before spring is gone | k.th

009 : i'm a lover

Taehyun stared at the big black letters spelling out "LOSER". The result of a bet that he had lost against Yeonjun. With his lips pressed together, he pulled his backpack straps over his shoulder and started to make his way toward the school entrance. It didn't bother him much having the word written across his cast, but he knew he would get a lot of looks and questions from other students and teachers.

"Taehyun!"

He turned around to see Bomi running towards him. Her hand raised in the air in greeting while the other held onto a cup of iced coffee. Seeing the coffee in her hand, Taehyun felt a gentle smile make its way onto his face.

"Is there ever a day you don't drink coffee?" he asked.

Bomi gently shook the coffee in his face, "You know how sixty percent of the human body is made of water?"

Taehyun nodded.

"Well mine is made of sixty percent coffee," Bomi smiled brightly at her clever joke and Taehyun could only roll his eyes with a laugh.

As the two walked into school together, Bomi noticed Taehyun seemed to be holding his right arm behind his body a bit, trying to hide his cast from the view of others. She glanced up at his face before back down at his cast. His eyes flickered to her and he gave her a sideways smile.

As the day went on, Bomi kept noticing little things Taehyun was doing. He would hide his cast under the table during lunch. He would cross his arms to cover his cast whenever he was speaking. She felt like she should ask about it but had a feeling that he was hiding his cast because he didn't want anyone to ask about it.

"Taehyun!" Bomi called trying to catch up to the boy, who was quickly making his way out of school. When she caught up to him, she grabbed his left hand and started pulling him toward the bus stop. "Come on!"

"What-?" Taehyun started to ask but Bomi's laughter made him stop. The sound of her laugh made it seem as though someone was sprinkling glitter in the air and playing beautiful music. He smiled as well and started to run alongside her.

Bomi pulled Taehyun onto the bus just as it was about to leave and took a seat. Taehyun went over and sat next to her, confused as to what she was planning. Bomi didn't say anything and just sat peacefully in her seat playing with the ring on her finger.

Taehyun stared at it for a bit. The way the crystals caught the light as Bomi played with it made Taehyun believe that it was a marriage ring.

Noticing Taehyun's stare, Bomi lifted her hand to show him the ring. "It was my mother's," she explained, "She passed away when I was thirteen from breast cancer. I visited the hospital often so it wasn't really a place of fond memories," Bomi laughed awkwardly.

Taehyun nodded, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize," he wasn't entirely sure how to sympathize with Bomi at the moment. He wasn't always great at expressing his emotions in that way. He felt sorry for her, but he didn't want to say anything that might come off as hurtful or insensitive so he stayed silent instead.

"Don't apologize," Bomi chuckled gently, "It happened years ago," she faced forward toward the window as the bus stopped and stood up quickly, "Quick! We're here!" she scooted around Taehyun before rushing for the door. "Let's go!" she called for Taehyun, beaming toward him as he sat in his seat.

He smiled back at her and quickly hopped to his feet running after her. Seeing him following her, Bomi rushed off the bus and grabbed his hand to drag him off to her destination. Taehyun recognized the area but still had no idea where Bomi was going.

"Here!" Bomi exclaimed, stopping in front of a big arcade. School had just let out so there weren't many people inside the arcade yet.

It had been years since Taehyun last came to the Magic Island Arcade. The last time he came was at the end of his third year in middle school with his friends. After that, they never went again and all slowly diverged to other interests. They were still close, of course, but they all took part in different school activities which resulted in them spending less time together.