A Day In The Park

[Moon Eun Seung]

Blossom dripped from slender trees, melting into the stiff cut grass beneath. The street lights flickered and sparked into bloom as the sun began to sink into the fragrant orange skyline.
Eun Seung ran a hand backwards through her brown bobbed hair, stepping backwards and scuffing her heels against the earth. She fixed her eyes on the ball and lined up her shot. In her head she counted to ten before rushing forwards, her foot finding its target and sending the ball soaring across the gap between herself and the make-shift goal posts. The keeper leapt aside, but it wasn't enough; the ball bounced, settling itself comfortably past the line. Eun Seung sprung up into the air, her arms raised high.
"She scores! Team Moon wins the match!"
Her cheers were met by the slight scowl of the goal keeper who shook his head and joined Eun Seung beneath the blossom tree, both popping open a bottle of fizzy lemonade.
"Well done," Eun Seung beamed cheekily, "you almost had it. Maybe you just need more practice."
The boy swore under his breath but did so in good humour. Eun Seung giggled. A moment later her face fell into a frown: Hye Gi still sat alone with her study books on a vacant park bench. She wasn't the sporting type and it was a rarity that she would join in a game of football even when Eun Seung extended the invitation.
"Hey! Hye Gi!" Eun Seung called over to her sister, waving her arms broadly and motioning her over, "sit with us. Don't be lonely."

 

[Moon Hye Gi]

Hye Gi glanced up from the indulging text of her books. Her eyes met Eun Seung and she sighed inwardly. If only their father had not been so keen for the two sisters to bond then perhaps she could have stayed at home in the tranquillity of her bedroom study space where she could have actually got some work done.
Hye Gi rose slowly to her feet, neatly filing her papers and closing each book before packing the entire amount into her sagging satchel. She approached Eun Seung and her friend with a scowl. Something her mother had so often scolded her for.
"Yes. Yes, I am here, Eun Seung, there is no need to shout."
Hye Gi stood rigidly before the pair, reluctant to be seated with them when she knew it would ultimately prevent any risk of actually learning something.
"I was not lonely," she corrected her elder sibling with a slight pout, "I was doing what you should be doing with your end of year exams coming up. You do know your high school entrance exam is probably one of the most important, don't you?"

 

[Moon Eun Seung]

As her sister sauntered over with a bag full of books, Eun Seung rolled her eyes. She elbowed her friend sharply in the ribs and pulled a mangled expression in a warped reference to her younger sister's scowl. They shared a look and turned back to watch Hye Gi standing restlessly above them.
"I did say to sit with us, Hye Gi. Sit being the key word here."
Eun Seung smirked up at her little sister who seemed unimpressed by her antics. She decided to carry on her barrage of a response.
"You were lonely. You know you were. What does it matter to you, squid, if I pass or fail? Stop being such a worrying salmon and sit with us a while. You might actually enjoy it."
Again, Eun Seung smirked and leaned back against the base of the blossom tree, taking in the rippling tide of the evening sky.

 

[Lee Ji Hyo]

Ji-hyo sat by herself on a dark blue blanket spread across the grass. A book in her hand - one that her mother had told her to read. She didn't care too much if she didn't enjoy a subject, instead it would be learnt for her mothers sake. Song-im had been through enough recently.

A little way away from her seated position she heard two girls chatting to one another. They looked young, maybe even younger than her own ten years. "Actually might enjoy it" she heard one of them say to the other. Ji-hyo tilted her head towards to pair to see what they were doing, her dark brown eyes making contact with the younger girl as she made her way over. What if the girls didn't know each other? Was the younger girl being bullied by the older? Ji-hyo stopped reading and tucked her worn book into her brand new backpack that had been a gift from her recent birthday. As she pulled on the zipper, her finger got caught, and in a second of pain she realized she had torn the skin. Sticking her finger in her mouth, she tucked the blanket under her arm, and made her way over to the park bench.

"Might enjoy what?" she asked carefully, not wanting to impose on their conversation, but unable to resist her instinct to help a young girl if needed.

 

[Moon Eun Seung]

Eun Seung's eyes blinked open. Her time for relaxation was already at an end, and she sat upright, staring up at the approaching girl of similar age. Eun Seung's eyebrows raised atop her forehead with growing interest and curiosity.
"Well, if you must know," Eun Seung started casually, shrugging back her shoulders, "my little sister here is something of a study-bug."
Eun Seung turned on her sister, shooting out her tongue and crossing her eyes in reference to Hye Gi's 'peculiar' nature. Eun Seung saw no point in studying. Why should she? She could not care less what she did or did not pass when it came to her academic education. She had always preferred sports and as long as she could get by with that, she stood content.
"An anti-social study-bug." She added with a mocking tone.

 

[Moon Hye Gi]

Hye Gi's face shot into a reluctant frown at her sister's behaviour in front of a complete stranger.
"You are very mean, Eun Seung," Hye Gi declared boldly, "and I do not see why you should willingly wish to fail all of your studies in favour of a romanticized sporting fantasy."
Hye Gi smiled up at the girl in a most polite manner, hoping that, if nothing else, she gave off the impression of someone worth noting as more than just, as her sister so cruelly put it, 'a study-bug'.

 

[Lee Ji Hyo]

Ji Hyo's eyes shot to what the little girl was holding. "A study bug?" she questioned. "What are you studying?" As the wind blew she held onto her cap, pulling it more firmly onto her head. After a moment, Ji Hyo looked towards the eldest of her two acquaintances. Ji Hyo was particularly sporty herself, at least she enjoyed the adrenaline sports. Those that if they went wrong would result very badly. Before the divorce, her father had taken her on a ride to visit a Buddha statue, and the ride up in a cable car was exhilarating, especially since the floor had been transparent. One day she hoped she would be able to do more with heights, and had often pondered over her love of adrenaline sports against her mothers desires for her to become more of a political asset. "If it's any consolation, there should be a balance - between sport and reading." she didn't like it when people argued, and tried to bring the conversation to something a little more civil. Part of her hoped the eldest girl hadn't seen her reading earlier, as deep down she was nervous that she too might get picked on for it.

 

[Moon Eun Seung]

Eun Seung shifted her slender frame, eyeing the girl with her judgemental orbs. Finally, she deemed her no damage to her personal reputation and allowed her balanced reasoning to flow into the conversation.
"I suppose there must be some dark and light in all of life's ventures." She mused this, wondering still which the girl favoured above the other. In Eun Seung's eyes, all topics were competitive.
She could not resist adding her own opinion into the flavour of the mix.
"But agility could be of greater use when fleeing something deadly.." her voice drifted before closing off entirely, realising she may have already unveiled too much of herself before this stranger. But no normal person would believe what she was, anyway. Nobody would believe Eun Seung was of wizarding blood.

 

[Moon Hye Gi]

"I apologise for my sister's ignorance and ill-manners," Hye Gi said softly, "I do agree, though. There must be some level of balance. Not simply weighing upon sport to save from a dangerous situation. What about having the knowledge of how not to get into such a situation in the first place?"
There. She had made her point and picked holes at her sister's floors in the meantime. Though it was true that without the knowledge to understand the real world, one could progress no further than simply fleeing the scene of the crime without understanding why such a thing had occurred.
Realising how rude the two siblings had been, Hye Gi was quick to make amends.
"I'm Moon Hye Gi, by the way," she spoke sweetly,"and this fool is my sister, Eun Seung."

 

[Lee Ji Hyo]

Lee Ji Hyo paused for a moment, considering how to respond to the girls latest opinion. Of course, it was and always would be of great importance that should a circumstance arrive that someone would be able to reach safety. However Ji Hyo was not always comfortable with relying on just this, there was something more that she needed for herself. "Do you mean to say that fleeing a scene is better than staying to fight? Knowledge can be a powerful thing if used in the right way" Ji Hyo considered what it was that had made this girl think so cowardly. She herself had had many out of hours tuition with regards to politics - a career path that her mother had chosen for her, at least up until now - she thought. Ji Hyo had practice in fighting for her case. Verbally of course. But she didn't completely understand the notion of running from something until it was the last and final resort.She smiled towards the younger girl, "Ji Hyo" she replied "Lee Ji Hyo" It seemed she had a talent for befriending those younger than herself.