ECHO (ACOUSTIC VERSION)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4KaOwTCE2E

There were a million and one things you wanted to say, but had no one to complain to.

When your eyes fluttered open this morning, it was still dark outside and all you could feel was the irritation and anger that you had gone to sleep with. You felt a bit bad that you had given Mingyu the cold shoulder yesterday when clearly none of this was his fault. He just happened to be there with you in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Mingyu was still asleep when you finished getting ready for school. He looked like a long log with blue hair and jutted out lips. Why did his face look so bloated? Maybe Earthling ramen noodles are too much for his body to handle. You stifled a laugh and stared at his sleeping figure while you took a gulp of water in contemplation. Finally, after a long moment of processing your thoughts you sighed out loud. *Hari, you fall for your own guilt trips too easily.* You grabbed a magnetic pen from the fridge and wrote on a sticky note:

Hey, sorry about last night. I was in a pretty mood, but I’ll make it up to you today, okay!! So don’t make me feel any worse than I already do :( finish class at 2:30 today so meet me up at Myeondong. I’ll be at the café with the cats on the sign, near exit 2. No rush, take your time.

- Hari

You stuck the note on the fridge, hopefully Mingyu will take a look at the fridge before he leaves for school.  

With one last glance to Mingyu by the door, you quietly whispered good morning to him and headed out, locking the door securely behind you.

---

Today you were in the studio doing some oil painting. The teacher brought in a live model for you all to paint. To be quite frank, you have seen people before in magazines, but there was something strangely awkward about painting a person, in the flesh. You didn’t giggle or blushed when you saw her reveal her body, but you weren’t exactly totally into it at first.

It was hard and getting the colour tone on her body was difficult because she kept moving every few minutes. You could hear a lot of your classmates grunting in annoyance and kissing their teeth every couple of seconds because of how difficult this task was. It took a lot of patience, time and effort when it comes to painting live models.

You have to incorporate every detail of theirs on your canvas and not leave a single thing out. Kai always reminded you about how much he admired the way you could sit for hours and just paint and not do a single thing besides paint. He said it took a lot of skill to sit in one place, but you laughed it off because Kai was never one to sit still, let alone stand still. He was always on the move, whether it be dancing or singing, he always had to do something that involved the movement of his body.

You almost smiled at the memory when you remembered you were mad at him. Your cheeks puffed out at the memory and you pushed the thought of Kai away angrily. *How annoying. I don’t want to think about him while I paint. Stop it Hari, this is your sanctuary. Don’t let the thought of him, taint it.* You forced yourself to pay attention to the model in front of you.

The class took breaks every 2 hours, to which you were absolutely grateful for. You needed your smoke breaks and you needed them now. It was upsetting thinking about Kai, it was frustrating trying to get the colours of the Model’s eyes right, and it was irritating to hear the gritting of teeths every second. All you wanted was silence, but your classmates seem to deal with their irritation differently.

When you were done with the cigarette, you flicked it on the floor and crushed it with your foot. You pulled out your phone and glanced down at it only to see blank spaces. No message from Kai, no hello or good morning, no thank you for saving his , no nothing. You grimaced at your background photo, which had a selfie of you and Kai, and stuck your tongue out at him. *Unappreciative douchebag! Next time watch if I’ll come save your .*

You stomped back into the studio and tried to get the rest of your painting done.

You had been so absorbed in your painting that you didn’t even realize how quickly time went. The painting wasn’t due today, but you rather get most of it done since the model was only going to be in today. Most of your classmates had already packed up and left for their next class, but you and a few others stayed behind to ensure the details on your painting was as lifelike as the model. When you looked at your watch it was ten minutes past 2.

*Holy !* You blinked in wonder at the fact that time had flown by. You quickly packed up everything and said goodbye to your Professor. You made sure to tell the Model that she had worked hard today and gave her a wave as you left. You heard her say aww, thank you, but didn’t bother to look back to see her expression.

You squeezed past bodies of people and brushed past some as you headed for the subway station. You had been under the impression that you were going to be leaving before one, but now that you were leaving an hour later, you were sure to be late. You had been hoping to get some sketches done at the café before Mingyu came, but now that you were rushing to the café, you probably won’t have any time to do so. You bit your lip as you glanced down at your watch. The subway was taking so long to come!

*Public transits never come on time whenever you need them to be.* You sighed.

After a couple of minutes, the subway finally arrived and you jumped right into the cart.

In the distance, Mingyu had just gotten onto his subway cart, too. He had decided to be rebellious today and skipped last period. It was his most dreaded class, mainly because of what a pushover the teacher was. All the students talked down to the poor guy, and he would let them. Especially the four witches. Jina, Sooyoung, Hara and Kaitlyn were what Mingyu would classify as, “bullies”. No matter how many times Mingyu would scream for help, his teacher would cower in fear and leave him with those four wenches.

Despite how far Mingyu went, the four of them always wound up finding him. It was only during lunch time, when he was with the guys, when they were nowhere in sight. It mostly because of Vernon though. Vernon was so rude to them that you’d think he was harbouring a hidden grudge against one of them.  

In every class they had together, the four of them would sit closely next to Mingyu and try at whatever attempt they could to get their hands on him. It was so annoying to be this gorgeous sometimes. Mingyu had never been annoyed at his looks, because he knew just as much as the world knew, that his looks were his greatest features. But now he was starting to wish he looked more like his chubby father, because at least then he wouldn’t have this much attention on him.

Mingyu had his arms crossed without needing to hold onto the steel pole for support when the subway came to a halt at the next stop. He was looking around the cart when he noticed a familiar face in the crowd. There were a lot of short people in Korea, so it wasn’t a surprise when he saw Hari standing there amongst the short mass of people. Even though Hari was shorter than Mingyu, he took note that for an Asian girl, she was quite tall.

Slender figure, with a small head and a pink short bub cut, yup that is definitely Shin Hari.

The corner of Mingyu’s lips curved upwards, remembering the note she left him this morning. He hadn’t taken her actions to heart but it was nice that she apologized (although he didn’t think it was necessary that she did.) Apologies should only be given if someone has done a terrible deed against you, intentionally, not when it’s something as small as that. Because Mingyu is a person too, and he knows that when people are mad, people tend to blow up on small things, but it’s not because they meant too—it just sort of comes out, like vomit.

He wanted to come up to Hari and start bugging her already, but watching her from a far was really quite interesting.

As more people piled into the cart, the harder it was to see Hari. Without a choice, Mingyu took a couple of steps closer to her.

Hari’s eyes were glued to her phone, which was a good and bad thing. Good because that meant Mingyu was going to get a good laugh when he sneaks up on her, but bad because she didn’t seem to look too happy. She had on the same look that she had last night when he came home. He tilted his head in curiosity, wondering what could make her so upset. Although in the back of his mind, he already knew the answer.

“Myeondong. Exit to the doors on your left,” instructed the subway audio.

Mingyu came close to Hari, but only at an arm’s length. He watched her go through the crowd of people, without taking her eyes off her phone. He couldn’t understand how it was possible that she could stare at her phone for so long without noticing her surroundings. Wasn’t she afraid of someone yanking it out of her hands and stealing it?

But then again, the first time he had met Hari, she had flipped him over without giving him the chance to talk. If anyone dared to steal her phone, Mingyu was certain that she would kill that person before they even bothered to try to get up. That’s the kind of girl Hari was. Smiling, Mingyu followed behind Hari, watching as people brushed into her while she apologized for each time it happened.

Mingyu shook his head, half wanting to smile and half wanting to go up to Hari and nag at her. He couldn’t decide whether seeing her like this was cute or aggravating. As they walked up the stairs of exit 2, Mingyu was drawing closer and closer to Hari. He was almost pressed against her back, but still, she did not notice or looked back.  

*If someone wanted to kidnap her right now, they probably could. Damn, Hari. Look around your surroundings before something happens to you… Jeez... and my parents thought I was the careless one. Psht.* Mingyu thought to himself, but then again no one could kidnap her because he was here and if someone tried, Mingyu would probably have to break out his warrior knuckles. (Even though he didn’t want to, he probably would have to for the sake of being the courteous Knight in Shining armour that he was.)

---

Finally, you arrived in front of the café. From the outside, it looked very hipster and the music coming from inside was inviting. They always played the best music, ranging from Busker Busker, 10CM to even the lesser known bands such as Cotton Candy and Sesame Seeds. It was more or less a chill spot for young teenagers looking for a place to study or drink bubble tea while chatting with friends in a cozy environment. Seeing that Mingyu was nowhere in sight and that it was only ten minutes past 3, you decided to light up a cigarette. As you were about to take your first puff, someone snatched the cigarette out of your lips and threw it on the ground.

“What the hell is this?!” growled a voice. The person sounded so angry that you were afraid that you were about to get fined for smoking in front of the