Featuring Hugo and Livvy

June 12, 1997

8 years earlier

Livvy did not sleep the entirety of her second year of university. From her assignments, to work, to class, and even more assignments, she did not even have time to shower on most days-it was just one thing to do after another, checking tasks off an endless to do list.

The days of her exams came and went. This day in particular was the day of her second last exam, and the hardest of them all. She left that exam hall feeling nothing but exhaustion, without the energy to even feel bad that she left a page blank.

She trudged the relatively short distance to her room half asleep, wanting nothing more than to get on her bed and sleep for the next three years or so, give or take.

She unlocked the door, swung if open and who does she find sitting on her bed but Hugo Park, smiling brightly at her from where he sat on her bed.

"Am I hallucinating?" she said, blinking once, twice, thrice. Still, he does not materialize away.

"I'm here, Livvy."

"Oh. Oh my goodness," she does not feel as sleepy as she did when she entered the room. "Hugoooooooo." She rushed over to him, and put her hands on his shoulders, just to know he's real. When she discovers that he is, she then put her arms around his neck and hugged him with so much force than he fell down onto the bed.

"Livvy! My.. Livvy!"

"It's so good to see you. You don't even know."

"And here I was, thinking you'd forgotten about me."

They found themselves laying down next to each other. A ghost of a smile formed on Livvy's face. She felt the heat rushing to her cheeks. He's just as handsome as he always was, of course. Except, there was a hint of a five o'clock shadow on his face that made her reach out and touch his face. "How long haven't I seen you for? What is this?"

"Uh, that's what this visit was about, actually," sheepishly, he scratched the back of his head, "I have good news. But it's sitting down news. Why don't we..." He rose up and hoisted her up as well. Now, she's sitting, looking at him face to face.

Only then did she realise how much she missed him. It was always a dull ache in her chest, but it is so easy to forget when he was not in front of her. It was weird seeing him in her room, a place he'd never been before-it was foreign, but not strange. Him dressed the way he always was, her tiny university room with bare walls and her plain cotton sheets. He was too good for this place.

".. earth to Livvy?" He snapped his hand in front of he face.

"Uh-oh, yeah?"

A grin appeared on his face, so wide that makes the crows feet appear by his eyes and make his nose squish up. "You're looking at someone that just got signed."

It took a moment for her to react. "Someone that what?"

"Got signed. To a movie," he does his jazz hands now, "I'm going to Hollywood." He could barely contain the smile on his face.

"Oh." She felt a pang in her heart, although she knows she has no right to. "OH? WHAT? You-huh?"

"It's the role of a secondary character,. I mean, it's really not that big of a deal but yeah.." He scratched the back of his head and looked up at her sheepishly, as if waiting for what she had to say. As if it mattered anyway.

"Are you KIDDING me, Hugo? Not that big of a deal? Not that big of a deal!" She held either side of his face now, and looked into his eyes in a way she hoped conveyed how she wanted him to think she felt. "You're one step closer to fulfilling your dreams. That's huge."