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She was thankful.  For the coffeehouse on the corner.  Across the street from her dorm room.  Because they were open today.  On Christmas morning.  She didn’t even have to endure any Christmas decorations clogging up the place.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like Christmas.  It was that she loved it.  And she was alone.  In Seoul.  Far from home.  Separated by an ocean from sunny California.

So she wasn’t used to snow at Christmas.  But she was accustomed to tinsel and pine trees and red garland and sugar cookies.  All the things she’d left behind when she’d moved here for the year to attend the university. 

She’d made a few friends.  But they had all headed home for the holiday.  While she was stuck in her dorm.  Alone. 

Even her roommate had headed home.  And given her no invitation to join in her family’s festivities.

April was feeling terribly lonely today.  She missed home.  She missed hot chocolate.  Maybe today she would order some.  Just a small acknowledgement that today was a very important day to her.  One she wouldn’t be celebrating.

And it broke her heart.

As she silently moved through the line, she marveled at how many people were out and about this morning.  Perhaps a lot of Koreans ignored this auspicious occasion.  She sighed and stepped up to the counter as the customer ahead of her moved to the right.

“Do you have hot chocolate?” April asked the barista.

The girl bobbed her head.  “Whipped cream?”

Those two words stirred the first smile that had cracked April’s face all day.  “Definitely.  Triple the whipped cream!” she declared with zest.

If she was going to miss Christmas, then she deserved a whopping mound of her favorite white stuff.

––

A smile teased his lips as he studied the girl standing in front of him.  The back of her dark head intrigued him.  Her hair was a soft brown at the top.  But the tips of her long tresses had been dyed burgundy.  A soft, natural maroon.  One that complemented her chestnut tresses. 

He’d been watching her for several minutes.  Mostly, because she had been emitting a melancholy air.  Glancing around the little café as though she was searching for something…or someone.  Yet never finding it…or him.

She turned suddenly as the bell over the door jingled.  Her eyes collided with his.  And he gasped.  Her eyes were a deep, bright blue.  Like the ocean along the Caribbean.  A hint of green in its depths.  They were…what was the color? 

Aquamarine. 

Beautiful, aquamarine pools that instantly intrigued him.

He noticed several things about her immediately.  Her teardrop diamond earrings.  Her cross necklace.  It was hanging from a delicate, gold chain.  The cross wasn’t ornate.  It was a simple, flat cross with a tiny bit of fancy scrollwork in the middle.  It reminded him of some earrings by which he’d passed in a storefront window a few days ago.  They had, for some odd reason, caught his eye.  And he had stopped to study them.  He’d fought off the strange urge to buy them.  Now he wished he had given in to that unusual impulse.

She lifted her hand to rub her nose a moment later, and the amethyst crowning her middle finger glinted under the overhead lights.  It was a fanciful shape.  A purple heart.  His lips flipped upwards at the corners in humor at the private joke.  While one slender, dark eyebrow bumped his bangs.

It seemed that she loved jewelry.  Yet none of it matched.  Didn’t she have any sets to wear?  Or did each of these pieces mean something special to her?

She pivoted away from him and got the attention of the barista again.  “Excuse me.  Do you have any Christmas cookies?”

The girl shook her head.  “No, I’m sorry.  We don’t.”

The woman who owned the mesmerizing, blue-green eyes sighed.  He saw the side of her frown as it darkened her countenance.  “No butter cookies of any kind?”

The girl grimaced.  “No.”

“Sugar cookies?  Shortbread?”

Still, that head shook back and forth.  “We have rice cakes.”

“No,” the pretty young woman replied.  “That’s all right.  Do you have any cinnamon rolls?” 

“No,” the barista responded as she handed her the hot cocoa.

“Oh, well.  At least, you had hot chocolate.  And whipped cream.”  The girl turned towards him, and her eyes collided with his again.

The corners of her mouth flipped upward for a moment as her eyes careened into his.  He smiled in return, and their eyes remained locked for a few precious seconds before the sound of someone clearing his throat behind him drew his attention away from her momentarily.  But then he glanced up again to see her heading for the door.  He frowned and stepped out of line.

The bell over the door jingled as she opened it and set foot out into the chill air of early winter.  He couldn’t help but feel that that frigid breeze was also blowing through her heart.  Possibly freezing her to the core.  Some sad light in her eyes had alerted him to her isolation.  He wondered if she had anyone here…