018.
They meet at the top of Tokyo Tower or something clichéd like that, because they were made for beautiful romances and happy endings.
She has her feet on the edges of the square of glass that drops straight down to the ground, haunting as she watches people scurry on the ground under her.
"Oh god," she says before she steps back, vertigo tipping her slightly off balance.
Someone catches her elbow just before she stumbles, and she looks up to see a worried smile.
"Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good." She laughs nervously, tugging her shirt. "Thanks, though."
His smile widens before he takes her hand.
"Hey, want to go to the cafe a floor down? It's really nice."
Now she's blushing, she can't deny that, but his smile is wide and honest, and she's always been a sucker for them.
"Um, yeah, sure."
They order some food and coffee, though Sunyoung isn't a huge fan of lattes. She's more of a hot chocolate kind of girl.
"So..." he begins, and Sunyoung wants to laugh, how he's suddenly at a loss for words.
"How come you knew I was Korean?" she asks instead, and he smiles, his eyes almost disappearing. There's a word for that, but she can't remember what it is. She just knows that it's something like stupidly beautiful.
"Oh, your bag! You have a small keychain on it."
She checks it -- he's right. Of all the handbags she had to bring on the trip, it was the one with the keychain Jinri had given her as a good luck present. Effort is returned, but beauty is effortless, it says, and Sunyoung can't help but think it's perfect since Jinri is one of the most beautiful people she knows.
"It's a nice phrase," he says, leaning into his propped up hand, and she smiles.
"Thank you, my friend gave it to me before I left."
He nods. "That was nice of her -- him? Nice of them." He laughs a bit, unconscious.
"Oh right, shit, introductions." Sunyoung hides a smile as he bites his lip. "I'm Lee Jinki, 23 years old. You?"
"Park Sunyoung, 20. Nice to meet you." She bows slightly in her seat, and he laughs.
"You don't need to do that, we're just two travellers meeting up, right? No need for formality."
Sunyoung smiles a bit into her cake, abashed before she looks up, trying not to smile too wide.
"How come you're here?"
He shrugs. "I come up here every so often when I have a bit of time -- it's nice, to see the city. It's really nice to just come up around sunset and just watch all the city lights turn on as the sky darkens and turns all rainbow and pretty and -- shit, I'm babbling, aren't I?"
She can't hide the grin now, but she does cover it with her hand slightly, scared it's about to break her face.
"It sounds pretty. When's sunset?"
He looks at his watch. "In around half an hour."
She leans a bit closer, head slightly ducked.
"Let's wait for it then."
He breathes out a bit, a soft sigh, and she looks up. He's smiling.
"Yeah, let's."
The next half an hour is sweet. Jinki talks about his work, how he's been stationed in Tokyo for the past few months and how he's set to go to Kyoto in November, and then Osaka for a bit, and she nods. He asks her what she's doing, and she shrugs.
"Clearing my head, I guess," she says, and he nods. "Taking some time off from uni until, until." She pauses, spoon tapping the plate gently as she swings her leg. "I don't know, until something happens."
She smiles, and Jinki smiles back.
The sunset is beautiful, just as Jinki said it would be. Sunyoung's mouth is agape in wonder as she watches the lights of Tokyo turn on one by one. The lights rise slightly in the observation deck, and her fingers turn cold from being pressed against glass, but it's really rather breathtaking and she can't make herself care that her fingers are growing numb.
"Like it?" Jinki asks, and she turns her head to see him smiling at her, hands in his pockets.
"Love it."