||Koi No Yokan|| Park Seonghwa

||Chapter 4||

Everyone has experienced a moment of awkward silence at least once in their lives.

Just two people, in silence, both thinking whether they should embarrass themselves or just stay quiet. That was exactly Carys situation: sitting in front of a boy she literally saw in her dreams, with no words coming out of her mouth. Or his mouth, for what mattered. He kept looking around, eventually stopping on the pile of books in front of her.

"That's a lot of books for just one day," he said, picking one of them up.

"Well, it's not like I have anything else to do in here..." she answered, but it almost came out as a whisper. What was happening to her?

The boy fumbled with the book, reading the title on the back. He then flashed a little smile.

Oh, his smile.

"It could put the sun to shame", she thought.

She observed the way his hands flipped the pages of the book, then his eyes, then how the hair was falling on his forehead, then back to his hands. Carys noticed one of his palms had a long scar across it.

Cupid, in her dreams, had hurt his right hand. Could it be...

"Is there something on my face?"

Oh, no. She had been staring for too long now, that was for sure.

"It's just...I know it may sound weird, but it's like I have seen you before. But maybe I'm wrong..."

Carys could almost feel her face burning as he glanced at her. For a moment, they made eye contact.

Those eyes.

That guy was definitely the one in her dreams.

"Really? Well, I just moved here, so maybe you've seen me around a couple of times"

Well, that made more sense.

"Can I ask what happened to your hand?"

He seemed to panic for a second, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Well, I made a mistake... and got hurt with an arr- a knife"

"Oh"

Then silence fell again. The boy's eyes drifted back to the book he had in his hands, then to the one she was reading. He read the title.

"The fable of Amor and Psyche. Nice one"

"Have you read it?"

The boy's eye seemed to lit up.

"No, but I heard about the myth. Psyche was really brave, facing all she had to face, only for love"

"And Cupid was...well, kind of dumb for falling in love with a human, but who am I to judge him?"

The boy in front of her let out a little laugh, before putting the book back on the table.

"At this point, I think I should introduce myself. I'm Seonghwa"

He offered her his right hand. She shook it, feeling the roughness of the scar and the softness of his fingertips.

"Nice to meet you, Seonghwa. I'm Carys"

"Carys...I like that name"

Carys had just realized how his hand felt really warm, and how he smelled like a nice cologne even if he had basically run in the rain.

"Thank you..." she managed to say, trying to avoid eye contact the whole time. She didn't know why, but she felt that if she looked at him too long in the eyes, she could've never been able to look any other way.