Saudade. || Sim Jake

Electric field

Some forces are invisible. But they can completely change your life.

Autumn had just stepped into the city.

Maple leaves in the college courtyard had turned yellow and fiery orange, decorating the pathways like an artist's palette. The lecture halls, however, were filled with their usual noise and commotion. The third week of the first semester. Students had already formed their groups, and classes had settled into a dull, repetitive rhythm.

The physics lecture hall was no different.

Someone was playing games on their phone, someone else was copying homework. Those sitting in the back rows were arguing about an entirely different topic.

Then the door opened. A young man walked in. The noise dropped instantly.

He was tall. A light blue shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows suited his broad shoulders perfectly. Black trousers and a simple black belt emphasized his serious appearance even more. A thin-framed pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose gave him a distinct intellectual charm.

But what stood out the most was his hair. Soft black curtain-cut hair fell naturally on both sides of his forehead, catching the light of the lecture hall with a subtle sheen. He looked like a popular actor from television, except unlike them, his face carried no artificial smile-only a calm, steady composure.

He walked up to the desk and placed the folders in his hands down. Then he looked at the lecture hall.

"Hello everyone."

His voice, like his presence, was calm but clearly audible. "My name is Sim Jaeyun. I am your new physics professor. I am twenty-three years old. I have been assigned by the university to teach your group."

A few seconds of silence followed. Then applause broke out in the lecture hall. Mostly from the girls.

"Wow..."

"He's really a professor?"

"Twenty-three?!"

"He must be joking..."

Whispers filled the room. Only one person remained silent. A girl sitting by the window in the back row. Jaeyun's gaze unconsciously drifted toward her.

Her hair was strangely beautiful. It wasn't ordinary brown. Under sunlight, it shifted into a copper tone, shimmering like a strand of reddish flame.

Her features were delicate and slightly elongated. Her eyes-somewhere between green and gold-stood out even from a distance. It was as if the brightest leaves of an autumn forest had settled inside them.

She didn't whisper or react like the others. She simply looked. Carefully. Perhaps in curiosity. Perhaps in quiet observation. Jaeyun found himself holding that gaze for a second too long.

"Miss?"

The girl flinched slightly, blinking.

"Yes?"

"What is your name?"

"Ah?" Laughter spread through the lecture hall. Her ears turned red instantly.