springtime | winrina

six

Winter fiddles with her pen, rolling it between her fingers mindlessly as she gazes out of the window at the gloomy sky scattered with dark rain clouds. It has been raining since that fateful afternoon – the afternoon which had subconsciously shifted her perceptions of the spring rain, the same afternoon which made her heart brim with warmth for a certain tall girl with pretty dark eyes and long wavy hair that flowed down her back.

She smiles gently to herself, hearing the leaves rustle in the trees outside the classroom, hearing her heart thump to a steady beat. Nothing has ever made her feel quite like how Karina makes her feel and it's both scary and exciting. For once, Winter Kim thinks school isn't that terrible after all.

"Karina, I bet you'll receive a lot of messages today!"

"Obviously, the whole school is in love with her."

The loud chatter and giggles slips through the music flowing through her wired earphones, her brows furrowing in slight annoyance as the classroom grew increasingly noisier with more students strolling in.

Whipping her head around, she turned towards the group of girls occupying the front of the classroom by the door. They were all smiles and laughs, attention on the student with red flushed cheeks, smiling shyly while shaking her head.

"No no no, I doubt so~" Karina says with a chuckle, trying her best to swivel around the immense amount of flattery from the girls.

Winter takes notice of their interaction, her eyes resting easy on the girl who occupied all her thoughts. She thinks of how adorable she looks when she's embarrassed, her small face red like a cherry tomato.

Karina finally steps away, shuffling over in Winter's direction to return to her seat. Before their eyes lock, Winter drops her head down on the table, pretending to be fast asleep. In the process, she accidentally knocks her forehead against the surface of her desk with a thud, the pain shooting through her forehead. She grimaced, holding in the urge to grunt, highly aware of Karina's emerging presence.

She doesn't look up for two reasons. One, she probably has a hideous red bump growing on her forehead and two, she may or may not have been a couple seconds too late in hiding from the fact that she was staring directly at Karina. Either way, she decides to keep still in her current position, pretending not to hear the footsteps and chair legs dragging against the floor.

Then, she feels a light tug from her left ear as someone pulls out one side of her earphones abruptly.

"Winter-yah," a sweet velvety voice whispered.

No response.

"Winter, wake up," she tried again.

No response.

"Winter Kim, I know you're awake. I caught you looking just now," Karina's voice returns to a norm, her words soon accompanied by a light tap on Winter's arm.

There was no escape this time. Winter would just have to face the consequences of her actions and be brave about it. So after a few painfully long moments of trying to psych herself up, Winter finally lifted her head up towards her.

Karina had her hands on her hips, peering down at her with her face scrunching up cutely in an attempt to seem mad.

"Oh hey, didn't see you there..." Winter drags out her words, faking a yawn as she stretches her arms above her head. She places her hands behind the back of her head, trying to stop herself from smiling like an idiot at Karina's mannerisms. "Were you looking for me?" she asks coolly, leaning back into her seat.

"Why are you like this?" Karina asked, bringing her arms up to fold across her chest, looking at Winter thoughtfully.

For a split moment, Winter gets slightly anxious. Was it her forehead that's the problem? She cleared her throat, arms dropping down to her sides slowly. "What do you mean by that?" she asks while swiftly fishing her phone out from her pocket, glancing at her reflection through the black screen sneakily (even though Karina was right there). Much to her relief, she seemed to look okay.