UNDER THE summer sun jiyeon felt the warmth of those brilliant rays, of light granting everyone with new vibrant colours, softly brushing smiles upon faces and hearts. jiyeon immediately spots jeno at the end of the hallway, a black denim bag resting on his lap.
"hi!" jiyeon exclaims from the back and sits on the stairs on the empty spot beside jeno.
jeno looks at her, confused, before he finally realises what's happening and takes off his airpods. "oh hey, i thought you wouldn't show up today either."
heat licked at their sunburned faces and coiled around their limbs like a great hot-blooded serpent. the ground smoldered and sent up a disorientating haze. even the birds were silent and the grass stood still as if too hot to move. only the sound of other peers and pupils could be heard around the campus.
"it's so hot today, i checked this morning and it was 37° celsius today." jiyeon pouted as she felt the warm breeze hit her face.
jeno just chuckled and continued, "yeah, too bad i have to wait till," he looked at his phone to check the time. "till five, i have that crazy appointment today."
jiyeon feels bad for jeno, the sweat dripping down his temples, the extreme heat wave of mid june but the idea of jeno's appointment was tempting her.
"jeno is it okay if i stay? i really wanna see what your advices are like." jiyeon asked him.
jeno fondly smiled at her. there was something about the way he smiled and his crescent eyes; the way butterflies seemed to escape from the pit of his stomach and the way the sun had somehow toppled down from the sky and made a home right there in his heart. he had the kind of smile that made anyone feel happy to be alive.
"yeah you can stay, but are you gonna be okay? i can get lemonades fo—" a tap on jeno's shoulder interrupted him.
"look, jeno i'm sorry, i'm late today. i'm extremely sorry!" the boy who jiyeon assumed to be a sophomore, exclaimed. "oh it's fine, don't worry." jeno fake smiled.
"uh— are you gonna stay..?" the boy looks at jiyeon. "yeah she's staying, think like she's my partner now." jiyeon's eyes widened at his words and she immediately looked at jeno.
"yeah anyways, so me and eunjin almost got caught yesterday. her boyfriend walked in the room and i had to pretend like i was there to get papers." the boy explained.
"wait wait— is eunjin cheating on her boyfriend with you?" jiyeon asked curiously.
"jeno, does your partner not know?" the boy suddenly asked. "yukhei, she's new, please continue."
___
the entire two hours spent with jeno attentively listening to yukhei's stories with his chin resting on his hands. yukhei's story was quiet amusing, jiyeon isn't gonna lie, but listening to it for hours might've been too much for her. jiyeon was surprised that even under the scorching heat, jeno tried his best to help the sophomore out.
"you got 40 thousand won in total? damn how much do you earn in a month with all these counselling?" jiyeon laughed as they both stood by the brick walls counting the notes given by yukhei.
"a round about 70 thousand to 100 thousand. honestly it depends on the amount of people that come to me." jeno chuckled and put bills in his wallet. "do you wanna go get ice cream? i kinda feel bad for making you stay with me."
"oh my god, it's not your fault. i was the one who wanted to stay, but ice cream does sound fun." jiyeon grinned.
at the ice cream parlour jiyeon stood with hands spread on top of the chilled glass like dark sea stars. if there had been three choices she would have picked one long ago, but the array put her mind into a happy tingle of possibilities. there wasn't just all the flavours, but all the possible combinations.
at least the choice of cone was simple enough, a waffle cone dipped in chocolate. it didn't come cheap of course, but then again jeno convinced her that he has enough money to feed 15 people. after a few more moments she turned round to jeno, "jeno, what flavour are you gonna get?" he smiled, it was hard even for him to know what to choose.
"well," he said, "coconut is what i always get, i kinda wanna try the peach one, what about you?" jiyeon nodded, her grin instant. "two peaches with a chocolate dipped waffle cone please!"
jiyeon and jeno took a seat on one of the two chaired tables near the window where the air con was directly giving away its cool air. jeno felt at bliss, finally he was getting an ice cream and most importantly the direct air after a lethargic day.
"i'm gonna go home and just sleep, literally. i'm just glad i don't have morning classes tomorrow." jeno said.
"lucky. i have an 8am class tomorrow." jiyeon sighed as she took a bite of the waffle cone. "i have 7am classes on thursdays, hope that makes you feel better." jeno giggled.
the evening was filled with hours long conversation about psychology, them both making fun of yukhei and jeno getting to know about how jiyeon once caught two of her high school teachers kissing. all these shenanigans ended with jeno being a gentleman and walking her to her dorm room and the thought of his new friend which lingered in his mind till he fell asleep.
