Love is - CNBlue

1000

It’s because I’ve always loved you.

It was still the same.

The way he wrote his Hangeul letters were still somewhat awkward. Each was apparently still written down with superfluous force. Faint marks of the folded part of the paper were still seen along its faded out lines.

And just like before, calmness still defined its meaning.

-

I never really thought that at the tender age of seventeen, I’ll get to experience my first love.

Rather, love wasn’t really something that I’ve given any thought of before. To me, it was just a mere noun that meant: a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person; the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration.

Aside from my own parents, never have I felt anything alike with someone else. I have my fair share of friends, but never have I been attached to them to a certain extent. I always study to keep my grades in check, but never have I really went as far as to devote all of my time to it. I’ve found and met people that quite intrigued me, but never have I really admired someone sincerely.

But then again, not everything stays the same.

The life that people have is fleeting and ephemeral.

It is so short that people had come to loathe the fact that change is the only thing that was permanent in this world. They began to hate the occurrence itself.

That’s why fate had made it so that change will only happen when you least expect it.

Fate had made it so that everyone will get to experience it.

And when I say everyone, that included me.

“Being that you’re the class president, I assume you already know the reason why I called you here,” our homeroom adviser said as I only nodded despite feeling uncertain. “together with him.”

Peering over towards the student beside me, I gnawed my lower lip and watched him discreetly. “I told you Mr. Kim, I really am fine by myself.” he said, eyebrows creasing slightly towards our adviser. “Besides, I think I already bothered enough people.” Probably remembering that I was there as well, he turned to me. “Sorry, it’s not that I don’t want you to be my student buddy, but I just thought that you’re already very busy with the school festival coming up in a month, being the class president and all.” he explained as best as he can, eyes alert, trying to read me.

It wasn’t new to me, being a student buddy for foreign exchange students. Regular students take turns in being the student buddy, but as the class president, I’ve always been the first one who the teachers always choose for the role. Most of the time, due to the sole reason that no one wanted to do it. It wasn’t much work, to be honest. We just stick to the exchange student always and act as their tour guide until a new student buddy will be assigned.

It was also like being tasked to be the transferee’s friend.

The only difference was, transferees stay.

Foreign exchange students don’t.

“It’s fine, really.” I replied, pulling on a small smile. “I’m already used to the job and right now, our class’s already starting on the preparations. I’ve already finished the paper works needed for it as well, so I’m all free.”

His eyes turning crescent like shaped, his full set of teeth showed as he smiled. “If that is so, then I guess there would be no problem if I bother you for a while!” he exclaimed. “But wait,” he paused.

Getting a shrug from our adviser, I turned to him with a raised brow.

“I don’t know your name yet.”

“Oh that,” I mumbled. “It’s Jisoo.” I smiled. “Seo Jisoo.”

“Jisoo, got it.” he nodded, grabbed my hand and shook it excitedly.

“I’m Tao--Huang Zitao.” he grinned, still shaking my hand while bowing. “Please take good care of me!”

-

It was our first time meeting, but it wasn’t the first time that I saw him.

He came from China and had been assigned in our class for one year. When I first heard that another exchange student was coming, I already expected myself to be chosen by our adviser as the student buddy.

But for some reason, it never came.

I wasn’t called in the faculty office. When I inquired about it, apparently, most of my classmates have already volunteered themselves for the job. It was honestly surprising, but I paid no heed to it nonetheless.

As I happened to go back inside the room, I noticed some of my classmates piling up in a small group by the back door of our room. I first thought that it was just some of the games that they usually played during breaks, but after observing further, I realized that it wasn’t.

Instead, it was because the new foreign exchange student finally arrived.

It didn’t take me long to notice that he was different. Aside from the fact that his ID was different compared to the rest of us, his physical stature was longer. His facial structure wasn’t like of any Koreans. His eyes were bigger and his nose was sharper. His skin tone was tanner, especially the dark circles under his eyes.

He looks like a panda.

He was quite fluent in Korean as well, but it was noticeably broken, as though a kid was speaking. Not that it was something to be off-putting or anything; it was a bit cute I might say.

But the one thing about him that I deemed different the most was his smile.

It was calming.

His smile was like that of a child’s, void of any impurity and deceit. It was somewhat a simple gesture, yet it managed to attract everyone around him. Even I wasn’t an exemption. I found his expression rather serene and peaceful, contrary to the ones that I’ve been seeing since forever.

It was probably the same reason why my classmates were completely drawn to him.

In a sea of pretentiousness and guile, a small sliver of sincerity was found.

A refreshing person full of naturalness appeared.

“To be honest, Jisoo, I was nervous at first.” Tao chuckled, folding the paper in his hands carefully. “I’m not really smart like most of the students here in your school and I’m of different nationality than the rest of you. My Hangeul also big time, so I had a lot of worries in my mind.” After finishing the paper crane, he placed it inside an old jar—one that we found along the hallways of our school.

“I didn’t think you had thoughts like that though.” I said, handing him another piece of paper before going back to mine. “The first time I saw you… you were smiling.”

Tao pressed his lips into a thin line. “But that was because you smiled at me first.” he grinned as I stopped and looked at him. “And because of what you did, I thought ‘wow, the people here aren’t as intimidating as I thought they’d be’,” he then chuckled gleefully.

“Your smile gave me courage.” Tao grinned. “So I guess, it was all thanks to you