Rainbow Romance

~ Chapter 15: Happy New Year ~

'Welcome to International New Year Festival'

.

A loud voice was from a university's stadium which now had transformed into a New Year Festival. Hundred of international students: Korean, China, Malaysia, Indonesian, Thai, Japanese, Kazakhstan, Vietnamese, Russian, American and Taiwanese, gathered around arranging their own countries' traditional food.

"Here" Ren handed a bowl of Rice cake soup to Minmin

"What's this?" Minmin curiously asked. She recognized that what in the soup were rice cake or as Koreans called Tteok, but she couldn't recognize this kind of dish. She normally found Tteok in Tteokbokki, Dokkaebi, Haejangguk, Kimchi Jjigae and many other Korean dishes but she had never found a dish with only Tteok and soup before.

"Tteokguk. It is Korean tradition to eat Tteokgug on New Year Day. It means aging. So, we eat only one dish a year" Ren clearly explained Minmin about the meaning of the dish.

"Wow. That's nice...but I won't eat it." Minmin plainly replied

"Why?" Ren asked as his forehead folded a little.

"Tteokgug means a year aging, right? If I don't eat it, I would not age then. I will stay young forever" Minmin said as laughing 'til her head was lightly waved by Ren"

"Pabo" he smilingly said to her with the warmest smile that he could give to anyone.

Then Minmin took a mouthful of Tteokgug. This was not that she really loves it, but a piece of Tteok was not very small as all.

"You also have to have some. I won't grow alone" she took a spoon with a piece of Tteok and little soup to Ren's mouth. Without hesitation, he ate the whole spoon with joy.

"Hi, Cookies...Are you gonna introduce us your company?" Once Minmin greeted Cookie, she slyly asked as looking at the guy beside Cookie. If her women intuition was correct, he must be her boyfriend. This thing could simply notice by the look of the eyes. As they said 'Eyes are window of the soul'

"Hi guys. This is Tempo. We are only dating for a week"

"Congratulation...I finally see your type of guy. KKK" Minmin poked her a little with elbow "By the way, have you seen Maycy. We are supposed to meet right about a half hour ago." She continued

"Ahh...I just saw her in a Chinese vendor over there" She said as pointing to a vendor not so far from where they were standing. Maycy was easy to recognize because she was flashy violet t-shirt with a tall guy her side.

"Ni Hao. Ni Hao. Ni Hao" Several Chinese greeting was greeted by Chinese students. They all were wearing Qipao, a modern Chinese traditional dress, in different color fitting well with their cute fair face.

"My name is Xiaolin. Would you like to try our delicious Chinese dishes" A lady introduced herself and hand her a small plate of something looking like a fried vegetable with boiled pork.

"Try it. It does taste good" Maycy said. She could guarantee the taste because she had tried several dished already.

Minmin and Ren tasted quite many plates before moving on to the next vendor. It had well decorated sign written "Thailand" on top. People dressed casually happily cooking their own traditional dishes.

"Sawaddee kha" a Thai pretty girl greet with glee.

"Oh! Hi, Kade, Golf. Pop...How'y doing?" Minmin greeted her friends and friendly waved to them. Minmin was not a king of activities girl. She preferred to watch rather than getting herself into it. It was the same in this event that she liked to enjoy the festival rather than putting effort on cooking and stuffs.

"Try this" Minmin handed Ren a bowl of spicy fruit salad with sly smile.

Ren, without asking for the name, had the first bite.

"OMG! OMG! It's really spicy" he blew his mouth several times but Minmin's laughter attended his attention. He lightly waved her head and said "Did you trick me?"

"Of course not" She replied with playful tone of voice, which obviously literary meant so.

"Are you okay" Kade asked with worry as offering him a bottle of fresh cool water. "I'm so sorry that you happened to eat the red spicy chili in the fruit salad."

"That' okay" Ren quickly took the water and bottled up

"Actually, you can try the other fruits. Their sweetness could help wiping away the spice" Minmin suggested and pointed to various types of fruit like pineapple, melon, water melon, and grapes in the small bowl.

"Anyway, I thought you don't eat spicy food?" He curiously asked. He thought that if this was one of the Thai traditional foods, so Thais must eat pretty much spicy.

"Most Thai people do, but I don't. KKK" She simply replied

After exhaustingly touring around the festival, Ren took Minmin to his special place. As the sky was getting dark, every building but the stadium was empty quiet. He handed her to a terrace of a school building not too far from the stadium.

"You like coming here a lot?" Minmin asked

"Yeah, sometimes in the evening... It's calm and quiet. I could think through lot of things"

There, they quietly sat on a cubelike bench looking at the calm night sky and beautiful stars.

"Look! A shooting star" Minmin broke out the silence.

"Why? You wanna make a wish." Ren playfully said as tenderly looked at Minmin

"Yeah......" Minmin replied. She closed her eyes and mumbled her wishes with her hands placed together and smiled.

"What did you wish for?" Ren smilingly asked

"No, I won't tell you. It is said that if you tell others your wishes, it wouldn't come true" Minmin happily replied

"Do you believe in destiny?" After a moment of slience, Ren smilingly asked

"No... not really" Minmin replied after using some thinking. She half believed that 2 people was destined from above to be together and as well believed that everybody also have the power to master their own destiny.

"Me too...But you know...I really want to prove its existence...with you." Ren flirtingly responded

"Gee, you are so cheesy" After a moment of thinking, Minmin replied with a shy smile and timid reaction. She suddenly didn't know where to place her hands. Her head was hidden in her brown fluffy perm hair, which block his view from her cute rosy red cheeks.

"I mean it. I don't know how far we can go but at least now we have each other. I hope this moment will last forever." Ren tenderly said

"Hmm...oppa" Minmin shyly nodded as tightly holding his hand as if never wanting to let go.

Under the night sky with trillion witness of stars

There's the dimly light and vague noise from afar

By the balcony they stand hand in hand with love

It's a red thread of bond destined from heaven above

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