A chance of sunshine_Chap2

You’ve always amazed me how your smiling face matches your inner self…
Every time I see your smile on the pictures, my heart can't imagine its desire, how it’s supposed to feel.
Baby Sky… All the dreams and hopes are made of your eyes.

Seoul – a rare sunny morning after countless of snowy days, as if the sun could not wait to shove off his fluffy cloud blanket and take a good peek at one particular young man

Who really wished he did not have to wake up this morning.

- Yunho huyng, time to wake up. Your van is arriving in less than half an hour.

Yuchun cared but more importantly it was perfectly clear to Yunho that Yunchun was scared. Thought the younger man did not utter a word about it-which-should-not-be-named after staring blankly at Yunho’s signature on the contract a few days ago. Well, if it did not mean anything to him, Yunchun would not drag his ass out of his north-pole room by noon.

However Yuchun did not know that Yunho did not sleep. He was just trying to close his eyes and prayed that the sun would not rise, the day would not come and … and the show would not begin. Upon hearing Yunchun’s mumble, Yunho groaned quietly: “OK… Right! Right… right right! Apparently Chanmin’s plan A a.k.a praying does not work!”

After a cold bath… he was very ready to go. “Finish what you started... right! Life motto! Right… Just do it…” Jaejung did not send him off like Changmin and Junsu. He prepared Yunho’s favorite breakfast along with a text message of encouragement sent to “My lovely Yunho”, of course, with a LOT of hearts and icon… “That was just… so Jaejung”

- We are going to pick her up from the airport.

- Huh? Huyng…so she is not a local?

- No she is not… Here is her particular, I am sure you want to take a look… Quite interesting… Ummm… Very interesting case.

- Huh?

- Yeah, she does not speak Korean, she does Japanese. But she is not Korean nor Japanese. Gosh this is confusing… Mnet Scandal tries to reach out to the international fan-base. Who could have more international fans but DBSK? THEY SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME FIRST. SM is going to kill them… I am so sorry you get the first case.

- No problem, huyng. Calm down, things will be OK.

Yunho was at awe, but gradually he trailed off, mesmerized in his one-week-girl friend’s resume. “Scholar… ok, she must be smart. A-Changmin girl version? Nah, her grade ain’t that great, so Changmin-kinda-smart but not Changmin-kinda-hardworking! 191.5 hours of community service 2009 – wait a minute, isn’t it her final year? OK. Intern-teacher… she must love children… Student councilor, respectable and inspiring leader- sound familiar” Like playing a puzzle game, Yunho gathered scattered bits and pieces of the unknown girl to fill full his curious mind. She was certainly a strange person, who would send her university application to Mnet like this? Indeed he was grateful because she could not present herself more real than what she did. Nothing pretentious, no acting cute pictures, no long love letters, no obsessed DBSK fanaticizing, nothing of such, just her really straightforward profile. While Yunho went through some articles about this particular girl, a picture fell off. It landed perfectly on his lap and immediately captured his fullest attention. Long black straight hair, sweet honest smile, a girl in green was reading a book aloud to her all-so-eager students.

There is something about her smile that made him held his breath for a good two second, his heart skip for a good one beat.

Could it be?

******

While at the same time, on the other side of Seoul, a young and miserable girl was… miserably cleaning her bleeding knees – the expected outcome of having over-weight luggage and the result of being too confident, too self-reliant and headstrong. The plane landed almost half an hour earlier than expected. Seoul sun blinded her eyes. “Some kind of happiness? What an insa from Seoul!” May whispered softly. Strange as it seems but after a good half a year in the mountainous university town of Perugia, sunshine certainly became a kind of privilege. She could not help but felt extremely glad that those depressingly long weeks of snowy weather was over. She was once under this impression that she was buried alive under layers and layers of snowflakes. This certainly was a good start… Maybe… Maybe NOT

May glanced at the clock. The lazy short hand merely pointed at number 5. It was indeed too early to wake the entire dorm up for the arrival of a transfer student with an impatient phone call or a snobbish demand for immediate pick up. She decided to explore Incheon… sure… why not? How could she forget her dream “Star Corner”?

There, a girl-1.6something meter tall tip toeing next to the huge poster of a particular young man who altered her life with the slightest idea of his overwhelming influence over her seemingly non-existent life. “He is THIS tall for real? And his small head” She chuckled and trailed off to stare blankly at his ever kind, ever CF-like, ever insincerely professional smile…

-PULL PULL-
Her 5-cm-above-knee dress was pulled mercilessly by some invisible force she knew not off. Not till she looked high and low and very low could she find the mysterious prank-er, the master piece of love, the beauty of life – a toddler crawling on his all four, gazing into her eyes.

May was indeed speechless… She felt the perfectly Midoyou moment. Perfect blue eyes drew her into the long lost summer dream of the perfect sky in June.

- Hi stranger, what do you think you are doing? Mercilessly pulling a lady’s skirt in such manner… tsk tsk…

She pretended to let out an upset frown at the boy who committed the crime of capturing her entire heart at the first sight. “I must be damn easy and desperate to fall for a stranger just like this” She laughed at her silly thought while picking him up.

- Where is your mother?

The four word question was just enough to make the perfect stranger burst into tears even though just a while ago, he was indeed overjoyed, turning back and forth.

- Mommm—ma

Shocked at his sudden tears, she quickly hugged him close to her heart and gently rocked him back and forth while humming a familiar tune. Music did wonder, especially music of the Gods rising from the East. Gradually he stopped sobbing and mumbled the only assuring syllables he knew.

- Mommm—ma

With 3 luggage, a bleeding knee, and no worrying mother or concerned security guard in sight, May let out a heavy sigh. “What am I supposed to do?” Her eyes sparkled as she saw a black grand piano standing quietly in the middle of the path.

- You like piano? Shall we make some noise to get Mommm—ma’s attention?

Certainly the baby was over-excited with music. He hit random notes with absolute confidence.

- OK, Seoul’s got talent! Why don’t I just bring you to SM and get an audition? We may “luckily” get a 13 year slave contract– May laughed to her heart content. – What shall I play? Ahhhh

Just like that, as if she had known this particular song throughout her childhood, throughout her puberty, throughout her bumpy path to maturity… as if she had played it in her head every time she was miserable, messed up and lost her way, May pressed the black and white notes with her slender fingers recreating the cheerful tune of DBSK’s very famous Balloon

And just like that, he – whom she had yet the honor to address by name, got super high. He swing back and forth, hummed and hit random notes-again. Messily yet to her, these careless notes seemed to be the bright sparks of her unfortunate morning.

Perhaps, just a second before May got herself too carried away with her chance of sunshine, a young woman whose light make up was mercilessly smudged by tears rushed over the piano and hugged the toddler. The careless mother who thought she had lost her son forever bowed tirelessly to express her gratefulness toward the perfect stranger. May tried to shake away the woman’s pledge of guilt, in vain

- See, we can’t trust any bloody make-up advertisement. Water proof, apparently not tears-proof at all.

She mumbled to herself while waving goodbye and blowing kisses to the boy who made her day. Well, now look back, May must have changed the way she addressed him. He was certainly not the only boy who made that particular day perfect. He was just one of the boys, the first to be exact.

Because little did she know while she was busy Yunho-fangirling, baby-flirting and DBSK’s Balloon piano playing, there was another boy, who was as much mesmerized at her smile as the first one.
He did not know much, but there was something he was very sure… and that was certainly a secret he would not tell anyone, not even Jaejung – not even Jaejung without his favorite ramen – without the Jaejung’s signature frown every time Yunho messed up his OH-SO-Perfect color co-ordination.

Tomorrow, certainly the sky will clear up, just like you are here with me.