~01~
The Second Spring

all love stories begin the day someone falls in love. For Jessica, it was when she was 
seventeen, in Japan where she met Donghae on the first day of spring, and fell in love for
the first time.

They were both studying Japanese culture for different reasons. Unlike her, he wasn't a 
lucky scholar whose trip was sponsored by the school; he was here under a challenge 
from his father and grandfather. To be on the same place at the same time, meeting
Donghae was more than a lucky coincidence. Soon she will have to return to Korea while 
he says he's returning to London two weeks later. Jessica knew if she hadn't grabbed the
chance to talk to him (no matter how out-of-character it was), she will never see him again.
And that's something she doesn't want to happen.

"Since we both need this book, why don't we share it over coffee?" He invites her.

"S-sure."

Okay, so she wasn't really the one who made the move. But if she hadn't chased him after
handing him the book, he wouldn't have realized that she doesn't want to let go of it and
wouldn't have proposed sharing it instead.

Donghae was the happy kind of guy. The kind, playful, happy kind of guy. He was always
smiling at her, trying to make her comfortable. He was a gentleman too. Pulling her seat, 
paying her bills--as if the coffee shop nearby were a fancy restaurant. He was also incre-
dibly shy who blush at the most random of her comments. But to her, the most endearing 
thing about him was his eyes: they were small, almost to a slit, and they always seemed
as though he would tear up anytime. Maybe that's why his gazes felt very gentle. And when
he flashes that wide smile on her, his eyes would twinkle in consequence. He wasn't the
perfect boy but, although she hasn't realize it yet, Jessica loved him so.

They spent the last of their two weeks together, discovering the coveted Land of the Rising
Sun and themselves in the process. At times, she would still get surprised seeing him waiting
for her outside the university, on his hand different snacks and drinks from the  'konbini'
across the street. He was quite awed at the variety of sweets there were the first time they 
went to a convenience store. Maybe this was another trait of him to obsess and collect,
saying he wouldn't stop buying until he's tried them all.

"Just look at all these flavors for KitKat!"

"So, we have Red Bean Sandwhich KitKat today." He says, smiling excitedly, handing her 
share. "Where do you want to go now? It's almost time to go home."

"You say that as if we're never to see again." She could only smile the slightest, worried
because it could be true.

"Wow. You should do that more often."

"What?"

"Smile!"

So for their last day together, Donghae took Jessica to every photobooth in the mall's
arcade.  He forbid her to frown, and every frown would mean she would have to eat
cucumber salad. So she never frowned, not in a single picture. Her cheeks hurt like hell,
the corners of had lines on it, much to his delight, but she enjoyed it.

They kept in touch. Back in Korea, she was the studious achiever that she was again, but
she's made a friend who she exchange emails with (because he doesn't have twitter or
facebook) and excites her to go home earlier than she used to. They wrote 'did you come
back safe?' messages and asked for the weather, or what food they ate that day. He keeps
saying how he missed the different flavors of KitKat and made her promise to wait for him
to come to Korea so she can treat him to the Korea-only versions of the snack. She laughs
in front of the screen, imagining his dorky face as he demands her to virtual pinky swear.

Okay. I'll see you in Seoul!
*virtual pinky swear*


No matter how trivial it was, Jessica answered him--glad that at the very least, they were
still talking. The time difference proved to be hard especially during the examination week.
Whenever she responds late to his messages, she makes up for it with a long blog of update.
The first time Donghae did not return her mail, Jessica inwardly panicked. She didn't know
it, until Seohyun asked her why she was. Seohyun knows her too well to be wrong, and
that's when she came to realize that Donghae was special to her.

He contacts her again, first apologizing for not answering her the previous day. In his mail,
he asks her how she, a girl, would want to be confessed to. Her heart skips, and with pink
tainted cheeks, she types that she dreams for someone to write her a song. Hitting 'send',
Jessica eagerly awaits for his next email.

The next email comes two days after, with Donghae's confession:

I've finished writing her a song like you said. We have the same class
tomorrow and I plan to give it to her. Jessica, I think I'm really in love. 

Wish me luck!

That was the first time Jessica didn't want to reply his mail.


But she still did. Putting her damaged heart aside, she still found reason to write back. He
was still her friend, afterall. It was his mails that came less frequent, until the day came
when she didn't receive even a single one of it. Jessica started to hate the envelope icon
on her email page, especially when it alerts an unread message which turns out to be from 
that annoying promos to study Japanese. It was a real mistake to register in that online 
Japanese lesson site.

Time passed, seasons changed and she moved on, like she always has. She knew fully
well from the start they would sooner or later forget anyway. He was just the first one to
forget... and she was a fool to believe otherwise.

That was the end of her first love story.
 

***

it was days before the start of college when someone in the apartment next door had
moved in. Jessica rented Jonghyun's sisters' room which the siblings generously offered
her, reasoning that it's close to the university and 24 hour convenience stores, "so you
don't have to worry about food," they tease, considering she cannot cook to save her life.

"I can't believe your brother let you live alone in the city. You're a horrible cook!"
Jonghyun brutally judges of her first attempt to make hard boiled eggs, the easiest one
to cook, he says, one which she still failed doing.

"At least she's trying, Jonghyun. Don't bring her down!" Seohyun, her best friend, snaps
at the complaining guy. "I'll ask my mom to teach us how to cook, don't worry, Sica!"
She encourages. No matter how uptight and driven Seohyun is (her complete opposite),
Jessica loves her so much.

She sighs after remembering her friends. Being the only person in the apartment for
weeks made her miss them. Seohyun would be staying with her but she won't be
returning from her hometown for the next three days. So for now, she's alone. Well, not
completely anymore since someone's already moved in next door.

For dinner, she prepared herself a scrumptious ramen. Instant ramen. Thank god for
water heaters and Cook in 3 Easy Steps meals. As she slurps the noodles up, she could
somehow taste the authentic Japanese food she ate with a guy she met one spring day.
Come to think of it, it's almost springtime. I wonder-- She shakes her head, shaking
along the unwanted memory away.

*PLOP*

The sound of something dropping on her cup noodle and the tiny splash of its soup on her
arms and face knocked her back to senses. Jessica stares blankly at the additional topping
on her food, trying to make out what it was exactly.

Stands up. Walks in tiny, fast strides. Opens apartment door. Knocks on neighbor. Face deadpan.

The apartment next door opens. "Ye--?!!"

Screams at neighbor.

"AHHHHHHHHHH! HELP ME! YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!!! THERE'S A LIZA--"

Neighbor surprised.

"Jess..."

Huh?

A swirl of memories--the ones she tried to shake off earlier--returned like a big splash of 
waves: Envelope icon. Happily responding to an email. Back to Korea. Photobooth. Kitkat.
Coffe shop. Japan. Boring Japanese lecture. Weird senior. Library. Kanji book. "Kaze... Haru..."

"Kaze... Haru..."

Only two words escaped, echoing her thoughts as she stands there frozen, reptile on her
supper forgotten.

It's him... 

"Donghae? You are... Donghae, aren't you?"

...isn't he? 

She asks carefully, narrowing her eyes; fingers fidgeting, heart thumping heavy in her chest.
And as if on que, the very wind that twirled around them that day in the library one year ago
followed them here, prancing around, as if celebrating, as if something cosmic occured.

She had planned this before--what she'll do in case they meet again. For instance, what if
she suddenly ends up in London out of worry because he doesn't write to her anymore? She
decided she would scold him, give him a piece of her mind, tell him how mad she was at
him for disappearing, that she waited for him to come to Korea so she can buy him Korean
KitKats and you stupid jerk you made me virtual pinky swear but it's you who didn't keep
your promise...

He stands at the other end and she's calling out to all these pent-up emotions: he's here now,
it's your time to shine!

But they were nowhere to be found.

She swore to get mad at him... She is (supposed to be) mad at him, so why is she feeling
only one thing as she sees him stand in front of her?

He had stolen her heart, left her, kept her waiting, he even fell in love with someone else
and then disappeared without any goodbye, and yet... and yet Jessica still loves him all the
same.


「つづく」

A/N: .