MYUNGSOO

-PAST-

It's a school day. Winter school day. It's not just an ordinary school day, but it's also Seungho's birhtday. I decided to get up earlier than usual and prepare my gift to Seungho. It's a wristwatch I've owned ever since I turned 9 years old but never got to use it since I'm not used to wearing a wristwatch. Yesterday, I bought new batteries for it and fortunately, it's working as if it's bought just days ago. 

But the thought of having him receive a passed down gift from me seems a bit effortless.

I think of other things I could give him, or do for him. And suddenly, Jiyeon's face appeared to my mind. At first, I was hesitant to help him with her. One reason is that talking to her would be really hard and awkward, and another reason is that I like her. She's my dreamgirl, like Seungho tells me. But she's also the one he likes, and since I'm the older one, I should always give way to my younger brother. It's not that I'm doing it for the sake of brotherhood, but because I know if he ever got to know her and become friends with her, it can change his life for the better. He will eventually trust more people and gain himself friends. He shouldn't just rely to me everytime. This can actually help him a lot.

And so that same day, I went to the tree place and as I expected, she's seating on the foot of the tree, reading a book.

She hums while she reads a page and turns it to the other. I can see that she enjoys it a lot. At times, she would laugh; at times she would create a sad face. It's fun watching her reactions with every line she reads. 

After minutes of standing away from her, I made my way to talk and might as well invite her for the upcoming birthday party. 

Taking my time walking, I initially wrote a script of what I thought would be a good conversation starter. But of course, I failed.

"I...came here...saw you" I said with a fake, excited voice. I swear I could have slapped myself immediately after speaking.

She tore her focused gaze on the book to look up at me. At first she was kind of registering where she saw me, but after a matter of seconds, she finally spoke.

"Oh!" With rounded eyes, she fixed her sitting position. "You're the brother of the one who saved me!" This kind of made a slight pinch to my heart. The first thing I ever said her is a lie. "Uh...yes" Looking away, my right hand somewhat made it's way to the back of my neck. "Have a seat." She pats the empty space near her and with a bit of awkward silence, I sat with my legs crossed."I...What are you reading?" I asked. Talking is really hard especially with extreme throbbing of my heart."This?" Looking at all sides of the book, she lifts the cover to me. "Lone Wolf. By Jodi Picoult." I nod. "I...don't think it's funny though." 

She looked up at me like I was a crazy man. She laughed. "So you really saw me, huh?" Her laugh slowly fades. "It's just that...it reminds me of my brother." Waiting for her to start to speak up again, I looked at her in silence. "We used to go to the festival in our town before we move here. They usually hold Japanese festivals there." She sighs. He's her brother after all. 

"This is a nice place, isn't it?" Jiyeon stirs the conversation. Knowing that it makes her uncomfortable to talk about his borther any further, I responded with a nod. The cold breeze caresses our skin once more, signaling the now prominent winter season. The days are shorter, and the nights are longer. Even in a cold weather like this, my heart swells with warmth. Days like these makes me feel lonely, but the change of atmosphere tells me I won't be feeling that same way again.

"I'm so thankful for your brother saved me." With a gentle chuckle, she wiggles her feet.

"With that being said..." I began, forgetting all the embarrassments I could get by doing this, "can I ask you a favor?"

She nodded without hesitation. "Of course. What is it?"

Practising the lines over and over in my head, I finally spit it out. "Would you be on his birthday this weekend?"

-PRESENT-

"HYUNG!" Sungjong cried while catching up on me and curling his arm on my shoulder.

We were walking our way to the university. Earlier this cold morning, Sungjong had woken me up with an excited tone even in his raspy, sleepy voice. He's much more excited than me for my first day on college, He had prepared my clothes and hung it on my closet's handle. He had prepared a wonderful, warm bath for me. He cooked unusually very good breakfast. He cleaned my shoes. He fixed my hair. It's as if he wanted everything to be perfect. It's kind of weird though, for him doing all these things for me out of his time. He might as well be sleeping at least 30 minutes more, but to ensure me to have a good day today, he woke up early to do all these. I wanted to payback for everything. Since Sungjong's birthday is this weekend already, I want to surprise him and do everything for him on that very special day. 

"Don't stroll too much inside, okay? You might get lost~" He pinched my cheeks while singing the last words with aegyo. "Okay, mom." With a grumpy face, I continued to walk faster.

"HEY! KIM MYUNGSOO STOP RIGHT THERE!" 

The walk's not that long despite feeling my feet froze a little from the very cold winter air. Afterall, Sungjong's house is just as convenient as Jiyeon's. Standing at the front of the university isn't as overwhelming as I thought it would be. Maybe because I've been going with my mom for her travelling job a lot when she's still here in Korea. I had spoken to a lot of large crowd then. A university filled with most people my age isn't that bad, is it? 

With a new found bravery and courage,I stride my way to the center of the campus. My schedule's not really well distributed at this day of the week. I have 2 hours long break in between 3 subjects I'm attending today. It's kind of a pain for a first day. Well, for some days of 4-5 subjects in a day because I'm just taking all the past subjects I've missed now, I think this isn't much.  But there's something that keeps me from complaining about the 'well-distributed' schedule. 

Sungjong waved goodbye as he half skidded, half ran to his class. I made my way to my own classroom. I looked at my own schedule intently and looked around the campus to find out where my room is. The subject read 'Philosophy' and under it read 'W310". At the bottom of the page tells me what those meant and I've found out it was in the Woo Building, Room 310. Obviously not familiar with the place, it took me 20 minutes to find the building I was looking for. 

A few students lurked around the hallway. Some of them were rushing to the doors just like me. I was aiming to touch the knob when another student touched it the same moment as I do.

"Oops." The tall student took his hand off and gripped at his backpack strap. "Go on. You go first."

He smiled. I wonder how he can be this jolly when he's running late in class.

I twisted the knob open and a few students turned their head to look at a foreign figure just before their eyes. Some brushed the idea off and continued to mind their own business. Some were quite curious. Some said 'hi's' and some murmured 'get lost'. There were a few empty seats on the end of the room and deciding to occupy one for myself, a big hand gripped my wrist and kept me from going. "You can sit here. No one's gonna take it." He motioned at the sit next to him in the very front of the room. Being a rather shy student, I don't like sitting upfront because that means more attention from the professor. Sure, we're second years and we should handle such situations but I don't think I'm mentally ready for that. It's not a good way to start a day in college. I took his hand off my wrist and bowed, not wanting to be rude at all. Afterall, he's given me two favors for less than 5 minutes. 

His voice kept me from walking again. "You're the new kid, right? No one's gonna help you there."

I turned to look at him and study his expressions well. His intentions were good but since I don't really want to make a friend this early, I kind of still went to the end of the classroom. "Come on. I'll give you a tour around the campus." He says in a 'take it or leave it' tone, as if knowing what I would choose from the two options. Since he's really eager to help me, or maybe he just felt lonely being the only one sitting in front, I walked back to the front. His smile is from ear to ear.

Still, I don't want a friend this early.

"Sungyeol." He introduces himself first after I've settled down on my seat. "Lee Sungyeol." He hands me a hand to shake, but because of my 'not interested look', he took it back.

"Uhh...Myungsoo." I say, and because I felt bad for not doing the hand shake, I offered him my right hand which he happily took by his right hand and shook it with a big grin. 

"You're taking Multimedia Arts too, right?" He asked. I nod. "Great. Then I'll see you in most of my classes. May I see your schedule?" I kind of hesitated to show it to him since everything's happening too fast. In a span of 7 minutes, he talks to me as if he'd assured I'm a nice person and that made him want me to befriend him. He studies my schedule while nodding his head with his left hand on his chin and hands me back my paper. "

"Why are you alone sitting here? At the front?" I asked with a quiet tone. I don't want him to assume I'm excited to talk to him. He squints. "My eyesight is kind of bad, and because no one really sits at the front I occupy it all to myself. It's nice having a larger space of the room for yourself, isn't it?" He laughs, as if what he said is funny. I nodded as an answer. "That makes us the two of us now, though." He sings his arm to my shoulder and as if I even said a thing, he spoke, "I don't mind, really." 

3 hours of Philosophy went by pretty fast. I was given a long test even though I've attended the subject more than halfway through it. I don't have the energy to explain to the teacher my situation so I took it as well. Sungyeol tried showing me his answers in a not-so obvious manner. I don't think he needed to though, since half of the questionnaires were self-explanatory and being good at it, I poured my effort to it.

As Sungyeol had offered, he took me around the campus. "So where do you want to start first?" He asked with an excited tone in his voice. I sighed. "Why not the bathroom first? I kind of need to-" "Oh, yes yes. I understood."  He cut me off knowing what I have to say, We used the nearest one in the Jung Building. We passed by a lot of rooms. I liked how this building is filled with artsy stuffs and everyone of us not caring about Math at all. 

"This is where our major subjects take place." Sungyeol explains. I wonder if Jiyeon uses this building as often as I am. I wonder if she's still indulged in arts.

After 25 minutes, we're almost done. I treated Sungyeol lunch so that I can 'repay' him for his good favors for me. We ate bento boxes we bought from the store nearby in a part of the school where trees occupy a larger space of the grounds. We both sat down at this bench despite the coldness we could feel. The first snow will shower in any given time, anyways, so it's not surprising.  Sipping my red tea, Sungyeol spoke up yet again even with a mouthful of food. "This...place is....called the tre-" He knocks on his chest when some rice went straight to his throat. I panicked and gave him my tea since his is empty already. "Th-thank you. As I'm saying, this place is called the tree place." My ears throbbed. There are many memories that sprung to my head the moment he spat the words. "Just a few students occupy this space, since a lot of them might be at the soccer grounds since it's more convenient to go there. You might see occasional 'tourists' just like you, but I think if you're one of those who likes time for themselves, this place might help." He finishes the last piece of pork cutlet in his bento box, stood up and excused himself to get a coffee, since he said he can't last the day without consuming one. 

I looked around the tree place while comparing it mentally from the tree place we had in our old school. The trees here are taller, wider and braver but because of the current weather, there aren't any leaves present on the trees thus making them weaker than they are. These trees might have been here for a long time now. They might have witnessed bliss, happiness and reunions of the souls. They might as well felt some. If only I could talk to them and ask for a certain lady I'm trying to find while taking the tour with Sungyeol. I reached out to one of the trees I can reach, and touch it ever gently. I whispered, in a quiet, gently voice. "Have you seen a beautiful lady with long, brown hair swinging with the wind?" As if answering my question, the wind blew making shivers down my spine. I smiled. "Have you seen a girl with a beautiful smile that sends the cold, thick air away?" Another blow hit my face. "Have you seen-"

I stopped when I heard a thud came from one of the trees. I searched for it and found it 12 trees away from where I stood. I saw a young lady whimpering in pain. Fortunately, she's conscious. "Thank goodness." I mutter to myself. 

"MIss, are you oka-" I stopped at my own words yet again when the young lady looked up at me with her eyes just as curious as mine. She held onto his aching knee more tightly. 

I wanted to form her printed name on my head to words but my lips aren't helping. They kept close and I dared not to speak.

"I'm...I'm okay. Don't worry much." With a light chuckle, she tries to get up. "I'm just a little clumsy...AH!" She found himself back on her bottom.

Without saying anything, I picked her up and sat her on the bench. I looked back at the foot of the tree, just to assure myself nothing's left this time. I fiddled with my fingers while waiting for one of us to speak up, but from the looks of it, no one dared to talk. No one dared to form our thoughts into words. I let Jiyeon ponder with her own thoughts while I pondered with mine. After a matter of silence, I finally spoke up.

"Jiyeon, I saw you." I began, quite embarrassed by how it sounded. I mentally slapped myself as I ended it with another word. "Again." 

Jiyeon glanced at me only to look back at her shoes again. "Yeah. Looks like it. Were you here a little while now? Before I..." She trailed off. I nodded and knowing she hadn't seen it, I worded it out. "Yes." "With that Sungyeol guy?" She asked. "Yes." "He's quite nice, isn't he? He helped me once and every now and then I would see him helping others too. He's becoming less and less selfish everyday. I wouldn't wonder if one day I would see him hand his clothes to other people just so he could help them." She muses. I listened closely, not wanting to let her voice turn into waste. "He reminded me of my brother."

A hurtful smile curved her lips. "Why am I telling this to you?" she held back her sobs making a high pitch tone come from her burning throat. 

"It's okay." I assured her. She glanced again at me and fiddled with her fingers. "You're the guy I saw at my house that night, aren't you?" She asked. I was kind of hesitant to answer, but I decided to tell her. "Yes. I'm sorry if I caused trouble." She shook her head. "It's okay, I don't really remember most of what happened. I just remember...those eyes..." She looked straight at my eyes and slightly gasp when she saw me staring intently at her. "You should be a person I know, right?"

"I want to know you better." She breathes. "Can we talk to each other?" I smirked. "But we're talking now." I joked. The awkwardness between us is a bit thick that joking might help lighten the mood, at least that's what I thought. But she's more drawn to her thoughts that she doesn't have time to laugh. "No, I meant a better time than this." My eyes found it's way on her fiddling fingers. Then, not too long for me to process quickly, an idea sprung to my mind. I snapped my finger.

"Can I ask you a favor?" She nods. "Would you like to help me organize Sungjong's birthday this weekend?"