August
Howon?
sent 15:42 PM
Bomi.
sent 15:56 PM
You haven't changed your number I see. Good. School's near and I
need ur widsom n' skills.
sent 16:07 PM
Sure. When?
sent 16:07 PM
How does next Wednesday sound? Third day of school for me.
sent 16:08 PM
That sounds alright.
sent 16:09 PM
September
Howon realizes it's been a while.
When he sees her, walking towards with him with that same uniform from last year, and from last last year, her hands on the straps of her backpack as she nears him, smiling that smile that only makes her seem younger than her age, he begins to realize that it's been a while.
A smile on both sides, greetings are exchanged, Lee Howon is too shy to say he's missed her and Yoon Bomi is smiling even wider when she sees him for the first time in a long time. Howon feels the same way, although it doesn't show, he still feels the same way.
"Howon-ah, where are we going today?"
Her voice was still sweet, like honey and cream.
He doesn't answer her right away, instead he just shows her. They stop walking when they reach the doors of Gangju Library a few blocks from Bomi's school.
"Oh? Here again?"
"Obviously."
Howon feels nostalgic as he walks through the rows of bookshelves as they enter and past the librarian's desk. The smell of old and new books alike fills his nostrils and it's such a divine feeling that Howon feels like he wants to stay here forever, where the memories of yester-year were. But Bomi notices the librarian is new, Howon does too.
"It's about time Mrs. Go is replaced though," she says, not really caring if Howon listens to her or not. She places her books down and sits comfortably. She acts so comfortably too, as if three months of not seeing each other never happened between them and it makes Howon wonder if she feels nostalgic as well. "She was old and she was getting stingy anyways, right? Well anyways.." she pauses to look up at him.
Howon has an amused expression on and before he could stop himself, his lips just open and the words: "You haven't changed." rolls off his tongue and slips out of his mouth.
But Bomi isn't taken aback. In fact, she smiles at him and Howon leaves it at that. He gathers back his wits and clears his throat, although the pink tint he was brandishing on his cheeks was inevitable to hide, he hoped she didn't notice.
"It's the third day of school yet we have loads of assignments already, and Math - freaking Math - is killing me, Howon. It's killing me."
Howon smirks, amused. He looks up momentarily from her textbook, and he sees her - Bomi - and she's something more beautiful than any scenery in South Korea.
Beautiful, delicate, serene - like a flower, he thought. When he looks at her more, takes in more of her beauty, he realizes another thing.
Bomi hasn't changed. Not one bit.
October
It was the perfect sunny day, and Bomi just had to drag Howon outside for some ice cream.
"I have a class later."
"It'll only be for a little while."
Bomi needed not to say more, for Howon knew he couldn't really win against her. Probably not now, and not ever.
His eyes are glued to her again when she walks towards him, smiling brightly as usul while holding two cones of ice cream in each hand. "I hope you're favorite is still rocky road."
He's amazed at how she remembered. Bomi laughs, and Howon guesses his reaction to her statement must've been funny. "Taking that as a yes." she giggles this time, and Howon takes the ice cream from her.
The afternoon sun is up high, and the autumn breeze constantly blows by as they sit there on a stone bench overlooking the bank of the Han River: and despite these cliches, there's still no place where Howon would rather be.
"College... what's it like Howon?"
He takes time to answer her question, although simple, there were a lot of answers he could say. Stressful. Brilliant. Hectic. Chaotic. But instead, he answered her with: "It's okay." nonchalantly, at that.
Bomi sighs and begins to bite the edges of her sugar cone. Howon remembered she was always a fast eater. "It's not doing you any good though, that's for sure." she says, and when he turns to her in confusion, Howon realizes how close they were.
Their eyes meet, so Howon looks down and scoots away. He couldn't take the close proximity. She always makes him feel weird.
Bomi talked, and talked, and talked. She talks, and talks, and talks, until there was a point when she stood up and walked over to the bank, holding a stone and throwing it as hard as she can towards the water, wanting to make it skip. She failed, miserably, and Howon showed her how to do it. "You have too much force in it."
"Oh, so I do it like this?"
Bomi continued to talk, and he lets her because it's what Bomi does best when she's around him.
Howon had a class at 5:30 PM.
It was already 5:32.
But Howon didn't care.
November
He hears the soft pitter-patter of the rain, and thanks the heavens for it. Howon loved the rain, and he always felt nice when raindrops fall from the sky like tears.
He exits the campus with a dull grey umbrella over his head but each step he took had life to it. Howon was excited, and he's not really sure why. The rain always makes him feel good. He's even smiling, when there's no such reason to smile about.
He sees a familiar face from across the street, and he feels his heart skip a beat.
But his smile turns to a frown when he sees that she's frowning as well. She looked tired; Bomi looked tired. Even from afar, he could tell what she was feeling, Howon was psychic that way. And he could tell that she was feeling tired, although he doesn't know why, at least he knows this:
There was a reason why Bomi was always the only one under her umbrella, a reason why she holds on too tightly on the straps of her backpack, a reason why she frowns when she sees groups of people enjoying each other's company, a reason why she clings onto Howon a little bit more this time, a reason a reason why she couldn't even go get an ice cream by herself.
A reason why her smile was so wide when she finally took notice of him. "Howon!"
Bomi's anti-social, and Howon's lucky enough to be one of the few people she trusts. Around him and some trustred friends, she's loud and talkative but around strangers, she's the complete opposite.
Howon doesn't wonder why, because he knows. He knows what happens to her when the moon replaces the sun and when the sky turns dark and stars appear. He knows what happens to her when she locks her bedroom door and collapse on her bed. He knows what happens to her. He knows.
Yet he still wonders; how she can still smile in the morning and live life the way she wants.
December
Like a flower, pretty and delicate.
Howon found himself writing that during his class one afternoon. He found himself writing that on a piece of paper, thinking about Bomi. He placed the paper in between the pages of his notebook.
Like a flower, pretty and delicate.
Howon remembered he wrote that earlier, and he know realized it was really true. Seeing her - Bomi - in front of him, smiling and blooming made her look like a sunflower in a field of roses.
He wonders why.
"Do you have homework?"
"Oh, we do." she takes out her textbook and places it lightly on the table. The public library again. "That's why I called for you, duh."
"Why do you look so happy then?"
She has that look in her eyes that makes him worry. "I met someone."
Howon felt his heart stop. He forgot how to breathe.
He stares, wide-eyed at her and she's oblivious to this. She looked so happy, and that smile never left her face even when Howon made a joke about her hair a while ago, and it made him wonder. But now, he didn't need to wonder anymore.
"I think she's your type, Howon."
He could feel his pulse again. "What?" and he was so taken aback that he just let that word slip out so carelessly.
Bomi only smiles, and her eyes resemble crescent moons. "She's a year younger than me though. But we met through dance class -"
"Dance class?"
He notices the change of color on her cheeks. "Ye - yeah. I started two days ago."
Howon blinks. "But you hate meeting new people."
"Dance class isn't bad. There are only seven of us, and we're all girls."
"You could've asked me." he mutters. "I'm a dancer."
"Woohyun told me you have two left feet."
"Don't believe in anything that punk tells you, Bomi."
She chuckles. "Sorry, but I did. I believed him when he said you'd be a good tutor for me."
He waves his hand, and the topic is dismissed just like that. "What'd you mean my type?"
"I mean," she chuckles again, and it's like a melody to Howon's ears. "She's your type. She's what you like. Shy, kind and gentle? I believed you told me that last year."
Because that was who you were last year.
"She's a great dancer, kind of smart too. She goes to school at Cheongdam High."
I don't really care.
"She's really nice, Howon. She even treated me tteokbokki on our first day!"
You're really nice too.
"Her name's cool too, it's Son Naeun."
I like your name better: Yoon Bomi.
"She's a great person."
You're a great person.
"Maybe you'll like her, Howon."
But I already like you.
- ; so I hope that didn't . and oh, by the way, the year here is still 2013. Take not, I repeat that the year in this part of the story is still 2013. Thank you. heh. comment your thoughts. ~
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