One Spring Morning

Beauty comes in all shapes and forms

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In the nurse's office - Balleli

-fairy of shampoo -plays in the background-

The pink haired boy crouches in front of me, he refrains from bursting into tears like earlier, a pang of sympathy hits me. A blue haired boy is next to him, there is concern in his eyes, I watch his movements, he winks at me. I have no idea what to do about that.

There's a boy behind him, saying he was older than the others was a bit too much, he looked like he was younger than the two other boys, he had fluffy brown hair, his nose was slim, he had such a sweet smile, he was holding a plushie in his hands, his white backpack pristine, his face open and curious, if I had known better he was pretty handsome.

Next to him was a boy similar, his eyes were observant and he was absorbed in every detail around us, there was a soft smile on his face and finally next to the boy with blue hair earlier was a boy with a guitar strapped to his body, he looked worried and he gripped onto the guitar, his fingers moving across the strings absently.

"Hello, I'm Soobin." The boy with the blue hair smiled raising his hand towards me, I could hear a slight pain in his voice at the gesture. I held the boys hand and smiled at the gesture. The boy smiled back again.

"I'm...I'm..." I mumble unsure of what to say.

"Balleli, your name is Balleli." The pink haired boy whispers, his eyes are gentle, tears are glistening beneath his eyes at what he's saying but he swallows down the sadness, I feel such sympathy for him, for how he tries so hard to keep his emotions at bay but can't seem to.

"I'm Yeonjun." He cracks his knuckles and gives me a cheeky smile, tapping the knuckles of my small hand, he holds onto my hand for a little longer than the rest of the other boys.

"Hi I'm Taehyun." His introduction is short and simple, his hand stretched out, his smile is comforting as if he understands what I'm feeling. Instead of reaching out to shake his hand, I twist my pointer finger and my thumb together, it looks like a heart and I smile, I push it out to him and then move my arm towards the others with the same hand gesture.

Yeonjun beams the most at my gesture, he claps delicately and tears start rolling down his eyes. The boy with fluffy hair puts his hands on the Yeonjun's shoulders to comfort him.

I wonder how such a small hand gesture can cause immense joy.

"Hi, I'm Huening Kai." The boy with the fluffy hair says, he waves at me and takes out one of his plushies. The plushie waves at me. I let out a blush, covering my face with my small hands and wave back shyly. Huening Kai blushes back at me and his emotions make me warm.

"Hey, I'm Beomgyu." The boy with the guitar says, he strums the strings of his guitar when he says his name. He gives me the Korean heart and plays a soft tune for me, that makes me laugh loudly. Huening Kai, hearing me laugh, laughs exactly like me. Huening Kai and I laugh in the same way.

All of a sudden, I feel like standing up. I get to my feet and stand up. The pink haired boy bolts up immediately at my sudden action, he swiftly moves to my side and holds my hand, his other arm wrapped around my shoulders. The boy with the fluffy hair rests his hands on my back, he has such a sweet smile that I can't help smiling back to. Taehyun rushes over to the nurse to talks things over, I could hear their murmured conversation.

"So what happened."

"Serious head injury, it seems that she can't remember anything that happened before. But perhaps that is just the shock."

"Sorry?" Taehyun gasps.

"It will take some time for her to regain her memory, Yeonjun is his brother, so she'll be able to head home safely, other than that, so unfortunate."

"Yeonjun was right, thank you for the information." Taehyun bows respectfully and runs over to the group.

'Wait!" The nurse yells.

Taehyun turns around and a small package is in his head that the nurse gave. He looks down at it in utter disbelief and then his eyes move to me, he forces a smile.

Soobin takes me back to my class, he's distracted though, his arm is slung around my shoulder, his head low, around my level, he turns around watches as Taehyun and Yeonjun talk in soft whispers, the package is exchanged. Something red and white flashes in my vision. Pills.

Huening Kai is beside me, he rubs my back soothingly, "Ready for Korean literature you can leave Balleli to me, I'll make sure she's okay." Huening Kai wraps his arm around me, carrying my books under the other arm.

We settle into our seats and watch Mrs Kim write on the board, the elegant characters of the Korean language. I take out my brush and neatly do the characters down on my notebook. Huening Kai watches my delicate hands move across the page. Eyes mesmerised. I've always found my talent with writing, journalling, reading and the quiet tasks of life whereas my brother Yeonjun had always been good with the loud, energetic tasks, sports, trivia games, dancing, singing.

We used got be very alike, both him and i. I used to be very hyperactive and energetic but I started becoming quieter cause I wanted a peaceful life.

As I finish my writing, Huening Kai softly claps, I turn to look at his neat notebook, it's as neat as mine. I clap gently.

We turn to other classmates sitting at the other desks and watch them lift their brushes up and down, up and down. Mrs Kim demonstrates on the interactive screen. Her finger moving across the interactive board, acting as the brush.

I start to clean the ink off my tools and place them back into my metal box. Huening Kai does the same. We move on to a larger tool to draw the Korean language with thicker strokes

There's the quiet hum of aircon that surrounds us, it calms me down. There is the soft rumble of cars travelling across a road, the silent click of traffic lights switching from red to green. I've been here for years and I can't help but just watch everything around me because Australia used to be my home and to see this new world, it was extraordinary even after being here for a long time.

The South Korean wind blows from our window, the petals of beautiful flowers flow into our classroom, they fly and dance as Mrs Kim teaches us, I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life, certainly better than what was in Australia. Mrs Kim's reading out from an essay sample, I realise who the essay sample is, it's Huening Kai's. Because Mrs Kim said his name out loud. I turn around to this new friend of mine and I start clapping. The beautiful blossoms of the flowers that flowed in through the room land on our table, the separate petals are arranged perfectly into a flower.

It was the second time something so very beautiful happened.