You sat on the swing in a local park just as the sun began to set. A gentle breeze ruffled your long, wavy hair, pushing it out of your face. The descending sun kissed your porcelain skin gently, warming your body just enough for the late August evening. The cool grass beneath your feet tickled her toes, and a smile graced your lips. You looked off into the distance, feeling the warmth on your face. As you rocked back and forth on the swing, you felt the wind around you change. You felt it push against your back, and then push against your front. You closed your eyes.

 

Back to front...

 

Back to front...

 

In and out...

 

In and out. You could hear your breathing as own inhaled and exhaled calmly. You could hear the rush of wind past your ears. You heard the collage of sounds around you, from the soft commotions coming from the cafe across the street, to people walking past the small playground around you, to the extra loud chirping of crickets at your feet. Everything was a little louder than it should be, which meant that you could also hear the crystal-clear sound of someone approaching you.

 

You opened your eyes, but saw no one, or anything.

 

All you saw was black.

 

"____!" The voice was all-too familiar to you, and you smiled.

 

"Oppa!" You stood from the swing, and turned toward the sound. Instantly you felt a pair of arms wrap around your waist. Your feet left the ground as the person spun you around in his arms. Your hands flew to his shoulders as you let out a squeal. His laughter reached your ears, a soft chuckle filled with warmth. After two circles, he set you down, and then pulled you into his arms. The smile on your face was wider as you hugged him back, drinking in his scent; it was that sweet, slightly spicy aroma that was his natural smell. You had grown to recognize it anywhere.

 

"Minseok-oppa," you whispered. He squeezed you, and then pulled away, but still had a gentle grip on your arms.

 

"____, how are you?"

 

"Good, you?"

 

"Tired; work kicked my !" Minseok sat you back down on the swing, and took a seat on the swing next to you. You could feel his eyes on you, and you gazed back at him, smiling.

 

Again, you saw no one, but the smile on your face never faded.

 

All you saw was darkness.

 

"How'd you get here?" Minseok asked.

 

"I took the bus," you replied, looking down, kicking the ground slightly so you began to swing again.

 

"The bus!" Minseok's voice held a tone of alarm and surprise. You could hear his heels grind themselves into the ground as he sharply halted.

 

"Yes, the bus." You looked at him quizzically, and could feel waves of insecurity pulse from the embodiment of your friend. You tsked and let out a sigh.

 

"I was fine, oppa." Your voice held a twinge of disappointment in it. Minseok let out a sigh of his own.

 

"I know, but still I worry..." Minseok's eyes were on you once again. His voice was soft.

 

"Did your mom text me from your phone letting me know you were coming, or..."

 

"Nope! Check this out." You had gained momentum on the swing, but you dug your heels into the ground to come to a stop. Reaching into your back pocket, you pulled out your phone.

 

"Look at this." You unlocked your phone as you slid your finger across the screen, and upon hearing the phone click, you knew you had unlocked it. You then lifted the phone to your lips.

 

"Send to Min-Min, 'I'm here at the park.'" you instructed.

 

"Did you say, 'I'm here at the park'?" The cellphone asked.

 

"Yes."

 

"Sending message." Your phone chimed twice, before saying, "Message sent."

 

"Wow! Voice activated!" Minseok took your phone, examining it.

 

"Isn't it cool?" You beamed at the older boy next to you.

 

"Yeah, it is-- Oh..." The both of you heard a ding as Minseok's phone signalled that it had received a message.

 

"I'm here at the park," Minseok read. He looked at you.

 

"Looks like no more blind texts, huh?"

 

"No more blind texts," you reciprocated, giggling at the double meaning of his sentence.

 

"Instead I'll get weird, voice-activated texts," he teased.

 

"What?"

 

"You'll talk in your sleep and it'll pick it up," Minseok continued. You heard the smile in his voice.

 

"Yah," you started, chuckling.

 

"I'll get a text at three in the morning, I'll open it and it'll say complete jibberish--"

 

"Yah!"

 

"It'll say, 'Mmmrfhhh hmm Min-Min-oppa mmhh'--" He laughed as you reached out to shove him, but gripped his arm and hugged it, giving it a squeeze. Minseok smiled and kissed the top of your head quickly.

 

"I will not~!" You were laughing with him, and you shook your head at his silliness. "Aniya~."

 

"I'm kidding~ But you never know," Minseok chuckled. Again, you shook your head, rolling your eyes at his humor.

 

The two of you fell silent as you took in the senses of the evening. You could no longer feel your friend's eyes on you, but over you. You assumed he was looking at the sunset, which, judging by how cool your skin was, was almost below the horizon. Again, you listened to the near-overpowering sounds all around, before looking at your friend.

 

"It's going to get dark soon. We should get home," you suddenly stated. A chuckle, sort of a snort escaped Minseok's lips.

 

"How you can tell time still blows my mind..." You could hear your friend get up from the swing next to you, and circle around you. Your head moved with the sounds his feet made as they combed through the grass, until they stopped on your left side. He was looking at you, and you gazed up at him, where you assumed his face was.

 

Minseok looked down at you. As he did so, his heart beat a little faster, naturally. He took in your features; from your flawless skin to the slight blush on your cheeks, from your heart-shaped, berry-stained lips to your tiny smile.

 

From your big eyes to their grey, clouded-over pupils. His smile faltered, as he looked into them. They were foggy, and your pupils could barely be seen. They stared back at him, wavering slightly, as if they were trying not to be obvious that they were frantically searching for his face.

 

Sightless.

 

Innocent.

 

Blind. Minseok's face scrunched up in sadness, before he erased the troubled complexion and replaced it with a smile. He reached out and touched your hand gently, letting you know where he was. His hand lingered there until you placed your own in his, where he clasped it and helped you off of the swing. You stood up, and held his hand, secretly enjoying its warmth and comfort that you were so familiar with. With your other hand, you reached for your cane that you used to guide yourself around. You tucked the came under your arm. He started walking and you did too, following him as he led you down the street.

 

"You never answered my question, though," Minseok pressed.

 

"It's all about the temperature. I feel the sun on my skin, and judging how intense the sun's warmth is, and where it's located, I can tell what time it is. And, of course, you know about the whole 'Cricket' theory, right?"

 

"Mmhmm." Minseok seemed genuinely interested, and a smile crept across your lips once again.

 

"It's true; count the number of chirps and add a base number to it, and that's how warm it is; well, give or take a few degrees. And every morning, I listen to the forecast to know what the weather's like." You felt Minseok stop, and you stopped as well. He put his hands on your shoulders.

 

"You're so smart." He shook you slightly.

 

"No, I'm not," you interjected.

 

He ignored you. "If you had eyes, you'd be dangerous!"

 

"Yah!" You playfully slapped one of his hands away. "Who needs eyesight to be dangerous?"

 

"But no one suspects you; you're the innocent blind girl."

 

You laughed, albeit bitterly. "Please; I can knock someone out with this cane right here." You motioned toward your cane with a tilt of your head. "I can just chuck it right now; I'm dangerous, oppa."

 

"Yah yah yah yah yah-- no no no no!" Minseok grabbed both of your hands, and held them tightly in his own. "I didn't mean violence!"

 

"Just trying to prove my point, here," you giggled, but a part of you grimaced. Yet another reminder that you were blind, that you weren't normal, and that you had a disadvantage. You hated it that you were discriminated for not being able to see. You had tried to declare yourself a normal person amongst the rest of the world, but sometimes it just deemed impossible... You had a disability. And it kept you from doing the things you wanted to do most, the things that others did and took for granted...

 

And you knew Minseok was only joking, but what he didn't know was that sometimes his jokes hurt you. Inwardly, you sighed. What you would do to be able to see...

 

You wanted to socialize openly with the rest of the world. You wanted to talk and look into their eyes as you spoke, instead of merely looking in their direction. You knew it looked awkward, but then again, you only really talked to a few people: Minseok, and your family. Family was mandatory; you knew that you truly would be nothing without them there. Your umma and appa had been desperately searching for a cure to your blindness, but in your twenty-one years of being sightless, they found nothing so far; rather, nothing cheap, or in the area.

 

Minseok gave a gentle tug on your hand, and the two of you began walking once again.

 

Minseok was your only friend. It wasn't by choice, but rather by force. You had met in highschool, where the two of you were lost on the first week of your freshman year. He had guided you to class, and you thought that your random encounter had ended the second you stepped into your classroom. However, after that day, he pointed you out in the halls and stayed by you, would scream "Hallway buddy" across the halls, and declared you as his friend. You were trapped. And, for a while, you regretted meeting him, seeing as you never exactly had any friends, and he was troublesome keeping up with. But, after a while, you grew to like having him around, and he was patient with you. It soon began to grow more than a simple tolerance, but a strained friendship. However, recently it had grown to something more. As years passed, you began to feel a sort of infatuation for the friend you could not see. Your distaste for having him around you soon grew to be an adoration. Even now, it took everything you had to not interlace your fingers with his.

 

Minseok was understanding of your blindness, and would point things out for you in detail, which became more intricate as time passed. He told you about colors, and the color of objects. He showed you different textures of things you had never come into contact with before, and got his own personal kick out of your expressions when discovering these new things.

 

You just hoped that was good enough for him to stick around. Half a question was raised every now and then whether he felt like he had to stay by you, and if he regretted befriending you.

 

After all, wthout sight, you were very nearly helpless, hence the reason why you were left alone. You wondered if you were like a parasite, the independence out of everyone you came in contact with. When thoughts like these came, in which they came often, you resorted to seeking more answers...

 

"Oppa."

 

"Hmm?"

 

"What's the color of the sky tonight?"

 

Minseok hummed for a moment, taking in the sunset. "It's pink, sorta like a coral or salmon color for its base. You can just barely see the sun over the horizon, which is pitch black, by the way, due to the shadow. Around that blinding ball of light is the color yellow, mixed in with white tints and orange hues, which spread out and get darker until they mix into the salmon color. There are a few wispy clouds in the sky, and those are tinted purplish-blue. The sky above our heads is still blue, though, but it's slowly fading to said salmon color." He finished his description, and looked over his shoulder at you. You appeared to be mesmerized.

 

"Sunsets... They always change, don't they?" Your voice came out as an awed whisper. You heard Minseok hum once again in agreement, before the two of you turned a corner.

 

"Whenever I get my eyesight, that's one of the first things I want to see," you declared.

 

"Jeongmal?"

 

You nodded you head and hummed in clarification.

 

"But before I see one of those, I want to see my family first.... And I want to see you."

 

Minseok smiled, and his grip on your hand tightened, but inside of him panic struck, and uneasiness made him take a sharp intake of breath.

 

"Awww, you won't want to be my friend if you see me!" The reply held humor in it, but it was a secret inquiry begging for an answer.

 

"Yah; if I put up with you for this long, and you put up with me for just as long, you can't get rid of me by physical appearance; are you kidding me?"

 

"Yeah, but--"

 

"Besides; you know how I am with people and how they look. I can't tell what they look like. I go by personality: they are beautiful if they have a nice personality." You paused, thinking, then continued. "Looks don't matter. It's the character that counts. The world relies too much on what they see. If they were in my situation, they wouldn't know what to do with themselves. So don't worry about that kind of stuff, and besides; I highly doubt that you're not attractive, Min-Min."

 

Minseok laughed, and relief washed over him, but a frown replaced his smile quickly after. He squeezed your hand gently, in which you reciprocated.

 

"I'm just making sure," Minseok said finally. "Just in case you change your mind."

 

"Which I won't," you replied, then added quietly, "You always ask me that..."

 

Minseok pretended not to hear, but instead walked in silence. His mind and his heart began to race once again. He gripped your hand and continued to guide you through the streets, to the apartment complex that the two of you lived in. You lived on the first floor, while he, along with his friends lived on the third. You could tell that you were home; the smell of food cooking wafted through your open window, and you recognized your mother's secret spice.

 

"Something good must have happened for her to be cooking with that," you said, referring to the aroma. "Thank you for taking me home, and dealing with my trouble." You released his hand, and opened your arms for a hug. Instantly you were taken into his arms as he hugged you tightly.

 

A blush crept across your face as he held you. You fit perfectly in his arms; the way his arms encircled your waist and the way his chin rested on top of your head. It always seemed to take your breath away, and the entirety of your being longed for tender moments like these, and hugs like these, moments like these to never end. He pulled away, but not without kissing you on the cheek.

 

"Oh!" You looked at him with a surprised expression on your face, and you felt the blush intensify. He laughed sheepishly.

 

"Oh, hey; do you want to come inside? Eat dinner with us," you offered.

 

"Nah; like I said, I'm pretty tired... I'll pass, but thank you. Give your mom a hug for me, arrasso?"

 

"Will do," you replied. "Get some sleep, Min-Min. I'll see you-- I'll talk to you later." With that, you opened your door