- Sprinting maniacally towards those wrought iron gates, which unknowingly contained an inimitable existence, I felt my throat dry up under the strain that I was putting myself through. At that moment, I scorned the ridiculous massiveness of the school, cursing it repeatedly in my head. I distinctly remember internally yelling the palpable actuality that this was a place for education, yet it was built twice the size that a lavish circus would have been constructed to.

As luck would have it, my final class had kept me for far longer than the customary time that was allotted for it, and frankly, it was pure torture. Images of Dongho, leaving the minute he caught sight of the emptiness that the school entrance held, had flooded my mind against my will.

It was horrible – like Fate had thrown me a bone, only for me to become conscious of the fact that it was dangled on a string, a few inches excessively distant from my reach.

This was my retribution, I remember thinking, for presenting my best friend with false information in order to eliminate the difficulties as I attempted to take what was not mine and make it my own. The corollaries of my actions had at long last caught up with me. I had supposed that missing Shin Dongho was how I was going to be made to suffer.

Unsurprisingly, I was mistaken.

Failing to meet him on that eventful day would have liberated me from the lifetime of pain that was lying in store for me, later on that is. -

“Dongho,” I managed to breathe out, using what was left of the air supply that I had in store. Only when I had reached those rotten gates had I stopped running, and somehow, against all odds, he was there.

For almost an hour, Dongho had waited for me to come.

He leaned by the oversized iron with closed eyes. His arms were crossed, and through the deathly silence that enveloped us, his annoyance was apparent. “Kim Hyewon!” he snapped without warning. I would have flinched horribly if I was able to. “Who the heck do you think you,” he stopped mid-sentence, taking in my out of breath state. His anger converting swiftly into confusion, he asked, “Are you alright?”

“I thought,” I began, pausing for a desperately needed intake of air, “you would’ve left without me.”

I had wanted to further explain my lateness but he brought my poor attempt at justification to a halt with a sudden yet gentle pat to the head. He chuckled, clearly amused. “Get on,” he tilted his head to the bicycle that was parked nearby.

- A million things must have run through my mind as I positioned myself on the passenger’s seat that was attached onto the tandem. He had told me to hold onto him for safety, and although he had appeared rather hesitant, I did as I was told.

Surprisingly, I felt a noticeable jolt once I grasped the sides of his school blazer. Biting my lip, I fought a losing battle to hide a smile. It was funny, really, how a being desired by many was so careful of sensual contact. Well-mannered, I had noted contentedly.

The ride was overly diminutive from my standpoint, not dissimilar to a small piece of heaven. The sky was blue, and truthfully, I liked the view – the way his hair was softly ruffled by the wind, how he looked back every now and then to give me a warm smile.

He was more natural now, slowly losing the preliminary vagueness that had surrounded him when we first met. Was it the feeling of anger, perhaps, that enabled me to edge closer to him in a way? Now I’ve come to know that Fate had decisively delayed my arrival on that day, hence letting me break through Dongho’s exterior.

I guess everything truly does happen for a reason. If only I’d seen it earlier, I could’ve ceased all these predetermined occurrences, thus leading me to a present time that differs from the one that I currently reside in.

I could’ve escaped this world that doesn’t seem to include him.

A happy ending might have been possible. -

(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´
¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•

Ms. Seo was delighted to hear of Kiseop’s request to visit with me some time, trusting anyone that I found to be reliable. At the back of my mind, I wondered how Kiseop and Dongho would correlate. Their personalities were so different that the outcome could either be faultless or simply catastrophic.

It should be easy, I figured, seeing as how they both got along with me, they would irrefutably make an effort to do the same with the other.

I reclaimed my place beside Dongho on the couch after I had finished my light chat with Rinah’s mother. He appeared to have heard nothing of my exchange which took place in the kitchen that happened to be close by.

Or so I thought.

“Who’s Kiseop?” Dongho wanted to know as he handed me the doll whose hair Rinah was having him brush, unable to empathize with the need to straighten out its heavy locks.

Taking the doll, I attacked its naturally tangle-filled plasticity. “My best friend,” I said with a smile. “I told him about Rinah and he just had to see her too.”

“Why?” he questioned with a raised brow.

I shrugged indifferently. The comb, meanwhile, was drowning in the mass of forged tresses. “He likes children.”

Dongho’s eyes zeroed in on the rapidly disappearing comb that I was urgently trying to salvage. “He sounds like a creep,” he concluded.

Pausing to give him a look, not unlike one a mother gives her kids with the aim of reminding them to play nice, I expanded on my statement, “He thinks of children as a gift. They’re pure and innocent, kind of like him.” The comb vanished entirely, covered by the curls.

Dongho sighed, retrieving the doll from my inept hands. He worked on it quietly, finding the comb and managing to smooth out most of the hair. The conversation had come to an absolute standstill, causing me to speculate the prospect of having touched a nerve. However, I could swear I heard a slight grumbling that embodied the words, “It sounds like a trap.”

- Instinctively, my vision came to rest on Dongho’s busy figure. He sat by my side, struggling to perfect the doll’s appearance for Rinah, his eyes wide as he searched for an aspect that needed altering. I tried not to stare but it was impossible. His slight grumpiness, the immaturity, every part of him held me captivated.

As if sensing the weight of my stare, he turned to meet my gaze. He paused for a moment before smiling.

And I knew, at that moment, that it was over. There was no point in fighting it, and honestly, I had no desire to.

I had fallen for the one and only, that is none other than, Shin Dongho. -