Chapter Text
She couldn’t help but chuckle at the universe’s machinations. In a city with a population of over 8 million people and over a dozen law schools (15, to be exact - she had Googled it on her way to the airport yesterday), of course she would run into him at this party.
She tightened her hold of Seunggi’s arm who was in the middle of doing that exaggerated, Korean catch-up-thing at the door where they half yell at each other in glee. He mistook it for attention and he moved to place his hand on the small of her back, “This is Wooshik, my crazy roommate in Toronto who is somehow cool enough to be engaged with a lawyer. And this…” Seunggi turned towards her with a wide smile that made her chest all warm and gooey with happiness, “...this is my girlfriend, Suzy.” She leaned forward to give Wooshik a polite hug. She’s heard a lot about the guy and he seems much tamer than her boyfriend made him seem. “Thanks for coming,” Wooshik said to both of them, “I know taking time off work must be difficult.”
“What are you saying? It’s my duty as your best man to be at your engagement party,” Seunggi slapped him playfully on the shoulder before continuing to chat, leaving Suzy to look around the high ceiling apartment that must be costing a fortune to rent. She almost whistles wistfully aloud. She’s always wanted to live in a brownstone but could never find one in LA (not that she’d have enough money to rent one anyway). She’s also looking around to see if she can spot him again. A part of her hopes that she wouldn’t see him and that she had just been seeing things, but the other hopes that she’d find him in a corner somewhere, standing in a navy blue sweater with the collars of his white shirt peeking out, nursing a glass of gin and tonic or maybe whiskey in one hand. When she didn’t spot him, she turned to join the conversation, breathing a sigh of relief and finding herself relax, as she enjoyed the various hors d'oeuvres floated around by waitresses in fancy suits.
She was in the middle of an exciting story of how Wooshik’s first encounter with a New York City rat at the subway (Huiryung, his fiancee, rolled her eyes and said that it was just a mice, which made Wooshik’s eyes bulge even bigger with indignation that no it was a giant rat) when she heard his voice - that familiar voice that she knew oh so well.
“Sunbaenim,” his tone unfailingly polite, “I’m going to head back. We have a test tomorrow,” she could hear the wince in his voice without having to look but she did anyway.
“Suzy?” the shock in his voice is palpable.
“Hi…” she said a little too quietly before continuing, now aware of the attention that’s on her from everyone in this conversation, “This is Jinyoung. We went to high school together.” She hoped her the shakiness in her voice is just in her imagination.
“Oh? I know you lived in the West Coast before moving out here but who knew that the West Coast is that small,” Huiryung said. Turning to Seunggi and Suzy, she explained, “Jinyoung is a summer intern at my firm. The best intern,” which was met with a shy chuckle from Jinyoung. The introductions continued around their little circle and Suzy took that time to take note that he was not wearing a sweater - just a plain white button-down and slacks.
“I know there’s not a lot of heavy food here, but did you get enough booze?” Wooshik asked. Jinyoung chuckled again and grinned while shaking his head, “Definitely. I drank more than I should, considering I still have to study.”
“Still studious as ever, huh?” Suzy’s remarked with a slight smile. “I guess so,” Jinyoung nodded, a similar smile on his lips. A beat passed before he cleared his throat and said his goodbye, leaving Suzy a little wistful and nostalgic.
They were fourteen when they first met and they were fifteen when they started dating. It was utterly unremarkable as far as love stories go. They met, they flirted, they fell in love, and they spent the next two years together.
Their dates initially consisted of study dates at various places. She was fine with this and found it quite cute. Her grades definitely benefited from it as well. In turn, he would also go to the occasional parties with her. But things started to really go sour between them when he spent more and more time studying and volunteering at various places to boost his application. She couldn’t fault him for doing any of that, but she felt left out - left behind. All her friends seemed to have figured out what they want to do and where they want to be, while her future looked like a blob of uncertainty. Suzy always knew that she wasn’t Ivy League material; she gets Bs in her classes and that was fine with her (and her parents, thankfully). But this runs in contrast to Jinyoung whose safety school was Columbia Law (Harvard was, of course, his first choice). He knew exactly what he wanted while Suzy spent most of her Junior year flailing about, not really sure what she’s going to major in in college. Jinyoung tried his absolute best to be with her in every spare second that he had, but at some point, he had to choose between his studies and her. They were heading in different directions and it was becoming more and more apparent.
So at the end of junior year, they broke up.
Suzy didn’t remember ever crying as much as she did that summer. But by the time graduation rolled around, they exchanged polite goodbyes and sincerely wished each other luck. He told her that he’s going to Columbia’s Pre-Law and when he told her that he’ll be moving to New York City for some summer classes (trust Park Jinyoung to be eager to start his long and harrowing journey into law school early ), she gave him a genuine smile because she could immediately picture him walking the dark alleys of the city with neon lights illuminating his path and the sound of horns blaring from a distance. How does someone just completely embody a city? She didn’t understand it then and still doesn’t understand it now.
So when she ran into him again at Wooshik and Huiryung’s wedding six months later at a garden in upstate New York, she couldn’t help but ask, “Do you miss LA?”
She knew that he went home for the holidays like the good son that he is. Their parents go to the same Korean church in Rancho Cucamonga and she went there almost every Sunday at the insistence of her mom (and because she loves the snacks that the ahjummas bring for the after-church coffee sessions). So they’d give her bits and pieces of information about Jinyoung - how he graduated top of his class and is continuing straight to law school in Columbia, how he got a minor injury from playing basketball (she remembered that he was always in good shape from running but he was truly hopeless at team sports involving balls of any kind), how someone stole his bike…
Throughout all the updates, Suzy found herself just politely nodding along. It was nice to know that he was doing alright and that some part of him was still the same familiar Jinyoung that she knew in high school - the same familiar Jinyoung that she loved. But looking at the man in front of her now with his hair styled in a tousled side part (gone was the adorable Justin Bieber bangs he sported in high school) and a crisp black suit, he looked like a completely different person.
“Sometimes,” he answered, “I miss having space.” Suzy gave an exaggerated gasp, “You mean not all New Yorkers live in a fancy brownstone like our happy couple?” He laughed, “I wish. I cannot wait to graduate, sell my soul to a firm, and be able to not live in a studio.”
“How many more years do you have to go?” she asked. His voice sounded tired when he said, “This is only the start of my first year.”
“So you have eternity and a half until your dream of not living in a studio.”
He chuckled before looking up at the clear winter sky, “Don’t even joke about that. This semester has felt like two eternities in one.”
“You should’ve stayed in LA. The sun would’ve helped,” the words escaped her lips before she could stop it. Thankfully, Jinyoung just laughed, “You’re right. LA would’ve been more comfortable. Or at least those Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups frosties would’ve really helped,” referring to the frozen custard sold at the local drive-in theatre.
“That drive-inn closed a few years ago,” she informed him and his eyes widened in genuine shock, “What?”
She nodded solemnly. It wasn’t far from their high school and it was a hangout spot for so many people in the area. “It was sad. At the last showing and there were cars parked across the street. I’m pretty you can’t see anything from that far away,” she explained sadly.
“Did you go?” he asked and she answered quickly, “Of course! I had to.”
“What did they show?” he slipped his hands into his pockets after abandoning the wine glass on a nearby table.
“ Alien .”
Jinyoung winced, “You must’ve hated that.”
“Every single second of it,” she nodded, “They did a poll at the newspaper for it and people, for some ungodly reason, chose that awful, awful movie.” She still shudders at the number of times she hid behind the blanket and covered her ears. Suspenseful movies are really not her favorite.
He laughed, “At least they didn’t do an Aliens marathon.”
Now it was her turn to wince, “I can’t believe there are more than one of those movies.”
“Hey. Lots of people love it,” he retorted.
“Yeah well… lots of people hate pineapples of pizza and they are all incredibly wrong. So you’ll need a better argument than that, Mr. Lawyer,” she replied, completely aware of the flirtiness of her tone but unable to stop herself.
This easiness between them was comforting but it was scary at the same time.
“So you and Seunggi huh?” he asked a while later when they were standing by the mini macarons (“It’s already so tiny! Why would you make one of life’s greatest treasures even tinier? It’s like asking puppies to be even smaller; it’s already cute! Leave it be!” she ranted earlier, making him laugh).
Suzy’s eyes automatically searched for the guy in question who she quickly found on the side of the stage, chatting animatedly with his friends. To Jinyoung, she said, “Yeah… we met at my dad’s company’s Christmas party last year.”
Jinyoung nodded, eyes on Seunggi who is now laughing at something Wooshik said. “He seems nice,” Jinyoung said.
She turned to him and nodded, “He is. He… he treats me really well.”
“I’m glad,” he said with a smile that Suzy knows to be sincere. She couldn’t help but replay that smile a few more times that night as she lay awake next to a snoring Seunggi.