I say goodbye to my friends, and go out from the library. Even at night it’s still pretty crowded because of finals week, and I decide to go home because it starts to get a bit noisy inside, and I can’t concentrate. Moreover, at home I think I’ll have a few hours to nap before continue studying.

     I half-sleepily go through the corridor in the first floor, and walk towards a beverage vending machine near the west exit. I pass through the door of the gym, and I can hear the sound of people playing basketball inside. How nice, they must have finished their finals to stay here leisurely like that. I still have one more exam tomorrow, sadly.

     I stand in front of the vending machine and take out my purse. After I get my coins, I can see someone coming out from the gym and walking towards the vending machine too. The person stands behind me to wait, and I can smell the mixture of sweat and fragrant men’s perfume, complete with the sound of heavy breaths. This person must be thirsty, I should do my business faster…

     As a result of my rushed acts, I dropped the can I just took from the machine, and it rolls on the floor behind me. The person behind me catches the can, and I embarrassedly wait until he stands back up. He’s a quite tall guy with slightly curly hair, and he smiles as he hands the can to me. “There you go.”

     Oh no—dimples. I somehow forget how to move my smile muscles, and bow after receiving the can from him. He moves forward to use the vending machine, and I notice something on his left hand. There’s a quite lengthy cut on the back of his hand, and fresh blood is trickling down to his fingers.

     “Sorry, but—“ my voice clashes with the clank sounds from the machine when it drops the beverage can. “Your hand…”

     The man takes the can out first, then raises his left hand. “Oh, right… This. It’s okay, I’ll take care of this soon.” he smiles again.

     “Do you need a band-aid? I have one.” I offer. I move to sit at a bench beside the vending machine, and he follows to sit next to me. I take out a pack of antiseptic tissues and a large band-aid. “I’m sorry, if I may…” I put forward my hand.

     “Oh, you don’t have to do this, I will do it.” the man shakes his head.

     “It’s okay. It looks terrifying, we should clean it to prevent an infection.”

     He finally gives his injured hand, and I start to clean the wound. “I was playing basketball… And I bumped to my friend. I think it’s because of his nails.” the man is explaining the cause, and I’m noticing his strange accent and a mistake on his grammar. “I was too thirsty so I wanted to drink first before going to the toilet.”

     “That’s scary.” I comment, while I realize how white his hands are. He’s wearing a loose sleeveless shirt, and his upper body is basically bathed with sweat. I cover the wound with the band-aid, and fix the area around to make sure it sticks well. “It’s finished.”

     “Oooh.” the man looks at his hand, overly amused. “Thank you so much.”

     “You’re welcome.” I smile, and stand up to leave. The man tugs at my bag, holding me back.

     “Wait—what’s your name?”

     “Park Chunhwa.”

     “What? Angel?”

     I laugh. “No, not cheon-sa, it’s cheon-hwa.”

     “Phone? Jeon-hwa?”

     I almost slump back to the bench looking at his confused expression. Why does it look so funny? I cover my mouth to hide my laugh, and take some time before I actually stop. “No, cheon. Cheon-hwa.”

     The man lights up, and claps once. “Oh, okay, Chunhwa-ssi.”

     “And yours?”

     “I’m Lay. Le-i.”

     “Ah…” I nod. “Perhaps… You’re not Korean, are you?”

     Lay grins as he stands up too. “Yes. I’m Chinese.”

     “Oh… An exchange student?” that explains his weird accent. “Well—good bye, Lay-ssi.”

     Lay waves at me with the can on his hand and bows repeatedly. He keeps waving until I get far and screams a loud “Go back safely!” when I reach the exit, and I wave back at him. Interesting fellow…

-

     Finally, finals are finished and I can’t wait to go home and enjoy my free time for the rest of the day. I still need to meet my professor this afternoon, so I decide to have lunch first. On my way to the cafeteria, I pass through a group of male students, and suddenly a voice calls out.

     “Angel-ssi!” Lay pops out from the hoard of people and approaches me with a smile. He’s properly dressed today, like a normal university student. What? Did I hear wrong? Did he forget my name already?

     “Oh—hello.” I awkwardly bow to him. “By the way, it’s Chunhwa, not—“

     “It’s hard to say, so I’ll just call you Angel.” Lay complains, his every expression is comical. “Have you eaten?”

     “I’m just going to.”

     “Shall we eat together?”

     The next thing I know, we’re sitting in front of each other in the cafeteria table, with me and my mixed rice and Lay with his rice and soup. I unknowingly spend a lot of time staring at him eating and blowing his food to get cooler rather than to have mine. A few girls glanced at him and started whispering, are they his classmates?

     “Lay—“

     “Chunhwa is an uncommon name, isn’t it?” Lay’s sentence collides with mine, and I decide to let him speak first. “I never met someone with that name.”

     “Yes… It’s kind of an old name. My grandmother gave it to me, she said Chunhwa was the name of a good friend.”

     “Ah, so that’s how.” He takes a drink, and I peek at his hand. He has changed the band-aid, but I notice a stain of blood on it. “You’re studying here right? What’s your major?”

     “I’m a medical student.”

     Lay’s lips form an instant ‘o’. “You’re going to be a doctor!”

     “Yes.” I smile.

     “Ah, so that’s why you helped me with the wound yesterday.”

     “Med student or not, you can’t ignore a bleeding person.” I laugh. “How is it? It’s not getting worse right?”

     “No, not at all, it dried up during the night. Give it a few more days, I think.” Lay looks at the back of his hand.

     A group of girls passes our table, and let out a muffled squeal. Lay just looks at them, smiles and throws a cheery “Hello.”

     “Oh, you’re famous.” I comment after the girls left. Lay blanks out, and I have to repeat my sentence.

      “Ah…” Lay nods. “Since I came here, it has always been that way. I don’t mean to brag.”

     We talk more, and apparently Lay has been living here for two years as a foreign student, and he’s a year older than me.  He lives near the university in a house shared with five another foreign students. “So what should I call you? Sunbae? Oppa?”

     Lay grins, and his dimples capture my sight again. He doesn’t answer the question. “Why aren’t you eating?”

     I stiffly continue with my meal, and Lay is already finished with his. We return the tray together and walk out of the cafeteria. I would like to converse more with him, but I need to go. When I ask to excuse myself, Lay looks disappointed then hurriedly takes out his phone. We exchange numbers, and Lay bows repeatedly and waves at me again. I feel somehow bad to leave him.

-

     The next day, I’m getting ready for a trip to Daejeon to visit my grandparents, when a call comes. It’s Lay.

     “Hello?”

     “Angel! It’s me, Lay.” his voice is never not amusing to hear. “It’s officially the first day of the holiday!”

     “Yes.” I smile to my phone. “Our school is generous to start it on the brightest day of summer.”

     “Do you have any plans today?”

     “Uh… Why?”

     “I think I should treat you to a meal today, after helping me a couple of days ago. And if you can, I want to ask you to accompany me visiting some new places in this city. How is it?”

     “I’m sorry… I’m going to visit my grandparents in Daejeon today. Maybe the other day?”

     “Oh! Daejeon? With whom are you going? Your parents?”

     “No, I’m going alone by bus.”

     “Can I go too?”

     I blink twice, holding my phone blankly. “Well… If you want to.”

     Lay excitedly tells me to wait for him at the bus terminal, and hangs up. I’m sure I can hear him let out a cute “Yay~” after he puts down the phone. I laugh quietly, and continue putting things into my bag. I eye another bottle of juice on my cupboard, and even though I have put one for myself, I remember that I’ll have a companion for the trip, secretly beam, and put it inside my bag.

-

     On the way, Lay can’t stop bombarding me with questions and random talks (“Where in Daejeon, exactly? How many people are there, in your grandparents’ house? What are the traditional foods there? What should we bring for your family? Can we make it before midnight if we don’t spend the night there? This is only like my third time going outside the city, I have only been to Busan and Jeju Island. I really want to go to the East Sea, I was sick when my friends had a trip there and it upset me so much.) It almost gets annoying, but every time he lets out a sound, it’s always funny to me. I patiently listen and respond to everything he says, and as an attempt to make him quiet for a bit, I offer him some kimchi rice rolls that I made earlier this morning. He even gets excited at the sight of food, I need to make a subtle “Sssh.” in case people find his noises disturbing.

     “This is sooo good. The kimchi is the best. I can just eat the kimchi alone.” Lay says with his mouth full.

     “Thank you. Our family made the kimchi by ourselves.”

     “Amazing! So you made it with your parents? Siblings?”

     “Yes, the three of us… I’m an only child.”

     My parents, making kimchi, the three of us… Those words trigger something on my mind, which is the reason I’m coming to Daejeon right now. I’m staring emptily at my shoes for quite some time, until Lay pats my arm lightly. “You’re not eating?”

     “No—I’ve eaten earlier.”

     Lay nods, and takes more pieces. I feel full just watching him eat. Unknowingly we’re ten minutes away from Daejeon, and once we arrive, we take a taxi to my grandparents’ house. My grandparents only live with a housemaid after my youngest uncle got married a few months ago and moved to another city. They welcome me with warm hugs, and I can see that Lay’s smile alone has succeeded to melt them away completely.

     “Aigoo, look at this—are you bringing your boyfriend to introduce him to us?” Grandma has her expectant eyes shine.

     “No, Grandma, this is my senior Lay. He’s from China, he wants to see around Daejeon.”

     The four of us go straight to the dining room for lunch, and after the meal we gather in the living room for small talks. Grandma notices Lay’s tendency to refer to me as Angel, and softly points it out.

     “Darling, her name is Chunhwa.”

     “Yes, I know, Grandmother.” Lay smiles widely. “But it’s easier for me to say, and she is an angel!”

     Lay moves on to go into detail about what happened outside the gym that night, and my grandparents listen to him with proud faces. I feel embarrassed and hide my face with a magazine nearby.

     “Well… That explains your nickname to her.” Grandpa looks at Grandma, and she pats my head.

     After awhile, I ask Grandma to have our own little space to talk, and she brings me to her bedroom. Lay stays outside with Grandpa, and they go upstairs to look around the house, I think Grandpa wants Lay to see his collection of books in his study room.

     Grandma sits on the edge of his bed, while I opt for the floor instead. I cross my legs and exhale loudly. “So…”

     “Your mother had called me several times, and she came here a few days ago.”

     I look up to Grandma emptily. “Did she tell you everything?”

     “She’s… Preparing the documents.”

     “Grandma, I…” don’t choke up, don’t choke up now, Chunhwa. “I respect their decisions, whatever it is, but… I just hoped they would tell me what really happened. Difference in opinions is not all, I can’t be fooled.”

     “Chunhwa, darling.” Grandma caresses my head repeatedly, her voice is stern as if she’s holding back something. Tears. “I wish I could convince them, but they said it’s final. I’m sorry.”

     “Grandma, I know I’m an adult, I’m old enough to live by myself, but at home, they’re the only ones I have for more than twenty years. I never saw them fighting. Never. And I’m suddenly going to have them separated. I—“ tears well up on my eyes, and I can’t see Grandma in front of me clearly. “I just—I’m not ready. This is too hasty. Everything was fine. Everything is fine. But suddenly—“

     “Everything will be fine. It’s not the end.”

     I break down, and the floor feels colder than ever. I can see drops of my tears on it, and Grandma’s hands that carefully lift me up to make me sit beside her on the bed. She hugs me, pats my back and whispers comforting words but I can barely hear her.

     “Chunhwa…” Grandma says as she wipes my tears after my sobbing dies down. “Don’t cry. You’re strong.”

     I’m still crying, and everything is going around in my mind like cuts of a movie. The night when my parents suddenly wanted to talk with me, when all the time we just naturally talked together. The morning after the talk, when I thought everything was a joke. The moment when I realized it is not. The moment when one midnight I just started to cry alone out of frustration. The moment when I refused all my friends’ offer to hang out, and I would just go home and lock myself up in my room.

     Grandma says nothing for awhile, and she lets me cry for the time being. I hear footsteps outside, and Lay pops out on the unclosed door.

     “Angel—oh?”

     I quickly look down to hide my face, and Grandma softly signals him to give us some more time. He walks away, and I lift my head again. “I want to just live here.”

     Grandma chuckles, and fixes my messy hair. “You should finish your studies first, then maybe you can work in a hospital here.”

     I contemplate to spend a night here, but I have Lay with me… We haven’t even gone around the town. After calming myself down and checking my appearance, I go upstairs to find Lay playing the piano there, and he starts to approach me. I form a tiny smile looking at the piano. “Oh, uncle hasn’t had it delivered to his new hou—“

     I was focusing on the piano and I thought Lay was only going to stop in front of me, but he throws his arms around me and covers me in a big hug. I flinch a bit, but he overpowers me not to let him ago. “Angel. What happened? What’s wrong?”

     He called me cheonsa-ya. It’s like a thin wall between us fall down, and I’m either happy or close to tears again right now. I end up tugging the back of his clothes, and another tear runs down my face. “I’m sorry.”

     “What are you saying? Why did you cry? Did I do something?”

     I silently laugh. “No, you did nothing. I… I will tell you later.”

     I wipe my tears on the right time when Lay pulls me away, and he looks at me worriedly. “Are you okay?”

     I nod, and look at the piano again. “You were playing before. I haven’t listened to it closely.”

     “Yes, this!” he looks elated again in a second. “This is a really wonderful piano. Who plays it? Do you? Your grandparents?”

     “No, and neither do my grandparents. It’s my uncle’s.”

     “Oooh.” Lay marvels, and sits back behind it. “I can play a bit… What do you want me to play?”

     “Anything.”

     Lay thinks over for awhile, then carefully sets his fingers. Strong, forlorn melody starts to fill the air, and I think I recognize this song.

My head’s underwater but I’m breathing fine

You’re crazy and I’m out of my mind

‘Cause all of me loves all of you

Loves your curves and all your edges

     “All your perfect…” Lay drags out the last note, looking confused. I crack into a smile.

      “…imperfections.” I continue. Lay returns the smile, and continues playing until the chorus ends. I give a round of applause. His voice and piano sound completely soothe me. “Thank you.”

     “I still need to practice.” his demure expression is a sight not to be missed.

     “Let’s go out. I’ll show Daejeon to you.”

     “Oh, really?” Lay stands up in an instant.

     “Yeah, we should go before dark.”

     I bring him to the central area of Daejeon, and we eat some snacks and go shopping for souvenirs in the traditional market. We are in a rush after we notice some dark clouds along the way, and Grandma has previously warned us that the rain is quite heavy nowadays. We also need to return first to my grandparents’ house because Lay forgot his phone there. When we arrive home, without any gentle start the rain starts pouring like no tomorrow, followed by loud-sounding thunders. I look through the window, thinking of ways to come home. It’s been raining for an hour, with no sign of slowing down.

     “It’s scary to go to the terminal, why don’t you spend a night here?” Grandma offers as she presents us with some warm beverages. “The rooms upstairs are empty. How about it, Lay? Do you have something important waiting for you in Seoul?”

     “Eh?” Lay was staring at the rain blankly. “Um… No.”

     “See, it’s better to stay here. You still have some clothes here, right Chunhwa? As for Lay, I think there are still some clothes of your uncle left.”

     Cut to—Lay wearing my uncle’s bright yellow tracksuit. He isn’t even a bit embarrassed to wear it, rather he looks very excited. I can’t stop laughing at the view, and he looks happy to see me like this. He’s been dedicating all his actions to make me smile after he saw me crying, and I really appreciate it. Even when he’s not trying, he’s already effortlessly funny.

     My grandparents leave us two upstairs, where we’re watching the night news on TV. There are reports about the flood in Daejeon.

     “Isn’t that the street we visited today?” Lay remarks. “Wow, the water almost reaches the entrance of that shop…”

     “Yeah.” I reply soullessly. “Wow…”

     There’s currently no good shows on TV, and it would be noisy to play the piano now. Lay carefully opens up the topic about me earlier today, and I hesitate to tell him.

     “Well… The reason I came here is… I kind of want to temporarily escape. There’s something happening at home.”

     “Ah…” Lay closely pays attention. “Is it bad?”

     “My parents are going to separate.”

     “Divorce?” Lay says it instantly, and the word hits right on my chest but I’ll forgive him this time.

     “Yes.”

     “Oh my… What to do…”

     I tell him about my self-created seclusion, stress, and my changed habits. He listens to my every word intently until I finish. I can continue for hours, but I decide to stop at this point in case he gets bored.

     “So that’s true.” Lay says slowly.

     “What is?”

     “The saddest people smile the brightest.”

     I quietly laugh. “With that logic, you must be the one who has the most sad stories.”

     “I don’t.” Lay shakes his head, a bit too seriously it’s almost hilarious. “Really, though.”

     “Thank you for listening.”

     Lay hugs me again, and he’s patting my back like a mother comforting her child. “You can always tell me if something happens again, okay, Angel?”

     I nod on his shoulders, and smile the biggest smile I’ve had today. Or probably, in weeks. “Thank you. You’re the one who’s an angel.”

     A show starts airing on the TV, and Lay looks pumped. “This is my favorite show! You can sleep earlier if you want, I want to watch this.”

     But after half an hour, Lay falls asleep, and somehow I knew this would happen. His body falls to my side, and I smile as I turn off the TV and close my eyes to sleep, even better with an angel beside me.

-

     On our way to Seoul, we’re talking about summer plans, and I reveal my schedule to volunteer at some campus event starting next month. Lay looks at his calendar, and seems disappointed.

     “Oh, too bad, I’m going home to China.”

     My heart sinks. What? He’s going home? He never mentions this before… How could he? But… I just met him, I want to spend more time with him… Why—

     “But I’ll be back two weeks before the new semester starts! Is the event still going at that time?”

     His clueless expression when he notices my dead face is making me both wanting to laugh and punch him. “Oh my God—I thought—“

     “Why?” he looks genuinely confused.

     “Nothing.”

     Come to think of it, a guardian angel is supposed to never leave your side.

-

Please also check out a spin-off story based on this oneshot titled The Devil Wears Gucci by me, as a birthday gift for a friend :-)