1st Letter
For Nam Woohyun
Dear Nam Woohyun.
(who always carries a guitar that full with shabby stickers everywhere he goes)
Hello Woohyun oppa.
This afternoon I'm in a small town in Rome called Montefiascone, enjoying a glass of wine in a quite lakeside, alone. The atmosphere here is really fun, oppa. If you're here you would immediately named this place as one of your umpteenth favorite place. You have too many favorite places anyway. You know, oppa, I could even imagine your presence here. With your eyes closed and back resting, your fingers plucking guitar strings softly, singing beautiful melodies that always scraping sweet smile on my lips. But again I'm dreaming too much. You're not here, you even had been away from me. Inevitably, this atmosphere makes me play on our memories. The time when I first met you. And I will write themback on this letter. So what we had once won’t simply disappear and lost in time.
I still remember that day.
In July, the new school year.
The first day I become a high school students.
I came to school alone in my junior high school uniform with skirt that had been short because of my height which increased during the holidays, as well as a ponytail hair. There was also a name banner with letters that form the word Eunbyul. That day I should come together with Myungsoo, my best friend since I was in kindergarten. But unfortunately Myungsoo got chickenpox a few days ago so that he couldn’t attend the orientation day. Probably Myungsoo wasn’t going to attend the first week of school, leaving me alone in this unfamiliar place. I couldn’t count how many times I pulled the skirt I wore uncomfortably when the seniors told us to line up in the heat of the sun. They chanted unremittingly the school rules and punishment we will get if we dare to break them in a loud voice.
Occasionally they would go to one or two students, asked them questions in a made-up stern tone, making the new pupils scared half to death. I'm not the type of girl who can appear suddenly to stand up for what I think is right. I, well, I’m just what I am. Han Eunbyul, who chose to become invisible than the center of attention. So what can you expect from an ordinary girl like me? Although I hate arbitrary treatment from seniors, yet I prefer to head down and be quiet. That day, I desperately covered my thin and not too tall body from the seniors eyes. I hope my figure was quite invisible so that they won’t prank me. If necessary, I wish they didn’t notice me.
But it looked like luck wasn’t on my side because the seniors even happily appointed me, telling me to do a variety of stupid things in front of everyone. Of course I refused flatly. You know it most, oppa. I hate to be humiliated in public, I hate being a laughing-stock. But that day the seniors behave as if they were in power. They shouted on my face, calling me rude and arrogant when I refused. In the end they led me to the back of the school yard. A place where the sun shines so strongly and told me to stand there until the event was over.
Well, actually I can’t say that luck was not on my side at that time. Why? Because without that bad luck, what we once had wouldn’t have been possible. And I appreciate every second. Every moment on behalf of me and you. I wanted to go back to those days, repeated once again before freeze every moment of happiness and pain we've been through together and keep them to myself. I just wanted to put them all in a big box that containing the memories that lie beneath under my bed. So that someday, if I missed it, I could easily open the box and throw myself into those times. However, it was all just my hope, oppa. The only place where I can store anything that we used to have is in my mind, in my heart. And I think you should know that for the record my heart is sore. I can’t turn back the memories without feeling pain in my chest. Even though my lips is smiling, my heart is still crying, oppa. But I don’t blame you. Not blaming time either. All of this was written in a thick book called destiny. And I just need to learn to accept it. It may take a long time, but I certainly can.
All right, then back to the main topic.
I remember standing below the hot sun and bowed my head deeply. I grumbled, cursed the seniors who act arbitrary but the whole cursing words I said fading and disappeared as soon as I hear some melodies that were playing not far from me. I quickly looked up and found the silhouette of a boy under a maple tree, the figure glow when exposed to sunlight exposure.
It was you, Woohyun oppa.
You sat on a little bench just a few meters away from me, busy closing your eyes with earphones only on the right ear. As if the sunlight that penetrated the leaves never bothers you at all. Your fingers were on the guitar strings, playing a song that I didn’t know. Vaguely, I could hear you sighed before opening your eyes and looked at me. Quickly I looked down, didn’t want you caught me looking at you. But I wasn’t fast enough. Because, even though I had avert my eyes from you and pretend to focus on the grass under my feet, I still feel you looking at me intently. As if you observe every inch of my face despite the great distance between us. In my heart, I begged God to make you quickly averted your eyes from me.
Nope, not because you're a senior and I'm afraid of you. But more because your eyes were so sharp, yet warm simultaneously and emit different emotions, I regret my stupidity for not being able to read it. Not to mention the impression that emanated from your overall appearance. Uniform that tangled in a mess, a mess hair. Your appearance was far from being a good student that time. But like a magnet, you made me stare for a few moments. Stuck in a creepy impression that washed me away. Only after you divert your eyes from me, my body that had been stiffened, back to relaxed. I sighed in relief and tucking strands of lose hair. From the corner of my eye, I could vaguely see you back closing your eyes and fingers linking between the guitar strings. A few moments later, the strange melody who I heard before from the guitar is now replaced by the familiar melody in my ear. And in the next moment, I heard a voi
Comments