Bubble Gum Kisses

I Take Off this Foolish Mask

Snow fell in quick drops with winter at its height, turning the city into a white bleary landscape. It fell among the many students exiting the school grounds, dulling the buzz of their voices as they happily chatted with each other. Despite this, a particularly deep one stood out.

"Hyung!"

Jin didn't pay any mind to it the first time. Of the hundreds of students walking alongside him and Byulyi, it was virtually impossible that anyone was calling him given their shared reputation.

But then the voice called out again.

"Jin Hyung!"

And this time, Jin remembered who that voice belonged to.

Byulyi turned around with brows crossed in concentration, attempting to match the voice to a face among the many students that walked past them. Her eyes zeroed in on one student and Jin knew exactly who it was without even looking.

"I think someone's calling you," she said, nodding her head somewhere behind him.

Jin grabbed her by both of her shoulders, eliciting a slight look of surprise before he swiftly turned her around. "Just walk," he muttered, steering her away from the voice with quick and purposeful steps.

They were but one step away from outside the gate and into freedom. Byulyi raised a brow to him as he continued to push her to walk faster. But before she could ask, a gloved hand clamped down Jin's shoulder, effectively stopping the both of them from leaving.

"Hyung," Kim Tae Hyung from class 2-B panted, white puffs of breath escaping his mouth, "You're Jin hyung right?" he asked, gulping breaths from the cold December air in between words to satiate his lungs. Despite the snow that fell outside, the boy's forehead was peppered with beads of perspiration, his hair a messy bird's nest on top of his head, a wide boxy smile set on his lips.

He was taller now—almost as tall as Jin. A strange unfamiliar, almost wistful, feeling bubbled in the elder's belly. The ears that used to be too distinct were proportionate now, aided by the fact that it was hidden under his mop of hair that was in desperate need of a help of a pair of scissors. Of course, there was still the dot-sized scar on his cheek when two of his older brother's prank went in the direction none of them expected.

Here he was. Standing in front of him. Familiar yet foreign all the same.

Taehyung shifted his weight to his other foot as he adjusted his backpack with a small leap. "Your birthday...is it this Saturday?"

"What do you want?"

The smile on his face did not deter even with Jin's tone as crisp as the cold. "I just want to greet you hyung." He shrugged. "And give you this." He extended a hand containing a box.

The box that Taehyung handed him sat snugly in his hand but it was heavy enough that Jin already started having ideas of what was inside. The outside was hard cardboard, not one easily seen in mere department stores, its colors a deep black. The ribbon, though skewed and clumsily tied together, was silk—real silk. He saw enough of his mother's new clothes to know the difference.

His memory eluded him but Jin swore this was the box from the same brand his father kept in his closet—granted the last time he saw it was when he was six.

Then again, the box wasn't important.

Jin gulped and suppressed the trembling of his hand. He felt Byulyi's eyes bore holes on the sides of his face but at that moment he couldn't care less. She wouldn't ask him about it—she never does—but she'd uncomfortably and silently stare at him all day until he told her what was going on—honestly, he'd always wished she just said something.