ephemera 一 baek dohwa.

iv

You’re at the convenience store because you gave away your most prized possession of the day to a stranger for lending you a seat on the bus. Unfortunately, it’s almost the end of the lunch break, and all the other students seem to have gotten to the good chocolate milk before you, because there’s only the brand that gives you diarrhoea left.

‘Aw, man.’

Disheartened, you turn and make your way to the till with just a triangle kimbap. The queue is one person long, and the cashier looks pissed.

‘I swear I counted right,’ the boy in front of you mutters, patting down his pockets.

He manages to fish out a coin, but the cashier only sighs, ‘You’re still two hundred won short.’

The person in front of you looks strangely familiar. You recognise the hoodie and the broad shoulders, and you pat him hesitantly on the back. ‘Excuse me.’

He turns, face going from flustered to smooth and disinterested within the same heartbeat. Your eyes brighten with recognition before his do, and you say, ‘It is you!’

You turn to the cashier. ‘I’ll pay for both of us by card, please.’

When you turn away, thanking the cashier, you turn to the boy. You can't believe it.

Because he’s always wearing a designer brand hoodie in place of a blazer, and a cap on top of a hood, you only ever get to see the lower portion of his face. He gets off one stop earlier than you do. Often, he even skips days, sometimes for whole weeks on end.

Also because you possess an extraordinary crossbreed of introversion and tunnel vision, you have never once bothered to look him properly in the face 一 until this morning’s bus ride.

All of these things put together means you hadn't realised that he was actually a student at your school for a good few weeks.

The cap he wears on the bus is long removed, and you can one hundred percent put a name to his face now, although you’re surprised that Baek Dohwa, of all people, didn’t seem to have enough to pay for a small meal even though his hoodie is clearly genuine Gucci.

Perhaps he left his card at home 一 although you're fairly sure by now that the life he's living is incredibly different to the one everyone has somehow conjured up for him.

You don’t ask, though.

You were too embarrassed to stare earlier, but you suddenly realise that he’s the one inspecting your face now. Again. His hand is outstretched, but you can't fathom why he would want a handshake.

He doesn’t look too happy for some reason.

Even after a minute, he doesn’t move.

‘Food.’

You flush when you realise he’s staring at you with his hand extended for the pot noodles you bought him. You pass it to him. Again, he hesitates a bit before saying, ‘Thanks. I owe you.’

As you exit the store together, you begin to say, ‘Don’t worry about一’

Someone waves at him. ‘Yo! Dohwa! What took you so long?’

You don’t miss the glance that Dohwa sends you one last time before he walks towards the other student.

‘Who’s that?’ you hear his friend say.

You don’t hear Dohwa’s response. Your phone rings, and when you pick up, Taesuk yells at you, ‘Hey! Where are you? Class starts in five minutes!’

You’re in such a hurry that the second encounter with Dohwa slips from your mind as easily as the first as you rush to class.

You don’t see him again for a month.