“Will you come a little closer?

I want to stay next to you like this

It’s alright,

Even if you don’t say anything.”

Xiumin – You

~ Autumn – 2010 ~

“Anyeonghaseyo! I’m Park Sooyoung!”

The idol-like newcomer with coffee brown hair and cherry red lips bowed in front of the class, making ninety percent of the boys in the class gasp dreamily at her.

“My friends call me Joy, so you guys also can call me Joy... I hope we get along!”

Half the class broke into a loud applause, welcoming the new girl enthusiastically. Meanwhile their homeroom teacher smiled in acknowledgement, and showed the girl the only empty seat left in the class, which no one dared to take. “Sooyoung, I mean Joy, you can sit next to Junmyeon.”

The girl rushed to the shown seat and sat there, eagerly peeking into her new neighbour’s face. “Um... Hi!”

The neighbour didn’t bother greeting her further than giving a slight nod, and returning to swirl his pen between his fingers.

But Joy found him mesmerizing. The girl thought the platinum blonde hair enhanced his milky complexion perfectly well, with his cheeks having that peachy glint, and those dark brown eyes breathtaking.

“Um... Kim Junmyeon right?” she read the name tag on his uniform blazer. “Are you an idol trainee?”

He turned to face her, with a gaze nonchalant as ever. “Don’t bother fangirling. It won’t last long when you start getting along with the rest of the class.”

The last class of the day was the Korean literature class, and each one of the students were reciting out the poems they wrote during the past hour.

A loud applause erupted when Chanyeol finished his poem, titled “The Stray Youth”, a piece that was hard for half the class to understand because of its complicated language, which the teacher praised as a master piece a high school student can write.

“Next...” she raised her head from the list of names. “Kim Junmyeon.”

There was no reply.

“Junmyeon?”

“I didn’t write anything.”

The answer was curt and careless as always, given in the tone the teachers were already used to. The teacher sighed, turning back to the list of names. “Alright...next –”

“He has written something Miss Yang!”

Joy raised her hand, half standing up from her chair. “And it’s beautiful!”

Junmyeon glared at her threateningly, but the newcomer didn’t care the slightest bit, and was agile enough to snatch his notebook away before he could stop her.

“It’s titled ‘Dream Me’.”

She stood up and turned towards the class, while the owner of the book clenched his jaws and closed his eyes.

“The moment everything was taken away,

Your warmth embraced my soul,

Your dream, unbreakable,

Is deeply engraved in my heart.

My love hurts,

Feels like it’ll break,

Come to me in my dreams

So that I can feel you again.”

“Woah...”

Amber was the first to react, as soon as Joy’s recitation was over. But not waiting for further remarks or reactions, Junmyeon stood up from his desk and left the classroom, exiting as soon as possible before the class could notice his reddened face.

Only Kim Junmyeon had the privilege of leaving the classes as he pleased, without getting caught into detention. That was because his father was the major shareholder of the school.

“Joy, bring that book to me.”

Joy ran to the teacher with his book, and the teacher read the verse a several times, over and over.

“He definitely has a knack of poetry.” She finally declared. “The rhyming is not that good, and his language skills aren’t that polished, but he really has the talent and creativity. I see it.”

* * *

“Can we talk?”

Junmyeon was waiting outside in an empty hallway, waiting for her to step out of the classroom and make her way to the library as she often did. Since Chanyeol was the class president and had his duties before leaving the homeroom, Mina was out alone.

“Let go of my hand and talk.”

Annoyed by the iron grip on her wrist, she hissed at him.

“You’ll walk away then. So listen to me like this.”

The boy didn’t realize that his hold was hurting her. He thought the only reason she was squirming, was to release herself, and to run away from him.

Being gentle was something Junmyeon wasn’t familiar with.

“When would you stop avoiding me? I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for more than a goddamn year Hwang Mina. Why do you keep ignoring me?”

“Because I know what you’re going to say. And have heard it enough times!” The girl glared at him.

The day it had started was the very first day Junmyeon had walked into their high school.

The news of the school director’s son being transferred had spread around the school like a wildfire, and as soon as Mina saw the boy standing in the main entrance hall and looking around the place, she assumed it was him.

Medium height, pristine white shirt and charcoal grey trousers, all done in the most expensive materials which Mina recognized easily, shining platinum blonde hair, everything about him looked rich and high end, and the nonchalant expression on his face, slight pout as if he was forced to transfer schools against his will, gave quite a stubborn aura to the boy.

A spoilt rich brat aren’t we having here?

The girl thought as she approached the boy. “Now comer?”

“Um...yeah.” he turned around and faced her, and within seconds, his eyes widened and his lips slightly parted in surprise.

“Guess you don’t know your way to the teacher’s office. Want me to show you?”

He was still staring at her, when she repeated her question. “They ask the new students to first see their homeroom teacher. I can show you the office if you don’t know your way.”

“Don’t you remember me?”

He asked, the stubborn expression turning into nothing but expectation at once. The girl tilted her head to a side, thinking, and looked at him with a meek smile again. “I don’t think... I remember. Back from my elementary school?”

He shook his head.

“Then...church choir?”

He gave her a barely visible smile. “Never mind.”

Back to the conversation he was having with Mina after the last class.

“Just don’t say anything Junmyeon.” Her tone was laced with a warning.

“You know I have a boyfriend now. And I don’t want any obsessed stalkers bothering me.”

His grip on her reddened wrist automatically loosened, and Mina walked away, not noticing her boyfriend who had approached Junmyeon right after she left the passage.

* * *

“Hyung, am I an obsessed stalker?”

Both Siwon and Jessica turned their heads his way, averting their eyes from the spreadsheet on Jessica’s desktop monitor.

The teen was standing at the doorway to their office room, with a bluish maroon bruise under his right eye and a burst lip with clotted blood, blank eyes staring at them helplessly.

“Yah Junmyeon! Did you get in a fight again???”

Siwon rushed towards the youngster. “Seriously...what do we do with this idiot Jess?”

Jessica too hurried to the boy, and held him by the shoulders. “What happened Myeon? You didn’t get hurt a lot right? Want me to take you to a hospital?”

In silence, Junmyeon stared at his sneakers. “Why can’t she just listen to me for once noona? I have a lot to say.”

“Tell us what happened dude...” Siwon said, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. “Is this that girl again? Did you beat up her boyfriend today as well?”

“He shouldn’t have shown up when I was in a bad mood.” The teen muttered under his breath.

“He didn’t just beat someone up Siwon! He got hurt himself as well! Now stop yelling at the child and go get the first aid kit.” The intern snapped at her boyfriend. And she turned back to the younger one, eyeing his bruised face in concern. “Are you sure there aren’t any severe injuries Myeonnie?”

* * * *

~ Winter – 2019 ~

Returning from the so-called honeymoon which ended in two days, the newly wedded couple arrived at Junmyeon’s dad’s house, where they were to live after getting married.

“Too much worked piled up in the HQ abhuji.” Junmyeon replied his dad when he asked what brought them home so early. And he led the way upstairs to the third floor, after uttering