I spun, my body tensed, ready to either run or bow, I wasn’t sure which.
It was Park Jun-seo.
He was standing under the warm glow of the neighborhood streetlamp.
He’d changed out of his uniform and was wearing a simple black hoodie and dark jeans.
Even in casual clothes, with a fresh, angry-red cut on his bottom lip, he was so perfectly, casually handsome that he seemed to glow.
It was like he was a movie star and the street was his personal lighting set.
I seriously wanted to squint; the guy was just… shiny.
“San-ssi?” he asked, his voice calm, but his eyes were sharp.
“What are you doing out here?”
I was so busted.
I felt like a five-year-old caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“I, uh…” I stammered, holding up my gloved hands as evidence.
“I couldn’t sleep. Jet lag. So I… I went out for a workout. On the bars.” I pointed vaguely back toward the park, deciding to omit the 1-on-1 with Myung-Dae entirely.
Jun-seo’s gaze followed my gesture, then came back to me.
“Does Eomeonim Lee know you’re… ‘training’?” I awkwardly turned my head away, rubbing the back of my neck.
“No.”
He let out a short, tired sigh.
“Right. Well…”
“What about you?” I countered, trying to shift the spotlight.
“What are you doing out here?”
“I was walking Ha-neul home,” he said simply.
I looked past him.
Sure enough, about twenty meters down the road, I could see the gate to my new house, and Ha-neul was standing there, watching us, her arms crossed. The source of this chapter is g.com.
“You two were… walking?” I asked.
“Yeah, we went out with friends.”
The pieces clicked.
The “childhood friends”.
The late-night walk.
“Ah,” I said, a wave of realization hitting me.
“Are… are you two dating?” Jun-seo just stared at me for a second, his head tilted, as if he was trying to translate the word “dating” from a foreign language.
Then he looked at Ha-neul, looked back at me, and burst out laughing.
It was a real, genuine laugh, not his polite “president” one.
“What? Me? And Ha-neul?” he choked out.
“No. God, no. We’re practically siblings. Our parents would love it, which is exactly why it will never, ever happen. She’s… she’s just Ha-neul.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling stupid.
“Why?” His laugh faded, but his eyes were still amused.
He was teasing me.
“Are you interested in her?”
“No,” I said, maybe a little too quickly.
The bluntness of my own answer surprised him.
“No?”
“She’s… not my type,” I said with a shrug, my honesty overriding my politeness.
“Blonde girls… not really for me.” Jun-seo looked genuinely surprised, then intrigued.
“Oh? You have a type, then, ‘Mountain’?” I thought for a second.
The images from the day flashed in my head.
“I guess. Black hair. Fox-like eyes… an icy kind of girl. But a really good voice.”
“Like Yoo Chae-rin?” I felt my face heat up, but I just shrugged again.
“Hm. Looks like it. But there’s no way I have a chance there. She hates my guts. Besides,” I added, gesturing back toward the park where I’d just been a creep.
“She’s already dating. I just saw her.”
“Dating?” Jun-seo looked confused.
“How did you know?”
“I just saw her. With her boyfriend. At the park. He looks older, maybe a university student?” Jun-seo’s confusion cleared, and he let out another, shorter laugh.
“What? ‘Old’? You mean Han Min-gyu?”
“I guess? The tall guy, looks like a model?”
“He just looks older,” Jun-seo said, shaking his head.
“He’s in the Visual Arts wing with her. He’s a first year, San-ssi. He’s sixteen. He’s younger than you.” I was floored.
“Younger?”
After a second I added:
“But… how do you know how old I am?” Jun-seo tapped the side of his head.
“It’s on the official student list.”
He checked his watch.
“You should probably go home, San-ssi. Before Eomeonim Lee wakes up and finds both her daughter and her new exchange student are missing.”
“Right. Yeah.” I started walking, and he fell into step beside me for the last few feet.
I stopped at my gate, where Ha-neul was still waiting, tapping her foot.
“Good night, Jun-seo-ssi. And… thanks.”
“Good night, San,” he said, giving me a final, tired nod.
“See you tomorrow.” I turned and followed Ha-neul through the gate.
This day had lasted a thousand years.