“While making memories on the streets with you

Always at the place where you walk”

Mornings were the second things Da Young hated in life- the first was obviously Da Rim’s rotten cat, Louise. But for this morning, it topped her list… once again.

“Come on Da Young! Partner me instead,” a whinny boy clung on her arm as soon as she arrived in school.

The duo was walking down the hallway, getting uncomfortable stares from people around them.

“Come on!” The boy continued but Da Young said nothing. She was already dead from the inside.

They made their way to Da Young’s locker and he watched the girl open her locker and did her things, while he, on the other hand, leaned on the nearby lockers, watching her with his desperate eyes.

“Da Young-ie,” the boy whined once again, this time slamming her locker door closed. Da Young jumped a little in surprised.

She rolled her eyes. She was done, dealing with him.

“Yah! Lee Dae Hwi! Why are you so obsessed about becoming my partner for the bio coursework? Weren’t you desperate to become Bae Jin’s partner instead? Why now, you got a chance!” Da Young stared daggers at her cousin. “You have literally been clinging onto me, begging me, whining at me and all sorts of things. Don’t you think that this is enough already?”

Dae Hwi pursed his lips and just stared at his cousin with fear. His lips trembled slightly. He was intimidated by Da Young’s sudden change of behavior. He was not used to her now and he said nothing at all.

Da Young observed her cousin, before sighing. She let all the heavy weights fall off her and sighed again. She pouted and leaned on her cousin’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Dae Hwi,” she apologized without looking at the startled boy. “I didn’t mean to scold you, little fluff ball.”

The boy said nothing.

“Well, it’s not my fault that you were so clingy since I arrived,” she continued. “You do know I love you right, cousin?”

“I hate you,” she heard the small voice of her cousin and smiled immediately. Da Young lifted her head from Dae Hwi’s shoulder and ruffled his head, messing his hair up.

“And I love you too!” She smiled. “And now, I have to go to my next class! See you later, fluff ball!” She grinned at Dae Hwi one last time before walking away, into one of the classrooms.

Dae Hwi’s body involuntarily leaned against one of the closest lockers as he continued to watch the empty spot that his cousin had stood. A sad smile and worried looking eyes wandered on his face. He was scared. Scared for his cousin.

“Why wouldn’t you change partners with me, Da Young-ie?” He asked no one in particular. “I’m doing this just for you. For your sake.”

His gaze was broken when his phone vibrated. Dae Hwi quickly fished his phone up from his pocket and read the first message sent to him.

Cutiedaehwi: It didn’t work…

He typed those three words and pressed the send button. He closed his eyes, letting a heavy sigh out of his body.

✩✩✩

“Where’s your brother?” Da Young asked Ji Hoon as the two of them walked out of their school with light steps.

“I was suppose to fetch him from school at this time but he said that he wanted to stay there longer with your sister… you know, they said that there was this new program for the kids at their kindergarten which I’m not sure about- but it’s pretty convenient for me now,” Ji Hoon replied.

Da Young gave a small laugh. “And here I thought you loved your brother,” she said.

“Yah! I do! But sometimes… he’s a handful, you know,” Ji Hoon confessed. “Well, you can say that about your sister as well!”

“No! I love her to death! And she does too! She would always buy things for me when she goes out with my parents,” Da Young winked before getting a slap across the forehead. Her eyes rolled back and she stumbled.

Ji Hoon chuckled softly while Da Young pressed her palm on the pained area, shooting the boy a look.

“Yah! Why did you do that for???” She asked, a little pissed.

“You can’t wink! Only the people who I’ve assigned can wink!” Ji Hoon replied haughtily.

“Says who?”

“Says the entire school!” He winked once last time before skipping forward, leaving Da Young behind.

“Yah! Where do you think you’re going? You don’t even know where my house is!” Da Young shouted after Ji Hoon, chasing the giddy boy.

                            ✩✩✩

“Woah! So this is the house of the famous neighborhood ahjumma,” Ji Hoon exclaimed as he examine the house in awe. It was definitely smaller than his house but he loved the atmosphere in the house. It was somehow shouting ‘Don’t you regret not living in this house?’ and yes, he did felt a little jealous to not be living in this cozy house.

“Y-yah!” He felt a hard slap on his back and he yelped immediately.

His body retracted, rolling into a small ball as he continued to hiss in pain. “Why did you do that for?” He asked, pouting.

“How did you hear about the neighborhood ahjumma?” Da Young asked, her face turning redder than a tomato.

“How can I not hear it, may I ask? The entire journey to your house, I kept hearing and hearing people mumbling about you, giving you glances, calling you an ‘ahjumma’ and some even started to pity such a young and handsome boy for following the neighborhood’s craziest ahjumma,” he rolled his eyes, standing up slowly. He stretched his body, ignoring the flustered girl. “Let’s get this project going, shall we?”

                            ✩✩✩

They were into an hour of their project, they were done with the incubator of the egg and each of them focusing on the report now, not saying a word to the other and just on the laptops in front of their faces.

Da Young was the first to stop. She closed her eyes and then proceeds to roll her head around, craning it to get rid of the stiffness she was feeling. She blinked once and set her laptop aside.

She then continued to by removing her large circle glasses and placed a few eye drops into each eye.

Ji Hoon noticed what Da Young was doing and stopped doing his work as well. He watched as the girl was busily blinking her eyes to get the eye drops fully into her eyes, to refresh and rehydrate them.

“It has been such a long day right?” Ji Hoon opened his mouth, breaking the silence.

Da Young dropped her head that was staring at the ceiling and rubbed her eyes gently. “It hasn’t even been a day long since we had sat here, doing the report,” she nodded her head and looked at the small white watch on her wrist. “And it has been exactly an hour since we did that report.”

“And I don’t know why, but I feel exhausted after just a mere hour. I don’t know why,” Ji Hoon agreed.

“Should we call it a day then?” Da Young asked, raising her eyebrows.

Ji Hoon looked at the clock hanging on the wall. Great, there is stil