Yeseul sat on the hood of her Jeep, the metal gleaming and warm despite the frosty December air. She could see her reflection in the windshield.
Despite being bundled up against the cold, Yeseul felt like she looked better than ever.
Donghyuck sat with her. Both of them held envelopes in their hands, and were staring at each other intently.
"You open it first," Donghyuck started.
"No way! You do it."
"What if I don't get in? Then you'll feel terrible and not want to open yours."
"And what if I open mine and I did get in," Yeseul answered. "We'll celebrate, then you open yours and you didn't get in? What then?"
Donghyuck scrunched up his nose at her.
"For the love of everything holy," Jaemin yelled out, "will you two just open them already?"
Yeseul startled. She'd forgotten they had an audience.
They were crowded around the parking lot of Mirae's cafe. Since the holiday season started, they'd gotten a lot more visitors. Yeseul and the other regulars still spent a lot of time there, just like Donghyuck and his friends still hung out at the Saber's Meu at least three times a week.
Because of Suji's skyrocketed popularity, Mirae's cafe had become the place for girls to hang out. Mirae was constantly talking about a need to renovate, expand, and add more to the menu.
She wanted to hire new servers, as she and Eugene were practically overwhelmed. They'd even hired Gowon, which worked out okay, except they now had to lock up the booze.
As for Suji herself, she was eating up the popularity like cake. No one in the history of high school was a more gracious Queen Bee. She and Jaemin organised fundraisers, pep rallies for all the school sports teams, and helped underfunded clubs.
They started a petition to get the parking lot expanded, so it wasn't as crowded, and all the students had places to put their cars.
Jaemin's Chrysler and Suji's equally white Benz were parked beside each other after another impromptu drag race downtown.
Yeseul fondly remembered how much she used to hate that stupid Chrysler that carried all the idiots she loved.
Some of Neo music was blaring from Mirae's open door, and Renjun and Mia walked out with self-satisfied grins on their faces.
Ara poked her head out after them, sticking her tongue out. Apparently, Ara still thought Renjun was 'pretty hot,' so she came to hang out with them sometimes.
The only one who could actually stand to be around her was Suji – it turned out they were distant cousins, or something.
Mia may have reverted back to wearing almost all-blue, but there was something different about her now.
Her shoulders were straighter, and she was constantly smiling. She was now lifeguarding at the local pool; Rennun would have joined her, but hockey season was starting up, and Renjun was the school's star player.
Renjun had fulfilled his promise and talked to Yun. Saeron was still on the softball team, and had already been scouted – twice – despite her stay in the hospital.
She looked healthier than ever. As for Mark, he had taken up Saeron's spot in the flower shop. Now he was the one who always forgot to take off the pink, blue, and green apron.
