(2012)

1 year had already passed by... Right!!! today was the same day, Nov 29th, it's been a year and same winter as usual but the only difference was: This time, I was eagerly waiting for the first snow fall to occur... That's right! I would then confess my love for her.

I invited her today with me for buying some good maths text books that can help me to increase my score for finals and she quickly agreed. Well buying books was just an excuse to spend some lone time with her, the real purpose was something else... I wanted to gift her something as today was our first anniversary meeting.

Yes, you heard it right. I was actually excited about celebrating the one year of having to know her. Crazy, right? Well, love makes you do all sort of crazy things that you once thought was too chessy and embarrassing. Trust me when I said that, I was one of them, too unkeen with such ideas but at the end I ended up just doing that. 

I had already fallen head over heels and like everthing is fair in love and war I lied to her.. I know it sounded too cliche, didn't it?? But I was in love, don't blame me.

We took the permission from both the parents and then went to the nearby library.

Being granted a permission by her parents was also one of a big surprises. Her step mom never liked me and she didn't even try to hide her emotions whenever I greeted her, her lips would immediately twist and her face grimaced but her father was gentle. However, her mom was too strong and her words often were marked as the final words, a bossy woman. But I reckoned she was in a good mood that day because she didn't oppose at all. Weird, isn't it?

On the way back from the library we were silent... I didn't know what was it? Was it the romantic weather or the closeness which led our hands to rub each other every now and then but something was off... It felt so weird but at the same time good too.

"Ahh.. Did I tell you about my audition?". I finally spoke to break the awkwardness between us. The surrounding around us was getting too tensed up to even breathe, I had to initiate a conversation to ease the both of us.  

"Huh?? Were you selected??". She asked with a pair of enlarged eyes. I could feel the excitement in her voice and with the way her face brightened up immediately upon the mentioning of audition I knew she was glad I brought up a topic, it helped a great deal to chase away the awkwardness.

"No! I failed" I noticed how her face darkened, her wide grin no more adorned on her beautiful face. Biting my lower lip, I tried hard to suppress that small chuckle which was ready to escape out of my mouth. Composing myself back, I in a large air and continued, "But they took my form and told me to wait for the call. I think they might take me in as a trainee". I looked at her to see her reaction.

"Oh, wow" Her cheerfulness was back in her voice and I could sense she was excited too for her voice raised an octave higher than usual but it was still pleasing to my ears. It still sounded soft and merry. "That's a good news then! Treat me when you are signed by the music company, okay?" She extended her palm towards me and waited for me to tap it to promise her a treat.

A heartily laugh escaped out of my lips and I immediately placed my palm atop her and slightly squeezed it. "Of course, I will treat you. You should gain some weight you know. I'm afraid that the wind may blow you away". I ran away after sticking out my tongue at her, occasionally turning back to even more.

"Yah! How dare you? Just stop there kookie!". She followed me from behind.

When we reached right in front of the home, it snowed. I stopped on my track and turned back, panting heavily. 

"Ah... It's snowing!!!" She exclaimed almost like a happy child. Her voice although was raspy and breathy, it carried a deep affinity and liking for the snow. Her face was happy yet calm, almost as if she was meditating. I was enthralled looking at her and my lips stretched out, a wide grin forming on my face, my heart swelling up in deep satisfaction like how the children's would when they receive a Christmas present from the Santa Claus.

She slowly extended her hand in air and laid her head back down. She then closed her eyes and smiled. The snowflakes were slowly covering her head and some even stuck on her face. She appeared ethereal, like a goddess to me.

I looked at her fondly. It looked like she was capturing this very moment in her heart and recording the sound of wind and admiring the beauty of snow. She was enjoying the feelings that generated whenever the falling snow flakes gently touched her palm... She was smiling like an angel.

I slowly took out my 'then famous' cell phone and took a snap of that moment without letting her know.

Of course, that phone was mine. After pursuing for umpteenth times, my family still was strictly against me using cell phone. They justified themselves by telling me, I was too young for all this. But I didn't give up and the last thing that worked on my favour was the mentioning of audition and having to live far away from them in city area if I were to be selected and that did actually made my parents think for a long time and eventually they bought me one. They gifted me that very cell phone on my birthday and the very first thing that I captured from it's camera was Ji eun ah, my love.

I was about to hide the phone in the inner pocket of my jacket when she suddenly opened her eyes and caught me red handed.

"Yah! What are you doing with that phone??"

I immediately flinched nervously. "Ahh... Nothing!!! I was just checking the time. It's late, we should go inside now". I avoided the question and was about to head towards my gate when she interrupted me from fleeing.

"Yah! Stop there". She took few steps towards me, as she stood in front of me, I swallowed hard, wanting nothing but to run away from this situation. Giving me a suspicious glance she parted her lips to continue, "Don't lie."

I gulped even harder and almost froze on the spot.  My eyes were dancing everywhere apart from her, yes, it was my failed attempt to appear unaffected. After examining me with her narrowed eyes for a while, her face lit up and the same cheerfulness was back in her voice once agian, "Ahh... Did you by chance have someone you like, so the snowfall reminded you of her?". I turned red after hearing her.

Her face beamed in delight and a smug appeared on her face, "Ah!! So it's indeed true huh? Were you looking at her picture. C'mon show me her photo!!!"

She sounded unusually eager and demanding? But before I could even come up with an excuse she was quick to rush towards me to seize my phone.

I tried hard to not let her take it from me so I raised my hand high above her head making it hard for her to snatch. But she didn't back down; she instead moved closer to me and stretched her legs up and raised her one hand up in the air to snatch the phone and the other hand tightly griping on my shoulder for a balance.

The close proximity made my heart skip a bit and a shade of pink painted on my cheeks. I glanced at her face which was only few inches away from mine, a warm breathe escaping out from landing on my cheeks and the corner of my mouth. I inhaled deeply, breathing in her body scent. She smelled pleasantly indulging, a soft citric smell of orange and a sweet smell of strawberry, it was a mixture of both, a fruity smell. My lips quivered as they started heating up slowly, my hands itching to engulf her in a tight embrace and my toes were curled down to supress this feeling to be with her.

I glanced once more towards her, she was too busily focused on snatching back the phone from my grip, completely oblivious to my condition. And then a frown crept on my face as I noticed I had no such effects on her like how she had on me when she was so close to me.

Unable to control this strange sensation generating all over my body, I inched closer to her and I absolutely had no idea from where did I get the courage but I surprisingly lowered my head to swoop in for kiss, startling her and startling me, myself. It was a soft gentle peck on her warm lips.

Then I slowly parted away from her, eyes still closed but hands resting on her tiny shoulders. I slowly opened my eyes and looked at her. I saw her looking flustered, her cheeks turning red and her gaze