“Sanghy…I mean, Thunder?” – said the girl who had got forty minutes late for the first day of the five-days-long-origami workshop.
It was a rainy Monday.

Everybody looked at her.
Twelve reproving faces out of the thirteen in the room.

“You’re late.” – Thunder whispered to the girl, when she had a sit next to him.

CL, Lee Chaerin, was one of his older sister’s best friends.
She was one year younger than him, didn’t like cotton candy, was allergic to peanut butter, would prefer crackers to sweets, spoke French fluently, was not good with computers, had had only three tooth cavities up to now, didn’t like lycra bras and could make his heart skip easily.
Thunder knew it all and a whole lot more about CL.

It’s not that he was a stalker or anything like that. He just happened to pay close attention to everything and had a very good memory.

Besides always being with Dara, Thunder’s older sister, CL had been to other workshops with him.

There was the Colors Psychology for Beginners workshop in April, the one about emergency birthday parties in July and the “What To Do When Your Sister’s Friend Drowns in your house’s Pool” one. None of them had a pool, but it was fun and they could get extra credits for college. They had become quite comfortable with each other after this last one (CL had taught him cardiac massage; his heart like a Samba school when her hands touched his chest).

During all those workshops, Thunder had collected enough information to write a detailed wikipedia article about CL.

It’s been a while he had noticed her bright smile and her cute eyes…her voice was like an angel’s…the way the Earth moved under her feet…but it was only when Dara told him that CL had enrolled herself on the origami workshop, when he heard a choir of cupids, that Thunder noticed the effect CL had on him.

It had been months.
Months of loving her in secret, suffering in silence.
What were the chances she would feel the same? He was just “Dara’s baby brother”.

On Thursday, before going to that origami workshop, Thunder had a huge bowl of courage for breakfast.
He would talk to CL. I mean, talk for real! Nothing about the wall’s color or Dara’s boyfriend, or how unlikely it was for a person to slip on saliva… he would really, really talk to her.

At the workshop, while learning how to make origami hearts, he opened his own.

“Chaerin-ah…” – Thunder was shy. – “Have you ever felt like…like there isn’t anybody for you out there…?” - he spoke hesitantly.

“Every Jack has a Jill” – CL replied, concentrating on the instructions on the board.

“Yeah, but… what if the Jill already has a Jack?” – He spoke looking at her.

CL was smart, that was for sure, but sometimes she was so…blind.
It’d been moths Thunder was trying to make her notice him, notice his feelings… but she would never get the hints: Didn’t get it when he baked a lemon cake one day after she had told him it was her favorite; didn’t get it when he offered her a ride on his bike, so that she wouldn’t have to walk almost ten blocks; didn’t notice it when he put an origami couple, hand in hand, in her back bag.

CL stopped her paper folding to look at Thunder. She looked into his eyes, as if reading everything he thought, everything he felt.
She was the kind of person who would always look into your eyes. Even if she was lying, her look would be so intense that she could make you believe to be a bunny that had been hypnotized to believe to be a human being.

“I…” – she finally spoke – “There’s this guy…he’s such a cutie, but we’re kinda friends.” – she had a slightly bitter smile.- “ He’s just so dense sometimes…” – CL spoke looking into Thunder’s eyes.
“He’s amazing! He takes me stuff he cooks, and he cares about me…but I’m afraid I’m in his friend zone...” – She rolled her eyes.

So she liked someone…and this someone had cooked for her…and cared about her…they were friends…

Thunder’s heart started pumping like a jukebox. It was him! It could only be him!

“Why don’t you talk to him?” – He said while pretending to concentrate on the origami.

“I’ve tried, but he’s kinda…blind, you know...” – CL said still looking at Thunder, while he avoided her eyes.

It was only when the teacher dismissed them that CL and Thunder spoke again.

“So… I see you around, I guess.” – He said, taking his bike.

“Sure!” – she said, checking her phone.

Silence.

“You better go. Dara will be lecturing on you if you get late.” – Thunder broke the silence.

Thursday was baseball day for Dara and her gang. They’d support the elder’s house team every week.

“Yeah…” – CL replied. Her eyes on Thunder’s. – “Hey…about that girl…talk to her. I’m sure she likes you. Who wouldn’t?” – she said rubbing his shoulder lightly.

And then she left. Leaving behind a breathless Thunder.
On his sweat hand, an origami heart. Their names on it.

Friday morning.

The origami workshop would only start in the evening. It was the last day, so there wasn’t much to be done.
The apprentices would have the whole day free.

“How was the game?” – Thunder asked Dara, his older sister when she entered the kitchen still on her pajamas

“Quite good.” – she answered yawning. It was past midnight when she had got home – “CL was hit by a ball, but no damage.”

“HIT?!” – Thunder repeated in shock – “Is she okay?”

“Yeah…she just got distracted while talking about a guy…” – Dara spoke matter of factly, opening the fridge. - “It kinda felt like…where’s the damn ketchup… kinda like she was talking about you, you know…” – Dara said absent mindedly, while looking for the ketchup bottle in the fridge.

Him? Was CL talking about him?

“Really?” – Thunder asked faking lack of interest.

“Yeah…” – Dara spoke, her head still in the fridge – “tall, broad shoulders, short hair…likes cats, decent guy…friends, doesn’t get the hints…ketchup…” – And she finally accepted that the ketchup bottle was not in the fridge.

Dara turned around to ask her brother about it and she would have asked, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Before even finishing his breakfast, Thunder went to his room and spent the whole morning and afternoon there.

Friday evening.

Thunder went to the origami workshop. The origami bouquet of roses he had spent the whole day making, on his hands.

CL didn’t show up though.

He hurried to her house as soon as the teacher dismissed the apprentices.

Thunder was ready to confess.
What CL had said and what his sister had said she had…the way she said… was she really talking about him?!

He knocked on her apartment’s door.
She lived on the third floor of a small, but charming, building.

“Hey!” – CL opened the door smiling. – “Oh! You’re coming from the origami workshop?” – She asked smiling, upon seeing the origami bouquet on his hands.

Thunder’s voice was stuck on his throat.
CL was so beautiful, so bright… her hair falling loosely on her back, she had a good scent…like she had a meeting with Afrodite.

“I…’ – Thunder started, but was soon cut by CL’s ringing phone.

She picked it up quickly.
Thunder impatiently waiting for the call to end.

The person on the phone had said something that made CL smile.
Her cute smile… that filled Thunder’s heart with joy.

“Ok, babe. I’ll be there in a minute!... Yeah, I know you like it.” – CL answered to whatever the other person had said. A dreamy expression on her face.

 
Babe…I’ll be there in a minute… I know you like it… 
All that production… that dreamy expression…

Thunder felt his heart sink to his stomach.

CL was so beautiful, so bright… and of course none of that was for him. He could only stare at her.
Apparently, CL had done what Thunder had suggested. She had confessed to the guy she liked. It just… wasn’t who he thought it was.

“So, I better get going.” – CL said while fixing her bangs. – “Would you lock the door for me?” – she handed him an extra key, before walking through the door.

“I’ll tell you everything tomorrow. Wish me luck!” – Thunder heard her say from the corridor.
Her blondish hair so shiny, he noticed. 

Through the window, he saw CL get close to a man on a fancy motorbike. He took his helmet off and pulled her close.

They kissed.
It was dark, but Thunder could see it clearly.

He watched CL leave with the man, on the motorbike.

She was gone, leaving behind a brightless Thunder.
As brightless as the opaque origami bouquet on his hands.

Among the roses, a note CL would never read:

“A paper rose is not less of a rose than a real one. Though these are made of paper, they are sincere and they are real. And just like what I feel, these ones are not supposed to wilt.”