♥ Day Two ♥

Soeun was beginning to get annoyed at how the school, after one day of hanging around Jaemyung, believed that she and Jaemyung were an official couple despite her best efforts at explaining that they weren’t. After arriving at school, she breathed a sigh of relief that Jaemyung had a dance practice that morning. The day before, he had introduced her to all of his friends and even had the audacity to kiss her on the cheek in front of them. She felt uneasy when they had complimented how compatible they were and even more so when they began all the congratulating at their being a couple which made word around to the whole school. Even though Jaemyung wasn’t bad bad, she still found it disconcerting that people believed that their “relationship” was of the good girl falling for the bad boy and living happily ever after.

For God’s sake, they weren’t even official!

Soeun’s reverie broke when Sojung nudged her.

“Earth to Soeun. Are you there?”

She waved her hands in front of Soeun, and Soeun responded with a nod.

“What? Daydreaming about a certain sunbae who is madly in love with you?”

“He’s not in love with me!”

Soeun replied back in a harsh whisper, but before Sojung could push her for answers about her outburst, the fall of a pen diverted their attention. It rolled to Soeun’s side, but it was Sojung’s shoulder that was tapped to retrieve it. Sojung bit her lip when she realised that it was Jaerim who tapped her on the shoulder, and inwardly squealed, shoving Soeun under the desk to get her attention away from the floor at the pen to her best friend. Sojung’s excitement was visible on her face, and it wasn’t until Jaerim tapped her shoulder again that she realised that he was asking her to get his pen. Soeun picked up the pen and gave it to Sojung inadvertently making eye contact with Jaerim as well, but he refused to look at her.

He couldn’t stop looking at me yesterday, I wonder what changed.

She quickly looked down out of embarrassment, but her eyes caught the notebook that was open on his desk. It was the same notebook that she was curious about. She couldn’t make out the words but her eyes lingered on it much longer than she intended and when she finally made a move to turn around, that’s when she saw Jaerim’s piercing gaze on her again. She hastily turned away, but she could feel his stare on her, her back feeling hot as if a burning laser was moving around trying to find its target.

It’s so cold outside, but why do I feel like I’m burning up?

♥ Day Three ♥

Although Soeun had gotten nothing so far in her stocking, on that particular day, she had an urge to check. Sojung had received a bunch of paper roses in hers and although Soeun wasn’t so much into this particular exercise, she still felt a bit of jealousy for not receiving anything. If you counted that little square with a scribbled heart on it as a gift, then she did get something, but everyone had gotten one and when she stayed back after class as she always did to clean up the desks the previous day, she found out that their teacher was the one to give it out, finding scraps of paper tucked in amongst the books on his desk. So, it didn’t count.

Soeun also wondered if the paper roses for Sojung were from Jaerim, because he was folding something during class after Sojung had given him back his pen, but Soeun didn’t want to think about that. What she couldn’t help but think about was the fact that she had become so conscious about Jaerim. It was like he was there all the time, like he couldn’t take his eyes off of her, in class, in the cafeteria, before and after school, and what scared her most, when she was with Jaemyung. It’s not like she wanted to feel this way, it’s just that she had become all flustered and her mind had become messed up since he spoke to her that one afternoon.

She reached into the stocking, the crinkling sounds sounding so deafeningly loud, but her fingers collided with a cool metal. She pressed down and heard a tinkling sound. Exorbitantly curious, she finally pulled the item out and was surprised to find a charm bracelet, with three charms already on it.

A gift. A star. A crystal rose.

She thumbed each charm carefully, and found them extremely beautiful, her heart warmed by the touching gesture. However, Inhye’s stocking was right next to hers and she couldn’t help but wonder if the bracelet had been placed in hers by accident when it was meant for the prettiest girl in their class. She wasn’t lying when she said that Inhye was pretty, although it was childish, the boys in her grade had a secret ballot that voted on the hottest girl. She found out about it because someone so happened to drop the sheet with the results of the ballot in the recycling box that she had volunteered to sort out.

Still, Soeun was curious as to how the bracelet would look on her. She carefully unclasped the end and wrapped it around her wrist before clipping it together again. She stretched out her hand and admired the bracelet on her wrist before making a realisation.

Perfect fit.

She removed the bracelet and lifted it up into the air to catch some sunlight. The glint on the inside revealed an engraving.

Soeun-ah.

She blinked thrice and shook her head. Soeun even pinched herself. But she saw the same thing again. The gift was definitely for her. It had her name on it.

But, Soeun-ah…

There was only one person who had ever called her that that wasn’t her parents or grandparents, and the realisation of who it was made her heart skip a beat.

Oh ! I might…like this guy…