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The first time Lee Eunsang saw her, she was bolting down the long staircase in the Student Union Building. Her long brown hair was flying around wildly around her face and he remembered the mix of determination and excitement painted on her face. He’s not sure he’s ever seen someone so… electric.
***
The second time they ever spoke, she had fallen and sprained her ankle while she was trying to get a book from the top shelf of the library. She was still apologizing profusely to everyone who was glaring at her when he went over to check on her. “Are you okay?” he whispered as he squatted next to her. She bit her lips, “I think I sprained it,” she whispered back, pointing to her ankle. He looked closer to inspect. “Is it broken?” she asked. “I don’t know. I’m not a doctor yet,” he grinned sheepishly. His hyung, Seungyoun, had introduced them to one another a few weeks ago since she’s Seungyoun’s hoobae in the broadcasting department. He remembered the look of awe on her face when Seungyoun introduced him as a future doctor.
Eunsang spent the next thirty minutes helping her wobble to the Health Center and stayed as the nurse checked on her ankle. He couldn’t help but chuckle when she explained that she wanted to get a book from the top shelf, so instead of asking the librarian to help or look for a stool, she stepped on the ledge of the bottom shelf and slipped. He offered to walk her back to her dorm but she refused, a ridiculously wide smile plastered on her face. And he watched her limp away from him, unable to keep the smile off of his face.
***
The third time she joined him in the library to study together (the word ‘together’ here is used loosely since she spent most of her time restlessly fiddling about while he’s deep in his textbooks), she slid a Post-It note to the page that he was reading. The note read:
Eunsang sunbae… circle one:
- Spicy tteokbokki
- Non spicy tteokbokki.
He looked up for a brief moment and smiled, followed by a questioning look. Her eyes just widened and gestured towards the note, asking him to answer. So he did. The next day, she called out his name from the door of the study room that he was in, earning them looks from everyone else. She had that neon-bright smile that’s downright blinding when he walked up to her. She was holding a glass food container with a Post-It note on top. “The best, non-spicy tteokbokki in the world,” she explained before he had a chance to ask. She sounded so incredibly proud that he couldn’t stop himself from chuckling. “Let me know what you think!” she said before she waved goodbye and sprinted away. He stayed glue in his spot for a few moments. It always feels like this whenever Yuna is around. She comes in like tornado - the good kind, if there’s ever such a thing. She rolls in with so much buzz and when she leaves, you’re left feeling emptier than you felt before. All he could do was stare at the pink Post-It note on the container which contained instructions to share them with his study group and that she expects a comprehensive review over KakaoTalk.
He chuckled.
“Eunsang-ah… what are you doing? Help me with this equation…” one of his friends called out, bringing him back to the Yuna-less reality that he’s finding less and less appealing as he spends more time with the girl.
***
The fourth time Seungyoun asked him about her, Eunsang does not quite know what to say.
He was at the cafeteria with his friends when she walked up to him with a pout. “Oppa…” (they had agreed to speak informally to each other a while ago) “I want to cry,” she looked like she was on the verge of tears. He gestured to the empty chair next to him and she sat down. “What happened?” he asked. She sighed heavily, “I failed my Chemistry quiz and the midterm’s next week and I’m gonna fail that too,” she plopped her head down onto the table.
He smiled and ruffled her hair, unable to stop himself. She’s way way too cute, he concluded in his mind for the thousandth time.
“You won’t fail. I’ll help you. Do you have the notes?” he began to ask.
Hours later when he reunited with his friends over dinner at the nearby pojangmacha, they asked him a question that stopped him from slurping the rest of his udon.
“So when are you finally gonna ask her out?” Seungyoun asked.
Eunsang chewed on his udon carefully.
“You know someone else is gonna swoop in, right? She’s really popular in our department - in the whole university, even,” Seungyoun continued, “It’s been a year since you’ve done this dance with her. You’re gonna miss your chance.”
Eunsang considers this, set his chopsticks down, and made up his mind.
***
The fifth time they had dinner without their friends (he refers to it like this because Seungyoun said it doesn’t count as a date unless the girl is aware that she is in one), Eunsang had everything planned out but of course, things went array.
It was supposed to go like this: he picks her up from her dorm with a bouquet of roses. They have dinner at an Italian restaurant that he heard about from his noona. They order dessert. Then he asks her to be his girlfriend. And he hopes she says yes.
But instead of picking her up at her dorm, he got held back by lab clean up, so he didn’t have time to pick up the roses. By the time he stepped outside of the building, it was pouring rain and the reservation was in thirty minutes. There was no way he’ll be able to pick her up and make it in time. So he asked her to meet him at the restaurant. But Seoul traffic - just like the entire universe, it seems - was not on his side so his cab got stuck that by the time he arrived at the restaurant, they missed their reservation by thirty minutes and their table is gone.
Eunsang, whose default setting is to smile and nod, was close to a meltdown. Nothing - literally nothing had gone his way today and of all the days, he needed this one to be perfect. But Yuna, who was seated on benches under the awning, greeted him with her usual bright smile - the all teeth, no eyes kind of smile - which prompted him to finally break into a bitter laugh at the whole situation.
He sat down next to her, feeling defeated but glad that she was at least there in her pretty floral dress. “I’m sorry,” he turned to her, “I had so many things planned but…”
“Why are you sorry? It’s okay,” she smiled, “Let’s go somewhere else and eat. You must be hungry too.”
He considered just how happy she looked despite having sat at a bench outside of a restaurant in drizzling rain, waiting for him. Then he considered how happy she’s made him over the past year with her mere presence. It was like the room lights up when she’s there, even if she was pouting over a fight she just had with her older sister or the Physics class she just had. Even in the cloudiest mood, Shin Yuna still made the room a couple notches brighter than normal.
So he mustered up his courage and blurted out, “Yuna-ya… will you be my girlfriend?”
Her eyes widened in shock for a split second before it morphed into a smile. And a nod. And then an eager nod that set off all the butterflies in his stomach.
“Really?” he asked, unable to keep the smile off of his face.
She nodded, “I’ve been waiting for you to ask.”
(“Do you know how many guys I turned down because of you, oppa? A DOZEN!” she teased as they walked hand in hand along the Han River. Eunsang deposited the empty box of pizza on the garbage can as a way to hide to his blushing cheeks. “I can’t believe someone so smart can be so slow,” she continued, grinning brightly.
Eunsang chuckled and squeezed her hand, “Thank you for being patient with me," grateful that he has her by his side.)
***
The first time Shin Yuna saw him, he was listening to his friends talk and broke into a gentle smile that made her feel… calm.