Let Go / KTH

and so it begins

The question about that day in orientation lodged in my throat but I smothered it down, not wanting to break the somewhat friendly atmosphere.

There's a time for everything, I'd thought and followed her directions towards her house - memorizing every street name in case she decides to let me drive her home again.

-

The third time I met her, it was Jungkook's first day in school. It was on the cafeteria and I saw her with Jisoo and two others I haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet.

Jimin and I joined the table and the newbies introduced themselves as Chaeyoung and Lisa.

Jungkook arrived a little later and he and Lisa immediately went into bickering with each other. Turns out the three had been classmates in their last year of middle school and was already acquainted with each other.

With that information, I asked her if she went to the same middle school as we did and she gave me a blank stare. It was Jisoo who answered yes.

I wondered why I haven't seen her around.

After that day, we've met each other almost every day.

Jisoo took over as the student council council and she was its secretary. Jimin continued with his dance club while hockey practice was getting intense. Jungkook, Chaeyoung and Lisa occasionally drops by the student council room to hang out. The student council room became witness of the million shenanigans - mostly spearheaded by Lisa and me - and my car was witness to the countless times I drove to and from her house.

We've gone closer over the days. It was all because the hockey team doesn't have a manager and since she was in the student council, she accompanied us in away games - I had a feeling this was all Jisoo.

One car ride home, I got the courage to ask why she was crying that day in freshmen orientation. She looked at me confusedly and I tried to explain that she was crying when I gave my speech. She still looked confused so I said about how she had been reading some book that day. Her eyes lit up in recognition.

She said she was reading a book that time and something had happened which made her cry, and it turned out she wasn't staring at me, she was lost in thought and her eyesight happen to graze mine. She doesn't even remember me giving a speech.

I just laughed at that and we continued the drive in silence, something that I find was both of our thing.

-

It was semester break when I realized I haven't said her name out loud. It was a trivial thing, but it bothered me to no end. I wondered how we called each other's attention the past times we were together.

I was sprawled on my back in my bed when my phone rang, it was Jin. I answered on the third ring.

Jin informed me that the boys are planning to have a get together, somewhere where the college students can unwind. I laughed at how tired he sounded but maybe he just needed to see his sister. I agreed and asked the RSVP list - waiting to hear one name in particular.

It was the same crew, the boys and of course Jin had invited his sister - this gave me hope, if Jisoo was invited there was a chance the invitation was extended to her close friends - and when Jin mentioned the name I've been waiting for, I immediately said that I will go. Jin was taken aback by the enthusiasm but I shook it off by saying I, too, needed a vacation.

I was beaming by the time the call ended and I thought to myself I can't wait to see her again.

-

It was sunset when I realized that by the short time I knew her, I'd fallen deeply in love with her. As the sun kissed the horizon, casting a golden hue, I looked back to moments where she was in my life. When had this started? I wondered. I must've been that time where she smiled when I made that winning shot in that match versus our rival school. Or that time she fell asleep in the passenger's seat of my car on the way to her home. Or maybe it was when I first laid eyes on her during her freshmen orientation.