crossroads

5

both of your thumbs move on the screen on your phone as you zoom in on the written words in the image. eyes widen, eyebrows furrowed, and your tongue pokes the inside of your cheek; you stare at it amazed as the words in the image that jongseong sent you through the new contact of him you've just gotten earlier in the day have now registered in your mind. a colorful poster with lists of musicians performing that you realized was one of jongseong's main program if he won the election, now a reality as you read the few lines of explanation written former to the image being sent. how yedam actually likes the idea of the festival as a way for more teens in the area to have their own opportunity to enjoy the music culture of seoul.

what you can't believe is the names of the musicians you listen to with jongseong that day at the end of summer appearing there, combined with a few kpop acts such as tomorrow x together and lee heeseung that you know costs a lot of money. maybe they wanted to add more to the lineup and since the artists you listen to are more towards k-indie, it costs less than those idols that have a whole lot of staff in their entourage. but the appearance of a certain the volunteers and a few artists you introduce to him makes you think that he thought it thoroughly, inspired by the kind of music you listen to other than pop as a way to introduce them to others.

you almost slip your phone on the moving train when it trembles with the information as the main reason, almost embarrassing yourself in a car full of working commuters who just finished their job. you smile sheepishly at your foolishness and internally facepalms yourself when you stand upright to lean against the wall. then, you see a notification showing up on the screen as you stabilize yourself by holding on to the metal handle. a notification from jongseong.

"i bought you and your friend tickets so you can come together. i'll see you there!"

you nibble on your bottom lip as you hear the announcement of the station you have to transit in arriving soon. smiling to yourself at the thoughtful action from the boy as your heart and mind relax, followed by suyeon's notifications now showing up on the top, her caps locked words express how excited she is about the music festival in the middle of autumn.

after summer ends and you start to go back to school, you can sense the difference between this semester and your previous semesters where you are mostly alone—still as quiet as ever yet with a difference with suyeon right beside you. you both started to open up with each other. you remembered the shock and a drop you felt inside you when suyeon told you her perspective of her first day of school here and the revelation that the same group of people that belittles you in your first year was the same people that bullied her in middle school. telling each other stories about what you both experienced in the empty classroom as the others have left the school one day, giving gloomy smiles to each other after tell-all stories of your experiences of being left behind and ignored.

the biggest difference is the presence of jongseong in your day-to-day life. through small glances between each other as you pass the hallway, you both actively try to let things be as normal as ever, not letting the school knows the business between you two; knowing the tension it produced to know that their most respected student hangs out with the 'unrespected' student and a surprise on how peaceful their relationship is. yet, outside of school, you use two days each week after school walking through the street of seoul together. 'cafe crawling' as you like to call it when you both visit all sorts of cafes from the most minimalist ones, like the one he brought you after going to lotte world, or to a dog cafe where jongseong doesn't have to worry about sneezing too much while rubbing a head of a puppy. sightseeing the less-industrialized area of seoul where you sat down to enjoy each other's presence as you read a book in a quaint and antique-looking bookstore while he is doing his student council business.