petrichor ¦ hwang hyunjin

page 12

'little does she knows, he thinks about her too.'

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“Alright, Minho. We pulled an all nighter on this, can’t let this flop, you hear me?”

I took a last look at the poster. With the help of Minho’s art skill, we managed to paint out a picture of the cafe by memories. I wouldn’t say what was drawn was exactly the same as the actual cafe, but we did try our best to remember the important detail of the shop.

Staying up until one in the morning to finish the poster, picking the perfect mixture of colors and conversing about the design led to the obvious, heavy and hideous black circle hanging under my eyes.

On top of that, I didn’t had the chance to at least cover them up with a foundation after unintentionally sleeping in this morning. Hence if this whole project flop, I would lose my mind and throw a tantrum in front of a thousand people in this college.

Minho lifted the corner of his lips, waving the poster in the air in confidence. “This masterpiece? Flop? That will never happen. Now let’s go, we have 20 minutes until Mr. Sohn’s class starts.”

He grasped my hand, tugging me towards the center of the public’s eyes on purpose.

“Can I have all of your attention?” Minho clapped his hands to draw the people’s attention.

I stood beside him quietly, watching as he confidently announced the purpose of the gathering. I had always envied how self-assured Minho was in every work he was engaged in, spitting his opinion like fire without shaking in fear of embarrassing himself in front of people.

He was totally out of my league when it came to education. But when it was just the two of us, I was positive to announce that he was the biggest fool I had ever met in my life.

“I’m sure this wonderful poster right here have attract your attention,” Minho started speaking as a group of people had gathered around the two of us, automatically forming a circle.

“Hey, you can speak now.” Minho whispered beside my ears.

I stepped back, expecting Minho to handle the whole thing until well, now.

“M-Me?” I pointed at myself, confidence hitting rock bottom.

Minho nodded, “Yeah, you. You’re the one who knows more about the cafe, no?”

I inhaled a large amount of air, hoping to calm myself down before taking a small step forward.

“G-Good morning,” I greeted, immediately regretting after seeing how everyone stayed silent.

“If you look carefully enough in this poster, it’s a drawing of a cosy coffee shop on a rainy day. Now I know that these days when we visit a cafe, it’s more convenient to pick out places with Wifi, especially for college students like us.” I paused, examining the expression of the people.

Seeing that most of them were actually interested on what I was talking about, I built up my confidence, “If you’re actually interested in spending a day without technology and simply dream of a relaxing day off, you’re always welcome to visit this cafe. It’s not far away from here, I can promise you. They have a good customer service and-”

“And visual workers,” Minho cut in.

I noticed how some girls’ ears perked up at the mention of ‘visual’, whispering to each other and started asking questions about the shop. I smiled to myself after ending short promotion.

Minho took the last pin and pressed it on the corner of the paper. Other than for assignment purposes, it was my first time attaching something on the college’s Promotion Board. It was created for the students, and we had the freedom to put up all kinds of poster to catch the public’s attention.

“Ooh, Hanna. I’m impressed.” Minho stifled a smile, circling his arm around my shoulder before giving it a light pat.

“M-Me? I just said what I have to though…” I slid a hair behind my ears, clearing my throat. It wasn’t easy to receive a compliment from Minho, but when I did, the atmosphere always turned tense and awkward.

“Come on, stop being so humble. I saw that,”

“What do you mean?”

“How your face lit up when you talk about the cafe.” Minho’s expression softened.

“Did I really? I didn’t notice that.” I questioned, covering my mouth in amusement.

“You really like him, do you? ” Minho asked in a way I’ve never heard him spoke before, “That’s why you don’t want this plan to fail.”

I was caught off-guard at his unusual tone before blinking my eyes, processing his words.

“I guess I do... He’s just different, something just makes me want to know him more.”

Minho slowly removed his arm off my shoulder, staring brazenly into my eyes. “I don’t blame you for liking him and I’m sorry to bring this up again Yuna,”

I held my breath, waiting for him to continue.

“But I just don’t want you to get hurt again, just like two years ago.”