The roasted chestnuts were delicious.
When Minji came back, it was already late evening. The autumn evening in Busan is the most beautiful. The setting sunlight spreads across the glass and is reflected in without falling. The window glass is coated with a layer of lavender.
Haerin peeled off the chestnuts bit by bit along the cracked edges, one, two, three, four, five and arranged them on the textbooks in sequence. She's going to let them cool off before eating, she doesn't like food that burns her mouth.
She had helped Minji tidy up her notebook in a clean and good manner. Haerin had her own logic and reasoning when she studied, she's a smart girl, and she could catch points during lessons where ordinary students could not. If it wasn't for the bullies isolating her, trying to get a peek at her notes would be everyone's goal in class.
Minji was the opposite of her, the way she remembers things was a mess, her handwriting, messy, as though she didn't have an interest in learning. Haerin thought about her two thin pages of notes, even only half written and wondered why she could lend it to others so confidently as a reference.
"Mmm, delicious!"
"Damn, so neat."
There was no one in the classroom, and they spoke at the same time and laughed at the same time because of a little tacit understanding. The chestnuts are really fragrant, bite it open, and then chew it carefully, this is the first time in the past two years that Haerin feels relaxed, she walked out of her fragile self and in that moment, the light purple shade on the classroom's window was magnificent.
Haerin leaned against the windowsill, her whole body relaxed, and her expression softened involuntarily. She thought back to the beginning of spring when her heart was still grey, so she picked a sunny day alone to take a car to Gwangan beach to watch the sea, standing in the wet sand, barefoot. The seawater repeatedly surged up, and the sparkling sea at that time reminded her of her thighs. There were many scars on her thighs, burned by the bullies using cigarettes, and her white thighs became no longer white, but the sparkling sea was still sparkling no matter what.
She looked afar, over Gwangan bridge, far far away where the sky and the sea met.
"Over there, Is it free? Are the fishes in the sea free too?? Haerin thought as she lost herself in thought.
Her view came back to Minji's face, the light that has faded due to it being evening could barely illuminate the side of Minji's face. Haerin assumes that she was a realistic video recorder, so the subject being photographed is born with a not-so-typical beautiful girl face. The common feature is cleanliness and purity, but the difference is that there was a subtle sharpness hidden in the insensitivity. Minji was like those not easily broken china dolls.
"Unnie..." The word Unnie in Haerin's mouth was like tteokbokki, sticking to her ears and teeth.
"You look very pure."
Minji amused, pokes her head out of the mess on the table.
"Really now? No one ever said that to me."
'It's because they don't know you." Haerin answered, with a serious expression on her face.
"Do you know that Unnie? They don't know you."
Haerin didn't explain who "they" were, but both of them knew what she was referring to.
Minji stopped laughing halfway, her eyes, still curved, and the corners of her mouth became straight. She didn't organize her words well, and she wasn't ready to even share them. For Kim Minji, the past was too long and private so they should stay in the past.
"Kang Haerin, you're a smart girl," Minji said as she raises her eyes and observes intently. Haerin's eyelashes were so long, every flutter is like a butterfly's wings.
"Can such wings cause a tornado on the other side of the world?"
A cat, a butterfly, a tornado.
Minji didn't speak as the sky gradually darkened, she noticed the extremely beautiful sky just now and the beautiful Kang Haerin who was gently leaning on the window. She learned how to communicate with people after learning a lesson in the past, she could even be said to be good at dealing with the most difficult people, but at this moment, facing Haerin, she hesitated to speak.
"I feel that I can't say anything regarding social things to her..." Minji thought.
Comparing Haerin to when she first met her, she looked more energetic now, the small wound near the corner of her mouth that was caused by knocking against the sink left a tinge of deep red.
"Your mouth... Use the ointment with the green colour box, it's more effective and wouldn't leave a scar."
Minji said as she reached into her bag, bringing out the ointment she was mentioning. She pulled both desks together, causing them to be nearer to each other. She opened the packaging and squeezed some of the medical cream on her index finger. She reached towards Haerin's mouth and she spread the cream along the corner of her mouth where the wound was.
There were only two of them in the classroom, and when it was near evening, most people were more inclined to choose the library or cram school. The two of them had desks close to each other and they were also close to each other. Haerin didn't move, she obediently waited for Minji to apply the medicine. In fact, she couldn't move. She thought about the time when she got bullied and passed by in an instant: the sitcom halfway through, the tears shed unconsciously, the female lead who was not treated well, and in the end, she turned into a goldfish.
Haerin looked at Minji, she couldn't tell what she was now. What role she was in, and what situation she was in. The heart is connected to the ten fingers and the fingertips were numb and a little cold. The place where the medicine was applied was cool for a while with a gradual medicinal smell which has a faint smell of grass and trees.
It was completely dark outside, a few street lamps on the sports field, taller than the young trees just planted nearby. They were blown by the wind and shadows were blurred on the ground. Haerin realised she was now Kang Haerin.
"Unnie..." Haerin started.
"Hmm?"
"Unnie, can you call me by my name? I want to hear you call my name."
"Out of a sudden?"
Minji capped the ointment and puts it back into her bag, she didn't tie her hair but her long black hair was well taken care of and it hangs down straight, There was still medicine left on Minji's index finger and a little bit of residual warmth from Haerin's lips.
As night falls, the remaining warmth gradually disappears but Minji's heart is still warm like a mother during winter, when she would prepare a layer of quilt blanket for her daughter to keep out the cold, warm enough to not sweat, a comfortable temperature.
"Haerin, Kang Haerin."
"Hm?"
"Haerin, Kang Haerin," Minji repeated slowly.
The lights were not turned on in the classroom, and much like the day they first met, the difference was that three large windows stood behind them, the dark blue lake outside and the deep black inside, and the sea was the junction, the junction between darkness and darker. Her hair is dry now, her lips are moist after just applying the medicine. What about her eyes? Eyes, sea sparkling eyes. Minji looked at her, staggered down, and looked at the two shadows in the deep outline. Her expression cannot be seen clearly under the backlight, but her slow and heavy breathing could be heard in the dark.
One time, two times.
Her breath was rhythmic like the heart's beating.
"Can I kiss you Kang Haerin?" Minji said.
Haerin used her actions to answer Minji's question as she covered Minji's lips with hers.
Haerin once thought that kissing was simply four pieces of flesh rubbing against each other, it was just romanticized countless times, two people's souls can be connected in any form, and physical contact is the most useless.
Haerin loves to read stories but she doesn't like to read the romantic plots in stories, but the world is full of romantic elements, falling in love is romantic, freedom is romantic, being redeemed is romantic, and the plot of reunion is also romantic. It seemed that everything except her short life was an endless, nasty, lingering, and heavenly romance. Haerin doesn't believe them, and plays them like background music when doing things alone in the room: the protagonists kissed, separated, met and missed at the intersection, repeated similar happiness, and shared the same pain. In the end, even regrets are like catkins floating all over the ground between spring and summer, melancholy, melancholy is exactly the same.
What about her? Was there something special about it? Was there something unique about her?
Minji's lips were most like seaweed that had just been salvaged from the shore, and her tongue was flexible, narrow and long and stretchy. Minji pressed Haerin beneath her to kiss her, inserted her fingers into her soft hair, and wrapped her other hand behind her to gently protect the back of her head. Sucking, locking and kissing the deepest part, Haerin didn't close her eyes, she smiled Minji's hair which also smelled like gardenia.
Haerin's tongue was pressed down tightly as if this was not a kiss but a small competition, she wanted to move and breathe, but she was pressed down, imprisoned in a small world under two arms. Haerin knew that Minji was very smart so she used moisture and tenderness to occupy most of her attention in the world, which should be used for pain. Minji asked her if it hurts, and she wanted to say that if she hadn't asked her this way, she probably wouldn't have noticed the pain.
Her face became flushed and drenched. Kang Haerin cried, not because of sadness, the tears fell silently, moistening both cheeks at the same time. She forgot that she cried in an unseemingly way like a crybaby, she just shed tears. Haerin couldn't figure out why she was crying, she only knew that she tasted tears in Minji's mouth, Minji and the taste of medicine.
The weather forecast said it would rain at night, with the windows open, the wind was blowing, bringing in the smell of soil, humidity spreading into the air and people breathing. She finally thought of a simple reason for her tears, it was raining, and so were her eyes.
After the kiss Minji asked, "Why are you crying Haerin?"
"Because it's raining Minji, because it's raining."