“I want to see Yuna.”

          I’m holding the order paper on my hands tightly. “Um… Me?”

          “We were just talking about you, Prof!”

          I give Minhyung a subtle death glare, but he doesn’t notice. Minseok looks at me, smiling. “Minhyung told me you were back to work already. Have you gone better?”

          “I told her to rest, but she didn’t listen.” Minhyung chirps.

          “I’m fine, really.” I answer. “That time… I might just have eaten something bad.”

          “I heard you worked too hard. You should not push yourself.” Minseok looks genuinely concerned. I glance at my brother, but he pretends to clean the coffee maker.

          I let out a relaxed laugh. “I can’t leave this place too long.”

          “Minhyung told me a lot about this bakery, but I have no idea you were his sister.” Minseok shakes his head. “Well, since I have to go to work, I’ll buy some bread for my colleagues and go.”

          “What, this quick? Have some coffee first, Prof.” Minhyung offers.

          “I planned to do so, but the department head wanted to have a lunch meeting with me. Well, the life of a new professor. I just found out in the bus.”

          Oh, good.

          “But I’ll come here again next time! It’ll be good to have some catching up with Yuna. Talk to you later!”

          Minseok looks at me right in the eyes, and I try to look back normally. I do a small nod and smile. “Sure. Come here later.”

2008, Winter

High School

          I check my appearance again in the emergency stairs before going to class. I have my shirt tucked in so it doesn’t show the stained part, my hands are clean, and I can put my bandaged hand in the pocket. I heave a deep breath, and walk to the class slowly.

          I peek through the back door, and the class looks normal. Half of my classmates have changed their clothes, the other half are still resting and chatting inside. I see Jangmi and a few other students looking down through the window from her desk, and I grow nervous. Jaehyo is nowhere to be seen. Is he outside fetching the parka?

          “Hey, Yuna!” I shiver to hear the call, and I see Hyeyoung walking towards me in the hallway. “Where have you been? I was looking for you!”

          “Oh—yeah—I was tidying up the props.”

          “What’s up with your clothes—wait, what happened?” Hyeyoung takes my right hand out and has open seeing the bandage.

          “Yeah, while I was carrying the stuff, my hand hit the door… So…”

          “Oh my God, does it hurt? Do you need help changing your clothes later?”

          “I’m fine, let’s get inside.”

          I walk into the class, and see Minseok folding his training clothes on his seat near Jangmi and Jaehyo’s desks. Our eyes meet, and I look away quickly. After sitting for a moment, I walk to the locker on the back to take my uniform. I was struggling with the key when the back door is slid open, and I see Jaehyo entering the class with the parka covered in snow bits on his hands. He looks petulant, and I shove my right hand deep into the locker, hiding it.

          I hear someone running to him. It was Jangmi. Why is she holding the rose bouquet he gave her at this time? “How is it?”

          Jaehyo walks into the class, and other students flock him, right behind me. “It’s…”

          I cover my hand with my uniform, and turns around. Jaehyo spreads the parka, and it has a big tear right on the back. “Oh no! Is it because the extended roof?” Jangmi grimaces.

          “Yeah, I think so… It was stuck there before falling to the field.” Jaehyo sighs.

          “It was weird though. If the wind was so strong, shouldn’t it blow inside, not outside?” a classmate says. It goes silent for a second, and I swallow.

          “Maybe I put it too close to the window.” Jaehyo shrugs. “Minseok, what to do?”

          What? Why is he asking Minseok?

          Minseok gives him an awkward smile. “Well, what’s done is done.”

          “I’m so sorry… I shouldn’t have borrowed this.” Jaehyo looks apologetic. “My father gave me a ride to school and I forgot to bring my coat. Minseok lent this to me on the first period.”

          I hold onto my uniform tightly. Oh God. Because he wasn’t wearing his usual coat, I thought it was his new one… And it was Minseok’s?

          “Oh no, this is because I felt hot during Math and opened the window! My bag is slippery too, it might have made it fall.” Jangmi pouts, covering her face with the bouquet.

          “No, no, this is not your fault.” Jaehyo says sweetly. I want to throw up.

          “Minseok-ah, I’m so sorry!” Jangmi says to Minseok, and Minseok just gives her a little smile from his seat. Our sights meet again, and I stealthily walk out to go to the toilet.

          I change my clothes with a storm in my mind. My act was not only petty, but mistargeted. Minseok helped me cover the whole thing even though I literally just threw out his stuff. What is he? What am I going to do now? A simple sorry won’t do.

          I stretch my hand to get into my sleeve, and my wound stings. I wince in pain, and sit above the toilet lid to contemplate. I messed up.

Present

Bakery

          Every night, an hour before closing, I sit on the small table on the far right corner of the café to organize today’s receipts and review completed and upcoming orders with a cup of hot peach tea I made myself. There are only a couple chatting with coffee in front of them near the window and an old lady bringing a loaf of bread to the cashier inside.

          “Miss, I’m going! I’ll come again!” the old lady waves to me, and I smile and bow to her. She just moved into the neighborhood last week, came here a few times but I haven’t learned her name. I follow her movement through the window until she turned to another road. My eyes land on the couple, and the man just said something that made her girlfriend laugh. I unconsciously watch them for a few seconds, until I snap out of it and look at the papers again.

          I was calculating numbers when a visitor opens the door and I say a welcome greeting without really noticing the person.

          “Lee Yuna!”

          I freeze to hear the now familiar voice, and I lift my head. Minseok approaches my table with a smile, still in his attire from earlier this day.

          “Oh—why are you—at this time...?”

          “So it was Minhyung and Yukhei’s tutoring schedule tonight. But suddenly Professor Ryu moved his class since he’d have a business trip tomorrow… The kids must hate it. I was already on the way so I figured I’d just go here.”

          “Ah…”

          “What are you doing?” he asks excitedly as he sits in front of me.

          “Well—” I clumsily touch the papers and laptop in front of me. “Duties.”

          “Am I bothering you?”

          “No, no. Um—what do you want to drink?”

          “I’m good, no need to.”

          “You should try something.” I point to the handwritten board above the counter. “How about a hot beverage?”

          “Well then… I think hot chocolate.”

          I relay the order to my employee, and Minseok is looking around the place. “This is really nice. I heard it’s very popular around here. I tried the bread, it was so good. The people in school cleared them in no time.”

          I smile timidly. “Thanks. My parents built this.”

          “Um… Where are they?” Minseok asks carefully.

          “They’re on vacation. I forced them to be, they still love working in the bakery and café too much.”

          “Ah.” Minseok responds cheerily, happy that he didn’t say anything wrong. “So you took over the business?”

          “Yes. With Minhyung, too, he comes when he doesn’t have classes.”

          “He’s such a nice kid.”

          “I know.” I answer with a proud smile. “How is he in class?”

          “Well, as I said, he’s very nice. He doesn’t hesitate to help his classmates, especially Yukhei because he’s a foreign student. I don’t know about other classes, but in my class, he’s an A student.”

          “I’m glad to hear that.” I nod. “Oh, this suddenly becomes a parent-teacher meeting.”

          Minseok laughs, and I smile. His hot chocolate is served, and he happily stirs it up.

          “I didn’t expect you to be a baker.” Minseok says. I look down and laugh a little.

          “It has quite a story in it.”

          “It’s good to catch up like this. You were a bit stiff when we first met again, I was afraid I did something wrong.”

          My smile fades. I inhale deeply, and touch the teacup handle. I notice I have my right hand on display, and turn it around. “You know you didn’t. I did.”

          Minseok and I look at each other, and the only thing that can be heard is the couple’s distant chatting and the slow background music.