It was another morning. Joohyun was picking weeds from her garden once again, Yerim and Sooyoung were chasing butterflies around the yard. Her onions, potatoes, and tomatoes were starting to sprout. The sprouts that were just seeds weeks ago were now standing proud in the warm summer sun. Joohyun was rooting for this summer’s vegetables. Last year, she tried growing a few fruit trees, burying their seeds right after winter had melted away, but the seeds never bloomed. So, she went back to her usual vegetables, hoping for the best. 

When she headed down to the clinic, there was only one person waiting for her. It was Kyungsoo. 

“Good morning Joohyun.” He greeted. He must have been back for some antibacterial ointment. 

“Good morning, Kyungsoo,” She replied, unlocking the door and letting Kyungsoo step in first, “Is the pain back already, or do you need an ointment?”

She set her things behind her desk, making sure to put it in the corner where she wouldn’t trip over them. 

“I’m here to keep you company,” He said, dragging a chair next to her and sitting down, “For some reason old man Kim told me to stay home for today after I told him about the burn.”

“Oh, well, that’s new,” Joohyun said. Old man Kim, the owner of the garage Kyungsoo worked at, was never one to let anyone skip work unless they were dying. The number of times she’d treated Kyungsoo and his friends for injuries only for them to come back after aggravating them further were countless. She remembers the week Kyungsoo twisted his ankle, leaving him hobbling around with a brace on. Her exact words were, “Don’t walk if you can help it. It’ll get worse if you continue walking on it the way you normally do,” and unfortunately for the both of them, old man Kim insisted that Kyungsoo come in for work. The next day, Kyungsoo couldn’t even stand up, the pain being unbearable, so he was basically put under house arrest by Granny Choi, which meant no work for at least a week. Minseok, Kyungsoo’s best friend, was the one who made sure he wasn’t up and about while he was supposed to be resting, although just like the rest of the village, he worked all day. He worked with Kyungsoo, too, so he came in with his fair share of injuries and issues, but unlike Kyungsoo, Minseok tried to minimize the number of accidents he got himself into. 

Her morning wasn’t so boring for the first few hours with Kyungsoo there to keep her company. They talked about absolutely everything and anything. The antics that the boys got up to were relayed to Joohyun in exchange for gossip amongst the ladies of the village. Joohyun let herself talk on and on about how annoying the neighbor’s dogs were, trampling her garden when she accidentally left the gate open one day. Her flowers were destroyed, none left to salvage, but her vegetables were left untouched, which she was grateful for. She wouldn’t know what to do if all her hard work went without gain, especially when it came to her summer harvest. She relied on it for cooking and selling, well, she gave it to Aunt Hwang to sell and she got some of the profit, but she did need the vegetables to start making her summer dishes. 

Kyungsoo listened to her diligently before taking his turn to rant. On occasion, he worked the front desk, and the customers he worked with were insufferable. They constantly haggled for discounts on their already cheap services and argued with him about repairs. Just yesterday, an older man got mad at him for telling him that his scooter was on its last legs, insisting that the scooter would last him another year and that he just needed his engine repaired. Of course, Kyungsoo had to smile through the annoyance and pain, simply telling the man that they would fix his engine for him. 

They talked like that for hours, laughing, gossiping, and chatting because they rarely got to enjoy each other’s company. After all, they had been best friends before the rest of the village decided that they became too old to just be friends--even though they couldn’t be anything more than friends even if they wanted to, because they shared the same secret. 

Granny Choi interrupted their talking to remind Joohyun that coach Jonghae would be bringing in the soccer team for a check-up before their training camp next week. Joohyun checked her clipboard, and saw that there was in fact an appointment for the 10 boys at 2:30. Excusing herself from their conversation, she left Kyungsoo in the waiting room, going to assist Granny Choi with preparing a room and supplies. She wasn’t sure what kind of check-up they’d all be in for, so she prepared the standard and threw in extra supplies for a physical if needed. 

By the time she was done, the boys and coach Jonghae were already waiting to be checked in. The noise from all the boys shouting at once was giving her a headache, but she powered through. She scooted past Kyungsoo who was pretending to read a book and grabbed her clipboard. She shouted out the first name on the clipboard, and a lanky boy pushed his way through the group to stand at the desk. She pulled out a file, filled it in with his information, handed him the paper and told him to give it to Granny Choi, and sent him back. 

“If I knew it was going to be this loud, I would’ve actually stayed home,” Kyungsoo muttered, looking back up at Joohyun. They both looked at the group of children running around and shouting, trying to entertain themselves. She could feel the stress creeping into her muscles, tension taking over, and suddenly, she did not want to be a teacher anymore. 

“Me, too.” She sighed. They tried to keep a conversation going, but they couldn’t hear each other over the boys. Kyungsoo was visibly annoyed, frowning, and taking deep breaths to calm himself. He came to hang out, so Joohyun would at least try to let him relax. 

She stood up and took a deep breath. “HEY.”

All the talking stopped. 

“I’m sorry boys, but if you could keep it down, that would be nice.” She smiled. Jonghae burst out laughing and nearly fell out of his chair. Kyungsoo snorted, and the boys joined in the laughter. Jonghae, after recovering from his laugh, got up, and stood at the counter. 

“That was great, Joohyun, I’ve never seen them shut up that fast.” He sniffed. 

“Thanks I guess…” She replied, turning to continue talking to Kyungsoo.

“So how boring is it just sitting here all day.” He asked, leaning on her desk and into her space. 

She inched back. “I actually happen to like working here and Granny Choi needs an assistant.”

She turned her chair all the way, she had no interest in talking to Jonghae. He was one of the boys in their village who didn’t make it a secret that he was interested in her and Seulgi, so she tried to stay away from him. Having boys staring and her and chasing after her was annoying and bothersome. Even if she was interested in boys, she wouldn’t be picking anyone from the village. They were all bums, and even if they were good looking, they were jerks. So, Joohyun only hung out with a few select boys, including Kyungsoo and his friends, and Youngho.

“Oh, so you’re one of those girls then?” He said. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Jonghae.” She frowned. She was making a face at Kyungsoo, telling him that she was getting annoyed, and fast. 

“You know, the girls who like an easy job, like sitting lazily at a desk.” He said, a stupid smirk on his face and a glint in his eye. 

Kyungsoo cleared his throat. “Thanks for your opinion, Jonghae, but we were talking before you came over.”

“Oh,” Jonghae said, eyes wide open, “I didn’t know Kyungsoo spoke for you. Must be real close, you two.”

Joohyun was actually pissed. That was exactly why she kept to herself.

“I’m sorry Jonghae, but Kyungsoo is just trying to say that you can’t read the situation. If you actually need something, please do not hesitate to ask.” She snapped. Some weird emotion passed over Jonghae’s face before he shrugged, then went to sit back down. 

“Kyungsoo, if you ever become like that, I will personally murder you.” She whispered. 

He scoffed. “Sorry to break it to you, but I’ll be doing the honors.”

“Oh, well then, be my guest.” She giggled. The conversation kept rolling from there, with interruptions for Joohyun to do her job, and she happily let herself fall back into talking. 

After all the check-ups were done, it was determined that all the boys were fit to go to the training camp, so they were all gone an hour later. There were only two more appointments left in the day, thank god, so there would be no more shenanigans for a while. 

“Ugh, Kyungsoo, I miss Seungwan.” She sighed. 

“She didn’t visit last year, so I can see why. Isn’t she coming soon, though?” He said. 

Joohyun nodded. “Yeah, but summer just started, so she’s not going to be here for another month. It’s so boring without her here.”

“Well, it would be a lot less boring waiting for her if you came to our parties,” Kyungsoo said. 

“You know I’m never going to one of those stupid get-togethers. Everyone I hate shows up.”

“I know, but you could give it another chance. You don’t even have to sit with them, they know the rules.”

The rules. The rules were… complicated. Their village was very small and very traditional. The boys and girls were kept separate, raised with completely different values and mindsets. One of the most important unspoken rules was that physical closeness was forbidden. If a girl was seen too close to a boy, that would immediately set off alarms, so Joohyun and Seulgi were generally left alone, but there were a few bold boys who ignored that rule, including Jonghae. 

“But you know how they are when they drink, Kyungsoo, I don’t want to risk it.” She said. 

“You could sit with us. You haven’t talked with Minseok in a while, he’s starting to think you hate him, too.” 

She laughed at that. “I could never hate him, he knows that, but still… I don’t know. I’ll ask Seulgi about it. If she wants to go, then I’ll go.” 

“Now, “ She grinned, “Enough about me, let’s talk about you. How’s Jongin?”

“Ugh, really? Can you let that go, Joohyun?” He groaned. Kim Jongin was another one of Kyungsoo’s coworkers. He was a year older than Kyungsoo and lived in the village where the garage was. Joohyun would like to say that Jongin was like every other village boy, but he wasn’t. Jongin was a teddy bear. That was the only way Joohyun would describe him. His personality was soft, bubbly, and fluffy, but he knew when and where to be serious. His sweet demeanor and kind nature made him different from all the village boys she knew, and he looked better than all of them. All in all, Jongin was a charming guy with killer looks, and everyone loved him. One day, Kyungsoo let it slip that he maybe or maybe wasn’t keeping his eyes on Jongin. She didn’t let it go, even though he insisted that it was a stupid little crush and he was over it, something like that was too interesting to let go. Plus, he about Seulgi all the time when they were younger, so it was payback. 

“He’s fine. Doing work like always, being too nice to the rude people who come in. Still talks to me too much.” Kyungsoo sighed. 

“Aww, is the attention too much for you, Soosoo?” She cooed, pinching his cheek.

He rolled his eyes and slapped her hand away. “If I’m being honest, kind of. He doesn’t even know how easy it is to fall for him. He’s too… sweet, he’s too sweet for me.”

“Isn’t sweet good? Better than a guy like Jonghae.” She grinned. 

“I guess, but when you’re that sweet, you distract people, and when you distract people they get hurt.” He retorted, holding up his arm. Leave it to Kyungsoo to be distracted from his work by a nice guy. 

“And I thought you were just clumsy, but no, you just can’t keep your eyes off of Jongin,” Joohyun said. “There are only two ways to fix that problem, Soosoo. Either give up or chase him. It’s your move.”

“Joo. Hyun. You know I can’t do that, it’s suicide. My parents would be rolling in their graves. I’ve already settled on moving on, I told you.”

“Hmm, but if you take a chance…” She said, “I mean, I did. Look where it got me, Kyungsoo.”

“That’s ‘cause you’re lucky, Joohyun. All my luck has already run out, so I will be taking no chances, sorry. Plus, even if it did work out, I couldn’t do the whole secrecy thing. Too much stress. I’d rather move out to the city and be single than be together with him and here.” 

“Oh, you know what? Let’s do that.” She said, grabbing Kyungsoo’s hand. 

“Wait what? Do what?” 

“Let’s move to the city!”