You're My Gift This Christmas

Christmas came again this year, the snow covered the street of Seoul as a pair of friends ran on the street to where the Christmas party took place.

"Hurry, Anna!! We will be late."

"I'm coming." Anna with the brunette long hair down to her waist in the holiday warm clothes was carrying all the gifts her friend bought.

Her hat fell on the street and was soon buried in the white pure snow, she didn't have much time to pick it up, she ran to catch up with her friend.

They were all panting when they finally arrived at high school, Anna put the big gifts on the table where all the gifts were put. She went to grab a hot chocolate for herself.

"Did you wait long?? Sorry, we were busy dressing up."

"Don't worry, I would wait an eternity for you." the couple chuckled in the loving tension between them. Anna standing there feeling left out. As the couple was exchanging gifts, she walked to the corner of the party since the friend she only knew was busy cuddling with her boyfriend ignoring the friend who carried her gift a moment ago.

Anna sighed and sipped her chocolate staring with envy in her heart watching those couples dancing to the song in the ball they held at high school.

...

I wish I have a boyfriend...

I wonder what having a boyfriend feels like, I want to know what it was like to fall in love at first sight. Everyone has someone who could complete their missing piece, I'm really curious what my missing piece is like.

I kept on wondering and wondering until I met the guy with the red hat I wore a second before coming inside the ball.

I knew what falling in love at first sight was when I met you, I didn't really believe in coincidence but was it fate that allow me to meet you?

"Rick, you came!!! Ah, isn't that Anna's hat?"

"You shouldn't drop things like that...here's your hat." Rick gave me back my hat putting it on my hat, I felt like everyone was staring at us. I was afraid of the face someone might notice how flustered I was when my crush since childhood did things like that to me.

I didn't fall in love with him at first sight a second ago, I fell in love with him ever since we were still a kid playing tag with each other.

"Anna!! Come on, say thank you." my friend who knew about my deepest secret pushed me to him, I could feel his chest when my friend pushed me to him.

"It's nothing really. I'm really happy to see you...I'll change school in the next semester."

My heart dropped sinking to the bottom like a broken ship, my friend patting my shoulder didn't help me recover as I tried to hold back my tears from falling.

I tried to keep calm as changing school didn't mean I couldn't meet him any longer, I decided to ask Rick, "Which school do you go to?? Don't forget to visit me." I chuckled nervously with the cold sweat dropping like crazy on my forehead.

"I'll study abroad in New Zealand. I'll come back when I graduate."

"AHAHA, you must get that scholarship, right?? COngratulation, you idiot. If you excuse me, I think I'm really hungry...I go and grab some food, okay??" I said to him like a sewing machine and rushed to the food table and put the food inside my trembling mouth.

He really went away. I won't be able to meet him. I even wrote the dumb letter my friend suggested me to write, how could I give him now that he'll soon go far and far away from me?

"Anna..."

"What??" I was still crying like a river was flowing on my face at the back of the school, I escaped so far from everyone and yet, my friend Lucia still find me.

"Why don't you give the letter to him right now???"

"Are you crazy...?? What if he loves me and abandoned his scholarship??" I wiped my snot as I turned my head to my friend which I could see her face full of disbelief.

"Anna...I always told you this...you gotta stop planning every single step...just follow the flow...this is Christmas, come on...if he loves you, isn't that great that you will spend a wonderful Christmas with him?"

"Yeah...but what *sniffle if he rejects me?"

"Ahh...I can't relate." answered a woman who had three ex-boyfriends. All the men who confessed to her first.

"You're really pretty to be my friend!! I hate that about you."

"Well, I was born pretty. But don't worry, what's the worst he could say??"

She's right, Rick is always a kind guy with his skin bath in sun and the light followed him everywhere he went. He...he...

Just when I was drooling over my crush, I heard a loud voice coming from the corner of where Lucia and I sat, "Don't you understand??!! I already loved someone!!!! She's the only one in my heart!!!!"

My heart broke. That day, I didn't get to give Rick the letter since I knew the woman in his heart will never be me. He only saw me as a friend.

"Anna..."

"Lucia...*sniffle...it's better this way...I won't be hurt..."

"What if the girl in his heart if you..." I hung up, I didn't want to get my hope up listening to my friend's comfort. I hugged the pillow Rick gave me as a gift for that 'wonderful' Christmas.

Hic...hic...

Something was stuck inside my heart, it was like a thorn wrapping around my broken heart. I really wanted to be more confident, more brave, so that I could really tell Rick how I feel.

...

A guy entered Anna's room without her consent, he picked the red hat on the floor and put it on her bed.

He sighed and then picked her phone which have the wallpaper of herself and the small, very, very small Rick behind her. He scratched his head in frustration and then texted a guy for her.

'I love you so much, please be my boyfriend.'

"Oh my god, just be a couple already." Anna's little brother put back her phone and ran to play his game in the other room. His frustration of watching her lovesick sister for years was finally taken away from his mind.

...

Ring Ring

'Rick.' it was Rick calling on the screen.

"Is it Lucia calling me again??" Anna pulled her blanket and slept for the night after silencing her phone.

To be continued...!