𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 /GXG/

🔸️○December 27th

It's 10:15 pm. We are in Hongdae.
The street is full of degenerates. A large queue growing in front of the club. Their eyes, injected with alcohol and drugs, are on both of us.

Looking at the two of us.

I don't know if it's because Chae won is a drug dealer, and they know her well, or if it's just in my head, but I feel like letting go of her hand.

Don't assume. They don't know about us. We go out a lot at night, and I think they think we're just really clingy friends. But Hongdae has a very decadent type of girl. I'm afraid of being a victim of some group that targets us.

I try to focus on one song, but as we walk, other places play different rhythms. I just heard a mix of hip hop beats and something a little Latin.

A girl is lying on the sidewalk, holding her drink bottle tightly while the other two friends ridiculously try to lift her. They both fall on top of her, laughing.

Chae won even hides her nose in her plaid scarf, and yet, with only her eyes showing, she is known among the marginalized. They call her Se Young.

She waves at them gently and pushes me to the next corner with a hot dog stand right next to the sidewalk.

At this point, powerful car sounds. The acceleration rips my eardrums apart. People come out of the street, and an Audi passes like a strong wind just to get to the corner, turn around, and go back.

Even I end up giving in, mesmerized, and imagining myself in that spiky-haired man's place.

''I wish I had a car like that,' I say. Imagine my hands on the steering wheel. Our eyes follow him. A gray painting that glows at night. Chrome wheels. Injected engine.

We continued walking at a slow pace.

''Is this car expensive?'' I ask.

Chae won watches the car ahead. The man opens the door, and two girls get in and speed up again. She looks at me, removing the plaid scarf from her nose. ''Want to guess?''

''I have no idea.''

''About US$40,000.''

''Forty?''

''Cheap, isn't it?'' She smiles in an extremely sweet way, reaching my waist tightly. ''The day I buy one, we're going for a hike to a really beautiful place to have a picnic. A beautiful place in the mountains.''

''I want to go where you spent your childhood. I want to see your old house. You said it's beautiful there, and there's your father's strawberry plantation,'' I say, with a happy smile on my face.

'Oh, that place...'' Chae won stops smiling and stays very still, ending up removing her arm from my waist and hiding her hands in the pockets of her blazer.

''What did I say wrong?''

''You didn't say anything wrong,'' she responds simply. She doesn't seem upset, but rather a little discouraged.

I'm disappointed. On the one hand, my parents, despite not agreeing (because of me), support each other, and I insist on including her in my family, but on her part, that doesn't happen.

By your long silence, it means that this will never happen.

Little by little, I notice the cold hitting my skin again.

We arrived at a point on the street with a black car parked. This, among others, flashes the headlight.

''Her name is Julia,'' warns Chae won.

''Julia... and her surname? That's not all her name is,'' I say, a little upset.

''Julia Ueda! Her surname is Ueda.''