It was a hot, windless afternoon on the heated asphalt. 0000
Kang Yeo-ju sat quietly on a metal bench at an outdoor basketball court next to a local park.
I had my earphones on, but no music was playing.
It was a day when I just didn't want to hear anything.
“Can I borrow your ball?”
The shadow of someone standing with their back to the sunlight.
When the heroine raised her head, a tall boy with sweat on his forehead was standing before her.
Choi Soo-bin...
Although we were in the same high school, we were in different classes and had never even exchanged words.
But somehow, his face seemed familiar.
“…Yeah. It’s okay.”
As Yeoju pushed the basketball placed next to her, Soobin lowered her head slightly and smiled.
And then he walked to one side of the court without saying a word and started dribbling.
He moved very quietly and with concentration.
The basketball traversed a parabolic arc, skimming the net and landing squarely in the basket.
The wind, the sound, and even time seemed to have stopped at that moment.
The heroine asked absentmindedly.
“You’re good on your own. Don’t you do it outside of a team?”
Subin paused for a moment and looked towards Yeoju.
"If you do it with a team, you get distracted. It's easier to throw the ball alone."
Why did those words linger in my heart so much?
The words came out without the heroine knowing.
"I love the sound of the ball being thrown. The final bounce. That, strangely enough, is comforting."
Soobin nodded.
“Would you like to hear that sound together, just once?”
That's how it started.
A summer where we passed the ball back and forth on the same court without saying a word.
That hot and quiet season, the one I met in that season
He became Kang Yeo-ju's first love.. !
