MARCH

He stood in front of the classroom, his face betraying no emotions. He barely listened to what his new homeroom teacher was talking about. After all, he thought, she'd say the same thing all over again as his previous teachers did, only in different words and clauses.

She motioned for him to step forward and introduce himself, which he obeyed.

"I'm Ahn Yujin," he stated blankly.

It was his third school in two years. Another class, another introduction. He has learned enough not to provide too much information, for it was meaningless.

He heard an obligatory applause. All eyes were on him as he made his way to his new seat, not bothering to listen to the whispers.

After a minute or so, all attentions were reverted back to the blackboard. His gaze, however, went to the window. That was when someone caught his eyes.

Her dark black bluish hair was long and smooth. Her skin was milky white, and her face almost porcelain-like. The sun that shone on her made her radiate, causing her to appear like an angel. Her curious crescent eyes were looking straight into his icy orbs.

The stare continued for minutes long, until her face broke into a tiny smile before she lifted her eyes away.

---

MAY

She only saw his eyes.

She was on her way to send her laboratory report to her Chemistry teacher when she lost her way in a building foreign to her. She passed by the school’s old gymnasium which had been abandoned ever since the new one was officially opened to all students. She thought she heard the sound of a ball dribbling, so she peeked inside through the tiny hole of a window.

Inside the dusty gym, stood a boy at the very center of the court. She could not see his face properly from the sideway, but she could see his intense eyes. If a glare could set fire to things, the basketball hoop would have been burned by his deadly eyes.

His blazing eyes that could’ve melt even the coldest heart.

His eyes, which warmed Minju’s heart.

---

MARCH

Enjoying his little solitude, he wandered off alone, passing by rooms after rooms and buildings after building. This was his favorite part of transferring to a new school ― searching for a spot hidden from people’s sight where he can be invisible.

Yujin found himself in an isolated building and saw an empty space inside it. From the looks of it, he inferred that the gym was no longer in use. Perfect, he smirked.

#

She didn’t mean to pass by the same abandoned gym like she did a year ago when she lost her way there.

She thought it was only her imagining the same dribbling sound that she heard a year ago.

She didn’t mean to stop her strides. She didn’t mean to peek in.

She didn’t mean to push the door open like she did a year ago.

But she did.

---

MAY

She watched as the ball flew from his hands towards the hoop and made a graceful turn around the ring before entering the basket. She almost broke into an applause but managed to refrain herself from doing so when she realized that she was trespassing his territory.

He turned and saw his spectator standing near the entrance. Their eyes met.

She was too stunned to say anything. She was too terrified when his fiery eyes bore into her soul.

For a moment, she had expected a death sentence.

He looked away to grab another ball from the trolley next to him and began dribbling it. Its sound filled the silence between them and echoed in her ears. “How long have you been there?” he asked. His voice was deep, sending another jolt to her spine.

“Not long,” she answered after spending a minute to let her brain process the situation. “I’m sorry, I’ll leave now,”

Saku glanced at her again before attempting another long-ranged jump shot; this time as beautiful as the last one which made her wonder how much time and effort it needed to produce such astounding results. “You can stay if you want,”

And she did.

---

MARCH

Hearing footsteps approaching him, he spun around and realized he now had a company. He remembered her crescent eyes from the class. However, unlike the confident eyes that he saw earlier that morning, this pair of eyes in front of him right now was more afraid, more vulnerable.

There was something else in her eyes, but he could not figure it out.

“Why are you here?” she asked.

Yujin tore his eyes away from her and shrugged indifferently. “I like being alone,” he answered.

She scrutinized as he ran his fingers through the trolley of balls which had collected at least an inch worth of dusts. The trolley and the balls had been left untouched. Nobody cared enough to transport them to the new gym. Nobody bothered to.

Her forehead creased as she remembered the past. “Do you play?”

“This?” he picked up a ball. “Nope. Do you?”

“Used to,”

“You don’t play anymore?”

She shook her head.

“Why not?”

“Reasons,”

He nodded; either he didn’t want to a