Prom

Yongsun found herself in her car that was parked outside Wheein's dormitory at the back of the university compound.

She looked at the clock, it was 9pm. Wheein's dormitory had a 10pm curfew rule. Yongsun remembered that what Wheein planned was to go to the party, spend the night there or somewhere 'til morning, and just return to the dormitory in the morning.

But that was the least of Yongsun's worries. This night would be the night that she could drastically affect Wheein's feelings in the present. That it was her last chance. And that she should make it right this time.

She kept thinking what she could possibly do so that when it was time to go back to present, Wheein would renounce her marriage with Taeyeon. Tell her that Yongsun was the one she had always loved and would always love. That marrying Taeyeon was a mistake and she would correct that mistake.

Yongsun knew that, of course, Taeyeon woud be hurt. But Wheein and Yongsun had to be together. Because they had always loved each other. They were meant for each other, forever. For sure, Taeyeon would eventually understand that, Yongsun thought. Sure she would hold a grudge against them for some time but eventually she would get to accept that the two of them were just meant to be.

Yongsun was startled and brought back from her thoughts to reality when Wheein knocked on the door of the passenger seat.

Yongsun unlocked the door and she was greeted by a pair of smiling eyes. Wheein was wearing a nice light pink floral dress that was thigh length. It was a simple dress but it wouldn't suit that kind of party, Yongsun thought.

Yongsun remembered asking Wheein to change her dress into something else, maybe something of darker color. She was worried that Wheein wouldn't fit in in that party. But this time, Yongsun didn't. She only smiled back at Wheein.

When Wheein hopped inside the car, she threw both arms around Yongsun and kissed her cheek. "Thanks for picking me up, unnie."

She couldn't remember Wheein kissing her in the past. Because she got Wheein upset for forcing her to change clothes when that dress was her favorite. Because it was a dress that Yongsun gave her as a present when she came back from a short trip in Thailand.

And so when Wheein kissed her this time, her hand affectionately touched Wheein's hair, stroking it.

"You're in a good mood, unnie?" Wheein asked. Yongsun knew Wheein could sense that she was trying to be more affectionate toward her.

"I'm just happy to see you tonight," Yongsun tried to let her thoughts just flow out of her. "And you look so pretty in that dress," she added.

Wheein squealed and hid her face in embarrassment.

"It's true," Yongsun laughed pulling Wheein's hand away from her face and looked at her. Their eyes met in awkwardness but Yongsun tried not to look away. Because if things wouldn't turn out well, at least she would've wanted every small thing with Wheein to last. Or as much as time would permit.

"You are so nice tonight, unnie." Wheein told her. "Are you sick?" Wheein teased her and laughed to herself.

Yongsun started the engine and drove. "Am I not always nice?" Yongsun thought and asked.

"Tonight is just different," Wheein said. "You complimented me in this dress. I almost didn't wear it because it's not for that kind of party," Wheein kept talking. "But you'd be driving me and I thought it would be nice if you see me wearing your present. Because we don't see each other as often anymore."

Yongsun chuckled, "So you wore it for me and not for the party?"

"Yes," Wheein said bluntly. "Of course, I want you to see me wearing it."

Suddenly an idea hit Yongsun. "If you wore it for me and not for the party, let's just not go to the party." No party, no seeing Taeyeon.

"But unnie--"

"Do you have somewhere else you want to go?" Yongsun asked trying to steer it further away from the party.

"You know why I wanna go to the party, right unnie?"

"But it's not like prom, Wheein." Yongsun said.

"I didn't say it would be."

"You still want to go then?"

"Will you come with me if I still go?" Wheein asked.

"I will," Yongsun replied.

"Thank you unnie."

Yongsun drove to the house of the party. With all the parked cars on the side of the street, it was difficult to find a parking space that they had to turn around the block.

Yongsun was giving up until they found a space a block away from the house. Yongsun turned the steering wheel & forwarded car to do a reverse parking. Just when she was slowly inching the car backwards, a small sedan cut her in and parked to that space completely ignoring her.

"Fuck!" Yongsun lost her temper and almost flung her door open to have a talk with the rude driver but Wheein stopped her.

"Unnie, it's okay. Don't."

They watched a thin petite woman with long hair got out of the car. Yongsun's eyes widened and she almost gasped audibly when she saw it was... Taeyeon.

"She probably didn't see us, unnie. It's okay." Wheein told her again.

They watched Taeyeon walk to the house until she disappeared from their sight.

"She's pretty," Wheein said.

"What?" Yongsun pretended not to hear.

"But you are prettier, unnie." Wheein said cheekily. "I guess let's just go somewhere else then."

Yongsun wanted to scream in delight that suddenly everything was turning to her favor but she tried to keep cool about it. "Do you have a place you wanna go?"

"Just anywhere you wanna take me is fine," Wheein said.

Yongsun started driving thinking of a special place where she could bring Wheein to to spend quality time with her. Quality time. Time. How much time did she have left?

She was sure that the photo was taken around two in the morning. It was ten in the evening. She had four hours left.

Yongsun wondered how could it possibly end when both of them wouldn't be in the house and no photo would be taken with either Wheein or Yongsun.

"Unnie!" Wheein caught Yongsun drifting away with her thoughts.

"Sorry, I just--"

"Where are we going, unnie?"

"You said you wanted to go to prom?" Yongsun asked her.

"Yeah, but it's impossible to go back in time."

Well it was possible, Yongsun thought.

"Besides, Hyejinie wasn't even there," Wheein said. "So even if it was possible to go back, what's even the point of going back if you weren't there?"

"Sorry Wheein-ah," was all Yongsun could say.

"Sometimes I wish I was your age," Wheein said. "Or if you were my age. Things would've been easier."

Yongsun looked at Wheein and she was looking at Yongsun with those eyes full of yearning. And in that moment Yongsun allowed herself to feel the same yearning for Wheein. Only to be broken by...

"Unnie, I'm hungry."

Yongsun chuckled and said, "Let's get you something from 7eleven. Tell me if you see one."

"Okay," Wheein said.

Just a few blocks away they found a 7eleven store and Yongsun bought them some made sandwiches and sodas before they hit the road again.

"Unnie, where are we going?" Wheein asked while munching on her sandwich.

"To your prom," Yongsun said.

"You're crazy, unnie." Wheein laughed. Then she tore a bite-size of the sandwich to feed her driving unnie.

"Maybe I am," Yongsun said.

"What?"

"You said I'm crazy, maybe I really am." Yongsun chuckled.

"Don't worry, unnie." Wheein told her. "I love your brand of crazy."

"Really?"

"I really do," Wheein said. "And you know that."

"Thank you, Wheein-ah."

"Can I tell you something, unnie?" Wheein asked hesitatingly.

"You can tell me anything."

"Anything?" Wheein asked again.

"Yes, anything." Yongsun told her. She didn't even know the direction she was driving to anymore thinking that maybe this time Wheein would confess to her more straighforwardly. And Yongsun wanted to make it easier for Wheein to do so.

"I know you're busy so I just wanna tell you I'm really happy to spend time with you," Wheein said honestly. "But I know how you will be more busy in your job with your promotion and all..."

Yongsun thought this wasn't the dialogue she was expecting from Wheein.

"...So I just wanna tell you it's okay to focus on that and I will understand if we won't see each other as often anymore. I'll be busy with uni in fall anyway."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Just... I don't know, unnie." Wheein said.

Yongsun didn't wanna waste any more time. She knew the clock was ticking and that white ray of light would eventually transport her back to the present.

She pulled the car over an empty lot. It was dark, nothing but an old blinking lamp post and the car's headlights illuminating what looked like an abandoned grassy football field.

And it was quiet. Yongsun could only hear her own breathing and the sound of every beat of her heart, like a ticking-time grenade.

"Unnie, I didn't really wanna go to the party," Wheein confessed. "I only made it an excuse to see you. I'm sorry I'm being selfish."

Yong took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Don't worry about it." She didn't hold back and planted a sweet kiss on Wheein's cheek. "I'm glad you wanted to see me."

Wheein just sat there in silence waiting for Yongsun to continue driving.

"Let's get some air," Yongsun said and she opened the car door.

She got out of the car and opened the passenger seat door to help Wheein get out.

She held Wheein's hand, it was so soft and tiny. Yongsun held it tightly while she walked Wheein a few feet away from the car, at the direction that was well-lit by the car's headlight.

"Wait here," Yongsun told Wheein. "I'll be a sec."

She left puzzled Wheein and run back to the car. Yongsun rummaged the compartment for her stacks of CDs and found recent album compilation The Morning Lasted All Day by The Dream Academy.

That British band did a cover of her favorite song from the first movie that she watched with Wheein together at the cinema, 500 Days of Summer.

She inserted the CD to the car's CD player and chose the track number of the song. She turned the volume to the loudest possible. Then she pressed play.

The intro of Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want started playing as she made her way to Wheein who was standing at the middle of the field.

"This song..." Wheein said.

Yongsun asked for Wheein's hand, "Can I take this dance?"

Wheein looked flustered but she took Yongsun's hand smilingly.

"We can't go back so just imagine this is your prom," Yongsun told her.

Wheein placed her arms around Yongsun's shoulders and Yongsun placed her ands around Wheein's waist as they started swaying to the song.

"This is the best prom, unnie." Wheein told her giggling. "Thank you."

Their faces bodies almost pressed together, their faces close to each other.

"Wheein-ah, will you remember this night?" Yongsun asked as they continued swaying, taking small steps as they danced. "Will you remember this five years from now?"

"How can I forget this?" Wheein asked. "It will be like forgetting you. And that's impossible."

Yongsun's heart ached. Will Wheein really remember? Will this be enough to change their present? For Wheein to choose her over Taeyeon? And suddenly Yong mustered all the courage to ask...

"Wheein-ah, can I kiss you?" Yongsun could feel her face and ears were turning red in embarrassment but she wanted to push further her luck. Because this might be the last. "You said you would've wanted to get your first kiss at prom."

Wheein felt embarrassed.

"I wanna be the one to give it to you," Yongsun said.

"Unnie, you don't have to." Wheein started blushing.

"I just want to be sure that your first kiss is from someone who cares about you," Yongsun said. Because she knew that when Taeyeon drunk kissed Wheein at the party, that was Wheein's first.

"Do you wanna do it?" Wheein asked her.

"I'll do anything for you, Wheein-ah." Yongsun said, but to her dismay, Wheein's gaze fell down to the ground. Suddenly studying their feet.

"Something wrong?" Yongsun asked.

"Nothing, unnie. Just... I don't know."

Yongsun started feeling anxious, trying to figure out what she said or did wrong. Maybe she was just imagining things and assuming that Wheein loved her. Why was she suddenly holding back like this?

"You shouldn't have asked and you should've just kissed me," Wheein said, still looking at their feet. "Kissing me because I want it and you kissing me because you want to are two different things."

"I don't understand, Wheein-ah."

Wheein looked at Yongsun's face. Her eyes had this sadness and yearning that she couldn't understand. "Do you like me, unnie?"

"Of course, I do!"

"Do you love me?"

"I do."

"Do you love me? Like love me?" Wheein asked. "Not the friend love, not the sister love?"

"Does it matter what kind of love I have for you?" Yongsun asked her. "They're all the same."

"You didn't answer my question." Wheein looked down on the ground again.

Yongsun was trying to understand what was going on in Wheein's mind and it was frustrating how she couldn't. "Wheein-ah, what's bothering you?"

"Because I love you unnie," Wheein spoke softly. "And it's the kind that I really like you. The kind that I want you. More than anything else."

It pained Yongsun that even on this very moment they couldn't communicate her feelings to Wheein exactly how she wanted it to. Her heart was being crushed by her own lack of sense how to tell it to her that she would understand.

"I want you to kiss me not because I want to be kissed, but because you want to kiss me. Because you want me," Wheein looked at Yongsun's eyes again.

Yongsun could only look at her eyes. She wanted to listen and understand. Maybe there were things she thought she already understood but she actually didn't. Wheein had always been a puzzle to solve.

"I know that you love me," Wheein said. "But I don't know if you want me. I don't know if you desire me. I don't know if what you feel for me is the same as how I feel for you. And what I feel for you is not just what I feel for a close friend or an older sister. It's more than that, way more than that."

Yongsun didn't know what to say. She just pulled Wheein closer and pressed her forehead gently against Wheein's. "I don't know the kind of love you expect from me," Yongsun admitted honestly. "But five years from now I want us to be like this, dancing to the same song. You wearing a white dress..."

"Unnie..."

"...because you chose me and accepted my hand for marriage. To be with me forever," Yongsun continued. "So I'm sorry if I'm kinda dumb and don't understand everything you mean and say. But that's what I want, for you to be mine. And I'm sorry if I took this long to tell you how I feel."

"I want to marry you, unnie." Wheein said. Yongsun knew that Wheein meant it.

"So can I kiss you now?" Yongsun asked her again.

Wheein laughed a little and smiled. Then she closed her eyes, letting Yongsun to close the gap between their lips.

She swore that if she came back to present and still hadn't fully won Wheein's heart, she might really kill Moonfairy.

Yongsun was content that she did everything, communicated her feelings to Wheein and finally kissed her. Under the blinking lamp post of that abandoned football field under a sea of stars. Their hearts beating as one, feeling each other's lips.

Until a ray of white light appeared. There were no worries in Yongsun's heart anymore as she was being transported back to the present. She knew that she would have Wheein back. She was sure about it.

Until she opened her eyes...