0612

I still remember the day that I first met you. Then again, how could I even forget it? It was one of the most beautiful summer days that I could remember because nothing stood in my way. The skies were blue and the wind was blowing, not a single dark cloud ruined the scenery ahead of me and on that day; I woke up to find everything looking like perfection. 

Even my grandfather was in a good mood, which didn't happen so often, and I took the chance and the risk of asking him if I could go out for the whole day and to my surprise, he had agreed with no hesitation. He even encouraged me to sleep over in a friend's house for the night.  

Now, you should really thank him because it wasn't for him, I never would've met you. If I told you this, I knew you would go over to the house and immediately thank him, but you couldn't. Because.. well, you just couldn't now, can you? 

The first place I went to as soon as I stepped out of the house was the retro record shop my friend's family owned, and it was the only record shop around the neighborhood. The next one was more than forty miles away but though they had a much larger stock and a wider variety of CDs than in Youngjae's shop, I still didn't want to spend more money than I had to just to get a signed IU Album. I just couldn't. 

So, almost everyday during the past few months, I've been visiting the record shop a lot lately just in case a miracle happens and somehow, Youngjae gets a hold of a signed IU Album and gives it to me for free. But, on that day, it was my 33rd visit and yes I counted, so I had my hopes down to the low. 

"Youngjae." the bell above the door makes a tingling sound and for a split second there, all the attention is on me when I walked in. I only averted my eyes away from the few people's stares, to look at the man behind the counter. "Hey." 

Youngjae and I have been friends since I moved to Busan, and he's so true to the bone that I just had to make him my friend. He was so honest, humble, kind, generous and down-to-earth that even you had a crush on him when you first met.. I couldn't really blame you since even I know that if I wasn't a boy, I would've had a crush on him too. Youngjae, to us, was described as a 'goody-two-shoed angel'. In which, he was.  

"Hey hyung," Youngjae stuck out his hand and we do this short handshake that only the five of us boys know. Youngjae was supposed to be a year behind me in college, but he skipped a grade during middle school because he was just that smart, and we were classmates in five subjects. "And, no, there are no new stocks today. Come back tomorrow." he gave me a toothy grin. 

He was obviously teasing me. I only rolled my eyes, and that was one of the last times I did it because a few days later when I did the same thing to you, you told me you didn't like me rolling my eyes and that I looked mean. I stopped right after that of course. "By that you mean no new IU albums?" 

"Exactly. By that I mean no new IU albums." he leaned forward, his left arm resting on the table as he continued on smiling. Youngjae was handsome, he really was, and I don't hold any grudge against you for liking him back then. 

I only shook my head at him before I placed my hands inside my pockets, and I buried them deep in as I stalked away from the counter. "Don't steal anything, hyung." he told me jokingly. 

I didn't remember what I said back, but I knew it was something witty because he just laughed it off and let me be. I was walking over to the very back of the store where the old, Mo-town blues music, the ones that I had no idea you like were placed. 

My grandfather had played some songs from his golden days one night and I found myself tapping my foot along to the beat when I was reading in the kitchen, and my father was washing the dishes and even he was humming to the tune. I asked what genre it was and who sang it, and he told me the artist, who was already dead, and the label he was under. He told me it was American blues and jazz, and that was why I was there that day, because one, I wanted to listen to more of it and two, I thought maybe I could somehow butter my way up to my grandfather with the CDs because he'll surely like them. 

The door opened and the tingling sound of the bell filled my ears once again. But I didn't look back to see who it was because I was not curious like the other people in the shop. If I had though, I would've noticed you earlier before you even came up to me. I only continued on rummaging through the CDs without a care in the world, when suddenly, my nostrils picked up the scent of vanilla. 

I whipped my head to the source, and I found you standing there, only a few inches beside me. I looked away, just when I saw you glance towards me and even though I tired to look like I wasn't looking at you, I knew you had already caught me. 

So, I thought; what's the point? I looked at you from the corner of my eyes. You had strawberry blonde hair that looked like it was dyed, and I directly judged you because of that. You later on told me every hair growing out of your body would come out naturally blonde because of your illness. You lacked iodine when you were born. I felt bad right after I heard that fact, because it just goes to show how judgmental I could get sometimes. 

Other than your blonde hair, nothing about you seemed out of the norm or weird. You actually wore decent clothes compared to what other girls were wearing on these summer days. You wore a shirt underneath a thin hoodie and pedals the same color of your shoes, that ended below your knees, that did not showcase your skin, and I later learned that you liked to cover yourself than show some skin to the public, which I thought was a waste because you may not have milky white skin like you're cousin and family members, but you did have good, fair skin that I thought was flawless.

That was the first time I laid my eyes on you, and I'm sorry to say that back then, I thought you were nothing special. 

I walked away from you and your vanilla scent, and over to Youngjae to pay for the three CDs that I ended up with. Since Youngjae's not the only generous one in his family, I get a 20% discount every time I buy music in their store thanks to his parents. "Meet you at the skatepark with the others?" I asked and reminded him as he placed the CDs in a plastic bag. 

"I can't." he had let out a sigh while he gives it to me, a frown on his handsome face. "Mom and dad are out, the employee called in sick and I'm the only one left to guard the shop. Do me a favor and pass on the message to the others, okay hyung?"

I had snorted, or maybe I had scoffed. I'm not so sure because from the corner of my eye, I had saw you walking over to the counter. "Alright, fine." I said and at the same time those words came out, you appeared beside me again, engulfing my nostrils in that vanilla scent that you carried. 

Thinking back then, to the first time I saw you, I thought you weren't even pretty. Even though you smelled nice, I still didn't think you were that pretty. You were close to it, and because I could only see you're side view; I thought you looked normal, average and just plain.

Of course, I thought wrong because you proved me wrong when you flashed me a smile that showed your pearly whites. Your eyes went back to Youngjae's face and it was then I realized that the smile was not meant for me. I frowned because I can still remember the look you were giving Youngjae as you handed over the CDs you wanted to buy.

I left the shop only a few seconds before you did. 

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The skatepark was actually composed of a medium-lengthed half-pipe on the ground with graffiti on the sides and an empty swimming pool beside it that was also used as a half-pipe. Only a few people hang out there and because of this, I had already come to know them all. 

My eyes look around the area, I was trying to find my friends that time and I sighed when I had saw a girl, surrounded by three guys I knew who were nothing but trouble. The look on her face didn't tell me she knew that fact, but I let her be because well, getting girls like her were as easy as pie. And I actually thought you were like girls like her, but I was wrong about you again. Because you were anything but easy. 

I found my friends, the only ones that I considered closer than accquintances. I could even call them my 'best friends' because they've been with me since the first day of school two years back. I told them the reason behind Youngjae's absence, and Himchan, the oldest in our group who's sort of like our leader in the group, had nodded understandingly. "It's bound to happen some time." he only told us. 

"What about Yoongi?" I had piped up after finally noticing the moodmaker of our little group was missing. 

"He's aunt and cousin arrived from Incheon," Namjoon told me directly, and I sensed that he had already passed this information to Himchan. "He says he won't be able to hang today. Maybe only tomorrow." 

That day, without Youngjae and Yoongi, it was only the three of us and it's weird because even when I wasn't or was skateboarding, my nose could still pick up your scent. It was faint, but it was there. It was still there. 

a/n: gaaargh. Sorry. This is too detailed and long and y and I'm sorry because I really wanted to make an impression on the first chapter. /sighs. And btw, I know the poster says 20 instead of 25, but ignore that since I changed the title after I had requested for a poster. X) Oh, well. I hope you'd stick around for the next chapter.