Just thirty more minutes, Jisoo thought. Just thirty more minutes before she had to leave the dressing room.

She turned her gaze from her reflection in the mirror to the ceiling to floor window, averted her attention from her white dress to the fully blooming cherry blossom trees standing in a neat line by the Han river.

With a smile, she thought, Spring–what a nice season for a wedding.

“Are you ready?” her mother asked as he walked into the room towards Jisoo. “Jongin is already at the Church.”

Jisoo forced a weak smile. “I couldn’t reach the zip, Eomma.” Her hands fumbled behind her back. “Could you help me to zip it up, Eomma? Oh, and the tiara–”

Her mother chuckled. “Jennie sure picked a really complicated dress. Why not just choose the traditional way?” Her Hanbok-donned mother pulled the dress together behind her daughter’s back to which she held her breath momentarily.

“Because Jongin-oppa’s family is Christian?” Jisoo grimaced when she felt the dress tightened. “Anyway, Eomma, aren’t Hanboks more complicated to wear than western style dresses.”

“We’re done,” Kim Hyesoo clapped her hand once. “Now get up, Jisoo-yah. Let Eomma see you.”

Jisoo did what her mother asked.

Tears welled up in her mother’s eyes as their gaze met each other. “You’re very beautiful.” Hyesoo held out a hand to cup her daughter’s cheek and caressed it gently. “My daughter is very beautiful.”

Jisoo embraced her mother in a tight hug, but she would not cry.

Only for today, she would not cry.

(Spring, eight years ago)

“Jisoo-yah! Sehun-ah!”

Jisoo heard the cry for them when they stood around a bunch of fallen cherry blossom petals, her heart skipped. When she turned her eyes towards the source of the voice, at level three on the third window from the left of the building, Jisoo saw his head jutted out of the window while he waved at them.

“Yah! You guys are late!” Jongin shouted. “SOPA’s pretty cool!”

“Ugh. He’s so embarrassing,” Sehun complained at her side, ignoring Jongin. “Let’s go, Jisoo-yah.”

“Huh. Hey, you’re not gonna go say hi to Jonginie-oppa, Sehun?”

“No.”

“Why?”

At that moment Jisoo did not realize Sehun was staring at her because she had her eyes trained on Jongin.

“Because he’s very annoying.”

Finally, Jisoo was pulled out from whatever enchantment that pulled her in. “Huh? What about him is annoying?”

‘Like how you’d call him oppa when we’re all the same age,’  Sehun thought wistfully.

“Nothing,” Sehun dismissed. He was already a few steps ahead of Jisoo. “Let’s go find where our classroom is, we shouldn’t be late on the first day of school.”

Jisoo felt there was something odd about it when she stared at Sehun’s back at the time, but she quickly let it go. She turned up and smiled at Jongin again before she chased after Sehun and ready herself for her first day at high school.

The manager of the music club was such a beauty.

“Like I mentioned earlier, this year our music club’s doing really well, a few people are trainees from the Big 3 companies,” the girl introduced herself as Park Chaeyoung told her in the hallway. “I am the only manager for the club, so I thought it would be great to have help from another member of the club. One of the new club recruit, Kim Jongin, told me you guys went to the same middle school and you’re very organized and reliable, Jisoo-ssi. I’d be super happy if you could join the club and also become the second manager for us.”

Jisoo said yes without much thought. Unsure at hindsight whether it was because she was too entranced at Park Chaeyoung’s beauty and friendliness, or because of Jongin.

Maybe it was the latter.

“Why didn’t you join the music club too, Sehun-ah?” Jisoo confronted her tall, fair-skinned best friend one day when the sky was starting to turn orange and the class was already empty. “Don’t you also love to sing?”

“There are too many idol trainees in the club,” Sehun answered unmoved in his seat with his eyes closed. “Besides, I’ve always preferred Hip-hop.”

“Well, you never know unless you try, Sehun-ah, and you can also rap in the club. Besides Jongin-oppa is also in the club it’ll be fun–”

“So did you actually got to tell him in the end?”

There was not a single trace of anger in Sehunn’s words at the moment, but Jisoo felt the hurt in his smile–it was cynical and bitter.

Jisoo realized she made a huge mistake. “Sehun-ah, I–”

“Just tell Jongin how you feel about him as soon as possible, Jisoo. Even I feel pathetic looking at the both of you. You both a