awkward she had been in her entire life.

The silence only remained for a couple of seconds and everyone went back to their loud and happy conversations. But the atmosphere between these three humans had turned chilly. Se Hee felt it was her responsibility to change that and she turned into this animated version of herself that only came out when they went to meet extended family for Jesa or Chosoek. It was now her who had the widest smile and she said 

Hi Sunbae, how are you? I have heard so many great things about you.

The smiles on her sister's and sunbae's faces came back and they all sat down. The presents were exchanged and not much for Se Hee's surprise, sunbae was Jin Hee's manito. The remainder of the evening was spent by Se Hee sipping on cider and observing her sister talking shyly with sunbae. 

They were now back in their house where they shared a room as well. As they lied down to sleep, Se Hee said to Jin Hee

You like Sunbae right?

Jin Hee looked at her in shock. Well, the lights were off and they could not see each other but Se Hee still knew that her sister was staring at her in disbelief. She knew that because she knew that her innocent sister was unaware of her own feelings. Had she known that what she was going through was liking someone she would not have raved about that person in front of her entire family the way she had been doing so for the past few months. She knew that coy acting in the cafeteria was just the natural agyeo of hers that came out in front of her favourite people. When a few seconds passed and Jin Hee didn't say a word, Se Hee turned the table lamp on, looked at her sister and this time she told her that,

You like sunbae!

She turned the light off and turned to sleep because she knew once her sister finally understands what she had just said, she would not be allowed to sleep.

Present: Spring 1990

Following the next few weeks of their conversation on Christmas eve, the sisters had spent many hours discussing in secret about the situation and Jin Hee's feelings. It was particularly difficult because they were on break and at home all day and their parents and younger brother had sensed that they were up to something. The giggles didn't help either. But they figured it out and it was concluded by both of them that Jin Hee didn't like sunbae. She was in love with him.

The entire world was beautiful to Jin Hee and she wanted the world to know it was beautiful and she wanted it to know that it was beautiful because Kim Jin Hee was in love.