Standing in front of the convenient store I always went to during the morning, I reached into my back pocket. "It should be here-" My fingers finally brushed against a rectangular box.
Pulling it out, I opened the pack and took out a stick of cigarette. Cancer sticks, as Jungkook called them, were the only thing in life that made me feel secure and relaxed. They felt real, and I loved everything real. It gave me something firm to put my feet on.
People tell me that smoking is bad, but that's because they don't know how it feels. They don't know the reason why I smoke, so they shouldn't butt in my life and tell me to stop doing something that I enjoy doing. For once, can't I live life the way I want to?
Thoughts filled my head as I stared up in the sky. It was a typical Korean day, the sky cloudy and gray like always. I placed the cigarette between my lips and searched once more for a lighter. But then, I remembered that my lighter was with Namjoon, who took it away in hopes I would quit my bad habits.
"Aish... Ajussi, do you have a lighter I can borrow?" I turned back to the counter, expecting to see the manager, who knew me pretty well. Instead, my eyes met a girl's.
She seemed about my age, with well-kept hair and sparkling eyes. An apron that was made to fit someone twice as big as her reached up to her knees, and I then realized that she must be the manager's daughter. But... she seemed a bit strange, almost as if a girl like her was pretty rare in Korea.
The girl walked outside, her hands in her pockets, and stood right in front of me. Then, she looked at me dead in the eye. I gulped.
"Dumbass." She muttered before reaching up to snatch the cancer stick away from my lips, and I, being too dumbstruck, didn't do anything about it. "Don't you know it's bad to smoke?" Shaking her head, she replaced the emptiness of the cigarette with a lollipop.
I stood there, just staring at this stranger that took away the thing that was supposed to calm me down. "I do..." I murmured. Then, I noticed that she was wearing long sleeves that clung on to her thin wrists. "Can I at least have my cigarette back...?" I questioned, my bangs covering part of my eyes. The manager always gave me a lighter to borrow and free packs of cigarettes on good days.
"Nope. Not today." She shook her head and grabbed what seemed like an instrument case that was leaning against the counter. "You should try to quit. It's not healthy." I scoffed at her words. She merely raised an eyebrow and took out a guitar from the case, sitting down on a stool outside.
As I stared at her, she started plucking the strings to create an addicting melody. A soft sigh escaped my mouth as I listened to her play. It was truly beautiful.
-
I sat in front of my piano, waiting for her to arrive. My hands hit the keys, trying to recreate the melody she played with her guitar.
"Yoongi!" She entered my house without even bothering to knock.
"Ah, look who's here." I snickered and turned around in my chair to face her. "You're back again..." I said, even though I knew she would be coming. I spent the whole morning cleaning up so that she wouldn't see a mess when she walked in.
"Of course I am!" She placed down a grocery bag on the floor before coming into the living room and settling down on the floor right next to the couch. "What were you practicing earlier?" She asked, smiling.
"Um, your song?" My fingers stroked the keys once more, and as I started playing, I got so lost in the song that I didn't notice her crawl over to me.
"E flat." Her voice snapped me out of my daze.
"Hmm?" I hummed, looking up at her, who was now standing next to the piano, watching me closely.
