~The Third Heartbeat~
The Past & the Present

I casually headed down the eastern pathway while hearing the sonorous ringing of school bells in the air, signalling that the school day had reached its end. In my mind, I was reflecting on the events that had happened since that eventful first day. It had already been a few weeks since then, but it was the only day that stuck around in my memory. That time, I went to the Faculty of Arts at lunch to check out classes for my electives and bumped into Yoongi and Namjoon along the way. They had been bickering over some matter regarding their class project for music composition, but I didn’t really understand any of the jargon they spewed out of their mouths.

They took me around the Faculty of Arts, showing me where the home economics, dance, vocal, literature, fine arts and acting classes were. I was honestly surprised at how many different majors there were in the Faculty of Arts. I was a science major, which meant I generally stuck around the Faculty of Mathematics & Science, where there were majors like engineering, computer science, programming, and other stuff. I hadn’t even been the Faculty of Arts until last year, when students were given the opportunity to explore a few electives outside their major if they wished to. Sometimes I wonder why I even took science when I was never that interested in mathematics in the first place. I was always more interested in the performing arts, even as a kid. Ultimately, all I wanted was to become a son that my parents would be proud of, and that meant getting a stable job at a good company. Singing or acting was a hit-or-miss career; you either became incredibly popular or failed miserably. Back when choosing a major, I decided it wasn’t worth the risk, but to this day, my decision still lingers around in the back of my mind.

In the end, I chose to enroll in Vocal Techniques and Acting for my electives. I wasn’t much of a dancer anyway and was already a pretty decent chef considering I cooked my own meals every day. But it was worthwhile checking the classes out anyways. I managed to meet and befriend Jung Hoseok, who was one of the only dance majors at our school and also a senior like myself. He seemed like a daydreamy klutz at first, since I couldn’t help but notice how smiley and easy-going he was when conversing with him. He was so happy-go-lucky that it was hard to imagine him as a dance major, but as soon as he the music and started to dance, I came to the realization that I hadn't even come close to witnessing his true abilities. His moves were extremely clean and he always managed to hit every beat on the dot. The way he moved was incredibly expressive and powerful at times, yet he was subtle and fluid whenever the music slowed down. His smile would be replaced by a serious and alluring expression that managed to captivate me within a single stare. I had never seen anything like it before.

I suddenly broke out of my thoughts when I felt a drop hit my head. A light shower started pouring down, drowning out the cemented cobblestones with drops accumulating into shallow puddles. If I looked into one of them, I might’ve been able to see my own reflection but each raindrop always destroyed it, creating ripples that never seemed to stop. The rain was soaking everything in sight. It dropped the temperature down a bit, but that was typical for an autumn day. The delicate red, orange and yellow leaves that fell from the trees earlier in the morning were still scattered all over the path. They were no longer crisp and instead limp from the rainwater.

Thanks to gut instinct, I’d figured that it would rain today. It had been raining more nowadays since the fall season was starting to fully kick in. It was a good thing I decided to bring my umbrella to school. Taking the pastel pink object from my bag, I opened it up and spread its wings. Nobody ever expects me to adore the colour pink, but I just found it endearing. When I was young, I was often compared to my classmates around me. I was a sensitive child and also the youngest in the family so it never took much for me to start tearing up despite being told that boys weren’t supposed to cry. Thinking back on it, my mother would always quietly listen to the other mothers pridefully brag about their sons and how successful they were while she never spoke a word about me, the clumsy crybaby of a son she had. But even then, she still loved me with all her heart, often bringing things to make me happy when she arrived home from work. Teddy bears, candies, toys, etc…. they were always pink. Maybe that’s why I often fought with my older brother growing up; he never did receive many gifts from my mother compared to me. I’d argue that it was because I was the youngest one in the family, but my brother never agreed. For as long as I can remember, pink has always been a significantly special colour for me.

With my umbrella now keeping myself dry, I continued walking through the barrage of water droplets as my mind drifted off towards that first day with Hwang Ga Eul. After class ended, she revealed to me that the leaf she removed from my head turned out to be a caterpillar. Needless to say, I nearly freaked out right on the spot but thanked her profusely for telling me after class instead of during the lecture. After that though, I hadn’t seen her for the rest of the day. I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing, but my mind had already registered her as my weird desk partner. Going through that first meeting made me especially sure of that.

“Here, let me help you.”

“You’re so cute sunbae ^^”

So I’m cute huh? I wonder if she was straight-up flirting with me or just trying to be friendly by giving me a compliment. But I mean, she’s gotta be real gutsy to be able to call someone cute right when she meets them. Doesn’t she feel embarrassed? Dammit, I don’t even know if it annoys or intrigues me! Sigh, Hwang Ga Eul that girl… who knows, maybe that class will prove to be more interesting from now on.

While pondering around in my mind, I hadn’t noticed that the rain had already stopped; the sun was now shining brightly as light reflected off the leftover water droplets on the ground. Looking around me, I realized I took the route directing towards Komorebi park, which was only a few minutes away from the dorms. I used to hang out there together with Yoongi, but I hadn’t been there since my last year of middle school. I would often try to drag him out to go for a boat ride or do some fishing at the lake there, but he never wanted to participate in my crazy antics. I always smile every time I think back to those times.

Considering there wasn’t any homework to do today, I decided it would be best to take a quick walk for a mind refresher. It had been a while since I’ve gone through the park anyway, and maybe I could use the time to decide if what Ga Eul said was innocent or not.

Walking along the park trail with my hands stuck in my pockets, I noticed there were more pine trees growing throughout the park than before. They must’ve grown over the past few years. The last time I was here, the trail used to be so sunny that I had to squint my eyes while walking along it, but now the trees cast deep shadows over the pathway which provided a generous amount of shade that kept me cool. A little too cool for my liking, but all's well that ends well.

Komorebi park was a popular place to hang out during the summer when it was usually full of people like the ever so energetic elementary students. Although today there weren’t many people around, just a few who were walking their dogs. It was probably due to the rain from earlier or the cold autumn breeze. Either way, it was the soothing whistle of the wind and gentle rustling of the trees that appealed to me.

Further down along the path were the Wisteria gardens, which was essentially the main entrance to the school’s other flower gardens and fruit orchard. I continued on through the garden, appreciating the thousands of pink and purple wisterias that grew in delicate, entangled vines weaving in and out of each other. I always found the school’s flower gardens to be strikingly entrancing; I could tell that whoever designed them had put lots of careful consideration and an abundance of love into their layouts.

Around this time of the year, the Rose gardens would be in full bloom while the Sakura gardens would be bare considering it was well past their blooming season. As for the wisterias, they usually blossomed in the summer so they were just starting to wilt, but a good percent of them had managed to retain their beauty for a little while longer. Depending on which garden you walked through, you experienced different things. There was the sweet earthy scent of the Rose gardens that made you feel drunk with ecstasy, while the Sakura gardens always had petals falling off the branches and swaying with the wind. It perfectly painted the romantic image of spring and was a popular date spot for couples. Here, the Wisteria gardens had one main characteristic: the gigantic arches that loomed over the path with numerous little purplish-pink flowers hanging down from it. Walking through the arches gave a euphoric experience; as if you were escaping reality and entering the magical world of dreams. It was honestly my favourite one out of all the other flower gardens.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a tree full of carvings. Upon taking a closer look at it, I found that the carvings were actually love umbrellas. It was a popular trend where couples would carve an umbrella into the tree bark and their names underneath it, in hopes that they would stay together forever. I never really believed in that stuff though. I mean, how could a mere tree carving decide a couple’s fate? I chuckled to myself at how innocent these couples must’ve been to follow that trend, running my hand over all the love umbrellas engraved into the wood. Maybe I should try finding the names of people I know.

Kim Jongin丨Choi Soo Jung

Gu Hye Sun丨Ahn Jae Hyun

Min Yoongi丨Park Chae-Eun

What?! Min Yoongi you lil . You got yourself a girl and didn't even tell me, your best friend?? Damn, I didn’t seem like he’d be into this kinda stuff, but I guess that’s since I haven’t met his girlfriend. Girls always have the power to do weird things to a guy. Better make a mental note to grill him about this later, I'll make sure to get my revenge. Let’s see, who else is on here?

Byun Jae-Hyun丨Jung Min Young

Kwon Min Ho丨Baek In Ah

Jung Hoseok丨Lee Ji-Soo

Moon Ga Yeon丨Oh Sae Hoon

Found Hoseok. I’m not too surprised he’s on here. Any girl would fall for a charismatic guy like him. Moreover, he definitely seems like the romantic type. Yeah, that makes sense.

After spending some time looking at the different love umbrellas on the tree, I decided that I had enough of snooping around for one day and was about to head back to the dorms until I noticed a tiny carving that had almost disappeared completely. Taking a closer look, I squinted my eyes in an attempt to make out what it said.

Kim Seokjin丨 Yoon Ara

I stopped breathing.

A/N: Another day, another chapter! I've been obsessing over wisteria gardens nowadays!
 

They're so pretty and romantic looking aren't they? It's too bad that there's none here in Vancouver though ;-; I desperately wish I could travel over to Japan and go explore them someday. Who knows? Maybe in the future, I'll be able to save up for a Japan trip ^^ Also literally just found out Jin opened a restarurant with his borther in Korea (why are all the good stuff in Asia ;-; international fan problems I swear) Until next chapter~

P.S for those of you who can't visualize what a love umbrella looks like, here's an image of one down below: