#gbml1

For one who has stayed in darkness her entire life, even the slightest bit of light may burn her eyes. Lee Sangmin was that ray of light, perched against the pillar of the secluded corner behind the school gym, humming his made up tunes as he strummed on his acoustic guitar. Had Haerin been who she is now, she'd have known that she was doomed the minute his melody resonated in her ears; she would've told herself to run, before his voice could become the only thing that she would hear. But 16 year old Haerin crept around that same corner the next day, a rare smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she heard the strumming of his guitar, not noticing when the wind took a piece of paper from the stack that she was carrying in her arms. As if fate was watching them from behind the trees, he caught onto that piece of paper. 

"Hold on! Is this yours?" He watched expectantly as the fleeing girl stopped in her tracks, her head still slightly bowed as she turned in minuscule motions. He had barely caught sight of her side profile before she took off again. 

They settled into a routine where she would come at the same time everyday, and find him right where she last saw him, singing tunes that she knew and those that she didn't, she learnt. She was used to leaving only her back to him and leaving before he caught onto her, a part of her persuading herself not to risk it, that he wasn't going to like what he saw and her happy bubble would then disappear. 

She had been all out of sorts that morning, the periodic nightmare which had disrupted her rest left her shivering in cold sweat and she forced her dry eyes wide open, fearing to return back into slumber, into the clutches of reliving that past that she desperately wanted to forget. Her steps were hesitant but she soon found herself back in the same spot again, only this time the boy was no where to be seen.

She jumped and spun around when she felt a hand on her shoulder, almost letting out a scream for help until she registered the cheery turned worried look on his face, and it was as if he was the one that she had been looking for all these while without herself being in the know. 

"Hey, it's just me." She searched his eyes for signs of bluff and when she found none, she lowered her gaze and bit on her bottom lip as if in defeat. That was when he called her name. The two words written in neat font on the paper that he caught onto the first time they met, which embedded themselves in his head along with the shadow of the girl that he had never managed to get a clear look of until now.

"Haerin," Her eyes widened as she heard that very voice that haunted her in the day, lost in her thoughts as she wondered about how he had learnt her name, but mostly of how she was much too fond of everything that he does. As if he knew the effect that he had on her, he raised his hand and brought it close to her, and at the very moment when she felt gentle pats on her head, accompanied by light chuckles that left his eyes in small crescents - instead of the usual stinging pain on her cheek with the slap that was granted merely because her existence was thorn in her mother's life - she found herself longing for more. Like someone who never had a drip of water learning about the existence of an oasis for the first time in a long while, she yearned to know how it would feel like to be complete, to actually matter to someone. She knew she could love this boy and that she wanted him to stay.