↱ECHO↲ ⇾seongjoong⇽

第一

Four years ago.

__

Jinju

__

Seongie loves the rain, Hongjoong realizes, the third time she asks to lay on his porch as the sound of the weather drums insistently on the awning overhead.

They're laying side by side, fingers laced together as the cool air stirs around them in a gentle breeze.

It's later in the afternoon, but Hongjoong's mom hasn't returned home from her second job, and it's too early for him to make the short drive over to his grandparents' farm to help with the evening chores.

So for now, he'll settle for this quiet moment with his girlfriend of nearly a year, watching her rest with her face pointed towards the roof, eyes closed and breathing shallow.

Seongie is beautiful in a unique way.

Her eyes are like that of an intelligent fox, slanted and alluring, dark and consuming.

The gentle slope of her nose tapers down, almost button-like, resting over a pair of sweet doll-like lips.

She looks so delicate, fragile almost, with a petite frame and wispy limbs, but she's the most fiery person Hongjoong knows, and perhaps that is why he fell for her.

She is unlike anything he grew up seeing on his Jinju farm and he takes every opportunity he can to soak her in like parched earth when the first rain of the season falls.

Now, he watches her intently, noting that her skin is like porcelain, but sensitive, so much so that she tans rather easily if given the opportunity, and Hongjoong doesn't know if he loves the sight of milk or caramel more on her flesh.

Against her, his own skin is like that of the expensive lattes he sometimes buys her when they go into town, when they should be studying or making plans for graduation.

But they just can't help themselves, getting so lost in each other and the moment, because time waits for no one and Seongie will leave Jinju for university soon and Hongjoong has to wait an entire year to follow her.

It would be hell if he didn't have a plan, which he does, of course.

He doesn't want Seongie to let go of her dreams just to stay here in this place, wasting her talented fingers on a worn piano when she should be delighting people all across the country with her talent.

No, she should go to university and she should go with a promise that Hongjoong will always be hers.

Hongjoong continues to gaze upon Seongie as he feels for the small box in his coat pocket.

He wasn't sure what size ring she wore, or even if she prefers gold or silver, but somehow he feels like it doesn't matter.

Knowing her, Seongie will see beyond the ring to find the sentiment and that's enough for him.

"Hey," he drawls, watching his girlfriend come out of her trance before turning to face him.

Her blunt-cut hair pools underneath her.