CHAPTER TWO

The wind whistles through her ears as Chaeyoung flees far away from where she initially was. She doesn’t even think about looking back, putting all urges to the side as she keeps her vision set in front. Each step feels heavier as she pushes on, feeling the weight of her entire body being dependent to her feet. A sea of people are forced to move past her way to avoid being hit by her speeding body. Her brunette waves fling along with the wind, continuously bouncing as she takes a step further. She’s huffing, feeling her lungs constrict and burn out but it doesn’t matter to her.

What matters is to stay away from someone who makes her feel things she cannot understand.

Once she thinks she’s far enough, she slows down to a walking pace. She shuts her eyes, allowing herself to breathe and take in everything that happened from earlier. Chaeyoung feels like she’s never broken a sweat as intense as this was. Sure, she’s had her own time in plenty of her P.E. classes, but she never really put in much effort in those things. Her ears were ringing loudly, but it wasn’t the same type as earlier. This was probably due to her exhaustion, she thinks. She wipes the sweat trickling down from her forehead, smoothing her hair out afterwards to look decent. She’s still heaving, but it’s gotten more calmer than earlier.

She observes her surroundings carefully, not fully familiar as to were her own feet led her to. She notes endless bushes of hydrangeas, ranging from colors of blues, whites, and pinks. How come she’d never seen this before? She shrugs it off, following the pathway as more and more flowers come to meet her. Trees that had branches curved towards her make up the entire place, like a jungle akin to a sanctuary for someone. The intense vibrance of green of the garden was truly breath-taking. The sight of nature itself was enough for her to simmer down the tension she initially felt. Stepping further, she catches a wooden bench on the side. On top of it was a woven basket filled with freshly plucked flowers that she didn’t recognize.

(She’s not particularly educated with flowers.)

Chaeyoung sits on the bench, scans the flowers in the basket. She studies it carefully before giving it a light touch. Long, sword-like petals with sharp, green leaves attached below it fill up the space of the woven material. Most of its petals were orange, but some were white and pink. She’s seen flowers like these before, but she never really thought about knowing what it was called. The dew resting on one of the petals fall down on her skin, feeling the touch of the cold liquid. She tries not to move it too much, assuming that someone had picked this bunch for a reason. Someone must’ve been hanging out in this place, she thought. She doesn’t think it’s fair though, because for a garden as big as this that’s located in the university, Chaeyoung should’ve discovered this place eons ago. This could’ve been a place for her to capture her own inspiration.

Chaeyoung s her bag and takes out her brown, worn-out notebook and a pen. It wasn’t typical of her to beat around the bush frequently, so she might as well gather her own thoughts and put it on a piece of paper. Though she is feeling quite jaded at the moment, she brushes it off and concentrates at what she needs to work on. Shutting her eyes slowly, she tries to feel everything and nothing. She stretches her shoulders to release the tension, then stills herself before finally entering her true element.

The cold of the tranquil wind blows, allowing fallen leaves rustle around her old, leather 1461 boots. She inhales through the garden of flora, and that is when she’s suddenly hit with the thought of a familiar scent that she could not particularly pin down.

She lets her heart pour out unspoken words, tattooing paper about a woman’s voice with black pigment.

.-.-.

Once the sun had set, Chaeyoung decided to call it a day; then proceeded to head down back to her dormitory.

She grasps the brass knob before turning it, dragging herself inside her place. Unfortunately, she is greeted by her slovenly friend slash roommate Jisoo, whose bag of chips made up almost the entirety of her designated space. She groans at her friend’s lack of tidiness, then plops down onto her bed located at the window, which was covered in pink sheets. Jisoo sends her a sheepish smile after Chaeyoung gives her a judging look, obviously aware of her tiny bad habit.

“Unnie, aren’t you bothered even by the slightest bit about these… these plastic bags?” Chaeyoung slides her bag to the edge of her bed, then moves toward the side to grab one of the empty bag of chips at the floor. Jisoo puts her jet black hair up to a bun, then sighs.

“Chaeyoung-ah, you’re just a neat freak.” Jisoo shrugs at her before she stretched from own mattress. “Where have you been, anyway?”

“It’s a long story,” Chaeyoung simply says, not even bothering to continue the subject any further.

Today was quite tiring for her, to say the least. The amount of exhaustion both physically and emotionally had finally took its toll, feeling the weight on her shoulders increase exponentially as soon as she settled back in her dorm. Chaeyoung runs little on energy, but when she does have an ample amount, she employs it through composing. The act of thinking about the right words to make a song was draining enough, but for her to feel her blood rushing through her head earlier from a girl she never even knew? Chaeyoung’s the opposite of those blooming plants earlier. If anything, she was wilting at this point. The least Jisoo could do is let things slide.

But her roommate has other plans.

“I’m all about long stories.” Jisoo wraps a fleece blanket around her head then positions herself in an indian sit while inclining her head towards Chaeyoung, wide-eyed and encouraging for her roommate to tell her about her day.

Chaeyoung’s never had quite the huge circle of friends throughout her life. If anything, she’s a person who values quality over quantity. She strongly believes that one’s amount of friends does not matter if the connection between one another is genuine. Jisoo has been a perfect example of that. For all she knows, they’ve been friends ever since, like sisters attached to the hip. Despite her friend being a few years older than her, they still found a way to make things work once Jisoo had to graduate first. As soon as Jisoo went on to college, they both had a fear of not being able to be in touch anymore. Fortunately, the two of them both went on to their dream university (which happened to be the same), with Jisoo taking up education while Chaeyoung took a business course.

Though Chaeyoung didn’t actually take her dream course, she figured that what she took would pay the bills and livelihood, should she be a failure in the music industry. Besides, her parents didn’t really want her t