Taking a deep breath, I took out my book mark and placed it back inside the book. After having my nose buried inside my book for quite some time, I stood up, and gave my legs a little stretch to wake up them. Spring break was finally here, which meant that I was now able to catch up on all the books that I had been wanting to read. Reading was something that I enjoyed very much, because I loved how you were able to be whisked away into the author's world, just by reading their words.

As my gaze then fell onto the ducks that were swimming nearby on the little pond in front of me, I couldn't help but smile at how comfortable they all looked.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard someone shouting out something close by, "Heulheul, stop!"

A tiny white dog with brown-patterned ears came dashing towards me, with its owner being dragged along right behind. My eyes widened, and before I could move out of the way, the dog had circled around me. The rather long leash ended up wrapping me tightly together with the male, our shocked expressions matching one another. We both squirmed and struggled, but that only made things worse, because it caused us both to topple over, and then fall squarely into the pond.

"AH--!"

The giant splash had caused the ducks that were swimming in there to flee in panic. Coughing and spluttering noises could be heard from us, as we both tried to wipe away the water in our eyes. 

"Are you alright?" asked the male, concern greatly showing from his voice.

Brushing the hair out of my eyes, I blinked for a bit, "Yeah, I should be..." I trailed off, and that's when my eyes finally met with his.

He looked really guilty, as if he had just committed a crime of some sort. Suddenly, an obvious shade of pink tinged his cheeks as his eyes awkwardly tried to look elsewhere. Noticing how close our faces were from another, my face then also matched the warm colour on his face as well. As we began to undo the leash around us, not only could I be thankful for not wearing white today, but I couldn't help but take in his soft and delicate features. His eyes were big and doe-like, which I found to be really pleasant to look at. Quickly snapping out of my thoughts, I realized that the rope was now off of us, and he had already stood up.

He then extended his arm out, offering it to me, and I hesitated a bit before grabbing it, "Thanks."

For someone who was exceptionally thin, I was taken aback by the strength that he had, when he managed to pull me up within a swift movement. The dog, (who I had assumed was named 'Heulheul') had somehow detached itself from the leash, and instead of running away crazily like how I thought it would have, it calmly sat on the side and just watched the two of us. I could hear a soft sigh of annoyance come from him, as he tried to fix up his bangs, and then attempt to squeeze out the excess water from his clothes.

Discovering a sudden self confidence that I wasn't aware of ever having in front of a stranger, I decided to invite him back home, where we could both get into a change of some dry clothes. He looked a little uneasy, as if he were having an internal debate with himself by the way that his eyes shifted from his clothes to me.

Although despite that, he ended up agreeing to it at the last minute, which made me smile, "By the way, my name's Jiyu."

"I'm Hyunseung."

——————————————— 

After walking back home in our drenched attire, I was extremely happy to finally be in something dry. Even if the weather was nice and warm like how any Spring weather should be, it was absolutely freezing during our short walk. I gave Hyunseung some of Appa's clothes since there wasn’t anything of my own that I could give to him, that would fit. And there was no way that I was going to shove him into Umma's floral outfits and such, even if that would have been a slightly amusing sight.

For the rest of the afternoon, we ended up just sitting outside on the porch and slowly getting to know one another, a little bit better. I found out that Heulheul didn't actually belong to Hyunseung, but rather, one of his friends. Apparently, he only agreed to walk the dog, to return his friend a favour of some sort.

I found out that because he was studying dance, it was good to keep yourself fit and healthy, which was why he would occasionally go for a jog throughout the park. He wasn't exactly the most talkative person, which would make us sit in silence for a while, and just listen to the sounds around us. The silences were a bit awkward at first, since I wasn't sure if I should say anything, but the more time I spent with him, the more comfortable they got; he didn’t seem to mind them either. I wouldn’t exactly call him 'shy'; more like 'reserved'.

You could tell that he did enjoy talking, and it was surprising to hear some of the things that he would say at times, and the little smirk that would form on his lips.

Pretty soon, I found myself inviting Hyunseung over after his jogs, and would bring out some drinks and snacks for us to enjoy together. It was fascinating to listen to him tell me about his dreams, and how he planned to get to them. I noticed that whenever he would talk about his possible career, that there was this burning passion within, and he seemed to be just a little more active.

Whenever this happened, he would blush, mumble an apology, and then go back to being the reserved person he is. The truth was, I secretly liked seeing him so pumped up about something, because I found it to be somewhat adorable. The amount of determination he showed in wanting to get what he wanted amazed me, and motivated myself to do better in achieving my own dreams. His life, compared to my own, sounded so much more exciting, and I told him that. I told him how it (strangely) made me happy to hear about his life, and the stories that he had to share.

Hearing this, he then promised with a genuine smile to stop by here every time after one of his jogs to talk to me some more.

And then from there on, I found myself developing a special friendship with Hyunseung.

——————————————— 

I huffed, "Ugh, I can't do it!"

A smirk itched onto his lips, clearly entertained by my stiff body, "Yes you can." He continued on as my eyebrows creased together in frustration, "You just need to relax a little, and remember; practice makes perfect."

I watched as his body suddenly did a few body rolls, and I couldn’t help but feel so envious as to how he could make it look so easy, "See?" he said.

Sighing, I then plopped myself down onto the bench and mentally cursed myself for not being able to ease my body up like that. He didn't say anything except slightly frown, and then walked over to take a seat down next to me.

It was quiet for a bit, until he spoke up out of nowhere, "How about some ballroom dancing? I think that would be a little easier."

I raised an eyebrow, "Ballroom dancing? You know how to ballroom dance?"

I honestly didn't expect this from him at all, since all he showed me were his hip-hop moves. But considering how he did study dance, I guess that would mean studying more than just one genre.

“I’ll show you,” said the male, as he stood up.

Taking a hold of my hand, he pulled me up, and then positioned my hand correctly onto his shoulder, as the other one connected with his own. He gently placed his other hand onto my waist, and then began explaining to me the steps. As he was doing so, I noticed that his cheeks looked a little pinker than usual.

Maybe it was just from the combination of the warm weather and his jogging?

When we began to actually move, (with him leading, of course) it was embarrassing how I managed to step onto his feet a few times. Even though he told me that he didn’t mind, it was evident that he did whenever I managed to catch his eyebrow twitch for a split second. I guess he must’ve known that I knew, because he would then softly chuckle, as if trying to convince me that it was alright.

As soon as the final twist came, I was mentally shouting at the stupid pebble that got in the way, making my two left feet trip, and thus, pulling Hyunseung down with me. His reflexes were incredibly fast though, because I ended up having my fall cushioned by him, as he landed on the patch of grass instead. As soon as I opened my eyes, I was going to apologize to him, but was stunned at how insanely close his face was. I thought our first trip was pretty bad, but this one was so dangerously close, that if one of us had decided to lean in by just a teeny tiny bit, then we would have kissed.

"I'm s-sorry!" we both stammered at the same time.

Quickly getting myself off of him, I could feel my cheeks literally being on fire. Why the heck was the weather insanely hot today? I could still feel the tension, (and I was pretty sure that he could feel it as well) as a silence swept through us. And then as usual, we said our goodbyes, except this time, there was a slight hint of awkwardness. Our words came out as short mumbles, and not to mention, the way that our eyes were trying to avoid one another was evident. Instead of watching him leave like how I normally did, this time, I swiftly turned around and entered the house.

Quickly, but quietly closing the door behind me, I leaned against it, and placed my right hand over my chest, where I couldn't begin to explain why my heart was beating as fast as it was.