[May 1^st, 2017]

She sobbed into her sleeve, hot tears rolling down her cheeks without pause. She squeezed her eyes shut as she breathed shakily, trying to suppress the emotion that had hit her like a tsunami. There had been a ten-minute segment in the video about marine biology—the life under the sea that she had once been a part of. And when the dolphin had chirped at the cameraman, her tears had just started flowing like a broken dam.

The screen finally faded to black and the lights slowly flickered on. The students rose out of their seats immediately and crowded by the door, each rushing to get out before the other. She hiccupped as she picked up her backpack. Then she saw a hand hold something out to her.

“Are you okay?” It was a voice of concern.

The male smiled at her as he offered her a handkerchief. Small dimples formed at the sides of his smile and a soft, tender sparkle of kindness roamed in his eyes. There was something strangely calming about his presence—maybe it was his warm smile. You could tell at first glance that he was a good person.

She burst into a fresh set of tears without knowing why. Maybe it was out of relief—the relief in knowing that you were no longer alone.

“M-Mr… nice legs,” she replied with another wobbly hiccup.

Hoseok laughed heartily as he placed the handkerchief into her palm. “Yes, it’s me.” He leaned in closer and faced her with a worried frown. “What’s wrong?”

She pursed her lips and shook her head firmly. “I was just… touched.”

“Touched? By what? Biology?” Yoongi cut in with a scoff, his voice drenched with sarcasm and a tinge of disbelief.

She scrunched her face in immediate disgust as her gaze landed on Yoongi. “You’re the one that was snoring!”

Yoongi returned the look, his face etched with distaste. “Better than sobbing.”

Hoseok broke the sudden tension with a loud laugh. “Let's get going! Where’s your next class…?”

“Ye Seul,” she said. “My name is Lee Ye Seul.”

“Ye Seul,” Hoseok repeated with a grin.

“What’s your name?”

“Hoseok. Jung Hoseok.”

“Hoseok,” she said, her lips forming a shy smile.

“And my—”

Ye Seul silenced Yoongi with a bitter frown.

“Why do I bother,” Yoongi muttered as he stalked out of the room, his backpack slung lazily over one shoulder.

“What’s your next class?”

“Chem…” she trailed off as she produced her schedule from the depths of her pocket. “Chemistry with Chang?”

Hoseok raised his brows in surprise. “We have biology and chemistry together? You know, Chang may have bad reviews but he isn’t that bad of a professor in reality. I had him last semester and he was actually lenient when it came to the free response—” he paused.

The orange haired girl was busily walking down the hallway, turning her head swiftly side to side as she read the classroom labels.

“Ye Seul, you’re going the wrong way!” he called with a laugh.

--

[May 3^rd, 2017]

The boy with chestnut brown hair chewed on a piece of dried fruit in silence, his jaw moving in an almost mechanical manner as he continued to stare at the girl as she interacted with Hoseok on the other side of the room.

Taehyung frowned as he cocked his head side to side, trying to decipher the unsettling feeling that lurked at the bottom of his stomach. There was something strange about the girl—and it wasn’t just her fashion. But he had no idea exactly what it… was.

He opened his palm in an expectant manner, curling the ends of his fingers as he beckoned towards Jungkook. Jungkook rolled his eyes and sighed as he reached into the bag of dried fruit for what was probably the 30^th time in the past hour. He tossed a dried apricot into Taehyung’s palm.

“When are we going to leave? This is getting boring. All they’re doing is talking…”

Taehyung narrowed his eyes and gave a short shake of his head. “Isn’t it strange?”

“What isssss?” Jungkook groaned.

Taehyung frowned even deeper and pointed a finger towards the girl.

“That Ye Seul girl… Something about her isn’t right…”

“Are you jealous, hyung? Because Hoseok never laughs around you like that?” Jungkook muttered, rolling his eyes once more.

Taehyung bit his lip as he shook his head in an excruciatingly slow manner.

“Ah. Forget it. Just chew these and think about it for the rest of your life.” Jungkook threw the bag—which hit Taehyung in the head—and walked out of the cafeteria with a shrug.

Taehyung clenched his teeth.

“Why you little…”

--

[May 5^th, 2017]

They stepped out of the math building together, their steps aligned in perfect harmony. Hoseok paused and outstretched his hand with a frown. The air was humid and heavy.

“Seems like it’s going to rain…”

“I hope it doesn’t storm,” she said with a haggard frown.

“Storm? What’s that?” Hoseok asked.

“Huh?”

Hoseok laughed as he motioned towards the sky, his brows knitted together dramatically. “Crying sky?”

Ye Seul blushed hotly and hit him in the arm. “H-Hey! Don’t make fun of me!”

He grabbed her arm and held it for a brief moment. He gazed at her warmly, a soft smile lingering on his lips. He ruffled her straight hair, morphing it into a frizzy orange bird nest, before speaking.

“I’m just teasing you. Because you’re cute,” he pursed his lips and gave a prompt nod, as if confirming his words.

She froze for a split second, simply looked at him, and then pretended to wince. She batted his hand away and faced him with a smirk. “Tell me something I don’t know,” she said with a tiny laugh.

Then it began to rain—the same storm from the day they had first met, at two in the morning.

She cupped her hands around her ears almost immediately as the first rumble of thunder struck. “This world is so loud…” she muttered under her breath.

“Huh?” Hoseok blinked twice. “Did you say something?”

She shook her head quickly. “N-Nothing. Let’s go.”

Before she could completely submerge herself in the rain, Hoseok reached out and pulled her back by the backpack, causing her to fall backwards into his arms.

“Where are you going? You don’t even have an umbrella,” he scolded her with a chuckle.

“R-R-Right,” she stuttered, gazing up at him with wide eyes.

He placed her back onto her feet and dug into his blue gym bag to produce a black umbrella.

“Where do you live? I’ll walk you home today.”

--

After waving goodbye to Hoseok, she gave a burdened, heavy sigh as she trudged towards the hotel. She knew her aunt would be waiting for her—like she had been for the past week—with a fresh batch of advice, as she called it. She wished her first impression about her aunt had been right—that she would at least mind her own business—but it had been far too wrong. Her aunt was an alcoholic chatterbox, always on the hunt for new gossip and always talking smack. Not to mention her amazing personality.

Her aunt stood at the entrance, with one arm lazily hanging over the top of the desk. She held a cigarette in her left hand, gray smoke wafting into the air from its lit tip. A vicious, vile smile stretched across her lips when her eyes landed upon Ye Seul.

“Is he the one?”

“What?” Ye Seul asked with a frown.

“He fits the criteria,” her aunt stated bluntly.

“What…criteria…” her sentence faded as she realized what her aunt was referring to.

“Jung Hoseok… A heart as innocent and pure as snow…” Then her aunt burst into a fit of short, ugly laughter. “You really aren’t destined to die at such a young age, Ye Seul.”

“Aunt…”

“I’m happy for you. So when are you going to do it?” Her aunt was now animated with glee. She took a drag of her cigarette and grinned. “When are you going to rip his heart out?”

“S…Stop.”

The smile disappeared as her aunt narrowed her eyes in plain confusion.

“What?”

“I…”

“Don’t tell me.”

Ye Seul shook her head and walked past her aunt. She disappeared into her room moments later, sealing the door shut with a loud slam.

--

[May 10^th, 2017]

Hoseok couldn’t help but grin as he paced back and forth in the locker room, ruffling his hair with a towel. He was jittery with excitement as he recalled the glorious moment that had occurred only an hour ago. It had been surreal—he had gotten the fastest swimming time out of all the competitors, and to top it off, had held his breath for the longest. The breath holding thing hadn’t necessarily been a part of the qualifications needed to become captain of the swim team, but it was an unsaid competition that occurred between all of them.

Six minutes and thirty-two seconds…

Although he wasn’t a fan of showing off, he wanted to run through the university, classroom by classroom, and announce to the whole world that he was now the captain of the swim team.

The sound of squeaking sandals filled the silence of the indoor pool as he walked out of the locker room, a big smile still prominent on his face. He took his sandals off, sat at the edge of the pool, and submerged his legs into the water. He let his thoughts float away with the serene water as afternoon slowly melted into night.

The first person he wanted to tell was Ye Seul.