For unilay

Bonsai

Baekhyun was forced to join an extracurricular school activity. He was late during the sign up period and his only option was to join the gardening club. So, on that Tuesday, he made his way to the meeting room and saw that the gardening club only had four members, and all of them were girls. When he walked into the room, three of the girls’ faces lighted up, while one just sat in the corner staring outside the window. He had recognised her. She was in his class, and more often than not, when he turned around in his seat, he would catch her looking out the window. Her name was Oh Hayoung. He didn’t think she had many friends because she seemed lost in her own bubble most of the time. The teacher soon followed after him, and cleared . She announced that today, they would be planting some flowers to brighten up the school grounds. She brought out five trays of plants, and then allocated one for each person, then called everyone to stand up and then follow her outside.

Baekhyun dumped his bag to the side and then set down the tray and sat down on the ground. Some of the girls followed him and tried to sit down next to him, but before they could, the teacher beckoned for them to follow her and set them out their own space for planting. The teacher instructed them on how to properly take the seedlings out of the tray and then correctly plant them into the ground. He begrudgingly set about his task. Within twenty minutes, he had finished and when he went to the teacher to ask to leave, she told him that he had to sit it out, to be marked off present and that he had fully attended.

"What can I do so I'm not bored?"

"Why don't you go help her out?"

The teacher pointer over to Hayoung. She was still planting the seedlings and was taking her time with each of them. When he looked at all the other girls, they seemed to be on the finishing stages of their task as well. He knew that if he wanted to get out of there, he would have to help her along and speed her up. He nodded to the teacher and then made his way over to Hayoung.

“Hey.”

She turned around and slightly bowed her head to acknowledge his presence.

“Here, let me help you.”

“It’s fine. I can do it myself. If you’re trying to make me plant these faster, you can forget about it. The teacher will let you off when the other girls are done.”

Baekhyun was surprised by her bluntness, but instead of feeling slightly offended by her tone of voice, he felt like he wanted to know her. He crouched down beside her and started to take one of the seedlings out.

“No. Please. Let me help you.”

“I told you. I can do it by myself. You can go help one of the other girls.”

“They don’t need my help. They’re almost finished.”

“Then you can go and get ready to go home.”

He was slightly annoyed by her now. He had good intentions. It may have started off as wanting to go home, but now he wanted to help her out. He found it interesting that she could be completely cold towards him, but be so caring towards the plants she was holding. She would give him an icy glare one moment and look at the seedlings the next moment with eyes wide open and a warm smile on her face. Baekhyun was completely intrigued.

“Nup. I’m not going anywhere.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Ten minutes later and the teacher called out that they could go home. All of the girls jumped up with glee and picked up their bags. Even the teacher was preparing to leave.

“Hayoung-ssi…you know what to do when you’re finished?”

“Yes, seonsaengnim. See you in class tomorrow.”

The teacher nodded and then walked off. Hayoung turned to Baekhyun.

“You can leave now.”

“I’ll leave when you leave.”

“I’m going to be here for a while.”

“I’ll stay with you until you finish.”

“Suit yourself.”

And for the rest of the afternoon, Baekhyun sat on the corner, watching as she tended to each plant, even the ones that she hadn’t planted and made sure that they were done properly. She went to collect water four times in a big watering sprinkler and then watered each of the plants. An hour and a half later she was finished and when she turned around, she seemed surprised that he was still there.

“You didn’t go home?”

“I told you. I was going to stay until you finished.”

“Why?”

“Manners. I can’t leave a girl here all by herself.”

“It’s fine. Next time, just go home.”

She brushed past him and then waited for him to step out of the area and then locked the gate. They were making their way out of the school grounds when Baekhyun started to notice that she was trying to fall behind him and he eventually let her. When he turned around, she had disappeared.

The next Tuesday, he turned up early for gardening club and found that she was already waiting there. He smiled at her, like he tried to do every morning during class, but she would ignore him. Either that or she never saw him. She was lost in her own bubble again. He sat down beside her, but she made no move. A few minutes later, the other members and the teacher showed up. They marked attendance, and then they went to the gardens again. This time, they were to water the plants, and then harvest some of the baby tomatoes that they had previously grown to be sold at school. Once again, he finished his task quickly, and once again, everyone left after completion, while she stayed back and made sure that everything was fine. He followed her around this time, trying to help her and talk to her, but she was silent, letting him help her when she needed it. When they were leaving the school grounds, he lost her again. This repeated of several weeks until, Baekhyun secretly followed her one Tuesday afternoon.

She walked to the back of the school, where there was giant tree. She dropped her bag next to the trunk, took a folder out and climbed up. He didn’t see her come down for twenty minutes, so he decided to see what she was doing. He walked to the base of the tree and looked up. She was sitting along one of the branches, with a notebook and pen in hand. Every once in a while she would look up and then write something on the book. Baekhyun called out, making sure she was holding on first so that she wouldn’t fall.

“Hey.”

She looked down at him and then back to what she was doing.

“What are you doing there?”

She didn’t reply so Baekhyun decided to climb up too.

“Hey. You didn’t answer my question.”

“Why are you following me?”

“I’m just curious.”

“About what?”

“About you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know anything about you, but we’ve been in the same class for over four years.”

“So?”

“I want to know you…Don’t you want to know me?”

She didn’t reply.

“Is this why you’re always looking out the window? For this tree? Do you always come here?”

“Yes. To all questions.”

“Why?”

“Look around you.”

He did as he was told, and he had to admit, it was a beautiful view. Especially, since it was almost sunset. He peered over to her and found that she was drawing the landscape.

“You’re good at drawing.”

 Hayoung quickly covered up her book and then started to climb down the tree.

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“Why are you shutting me out? Why won’t you let me get close to you?”

“Why do you want to get close to me?”

“Because I like you!”

“How can you like me when you don’t even know me?”

“I don’t know. I just do.”

She took her bag and then ran away. During class for the next week. Hayoung made it a point to stay away from Baekhyun, and when it was gardening club again the following Tuesday, Baekhyun found out that Hayoung had quit. When he finished gardening, he went over to the tree, but it was gone. The only thing left was a stump. He was about to turn around and leave, when he heard someone crying. He followed the sound and found Hayoung curled into a ball, wiping her eyes.

“Hey, are you alright?”

She looked up and when she saw him, she tried to run past him to leave, but Baekhyun was faster and grabbed her arm. He raised her chin so that she was looking at him.

“Are you alright?”

She shook her head and Baekhyun wrapped his arms around her. When she pulled back, she smiled at him.

“Thank you for letting me use your shirt as my own personal tissue box.”

“You’re welcome.”

“You saw the tree? Well, lack of one?”

“Yeah. They cut it down?”

“They said it was not safe anymore and they cut it down.”

“You must’ve loved that tree a lot.”

“It was my personal space. It was the only reason I joined the gardening club. So that I could stay behind at school and then climb up and see the view.”

“Is that why you quit gardening? Because they cut down the tree?”

“No.”

“Then, why?”

“Because of…you…”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Instead of answering him, she went to her backpack and got out her sketchbook. She flipped open to one of the pages and he was surprised to find that she had been drawing him. She gave him the book to look at and he saw that some of the drawings were dated back to when they started school. He flipped to the most recent one and found that she had drawn them sitting on top of the tree.

“You’ve been drawing me…”

“You must think it’s creepy…”

“No…you’re drawings are beautiful…”

“I kinda freaked out when you said that you liked me…I’ve had a crush on you for so long that I thought you were tricking me…”

“Why would you think that?”

“Girls follow you around. You seemed like you liked the attention. You seemed like a bad boy. All those times you were following me, I thought you were just playing a game…”

“I’m not like that…and if you let me…I want to get to know you and for you to get to know me…”

“I don’t know…”

“I’ll prove to you that you can trust me…”

“Okay…”

The next day, Hayoung got a note from Baekhyun telling her to meet him by “the tree”. When she got there, she didn’t find him, but found a Bonsai, with a note attached.

Remember me, when you see this tree.

It’s not going to grow and I promise it’s safe.

It’s stable. It’s permanent.

And when she finished reading, she heard a voice.

“Like me…it’s permanent like me…”

“Permanent?”

“Yep. You’re stuck with me from now on. I promise that you can cry on my shirt anytime. You can depend on me. Do you trust me, Hayoung-ah?”

“Okay…”