Spring flowers already bloomed on the trees surrounding town. They were even more beautiful than the last time I saw them last year in Seoul. I suppose it was because the colors here were more vibrant. The pinkish hues of cherry blossoms were especially making me fall in love. It made me want to catch them in my hands from their trees, especially when going home from school alone.

The way home was some walks from campus. Three hundred and twenty-one steps to be exact. It crossed the street in which cherry blossom trees grew. During the other seasons they could be all seen in greens if not of fallen leaves, but in spring it was when they were the prettiest. I was not sure whether the others found this true, but I suppose—just looking at the amount of people taking pictures with it—they were pretty enough to brighten someone’s day.

I felt this way despite taking the walk home alone for the past few days. It made me at calm and peace even though I was threading between fire and ice almost every day.

Everyone seemed so busy except for me that it was hard to even walk home with them or eat lunch with them. Waiting was not an option.

Baekhyun had more final practices for the last soccer game of the season. Suho was busy doing final preparations with the Student Council for the upcoming graduation in two weeks’ time. Chanyeol might look the most lax among all of us but his dedication for basketball was no joke. They were also preparing for an upcoming game that most of the time he was in the gym with his team. Joohyun was also doing tennis practices from time to time since from what I heard she got an offer at some high school aside from the one most of us were more likely going to attend in town and this was something her dad wanted her to do. And on the other hand, Jongin and Sehun were busy practicing in the studio inside school along with their other members for the final performance they will have for the school festival that would close the school year.

I didn’t have much to do right after final exams ended because I was able to still pass with flying colors. The history project that made me famous was finally buried and forgotten. Now, though people still looked at me from time to time, it was because I was able to still pass History class after acing the final test. There was nothing to really brag about it, though. I was just happy—and sometimes smug—whenever the history teacher would give me a look of disdain as if she was cursing me for still passing. She must have wished very hard for me to fail because of the history project, but I didn’t care. I just did my best and tried to move on from it. I wouldn’t need to see her after this, at least.

The school we attended had its own high school that was why nothing was really to worry about when it came to taking an entrance exam. We had a ladder system that would automatically earn us a slot for high school since we studied in the same campus for middle school that was why aside from Joohyun who was striving really hard to impress her father, all of us had nothing to worry about. No one decided in studying at another high school anyway. This was the closest to our homes and no one had bigger dreams than getting to high school and passing. For now, that was what we all thought.

Of course, I did get invitations from the other schools around town and some calls from Seoul offering me scholarships, but I refused them all, thinking that we already had a new life in this town and I was not really ready to leave mom alone even though she assured me she was going to be fine if I decided to finally set on my own back in Seoul and study in the high school of my dreams. There was nowhere I could go back to in the city, anyway. I did not belong there anymore. Not that I belonged here now—I still sometimes felt like a stranger—but I felt more at home here.

If she had offered me that kind of thing before, my past self would have easily gave in and rode the first train back to Seoul. I’d probably live with my dad or something and then I’d study in the academy with Yixing.

But now was very different.

I no longer had any mind to go back.

I thought of this very firmly while staring at the falling cherry blossoms around. I was alone again today but it was nothing I’d ever complain about. Most of the time I was not alone and everywhere was so loud. I’d be grateful for these times that the others were not there to fool around while I only watched at the background. The quiet was making me want to believe I had hope of surviving for just a little bit more time.

A tiny bridge in the middle of the path with a brook flowing under it had caught my attention. It was not the serenity in the picture that drew me closer to it, though. Instead, the form of a familiar person made me want to stop by and say hi.

Yeri was peacefully looking at the cherry blossom petals swaying through the wind and weightlessly falling to the water below, sending tiny ripples that moved the other petals. It was such an enchanting sight that it was no wonder we were both drawn to it.

“Isn’t it pretty?” I asked, standing beside her.

Probably because I appeared out of the blue that she flinched, gasping in surprise. The widening of her eyes and her ashen expression made me laugh. She was almost drained of all the color on her face.

“W-well,” She nodded repeatedly. “Very pretty.”

“Right,” I said, affirming.

The leaves rustled on trees, making up for the awkward silence that passed by us. The rain of pink petals continued to pour down from the trees, fascinating our eyes.

“What brings you here?” I asked, turning my attention back to her.

She tried her best not to look at me, probably still embarrassed. “I often go here. W-what about you?”

I smiled. “I just thought the place was pretty and that someone I know was standing right there that I stopped by. I don’t normally notice this spot.”

“Oh,” she said, looking down at the wooden railing she was anxiously holding onto. “What about your friends?” she suddenly asked.

I thought about it for a while. I didn’t really have so much to say about them besides that they were all busy, but I didn’t want Yeri to think otherwise about them.

“I told them I was busy so I could go home alone first.” I chuckled, scratching on my head at the lame lie. “I sometimes hated it when they were so noisy around me that I made up a lie. Now, I finally get to go home in silence!”

I beamed at her. But seeing the profound look of surprise on her face, the curve on my lips slowly disappeared. Why was she looking at me that way?

“You’re probably surprised,” I said, trying to distract her. But I could still feel her burning a hole on the side of my face. “I’m this selfish most of the time.”

Silence overtook.

But out of nowhere, words flowed out, as if it was from someone else’s mouth.

“No you aren’t,” Yeri said. “Because if you are, will you be standing here alone with me?”

-

Sometime after that coincidental meeting with Yeri, I must have subconsciously felt rather more comfortable with her that we hung out more often than not. She was just as free as I was that whenever we crossed paths there were smiles playing on our lips that told of another story. They were like a sign silently telling each other, ‘should we go out and play together?’

And then, we’d end up hanging out together. Just like a pair of two lonely people trying to cheer up each other.

I found out then that I was just as alone as Yeri was. Perhaps that was the silver lining of why we got closer.

Besides, she was very kind and very considerate that often times I’d look at her and ask myself how there was still this kind of person existing. Most of the time I hate making friends with girls due to our complicated nature. But perhaps, some other people—out of a hundred girls—there was one or two that didn’t seem at all too complicated. They just had a million façade to cover their inner self, but once you knew how to peel them off this kind of people, automatically their real selves show, just like how a waterfall cascaded endlessly down a pool. You’d learn how actually simple they were. Just like her.

And I didn’t know why, but remembering what she told me at the wooden bridge made me feel like she was seeing someone in me that I didn’t know yet wanted to believe in. I wanted to believe I was the kind of person she saw in me.

Because if you are, will you be standing here alone with me?

“I do have a book I read in my first year in middle school about a genius who was a crippled man but made great sense of his life,” I was telling her while we were crossing the catwalk from building A to building B. We were just about to get off school together, in each other’s company for the seventh day now. “It’s a gift from Yoonji, the friend I told you about who is in Seoul. You probably haven’t heard of it, but I think you’ll definitely like it so I’m going to bring it on Monday. You must read it, okay?” I beamed at her.

She was, as usual, her silent self, but I could tell with the way she was biting her lip that she was interested about what I was telling her. After all, Yeri loved reading books. Her entire collection at home, as she had described, already amazed me. I was quite a bookworm myself that I was excited to share this old hobby with someone who could relate.

“I will,” she bobbed her head and showed a shy smile. “But it’ll probably take time before I can give it back to you. I’m a slow reader, you see.”

I nodded, understanding. “It’s okay. Reading takes time and we have all summer for that.”

“T-thank you,” said she, bowing deeply—almost making me jump back in surprise at the sudden polite gesture.

For some reason often I found myself flustered in Yeri’s presence because of how extremely grateful she was that she’d bow at ninety degrees in front of me no matter where the place was. She did not care. She just had extremely good manners—that it was kind of embarrassing (but I guess, I should get used to it from now on).

Some onlookers gazed at the pair of us with distaste but I was learning how to be oblivious of them, all thanks to Yeri. I was not sure if she was just really unaware or was pretending not to notice the odd looks she was being thrown at all the time because she was branded as a lonesome wallflower a long time ago, but it made me learn a thing or two from her. If you try ignoring them, eventually, the school would seem like a bearable place. And it was as if you were just in your own