Those close-knit eyes, nose, and mouth. The cute cat-like face behind the cold, expressionless face. Your love, expressed through actions rather than words. Until that sweltering summer when I met you.
Chirrup—a sweltering summer with cicadas chirping painfully. Yeoju sat at a bus stop in the deserted countryside, her eyes glued to her phone, her mouth licking an ice cream. There were few people her age in the countryside, but there was a small school, friends, younger siblings, older siblings. Licking the bottom of her ice cream, which was starting to melt in the sunlight, she turned on her phone, staring at the time marked 3:47 before standing up. The bus stop was her refuge from the heat. Sometimes, only five buses passed by a day, and walking was faster.
"Oh, it's hot. When will fall come?"
She grumbled and munched on the ice cream stick she'd just finished, then walked another ten minutes or so to get home. Her walk home was a long one, sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes 27 minutes.
"Hey, Yoon Yeo-ju, do you know that?"
"what."
"A transfer student is coming today."
"In this countryside?"
The female protagonist stared at her class vice president with a look of disbelief, then gestured for him to leave and knelt down. She hadn't really made any friends in class. She'd said she didn't think she needed any. That must be why she was so indifferent to her classmates. Just then, the door creaked open, and a boy with a cold expression walked in. Her first impression was that he looked rude. That was all. The female protagonist, with her slightly cold personality and pride, pretended not to be interested in the transfer student. He was, f*ck, her ideal type.
"Hey, can I sit next to you?"
"..."
The female protagonist narrowed her brows slightly, then relaxed them and nodded. What should I do? Did I fall in love with him at first sight? She concealed her thoughts, resting her chin on her hand and looking out the window. Seeing the green spaces enveloped in space felt refreshing. First period was voluntary, as there was a teachers' meeting.
By the way, I didn't even hear the introduction of the transfer student.
"Have you heard my name?"
When his expression softened a little, he looked like a harmless cat. A cute cat, the kind that wouldn't hurt even if you scratched it with your claws.
"I didn't hear a single thing."
"I knew it when I saw you blankly. Your name is Min Yoongi. I'm from Seoul, but rumors about you have spread all the way to Seoul?"
"What, this is my first time hearing about it?"
"That's probably because I don't check Facebook."
"Oh, that's right," he responded, then secretly pulled out his phone and checked Facebook for the first time in two months. "Daejeon's a mess! It's only an hour and a half from here to Seoul. Why send me all the way there? I hate people who come just to see my face."
"Look at all the femmes piled up, he's such a popular kid."
"What are you talking about, you guys don't know anything."
I yawned and lay down, as if I had nothing else to say. Only then did the girls, who had been watching, begin asking the transfer student questions. Then, in a cold, indifferent tone, he said, "I really hate those talkative women," and glared at his watch.
"Your name is Kim Yeo-ju? Your name is pretty, but your swear words are so loud. Do you smoke?"
"How do you know? Should I give you one?"
"Thank you, let's go to the rooftop."
He looks surprisingly harmless so I thought he didn't smoke, but when I briefly looked at his Facebook, he turned out to be a punk. What the fuck, he's so fucking good.
"Hey, do you have a light?"
I thought he was going to hand me a lighter, but he actually lit it for me. He chuckled and blew smoke, then reached into his shorts pocket to pull one out, but he took the cigarette I was holding and put it in his own mouth.
"What is it?"
"A two-way relationship."
"...?"
As he straightened my hair, my reddened ears couldn't hide it. He was so sexy, smirking and blowing smoke, that I almost impulsively kissed him. I'd rather give a dog a piece of my mind than have a delicate protagonist who backs away at such a close distance.
"So, you kissed me indirectly less than an hour after we met?"
I smiled and wrapped my arm around his waist. He threw his cigarette to the floor, snuffed it out with his foot, and kissed me with the cigarette he had in his mouth. The minty flavor of the Marlboro Hybrid lingered in our mouths. We bit each other's lips for a long time, our tongues playing with each other, our breaths mingling.
At that moment, the rooftop door opened and the teacher came in.
"I told you not to smoke at school again!"
The teacher saw a girl with bright brown hair whom he had never seen before and, knowing that she was a transfer student, said that he would let her off the hook once and told her to go down to the classroom.
As if regretting it, I wiped my lips that were glistening with Yoongi's saliva and looked at him once. He was still handsome. The corners of his mouth went up, and when the teacher left after telling me to hurry up and go down, I put my finger to his lips. I chuckled and ran my finger over his lips that looked flawless. Then I slowly, leisurely came down from the rooftop.
The kiss they shared was a way of expressing their love for each other.