It was a Saturday morning. A sunny day. A cloudless sky. A little bit winter air but great weather.

Fate smiled. This was the perfect start it was looking for.

 Girl.

The rays of the sun seeped into the blinds, finding its way on to my face. One hand rushed to my eyes to shield it from the light while the other searched the bedside table for my phone.

Getting hold of it, I groggily yanked it out of its charger and squinted at the time. 7:14 am.

My first thought was the thing must have been broken. There was no way I’d sleep in during weekdays. Then I remembered it wasn’t a weekday but a Saturday.

By this time, other girls my age were already up, getting ready for their day –dates, appointments, meetings, while me, well, let’s just say I had other plans.

Without a care in the world, my lips curled into a smile and I fell right back to sleep.

Boy.

It was an early Saturday morning –the first in the month of November and I’m heading towards the Basketball Court.

Me and my buddies had this tradition of doing outdoor activities during the first weekends of the month. This had began on the month of July and we had already tried skateboard racing, campus jogging, surfboarding and parasailing and this time, the guys thought it would be nice to just have a friendly game of basketball under the cold air of November.

As the outline of my friends became visible in my line of sight, I thought about my entire campus life. I was now a senior –ready to graduate in the spring and even though my life had definitely been fun and exciting, I couldn’t help feeling incomplete.

I looked around and wondered, What am I missing?

“Kyuhyun! Hurry up!” my best friend, Henry, called from the distance and all those nagging thoughts disappeared in my head.

Girl.

I glanced at the clock. It was now 12: 35 pm.

Hmmm. Homework: check. Laundry: check. Phone call to Oppa: check. Alrighty, I’m done~. Time to take a walk.

Clutching my sketchpad and pencil, I began my adventure.

During this time of the day –a little bit after lunch, I usually visit the greenhouse, the lake, and the mini-forest. There’s something about the nature that draws me in and capturing it in my sketchpad always brings me comfort.

I’m not always alone, if you were wondering. I had my fair share of friends, too, and usually, we hang out together.  But during weekends, I normally begin the day alone and they would join me a little later. It gives me peace and freedom to think about anything I want.

I reached the greenhouse and took my usual position in the bench, and then I started drawing. Flowers, herbs, butterflies, everything my eyes caught, I made them alive in my sketchpad. And just like every time, it gave me a sense of calmness.

Finishing my first drawing of the day, I stood up and looked around, leaving my sketchpad and pencil in the bench.

My friends, Jihyun and Sihae, were probably in the mini-forest or in the park. Like me, they were sort of into the nature and luckily, our campus had enough of that for us. We were all in the art club and drawing was definitely something we have in common.

The door to the greenhouse opened and in came Jihyun herself.

“There you are, I was looking for you,” she said when she got closer.

Out of the three of us, Jihyun was the active type, always full of energy, ready to take on any challenge that might come her way. She usually does the planning about our activities.

“Why? Where’s Sihae?”

“She’s at the entrance of the Forest, waiting for us. She said she wanted to show us something. We better see her now or, you know.”

Yeah, I know. Sihae was the “mother” of our group. The one who always gives us advice about working hard at school, being a good person, not making other people wait because it’s rude, staying away from trouble and the likes.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Boy.

The game lasted about an hour or so. Our team won, of course, with Kangin-hyung and Heechul-hyung on the team. They’re pretty intimidating, you know. And after the game, we headed to the Mini-town, a large building –bigger than the Academic building– inside the campus where there were food booths, various stores, karaoke bar, restaurants and even a movie theatre. Our campus is pretty cool, huh.

“Have you heard of that Camp thing?” Donghae-hyung asked no one in particular.

“You mean the one where junior and senior gets to do together? It’s next weekend, right?” Siwon-hyung said.

“Uh-huh, and it’s going to be on the Forest. Said there’s a clearing big enough for all of us. I wonder why they suddenly thought we need to learn survival stuff. I mean, it certainly didn’t happen last year, so why now?” Heechul-hyung complained. It wasn’t really his forte to hang out with nature. As far as I’m concerned, it wasn’t anyone’s forte. Camping inside a forest, regardless how small it is isn’t really a tempting idea.

“Who knows? Something interesting might happen, Hyung,” surprisingly, it was me who said that. Hmmm, I guess my thoughts were still looking for that missing something. Maybe I’ll find it there.

He shrugged and went back to his food.  After that, everyone talked about the usual stuff. Who’s hanging out with who, who’s dating who, who’s interested in who. Weird, right? It definitely sounded like girl talk but that’s how we usually start our conversation. And sooner than later, it drifted to sports talk.

Early afternoon, I drifted back to the basketball court, alone. The guys went off to do something else, probably on a date. That’s one of the things they kept asking me about, why I didn’t date.

Sure, I had a girlfriend back when I was still a freshman but my views on dating drastically changed when I caught my ex-girlfriend cheating on me, no less with a guy on our basketball team. Apparently, my awesomeness wasn’t enough for her. Just kidding.

And from then, I realized I didn’t need a girl to be happy, just having my friends was enough.

I picked up the basketball and began shooting some hoops to take my mind off things. Little did I know that my opinions were about to be tipped upside down, again.

Girl.

Jihyun and I just crossed the academic building when I suddenly remembered my sketchpad. I face palmed myself.

“How could I forget it?” I muttered causing Jihyun to look at me curiously.

“What’s wrong?”

“My sketchpad. I forgot it. It was on the bench. Why don’t you just go ahead and I’ll catch up?” I suggested.

“Okay. I’ll tell Sihae. Just don’t take so long. Who knows what kind of lecture Sihae will give me if you wouldn’t show up in time,” she said, wincing jokingly at the thought.

I laughed. “Araso.”

Hoping for my sketchpad to be still in the bench, I walked back towards the greenhouse, this time taking a different yet faster route.

This part of the campus – sports field – was usually packed during warmer weathers but it was unusually quiet now because of the slight winter air.

I picked up my pace, my thoughts focusing back to my sketchpad. I passed the basketball court and was almost at the corner of the Academic building when something suddenly bonked me on the head.

Being the clumsy person that I was, I lost my balance and landed on my side on the ground.

“Hey! Are you okay?” someone yelled from the distance and I heard approaching footsteps.

I was too disoriented to even think of a response so all I did was nod, not sure if he saw that I did, and help myself get up.

I reached back and touched where the thing –a basketball, I would realize later– hit me. There wasn’t any lump or anything so I was okay, just a bit dizzy.

The footsteps gradually died down and I could hear labored breathing behind me. “Are you,” he paused, up a bit of air then exhaled, “okay?”

One hand on my head, I turned around and found a boy breathing heavily, his face towards the ground, his whole body bent, both his hands on his knees. I just realized he had run all the way from the other end of the basketball court.

“I am so – sorry,” he said to the ground, his voice slowly becoming steady. “I didn’t –”

“It’s okay,” I said in a polite voice. I opened my mouth to tell him that I was okay but he chose that moment to look up and I found myself staring into the most gorgeous brown eyes I had ever seen.

And just like that, time sort-of stopped. I really must be dizzy.