March, when fresh green leaves sparkled in the sunlight.
Joohyang continued to run into Haechan in class.
And for days, he wouldn't leave my mind.
As I opened the notebook, the sentence written at the very top caught my eye.
“People tend to remember certain people by their scent.”
‘Is it because of the scent...?
Why do I keep thinking of senior Haechan…?
That day, I entered the restricted laboratory without permission.
The smells inside—cold wood, wet stone, dust tinged with vanilla.
It was a strange scent. Yet, strangely enough, I couldn't forget it.
"You have so many random thoughts, are you free, Baek Joo-hyang?"
Joohyang shook his head as if shaking it off.
I tried hard to shake the name Haechan out of my mind.
***
Steering Lab.
“This assignment is ‘Expressing emotions through scent.’”
The professor's voice filled the lab.
"Joy, fear, affection, regret... whatever emotion it is, form a team and express it through perfume."
The students began to murmur.
Joohyang looked around absentmindedly—Haechan was already looking at her.
A deep, quiet gaze. Yet, it was clearly focused solely on her.
"Joo-hyang, who are you going to team up with? If not, then me..."
At that moment, a classmate came up to me with a smile and spoke to me.
A familiar voice was heard first.
“Would you like to join us?”
…it was Haechan.
For a moment, my heart sank.
He was a man of few words, never involved with anyone. Suddenly? To me?
“Huh??”
“Are you going to do a team project together?”
“Ah… so suddenly… that… um…”
“I guarantee you an A+.”
“Then please take good care of me, Haechan senior!”
Joohyang answered reflexively.
Without realizing it, his voice went up by half a tone.
“Hey~ What~ You said you’d do it with me, Baek Joo-hyang!!”
The person who had suggested it first grumbled with a crooked face.
"lol… Sorry~ But I guarantee you an A+~ Let’s definitely do it together next time, okay?”
***
After class, the two sat facing each other in the lab.
There were bottles of spices on the table.
“Expressing emotions through scent… It’s a difficult task…”
Joohyang spoke carefully.
Haechan took out the spices without answering.
Cedarwood, musk, and burnt bark.
It was a strangely heterogeneous combination.
“Senior, what kind of feelings do you want to express?
I think we need to decide that first.
“I want to express… happy feelings!”
Haechan stopped his hand and opened his mouth after a while.
“…I am a person who believes that good feelings cannot be expressed through scent.”
"…yes?"
“Good feelings eventually fade away.
So, leaving it as a scent… feels meaningless.”
He picked up a small bottle of perfume and shook it.
Chalang-
Along with a gentle sound, a strange scent spread through the air.
Joohyang looked at him.
His speech was calm, but his words were filled with suppressed emotions.
“…Is there a memory you don’t want to remember?”
He turned his head at Joohyang's question.
And he spoke very quietly.
“Some of them.
“There are memories I want to forget for the rest of my life.”
The words were quiet, but they lingered like a fragrance.
***
After finishing the team meeting and leaving the lab, Joohyang opened his mouth.
“I… to my senior,
“I want to show that good feelings can also be expressed through perfume.”
Haechan stopped walking and looked at her.
Joohyang said with a slow smile.
“Please give me a chance.
“I’ll show you that good feelings can also remain as a fragrance.”
His eyes wavered for a moment.
There was no answer, but something stronger than the scent
It was spreading quietly between the two.