Jinki saw the hustle and bustle next door from his balcony. The numerous boxes being brought in, furniture being carried/dragged across the floor and among all this a girl, possibly younger to him by a few years and her dog, helping out wherever she could. He smiled as he saw the dog escape the clutches of the girl and bark at the movers. The girl seemed cute.

Over time he had seen the girl around, walking her dog in the park, at the nearby grocery stores and he was smitten by her allure.

The next time Jinki had seen the girl was not at their apartment complex but at school. He was packing up after his match when he saw the girl dash by him, his eyes widened in surprise he didn’t know the girl went to the same school as him.

That evening after dinner Jinki sat by his open balcony door, finishing up on his pending assignments when he heard soft voices from the next door. It was the girl, he moved closer to the balcony trying to catch onto what the girl was saying.

“Oh Comme-des,” the girl sighed. “What have I done wrong?”

Her dog whined.

“I only wanted to be friends with them, why can’t I be? Why is being new in class or town such a bad thing? Why are they hiding my stuff? I never hurt them? But...but why are they doing this to me?”

Jinki heard a few soft sobs which were soon muffled out. Jinki felt anger spike up through him, she was being bullied.

The next morning Jinki got up early, dressed up as fast as he could and left home. He waited for her outside the gates of their complex. His eyes met her’s when she came out, she looked away shyly and hurried away.

“Hey!” Jinki called out, making the girl stop. “I’m Jinki,” he smiled, “your neighbour and your schoolmate,” he grinned at her.

“I’m Gwiboon.”

Jinki saw an enchanting blush spread across her cheeks, making his own heart race. He cleared his throat, trying to repress his feelings, “How about we go to school together? I mean if that is fine with you?” he added at the end.

“Sure.”

On the way Jinki found out quite a lot about the girl, she was a first year-he was right about her being younger to him-had a toy poodle named Comme-des, and lived with her mother.

As they reached school, Jinki insisted on dropping her to her class, Gwiboon in her shyness gave in and led Jinki. Jinki wanted to see her classmates, see the people who could even think about bullying her or anyone for that matter. He was the captain of the school football team, a name well known among all the classes and he was glad of the whispers and gazes they both garnered. Now they’ll think before bullying her and will get to know who they’ll eventually be messing with if they do.

That evening as he waited for her outside the school gates he saw her in better mood than she was in the morning, a soft smile on her face. This time as they walked back, it was Gwiboon who did most of the talking.

That evening too Jinki heard Gwiboon talking to her dog. His ears stood up when he heard his name.

“Comme-des, did you know Jinki is the captain of the football team? He’s such a sweet and a kind boy, he offered to go school together and he waited for me!”

Jinki smiled at the exclamation in Gwiboon’s voice. All he had wanted was was her to be happy.

“And nothing of mine went missing today. In fact they apologised for yesterday, they said they didn’t know I was Jinki’s friend. Wow Jinki really is popular huh!”

Though it seemed irrational to Jinki at first; using his position and his popularity, but the deed was done and Gwiboon was happy too, so he wouldn’t let the morals eat away at him.

“Comme-des! Where are you going?” Jinki heard her call out. “You can’t run away like that, we have to see the shooting stars together!” He heard her whine to her dog.

That night Jinki forgot all about his assignments, his homework as he sat awake looking for shooting stars along with Gwiboon.

-

“Did you see any shooting stars yesterday?” Jinki asked Gwiboon as they headed to school. He saw her eyes widen in excitement.

“You believe in shooting stars too?” Gwiboon asked excitedly.

“It was my first time yesterday, so I’ll wait for my wish to come true before I can believe, but nevertheless they were beautiful.” Jinki chuckled.

“Yes they were pretty.” Gwiboon sighed before she started enumerating her sightings of the shooting stars and little stories attached to them to Jinki.

-

Over the past few months Jinki had grown closer to Gwiboon, his feelings for her maturing, deepening too. He had seen it in her eyes, her shy glances, her blush, that she too had the same feelings for him.

He spent many a nights concocting the perfect plan to confess to her.

He wrote a letter to her, the words, his feelings in various shades of red and pink, her favourite colours. He rolled up the letter, put it in the small casing and waited for the perfect opportunity.

He found the opportunity one evening when he saw Gwiboon walk out with Comme-des. He followed them to the grocery store and waited for Gwiboon to go in after she had tied up her dog.

“Hey buddy,” Jinki said softly as he scratched the dog to calm him down, he tuck the casing in Comme-des’ collar. “Sorry, It’s going to be a bit uncomfortable but please do this for me.”

-

“Comme-des, what’s that?” Gwiboon asked as she followed her dog into her room. She took out the small casing from his collar and opened it to find a small piece of paper in it.

“The shooting stars are no match for your eyes,
For your eyes encompass all my dreams, all my beliefs.

And my one true wish is to spend my all my days and nights gazing into those eyes of yours.”

Gwiboon giggled at that, she knew who it was from, the handwriting was very familiar. She read it over and over again, each sentence, each word warming her up from within. She let out a blissful smile as he carefully put the paper in her drawer.

-

Jinki looked at Gwiboon expectantly as she came towards him. He saw her blush and he was pretty damn sure he was the same shade of red too.

“You are cheesy,” Gwiboon said softly, “But I think that wish of yours can come true.” She smiled shyly as she held out her hand for Jinki.