JIYONG

Flashback

I hated having to move house in the middle of the school year.

I have to ride the bus so I can attend to my school on the other side of town. My parents have decided to move since our new house is closer to Dad’s work, but they haven’t given a thought to my situation. They just told me that if I want I could enrol in the nearest high school next schoolyear.

“Are they kidding me?” I thought. “Who transfers school by senior year?”

I was still fuming about my parents when I rode the bus that day. I wore my hoodie over my head and stuffed my ears with my Ipod.

Suddenly I had a whiff of something smelling nice, or rather someone.

“Vanilla” I thought, recognizing the smell and realizing it was from the girl who sat beside me.

She had a face like an angel with her brows furrowed in deep concentration. She looked rather young and I was about to look away when I noticed she was reading a chemistry book.

“Wait. Was she in the same year as I am?” I thought. I noted that she was wearing her ID badge with the name Park and she studied in the nearby school.

She looked so adorable lost in her own world, that the idea of transferring to her school was suddenly appealing.  Maybe it would be nice to get to know her and meet her.

She got down on the next stop and I was a little disappointed to see her go. She did not even look up and notice me.

Everyday since then, I would wait for her to board the bus at exactly 6:00am.

I always try to reserve the seat beside me for her. She’d sit and start to read a book, sometimes it’s her books in class like english, science, history. Other times, she’d be reading novels and pocketbooks.

She’d go on that way, unmindful of her surrounding and of me. I could go on looking at her, unnoticed, with her scent filling me.

By 6:30, she’d be gone on her stop, leaving me with the lingering bouquet of vanilla.