Choices (Yona of the Dawn)

Chapter 2

"When did you get so... BIG?" I gasped when I finally got a good look at Hak in the morning.
"After two years you were gone." He answered boredly at my dumb question.
"Rude!" I threw the spoon I was holding to eat my breakfast with, at him. A loud laugh echoed in the room as he threw his head back. "You have no idea how much I've missed you. Those letters are not the same as this."
During the time I was away, I was still exchanging letters with all of them. It was good to hear from Yona, Hak, and Soowon, despite being so many miles apart.
Soowon and I met up a couple of times due to various occasions. It's just Yona and Hak that I haven't seen since the day I left. It made me happy just thinking about how the four of us will be reunited soon for Yona's sixteenth birthday.

The next few nights approaching Yona's Birthday Banquet, Yona insisted on spending the night in my room. She had so much she wanted to share and so did I. "Yumi, are you going to go away again after all of this?" Yona slightly frowned as her eyelids drooped lower and lower.
We've been talking all night long, about everything and anything we couldn't say to each other in letters over the past two years. "Yona dear, let's save that question for another time." I lightly brushed her hair and lull her into her sleep. "It would be too harsh of me to tell you that this isn't where I belong," I softly whispered once I knew she was asleep.

On the day before Yona's birthday, Soowon finally arrived at the castle. Yona dashed through the hallways with pink dusting her cheeking as she finally got to see her crush again. Seeing how happy she was made a part of me sad. A future without me in it was becoming much more of a reality for the three of them.

I walk towards Soowon's room with a small bottle of sake in my hand. "Soowon," I knocked on the door, "Let's go for a little walk?" He opened the door with his signature smile on his face and agreed. It was the middle of spring so the night air was slightly cool to the skin. We sat down at a secluded gazebo in the middle of the gardens with the taste of sake warming our insides. It was always peaceful with Soowon– a comfortable silence of wordless conversations we both understand and appreciate. "You ready for tomorrow?" He suddenly asked me. I glance towards him to see him distantly gazing at the starry night sky. "What's there to be ready for? Are you nervous to give Yona her present?" I let out a soft giggle. For the first time in all the years I've known him, Soowon had asked for help with getting Yona a present. These things usually come naturally to him but for some reason, he really struggled with what to pick. It was as if this gift meant something much more than just a birthday gift for a girl turning sixteen years old. "It's not like that," he chuckled in response.
"Well, I'm sure she'll love it. It's a one of a kind piece that's going to be hard to let go of."
We left the empty sake bottle at the table as we called it a night. Soowon walked me back to my room before returning to his. The moment my face hit the soft cushions of my bed, I fell fast asleep.