Minjae POV
The weather today is so beautiful.
Spring had finally settled over the city, washing away the last trace of winter. Flowers bloomed along the sidewalks in bursts of pink, white, and yellow while rows of daffodils swayed lazily in the afternoon breeze. The bright petals nodded as if greeting everyone who passed by.
The sky stretched endlessly overhead, clear and blue without a single cloud daring to interrupt it.
Normally, I would've stopped to admire it.
Today, however, I couldn't keep my attention on anything around. My hands were buried in my pockets as I walked down the familiar road. The warmth of the sun touched my face, making me squint against the brightness.
High school students rushed past in groups. Some laughed loudly while others dragged their feet like they were marching toward their own executions. A few boys were crouched near the school wall, clearly plotting something suspicious.
"YAH! You little punks trying to skip school again?!" The watchman shouted.
The boys scattered immediately.
I snorted.
"Amaterus."
One of them nearly ran into me before changing directions and sprinting away. The watchman continued yelling after them, waving his cap in the air.
"COME BACK HERE!"
"They definitely won't," I muttered.
The old man pointed at me.
"And don't encourage them like that, Sir."
"Sorry"
I laughed; the watchman grumbled something under his breath before returning to his post, and I walked past the school, and when I turned, I found the boys in the alley. One hits another's arm.
"Yeah, what should we do? Our bags are still in." The boy who hit asked.
"It's okay, Mijun-ah; we can ask Doseong to bring them," replied the one who got the reply to the boy named Mijun.
"I'm going to kill you if we get another detention for this, Hyunwoo," Mijunboy said with a death glare, which Hyunwoo ignored.
I chuckled hearing their conversation, reminding me of Taekwang and me…
"Yeah, do you think it's okay?" Taekwang asked with his brown eyes wide at the idea of skipping class.
His chestnut hair covered his eyebrows, making him look like a coconut, and still, somehow, I fell for him.
"Taek-ah, do you think we are doing this for ourselves?" I scoffed. "You are the one who said you didn't want to sit through afternoon classes."
Taekwang's eye widened.
"Yeah, jerk, I said I didn't want to sit in classes, but not skip the classes."
"Same thing."
"It's not!" he hissed, looking around to see if anyone was there around the way we were walking to.
"It is when you're talking to me," I said simply with a shrug.
"That's exactly why I'm worried," he said with a facepalm.
I laughed and slung an arm around his neck, pulling him closer. His breath had hitched, his eyes widened so that they might pop out, his lips slightly parted, and cherry-blossom-pink crept over his nose to cheeks, and his ear turned all red.
I pressed my lips together, trying hard not to smile or laugh at how cute he looked,d because if I did, he could give a punch that could make me roll on the ground.
"Have some faith in me, okay?" I whispered lowly.
He said nothing, giving a tight nod. My arm slid from his neck this o shoulder before dragging him toward the back gate.
The poor idiot looked like he was being led to his execution. Even then, he had always been like that, careful and responsible. The kind of person who checked the weather forecast three times before leaving the house, whereas I was the kind of person who forgot umbrellas existed.
"Minjae-ah?" he called again, this time very softly, almost as if he were unsure of himself.
That always makes me want to hear my name from him.
"Hm?"
"What if we get caught?" he mumbled.
I chuckled internally, "We won't."
"You always say that," he complained, an angry pout sitting on his lips.
"Because we never get caught," I said, sliding my arm from his shoulder and catching his wrist.
"We got caught last month."
"Details."
I left his hand and climbed on the gate that I could easily climb on without any fear of falling.
"That wasn't detail. We got detention for three days."
I grinned, sitting on the gate for which Taekwang groaned. But I ignore his groan and extend my hand for him. "Come on now, Taek-ah, don't be such a baby, and get both of us caught."
Though he glared at me annoyingly, he took my hand. His palm was warmer for a second; neither of us moved. Then I tightened my grip and pulled him up.
"Yah, Paek Minjae!" He yelped.
"Shh!"
"Shh, my foot, you almost made me fall!" He said, hitting my arm.
"But you didn't."
"That's not the point!"
I laughed as he finally managed to climb onto the top of the gate beside me. He sat stiffly, both hands gripping the metal bars while staring down at the ground, gulping. The drop wasn't even that high, though.
"Why do you look like you're preparing your last moments?" I asked.
"Because, unlike some people, I value my life."
"You're seventeen."
"Exactly. Too young to die."
I snorted. The afternoon sunlight caught in his hair, turning the chestnut strands golden. The breeze pushed them into his eyes, and he immediately tried to fix them, muttering complaints under his breath.
Cute. He was ridiculously cute.
Back then, I didn't even realise how hopeless I already was.
"Taek-ah," I called him softly and very lovingly, which made him pause for a moment.
"W-what?"
"If you die from jumping this small gate, I'll buy flowers for your funeral."
His jaw dropped; before clenching his jaw, he looked like a rice cooker that was ready to burst.
"You-"
"Expensive flowers too," I added fuel to his rage before jumping down, so the landing stung my feet slightly.
"You asshole, wait there," he said, as if he were about to jump very easily, as I did.
I shook my head. "Yah Kwon Taekwang, you have the temper to just throw your hands at me, but not enough courage to jump," I said, narrowing my eyes.
"What if I break something? My mother will break another one, too."
I sighed, not in disbelief but in disappointment, pinching my nose bridge.
"You won't."
"What if I do?"
"I'll carry you," I said out of frustration at his nagging.
His face immediately turned red. It happened so quickly that I almost laughed. The idiot. I wasn't even flirting. Well. Not intentionally. Most of the time.
"Why are you making that face?" I asked.
"I'm not making any face."
"You are."
I am not!"
"You look like a tomato~" I sang.
"You are going to die."
He finally jumped right after he said it; the second his feet touched the ground, he stumbled forward straight into me. My hands reacted faster than my brain could, automatically looking around his waist to steady him.
The impact knocked the wind right out of my lungs with a sharp oof. He slammed squarely into my chest, his momentum forcing me back two steps before my boots caught the gravel. For a second, everything went dead quiet.
The afternoon breeze rustled through the branches above, scattering a few stray white petals on your head, but I couldn't care. All I could focus on was him against me. His hand is over my shoulder for support, and his face is buried directly into the crook of my neck.
He was breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling rapidly against mine. His scent, as sweet as cherries, filled my breath. The love for cherries he had, I couldn't help but smile. The cherry blossom pink from
"See?" I murmured, my voice dropping lower, rougher than I intended. "Told you I'd carry you if you broke something. Didn't think you'd test me so fast."
Taekwang stiffened completely. He slowly pulled his head back, his wide, glassy brown eyes locking onto mine from just inches away. Up close, I could see the tiny golden flecks in his iris catching direct sunlight and the mole that never failed to be noticed under his right eye.
The tomato red flush I had been teasing him about completely consumed his face, spreading all the way down to his neck to the collar of his shirt.
He looked down at where my hands were still holding his waist, then looked back up, his lips parting slightly.
"Yeah, am I your girlfriend? just leet go already," he said, trying to act tough.
I let out a snort before leaning in just an inch closer, entirely unable to help myself.
"If you were my girlfriend, Taekwang-ah," I countered, my eyes dropping to the stubborn line of his mouth before rising back to meet his wide gaze, "I wouldn't have let you slide down the gate in the first place. I would have carried you over it."
Taekwang gasped, a tiny, hitching sound that caught at the back of his throat. The flush on his skin burnt an even deeper, impossible shade of pink, making the dark mole beneath his right eye stand out beautifully against his cheek.
He looked completely trapped, paralysed by his own sudden hyperawareness of how tightly my fingers were still anchored to his waist.
"You-you absolute lunatic," he stammered, his fingers frantically gripping the fabric of my school uniform jacket as if he wanted to push me away but forgot how to make the move.
I gave him a lazy, slow grin, thoroughly enjoying the utter chaos I was causing inside his head. Reluctantly, I pulled my arms from his waist and took a slow step backward into the cool shade of the alley. The sudden absence of his radiating warmth felt like a chill, even with the bright spring sun cutting through the branches above us.
The second he was free, Taekwang scrambled backward, his boots kicking up a tiny flurry of gravel. He immediately began tugging violently at the hem of his wrinkled blazer, smoothing out the fabric with frantic, slightly shaking hands while refusing to look anywhere but at my face.
"If you say something again like this, I am the one who's going to buy flowers for your funeral," he said, gritting his teeth.
I shoved my hands into my pockets and started walking down. "Sure, first let's get out of here if you don't want to get caught."
Taekwang stood frozen for another second before hurrying after me.
"Wait."
"No," I said firmly.
"Minjae-ah"
"Nope," I said, turning my head.
"You don't even know where we are going, you punk!"
I grinned without turning around; I had gotten so used to him cussing me. I mean, we are friends; it's so common for us.
"Neither do you," I said, happily.
"What?!"
"Exactly, we both don't know it yet, but we are not clueless, so let's decide in the middle of the way."
"PARK MINJAE!"
His outraged yell echoed through the alley along with my laugh that followed right after as he sprinted to catch up; his hand wrapped around my neck, and he slammed his elbow hard into my rib, but his chest was heaving with a breathless laugh of his own.