under the same sky | chaekura

Chaeyeon: Sakura

I look around the auditorium once more. Wonyoung and Yujin are playing 'Guess which Japanese students are our new classmates?' There are 3 of them. I'm more interested to know who is going to sleep in the empty bed in our dorm. Sakura. That's her name. It's a very pretty name. I turn my attention back to Mrs Choi who just finished her opening speech.

I brisk-walk to the main building of the school. 1 person from each room is supposed to take the luggage and collect the uniforms of the new students. I could speak Japanese so naturally, I was selected. I spot Yuri and Yujin at the front of the line and join them. "Name please?" says the teacher-in-charge.
"Yabuki Nako," Yujin says. The teacher hands her a small blue luggage and a set of uniforms that is probably 4 sizes smaller than Yujin. "Daebak." I go next and am handed a light pink luggage and a set of uniforms my size. Yuri is then given a peach luggage. We head back to the boarding house, talking about how exciting the new year is going to be.
"Now we know that Hitomi is Yuri's height, Sakura is Chaeyeon's height and Nako doesn't reach Wonyoung's chin," Yujin jokes.
"I bet they're nice," says Yuri. "They all have very nice names."
"Sakura is a very pretty name. It reminds me of Sakura trees. They will be in bloom soon."
"Oh yeah. Now I'm 1000% sure she's pretty. Wow, Chaeyeon, you're lucky."
"You guys are so shallow," I joke. "Come on, we still have to give them a tour." We go up the 4th floor.

I walk towards my dorm room and open the door. Almost immediately, I make eye-contact with the new girl in the room. I bow immediately.
"Hello, I'm Lee Chaeyeon, nice to meet you," I say in Japanese, still bowing. "I hope we get along well." To avoid the awkward silence, I open my mouth again to speak. "Here is your luggage. And your uniform. You can get changed in the toilet here and I'll meet you in the hallway." I gesture towards the toilet in the room.
"Thank you." Sakura, still looking at the floor, walks past me and enters our bathroom.
Once she closes the door, Eunbi mouths to me: SHE IS VERY PRETTY. I mouth back: I KNOW. "Unnie, she's the one who caught mine and Yujin's eyes just now in the auditorium," Wonyoung whispers as I walk towards them.
"Stop staring at her, you're being obvious," I say as I grab my wallet.
"Says you," Eunbi counters, grinning. She takes another two minutes before she walks out into the hallway.

The original idea was to give the students a tour around the entire school campus but I decided that there'll be too many students wherever we go, and Sakura seems a bit too shy to interact with more people. She's already shy enough with me. So instead, I show her to all the rooms she absolutely has to know, and which bathrooms are the nearest to each one. I also take her to the dance studios where our class is allowed to practice in and, with a spare 30 minutes, I take her to our school track. She takes a seat in the middle of the field and I run to get her a can of lemonade.
"So, have you always been this shy?" I hand her a can and we both laugh.
"N-no, I mean yes, I mean-" she stutters, and I smile. "It's only because it's our first time meeting."
"That's okay, we'll warm up to each other soon." Thankfully we're both born in the same year, so we'll end up in the same classes. Together with Chaewon.

We talked until we passed the recommended hour for the tour. Sakura said she wanted to wait until the sun set so I let her since the only thing we'd miss would be bonding time at the dorm. "It's so pretty," she says. Not taking my eyes off her, I nod my head and agree. "Let's take a photo together. It'll be my first one here." I tell her it isn't possible because there was no one in the field to help us take a photo. And then an idea pops into my head.
"Give me your phone," I say with my hand out. She hands me her phone. Her phone cover is pink and has a sakura tree on it. Everything about this girl revolves around her name. I tell her to stand up and face the sky. "Okay, stay in that position." I press the camera button and take a picture of Sakura. "Done." I show her the picture.
"Omg, okay, I'll do you next." I get up and imitate her pose. "Done." I turn around and look at the photo. "With editing, it'll look like we're pointing at the sky together," she says. "I'll put your photo on my page, what should I caption it?"
"Put 'My Best Friend' and add 4 hearts. Oh, and tag me, I'm @chaeyeondances," I joke, and she hits my back. "Okay, I think it's time we head back to the dorm."

Once we reach the dorm, it's empty. They must be at Yena's room. Whenever the 9 of us have our own free time together, we're either in the dance studio doing stupid things or in Yena's room, also doing stupid things. I lead Sakura outside Yena's room. Room 420. "Like I said, they're nice. They're a bit loud sometimes, but they're nice." Sakura looks the most nervous I had ever seen her today. I hold out my hand to her. She takes it. I smile. And she smiles back.

I open the door and we both enter room 420.

All 10 pairs of eyes dart toward our direction at the sound of the door opening. "Hello," I greet as I take her to my spot at the back wall in between Eunbi and Yena, except now it's another Japanese student, Hitomi. "Everyone, this is Sakura." They all wave and greet her, mouthing the same words Eunbi had mouthed to me earlier to each other. She's looking at the ground again, so I continue to speak. "Let's go around and introduce ourselves." Starting from me, we go one round until it reaches Sakura.
"I'm Sakura, nice to meet all of you." She looks up for a while to observe the group and take in everything.
"We're playing this game, do you want to join?" Yena asks Sakura who nods, and I explain her the rules in Japanese.

March 6, 2016
Sakura. It's a pretty name indeed. And it fits her so well. I think I've just met the prettiest girl. And she's sleeping in the bed next to mine. She was so cute whenever she got flustered and started stuttering. She'd always look down and smile to avoid eye contact. She rarely laughs but she has a cute smile. Throughout the entire hour we were in the room, she didn't let go of my hand. She didn't let go until we went back to our room to rest . I only realized our fingers were still interlocked when I had introduced her to the rest of the class. She squeezed my hand and I guess she just forgot to let go. I'm going to have a fun year this year.

I close my diary and pick up my phone to check my messages. I click on the new notification that says @39saku_chan tagged me in a post. My cheeks start heating up. I like the photo and follow her back. She sent me the photos via the message function so I save it and post it, captioning 'we will', and tag her. I text my family goodnight before going to sleep. The words from her caption stay in my head for a while before I finally doze off.

"let's soar together, under the same sky."

together, under the same sky.

under the same sky.