[CONTENTID1]03[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]PINK POLAROID[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]Word Count: 3.9k/ Published On Nov 27 2020[/CONTENTID3]

[CONTENTID4]

※ underline = formal ※

           The next day was quite chilly.

           In the news, they talked about how flowers will soon bloom and the coming of spring, but when in the streets, there were only padded jackets everywhere. It was unusually colder today. Far from spring, it seemed colder than any day from last winter.

           On a cold morning, it was common to particularly not want to go to work or do any work, but Yu Jimin’s chauffeur had to do things that he usually didn’t do to make matters worse. The morning routine that would have ended once Jimin was normally dropped off at the school’s front main gate was suddenly changed to the back gate, and he was issued a picky order to find a cute girl with milky skin, bright, big eyes, and lips like cherries.

           “What time is it now?”

           “It’s twenty minutes past seven. 1”

           “We have to go to school by 8:30, but did we come too early?”

           “Well, I don’t…”

           Jimin sat cross-legged in the back seat of the sedan, looked out the window, and asked the chauffeur what time it was every five minutes. They looked at the students who were starting to appear from their way to school and she asked if he had seen the names of the students that had passed by from their name tag2. The chauffeur was sweating, not because of the heaters in the car, but because of Jimin. For some reason, she had woken up early in the morning and urged him to go to the school’s back gate at six, but when they arrived, they sat idly in the car at the back gate of the school for an hour in search of a girl.

           “This car is tinted, right? Ah, I should wait outside then.”

           “...”

           “Because she might be delighted to see my face. Right?”

           As her chauffeur, she was continuously asking questions that he wasn’t able to answer. Jimin adjusted her coat again and got out of the car. As soon as she got off, the cold wind swirled around her ankles. Normally, this kind of weather would have made her frown and cuss but today was different. “This much isn’t so bad.” Jimin, who despised the cold, said that. It was to the point where the chauffeur, who had just heard that, couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

           Jimin waited for fifty minutes next to the sedan that breathed a white sigh continuously from the back exhaust. She stood there without moving anywhere, without frowning at all like a jangseung3. When her ears and the tip of her nose froze red and her hands were swollen and numb, Minjeong trudged from the entrance of a narrow path in the distance. Until then, too many students had passed Jimin, and she was not able to recognize Minjeong right away when she appeared. It was only when she saw her milky jawline passing by in front of her that she finally noticed it was Minjeong. She caught up with her in a hurry. She had been in one place for so long that she had stumbled.

           “You’re dressed in pitch black again today.”

           Jimin didn’t ask if Minjeong didn’t recognize her or if she pretended not to know even if she did. She just smiled and murmured as if she was happy to have found Minjeong on her way to school.

           “Hello.”

           Only then did Minjeong greet her bluntly. To be honest, she knew it was Jimin who stood in front of the back gate from the beginning of the narrow path. However, she couldn’t bring herself to act like she knew Jimin or cope with the aftermath of greeting her. So, she pretended not to know her. Although she was caught shortly after.

           “You might get cold. You’re just wearing a windbreaker.”

           Jimin murmured in concern. In Minjeong’s own way, she wore a lot of layers underneath, and she wore a Gore-Tex windbreaker so her attire was reassuring. In reality, it wasn’t that cold. But from Jimin’s point of view, she wondered if it was enough to wear a windbreaker when others wore long padded jackets. Of course, from Minjeong’s perspective, Jimin was not in a position to talk about others. Jimin wore a coat over her school uniform with her ears and nose red.

           “I’m not cold.”

           “Really? From what I see, you…”

           “Look really cold.” Jimin muttered such a sound and trembled to a great extent. Minjeong glanced at Jimin and spoke.

           “Sunbae, you must be cold.”

           Minjeong focused on the fact that she was cold, but Jimin only heard the word, “sunbae”. Jimin forgot the cold and murmured excitedly.

           “Did you say sunbae?”

           “...”

           “Specially, you can call me unnie.”

           Minjeong, who had been walking forward, sneaked a glance at Jimin. Jimin’s eyes were smiling beautifully.

           “Although you can of course call me sunbae!”

           “Sunbae.”

           “Yeah?” Jimin answered quickly. Before they knew it, they were both inside the building. They were also on the second flight of stairs. The seniors were on the second floor and the juniors were on the floor above. Minjeong naturally faced the stairs upstairs and spoke. Briefly.

           “It’s twenty past eight. The time I go to school.”

           Jimin stood at a distance and didn’t answer anything. It was because she was so touched. Jimin understood her immediately even though there was no additional explanation such as “It’s because you waited for a long time” or “Don’t wait for me next time and come on time.” Anyway, Minjeong went up the stairs nonchalantly. Regardless of who, making someone wait for a long time made her uncomfortable so that was all she did while Jimin tried to hide her warmed up heart from her hoobae’s reasonable kindness.

///

           Minjeong was passionate about her studies.

           Before she left home, she passionately took private tutoring, and when she left home, she couldn’t continue to attend so she tried to concentrate and worked harder during classes in school. She always checked things like reservations for transactions or personal messages after class. Was it because she stopped contacting all of her friends after she left home? Even though she checked her phone like that, the number of messages she received were not so bad. But she couldn’t do that today at all. Her phone kept blinking. There was a flood of messages from an unknown number. Even though it was anonymous, who the sender was obvious.

           [How can you say something like that? To think it’s 8:20]

           [I can’t believe you graciously told unnie that…]

           She was worried that she might have done something that she shouldn’t have. Minjeong truly never even dreamed that she would make such a fuss like this.

           [I didn’t know you cared about me that much]

           [I’m so thankful and so touched that I want to repay you]

           She wasn’t sure what her purpose was for making such a fuss like this. The contents of the messages were so absurd that her lecture was no longer visible to her.

           [Can I come pick you up in the morning?]

           [Just say it’s okay even if you don’t like it]

           [Because I really want to repay you]

           [Also let’s eat lunch together today]

           What should she say? Minjeong, who had been determined to wait and see, shook her head. She didn’t send a single letter, but the messages piled up one by one. She didn’t know what kind of bomb explosion would go off if she replied to this situation. Minjeong decided to flip her phone over and not open it. To never, ever react.

///

           At the same time, Jimin seemed to be a patient suffering from a fever all day.

           For the first time, she knew what it felt like to have mood swings just by looking at someone’s name. She just blanked out. She never did drugs but did it feel like this? Her feelings swelled up all day long and floated like a cloud. It was Jimin’s friends that suffered from Jimin who acted as if she was drunk.

           “What’s wrong with her?”

           “Leave her alone. She won’t say.”

           “Did you find yourself a man? Is there something going on between him and you?”

           Jimin kept her focus on her phone and was not interested in what her friends said. Still, when she heard them ask if she found a man, she smirked. A man? Those lukewarm brainless things. If what she felt like right now, which was like flying, was a 100, then they wouldn’t have ever been a 1.

           “Hey, Lee Hyojin.”

           Jimin called after snickering.

           “What?”

           Fire-filled eyes asked the friend that answered indifferently.

           “Don’t you want to smoke?”

           “What bull are you talking about, seriously.”

           “Ah, Wongyu. Are you not going to buy Wongyu cigarettes?”

           “What do you mean? I gave him a pack the day before yesterday. Is there a reason to make him a heavy smoker or something?”

           “That’s right. That’s true.” Jimin muttered while bursting into a bewildered smile continuously. “She must be crazy.” “She is crazy.” “What’s wrong with you?” Her friends joked in murmurs. One of her friends, who was staring at Jimin, who seemed out of her mind, murmured as if she was really worried.

           “You’re not doing something weird without us knowing, are you?”

           “Oh, it’s because I’m in a good mood. It’s my mood…”

           “Jimin-ah, get a hold of yourself. Your mother is the chairman of this school’s foundation. Stop talking about cigarettes.”

           After one of them took it seriously, the rest of her friends nodded as well. Come to think of it, she was right. Jimin was always careful about her behavior at school because of her mother, who was the founding chairman. She couldn’t swear recklessly when there were many people around, and controlled herself in all aspects including tardiness, early dismissal, absence, even her attitude in class. Yu Jimin was the face that came to mind when one heard the name of the school even though she didn’t wear the chai