The day started great. The people in my class seemed nice, especially Taehyung who became my “partner” just a couple of minutes ago. He was incredibly intelligent in some way I couldn’t actually understand, because at the same time he was just on the same mental level as a five year old kid. I mean Taehyung was one of the international business students in our year and still the way he smiled so dorkily at the littlest things around him made me wonder how he got into this university.

“So how come you applied for Yonsei in particular?” Taehyung walked next to me, his hands buried in the pockets of his loose black pants.

I thought about this question while I exhaled some of the cool fall air. “A good friend of mine is a student here too, that’s why I guess.”

“Hm,” Taehyung nodded, lifting a hand to fix his ash blonde hair.

“How about you?” I asked back, examining his side profile.

He had already opened his mouth to reply, but then shut it again, his eyes widening a little. He suddenly sped up for two steps or so, but then turned back and grabbed me by my wrist to pull me with him. “I think there are our mentors!” He pointed to a tremendous tree right in front of us, maybe 300 meters away.

I could recognize two people standing beneath it, the one of the right waving at us from afar. Thanks to Taehyung’s sense of direction it wasn’t much of a problem to find the place. It wasn’t too far away from the main building which we just have left, just right next to the basketball courts where some students were playing as we walked past.

The cool wind brushed my cheek and I had to narrow my eyes which were getting a little teary from the coldness. My hand held my woolen scarf while I trailed Taehyung who was eager to meet our mentors.

I had been too fixated on not stumbling over my own feet before I lifted my head from the ground, just as we were almost standing in front of our mentors.

My eyes shifted to the right, were the person who waved us, a girl, was standing. Her long, dark brown hair was braided to the side while she flashed a genuine smile at us. I couldn’t help but smile back as her until my eyes moved to the person on the left.

I stopped.

Taehyung let go of my hand, surprised at my action and shooting me a confused look.

My smile, which I kept on my face before, had disappeared completely.

Instead, I felt like my heart had stopped beating for moment.

My limbs were frozen, unable to move.

My throat was dry, my lips trembling.

I just stared at him.

And he stared back.