Summer Child

Second Summer

"You know you don't have to fetch me from the bus station, Jeong Hyeok-ah," Seri said when they finally reached her house, "My mom doesn't pay you to handle her personal errands"

"And you only say this after I hauled these heavy bags for 20 minutes under glaring sun, why?" he grumbled while wiping off the sweat from his forehead. He put down the two tote bags and a big roll of tube on Seri's living room while Seri laughed merrily from his side. She was also hauling her own laptop bag and another tote bag, filled to the brim with stuffs.

"But I had all these stuffs I bought in Paris for you," she said and Jeong Hyeok's eyes lit up instantly. He quickly went over to her and grab the tote bag she held. Seri chuckled as she saw him rummaging through the heap of snacks, she had bought for him; all grumbles forgotten.

As Jeong Hyeok started to unwrap the snacks, Seri was quickly sorting out the stuffs she brought home. The bag full of (mostly dirty) clothes was put near the laundry room to be sorted out later, another tote of things she bought for her mom was put aside so Jeong Hyeok didn't help himself with it, then she dumped all off her Institute stuffs on the dining table and sighed.

Jeong Hyeok peered into the stuffs scattered across the dining table and he raised his eyebrows. With a chocolate-covered pretzel stick in his mouth, he pointed to various of sketches and fabric she had spread around.

"What are these?" he asked and Seri pouted.

"These, Jeong Hyeok-ah, are my summer assignments," she said, "I'm expected to come back in Fall with an entire pre-draft collection for my professor to evaluate"

Jeong Hyeok shrugged his shoulder.

"You've done this before, right? And you have two months to do it" he said and Seri gave him a stinky eye.

"The problem, Ri Jeong Hyeok-ssi, is that I'm expected to come out with a collection of men's apparels. I've never done that before" she said while biting her lips, a habit he had learned she does whenever she was nervous. "Most of my works were women's clothing, which is exactly why my professor specifically appoint me this theme. Because he said this is my weak point"

Jeong Hyeok nodded. No matter how many times he had spent with Seri, either in person or in texts and phone calls as they did when Seri was in Paris, he would never understand the subtle nuances in fashion that his friend had been so immersed in. For him, fashion was making sure he was clothed from head to toe and not totally mismatched; it had worked for him this past 21 years.

But apparently, there was a crime in matching a certain color with another color or one kind of fabric with another type of fabric. He had been in these faux pas several times since last summer when he first met Seri, and he considered himself 'fashion aware' from now on; or at least when Seri was present in his radius.

He hadn't seen Seri since last spring, when Seri went home to Zurich for a short week during her spring break. They didn't spend much time during that time either, since studies had taken much of their time, and Jeong Hyeok was still working on the café. Now he got more responsibility, and a raise, as he now helped as assistant barista whenever Johan was not around and also, sometimes, part time pianist.

After months of back and forth, Seri's mother finally decided to renovate the outer part of the café and turned it into a sort of outdoor dining space, complete with a live music on certain weekends. They had moved Seri's old piano to the inside part of the café, but when the French doors were opened, the piano could become part of the outdoor music stage as well.

Jeong Hyeok was ecstatic with this addition, because that meant he could practice whenever there was some downtime during his shift. This was a win-win for Mrs. Choi, since the customer really liked the soft and gentle tingling of his play within the cozy café. Seri's mother even let Jeong Hyeok practiced with the piano outside of his shift while he kept the piano well-tuned.