Chapter Text
CHARACTERS.
yang jungwon.
twenty-two.
portrayed by : himself.
second year of university.
photography major.
solemn. quiet. passionate.
park jongseong | jay.
twenty-three.
portrayed by : himself.
third year of university.
literature major.
rebellious. loud. secretly poetic.
min so-ra.
twenty-one.
portrayed by : jung hoyeon, actress/model.
first year of university.
graphic design major.
clumsy. severe. sensitive.
han byeol | hannah.
twenty-one.
portrayed by : jeon soyeon, singer/rapper/leader of i-dle.
first year of university.
literature major.
calm. polite. practical.
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prologue.
MIN SO-RA.
When I blinked open my eyes this time, what met my vision wasn't a blank ceiling I had grown accustomed to since my childhood. It was rather the absence of it.
No ceiling, only a slant wooden roof with sunlight daring to seep in through the small window. It was a cabin, my cabin. I had moved in here just yesterday. Still, however unfamiliar the surrounding was, it wasn't unsettling. Not a bit.
I sat up after a while, my mind feeling the absence of a feeling. The drowsiness, the haze. I barely had dreams like this one- where everything felt soft, gentle. A blur of nonsense that left my mind as soon as I woke up.
I liked dreams like these, where I didn't have to make sense of myself.
A smile replaced a sigh, stretching my lips into a sweet, thrilling curve. The thought took it's time sinking in, a thought which was reality. I was finally away, from everything.
New starts, fresh and clean. I was finally in a place where no one knew who I was, or the way I lived in high school or my hometown.
Or rather, the way I survived high school. It felt good, being finally away. From hurt that came unintended, from a feeling of abandonment which was somehow always a constant, from the hometown which hadn't made me feel home at all.
A sweet scent lingers in the air, coming from the front garden. The scent of flowers. Especially- roses. I think my landlady is quite fond of them. They were the first few things I had noticed as soon as I got the keys, pretty shades of pink and crimson lined in a row, their smell faint but enchanting, lulling me into the gentler side of reality.
I got out of bed, feet touching cold wooden tiles. And it clicked to me then, the first day of university. Today.
Applying for the Seoul University of Fine Arts was a success, somehow. The entrance examinations were survived, but not without days and nights of incomplete sleep and loads of caffeine.
Now, it feels like all the preparing did worth something. Something that felt like this soft, hushed morning. Quietly reserved to me, and the cabin that felt a lot closer to nature than college dorms did. No loud mornings, louder roommates. Solitude killed with brutal force.
Never was the one to like restrictions anyway.
I didn't wash my face or brush my teeth just then. There was no rush. Instead, I found myself walking through the door, and stepping into the front yard. Bare feet felt the grass, wind swaying some strands of my hair. the air was soft in the way early mornings always are. A shiver ran through me.
Same did anticipation. I was somewhere I didn't need to prove myself to anyone, where I didn't need to fit in. I was here alone, yes. All by myself, pretty much. But I couldn't ignore how content it felt than being surrounded by a crowd that pretended to care. Pretended.
Nevertheless, first day of university awaited. And for now, life meant the exploration I was deprived of. A sudden realisation, but maybe I was always more than willing to live like this. Like a fool who wandered, who lived.
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