“Myungsoo.” Light slaps are delivered onto the boys face. “Myungsoo.” The curtains are drawn and the afternoon sun splashes yellow onto the floor.

“Wha?” His face scrunches up like a crumpled piece of paper. Myungsoo’s mom smiles, half excited, half impatient.

“Get up. Suji’s here.” She peels the blanket off of her son only to have him drag it back up to his chin.

“So what?”

“What do you mean ‘so what?’” His mom yanks the cloth off to the floor and pulls him up by the arm with her titanium grip. “She’s your future wife.”

The son collapses onto the bed. “What a load of crap, let me me sleep.” A hard slap strikes his stomach. “Ow!”

“Get up right now.” Myungsoo’s mom loads the last word with all the authority she could muster up.

Myungsoo gets up.

“Ms. Kim, you really didn’t have to wake him.”

“Suji!”

Myungsoo cringes at the sudden sugar in his mom’s voice. He looks up to meet Suji’s apologetic eyes and his expression softens. She’s as pretty as ever. Her skin looked like it glows. She has a child’s innocent brown eyes and naturally pretty pink lips. Great figure too. Her dress, white with rose prints makes her look like summer personified.

“It’s autumn, Suji. Aren’t you cold? And what are you doing here?”

“Actually, no, your house is quite warm.” She holds up a stack of papers. “Mr. Baek wanted me to give you this week’s homework even though you missed… everything.”

“Uh... thanks,” Myungsoo replies and the conversation dies there.

His mom shoots him a withering look.

“What?”

“Myungsoo,” she puts her hands on her hips. “You’ve been lazing around in bed all week. You wouldn’t even go to school.”

“I’m tired. Headache and stomach pains, remember?”

“Well, you look fine now,” she says. “Go on a walk. Take Suji with you since she’s already here.”

“But—”

“No butts, hands or feet! Go!” And with that, she ushers her son out the door with only his wife beater and boxers on.

“Mom, my clothes!”

Cargo pants and a jacket are flung out the window and they land in a heap on the dirt.

Suji laughs. “Maybe I shouldn’t have come.”

“No,” Myungsoo sighs. He dusts off the clothes and pull them on. “She would’ve kicked me out sooner or later. I think I only got my clothes because you’re here.”

She laughs again. “Since things turned out this way… how about a walk?”

The boy hesitates but the look in Suji’s eyes makes him swallow down the rejection. “Sure.”

. . .

“You know, I’ve lived here for so long but I never get tired of looking at the flowers,” Suji says.

“Of course,” Myungsoo says. “We live in a flower village. Best flowers in the nation.”

They stroll past the other villager’s flower fields. Golden marigolds, blue morning glories, hydrangeas and various hues of asters are in full bloom. Their petals are spread out in brilliant colors, kissed by the sunlight. The sound of the river hums nearby and Myungsoo spots a group of high school boys walking home. They spot him and Suji as they draw closer and hiss, “You go, man!”

Myungsoo rolls his eyes and Suji ignores them, smiling.

She clears . “Your mom’s flower field is going to look the best when the chrysanthemums bloom.”

He yawns and nods. “Anytime now.”

“She’s a great farmer.”

“The best in the entire village after the founder, Gukhwa. But your dad’s pretty great too. People love to visit his place when the cherry and dogwood trees blossom.” Suji murmurs her agreement.

“I really wish acacia trees grew in Korea though.”

“Acacia? Why?”

Suji links her fingers behind her back. “Because when it’s blooming season, they have these really pretty, colorful flowers and… also because... they symbolize concealed love.” Wind whistles past her hair, near Myungsoo face carrying her lavender scent with it. He bites his lower lip.

“Suji… you know how I feel about you. You’ve only ever been like a sister to me.”

“I know. But it was worth saying.” Her voice wavers.

“I’m s—”

“No.” She unclasps and clasps her fingers behind her back. Suji visibly fights tears but when she blinks, they slide down her cheeks anyway. “Don’t apologize.” She brushes them away with the heel of her palm.

“I’m sorry.”

Suji pulls something out of the pocket of her dress and places it into his hand. It’s a flower. It’s scarlet red with a white fade near the middle, multi-petaled with a yellow center and a short stem. It’s an aster. Suji blinks hard. Without another word, she spins around on her heel and walks away. Her head is held up high and proud even as her shoulders shake.

Myungsoo stares at the flower after Suji disappears from sight. Asters were known to symbolize love and patience but the red ones were known to mean undying devotion.

He sighs.

“What an idiot.” The voice is right next to his ears and goosebumps rise along his neck. He whips around, disgusted.

“Woohyun, there was a time when this was funny but not anymore,” Myungsoo growls but Woohyun just chuckles and replies, “I’m still laughing, aren’t I?” The former glowers at him and after a moment, the smile melts off and Woohyun’s eyes turn serious.

“There are some things I should tell you about. Let’s take a walk,” he says.

“Two walks in one afternoon,” Myungsoo grumbles. “This is way too much exercise.”

. . .

Their walk took them to the river. Myungsoo is filled in on the day’s happenings.

“They’re back? Both of them?”

“Yeah,” Woohyun replies. “Both of them.”

“Woah. Time flies. I haven’t seen them in ages.” Their gazes are fixated on the strong currents of the river. It’s mesmerizing and beautiful, yet the chilly wind and sound of rushing water brings back bad memories. “It’s his birthday soon, you know.”

Woohyun just sighs and falls back on the grassy slope of the riverbank. It’s wet and cold but he doesn’t care. “You’d think that after a while, it would hurt less. Autumn was my favorite season, you know. Now, I just feel miserable whenever it comes around.”

“I think all of us do,” Myungsoo says. “Especially Sungyeol, since, you know, you and Sunggyu never let him forget about it.”

Drops of rain falls on Woohyun’s cheeks. His eyelids flutter in response. “I can’t stop him from going out and doing stupid things, Myungsoo. All I can do is follow him around and try to minimize the damage he does. He beats himself over it every single day. He needs a channel to get all that pain and anger out.”

“What a great excuse to smoke and beat the money out of the villagers,” Myungsoo drawls. He’s unsympathetic.

“I can’t lose him, Myungsoo. You know what he means to me.”

Both boys sigh in unison.

“Yeah. I know.”