[square bracekts] are used to denote English

Cherry blossom

(Jiyong's P.O.V)

Japanese spring was alluring.

The sight of blooming cherry trees, or rather sakura as peaople around me kept repeating in excited voices, was feeding my eyes with the most beautiful spectacle I had ever witnessed. It was simply taking my breath away.

I raised my head up, closing my eyes partly to be able to look at the dazzling clear blue sky peeking through light pink clouds of sakura flowers. The wind was blowing gently, setting the flowery branches in movement, making some petals fall down slowly like pastel butterflies.

I drew a deep breath through my nose, letting my lungs fill with the wonderful scent of cherry flowers. I doubted that any perfume designer would be able to capture this aroma in a bottle, no matter how hard he tried. It was too compound, too perfect as a pure mixture created by Mother Nature. I swore that it wasn’t only the cherry blossom, but also the March wind and morning sun rays that were bringing this wonderful scent to existence. There was no other way to smell it than coming to Japan yourself.

It was only a pity that I was here alone to savour it.

Dami had already left a week ago, when the branches had been covered only with flower buds, so she hadn’t got a chance to see them bloom. We had come to Japan at the beginning of March, a month after the competition finale and our spectacular victory, and a month before the actual start of Japanese school year. It was the time for me to adjust to the new surroundings and improve my Japanese during a monthly language course, which was also a part of the prize. Although my new school was international and had students from all over the world, some classes were still carried out in Japanese. That was why all the students from foreign countries needed to take additional language lessons. Fortunately, I didn’t have much difficulties with it and now, as Dami had already come back to Korea to start the second year of her studies, I was motivated to speak more, not having my Noona to help me like she did during the first week. Together we had come through all the formalities connected with transferring to a new high school for my senior year, accommodating me in the dormitory and finding me a part-time job.

Yeah, a job.

My training at Roem headquarters was going to start later in April, so I had to get one. It wasn’t about earning for my living here in Tokyo, because I had got quite a lot of money from the prize and my parents’ savings for my studies, that turned out to be needful one year earlier than it had been expected. I simply didn’t want to get bored sitting in my new empty room alone.

Okay, maybe not completely alone as I did have a roommate. The ladies from Accommodation Office were certain that we would be a perfect match for living with each other and we would surely get along. All in all, we were same age, both Koreans born in Seoul, aspiring to be fashion designers. However great it did sound, it didn’t mean that I wanted to spend time with Junghoon, even if he rarely appeared in our room. It was usually late at night, sometimes with a girl or with a group of friends. And then I had to disappear. For my own sake.

Two weeks were enough to teach me that I should not change into my pajamas and go to bed too early. Luckily, I had found a good solution to my problem, as it turned out that in Tokyo there were such wonders as 24/7 libraries. And I was now a proud part-time worker of one of them.

My survival schedule was simple: I worked the whole night taking some naps in the staff room, as we were allowed to, then in the morning went to my Japanese course, which finished before noon and it was time for my dinner at school’s restaurant. After the dinner I slept till evening and left for work, before my roommate could be back.

This timetable wouldn’t work, if I had other kind of job. I would have turned into a zombie by now, considering how much sleep I usually needed. It hadn’t been easy to get used to sleeping at daytime, but after a few days I had been too tired to even think about it.

My job at the library maybe wasn’t perfect, but it enabled me not to cross paths with my roommate.

Sometimes I wondered what he was doing the whole days and how it was possible that he had made so many friends so far and even found himself a girlfriend. Of course, I would never ask him. He didn’t even remember my name and always called me ‘Blondie’. What was so hard in learning two syllables?

Ji-Yong.

That was the whole philosophy.

“Jiyong!” A distant call reached my ears. I thought that it was a figment of my imagination, but then I heard someone calling me again. “Jiyong!”

My eyes snapped open and I turned around to see a familiar person running towards me along the sakura trees alley. It was Angela, an American girl, who attended the same Japanese course as me and would start her second year of Modern Sculpting profiled class in April. I waved at her and smiled, as she came closer.

“[What are you doing here so early?]” she inquired in English, tossing her ginger dreadlocks over her shoulder. “[We don’t have classes today, so I was sure everyone would stay in their beds till midday!]”

“[I just wanted to take same photos,]” I replied, nodding at the camera I was holding in my hands. “[And my roommate snores really loud.]”

Angela snorted with cheerful laughter that I got used to hear really often. She was always extremely positive and never lost a chance to laugh at even the most trivial things, which would normally induce only a faint smile on average person’s face.

“[Oh I see!]” she managed to speak in between her chuckles.

“[And what about you, Angela?]” I asked her, trying to keep up a friendly conversation with one of my few acquaintances here in Japan. “[Why haven’t you stayed in bed till midday?]”

She shrugged and cocked her head to the side in a playful manner.

“[It turned out that I was sleepwalking again and the food I had saved for breakfast disappeared,]” she stated with a feigned seriousness. “[That’s why I’m here, searching for food.]”

We both laughed at her statement and I felt familiar fondness growing in my stomach. Angela reminded me of CL and friends I had left at home. It was something good and bad at the same time. I was grateful that I had someone to laugh with so far away from home, but my desperate inner longing still coexisted with this temporary moment of joy, making my heart heavy.

“[I’m going to have something less Asian for breakfast,]” Angela said. “[Want to go with me?]”

I almost wanted to agree, but I suddenly reminded myself, what my initial reason for leaving the dorm was. And it wasn’t Junghoon’s snoring nor desire to take some photos.

“[Thanks, Angie, but I can’t,]” I said, shaking my head. “[I have some plans for today.]”

“[Really?]” she said surprised and pouted the way she had learnt from me. It looked so funny on her non-Korean face, so pale and covered with cute freckles that fascinated me since the first time I had seen her. Angela was like a cup of hot chocolate from Land of Sweets, sweet and pleasantly warm, with lots of whipped cream and cinnamon on top. Again, she reminded me how I missed home. Like I could forget about it even for a while.

“[Yeah,]” I sighed. “[I’m looking for a flat.]”

“[Oh!]” her eyes widened and she grinned at me. “[That’s great! Do you have any place in your sights?]”

I blinked once and realised she had used an idiom. Luckily, I quickly reminded myself what it meant. I put my camera into the large left pocket of my coat and took out a piece of paper from the right one.

“[I’ve found it yesterday on bulletin board in my dorm.]” I showed her the fluorescent blue flyer and she took it in her hands, narrowing her eyes.

“Jiyong?” she said with her glance glued to the piece of paper.

“[Yes?]” I didn’t understand what was wrong. Did the advertisement sound suspicious?

“[It’s in Korean, I guess?]” Angela asked in an uncertain voice.

”[Oh, sorry, Angie!]” I exclaimed. “[I haven’t really thought about it,]” I giggled nervously and took the flyer away. “[So it says there is a flat not far away from our school and the rent is quite low. I heard the area is also nice.]”

“[You know they sometimes lie in such advertisements,]” Angela said with a nod.

“[That’s why I’m going there to check,]” I replied with a smile. “[The owner is a student from Korea, who wants to share the bills. He wrote he is free today in the morning to show his place, if anyone is interested.]”

“[Okay. But didn’t you want to move in with your boyfriend?]”

Icy needle stabbed my heart, as always whenever I thought about Seunghyun. God, I missed him so much.

“[Y-yeah. But he will come in April,]” I uttered. “[And I just can’t keep on having sleepless nights because of my roommate. Still, there are no rooms in the dorms that are unoccupied.]”

“[I see,]” Angela nodded. “[So you’ll move out from that flat, when your boyfriend arrives?]”

“[That’s my plan,]” I responded with a weak smile.

A growling sound left Angela’s stomach, igniting another wave of laughter from her. It also managed to release the tension that arose in me.

“[Gosh, I’m starving!]” Angela chuckled. “[I’d better go now, otherwise my growling stomach will cause an earthquake! See you on Monday, Jiyong! I wish you luck with this flat, hope the student isn’t a weirdo!]”

“[He can’t be worse than my current roommate!]” I waved at her as she turned right to cross the street. “[Bye!]”

She waved back, being already on the other side of the street. A few seconds were enough for her ginger head to disappear in the crowd of people rushing to work. That was what really amazed me in Japanese people - their serious attitude towards their job. Sure, Koreans were also busy, but it seemed to be nothing in comparison to Japanese. Being here in Tokyo and watching them so attached and ambitious, made me feel motivated to treat my simple job with a lot of respect.

I sometimes considered what my day would look like, if Seunghyun and I hadn’t chosen to repudiated our modeling contracts. I was aware that it was a good decision to give this part of prize to Minzy, who had officially left the competition before the winner’s announcement, having told the judges the truth about her collection. We both had decided that she needed recognition and we surely didn’t feel like modeling for clothing brands. It was something girls like Minzy craved for, so it made a perfect thank-you gift, accepted by the organizing committee.

So of course I didn’t regret doing it. But one thing was for sure: if we hadn’t done it, Seunghyun would be here with me now. Still I knew it was impossible - he needed to retake his final exams that he had unfortunately failed due to our intensive preparations to the designing competition. Obviously, he hadn’t had much time to study, but the contest and our victory made a good excuse and he was allowed to take the exams one more time. My leaving for Tokyo seemed to be a good idea to let him concentrate on studying. But in every other field it was a total failure.

I counted days to Seunghyun’s arrival and couldn’t wait for every our conversation on Skype, that happened usually at night, when I was at work with my free access to the Internet. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to talk to me for past two days and that made me feel as miserable as sin.

I crossed the street and found my phone in my pocket. The phone was also brand new with special feature enabling me to exchange text messages with my family and friends in Korea. I had to buy myself one, having realised that my Samsung wouldn’t work here in Japan. I hated the rules of mobile service here, but luckily there was a way to escape them.

To: Seunghyunnie <3

I miss you sooo much Hyunnie >.<”
Can’t wait for ur arrival!  Will you ha-
ve time to talk to me in the evening?
I need to hear your voice TT.TT

I’m going to check a flat to rent now,
I’ll later tell you how it went~
Love you <3

I selected ‘send’ button and put the phone back into my pocket, hoping to get Seunghyun’s answer as soon as possible.

I felt a sudden urge to check the photos I had taken today and choose the ones I would send to my friends via e-mail. However, I knew it wasn’t the right time to do it now, as I had to keep the crowd’s pace and focus on reminding myself the way to the apartments area. I promised myself that I would choose the photos right after coming back to my room in the dorm. CL had insisted that I should send her a few photos every day and I hadn’t done it yesterday, so this time I couldn’t disappoint her. She and the rest of our team had bought me the camera as a good-bye gift and had given it to me at the party at Seunghyun’s house, a day before my leaving. Its memory stick was now full of not only photos of my language school, dormitory and all the places I had visited in Tokyo so far, but also the most precious ones - portraits of my friends, group photos from the party and lots of, lots of snaps of Seunghyun that I looked at, whenever I felt especially sad and lonely.

The phone buzzed in my pocket, so I pulled it out quickly to read the so anticipated message.

9:56 am, Seunghyunnie <3:

We’ll talk today then! Be strong, Ji!
It won’t be so long before we see
each other again! I miss you too!
I’m sure you’ll find something bett-
er than your current room!
Kisses ;*

I smiled at the screen and kissed it in a paroxysm of joy. I looked around quickly to check if anyone had seen my foolish action, but nobody seemed to care, going straight ahead. It was strange to feel so lonely in the crowd, but this realisation didn’t spoil my moment of happiness and affection for Seunghyun, that filled me after reading his short but sweet message.

I quickened my pace, realising that I had just reached the area I was looking for. It was the Orchard Village housing estate that looked really nice and clean, far better than I had imagined. It was giving an impression of being too expensive for a student to rent the whole flat, so I could understand why that guy had decided to find somebody to share. Still, the money he had mentioned in advertisement seemed too low. Maybe he was searching for more than one flatmate?

I walked into building C and an elderly doorman guided me to the elevator. I chose the fourth floor, hoping that I wasn’t too late and the student hadn’t already found anyone to move in with him. He may well occur to be a complete weirdo, as Angela had said, and then I would have to come back to Junghoon, even if it was the last thing I wanted. I should have asked the doorman for his opinion about the student from the flat number 46, in front of which door I was currently standing.

I knocked once with a shaking hand, but it came too faint for anyone to hear it. I decided to do it once more, stronger this time and I waited for a while, but there was no answer. I repeated my action, but the only thing I got was another minute standing and staring at the door handle that didn’t even move.

I decided to try for the last time and then leave the building, but when my knocking still didn’t bring any result, I pressed the door handle without thinking twice. To my surprise, the door let go. I froze with my hand beginning to sweat and waited for a few seconds, believing that someone opened the door from the other side. It occurred that I was wrong. I pushed the door a bit and put my head in the chink to check, if anyone was inside.

The hallway was empty.

I hesitated before pushing the door wide open, but then walked in, being sure that the guy was inside. He was probably listening to music with headphones on and that was why he hadn’t heard me. I made a few uncertain steps towards the opened space in the end of the hallway that seemed to be a living room or something of that kind. None of the doors on my right or left side opened and I didn’t want to do it myself, so I decided to check the living room first.

There wasn’t much furniture. The walls were white without any paintings or posters, but I saw a few paint buckets and painting tools. Probably, the student had just moved in and was now planning redecoration of the place.

I came closer to the big window to look outside and check the view from this side of the building. It was nothing special, just a few high buildings, some skyscrapers in the background. I hoped there was a view at the park from another room and I wondered, if I would get an occasion to see it today. I was about to turn around and knock on the doors in the hall, but then I felt someone’s presence right behind me.

I immediately regretted coming into this flat.

A pair of hands reached for my face from behind and I froze in horror, when they settled on my eyes, covering them completely. I drew a shaky breath, getting ready to scream on top of my lungs, because I could feel the person’s hot breath on my neck.  

“You shouldn’t walk into stranger’s flat without allowance,” a husky voice whispered into my ear, making me shiver and gasp in shock.

I should have known-!

“Seunghyun!” I squealed, taking his palms off my eyes to turn around and look at him. “Holy God, what are you doing here?!”

Seunghyun greeted me with a wide smile. I couldn’t help myself and pinched his cheeks and lovely dimples as to check that he was real.

“Well, you said you wanted to talk today, so I-“

I didn’t let him finish, closing his mouth with a kiss full of longing and happiness. Seunghyun wrapped his arms around me tight, pulling me closer to his chest and kissed me back passionately until both of us were out of breath.

“I can’t believe you’re here!” I sighed, trying to refill my lungs with oxygen, but instead it seemed that they got full of bubbling affection mixed with joy.

“Should I kiss you again then?” Seunghyun asked, raising a brow in amusement and I nodded enthusiastically, making him laugh.

“We were apart for too long,” I stated, before our lips connected in another firm, hungry kiss.

It turned out that Seunghyun’s exams had finished earlier than we had thought and thanks to that he was able to come to Japan quicker than planned. His father had bought a flat in Orchard Village to let us live together. Seunghyun told me had made a small research and discovered that there were only two Koreans living in my dorm, so he deliberately wrote the note in our mother language and stuck it to the bulletin board in front of my door, knowing that I was in need of finding another place to live. I had to admit that it was the best surprise ever. Even better than his rap during the competition finale.

Of course, I moved out from the dormitory and I doubted that Junghoon even noticed my absence. I stopped taking night shifts at the library and worked in the afternoons instead, but it didn’t mean I got much sleep at night. All because of Seunghyun who was really a disturber with his constant sneaking into my bedroom, when I was supposed to rest. But how could I blame him?

Seunghyun started attending the Japanese course with me, but still I had to spend a lot of time tutoring him as he really did at it. Every time he got fed up with my never-ending complaints about how dumb he was, he would begin teasing me with French and that way we always ended in his or mine bedroom, making out instead of learning.

However, April brought many new duties to our everyday lives. Seunghyun was now a proud student of Performance and Theatre Design, while I started my senior year of high school in the Fashion Designing profiled class. We were definitely more busy, but still found time for each other.

Most of it was used for redecorating the flat. We painted the walls bright colours and bought some furniture from flea markets and antique shops, making our interiors look completely mismatched, but extremely cosy.

Sakura flowers started gradually disappearing from the trees and I was sure our Sunday picnics in parks would never be equally pleasurable without them. I decided to paint a cherry tree on the wall in our living room to remember about the charm of Japanese spring the whole year. Even though it was a symbol of ephemeral beauty, I wanted to make it eternal. I wanted it to last till the end of time, together with my love to Seunghyun.

THE END

A/N:

So my first multi-chaptered story in English has just finished *my heart hurts sob sob*

I know there are still many things I could write about, but I feel I needed to close it, before taking  a break from writing (details here).

The story surely isn’t over - and I already have some ideas for a sequel. Just let me know, if you would like to read it ; ) If you do, be sure not to unsubscribe, because I'll let you know about the sequel here ^^

Anyway, I really wanted to thank you, my dear readers! There are many people here that are precious to me, but I’m not going to list them all, because I’m afraid I would forget about someone. But I’m sure you guys know who I’m talking about!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for finding time for reading my story, commenting, subscribing and upvoting! It really means a lot to me as it gives me inspiration and power needed to write more for you <3

Hope you won’t forget about me and will read my new stories after my comeback! *yah, feels like a k-pop star XD*

I LOVE YOU!

I promise I’ll have more original and creative scenarios and improve my writing!

PS. I won’t hide the fact that I’m willing to read some of your thoughts about this story as a whole :D kisses!

~Sandiun