Yul and Jessica walked for more than one hour along the hilly road and still didn’t spot any signs of concrete buildings. By that point, Jessica was almost exhausted and also ran out of milk. She felt her muscles were aching badly and as a result, her walking pace started to get slower and slower as the body weakened. On top of that, the chilly wintry weather further added another affliction for her nostril to breath. Maybe if she wasn’t too indolent to get an exercise, her legs would have been stronger and she could have managed better breathing control than now.

Yul led the way as they descended the steep road, with his hand still holding her hand. Jessica stared down at their intertwined hands for a moment before slightly shifted her view towards the boy’s side visage. For the very first time since their numerous encounters, Jessica had the chance to observe his physical look. Dashing. His two-block cut hairstyle and uneven medium fringe really fit into his boyish look. His tall figure and tanned-skin, perfected by the sharp-pointy nose, luscious lips and mesmerizing pointed jawline just even made him looked…picture perfect. Jessica pondered how long was the queuing lines of girls or ladies, who were captivated by his gorgeous look and perhaps, might got heartbroken by him, if he was taken.

Wait…Was he currently taken or still single?

Jessica bit her lip and snapped her face away from him. She quickly shook off her sudden interest in finding out about his relationship status and convinced herself that should be none of her business. Eventually, when they finally got back to Melbourne, she would have flown back to Seoul and he might have stayed in somewhere around Australia or could have back to Korea. They would have said goodbye to each other and gone back to normal life and... there was no reason for Jessica to meet him again.

Yep… there’s no reason of getting to know more about him. Jessica repeatedly reassured her thoughts, and pretended to be nonchalant about it. To be cool about everything.

Even though… her heart didn’t fully agree with what her mind said. Jessica quietly groaned.

And no wonder, often the mind was constantly in war with the heart. It’s easy to direct and make up the mind, but convincing the heart was the hardest part. The mind could tell what’s smart and what’s logic about something, but the heart responded conversely.

She subconsciously peeked another look at Yul’s side perfection, and took a deep breath while staring it. She had to…admit it.

That sometimes, the heart knew things the mind could never explain.

‘Were you checking me out?’ Yul looked at Jessica, with a wide teasing grin plastered on his lips.

Jessica jolted up by Yul’s sudden question.’ W-what? No, I don’t!’ She hurriedly looked away from him.

‘Don’t lie.’ Yul chuckled by her dishonesty. He actually noticed that Jessica kept stealing glanced at him.

‘No, I don’t!’ Jessica winced at her own lie with her face still looking away from Yul. She just wished at this point she could be transported straight away to another place as oh, again…she was getting caught by him and the redness on her cheek started to spread rapidly into her ear.

‘Oh really? unfortunately your face doesn’t really agree with what you say.’ Yul cocked an eyebrow and widen his grin as he continued to .

Jessica couldn’t hold it any longer. Enough of teasing and humiliation, boy! Without warning, she clenched her fist and tossed it towards his abdomen with full power. That’s the punishment for the continuous tease.

‘Owhh…that’s hurt!’ Groaned Yul as he rubbed the sore spot on her abdomen, unprepared with Jessica’s sudden strike.

Still not satisfied with the punch, Jessica launched a second attack by stomping her foot down onto the tanned-guy foot beside her.

‘Owhh’ shrieked Yul out load, he was now limping against the road with one foot as he tried to ease the pain.’ That’s really really hurt!’

That’s another punishment for ‘getting’ me stranded in here.

Jessica pretended not to hear Yul’s remarks as she walked straight and left him behind, flashing a triumphant smile.

‘Let’s go on, Yul.’

As Jessica walked further, crystal flakes glided down from heaven like diamonds. It had just begun to snow. The trees, dotted along the edges of the road, groaned under the weight of the snow that lay innocently on their branches and vines. The snow fell softly to the silent ground at the first gush of wind. Jessica traced the scenery before her eyes, seeing the blankets of white snow coated the sidewalks and froze in shady yards by the shed. Everything seemed to slow down as the earth under the blanket was quiet.

As far as Jessica could remember, snow in Seoul would always be her another snow day in the winter time. There was nothing ordinary when thousands of flakes droplet falling from the sky as she would have just gone to sleep on a frightfully cold day and when she woke up, the world had just been covered with a white quilt.

It was ironic that most people discovered how wonderful the winter wonderland was, where as Jessica could have never really found the wonderland in winter.

Jessica took a step forward, her boots making a crunching sound on the hard-packed snow.

Suddenly….

SMACK!

Jessica gasped and felt an aching pain on her back as a sharp hard of snowball hit her. Her hand flew to her back and she rubbed it with her bare fingers.

Quickly, she turned around and sent a deathly icy glare towards the culprit who was flashing a devilish -which Jessica still found it to be annoying yet…charming- smirk.

Not wanting him to win over, Jessica dug deep into the snow with her fingers and quickly packed some snow together into a ball and stood up. Then, she threw the snowball as hard as she could at Yul.

SMACK! Unfortunately, the shot just missed few inc