Autumn makes everything pleasant.

It is the time of the year when cool wind brings the fragrance of flowers everywhere.

It is the time of the year when leaves turn yellow and start to fall to meet the ground or just land on someone’s hand or hair.

It is the time of the year when you put on your cardigan or a soft sweater and let your long hair down instead of tying it all up in a pony tail.

And it is the time of the year when Woohyun enjoyed playing football the most. He said that the weather was not too cold like winter but not too hot like summer. If you saw him with a jacket in the morning, by the end of the day, that jacket would either rest on his hand, be stuffed in his backpack or tied around his waist. There was no day gone by without Woohyun playing football with his friends, and that day was no exception, especially when it was time for the 20-minute break.

You stood and looked out one of the window in the hallway right outside your classroom. Your class was on the 3^th floor so you had quite a good view of everything happening on the schoolyard as well as the lower floors on both left and right side. Your eyes moved around to find that familiar figure.

“Ah! There he is!”, you thought as you moved your finger following Woohyun’s movements. From where you were, he looked as tiny as an ant. “Imagine picking him up with two fingers and putting him in a pocket”, you said to yourself as your thumb and index finger created a little space of about 2 or 3 cm to measure Woohyun’s height from afar.

“He’s super tiny. I just want to squishhhhh!”, you thought when bringing your two fingers together as if to squish his whole existence, just like how you pinched his cheeks when you two were small.

Woohyun moved around on the school yard quickly. He had an impressive speed that was unmatched by others. The ball was always under his control and if others tried to steal it away, he could just get it back in no time.

“GOAL!”, you cheered happily as he kicked the ball into the goal. Woohyun raised his hands and made two V signs while smiling brightly. The warm autumn sunshine filtering through the leaves on the trees lit up his face, or was it that his beautiful smile seemed to light up the whole sky? You didn’t know which it was but there was one thing you know for sure: Woohyun’s smile was so powerful that girls squealed and screamed crazily as he looked up to some windows on the building and did the finger gun after giving his friends highfive.

“Urgh, attention seeker”, you hated it when Woohyun did those cheesy moves as if he was a celebrity or something. He knew that most of the female students had a crush on him. Just the number of heart-shaped chocolate boxes that he received on Valentine’s day was enough to prove this point. Moreover, whenever someone confessed to him, he would always brag to you. Yet, he had never agreed to date anyone. “Annoying , always turn girls down and make them cry”, you told him off in your head.

But, to be very very honest, Woohyun had this kind of charms and a rather good personality (he just acted like a pain in the sometimes). He passionately put his heart into what he loved and that was what you like about him.

Woohyun didn’t even stop for any minute during the whole football match. His jacket was hanged on a tree branch near where he was playing. Woohyun was probably sweating a lot because his fluffy hair stuck to his forehead and you could see him wipe his neck and forehead sometimes. The tie that went with the uniform was nowhere to be found while Woohyun had undone the top two buttons on his shirt from the collar down.

As he ran faster and faster, the wind messed his hair up a bit here and there. His bouncing hair reminded you of the babo apple you knew from kindergarten. He used to cry a lot but as he grew taller and taller, he wanted to appear cooler. His chubby cheeks were also not as visible as before, instead, his jawline took all the spotlight. However, you could feel that baby Woohyun was still there because his twinkling round brown eyes were the same, his lips were full and plump just like before and he still had his puppy snaggletooth.

“GOAL!!!”, Woohyun scored again just before the bell rang so everyone on the yard started to rush to their classroom. Again, you traced your fingers along as Woohyun went to fetch his jacket at the tree. You kept doing that as if everything in front of you was a touchscreen and Woohyun was a character in a game you were playing. You kept your finger on his head until he went into the building you were standing at. You couldn’t see him so you had to lean over a bit just to look at his sprout hair more. Woohyun had this cute hair that looked like a sprout growing on his head but you usually couldn’t see it well because Woohyun was taller. You wondered if that hair was the reason or the consequence of the apple hairstyle baby Woohyunie had in kindergarten.

Just when you were still leaning over to have a better view, Woohyun’s face suddenly appeared where his sprout hair was supposed to be. He was looking up!!! You felt your blood rushing to your cheeks so you leaned back quickly. Woohyun was again running to the schoolyard where a ray of sunshine reached his face. He waved at your direction with a smile. Under the sunshine, his skins seemed to be... sparkling. “What the ? This is not Twillight”, you always thought the part where vampire’s skin glows under the sun was bull and nonsense but what the ? Woohyun was literally twinkling, sparkling and glittering. Not just his eyes but also the patch of skin on his neck and his forehead. “Maybe it’s because of the sweat”, you tried to calm your heart which was beating fast.

“, not that smile”, you rarely used swear words but unconsciously blurted as Woohyun smiled brightly while waving towards your direction. His eyes curved into the shape of a crescent moon, his small dimples appeared just for a moment before being consumed by his smile lines, his cute white teeth were showing behind those plump lips and his snaggletooth peeked out a little.

“ing cute”, you thought as you raised you hand, about to wave back at him. However, you heard girls’ squeal again and realized all the windows on your floors and at least one floor below were still occupied by many female students.

At that moment, you felt the bitterness in your mouth and could really feel your heart sink. Of couse, that was another “fan service” from him as a “thank you” for cheering during the match. You hated this side of him and you also couldn’t deny the fact that your heart hurt.

“What’s wrong with me?”, you thought and quickly retreated back to the classroom with such a heavy heart that you had to clench your chest. “What is this feeling?”, you felt dizzy.

When Woohyun finally came into class, you didn’t look at him directly. You could feel Woohyun’s head turn back to look at you once or more but you pretended to be busy writing something on your notebook.

For the rest of the period, the next period and the rest of the day, you avoided his eyes. You didn’t dare to look into those eyes that you adored so much for fear that he might figure out your feelings. “W-wait, what feelings?”, you thought, “Do I like him more than a friend?”, you kept asking yourself again and again.

You tried to get him out of your head but still the only thing that was vidid in your memory was his smile during the break.

Maybe autumn did make many things more pleasant but it was undeniable that it was his smile that made autumn even more beautiful. That moment he was facing your window so you had quite a good view and was able to capture every second of his facial expression. You couldn’t get it out of your head. That smile was gentle, precious and dazzling. That smile. That smile. That smile. You found yourself yearning for more and actually some parts of you selfishly wanted that smile just for yourself, so when you realized it was just another “fan service”, you felt at loss.

Woohyun had been by your side for so long, but for the first time, you felt like he was so far away.