The sun is shining bright on the light blue sky today.

Yoojung is sitting in the classroom doodling small hearts inside her red math notebook.

She feels like colouring the hearts pink, but she hasn't brought any colouring pencils with her today.

"Doyeon." she says her classmate, who sits at the desk next to her.

Her classmate turns around.

"Yes?"

"Do you got a pink coloured pencil?" she asks.

"Why?"

"Because I want to colour these hearts"

"Okay then." she says as she takes a pink coloured pencil out of her pencil case.

"Thank you very much." she says and grabs the pencil.

She starts colouring the hearts, while having a smile on her face.

Doyeon looks at her notebook.

"That's a lot of hearts." she says. "Do you have a crush on someone?"

"Well..." Yoojung responds as she stares at Eunwoo, who is sitting at the desk by the window, reading a book about astronomy.

Her face turns as pink as the hearts that she coloured.

"Let me guess." Doyeon whispers in her ear. "Is it Eunwoo?"

Her eyes widen.

"How did you know that?" she asks.

"It is pretty obvious."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you were just staring at him."

"Well... I can't help but stare when he looks so handsome."

"A handsome guy like him probably is in a relationship."

Yoojung feels like her heart is about to sink, hoping that it's not true.

"Do you think so?"

"Well.. you could ask him if he is single"

"No, I can't."

"Why?"

"I don't know, maybe because he would know that I have feelings for him."

"Why don't you tell him that you like him?"

"Because I am afraid of getting my heart broken, and I don't want him to dislike me."

"But if you don't confess, then you'll never know if he likes you back."

"You're right about that." Yoojung responds.

She finishes colouring the last heart, and starts searching to see if there is any heart missing the pink colour.

No, all the hearts are pink.

Then she puts the pencil back on Doyeon's desk.

"Thank you for letting me lend your pencil."

 

After she has been to school, she waits at the bus stop with her backpack on her back.

As she waits for the bus, she stares at the sky.

The sun is still shining on the sky, and there small clouds as white as a blank canvas, even though the weather today looks like a beautiful painting.

She looks at her watch that tells her that the bus might be there in 2 minutes.

Then she starts playing the game that she and Sejeong used to play, when they were kids.

The "What Does This Cloud Look Like?" game.

But because Sejeong isn't standing next to her today, she decides to play it alone, but secretly so that she doesn't get stares from people who think she might be a weirdo.

She looks at one cloud that she thinks at first looks like a cabbage.

She wonders if she might hungry, but she ate her lunch box two hours ago.

Then the cabbage starts looking more like a rose.

She thinks of the one day, she saw a beautiful, pink rose in a vase in the flower shop window and thought about buying it for Eunwoo as a Valentine's present, but then she found that idea to be too silly and never bought that rose.

The bus finally arrives and she gets inside it.

 

She takes a seat at the back next to the window.

She removes the backpack of her back and puts it in front of her.

The day has been exhausting, so she rests her head on the handle of her backpack.

The bus radio is playing a cheerful pop song that keeps mentioning the English word "Love".

She hugs her backpack and closes her eyes, imagining that she is giving Eunwoo a back hug.

But she knows that Eunwoo probably never will give her a hug.

She hopes that he is single and that he will like her back.

She keeps thinking of his smile, whenever he is together with his friends, looking like he feels comfortable around them.

How she wishes that he would smile to her like that.

She listens to the love song, while imagining him smiling, while looking her in the eyes.

"Love" is the word that she would describe her feeling for him.

Suddenly her closed eyes deafen her ears and she can't hear the love song anymore.

Her head feels dizzy.

And it feels like a part of her has left her body.

 

She opens her eyes again and lifts her head from the handle of her backpack.

She suddenly notices a person's legs wearing gray jeans next to her.

Then she looks at the person's face and notices that it is Eunwoo, who is still wearing his school uniform.

She gasps and her eyes widen.

"Eunwoo? Is tha-that you?" she stutters.

"Yeah, of course it is me." he responds and giggles.

His laughter makes her feel butterflies in her stomach.

"Wha-what are you doing here?"

"Well, I had to grab a bus home, because I live far away."

She can't believe that she is right now sitting and talking with her crush.

"I live far away too." she says.

She looks around and notices that the both of them are the only ones inside the bus.

The bus driver is gone.

Through the window, she sees a lot of pink rose bushes and grass.

The sky is still light blue, but all the clouds are pink and look like cotton candy.

"Where are we?" she asks him.

"I don't know." he responds.

He gets up from his seat and grabs his backpack that has been sitting on the seat in front of them.

She gets up too and puts her backpack on her back again.

They get out of the bus, whose door has been opened since her eyes opened.

They step on the grass.

She feels the scent of cotton candy and roses.

She walks closer to the rose bush noticing something different about them.

"I have never ever seen roses without thorns." she says.

"I haven't either."

He grabs a rose from the bush, and puts it close to his nostrils, closing his eyes.

She stares at him, admiring his eyelashes.

"It kind of smells like cotton candy."

Then he s his backpack and puts the rose inside.

"I have to show this to our biology teacher." he says joyfully. "Maybe she might tell us more about these roses."

For some reason she finds it charming, whenever she hears him in biology class asking questions about plants. Especially on that day, they were learning about photosynthesis.

"I'm excited to know what she has to tell us about these roses."

"And I want to know the chemistry behind why they smell like cotton candy." he says. "Maybe these roses contain sucrose?"

"I don't know about that."

"No, a rose containing sucrose sounds ridiculous." he says and feels the opposite of smart.

She looks up at the clouds, wanting to play that game again, but the only things she sees in the skies is cotton candy.

He takes his phone out of his backpack and tried to turn it on, but there is only a black screen.

"How weird." he says. "I was pretty sure my cellphone's battery was on 80%, when I was in school."

She takes her phone out of the pocket of her uniform skirt.

She tries to turn it on too.

"Mine doesn't work either." she says.

He sighs and ruffles his hair.

"How on earth am I supposed to go home now?" he says anxious. "My father will scold me if I'm too late."

"My mother would freak out."

"What am I supposed to do?" He feels a lump in his throat.

"Maybe we could go hitchhike." she says.

He looks at her with relief.

"I guess that might be a great idea." The lump disappear.

They walk on the grass, not seeing any roads or cars.

They find another bush with pink roses.

He grabs a rose, putting it close to his nostrils again.

"It's another cotton candy rose."

Then he looks at her, while caressing the petals of the rose.

"Yoojung." he says. Her eyes widen. She has never heard him say her name and has assumed he didn't know. "There is something, I need to tell you."

"What do you want to tell me?" she asks.

"If we never get to leave this place, I want you to know that I like you."

She can't believe her ears.

Her heart starts beating fast.

"As a classmate or friend?" she asks.

"As someone, that I would want to be in a romantic relationship with." he walks towards her and gives her a hug, putting his palms on her backpack.

"How long have you felt that way?" she asks him.

"Since I first saw you." he says.

Her face turns into the colour of cotton candy rose.

"What about you?" he asks. "Do you like me too?"

"I love you." she says in English.

"That means saranghae in English, right?" He asks.

"I like you too." she says.

He breaks the hug.

She looks into his eyes.

"But why?" she asks. "Why didn't you tell me that you liked me too?"

"Because I thought you were going to reject me for being a nerd."

"No, I like you just the way you are." she says.

He feels tears in his eyes and smiles at her.

She smiles at him too.

He caresses her cheek with his palm.

"Thank you for liking me back." he says.

Behind him, she sees a bunch of pink heart floating.

Hearts that look like the ones that she drew and coloured.

Then he puts his other palm on her cheek and his face gets closer to hers.

She closes her eyes, waiting for the touch of his lips on hers.

 

She opens her eyes and lifts her head from the handle of her backpack.

She is in that bus again.

But Eunwoo isn't there.

She notices that it is dark inside the bus.

Then she notices a bus driver standing there.

"Oh finally, you're awake." he says. "You were in a real deep sleep. I tried to wake you up, but it didn't work."

"Where is Eunwoo?" she asks.

"What are you talking about?"

"The guy that was sitting next to me."

"I don't know what you are talking about." he says. "There was no one sitting next to you."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, you have probably just been dreaming about that guy."

She feels her heart sink.

Was all of this just a dream?

She feels tears wanting to escape her eyes, but she holds them back in front of the bus driver.

"I can drive you home." he says. "Where do you live?"

"I live in Guri." she answers.

 

The next day, she is in the classroom again, sitting and looking at the page of her notebook, where she drew the hearts.
She tries to hold back her tears.
She thought she had shed all her tears when she tried to sleep in her own bed last night.
"Is everything alright?" Doyeon asks.
"Well.. I dreamt that Eunwoo liked me back."
"And now you're sad because it only was a dream?"
She nods.
She looks around and it seems like Eunwoo has not arrived yet.
She wonders where he is.
Then she decides to go to the bathroom to shed her tears until there is nothing left.

While Yoojung is in the bathroom, Eunwoo arrives in the classroom.
Everyone is staring at him.
His jeans having dirt on it's knees.
He puts his backpack on his desk and s it.
He takes out the cotton candy rose.
He puts the rose close to his nostrils again.
The scent of cotton candy is still there.
He wonders why Yoojung disappeared when he tried to kiss her.