"Do You Really Love Him?"

"Ohhh…." Yuna nodded her head understandingly. "So that's the whole story…"

Mia didn't say anything and just signaled the waiter for one more bowl of chicken-noodles.

Yuna and Mia were sitting at a small road-side food stall. They were done for the day at the café and were really tired due to the whole Christmas Eve rush.

After work, they decided to have dinner together as Yuna insisted about it.

The waiter came with the order and placed it on the table.

"Thank you…" Mia said.

"So…" Yuna said as she was thinking about something. "That guy, Jun who comes with his stalker friend gang, is your childhood best friend…"

"Yeah…"

"…And the boss, the owner of our café, the only heir of KDW Company.....was your classmate and he is your Boyfriend now…"

Mia sighed loudly, "Yeah and yeah…"

With just the thought of that, she held her head in her hand and closed her eyes in frustration.

"Why are you annoyed with this idea?" Yuna asked.

"…."

"I mean, he seems a great guy. He's smart, handsome and well, don't mind me while I say this but his pockets are probably stuffed with gold coins!"

Mia opened her eyes and gave Yuna a cold look.

Yuna just backed off, "Told you. Don't mind."

"It's not his money, Yuna. It's his father's." Mia said plainly.

"Oh! So is that the problem? You want him to stand on his own? But let me tell you one thing; he's still young and looking at what he's doing at this age, he soon will be—"

"Unnie...!!!" Mia said being frustrated. "That is not the thing!"

"Oh!" and Yuna went into thinking again.

Sighing again, Mia kept down her chopsticks and whined, "I can't eat this! I don't know why I ordered it!"

"That's what I was also thinking. I thought, as you are tensed you might have got hungry."

"Tsk…" Mia laid back on her chair and slid down a little. "Please, will you eat that? I don't want to waste it."

Looking at her worriedly, Yuna pulled the bowl towards her and started eating.

"You know what Mia..." Yuna said as she took a bite. "I am not seeing any reasons not to date him."

"Yeah I know." Mia murmured.

"So why are so frustrated, gir—" Yuna stopped in the middle while talking as if she realized something. She banged on the table as of getting the answer of all this.

Mia looked at her, surprised. "Wh—"

"I know why you don't want this!" Yuna exclaimed.

"…"

"Because you don't love him!"

"Heh?"

"Yeah. You don't love him that's why you don't want this anymore…."

"What are talking about? I loved him."

"That's what! You LOVED him. But you don't love him anymore..!"

"What? No! That can't be true!"

"Why?"

"…Because...Because….I have always loved him!"

"…Umm. Okay. If you say so!" Yuna shrugged her shoulders and started eating again.

'Yeah I loved him…I mean I love him…' Yuna's question made Mia think. '…..I guess so!'

~

Mia entered her room and turned on the lights. Cho was not there. Most of the girls had gone home for the Christmas.

Just some of senior girls were left in the dorm with Mia.

Being exhausted, she threw her coat and her bag on the bed and went towards the window.

All the houses nearby were decorated with the fairy lights for the Christmas.

The lights of the kitchens and rooms were on.

The loud sound of laughter and sweet smell of the food was dispersed in the cold winter air.

The moon was shining from behind the clouds.

While looking at all this, Mia smiled to herself but the next instant she found herself feeling sad.

'This will be my first ever Christmas, away from my family….' She was thinking.

Her eyes became moist. 'I miss all of them….'

The eyes started welling up, she looked towards her empty room and then again outside, towards the houses.

'I wanna go home….'

'Ting!'

Suddenly, she heard a message being received in her phone. She didn't go for it and kept looking outside the window.

But then,

'Ting!'

'Ting!!'

'Tin- Ting!!!'

She got a row of tings and notifications.

'Who is it, at this hour?' She thought to herself being a little annoyed and took her phone out from the pocket.

Jun's name blinked on the screen.

"Huh? Jun?" While thinking this she opened the messages and she saw a row of pictures popping on the screen.

There was a picture of Mia's mother, Nana and Grandma being busy in the kitchen.

The other one in which Jina was up on the ladder putting the lights on the house while her father was standing down holding the ladder.

In one picture Mia's father and mother were standing near the Christmas tree while in other one Jina and Charlie were cuddled up together on the sofa and were sleeping.

The last one was a video of Charlie being tangled in the fairy-lights and struggling to get out of that.

Looking at all that, Mia burst out laughing.

"Hahaha….Oh Charlieyaaa….Poor thing…"

And then she got a text message, "You can't be here this time, but we will be always there. With you!"

The tears of sadness were now replaced with the happy ones.

Wiping her cheeks, she sent a heart emoticon to Jun and went back to go through all the pictures again.

While looking at the pictures with the ear to ear smile she realized something.

She scrolled up and carefully saw all the pictures one by one and at the end she let out a sigh.

"Oh Junaa! You sent me all these pictures but you are not even in one of them!"

~