It was a pink spring as cherry blossoms display their short-lived but majestic blooms and grey overcoats replaced by pastel pink cardigans.

The Yard is teeming with students, Frisbees, sandwiches, Gatorade bottles, and lots of lots of sunnies (mind you, it was the Spring Must-haves). One can hear the alluring whispers of the wind and bright chatters thick in the air – it was truly a photo-perfect day. Exam days are not around yet so the students are calm and relaxed – except for one particular corner.

“YA! Lee Seunghoon! Give me that!”

No one bats an eye, really, as everyone is already familiar with the Dumb Dumb’s endless bantering. The freshers would perhaps mind, but in no time they’ll get accustomed to the loud trio. The three of them might look like an unlikely trio in a first glance: each too intimidating on their own, three people with seemingly very different personalities. But it is under the spell of drawing, dancing, karaoke nights, Pokémon, and knacks for jokes do they become an inseparable triplet. The Dumb Dumbs, people call them.

“That’s it, I’m not paying for tonight,” said Seulgi as she rapidly pats her khaki slacks to brush off the grasses sticking on the fabric. In hushed voice she whined about her two best friends who always to no end, but deep inside she knows that, really, she can’t survive boring university days without them.

The two boys fool around and passed Seulgi’s prized Pringles among themselves – you can’t spell Seulgi without Pringles, they said (technically you can, but you get the point). Seulgi ignored the boys and lie down on the meadow instead, diving into her phone, most probably contacting her flatmate Wendy to whine about her best friends – before she realized Wendy would probably ignore her chat because today is Friday and Friday is Wendy’s studio session with her newfound boyfriend Kang Seungyoon and once they get into their guitars, there is no stopping them.

“You know, the day you introduced your friend Seungyoon to Wendy is the day of my demise. Nowadays it took her at least an hour to reply to my texts? Those two lovebirds you can never separate,” she turned to the two boys after taking another can of Pringles from her bag.

“You have a spare can of Pringles? Kang Seulgi we need to do something with your addiction, that’s not fair,” the oldest and tallest of the group, third-year Visual Arts major Lee Seunghoon replied at her with a dismayed look on his face.

“Have you even have yourself checked for it? I mean there is this program on TLC called My Strange Addiction, maybe you need to go to the campus clinic or something,” Mino chimed in.

“Guys? Focus? On Wendy and Seungyoon? Please?”

“Let them be, they’re just in their honeymoon period still, wait for a couple of months and they’ll be bored of each other in no time,” Seunghoon said nonchalantly while fixing his bucket hat.

“They’ve been in their honeymoon period for six months? I won’t be surprised if they hand out their wedding invitation tomorrow, to be very honest with you,” Seulgi said.

“The three of us will be amazing bridesmaids and groomsmen,” Mino gleamed at the thought – he’s silly like that. “We should also get commission because we are the one that introduced them!”

In a nanosecond, Seunghoon and Seulgi shot a judgmental look at him and Mino casually went blank and said, “what?”, and indifferently taking some Pringles chips from Seulgi’s can.

“I mean, it’s just, isn’t it boring to spend your days with only one person? They cook together – okay I admit they’re cute doing it since Wendy cooks and Seungyoon diligently washes after her – shop together, compose songs together, go to concerts together. Won’t you get bored?”

“Kang Seulgi you sound like a terribly awful person to date,” Mino said.

“I’d like to second him on that – don’t you ever date date?” Seunghoon joined as if he’s the first mate of a ship Mino’s captaining.

“But it’s just… boring?” she responded with a wrinkled nose and squinted eyes.

“No wonder you’re single, dummy,” Seunghoon and pats Seulgi’s baseball cap so that her cap’s bill fell to her eyes.

“You’re beyond salvation, Seulgi,” Mino laughed and took the last chips from her Pringles can.

“Hey! You guys don’t know better than me! And Song Minho that’s my last chips give it back!”

And just like that, the Yard is back to being noisy as the Dumb Dumbs’ laugh and loud teasing echoed the green, spacious meadow.

---

The museum was filled with third graders in white shirts and grey trousers and culottes running around messily and ignoring the 18 pt-ed texts on Joseon Dynasty on the exhibition boards. The museum has a lot of “Keep Your Voice Low” and “Please Don’t Touch” signboards posted on their walls, but third-graders once again proved that they are the king of the world and do as they please.

“Can I have the red crayon and orange water color pencil please, Mister?”

“Umm, wait a second. Seulgi! Pass me those crayons,” Mino shouted to Seulgi, who was helping a round-glassed chubby boy at the other end of the table. She looked up and passed the requested box of crayon to Mino.

“Here you go! Red crayon and orange pencil for you, little Miss,” Mino said to the little girl, now with bright smile as she proceeds to color the red outfit of the castle guards. “Now, how about the animals? What kind of animals do you think the king owned?”

“Hmmm, dragons! But I can’t draw a dragon. Draw it for me, Mister!” begged the girl. Mino laughed and flashed his perfect white smile. Pinching her cheeks, he said,

“Silly, that’s cheating!” The girl pouted at his response, and it was kinda cute, so Mino said, “okay, okay, don’t do that to me! But don’t tell your teachers, okay? The dragon’s green, right?”

She nodded and intertwined her hands dearly while impatiently waiting for Mino to draw the dragon for her. He drew and drew and took odd requests from the long queue of friends the girl has gathered from her over-the-top promotions for the Mister-who-can-draw-anything-you-want!!! Mino and Seulgi registered as volunteers for the Korea National Museum, specifically for the Arts Week, which is the fourth week of every month, where they assist children in creating arts related to each month’s theme. Being the aspiring artist he has always been, Mino felt incredibly excited whenever the week comes –

And it doesn’t hurt either that he also has moments to spend with Seulgi, uninterrupted.

Decided to take a break from taking requests, he glanced up to her. How pretty, he thought. Seulgi was helping a group of girls to color the queen’s hanbok. She rolled up her ivory white shirt sleeves up to her elbow a while ago to avoid splatters of ink and swatches of crayons. Her shoulder-length bob hair tucked behind her ears, her cat-eyes dead focused on the drawing. A proud smile curled on her lips as she glanced up to Mino and show him her rendition of a royal hanbok and kumiho (the nine-tailed fox) with immense satisfaction. He gave her a two thumbs up and she responded with a smile, which he thinks is the moment she looks the prettiest.

If he could, he wouldn’t mind volunteering every day, all day long, just for this view.

---

“5, 6, 7 ,8!”

The music resumes and Seulgi moved her body following the rhythm. She swayed her hips left and right, hands over her head. Her dance is passionate and energetic – and in a way, taunting. She sneered at him as she pointed her fingers towards him, inviting and intimidating.

He smiled back at her, his small eyes arched to a beautiful line and his chubby cheeks plumped up.

“Oh, don’t test me, Kang Seulgi,” he said.

She laughed, did two full body spins, jumped, and ended her routine in a perfect split.

“Awww, that’s a good ending!”

“Your turn, Mister,” she said as she gave a sly smile, her eyes also arched to a beautiful line and her chubby cheeks also plumped up. Sometimes people say the two of them are look-alikes, but they would just shrug it off with a laughter.

The R&B music changed to an instrumental, contemporary music. Lee Seunghoon moved slowly, his loose black t-shirt swiftly followed suit. His trademark contemporary freestyle, as he likes to call it, encompasses the dance studio they rented. Every Wednesday, when Seunghoon doesn’t have to attend his visual arts classes and Seulgi doesn’t have to attend her literature classes, the two would spend three uninterrupted hours to express themselves in their own shared language: dancing. Freestyle dance battles, creating a little choreograph for the sake of YouTube fame, and at times, a two-persons contemporary routine or a sizzling tango — both Seunghoon’s ideas because there is simply nothing he admires more than Seulgi and her passionate, raw love for dance.

In his mind, he has a little calendar that count downs to every Wednesday and on Wednesdays, he wished for the calendar in his mind to freeze so that he could spend more time with her.

“Not too bad, huh?” she said when he finished his part.

“Not too bad at all! As a matter of fact I think I deserve more than a not too bad,” he pats her head. Seunghoon is more than 20 centimeters taller than her so it’s a habit of his to rest his elbow on top of her head – which she absolutely hates at first but get used to it after figuring out her constant complains are futile.

“Ready for the next challenge? Let’s see whether you can dance to this,” Seunghoon makes his way to his Macbook and clicked on a song. His sly smile means that he is up to no good and it is proven when the speaker blasted the Pokémon Theme Song.

“Oh my God,” Seulgi laughed hysterically, “are you for real?”

They shared a laugh and afterwards spent the next five minutes imitating Ash Ketchum and Misty, making weird Pikachu sounds, imitated Psyduck and Magikarp, took Maetamong derp face selfies, all in one sitting.

After finishing their three hours session, they ready themselves up to go and grab dinner. Seunghoon put his hands on Seulgi’s shoulder as he playfully pushed her out of the door humming to the theme song, which Seulgi synchronized with a Pikachu sound effect ad-libs.

Seulgi couldn’t see it, but Seunghoon gazed lovingly at her and smiled, for he thinks she is prettiest when she fools around.