It has been a few weeks since they have last spoken directly. The sun is out today; shining its existence over the school’s meadow, an autumn breeze complementing its pure artwork. But the girl stays indoors, locked up in the library to finish off her maths exercises and perhaps start on her English essay too. She nibbles on Minseok’s chocolate.

Dear sunshine,

Meet me where the flowers bloom, afterschool.

The note lies quietly in the small pocket of her bag. But where do the flowers bloom? She thinks to herself. She doesn’t know or maybe she doesn’t want to know. Perchance she doesn’t even care.

Neither does she go meet Minseok that afternoon.

***

Dear sunshine,

You really didn’t come yesterday, which I kind of assumed already. Nevertheless it still upset me. You really know how to hurt people passively aggressive, don’t you? You know what, I’ll come to you today.

Minseok waits for her afterschool, outside her classroom. The teacher sees him but doesn’t question his absence. There’s no use. He tugs on her wrist, a few people side-eyeing them on their way out. His hair is unstyled, quite messy, but all the more natural and effortlessly handsome. He smiles at her, a toothy smile, and rubs the back of his neck.

“Why didn’t you come yesterday?” Minseok questions her, still holding onto one of her arm.

She notices and pulls away, “I have more important things to do Minseok. Stop wasting my time. Maybe even yours too.”

He looks at her, incredulously as he leans one side on the wall with his arms crossed. “And how do you know I’m wasting my time?”

Sneering, she gives him a scornful face. “What else could you be doing besides that? You rarely even come to classes and that speaks a lot.”

Minseok shrugs, as he doesn’t seem to be affected by her words. “It’s true I don’t go to many of my classes, but that doesn’t mean anything sunshine.”

“Stop calling me that.”

He ignores her. “Come with me. You, dear, need to be enlightened.”

She rolls her eyes and heaves exasperatingly. “Look Minseok, I don’t have time for this. Take your games somewhere else.”

Minseok silences her when he grabs her arm and pulls her out of the school. They pass the gates and walk swiftly to the train station, arriving just on time as the transport appears at the platform. “Trust me sunshine. You won’t regret it.” He says with a smile as he takes a seat next to her.

She leans her head against the glass window, and the ride is quiet between the two because no one speaks. She has her earphones plugged in while reading the biology notes from today, while Minseok stares outside at the flickering landscape. And instead of crossing the water, Minseok takes her out at the stop nearest to it. Today, the lake isn’t just a transient glance, but it has become a ravishing and beauteous panorama etched in the heart of the girl’s mind. And she thinks, for a mere second, that maybe life isn’t all that bad and humans aren’t as complicated as they seem.

But these are thoughts that are momentary, exhausting like the specks of a dandelion against the force of a breath. So transitory and futile.

***

They end up in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by daisies that paint the hilltop in its most brilliant white. The zephyr tousles at her wavy hair and she feels the cool air embrace her in a hug so gentle and tender. It’s beautiful to know that there’s a part of the world so unadulterated and untarnished. She takes off her bag and places herself down, lying softly on the flowers as she stares up at the clouds.

Minseok stands with hands in his pockets as he looks down at her. “You really shouldn’t do that. It’ll itch like a later, and I’m talking from experience.”

But she doesn’t reply. Her eyes close and she savours in the fresh autumn breeze, a smile almost makes it onto her face. She stops before it does though and it goes unnoticed, unseen. With a shrug Minseok situates himself beside her, but he doesn’t lie down, only sits with one knee up and the other stretched out, leaning back on his hands.

“So this is what you do? And you call this not wasting your time?” She questions after minutes too long.

Minseok laughs heartily, “Isn’t it wonderful?” He states. “It isn’t time wasting, sunshine. It’s living. It’s enjoying. It’s relishing earth’s presence, knowing that I’m still alive and the world is breathing beneath me. It’s anything but time wasting, because, this… this is what you really call living.”

She opens her eyes and looks up at him, trailing contours on his defined jawline. “Wow… because I totally haven’t been living.” She says sarcastically. “I’m breathing Minseok, that means I’m living, no matter what I’m doing.”

He looks down at her, and their eyes meet, but they don’t look away, if anything they stare even harder, almost a bit challenging. A small, placid smile graces his lips as he speaks. “But you haven’t been living. You’ve only been existing, dear. What’s your purpose? Your goal? To study hard, find a job that you don’t even like or enjoy just to make money; to become society’s minion?”

She furrows her eyebrows at him as she talks. “That’s life Minseok. They’re always telling us to do what we want, but you know what? Sometimes what we want doesn’t even give us enough to survive, and so we’re pushed to do other things and I hate it all! It's just how life is. It's what we've got to put up with. It's all we've got. But at least I’ve come to a level of acceptance. Because this is life Minseok, that’s how it works! What gives you the right to decide it's not good enough?” There’s annoyance in her voice, and the look in her eyes turns into a glare. The boy looks away, not because he’s intimidated, but just because he can.

His reply is calm as he pulls out a flower and stares at its petal. “No it’s not. You’re just living in a jail, sunshine. You were born in a prison. You’ve been in a prison for so long, you no longer consider that there’s a world outside. That’s because you’re frightened. You’re afraid because you can feel freedom closing in upon you and it’s terrifying. But don’t back away from it. Part of you understands the truth even as the other part pretends not to. You’re trapping yourself in a cell and we’re all just victims wedged in a tyrannical and despotic organisation constructed by the prerogative elites. That’s what they expect us to do, sunshine.”

The girl goes home with conflicting thoughts and a daisy behind her ear, a chocolate in her bag.