"What are you looking at? You ugly..." Lee Kyung's voice rang through your ears over and over again, so loud that you could swear they were about to start bleeding. It looked like you were going to skip school for the next 2 days, you didn't want to face him again.

“Hey!” A familiar enthusiastic voice snapped you out of your thoughts. You quickly wiped your tears and sniffed one more time before turning around and flashing JiYoung a forced happy smile. It's been 5 days since you last met; how did he always show up when you needed to be alone.

“Hello.” You said crossing your legs.

“What’s wrong?” He asked looking into your red eyes and you could already feel tears fighting to escape your eyes again. How could a simple question break down all the walls that imprisoned your tears? You didn’t answer just let your tears flow freely. He kneeled in front of you, on the bed of cherry blossom petals and hugged you tightly. “Wanna talk about it?” He asked after waiting a while for you to calm down. You shook your head against his chest and he backed down a bit to look at you.

“What are you doing here? Weren’t you supposed to be training?” You asked pushing him away and hugging your knees.

“Weren’t you supposed to be in school?” He replied raising an eyebrow.

“I skipped.” You both answered at the same time, after a short silence. “Why?” You asked in unison.

“I was tired… I was stressed…” You shyly crawled closer to him, stood on your knees, put your arms around his neck clumsily and held him tightly to your chest.

“W-wha…” He mumbled in surprise.

“Shh…” You whispered resting your chin on his head. “You need a hug more than I do, don’t you?” You asked caressing his back slowly. “You know what? You’re right, this is awkward.” You said after a moment of silence letting him go and trying to back off but he quickly put his arms around your waist and pulled you back.

“Just a little more.” He said holding you tightly. You put your arms around him again and stood like that until your feet started feeling numb.

“JiYoung…” You whispered backing off a bit. “Yaa…” You whispered again lowering your head to look at his face. “Can I let go no…” You stopped when you noticed he had fallen asleep. “You must be really exhausted, neh?” You asked caressing his smooth hair. You sat back and laid him on the grass, letting him sleep on your lap. You watched him sleep like that for hours until it started getting dark and your i-pod ran out of battery. You moved your legs because you could hardly feel them anymore and he finally woke up. He lazily opened his eyes before snapping them open. He stood up immediately and ruffled his hair nervously.

“What time is it?” He asked looking at the dark blue sky.

“17:30.” You answered rubbing your legs in an attempt to resuscitate them.

“Oh my God! They must be MAD MAD MAD!” He exclaimed running off towards the exit.

            You watched him run with an amused expression on your face, gathering your stuff from the ground… Now that he mentioned it, your parents must have been worried too; they had no idea where you left. You were placing everything carefully into your purse when you heard footsteps coming towards you. You lifted your head to see an exhausted, huffing JiYoung staring at you, trying to catch his breath.

“Why did you come back?” You asked surprised, placing your bag on your shoulder. It’d be a lie if you said you weren’t happy. To be true, you were kind of disappointed that he ran off just like that. He just took a few steps closer to you and hugged you tightly.

“Thank you.” He said in between huffs.

“You welcome.” You said giggling, pulling back because his breath was tickling your neck.

“I dreamt about you.” He said, his breath returning to its normal pace. You blushed but didn’t say anything. “You were crying…” He said letting out a deep sigh. “You’re beautiful.” He said taking a few steps back to look at your face, his hands on your shoulders. “Don’t you ever forget that!” You hid your gaze among the pink petals that covered the ground, avoiding his. You felt your cheeks turn bright pink as your brain processed his words, associating the scene with the one in the club. You didn’t believe his words; then why did your heart rejoice at the hearing of them? He gave you a kind smile, you could feel it even if you weren’t looking him in the eye, then let go of you and ran off.  “Take care on your way home!” He yelled and then disappeared among the trees.

“You too…” You whispered as your eyes were looking for him and your cheeks turning even redder as his words replied in your head; how could he say such embarrassing things so casually?

            You walked home, his words playing again and again in your head, like your mind was stuck on reply. The fight you had with your sister was long gone; it was in the past since it had been five days since then. Moreover, she was your little sister and no matter how much she hurt you, you couldn’t stop loving her so you just let it go.

To your surprise your parents didn’t ask anything so you just went to your room and lied on your bed. You couldn’t get him out of your head, his kind and sincere eyes and his beautiful smile made you fall for him little by little.

You kept going there everyday. You weren’t going for him, that was your little piece of haven but you secretly wished to see him. A week passed without seeing him once but you knew he was busy. You were reading some old book and were lost in the plot when a big drop of water stained the crème colored page of the book. You looked up and saw dark, threatening clouds covering the orchard.

“Shoot!” You yelled gathering your stuff quickly and placing them in your bag. You looked sadly at the little cherry tree, praying it would be fine, even though the paper flowers were going to be ruined. You ran towards the exit as the rain was getting heavier and close to the path someone bumped into you.

“Ouch!” You exclaimed rubbing your backside as you stood up. You looked at the other person whose face was covered by the big black hood of a raincoat. You recognized the cute snicker immediately. He lifted his head to meet your quizzical look and smiled adorably.

“I thought the flowers would be ruined so I brought this.” He said getting out of his pocket a big folded piece of plastic foil. “Let’s go cover our little baby.” He said grabbing your hand and running with you back to the tree. Thanks to the other tree’s branches, it didn’t get too wet so you managed to save the flowers. You were happy; despite the cold rain, his presence and embarrassing words were always warming your heart.

“Our little baby” you repeated in your head giggling as you covered the cherry tree.

“What are you laughing at?” He asked laughing as the rain poured down his face.

“Nah, nothing.” you answered wiping the raindrops off your face. After covering it, you both ran towards the exit when he stopped you.

“What?!” you yelled with your hands covering your head. He took off his raincoat and covered you. “I don’t want it.” You said giving it back to him.

“But you’re soaking wet and you’re gonna catch a cold!” He said putting the raincoat back on you.

“If you give it to me, you’re…”

“I don’t care, just let me be a gentleman.” He cut you off removing his wet hair from his face.

“Then let’s both walk in the rain.” You said shrugging and he smiled in agreement.

            It was cold and you were both soaking wet but you were warm, did he feel the same? Because his cheeks were hot pink just like his hair.