It was the middle of September, where days weren't scorching nor freezing. The perfect time for pretty scarves, a flowy skirt, and a latte gripped between the fingers.

Also the perfect time to meet a boy.

Here was Soohyun, sitting on the park bench to observe the brilliantly colored leaves fall to the ground in a flurry. It literally meant a flurry of death, where dead leaves cascaded to the ground to be swept away by a breeze. The breeze was a bully, she thought. It pushed around the things that needed peace and quiet, the things that were meant to be observed from afar.

Soohyun bent to her knees to pick up the petite, broken leaf that was pushed under her foot only moments ago. "You and me? We're the same thing." she smiled, twirling the stem between her fingertips. "We're broken and pushed around, and we still have so many colors for other people to see."

"Then show me."

Soohyun released the leaf in horror and surprise. She bent down to examine it closely. "Did you just talk to me? Are you still alive? Did somebody alter your form?" she whispered frantically, the leaf in curiosity. A pair of legs slid next to her on the bench, and from her view, she didn't like the person. Dark, ripped jeans and a cigarette balancing between the boy's index and middle fingers. "No, I'm pretty sure I'm human. But I have muscles of a beast."

Soohyun rolled her eyes and sat up, glaring at the boy. "Get that murderer away from me." she muttered, and the boy raised an eyebrow. She flicked the bud from his hands and crushed it under the toes of her boot. "Ah, so you're not a smoker. You must be a goodie, then."

"Is that such a bad thing?"

The boy laughed, his eyes narrowing into a slim crescent as his chuckles rang in her ears. "Yeah. That means your innocent. Vulnerable. Somebody like you should never trust a guy like me." Soohyun flattened her skirt and cleared . "And what if I want to?" she challenged, squinting her eyes in an attempted glare.

He laughed again.

"You're cute." he grinned, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. She grunted and stood up. "And I'm also leaving."

He nodded his head slowly while closing his eyes, a sigh escaping his lips. "For once, somebody gave me a warning." Soohyun's irritation disappeared, and she stared at the boy for what seemed like an eternity. "People leave you, too?" she nudged, staring ahead.

"You could say that," the boy shrugged. "Why's that?" she queried. He opened his eyes and leaned close to her face, his stare flickering over her face in an examination. His breath smelled like nicotine, but his face looked like an 8 year old.

"I make people leave. Most of the time, intentional. But you? You're different. I did nothing, and you feel disgusted. Am I right?"

Silence.

"And then I would ask once if you could stay, then you would slap me and walk off. I usually don't encounter violence with girls, but your hostility is through the roof right now." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of cigaretters. He grasped it between his undeniably perfect teeth and lit it with a customized lighter.

"So, your colors." he started, his pronuniation less articulate with the stick in his mouth. "Excuse me?" Soohyun finally managed to say, but her voice made her seem confused because, well, she was. He bent down and picked up the leaf she was previously holding, and extended it towards her.

"'We're broken and pushed around, and we still have so many colors for other people to see.' Remember? So, what colors are you? What kind of sides do you have that others don't see?" he questioned, looking at the leaf like he read her dialogue off of it.

"Well...I'm blue." she answered, hoping that he would be able to interperet what she was saying. When she got silence as a response, she urgered herself to go on. "I'm sad. Constantly. I'm cold to everybody and there's nothing that anybody can do or say about it because they're scared of me. There isn't a thing in the world that could help me because right now, I'm hopeless."

Jinwhan's eyes lost their playfulness, and he stared at her for so long that she was uncomfortable. Without saying anything, he grabbed her hand and pushed her sweater sleeve up to see her wrist.

"...You're also red."

Soohyun wanted to cry.

He pulled her to his chest as she sobbed into his shirt, twisting the back of his jacket with her hands in frustration. This was embarrassing; crying in front of a boy that she just met. That's when reality caught up to her, and she pushed him away.

"I know what you're doing, and it isn't going to work on me. You think you can just come here and seduce me like you probably do with all the girls you see, and you're the one that is eventually going to leave. I'm tired of it, and I don't want to have to go through it again."

He was stunned. 

"What makes you think that I'm going to leave?" he quietly asked, his figure beginning to shrink in his seat. "You seem like the type." was all she could muster after her breakdown. 

"Let's make a bet. Whoever leaves first loses." he offered, grabbing the cigarette and blowing the smoke into the wind. "Consequences?"

"The burden of knowing that you abandoned somebody that trusted you."

Soohyun hesitated, because she wasn't going to agree to this without an answer. "Who are you anyway? I don't want to make bets with people I can't even acknowledge properly, I guess." The explanation sounded better in her head, she had to admit.

"Jinhwan. Kim. Kim Jinhwan."

He extended his surprisingly tiny hand for a shake in agreement, and Soohyun knew that this was a mistake.

She couldn't make herself agree to it. But before she knew it, her hand was shaking up and down with his, and a smile was spreading across their faces like a stain.