Youngjae wasn't always the sunshine from the start. You could vouch for that. You first saw him in middle school. You remembered when you stepped into the classroom for the first time. You saw him sitting by the window looking outside. Maybe because of the sunlight, but he looked radiant to you. However, as time went by, you found that he was extremely quiet. He wasn't social at all. He just sat there on his desk with his earphone on or he would be staring blankly at the field, sitting by himself. He barely even spoke to you or anyone else, as far as you recalled. You spoke to him for the first time when you had to find him and talked to him about the school festival. You have heard from the other students that he could sing, though you never heard him sing before.
"Youngjae-ah," you nudged his shoulder and he took off his earphone and turned his head to face you. He just looked at you without saying anything, so you continued talking. "I want to ask you a favor." You paused but he didn't even blink so you continued again. "We have to do a class performance since we were the only ones that didn't participate in any other activities. So, I was thinking, maybe you can sing and I'll play the piano?" you were fumbling with your bracelet and stared at your toes while waiting for his answer. He finally muttered 'okay' that almost made you jump in joy. "Okay!" you beamed happily. "Then, we should practice. What about tomorrow afternoon in the music class? Do you have song suggestion?" he shook his head. "Okay then, I"ll find something. You're okay with anything, aren't you?" again, just nodded. Feeling you've accomplished your mission, you retreated back to your seat and feeling excited about tomorrow's practice.
You opened the music book and showed him the song that you picked. He looked at your choice and nodded, waiting for you to start playing before he started singing. At the first note, you almost stopped playing when you heard his voice. It was angelic. Such a shame that he rarely sang. The practice went well. You made him repeat it twice before calling it a day. You planned to practice one more time before the event day. Little did you know that Youngjae also had his eyes on your from the moment you stepped into the class. You looked different than the rest of the girls in the class. In his eyes, you looked fragile. He never saw you joined the PE class as well. He heard from the other students about your health condition, though he was curious what kind of health problem that you had as he almost never saw you being sick.
You were always cheerful. You were always kind to everyone. But he did notice you looked pale. But he erased that thought, thinking that perhaps it was because you didn't put on any makeup, unlike other girls in the school. You also didn't know that he was excited to do the performance with you. He was a bit disappointed when you cut the practice short. He was hoping you would ask for another practice session, but after practicing twice, you concluded that both of you were ready to perform. He almost made some stupid mistakes though. He was looking at you intensely that he almost didn't pay attention to the cue where he had to start singing. He quickly regained his composure though and started singing. He liked how his voice matched your arrangement. How you smiled at him when he started singing. He'd keep singing if it made you keep smiling at him like that.
School festival was two days away when you missed school. You were anxious that you might miss the school festival as well. You cursed your weak body. This was the first time you attended public school and you were excited to join in the school festival for the first time, but no.. Your body decided to break down at the most critical time. Your mother noticed the smile that disappeared from your face. The twinkling light in your eyes that showed up since you started going to school was gone now that you were confined in the hospital room once again. You just stared at the window, hoping you could see the blue sky once again. Youngjae noticed your absence almost immediately. He didn't hear your laugh when he entered the classroom in the morning. He was restless as you didn't show up until the bell rang.
