This was a strange feeling which Yu Jin had never experienced in his whole life. But it was even stranger that Yu Jin really liked it when his lips touched hers. Her lips were plush, warm and...sweet too. Not waiting for too long, Eun Chae also leaned forward and looped her arms behind Yu Jin's nape. She put her arms onto his shoulder to hug him while enjoying his soft, kissable lips. The two friends remained in that posture only for a few seconds and then let go of each other. The kiss was short, but it would definitely be very memorable for both of them.

"How does it feel?" Yu Jin affectionately looked at Eun Chae with his blushing face and inquired.

"It...it feels good, I guess," Eun Chae shyly smiled and averted her eyes away from Yu Jin. Her face was as red as a tomato right now. "Oh my God, I am so embarrassed," she wryly laughed and then covered her face with her hands, intermittently swatting her feet on the ground.

"Hey, look at your ears!" Yu Jin gently touched her ears and snorted, "They're blushing!"

"Stop teasing me," she wiggled her body.

"I'm sorry Ms. Hong," he naughtily drew out the words and made a face at her.

To prevent any more awkwardness after that innocent kiss, they remained silent for a while and looked at the sky again. Yu Jin did not know why, but the shooting stars seemed even brighter and more beautiful after that kiss. He had been fixing his eyes on them, not noticing anything else until Eun Chae suddenly broke the silence.

"Hey Yu Jin, you wanna play a game?"

"Yeah, but what game?"

"You know the truth and dare game?" She said and took a sip of liquor from her cup, "I wanna play a similar game with you, but only truth, no dare, sounds good?"

"Argh...I hate that one. But fine, as long as you like it."

"Then it starts now! We use rock-paper-scissors, whoever wins will ask."

In the first turn, Eun Chae got the rock while Yu Jin got scissors, which meant the girl would be the one who asked first.

"Yayyy," she yelled in timber and threw her arms into the air.

"Oh hell no," Yu Jin grumbled in disappointment, "Go easy on me please!"

"This is the first one so I won't sabotage you. Why do you want to be a doctor?"

"Me...I think it's because of my huge passion for bio. I've always been keen on it since primary school. And I think working as a doctor will suit my inquisitive personality."

"Seriously," Eun Chae covered her mouth and chuckled.

"What's so funny about it?" He peered at her in puzzlement.

"I'm not asking you to lift up the lines in those interview books. What's the true reason why you wanna be a doctor?"

"You wanna hear it?"

"Of course, this is the game of truth, isn't it?"

"You know the drama 'Hospital Playlist'? I watched it when I was very small. I thought that the doctors in it were very cool so...I just wish to be like them. My dream is to be one of those doctors, offering my patients hope and helping them recover," he replied with enthusiasm.

"Ah...I see. So you have a dream department of your own?"

"Not really, I'm still on the fence about my major cuz I'm not sure of what I want yet. If I want money then I can go for neurosurgery. If I want to do something fun and challenging, then paediatrics. Or if I want to live a life which is a bit less busy than the other doctors then I can choose ophthalmology"

"What does ophta...something mean?"

"It's about the eyes," he said with his fingers pointed at his eyes.

"Ah, I see," she nodded her head.

"What about you, do you have any dreams?"

"Dream? No, I'll die anyway, so what's the point of it," she laughed out loud while Yu Jin was rendered nonplussed. He could not comprehend what she found so funny about that cruel fact. Did all cancer patients have such a bizarre sense of humour?

"You fiend! Stop mentioning death, will you? It hurts me every time you do so?" He raised his voice and scowled at her.

"Don't be so sad, everybody will eventually die, right? I'll be waiting for you in heaven," she looked at him and grinned.

"It sounds like you want me to die soon, isn't it? Is heaven too boring without me?"

"Stop teasing me like that, that's not what I mean. Don't make me seem like a wicked girl who wants her friend to die," she groaned and pouted.

"But...I mean...if you could live longer then...what would you want to do?" He curiously queried.

"Well...I want to be an astronaut," she looked up at the luminous sky, "I have always been amazed by the wonders of the universe since I was small, and I wanna find out more about it. I wanna know how vast it is, and how small we are to it. I wanna set my foot on Mars. I wanna explore the unknown exoplanets. I wanna fly into the mysterious space to see what's there. And...I wanna have a child to tell it 'Look up at the sky and you will see me there'. I even dream of working for NASA, you know?"

"That's a big dream," Yu Jin stared at her and nodded his head. Her sharing was both inspirational and heartbreaking at the same time. Knowing that she had such a big dream really made Yu Jin want to try even more. Not only he wanted to be a doctor, but now, he also wanted to be the most outstanding one among all of them. If even a dying girl dared to dream big, then why couldn't he? However, he also felt like it was pinching his heart as he knew it was not going to become true. Feeling pity for her, he began asking himself why she had to leave so soon and why she could not be given a little more time. She had a big goal, but she was never going to accomplish it as she would be leaving soon. Meanwhile, there were people out there who were living on their parents' allowance without any purpose and could have a longer life than her. But there was no point in being sad about that since it was how life works. We could never expect it to be fair. Some people, like Eun Chae, were just destined to be less fortunate than others and nobody could do anything about it. Yet, Eun Chae was resilient. The fact that the odds were stacked against her could not faze her to find the meaning of life, and that was what Yu Jin loved about her.

"Never mind, stop distracting me from the game!" Her bald chiding disrupted Yu Jin's thoughts. "Let's continue," she said before taking another sip of soju.

Unlucky for Yu Jin, Eun Chae won again in the rock-paper-scissors game and could give him another question.

"I'm not gonna go easy on you this time," her eyes glimmered, with seemingly some wicked intentions lurking inside.

"Ah darn it," Yu Jin moaned.

"Well...have you ever had a girlfriend or had a crush on someone?"

"What?" The question was so abrupt and unexpected that Yu Jin's brain was literally lagging for a few seconds, "Do you think I really have?"

"I don't know, that's why I'm asking you," she puffed her cheeks out and peered at him.

"I have never had any girlfriend, it's not too surprising, right? But I once had a crush on one of my seniors in the science club. She was one batch above me, half Aussie, I mean..half white. Very friendly and helpful. She taught me a lot about bio, I'd say."

"Ohhhh," Eun Chae parted her lips and nodded her head in excitement, seemingly waiting for some elaboration from Yu Jin.

"I really liked her a lot, and I wanted to tell her that. But...before I could even garner my courage to confess my feelings to her, she already came back to Australia for university," he displayed an expressionless face and sighed.

"Oh that's sad. But you really have an eye, I also like half-white girls, they're so beautiful," she gave him a grin, "I'm really jealous of her."

"Jealous? Why?"

"Cuz she had some boys who liked her, I wish I could have one."

There was actually one, Han Yu Jin. But it was apparent that he was not going to tell her this. His cowardice had completely ensnared him, preventing him from letting the girl sitting beside him know that he liked her. After all, his timid nature did not change really much and he supposed that it was good enough for them to be just like this. Maybe this kind of friendship could be better than love, who knew?

"I'm sure that there are boys who like you out there. It's just you don't know that?"

"Hopefully...never mind...that's enough, let's get back to the game again."

Eun Chae was too eager to wait for any longer to get back to her game. But her luck seemed to run out in the next turns. She lost to Yu Jin in the rock-paper-scissors many times in a row. However it was fortunate for the poor girl that Yu Jin tried his best to be nice to her by not asking her any difficult questions.

"Yayyy! I win again," Yu Jin chortled after winning the game with a rock.

"Why are you always winning?" She grumbled and wiggled her body just like a baby failing to ask for a toy. The way she did it was so amusing for Yu Jin that he wanted to win her and tease even more so that he could see her doing that again. She was really funny and cute then.

"So now...Tell me about...the story of your life."

"Hey, is this an interview? You asked me my favourite colour, my role model, my greatest achievement, and bunches of boring things. Now you want me to tell you the story of my life? I am even prepared to tell you my bra size, and now you ask me this? Ask me something more interesting please!" She shouted out loud in frustration.

Yu Jin was a bit annoyed by her bad temper. Was this the attitude she should have towards Yu Jin while he was trying not to give her any heinous questions?

"It's just how the game is, so tell me!" He pinched her nose and gave her a mischievous grin.

This question was not merely a randomly picked one. Yu Jin really wanted to find out how her life turned her into the current version of Hong Eun Chae, happy and resilient. He was excited to know about how her life could instil such personalities into her.

"OK, fine! As I told you before, I grew up in an orphanage. I wouldn't say my life there was tough then, the caregivers really cared for me a lot. But it was not really memorable. The only thing I remembered is that..." She halted to drink her soju. "I was often bullied for not having parents when I was in primary school and sec school. That was also why I decided to apply for a scholarship in Hansung High when I entered grade ten, and I got in. I found it lucky of me cuz I knew for sure that my orphanage wouldn't afford to pay the school fees there for me. It earned me some money, and that was quite good, I guess. Most of the friends there were also well-educated, way more than those in my old schools, so I wasn't bullied anymore. And..." She stopped to take another gulp of liquor. "My high school time went pretty smoothly until I was diagnosed with cancer. But I did not let it drag me down, and I swore to myself that I'd have excellent academic results in these last years, so that there could at least be something worth remembering about my short life. I chose not to tell anyone about it, except for the manager of the orphanage so that I could get some more allowance. But eventually, I still needed to leave the orphanage when I graduated high school, just like all of the other orphaned high school grads," she paused again, this time not for drinking soju, but to wipe the tears welling out from her eyes. "I was given 7000 dollars which was a bit more than the healthy ones but..." She sighed and then yelled out loud, "What the hell could it really do?" 

Eun Chae suddenly became emotional and bursted into tears, putting her head on Yu Jin's shoulder. Yu Jin also gave her a tender hug to comfort her. At least, crying on Yu Jin's shoulder might somehow help her alleviate the negative feelings she was experiencing.

"I was thrown into life with that amount of money, lost and flustered. I didn't know what to do. I have already spent a large part of that on my treatment," her voice was still shaky and she was still weeping in Yu Jin's tender embrace. "But...at least I can send letters to some charities to ask for subsidy so things are not too bad after all. It just...hurts my self-esteem," her voice softened. Her whole body was as limp as a rag just like she had no more power left.

"It's OK, just calm down, I'm here with you," he gently rubbed her back. Never had he been told that she had been through such an awful life. It sounded terrible, of course. But it also made him appreciate her even more.

"Hey Yu Jin," her eyes glimmered at him and her face was blushing because of the alcohol. "Do you...look down on me...because I'm an orphan?" She slowly slurred her words.

"No, it makes me admire you even more, so don't you ever feel bad just because you're an orphan, understand it?"

"Mm hmm," she muttered, hugging Yu Jin tighter with her head placed perfectly on his shoulder and then stopped talking. She was clearly inebriated.

Seeing her being drunk, Yu Jin quickly carried her to the sheltered area of the camping site along with all their belongings and lied down beside her. As soon as he set his back down on the blanket, she extended her arms to embrace him. She put her hands on his stomach, her nose was nuzzling his back and her body was in close, direct contact with him. "What the hell is happening? Am I being hugged by a sleeping girl?" Yu Jin mumbled, "Will friends ever do such things together? It should be a no." He knew that this was really wrong. However, he did not want her to let go of him yet as she seemed to be comfortable doing that. Maybe he could just let her hug him for a little more. Appeasing her for a while would not be that bad, after all. In addition, she was totally drunk, so she would probably forget all of these the next day.

"Hey Yu Jin, can I ask you this?" She suddenly said while still hugging him. Her voice was weak, but still intelligible, "What if I tell you that I'm really...terrified of death?"

Thank you very much for making it this far! If you enjoy reading my story and are excited to find out what is going to happen next, don't forget to click the star to vote for me as well as recommend my story to your friends. You votes really motivate me a lot^^