Is there anyone in your life, who made you appreciate something more?

Something which people would usually neglect, and forget to thank every star in the sky for having it in our lives, like vision, mobility, and light.

And is that person, your mother, your father, friend or lover?

Someone appeared in my life about three years ago. Though the time I spent with him wasn’t long, he managed to change my view about the wind.

It was early June when I first met him. The summer heat was unbearable and I felt like as if I was about to get heat or melt. It was so warm that a normal person would choose to stay home. I sat alone at the bus stop and waited for my bus home from the library.

I fanned myself with my hand, then changed to ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, the book I borrowed from the library. No matter how fast or hard I fanned, it was still hot. I sighed loudly and gave my arm a break.

“Hello,” A voice from behind me said, “would you like some wind?”

I turned over to see a boy around my age standing behind me, smiling. He was fair, very fair, and his hair was blonde with a tinge of pink. He had small eyes, which smiled along with his mouth. His lips were thin and his mouth was generally small. He had a define nose, those which people would go for plastic surgery to get. His face was long and his chin was sharp. Upon closer inspection, he had a faint scar on his right cheek below his eye.

“Are you selling portable fans?” I asked, “How much would one cost?”

He laughed and said, “No, I’m not selling fans. I’m offering you wind.”

“Who are you to offer wind? How could anyone? Wind can’t be given to anyone at will.”

“Actually, I can.”

I laughed and heard a bus approaching. It was my bus.

“My bus is here, I got to go now.”

“Bye! I think we’ll meet again.”

I didn’t know why he was so sure. I just smiled and waved goodbye to him. Not every day one would get to talk to a good looking and friendly stranger. I got to admit, his face stayed in my mind for a while. He was so extraordinary, truly hard to forget.

A few days after, we crossed path again on the street. I was on my way to the pet store to get some fish food for my mother when the umbrella I was using to shelter myself from the strong sunlight hit someone, and it happened because I was paying attention to my phone.

I looked up. The umbrella hit that person’s head.

“I’m so sorry!”

“It’s alrig—”

It was him. We looked into each other’s eyes, surprised that we really did meet again like he predicted.

“What a pleasant surprise!”

I smiled, “Nice to see you again! And sorry about the umbrella. Today’s really sunny, so I brought an umbrella with me.”

“So would you like some wind?”

Then I realised he had a lisp. He couldn’t pronounce ‘s’.

“This again?” I said with a laugh, “Alright, why not? I hope you’re not just trying to hit on me. And don’t give me a fart.”

“Today’s so sunny that I think the breeze would be hot, is that fine with you?”

“Then I suppose I’m better off without it,” I laughed.

He laughed too. “Next time?”

“Next time? Are you so sure we are going to meet again?”

He nodded. “I shouldn’t take up any more of your time. Bye!”

I smiled, “Bye, and see you around again!”

“I do hope so too!”

The following day, while I was watering the pot plants, my toddler cousin came to bug me to go fly kites with him. That day was warm and the air was still, who would fly their kites then? Even if they wanted, it was impossible to do so.

My cousin insisted that there was someone flying his kite. I didn’t believe him but I gave in in the end because he topped his request with cherries and some aegyo.

I took my only kite and went to the field near my house. Thankfully that day wasn’t as sunny as the day before, just that the air was more still.

Reaching the field, I saw him again.

“See!” My cousin said, “I told you there was someone flying his kite!”

He turned over and saw me. He waved at me and shouted, “Here to fly your kite too? You’ll need some wind to do so!”

I shouted over, “I get it! I’ll take some wind from you, alright?”

We then looked at each other and laughed. I pulled my cousin over to where he was and passed his kite over to the kid.

“Can you feel it? The breeze,” He asked.

Strange enough, there was a breeze. The air was still at my house, and even along the way here. Was it because the field was clear and there was space for the wind to blow?

“Are you feeling warm? Would you want a stronger breeze?”

I looked at him and nodded. I really wanted to know if he could really give me wind.

The breeze then got stronger. It was able to lift my hair off my shoulder, and my fringe off my face.

“Finally,” He said, “this is how you look like.”

“What? Have you been just wanting to see my face since the start?”

“I only started getting curious after I met you the second time. Since yesterday, I kept thinking about you. Such a coincidence for us to meet again. I couldn’t take you off my mind.”

I quickly changed the topic, “My name is _____.”

He turned to me and raised his eyebrow.

“What’s yours?”

He smiled. “Oh Se Hun.”

“You’re Korean?”

He hesitated and said, “Sort of.”

I smiled. Thankfully my cousin was fine playing the kite alone, so I could spend some time talking to Sehun.

“You know,” Sehun said, “People say that first times are coincidences, second times are incidents, and third times mean it is fate.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “And we’ve met three times already.”

I kicked him gently. “What are you implying?!”

“Nothing! Just saying, since we’ve met three times.”

We turned to each other and then laughed. Honestly, I didn’t really mind, because at that point of time, I was already falling for him, the guy who would ask if I wanted wind.

“Sehun, my birthday is coming up soon. Most of my friends are overseas enjoying their holidays, and I told my parents that I didn’t want a celebration this year. Actually I just said that to see if they would plan anything for me, but they didn’t. And now I have no one to celebrate it with…”

Sehun smirked, “You want me to celebrate it with you, right? Why me? You can always ask your neighbour. Or those not so close friends. Or—”

“Aish! Stop teasing! So do you want to or not?”

“Why not? And should I give you some wind as birthday present?”

I laughed and kicked him again.

On my birthday, we met at the bus stop we first met and went shopping, playing at the arcade, ice skating, and watched a movie together. He wanted to teach me how to cycle, but I chickened out.

I thought that those would be all that we would do that day, but after I placed all my things back at home, I realised Sehun was still standing outside my house.

“Are you done yet?”

“Done with what?”

“Putting your things down. There’s one thing we have yet to do.”

“But it’s already night time, I shouldn’t stay out too late.”

Sehun then came over to my house, and shouted in, “I’m bringing your daughter out! I’ll return her soon!”

I burst out laughing and Sehun quickly scooped me off the ground, and carried me out of the house before my parents could stop me, that was if they even wanted to.

Sehun brought me to the plain field, the field where we met for the third time. Somewhere on the field, I could see a mat and a basket on top.

“Are we here for a night picnic?”

Sehun nodded and pulled me over to the picnic mat.

“I got my friend to make us food while we were out playing. The things he cook are delicious!”

I smiled and sat down on the picnic mat. Sehun then sat down beside the basket.

We ate for a while and chatted about our friends being annoying at times. Especially when they know you like someone. They never fail to disturb you about it, and not let it rest even when the feelings were gone, even when it was just an innocent crush.

“Promise me you wouldn’t laugh, okay?” Sehun suddenly said.

I nodded and he took out a cupcake from the basket. The cupcake had a weirdly shaped icing made heart on it.

“I made this cupcake. Actually I made a few more but all of them were so ugly that I didn’t even bear to look at it. I took the best looking one and forced my 11 friends to eat the rest. I used some icing to squeeze a heart on top, but it didn’t turn out as nice as I expected it to.”

I laughed, and tried to hide it by biting my lips.

“You promised you wouldn’t laugh!”

I covered my mouth and looked away from him.

He then started to sing the birthday song for me. His voice wasn’t nice at all, but it made me happy and teary, for that was the first time a guy ever sang for me. I never had a boyfriend before, and all my friends were girls.

After Sehun was done, I turned to him.

“Why are you crying?” He asked.

I placed the cupcake down and went over to him.

“Sorry, Sehun.”

I hugged him real tight. I didn’t care if he didn’t like it, neither did I cared whether I might feel like some loose girl. I just wanted to show my affection for him, for at that moment, I could no longer deny that I really like him, much more than those stupid crushes that came to me in the past.

He was the one I wanted to be with forever.

To my surprise, he hugged me too.

“Sehun, can I have a present from you?”

“Wind?”

“No,” I said and looked at him, “a kiss.”

Sehun didn’t hesitate at all. He just came closer and planted a kiss on my cheek.

I shook my head and stole a kiss from him.

“Sehun, I like you. I really, really, really like you.”

“The feelings are mutual, but…”

The word ‘but’ made my heart sank a little. But what? I liked him, and he liked me too, so what was making him stop?

“But what?

“I cannot be with you.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not human. I’m from another planet. My species is called—”

“Shut up, Sehun.”

“I’m not lying! And I need to go back—”

“I told you to shut up! I know you’re not! Which human being is able to control the wind?!”

Then silence fell between us. It wasn’t awkward, we just lost all words. And the night suddenly turned very cold for a summer night.

I finally managed to mutter, “If you didn’t plan to stay, why did you tell that you like me?”

Sehun hugged me and said, “I didn’t want to leave you hanging.”

“But isn’t it worse to have known then losing it?”

“At least our story would have an end.”

I cried and smacked him hard.

“I don’t want our story to end! I don’t want you to go! I want you by my side! And I want you be by yours!”

After spilling all those out, I lost all my energy. I leaned helplessly on Sehun’s chest and went on letting the tears flow.

I could tell that Sehun was upset too, but for that moment, I just wanted to be selfish and let him cared for me.

“I need to go back to my planet tomorrow. I only came here to collect rock samples.”

I wrapped my arm around Sehun’s waist.

“Don’t go, please.”

“I won’t be around anymore. I might be back in the future, but I can’t guarantee it.”

We both went quiet again and I started to drift away, tired from crying and flailing about.

The last few words I heard as the gentle wind blew at me before I fell asleep was, “Just remember, I will still love you.”

The following day I woke up in my room. I checked my phone, his photographs were gone. I opened my diary, and entries about him were ripped off (though I rewrote them since the memories were still fresh). I searched the shopping bags for the matching t-shirts we bought and it was missing too.

Thankfully I managed to find one Polaroid photograph of us we took together on my birthday in my wallet, which he probably missed out.

I found my Polaroid album on my study table, which I guess Sehun tried looking for the Polaroid photo of us in. I opened it and noticed that one of my photograph was gone. It was a photograph of me taken by my friend during a slumber party. Sehun might have took it. I filled up the empty space with that only photograph I had of him.

Since that day, I lived my life normally. I always ask myself, how is he now wherever he is. I like to think of the place he comes from like the Wonderland in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, which was the book I was holding on when we first met.

I occasionally forgets his face and takes out that photograph of him to remind me of the bittersweet memories.

I still miss him, and I still think of him. Something just tells me he has returned, but doesn’t want to appear in front of me.

My heart still races when I pass by places we’ve been, and my hopes get high when a stranger talks to me.

My heart still skips a beat when the wind blows at me from behind. I’ll turn around and look for him all over.

Wherever I go, I’ll pour a bit of water on my finger and lift it in the air, and look for the direction of the wind. It doesn’t really mean anything, but knowing the wind direction somehow makes me feel that I know where Sehun might be hiding, and I feel a little closer to him again.

Sehun was the first and only person I’ve truly liked, and till this day, the only one. But without him being around, all that is left is the wind to hug and caress me in his place. No other things can take his, or the wind’s place.

So all of you out there who had just read this, please be kind to me. If any If any fair skin man who have eyes that smile, a cute lisp, and a faint scar below his right eye goes up to you and ask if you want wind, please come and tell me he has returned.