Yellow Lights

There were pillars lining towards the entrance of the conference hall, each pillar painted an immaculate white with yellow lights shining on top of them, each was at least 6 feet tall and sturdy looking, and everyone seemed to be in awe of them as they all took out their respective phones to start snapping one for the gram. Upon the entrance stood two more pillars at each end, towering taller than the ones leading towards them, and then right above the entrance door hung a huge sign made of sturdy material, in bold blue cursive letters that read "BATCH '15 HIGH SCHOOL REUNION". Lots of former students were already almost running their way inside, excited to be able to see their old classmates again and goof around like before. Well...at least that's how most of them felt.

Lily Min fidgeted with her fingers as she rocked back and forth on her heels, waiting for her best friend who had promised to meet her up front so they could go in together. Lily was never even supposed to be here, she never had any intentions coming back to a place where she never even felt like she existed. High school was never a bad experience for her though, but it wasn't the best either, it was just...bland, like how her older sister cooked, just bland. Nothing much happened during high school, Lily was just the typical average student, she didn't socialize with the popular kids, but she wasn't exactly one of the nerds that would get bullied by some arrogant jock or boastful cheerleader, Lily would've even wanted to be one if she could, in order to be noticed, but she was left to become one of the invisibles; the ones who no one really paid attention to, like sure you're there but were you though? 

All throughout high school Lily had succeeded in making sure she was hidden in plain sight, she went with the flow, cheering during games, booing during extended class periods, sighing whenever the lunch lady would give them frozen vegetable pizza, she had made herself almost blend in together with the wallpaper. Her best friend, Roseanne Park was the same, so both of them stuck together, and honestly speaking, Roseanne was probably the only good thing Lily had in high school, they had their own set of adventures, heck maybe even their old classmates would be envious if they even knew what she and Roseanne would get themselves at during weekends of high school and after class hangouts. But Lily was never one to talk, she liked to keep her memories and moments all to herself, plus no one really cared to ask anyway, majority of the the people inside probably don't remember them anyway.

"I'm here!" A high pitched voice exclaimed

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock" Lily rolled her eyes at her best friend

"Hey, cheer up, my dear best friend! Remember, we're here to enjoy ourselves and look back on the greatest memories we had with our lovely classmates back in high school" Roseanne grinned

"Sure, do you think they'd remember that one time we actually existed and went to high school with them?" Lily deadpanned

Roseanne grunted and linked her arm with Lily's and dragged her towards the very bright and lovely entrance.

"Free food is better than taking to people who never even knew us anyway" Roseanne smiled as her eyes almost popped out when she saw the long table filled with food

Lily sighed as she took in the whole gymnasium. It was still the same as before, bearing white walls and sky blue colored tiles, there were a bunch of banners hanging by the walls, some just logos of their school, others were just some sappy quote welcoming students back. The lights were slightly dimmed, the tune to some indie song playing in the background whilst some people were dancing to it and others just chatting over it, then the stage in front of them was filled with white and blue balloons, a podium stood at the far right and different colored lights filled the stage.

"I can already see some hash browns, Li!" Roseanne squealed

"I would've just driven you to McDonald's, Rosie"

That earned her a hard nudge, Lily simple chuckled and dragged her best friend to the long table. As expected, Roseanne was already seconds away from devouring the food displayed in front of her, while Lily enjoyed the slow beat of the song playing as she slowly picked out some sweets instead of the abomination Roseanne was piling up on her own plate.

"Attention Seoul National High School! I hope you guys haven't forgotten me yet"

A tall and happy looking man stood behind the podium on the stage, he had on a varsity jacket with the letters "SNH" embroidered on the upper right; Joe Jeon, that's who he is. The school's MVP on the basketball court, the good guy and ever charming sweetheart that everyone seemed to adore. He lacked quite much in academics but had easily won over the presidency in the student council.

"Just your ordinary Joe over here greeting each and everyone of you a good evening! It's so glad to see familiar faces around and I'm proud to say I still remember every single one of you here" he grinned widely 

The whole auditorium erupted in cheers, hollers and loud claps. Lily and Roseanne made it to the table for two that was near the photo booth where a bunch of people were lining up to. 

"Nice try Joe, but maybe try to actually scan the room next time" Roseanne said through a mouth full of pecan pie

"Well I won't stay on any longer, just wanna wish you guys a fun night and I hope you all enjoy the food sponsored by our one and only Naya Im! And make sure to go over to the photo booth over there to remember this night. So that will be all, enjoy!"

Joe quickly ran down and back to his table where his old basketball team sat, they all still looked the same, still mischievous and quite arrogant who just grew a beard or two. Beside them was of course the old cheerleading team, headed by none other than Hannah Woo, their table was much lesser in number and not really interested at the conversations being thrown their way by the jock table.

"Can you believe how high school has never changed? Everyone is literally still in the same group and eating at the same table with the same people" Roseanne said

"Yeah well that's high school. Plus, I never wanted to come here, Rosie, this was your plan" Lily rolled her eyes at her

"You gotta admit that the food is good. Who would've thought Naya would end up as a chef with a catering service? All those punishments working along side the lunch lady was totally worth it, I guess" Roseanne snickered

"Yeah but it is a bit stuffy here. I'm kinda losing it already" Lily admitted

"Go and take a breather outside" Roseanne suggested, and Lily took that as a cue to leave, so she stood up and thanked her best friend before exiting

The cold Seoul air engulfed Lily straight away, she swore under her breath as she realized she had left her jacket back inside, but she really didn't want to head back in and be with people who were never really a part of her life anyway. They were merely passerbys just as she was one to them. The point of a reunion was to check on the people who you haven't seen in years but what's worse than knowing everyone there but them not remembering you at all? It all felt overwhelming to Lily and the room had felt stuffy and too hot, and Lily hated feeling that too. So she wound back by the entrance where no one was at, most of them probably preferred the photo booth than suffer in the cold winter air for a picture with some lights. It was nearing 8PM and the music inside shifted into a more upbeat one, she could hear the muffled voice of Joe announcing that it was "Dancing Time" to the crowd. 

Lily glanced around and saw the field, the lamp posts illuminating the beautiful mowed green grass, the old soccer net still in good condition despite the numerous students playing monkey bar with it back in the days. The benches were now painted a dark gold, different from the bright red from their school days. The big statue of the owner of their school still stood proudly just to Lily's left, the bronze sculpture still exuding pride and confidence and even inspiration to any of those who glanced up at him. The school looked good, still so fresh and beautiful, it was one of the reasons why Lily wanted to go to high school here, because she loved how nature took over the school, literally a forest of trees could be found there and the school was always eco friendly.

The yellow lights coming from the pillars danced around Lily's skin, the cold air embracing her more and giving her more reason to hate winter.

"Here"

Lily jumped when she heard the voice. See turned around and saw Jackie Kim, a girl who she recognized as a part of the track team back then. And now she was here holding out what seemed to be jacket, her face flushed red probably due to the cold air, she had on a bright smile, her cat like eyes boring into Lily's.

"It's cold, is it not?" Jackie asked

Lily nodded and grabbed the jacket, slowly putting it on and melting into the sudden warmth it brought.

"Why are you out here all alone? I saw Roseanne inside still working on her appetite" Jackie said, chuckling at the last part

Lily was taken aback. Did Jackie Kim know her? Assuming she knows Roseanne, did she actually know Lily as well? Preposterous.

"Y-You know Roseanne?" Lily asked

"Of course. I know you too, Lily." She smiled "I'm Jackie Kim by the way, I used to run track"

"I know" Lily said, although still surprised that Jackie knew her, but Jackie seemed more surprised at Lily's statement

"Really?"Jackie asked, her cheeks now redder as bit her bottom lip, holding back a smile

"I didn't think you'd know me?" Lily said

"I didn't think you'd know me too. I was always the invisible kid in high school anyway" Jackie admitted, and that definitely baffled Lily

"You ran track. Me and Rosie always watched the track meets since we often hung out a the bleachers. Why did you think you were invisible?" Lily tilted her head to the side to study Jackie's face.

"I saw you often even during practices, you and Roseanne. I heard you guys bickering a few times so I caught your name. We shared a few classes together in senior year too but I doubt you remembered. And to answer your question...well no one really paid attention to the track team and I mostly just hung out with Jill Krasinski, so I didn't think you'd know me"

Feline eyes looked up at Lily's doe eyes. The action suddenly making Lily's heart go beserk because wow, why did God think to create such beautiful eyes like Jackie's only for Lily to almost catch a heart attack because of how stunning those are. Lily doesn't think anything else could amount to such beauty--

Jackie gave Lily a gummy smile.

Oh dear God!

"I could write a whole chapter about you" Lily whispered

Jackie flushed scarlet as she bit her lower lip but this time not holding back a wide grin as she eyes Lily, like she was carefully figuring out a puzzle, not exactly knowing why Lily had said that.

"You would what?" Jackie asked

It was Lily's turn to blush.

"I...could write a whole chapter just describing your smile and those beautiful eyes" Lily said truthfully

"I see" Jackie chuckle softly

So softly that Lily was already writing a brand new chapter of how beautiful the sound was in her head.

"I could paint you like this" Jackie whispered

Lily furrows her eyebrows but smiled at her.

"Under the yellow lights" Jackie took a step forward and tucked a stray hair behind Lily's ears, suddenly all coldness in the latter's body vanished, she was now filled with complete warmth

"I've been admiring you since the first time I saw you on the bleachers throwing lettuce at your best friend's face" Jackie laughed lightly "I'm sorry I never talked to you back then...I was scare I'd freak you out"

Lily nodded, if Jackie ever did tough up and talk to her back then, Lily wouldn't have trusted the action knowing well how high school kids loved to tease the invisibles.

Jackie then grabbed something from her front pocket.

"I was going to run up to you on graduation day to give you this since I found out you were going to Hongik too, but you had already run off with Roseanne" Jackie grabbed Lily's palm and placed the item on the open hand

A small gold eagle pin that only athletes were given, it was some kind of pride that you could wear, and everyone envied those who wore them, mostly because the athletes loved to give it to their significant others to wear for support during games. Lily and Roseanne had seen all the jocks give one to their girlfriends, and how all the cheerleaders asked their boyfriend's to wear it too. It was a bit cheesy to Roseanne but Lily somehow fell in love with the idea of it, sure it was just a pin but it had something of importance to every athlete; it had the athletes' full name engraved perfectly on the pin, to make it more personal, it was a token of something to be proud of.

And now Lily had one on the palm of her hand. The same golden eagle pin she had seen plenty of times during any games the school had. And on this pin, engraved in cursive letters; "Jacqueline Reign J. Kim".

"I wanted you to wear it in our time in college since I still ran track and I never got you to wear it during my high school meets. I kept looking for you in Hongik but I never seemed to find you" Jackie admitted sadly

"You want me to wear this?" Lily asked, silently cursing herself as well for never attending any of the track meets in Hongik

"Yes"

"Why?"

Jackie smiled sheepishly.

"I've liked you since high school and I wanted to ask you out since forever but I'm a bit of a coward as you can see and I just really wanted to see you donning my pin" Jackie shyly lowered her head

"Have you looked for me after college?" 

"Lily, college graduation was literally just last week. This was my last hope of trying to find you. And here you are" Jackie whispered the last part, her eyes locking gazes with Lily

"So...would you want to go out on a date with me?" Jackie asked nervously

Lily chuckled and handed Jackie back the pin, which made Jackie's face fall as she gripped on the pin.

"I want you to pin it on me" Lily said

Jackie snapped her eyes back at her and grinned as she quickly pinned it on Lily's button up shirt. 

"And how about that date?" Jackie asked nervously

"I would love to"

Jackie smiled like a goofball, she just had this look of admiration on her face as she looked lovingly at Lily like she had hung up the moon and stars for her. And just because, just because Jackie looked so adorable under the yellow lights that were dancing on her skin, maybe even the moonlight was illuminating against her skin, her eyes so bright and beautiful as it also reflected the lights from the pillars. And the golden pin with Jackie's name on it, worn proudly on Lily's shirt, the light shining over it reflecting its color against Jackie who had moved closer. And when soft lips met Lily's cold ones...

Maybe high school was never bad, or at least...the high school reunion wasn't bad. And Lily wanted to smack her own head for moping over the fact that she had always been invisible yet here Jackie was telling her of how she saw only her, and Lily realized it was she who failed to see the beautiful girl now in front of her. All those years thinking how people never saw her, yet all this time she was the one never really looking, because as Lily looked on at the high school students below her, Jackie was looking up and actually looking at her.

"Thank you for looking for me" Lily said

"Thank you for finally seeing me" Jackie said

And another kiss was shared under the yellow lights.