𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦, 𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥.
on her seventeenth birthday, eri's life took a turn as she uncovers secrets about her past with a fateful encounter.
𝐅𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐂 𝐗 𝐄𝐍𝐇𝐘𝐏𝐄𝐍
(lowercap's are intended. references to the webtoon an...
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the first encounter.
⊱ ────── {⋅. ✯ .⋅} ────── ⊰
ERI TOOK a seat beside her new friend, karina. she placed the tray of food in front of her, salivating at the fried rice.
"so how was your birthday?" karina asked, cutting up the pieces of chicken.
"it was great! my brother and his friends threw a surprise party for me," smiled eri, leaving out the part where she nearly flashed all of them and fell flat on the ground.
"you didn't celebrate it with your parents?" karina noticed the way her lips set in a hard line as well as how her eyes lowered to her food.
"i bought you a present!" she immediately switched the subject. she dug out a small box from her bag and placed it in front of the girl.
eri's eyes rounded, looking at the gift and then karina.
"you really didn't have to," eri was in awe at how kind she was. they had only met for a few days and here she was, going through all the trouble to get her a gift.
"it's no worries. i love giving gifts," giggled karina, watching eri untie the ribbon from the box. eri opened the small white box, revealing a shell bracelet. she immediately slid it onto her wrist. it fitted her perfectly.
"these are from the seashells i collected yesterday. they reminded me of you," karina sheepishly spoke.
"thank you so much, karina. i'll cherish it," the two girls smiled at each other.
a group of boys walked into the cafeteria, looking at each other with a contortion of emotions on their faces.
"you smell it too... don't you?" the brunette glanced at the person next to him.
"it's coming from there," the raven-haired male, jerked his head to the right side of the cafeteria. the group of boys observed the group of people who were sitting on the right side of the cafeteria, looking for any signs of wounds or bandages.
"how are we supposed to know where it's coming from? there are at least thirty people there," one of them sighed, crossing their arms.
"just remember their faces. if any one of us passes by them, we'll know."
⊱ ────── {⋅. ✯ .⋅} ────── ⊰
eri sat next to the window, her head on her palm as she hummed the song she was currently listening to. she was too entranced in the music playing in her earphones that she didn't notice that someone had taken the seat next to her.
the figure politely cleared his throat. noticing that she still didn't realize their presence, they placed their books on the table, loud enough so that it caught her attention. eri turned her head, surprised that there was someone sitting next to her.
"h-hello," she quietly greeted, removing her earphones.
"hi! i'm kim sunoo," sunoo's hair was a pearlescent grey that suited his pale complexion perfectly. his lips were pale and pink and his eyes were formed into crescents as he smiled at her. he was pretty.
"i'm choi eri," eri introduced herself, tearing her eyes away from him.
"are you new here?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.
"yeah," eri nodded, suddenly gaining interest in her empty notebook. she glanced at him from the side of her eye, noticing the S badge on his blazer.
"that's nice. i hope you like it here," sunoo smiled at her before drawing attention to the teacher who finally entered.
the teacher started discussing their biology topic for the day. it was about plants, more specifically flowers. the whole time, eri couldn't help but feel that her new seat partner was taking glances at her.
"and for today's lab, we'll be dissecting flowers. with your seatmate, please follow the instructions on the board. note down your findings and if there's anything you need to ask, please don't hesitate to approach me," announced the teacher.
sunoo and eri stood up from their seats at the same time, then turned to each other with odd looks on their faces. they remained awkwardly still for a few seconds.
"i'll go get the materials," eri said in one breath, speeding to the front of the class to retrieve the tray of materials they needed for the experiment. once she arrived back, the two started setting up the experiment as displayed so on the board.
"how old are you?" sunoo was the first to break the silence. he twirled the lily with his fingertips before setting it down on the table to remove the stamen.
"i turned seventeen yesterday," replied eri, setting up the microscope and ensuring that all the settings are correct.
"oh! i'm seventeen as well," excitedly spoke sunoo.
"you don't look seventeen," mumbled eri, making sunoo raise a brow at her.
"i mean it in a good way! you look young," eri frantically blurted. sunoo let out a sweet laugh that made the corners of eri twitch upwards.
"well that's a first," he smiled, focusing his attention back to the pollen. using a q-tip, he wiped the pollen onto a slide underneath the microscope. he gestured eri to observe it first.
eri removed her blazer and placed it on her chair. she rolled up her white button-up shirt so that it rested on her elbows. she leaned into the microscope, closing one eye while the other was looking through the lens.
sunoo felt like the air was knocked out of his lungs. amongst the scent of the lilies and tulips in the classroom, a new fragrance overpowered the air. it was a sweet scent. a scent that drew him in. a scent that made him hungry. his eyes flickered to eri, and then to the white gauze on her elbow that had a patch of red. his head started to spin, dizzy from the scent that overtook him. he couldn't focus on anything other than the smell.
"you...okay?" eri turned to sunoo, curiously looking at the stunned expression on his face.
sunoo shook his head to bring him back to reality, "yeah! i was just spacing out,"
once class had ended, eri bid goodbye to her new friend before walking off in the opposite direction. sunoo waited until she was far from his vision before he dialed a number on his phone.
