It’s Byulyi’s first day as a visiting lecturer at her alma mater, the prestigious Seoul National University. She was a trainwreck of nervousness. Visible sweats starting to accumulate on her face as she buried her face deep into her scrawny notes while walking hurriedly to the classroom. 

*THUMP

The classic clumsiness of Moon Byulyi struck again as she bumps into someone who dropped several books. Byul’s heart stopped for a while as she noticed a familiar title on the pile of books scattered upon the floor. 

Charles Bukowski. How to be a great writer. One of her most favorite book from her favorite author, a postman, turned writer Bukowski. 

As she’s about to do an apologetic bow, she finally met eye to eye with the owner of the book, and Byulyi swore upon her life that she must’ve been dreaming. 

Byulyi recalled a Japanese word that she likes: koi no yokan. It doesn’t mean love at first sight. It’s closer to love at second sight. It’s the feeling when you meet someone that you’re going to fall in love with them. Maybe you don’t love them right away, but it’s inevitable that you will. 

And that,

is how she’s feeling right now as she stood in front of the disheveled Jung Wheein, who looks slightly annoyed but nonetheless throws one of the sweetest smiles that Byul has ever seen. A visible dimple appeared across her smooth, flawless cheek, and Byul thinks this girl in front of her resembles a lost puppy. And Byulyi is a er for a puppy. 

After a brief moment of silence, both of them repeatedly bow to each other while apologizing. And Byul decided to seize the moment. 

“I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention and bump into you; let me help you carry these books to your class. Which class are you going to?”

Wheein still smiling that sweet smile while rubbing her forehead. Byul screamed inside her heart ‘must she smile like that? it’s killing me’ 

“It’s okay, really, I can carry it by myself. I’m a bit clumsy, so it’s not your fault.”

“Are you sure? I insist”

“It is really okay. I can handle this,” Wheein flashed another smile to Byulyi while carrying all the books to her side and excused herself. 

And just like that, Byulyi stood in silence while the small figure of Wheein disappeared to another hallway. She’s thinking of finding the girl again. Still, she can’t even muster to ask her name, and how the hell is Byulyi going to find one girl when there is literally thousands student in SNU?

“Well... I’m sure I’ll meet her again if luck is on my side,” Byulyi muttered to herself. 

But luck is indeed, on Byulyi’s side. Sometimes Byulyi wondered if this is God’s way of apologizing to her for a disastrous childhood. Byulyi was left alone by her mother in at night fair. She was just five, and her mother promised to get her a cotton candy but never come back to get her. She cried as the night fair began closing before a kind lady who gave her a free oden took her home and dropped her off at an orphanage in the morning. The orphanage refused to take her in at. First, they feared that Byulyi was kidnapped or left on her own. But soon, they realized that Byul has been abandoned. She never knows her father, and no matter how hard the orphanage and police worked together to find a trace of her mother, they can’t find her. At the age of five, Byulyi became an orphan as she grew up to become one of the smartest and most creative kids at an orphanage in Nam-gu, Incheon. 

Byulyi never wanted to be adopted; she didn’t trust grown adults except for her orphanage’s caring workers. The image of her mom promising her to come back is etched into her mind. She becomes distrustful to anyone, relying on no one but herself and promised that she’ll never leave anyone behind. 

By then on, Byul worked hard to get into where she is today, and she always thinks that luck bestowed upon her as God’s way of apologizing to her. 

And today, luck is on her side, once again. 

As she walked into the classroom, she’s about to teach, she noticed the puppy girl from earlier. She sat all the way in the back but still managed to catch Byulyi’s attention. Her bob platinum blonde hair stood out, and so does her artsy attire. Byul’s first lecture went smoothly. She was so giddy and cheerful that the students refuse to end the class. When the class ended, she was surrounded by fangirls asking her many irrelevant questions, which she answered patiently. But she caught that the puppy girl immediately leaves the class. She excused herself from the disappointed fangirls to run after the girl.

“Wait!”

Wheein gracefully turns her head and smiled again to Byulyi.

‘She really needs to stop smiling like that. It’s not good for my heart’

“Hi, seonsangnim,” Wheein bows politely. 

“There’s no need to call me seonsangnim. I’m really sorry about earlier. I’m Moon Byulyi. You can just call me Byul.”

Wheein chuckles lightly and shyly answered, “Okay. Byulyi unnie.” 

Someone said that it doesn’t have to be spring for you to bloom, but Moon Byulyi, a winter child, was blooming on that warm Spring day in Seoul. As the cherry blossom began to bloom, and the sun started to warm, so did Moon Byulyi’s heart. Byul might be a winter child, but she found pieces of herself in the spring and Autumn; she bloomed with the flowers and fell with the leaves. And in Autumn later that year, Byul fell for the first time in her life.