Nath Jacobs

The evening sky was dimly lit. Selena sat on the balcony holding a glass of freshly squeezed fruits and scrolling through old pictures on her phone. There were pictures of her and Nath Jacobs at different times in Elementary school which their parents had captured.

At the time, they had been inseparable, and he had been her best friend. How could she have known that moving to Korea with her family would be the end of their friendship? How could she have known that she would lose all forms of contact with him?

After she moved, they kept communicating for the first couple of years up until ten years ago when he suddenly seemed to vanish and she couldn't reach either him or his parents anymore.

Her father had tried to find him and his family each time he traveled down to LA for business, but the duration of his visits were too short, and eventually, he had asked her to forget about Nath. As though that was easy for her to do.

Since then she had been unable to form any other real friendship because somehow she had always felt that doing so would be a betrayal to her friendship with Nath.

This was the reason the only friends she had were her younger ones, Ivy and Haewon. They were family to her after all.

Selena was so engrossed in her thoughts and the pictures that she did not hear Ivy come up behind her or see Ivy peeking into her phone.

"You still haven't been able to find him?" Ivy asked even if she knew the answer to that.

Selena had been trying to find Nathaniel Jacobs since she arrived in LA five years ago. Selena had moved to LA with two goals in mind.

First to take over the smooth operation of her father's chain of restaurants, and secondly to find Nath.

Ivy had joined her in LA three years ago because she wanted to attend a foreign college, and her parents had been more than willing to do so, knowing that Selena would be there to guide her. So, she had completed her high school in LA and proceeded to college.

And Haewon had all but emotionally blackmailed her overly protective parents into letting her go with them to complete her high school and attend college too.

It would have been too unfair to have her two best friends leave to a different country while she was stuck in Korea with the rest of the family.

A startled Selena looked up at Ivy as she took the seat next to her and Selena sighed and shook her head.

"Don't you think it's time you hired a private investigator to help you?" Ivy suggested.

"How much information can I give them? All I can remember is his name, his age, his physical appearance, the name of the school we attended…"

"And I believe this is more than enough information for anyone to work with," Ivy cut in.

"Yet I worked with all that information and got nothing," Selena pointed out.

"Because it's not your field. You're not a professional, Lena. You should get someone to help you do this if it's half as important to you as I believe it is," Ivy insisted, and Selena sighed.

"It's not like I haven't thought about doing that," She admitted.

"So, what's stopping you?" Ivy asked, watching her curiously.

Selena shook her head. How could she explain to Ivy that she was scared? As much as she wanted to find Nath, she didn't want to put in all that effort only to end up getting disappointed.

What if she hired a private investigator and eventually finds him only to find out he had forgotten all about her and moved on with his life like she never existed?

What if she found him and he had no desire to rekindle their friendship or worse still, what if he had turned out to be a jerk?

"Lena," Ivy called softly and placed her hand on Selena's thighs, "What's wrong?" She asked, and Selena shook her head.

"It's silly," Selena said, and Ivy rolled her eyes.

"I know you, Lena. If it's stopping you from doing what you need to do to find him, then it's not silly. Tell me what's wrong," Ivy urged.

At that moment, Haewon who had been in her bedroom painting all day joined them, "What are you discussing without me?" She asked as she sat on the last available seat on the balcony.

"I was just asking Lena why she hasn't hired a private investigator to help her find her childhood sweetheart," Ivy said making Selena shoot her glares.

"He isn't my sweetheart or anything. He was just my friend," Selena said defensively.

"That's not what we heard from Aunt Min-jung and Uncle Alex," Haewon said with a grin.

"And the fact that you're still thinking about him after all these years tells us he was more than a friend to you," Ivy added, and Selena rolled her eyes.

"Or maybe it's just because I value my friendships that much," Selena pointed out.

"Whatever. That's not the point. What's stopping you from getting a private investigator?" Haewon asked as she picked up Selena's glass of juice and drank from it.

Ivy was about to speak when Selena interrupted her, "Hey! I'm the adult here! You both should get off my case!"

Haewon and Ivy giggled, "You should know that line doesn't work here, Lena. Besides, we just want to help. You are always doing stuff for us and there is hardly anything we do for you," Ivy said, and Haewon nodded in agreement.

"You did help by trying to find him on social media platforms. Being the internet detective that you are, I believe you would have found him if he were on the internet," Selena said, and Ivy shook her head.

"Maybe he changed his name," Ivy reasoned.

"Maybe," Selena agreed.

"Or maybe he's dead?" Haewon said, and Ivy pinched her when Selena's face went pale.

"He's not dead! You shouldn't say negative things like that!" Ivy chided and then patted Selena.

"Don't mind Haewon. You know she's only a kid and sometimes speaks without thinking," Ivy said, and even though Haewon wanted to argue that she wasn't a kid, she agreed that she had spoken thoughtlessly.

"I'm sorry, Lena. I shouldn't have said that," Haewon said apologetically.

"You might be right. I guess that's something I just don't want to let myself consider," Selena said as she looked away from them.

"Let's get a private investigator. All in favor of it, say, Aye," Ivy said, and both she and Haewon said Aye, making Selena smile.

Selena took in a deep breath, "Alright. Alright. I will do that," She said, thinking that if the private investigator did find Nath, she wouldn't approach him immediately. She would try to watch and study him from a distance to determine whether or not she should approach him.

"Good! Let's do that so you can stop pining away," Ivy teased, and they all laughed.

"I wasn't pining away," Selena said defensively and then looked at Haewon.

"You're almost at the end of the school year. Has anyone asked you to be their prom date yet?" Selena asked, changing the subject.

"Must I have one? Why can't I show up there myself?" Haewon asked, and Ivy smiled.

"It's best you have one. Even I had one, remember?" Ivy said, and Haewon rolled her eyes.

"Same date you broke his nose because he tried to fondle your boobs," Haewon said dryly.

"That was due to my bad judgment. I picked the wrong guy. And it doesn't change the fact that I had one. You could as well break your date's nose," Ivy said, and they all giggled.

"I've had several offers but I turned them all down. I'd rather go alone than be bothered by anyone," Haewon insisted.