Within These Shadows || Park Chanyeol/Do Kyungsoo || Book 1

10

Jay twirled her pen around her fingers, completely lost in the thoughts of the day's events. The boy named Do Kyungsoo had left quite an impression of himself. Even though their brief meeting lasted for a couple of minutes, the boy's personality stood out and had quite an impact; it frustrated her. She still couldn't believe that they'd had common courses over the years and yet, she failed to notice him.

She suddenly felt something hit her on the back of her head. It had knocked her out of her thoughts. She looked around in daze to find the object lying on the floor beside her chair: Mae's pokeball plushie. She picked it up and looked at Mae, who had a look of dissatisfaction on her face.

"What?" Jay asked, unaware of Mae's reasons to look agitated.

"I called you five times. You weren't responding at all." Mae crossed her arms.

"Oh. Sorry, I was just…thinking."

"About?"

"About this boy I met today."

"A boy?"

"He was a really odd person."

"How so? I mean, I thought there's only one oddball in this entire university, and that's you."

Jay deadpanned, "Seriously? Do you ever talk or think good about me?"

"Nope," Mae beamed.

"Anyway, I had dropped my notebook in Psychology class, and this guy came to give it to me later. But he was…so different, and the way he talked, was like listening to myself talk."

"Wow, you've finally met your boy version. That's crazy!" Mae chuckled.

"He's not my boy version, Mae. He's...I really don't know how to describe him." Jay sighed in defeat.

"You, not being able to describe someone, is a first. This guy must be something then. Other worldly, I guess."

"Yeah. And the way he kept on studying my face, I've never met anyone who's done that before. He wasn't gawking at me, you know, the way other people do. He was observing me. Which was fascinating and uncomfortable at the same time."

Mae laughed, giving herself a face palm. "I really don't get you at times. So, what's his name?"

"Do Kyungsoo."

"Never heard of him."

"Me neither, which is weird. Apparently he and I had a few common courses both in first and second year. And now in third year too!"

"Wow, is that even possible? You literally notice everyone around you. How'd you even miss him?"

"I don't know! I can't figure it out either."

"Forget about him. He's too complex to think about. I'm hungry, you wanna have ramyun? I'm craving some."

"Sure, let's go."

*

October, 2018

"I know it's the weekend, eomma!" Mae was sitting on her bed, blanket wrapped around her, phone on her ear. "It's only been a month since we came to Seoul. You can't possibly expect us to go to Changwon now in the middle of all the piles of assignments and quizzes!" Her voice was getting louder by the second, which made the Changwon dialect sound even funnier. Jay, who was lying on her bed and playing games on her phone, couldn't stop laughing.

"Eomma please! Don't get all emotional and melodramatic now! We'll visit Changwon next weekend! … What? Why not this weekend? Eomma I have plans this weekend! I promise we'll visit next weekend! Now calm down, will you? Give the phone to appa!"