"Mackerels? Do you have more?" a voice asked as Gwan-sik paused, hurriedly pulling on his gloves, a simple smile on his lips and looked up. Only to freeze—

Dragon King will seriously end him one of these days..

He wonders if you were personally hand-made by Dragon King. If you were one of his precious one—No..!

"Uh, we do." he mumbled, standing up awkwardly, "one second—..Let me get halmeoni.." he mumbled, ushering to the side quickly as Ae-sun looked up from behind her book and at him utterly confused. Why does he need his halmeoni?

"Why do you even need halmeo—", "She can help." Gwan-sik said firmly, shooting Ae-sun a look which made her pause and turn back to her book, albeit confused.

You looked back at him. The starry eyes, the sweetest smile, the perfect hair despite the little mess from winter winds and slightly reddened nose, ears and lips. Chapped and trying to preserve heat. Grey-maroon cardigan, likely from school which he used almost all time.

Gwan-sik immediately looked away, rushing to get his grandma. His grandma sat beside the other haenyeo women, sharing a large bowl of bibimbap, mixing rice, seaweed, eggs or mackerel if it's not upto par for sale at their shop. Also to conserve energy in such snowy-cold months of Jeju.

Gwan-sik approaching his grandma, who sat aside silently making herself some sort of roll to chew, using seaweed when she looked up at him, "Aish, what happened? Something wrong at the stall?" she asked, "Can you serve the girl instead of me?" he asked.

His grandmother looked up, squinting her eyes, "What? Why?" he asked, as Gwan-sik silently groaned, "Can you just do it? She's part of some rich family, she's pretty..and she speaks nicely. Just serve her fish, I'll go back then—!" he said, trying to usher his halmeoni up. His grandmother sighed, putting down her spoon as his mother snorted,

"Your mouth gets sewn shut in-front of pretty girls, is that it? Yah, your brat. You're just to sell fish, not admire girls!" she said, waving her spoon as if to make him understand as he nodded nervously. His grandmother, all the while, walked back.

"Yah, what do you need?" she asked, voice gentle, despite it's gruffness. You looked up, awkward and nervous, fidgeting with your bracelet as she looked down, pulling out a slip from the bag you brought with you, reading out what you might need.

His grandmother handed it all and you paid for it quickly. Your eyes fell on the Yang boy. Yang Gwan-sik, that's his name..He was so beautiful, in a rugged but in a soft way. Like his rough palms might be warm to hold, his smile was undoubtedly cute when he troubled Ae-sun or listened to her talk about poets of Korea.

He was nice and kind, didn't bend to the pressure like steal and had a BIG heart to fulfill anyone wants or needs. He seemed to understand one's needs and worked hard. And you desperately hoped you'd see him again as you walked down the market road. He was cute.

—

And again and again. Whenever your grandpa had some things to buy from the Yangs, any sort of fish or abelones. You'd pipe up first. You visited just to see the boy of Yangs. Even if half the time you'd been unable to even try to make eye contact with him. Your eyes flitting on his stall or the cabbages right beside his own rather than the eyes. And almost disappointingly, whenever you came, he'd went and get his grandma or eomma to help you.

Ae-sun would always greet you with a smile, she'd begun noticing the daughter of the rich family in Dodong-rii always visiting their stall when there were a few more around. She could guess why, but never said it aloud for your dignity.

"Let me get my eomma—wait." he said, walking off, his hands rubbing together. You looked at the back of his head, his shoulders broad and smell of seaweed and kimchi lingered on him longer than it should've. Ae-sun hummed softly, reading her book, quickly glancing at you and then awkwardly at the empty chair beside hers, offering you a smile. "Nice day, hm?" she whispered as you nodded, "It's pretty nice." You nodded to the girl,"Reading about poets again?"Ae-sun nodded, "Yeah." "What's the boy's name?" You asked tenderly, picking at your nails and a spare thread on the bag. Ae-sun looked up, smiling apologetically and understandingly, "That's Gwan-sik. He's a bit..weird, but don't worry. He's nice" She assured. You nodded. You and her talked for a few seconds before Gwan-sik's mother walked over, gently hitting his back, "You can't even serve people now. Aish, Dragon King has no need for such useless servants." she hissed, helping you get fishes and everything. You thanked her, packing up stuff and pretending to count, while glancing up at Gwan-sik to perhaps meet his eyes. That didn't work..it was a failure, his eyes more busy staring at the ground, a soft huff on his lips. Perhaps of annoyance..? You didn't like that.

You didn't get a chance to talk to him, no matter how much you tried. He'd always seemed a bit troubled or overwhelmed with something whenever you walked back or smiled at him. When you waved to them in passing, Ae-sun always smiled back with a bright wave of her hand, but Gwan-sik only seemed to stare like you were doing something wrong or out-of-this-world.

You didn't know or perhaps you tried to console yourself that maybe he just seemed to be going through a bad time, but it happened again, quite the next week—

"Halmeoni—" Gwan-sik stood up, wordlessly moving off as his grandmother stood down. His eyes barely looking into your, flitting nervously like he hoped you'd be gone.

Or..

Gwan-sik hummed, nudging Ae-sun to help you. She looked up, utterly confused from her book, not used to being asked to sell. But all the same, she offered it to you, "It's all fresh, don't worry!" she assured. Not that that was thing you needed assurance on.

It was the same, every time. Seriously... you could seriously tell something was wrong, not when he kept moving around to sell Ae-sun's cabbage or his fish without a problem to anyone who wasn't you. Like serving you caused him itches or rashes.

It didn't seem like the Yangs' elder son liked you a lot, in fact, he didn't seem like he liked you AT ALL.

—

And it was a day like that. The sky a perpetual grey, cold and dry. As always, he wordlessly moved as his grandma approached when she noticed you were there. Her hand softly helping as you dug out your grandpa's list from your bag. Insteading of reading, you just handed it to his halmeoni. She turned to get you your fish.

All the while, your eyes roamed his figure again, trying to meet Gwan-sik's eyes too. You cleared your throat, as if desperate to have the beautiful and handsome boy's attention. Not that it worked, he barely looked at you. It put a bit of disappointment in you.

All the while Gwan-sik felt his pulse increase, and skip beats more than he'd like to admit. And you looked down, mumbling out what you got.

"Mackerel, abelones and a few galchis.." you said. His grandmother hummed, weighing everything and counting and wrapping them quickly for you. You quickly counted out the money, offering it to Gwan-sik purposefully.

Gwan-sik looked up, as you shot him a quick, polite smile, but he couldn't find it in himself to smile back unless he just wouldn't stop smiling, so he nodded, taking the money and looking away. Your smile faded with a sigh released from your lips.

You hurriedly walked away, trying to calm yourself while you looked up, but also paid attention to not fall, ruin something, feel more embarrassed which would make you cry. Your feet all the same began hurrying, holding the cloth bag under your arm of fish. While walking, you kicked a stone, rolling it ahead as you strolled, wondering why Gwan-sik seemed to, for the lack of a better word, hate you. You never acted rudely, did you?

You hoped not, you could have been a possibly annoying or bully-ish child. But you figured your grandpa wouldn't let that slide, he said 'a kindness is what brings us to our community and what keeps us human'. And you'd be stupid to not listen to him.

As you gently walked over the one fallen side of the wooden gate which was junked and rusted in place for god knows how many decades. A lot of houses in Dodong-rii have similar gateways. As you entered, you quickly removed your shoes, standing up and getting inside the house—

"Hal-abeoji! I'm home, got the fish!" you said, hurrying in with embarrassed still set like stone in a pit in your gut. Gwan-sik. Does he even know who you are? Most people knew each other in Dodong-rii, but...He clearly didn't seem to like you, at all.

"Ho? That's good. I made jujube tea." Your grandfather said, barely looking up from his glasses and news channel, sitting on the floor, peeling quail eggs for more of your favourite banchan, machorial jangjorim.

You put down the bag of fish and seafood in-front of him, sighing softly. you looked at the screen for a second, watching some news anchor drone on about 'life of people changing' as it usually does every few months. Your grandpa finally looked up,

"What's wrong, girl-ah? Dragon King hit you or something?" he asked softly, pausing his peeling. You shut your eyes, squeezing them to gather your bearings for a second. "Nothing, just.. something you wouldn't understand." you said, waving your grandpa off with a wave of your hand. Your grandfather scoffed, not amused but also not surprised or annoyed by your answer.

He expected it, almost. But sometimes you tend to forget, he was a guy who also was your age once, who had dated girls and fallen first to impress them and knew the face one has in humiliation of wrong understandings when he sees it,

"Yeah? And where'd you fall? In a pile of pig poo?" he asked, pushing up his glasses on his nose-bridge with her pinkie to keep his lenses clean.

"No.. Nothing—actually, we shouldn't be talking about this! Because it's nothing!" You insisted, "Nothing at all." you said, thought you didn't believe yourself either.

"Mhm, okay—"

"FINE. SINCE YOU KEEP INSISTING!" You said, sitting down while your grandpa sighed, but smiled fondly at you. You grumbled, looking down at the bag and the money in your hand, "I thought this..person at-least knew me or liked him, turns out this person doesn't even care. I bet they hate me.." your voice came out meek and embarrassingly desperate, in your ears.

"Ah, and you feel embarrassed? Well, girl. I'm not surprised this person doesn't know you since you don't even know their gender," your grandpa said in an unimpressed tone, "Hah Yang Gwan-sik. Maybe he does care. He just—he doesn't know how to act. His halmeoni and eomma, both act like witches. His appa, he couldn't care less."

You winced when your hal-abeoji spoke his name. You weren't surprised your grandpa knew you so well, you and him spent majority of your time together. He took you to school and he used to bring you back until you were old enough to return home alone. He made your favourite foods, told stories of his love-story with your halmeoni.

He was your best-friend. In every way one could be a best-friend.

After a bit of silence, just sound of egg shell cracking and smell of soy-sauce and garlic and eggs stood around you. Your grandfather's voice cracked again over the news anchor, "Aiyah, go. Go walk or something, it's time for my show. You'll just blabber around." Your grandpa said, shooing you away.

You knew what he was trying to do, and you knew you needed to get out and maybe move on to get fresh air. You sighed, pulling your shoes on and hurried out. Your feet carrying you further away, outside your fresh house. You sighed, kicking stones as you walked lazily, hands clasped behind you. The sky was filled with clouds, it was snowing, barely, but snowing all the same. A very thin, nonuniform sheen of snow covered the stones and ground.

As you walked, you heard a few murmurs, "Government isn't going to take responsibility for punks and athletes. What is this nonsense?" You heard a girl asked with a laughing scoff, "You don't think the poem's nice? Rich girls have better things. It needs to be good." A voice, you knew so well. The same voice which roamed your mind was in your head..That was Gwan-sik's voice.

Hearing the voice, you softly decided to walk ahead, your foot took a step. But when it did, you hear a soft crunch. You'd definitely be heard. Knowing that, you bent down, pulling your shoes off and trying to calm yourself as your feet settled on the cold cobblestone layered with a in-uniform layer of snow. The cold piercing deeper than you expected it to.

But despite it, you and your feet moving before your brain could ask them not to. Following your heart to walk closer to the man you're in love with, even if he hates you. You held your shoes in one hand, taking careful steps as if trying to not make sounds despite the cold bleeding into the skin of your bare feet. Trying to follow the voice, you found yourself walking close to Dodong-rii pavilion.

As you gently peeked over, you found Ae-sun and Gwan-sik sitting on the steps of the entrance. Ae-sun holding a paper in her hands while Gwan-sik sat, a worried look on his face. Was he in trouble? Ae-sun didn't seem so impressed by whatever was on the paper, as her eyes scanned it. Gwan-sik again looked at her, the back of his head even radiated concern and nervousness.

"What's wrong? The poem can't be that bad, right?" he said softly, "It's not...bad—" Ae-sun tried to soften the blow, "It's just..Whatever." she said, folding the paper. Her eyes scanned the area a bit as if looking for a change in topic. You swore her eyes hit on you, but she didn't say anything nor did she react, so you hoped she didn't see you spying.

"You're going to just hand her the poem? That's what you're planning?" Ae-sun asked softly, eyes round and curious. Gwan-sik hummed, "They come to you every week and you hand them over to your halmeoni or eomma. I bet they hate you" Ae-sun snorted playfully.

"They're from a rich family, her hal-abeoji own a few boats and they're quite good. I can't play prince..." he said, voice slightly hoarse and cracky.

You paused, blinking a bit, your heart sinking to your stomach. Was he going to confess to a girl he liked?

"But they visit the market every week, you don't even bother helping her." Ae-sun pointed out. Gwan-sik sighed again, shaky and breathing out fog. You switched weight from one foot to another, the cold biting at your feet, you swore you'd gotten a frostbite. "Why? Why!? Do you like driving them away, you punk?" she asked, gently nudging him with her foot.

Gwan-sik didn't say anything, "You like them, right? You have to act like it. You have to be romantic, like a novel hero!" Ae-sun insisted, her voice loud and motivating Gwan-sik. "I'll write a poem to her on your behalf, but you gotta be nice to Y/N, you hear me? Otherwise Dragon King will eat you!" she said, as you froze in your spot..

Were they talking about you? Gwan-sik liked you? Oh, that's perfect! But if he likes you, then why did he act so..? So unapproachable, like he was irritated by your presence or perhaps bothered..

"Do you just know how to run your mouth?" Gwan-sik spoke up, even if his voice was fond, "It's embarrassing, to be with a fishmonger's son when they're rich. Why don't you fix the status first?" Gwan-sik said. Ae-sun snorted softly, folding the paper in pristine folds to attempt to make a swan.

"Why don't you ask them if it bothers you?" she said. Gwan-sik kept quiet, he always did. He was more of a listener, his responses came rarely, but when they did, they had power, "They LOVE you. Don't you see? You're starting to go blind too?" Ae-sun hummed.

"I'll stay blind as long as I don't have to see them loving someone else. I don't want to stand in their way." Gwan-sik said. "They're standing right there, why don't you get an answer?" Ae-sun said, nodding to where you were.

You froze, the cold became colder and it felt freezing as you hurriedly put on your shoes, stepping infront of them. Gwan-sik hurriedly stood up and stood straight, completely frozen, "Did you hear it all?"

"I made sure they'll hear it all. You act like a hero in pain." Ae-sun said, getting up and sighing in relief as if she got a workout done, handing Gwan-sik his poem back, "I'll head home first, see you~" she said in a chirrupy voice, waving to you as she walked off.

You turned to him, as he cleared his throat. "You look cold, were you standing there barefoot for so long?" he asked, worriedly. Offering you chicken skewer he got, but you stood frozen.

"I thought you hated me..Why..?" you asked, confused. Not hurt, no..You were bursting with excitement, but it was so overwhelming, it just wasn't coming up to the surface, pressure building in your gut. His hand gently held yours, pulling them up and handing the chicken skewer to you, to hopefully warm you up in any measly way he could.

"I didn't hate you. Talking to you is tough, my voice gets stuck in my throat like a fool's." Gwan-sik said as you scoffed a little, "Is it that tough? It's tough looking at you! You're... good-looking." you said, voice shy but with assurance. Pressure getting stronger and stronger..

"You could have talked to me. I wouldn't bite you or eat you. I'm just from a rich family, not from Dragon King's death servants." You whispered, "You really like me?" He asked, voice shaky. You took a bite of the chicken, it was nice. Salty.

"For few months now" You nodded, looking upto meet his eyes. His round eyes stared into yours, lovingly if hoping this wasn't some joke Ae-sun built up. You glanced down at his lips. Gwan-sik breathed in and out to calm his nerves, gently reaching out, but his hand paused midway and he pulled his hand back.

You don't know why fate was testing you and why destiny was being troublesome and crackling between you in the moment. The pressure was building more, it was threatening to burst out, as you tried to not smile like a kid, that would be kinda embarrassing, no?

you two could barely look each other in the eye, continuously glancing down or around. Eyes flitting for some way to fill the awkward silence and gap. The pressure of giddiness and happiness that feelings were reciprocated, despite the brash behavior was building more.

Till it broke, you and him could barely keep it together. But, it didn't matter much when the pressure burst out, both of you leaning close. The distance closed in abrupt manner to press your lips in a kiss. Gwan-sik's hands clenching by his side, nails digging in his palm so he wouldn't touch you.

Your hand very hesitantly touching the edge of his pocket, barely noticeable, fingers tightening till they were white around his maroon practice jacket. Kiss stiff, sloppy but filled with so much love..

You knew your eyes told everyone you met that you adored Gwan-sik; your grandpa, Ae-sun, perhaps even his own halmeoni with the way she stared sometimes when you visited their shop.

Gwan-sik's eyes all the while never left you, his eyes showed and told you that he wasn't letting go. Not now..Not when he hopefully had you for him. All for him.

© Mxkyu--e9e. I do not give permission to modify, translate, copy or repost ANY of my works. Reblogs are very much beloved!