Dream of Jimin

Dream

I go to a high school in Korea. I am not a person that is 'in with the popular crowd', but I'm not unpopular either. I am the type who's friends with almost everyone.

Tomorrow our class have a trip visiting a temple by bus. The night before that, which is tonight, we decided to meet up.

Me and my friends arrive at where we were meeting up. A lot of people are there, even Leeteuk, the guy people considered one of the most handsome in the year. Another guy there who is also popular, but isn't an attention whore like Leeteuk, is Park Jimin. I have been crushing on him for quite a while, but never had the courage to tell him.

There is some alcohol, and all of us had some. I needed some air so I went outside. I was walking around alone when suddenly a pair of arms snake around me from behind.

"Hey." Leeteuk says.

"Hello? What are you doing?" I ask.

"Flirting with my future girlfriend."

"But who said I'll go out with you?"

"I said." He replies.

Suddenly we hear some whispers. I turn my head and saw that a few girls has came outside and they saw us. One of them even takes a picture.

"Let go!" I whisper-shout to Leetuk.

"No, whats wrong with hugging my future girlfriend?" He smirks.

The girls run back inside. I struggle out of his arms and run back inside as well.

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The next day I arrive at my classroom. I take my usual seat. For some reason I feel gazes on me.

Suddenly Leeteuk shouts, "Saranghae, [name]!"

I turn and see that he is smirking at me, and that the whole class is looking at us two. Some of them seem that they know what is happening, but some seem really surprised.

The class look at me as if expecting me to shout back 'saranghae' to him. But I just hide my slightly blushing face and ignore him.

"Ah, young love, how cute." Our homeroom teacher says as he comes in.

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I sit on the bus on the way to the destination of our trip, listening to music. It is a long and boring journey as the temple is ages away from our school.

There is a break at a service station for the bus to be refueled and for everyone to rest. We have just had our pack lunch so everyone goes to the toilets to brush their teeth. I decide to wait until after the rush. I go to the back of the bus where some of my friends are sitting, chatting with one another. There is him, Jimin, chatting with them.

"Hey, [name], come sit with us!" One of my friends says. I nod and go over, and the only free space is next to Jimin, by the window. I go and sit down to the left of him.

He has a mask on as usual.

But this time it was pulled down to his chin, revealing almost all of his face.

"Why do you always wear a mask?" I ask him out of curiosity.

"I have a jaw problem, " He answers, "The mask helps me keep it in check."

"Oh, okay."

Soon we go to brush our teeth, and everyone finishes with whatever they are doing, get back on the bus, and the journey starts again.

After what seems like hours we finally arrive at the temple. It is meant for us to experience spiritualism, so we are going to stay at the temple for a night.

"This is a temple dedicated to spiritualism, " A monk there says as he introduces us to the temple, "Especially love. We believe that pure love transcends all and it's the highest spirituality one can achieve."

We all giggle at that.

He continues, "Over there we have the Tree of Love." We look over there, but instead of a tree, it is more like loads of pretty chime bells dangling on a tree. "If you go there and pray sincerely, it will lead you to your true love. Pick off a 'leaf', and it is your keepsake for love."

After we all have settled in, we have some free time. All my friends went to the Tree of Love so I am walking around the temple alone. It is dark already so the wooden temple is illuminated by warm candle lights.

I arrive at a wish wall, where a lot of people wrote wishes on a on piece of wood and hung it on there.

I see Jimin there alone, sitting on a bamboo mat barefoot. I go to sit beside him.

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"Hey." He greets when he sees me.

"Hey." I greet back.

I accidentally sat on his toe, and he pulls back his feet slightly to give space to me

We chat for a bit, just us two, without the disturbance of anyone. The atmosphere is peaceful, with the occasional distal rings of chimes and warmth from candles. As I look at his face I think of how handsome he is, and how every little movement of his can make my heart flutter.

Somehow the conversation drifts to what happened this morning in the classroom, when Leeteuk said 'saranghae' to me in front of the whole class.

"So you like him don't you?" Jimin ask, some sort of emotion flashing across his eyes.

"Well... not really..." I say, slightly embarrassed.

"You don't have to lie to me, I understand. He is the popular guy, the star athlete, and he is good-looking. What else can a girl look for in guys?"

I was slightly baffled by his words, "What? No... there are way more things that a girl can look for in a guy."

He sighs, "Don't worry, I know you two are going out. I have seen the pictures."

"No! The pictures... it's not what it seems like! He just suddenly hugged me and someone happened to have taken some pictures!" Why is Jimin acting like this?

"Yea, whatever." He stands up and is about to leave when I grab his hand.

"What?" He ask, slightly too harshly.

"It's not true, me and Leeteuk are not..."

"Even the teacher approves." He says darkly.

Tears start welling up in my eyes, and a drop falls down my cheek. His eyes widen when he sees that and I notice his gaze softened.

I was having an internal battle of whether or not to say this, and one side won.

"You know who I like..." I say as I hold back tears.

He seems to have understood what I meant, and he gently grabs my hand back. But then he turns around and leaves.

Was I just rejected by him? All my tears threaten to flood out. But then I feel something in the hand that he grabbed.

I open my clutched palm and saw what Jimin put into my hand.

A leaf from the Tree of Love.