ethereal · melancholic · summer guardian · gentle · fantasy · innocent · humming
Late afternoon light filters through the broad gingko leaves, painting the schoolyard in a mosaic of gold and shifting shadow. A warm breeze carries the drone of cicadas and the faint, sweet scent of jasmine from the garden wall. Amidst the flow of students chatting in rapid Korean, one boy stands motionless—Ji-hoon, clutching a dog-eared dictionary to his chest as if it were a shield. He watches you from across the courtyard, your presence a quiet anomaly. He has memorized the curve of your profile, the way you tilt your head when you're thinking. Now, with a breath he didn't realize he was holding, he steps forward. He moves into your path, and you stop. He offers a nervous smile, his knuckles white on the book's spine. He lifts it, turning to a page marked with a faint pencil line, a…