“Hope diamond.”

She thought about how grossly the diamond was misnamed. There was nothing hopeful about the curse it brought its owners. The plague. The despair and destruction.

The sight of the diamond hanging from Veggie’s neck was as if it was burned into Byul’s eyelids. She turned to her side, giving Veggie more room to snuggle into her. She decided to consider it as a bad dream. She went back to bed.

Maybe things would’ve been different if she hadn’t?

* * *

[im_byuristar] sorry!! I’m getting in my car now

[im_byuristar] will be there in 10

[lavieenCrystal_official] take your timeee

Seeing Crystal’s words of affirmation, Byul sighed out of relief. She took an extra second straightening her Vivienne Westwood orb earrings to be horizontal, checking herself in the driver’s seat sun visor mirror. Perfect 180 degrees. She shut the sun visor closed and pressed down on the accelerator of her white Tesla.

“Arf!”

Veggie barked happily at the chance of speed, clasped into his doggy seat in the back.

“It’s adventure time, baby.”

She answered, plucking on her Miu Miu sunglasses.

Byul had gotten a later start to her day then she would’ve liked. Her dream of Veggie wearing the cursed diamond had left a bad taste in her mouth, and she had meant to spend an extra 10 minutes in the ASMR spa room.

‘Just one more replay,’ she had thought. ‘Just the first 5 minutes.’

“I was excited all day at the thought of getting to spend time with you.”

As that familiar voice rang out from her speakers, she knew she was lying to herself.

“Good job today. Let me reward you with kisses.”

She shuddered, as she always did. It was practically a Pavolvian reaction at this point. When his voice came, her body reacted. Before long, the extra 10 minutes turned into an extra hour.

Even as she was driving now, his voice was fresh in her memory, in her brain, in her ears. She blushed. She shook her head, shaking off the thought with it.

Today was going to be a big day.

* * *

“Iced vanilla latte, double shot for you-”

Crystal handed Byul a Space City branded cup.

“Peach iced tea with a shot of espresso for me-”

She plugged in her own cup in one of Byul’s empty cup holders.

“And a puppuccino for Veggie.”

She smiled, shaking a sippy cup the size of a baby’s palm full of whipped cream.

“Homemade,” she added.

“You’re unbelievable.” Byul laughed.

“Unbelievably amazing, I know.”

“You already had time to run by Space City? We could’ve gone together.”

Byul said, typing in a location in her Tesla GPS as she sipped her latte from their favorite coffee spot, a deeply satisfied sigh following. There was nothing like a sip of caffeine after a hurried morning.

“Time’s a-ticking, isn’t it?”

“You’re right. Thank you.”

The GPS read out in its flat, machine-like tone: Expected arrival, 9:55am. Two hours and thirty-two minutes.

* * *

“Come on Crystal! Let’s go!”

Byul leaped out of her car with a childlike giddiness she rarely sported. After two hours of winding roads and half a dozen freeways, they were face to face with poppy flowers as far as the eye could see. Waves of orange blossoms, ranging from lemon yellow to golden hour bonze, stretched on for miles in this Southern California spring destination.

“Arf arf arf!”

Veggie barked from the back seat, matching her enthusiasm. She took Veggie out of his car seat. As soon as she put him down on the ground, he got low to the spring earth, still wet from morning dew, to investigate the new surrounding with his little nose.

“You’re so vocal today!”

Byul said, giggling. His excitement was palpable.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Crystal got out of the passenger’s seat and patted her back.

They had beat the crowd to these poppy fields and were the only ones there. The sun was just beginning to exercise its full strength, and even the poppies - which respond to sunlight - had not yet fully opened. It was still a bit chilly and Byul was wearing a white faux fur jacket over her tweed dress. Veggie stood in his matching faux fur bib, his nose now pointed up and sniffing the air.

“We’re here!”

Byul let Veggie’s excited nose guide her into the walking path of the fields. Before long, he was running at full speed down the dusty road. Byul sprinted alongside him, feeling the air in her hair and pressing down on her checker-patterned beret.

Crystal walked leisurely behind them. They kept getting smaller until Byul was about the size of a thumb, at which point she and Veggie turned around and ran back to where Crystal had made progress.

“It’s. So. Beautiful! You have to go all the way down. The flowers are even more dense.”

Byul said in the middle of huffs and puffs. Veggie was pulling on his leash, itching to get back into the flowers. Crystal laughed out loud at her friend's newfound childlike side.

* * *

“Yep, that looks good. I think we got enough footage.”

Byul said, examining the last of the videos Crystal took of her and Veggie in the midst of the flower field. The Instagram reel of her and Veggie had blown up even beyond their initial 2 million views, and she was bombarded with comments asking for more Veggie content.

Byul and Crystal were sitting with their faces to each other at a picnic table eating the lunch they had packed while Veggie frolicked in the poppy fields by himself. The fields were still surprisingly empty, housing no one but these three.

“Thanks so much for coming all the way out here with me. It’s so much harder to film myself when it’s the windy type of outdoors like this.”

Byul said, her cheeks rosy from the outside air. She sipped her sparkling mushroom drink. With the same rosy cheeks, Crystal answered:

“No problem. I really do need to get out of the studio sometimes. Especially if I get to feast like this.”

Crystal pointed at the finger-size sandwiches, rows of kimbap, fresh berries, mini crepe cakes, and sparkling beverages that Byul had prepared. The three sandwiches, egg mayonnaise, chicken katsu, and ham, cheese, and tomato, were her go-to picnic items. Crystal continued.

“Still, this was a pretty intense drive for you.”

“Yeah, we’re gonna need to find a Tesla Supercharger on the way back.”

Byul giggled, letting out an exaggerated sigh. The girls laughed. Worn out by a rough night’s sleep, food prep, and long hours of driving, Byul yawned deeply. The sun was feeling especially nice on her face. She put down her half of the chicken katsu sandwich and rested her cheek on the wood of the picnic table, toasted warm by the sun.

“All I want to do now is take a nap with Veggie laying on my chest.”

Byul said in a sleepy voice, smiling at the thought alone. She looked over her shoulder at Veggie, who was chasing a butterfly going in circles around a patch of especially golden poppies.

“Do you think Veggie’s having fun?”

Byul asked.

“I think you were the one having more fun.”

Crystal answered, giggling. Byul let out a guilty laugh.

“I’m just…so excited that I was able to bring him here.”

“Who knew you liked flowers so much?”

Crystal asked, biting into a kale chip.

“It’s not just that.”

Byul said, half in a dream state.

“Oh?”

Crystal asked back.

“I want him to see all kinds of things. See life. See the world. Flowers in the spring. Ocean in the summer. Foliage in the fall. Snow in the winter. That kind of thing, you know?”

Byul whispered.

“And you will.”

Crystal answered, reassuringly.

Byul was silent for a moment, then took back her calm and collected tone. She let out the kind of sigh reminiscent of responsible single moms.

“I will. I better.”

She continued.

“I brought him here last year too but we must have come too late. All the flowers had wilted.“

“Oh no. Wasted hours of driving, huh?”

Crystal grimaced.

“Yeah. I even went up to the village to ask around, and the sheriff said I should have come a whole month earlier.”

She facepalmed jokingly.

“I mean, it was still nice to see the plains and stuff. Veggie got to run around.”

“No flowers though?”

“No flowers. Apparently they don’t last very long. Just a week or two at most for a full bloom like this.”

Byul answered, tapping her temple to jog her memory.

“Hard to imagine all of these flowers disappearing so soon.”

Crystal said, putting her outstretched hand on her forehead and gazing out at the end of the horizon. It was as if the ocean’s water had been replaced with poppies and were now heaving and setting in their bright orange instead of grand blue water.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Veggie leave the butterfly and run over towards something else.

It was difficult to spot him in the poppy fields as his golden hair blended into the yellow, oranges, and reds of the flower petals. But she clocked movement. The swoosh of the poppies and blades of grass. Whatever got his attention, Veggie ran over to it faster than she could turn her head.

When she did, she saw it.

She saw him.

To be continued…