She’s always burning something.

God knows what it is, for he’s never actually been close enough to see or ask. But every single time he descends at this stop, she’s there, holding some kind of rectangular paper in her hand and a lighter in the other, gently letting the flame the corners of the page so that they slowly combust into a small mobile campfire between her fingers. Once it’s close enough to burn her skin, she drops it to the ground and stomps it down with a foot, shutting off the flame and the information along with it.

Jaehyung’s curious, and he’s usually very bold about it, too.

He’s the kind of guy to ask if he finds something not quite right, he’s the kind of guy who’s courageous enough and who really doesn’t care what other people think of him. Most would call him cool, but few know his true nature, that is, when he’s alone by himself. That’s because he hates it, being alone. The voices in his head don’t stop talking to fill the silence and sometimes they can’t help but drive him crazy.  

But in the last two weeks that he’s taken a notice of her presence, he hasn’t said a word. It’s not that he doesn’t want to, the question is burning at the tip of his tongue. But he fears that once he asks, he’ll get dragged into something much bigger, a life that he doesn’t want to participate in, problems that don’t include him, and that should stay that way, unknown and untouched.

Because Jaehyung has problems of his own.

But here she is again, safe and sound underneath the Bus Shelter where she’s taken refuge from the pouring rain raging down onto the pavement and causing the roads to mirror the shining lights from above, glistening and wet. The smell of wet grass tingles Jaehyung’s nostrils as he slowly makes his way, holding up his hoodie as protection against the rain. But although he’s succeeded at keeping his chest warm, the rest of his body is shaking with the icy bite of the cold.

He wants nothing more than to go home and take a long, hot shower.

But as he looks up at the bus schedule and reads the time, he realizes that he missed the bus by a minute, and an exasperated sigh escapes the side of his mouth.

It’s only when he senses a flicker of warmth at the edge of his peripheral that he turns, just in time to see the girl light up another piece of paper, the flame slipping right onto the page as graceful as a dancer.

He knows two things about her.

One, she’s always burning some kind of paper but he’s not sure whether it’s merely just plain text or whether they are actual photographs.

Two, he has never seen her leave nor come into the Bus Shelter. She’s always there when he arrives and leaves.

“What are you staring at?”

Her voice is so sudden that it jolts him out of his skin.

He clears his throat, which has suddenly gone dry. He’s usually good with words, smooth at finding excuses. But not this time, not when she’s caught him at his most vulnerable moment.

“Uhm.” he coughs and rubs the back of his neck with his free hand. The other, who’s busy holding his guitar over his shoulder, fumbles slightly at the weight of the instrument as he racks his brain for something witty or valid or just about any excuse to tell her.

“Get in.”

He blinks in surprise, “What?”

She jerks her chin at the sky, “It’s pouring. Get in, unless you want to fall sick.”

He listens to her and steps away from the downpour, using his hand to shake the water from his drenched locks. His vision is dotty, but that’s all due to the splattered water. Jaehyung reaches up to take his glasses away before finding a dry spot on his shirt where he can rub them off.

A few meters away from him, the girl is still holding the paper in her hand, entranced by the flame dancing over the paper and emitting a warm glow that alights her features, making them appear softer, rounder somehow, as though she’s younger than she’s supposed to be.

“What’s your name?” her voice is rich and choppy, unlike many of the girls he converses with, those with high-pitched sopranos and giggles that resemble wind chimes. Hers seem to be tainted with darkness, an alarming trill of reality.

“Jaehyung.” he tries not to let the panic show when the flame is inching closer to her fingers, “Yours?”

“Dawn.” She lets go of the paper, seconds before they put her hand on fire, and they both watch the paper drop to the ground only to be snuffed out with a crunch of her black boot. Darkness envelopes them once again, for the lamppost right beside the shelter isn’t working. That leaves Jaehyung to squint at her silhouette, only alighted by the moon’s reflection.

He feels her shift, before she asks, “So, guitar?”

He nods, before realizing that she can’t actually see him. “Yeah.”

“Classic?”

“Electric.”

“Figures.”

He frowns at her, “What do you mean?” What’s so bad about having an electric guitar and not a classical one?

“It’s the ‘in’ thing, isn’t it?” the bench creaks as she uncrosses her legs, “Play guitar, and you’re suddenly one of the popular guys.”

Jaehyung frowns, “That’s not why I play.”

“Then why?”

“Because I love it.” He shrugs, and for once, the girl has nothing to say back. The stranger that lashes out words as though they’re fire doesn’t say anything for a full minute, shocked into silence. That makes him uneasy, and as he shifts from one foot to another, he wonders whether he’s offended her in some way, and is on the verge of opening his mouth to apologize when she beats him to it.

“You love it.” The words are bizarre at the edge of her tongue, as though she’s trying them out for the first time. Although he can’t see her, he can imagine the scrunch in between her eyebrows, “What do you love about it?”

“The sound it makes, the way it plays out the melody exactly how I imagined it to be,” and then, Jaehyung suddenly remembers the most important thing, and smiles, “But the best is the feeling right after you’ve performed a tricky riff that’s got everyone’s heads banging, and then when you hear nothing but the aftersound vibration of all instruments long after you’ve stopped playing.” He turns towards her, “ that’s what I like the most about it..”

-------

One conversation becomes two. Two conversation turn to three, and soon enough, they’re always unconsciously searching for each other, waiting for each other at that bus shelter, if only to catch snippets of just a five minute talk to complete their day.

Jaehyung learns that Dawn only completed her high school diploma and is now working as a part-timer at a kindergarden school, and though she doesn’t seem like the type, she enjoys working with kids more than anything else. She doesn’t have that many friends, but has a close circle that she’s stuck with ever since childhood. Her favourite color is not black nor shades of grey, as Jaehyung had been expecting, but it’s a warm and sunny orange, the color of a sunset as it’s making its descent through the sky, and finds out that she has two small kittens and a feisty dog that keeps running around the house for nothing.

In return, he tells her about university, how life seems hard for him, as a Music major, not only because there’s a lot of talent where he goes, but also because there’s a lot of competition, and Jaehyung, being the forever pacifist, hates that most of all. He tells her about his band that he just created with a group of hometown friends, and how they play gigs once in a while whenever they’re strapped for cash or just want a crazy night out, away from stressful daily life. He talks about his parents and how supportive they’ve been since the start of his musical career, and how they’re the reason why he’s not stopping even though its getting harder and harder for him to compete against the very best. Giving up doesn’t seem like an option when there are so many people who believe in you.
 

And after a few weeks, when Jaehyung thinks they’ve drawn close enough for him to tread a little bit more into her territory, he makes the mistake of asking her the question that’s been burning at the back of his mind ever since he noticed her.

“What are you burning?”

Instantly, he feels the coldness of her gaze, the way closes up like a wall, her jaw clenching in defense, ready to lash out like a viper at anything he has to say against her.