The Imaginary One

S2GHT

S I G H T / two

Nine years ago, the nineteen-year-old girl tried to reject the idea that she couldn't control her fate after all.

2:33 PM
Wru? Are u coming?

It was the third time her brother sent her a message. She was too immersed in the piece she was writing on her laptop to pay attention to anything. She didn't even come to hang out with her friends and instead chose to stay at the library to write, even though it was the last day of her finals.

She had been holding onto the idea for days and waited for her finals to end, so she could finally write it down.

She leaned back on the chair, placed her reading glasses on the table as she massaged her eyes after hitting the 1.5k word count, feeling fulfilled. 'Halfway there,' she thought.

Her phone vibrated once more. Her blurry vision cleared after she wore her glasses back. The notification came from her brother, yet again.

4:01 PM
Park Nayeon!!!!!

Her brother had always been impatient. She finally decided to reply back.

"Nayeon?"

Her fingers froze while typing when she heard a familiar voice call her from behind. Her heart skipped a beat. She nervously turned her head to his direction. And there he was, delighted to see her. "Jongdae."

Jongdae was her first love.

But, of course, he didn't know that.

He was her brother's friend.

Jongdae was almost done talking with the librarian. He was only 2 tables away from her. She panicked once Jongdae walked towards her direction.

Her work! She remembered her work. He must not see it. She immediately closed her laptop and placed some books on top of it. What she was writing was nothing peculiar, really, but she had been always secretive about her writing.

"What are you doing here?" he asked once he was close enough to her. He then sat on the seat in front of her.

Nayeon's heart raced as his presence grew closer. But she tried to gather her composure.

"Still have finals?" Jongdae added.

Nayeon nodded hesitantly because, really, her finals were done. "Yeah." She later then added, "...Actually, no. We're done." She couldn't lie, with him staring back at her.

Unfair, she thought. What have you done to me, Jongdae?

"I was just uhh—writing something," she said, almost embarrassed.

"Oh?" His eyes showed curiosity.

"Y-yeah. I need to pass a requirement later today." But she couldn't also tell the truth.

"In fact, I've just uploaded the file on the portal." She's insecure about what he might think of her. "How 'bout you? What brings you here?"

'Please say you're here because of me,' her subconscious thought. But immediately felt ashamed of herself.

"I returned some textbooks."

'Of course, it's not because of me.'

He leaned back, stretching his arms wide. "Ah, final's done, finally," he cried in relief.