| o r i g i n a l | winter miracle

quatre,

It was Kyungwon's pre-birthday party where Minkyung and Yaebin, once again, reunited. The reason why it was called a 'pre-birthday party' was because, after living with her parents for 16 years, Kang Kyungwon knew there was no way her strict and religious parents would allow her to have a wild teenage party, consisted of loud music, drunken bodies and inappropriate acts, under their roof. Parents definitely had no clue of how a proper party should be thrown. For the past 15 years, every single birthday party of Kyungwon was pretty much the same, with her parents invited all her relatives over for dinner, they would all pray before digging in, would eat in silence and then the adults would talk about some political stuffs which clearly, Kyungwon had got no interest in at all. And she wasn't allowed to leave the table either, until all the guests went home. So somehow that helped train Kyungwon's sleeping-with-eyes-wide-open ability. They were more like deathdays for her than birthdays.

This year, she wanted things to be different. Therefore, being a smartass herself, and a rebellious teenager, Kyungwon decided to throw a party on a Friday night which was two weeks before her actual birthday, when her parents went to visit her grandmother in Gwangju for the weekend.

The clock hadn't even hit 8, yet Kyungwon's house itself started to smell like a homeless alcoholic. Snacks scattering everywhere on the floor, blaring sounds of heavy metal rock music, typical Kyungwon, people were screaming their heads off acting like those wild animals on National Geographic Channel. For those with sensitive hearings, they might also have caught the sexual moaning sounds from some horny couples in the horde of people dancing in the living room. Luckily, Kyungwon's family lived in a mansion on top of a hill, and the nearest neighbor lived at least 1km away from them, or else the cops would have knocked on her door right now because of the noise pollution her party was causing.

Kang Yaebin was certainly not a party animal. She would choose to stay at home reading while listening to Cigarettes After Sex over anything. Kyungwon and her were always like fire and water, yet somehow they managed to stay close to each other like real sisters. After almost 2 hours of whining on the phone while spamming Yaebin's inbox, Kyungwon finally succeeded in getting Yaebin to join her party. She hoped after that night, Yaebin would turn into this reckless teenager like her and enjoyed her precious youth, not having books written about other people's perfect life and romance stacked in front of her face like usual.

'Little Kang, you should be grateful that I am making an effort to change your life for the better, starting off tonight.' Kyungwon thought to herself.

In a way, Kang Yaebin did feel thankful for Kang Kyungwon's invitation. It was because as soon as she managed to squeeze her way through the crowd of wasted people, the sight in front of her eyes were beyond Yaebin's wildest dream.

Kim Minkyung was there, sitting on a red velvety sofa, holding a glass of champagne in her hand, looking as alluring as ever. Oh well, when didn't she?

How could she even forget that? The fact that Minkyung was Kyungwon's best friend, and it was very likely that they would bump into each other here, at Kyungwon's party. She would have gotten dressed much better if she knew Minkyung would also be here. Yaebin silently cursed herself. Wearing an oversized 'Antisocial Social Club' black hoodie and some ripped jeans, she felt way too underdressed to let the goddess in a strapless black mini-dress perceive her existence with her holy foxy eyes. So, for the whole night, Yaebin tried her best to stay out of Minkyung's sight, but she was still standing close enough to catch every movement of her crush.

Yes, after almost 10 years, Yaebin finally realized what her feeling towards Kim Minkyung was. Simply put, it was indeed a crush. She liked Kim Minkyung in a way just like what she loved to read in those cheesy romantic novels. Like how Noah loved Allie dearly and never gave up on their relationship. Like how Clarence and Alabama would literally fire guns at whoever tried to split them up. Kim Minkyung had got her infatuated with her beauty, inner and outer. When she was smaller, Yaebin thought that it was just purely gratitude and admiration. She was grateful that Minkyung chose to approach and befriend her, or for the time when Minkyung helped her on the street. She admired Minkyung for her charming personality, ethereal appearance and her kind acts. It wasn't until when she found herself stalking on Minkyung's social media for her own pleasure, that she came to the conclusion that she - Kang Yaebin had fallen hard for the owner of those Instagram and Facebook accounts.