Autumn Leaves

"At this exact same street during autumn, when the leaves that turned red are falling, let's meet again," she whispered through the cold, thin air, a cloud of smoke framing her breath and making it look like she just sniffed right into a tobacco and successfully blown it out for her own satisfaction.

She rubbed her hands together, it has become a hobby she developed through the years, although her palms were already warm and wrapped around winter gloves to keep it from the freezing cold while the snow falls deliberately just in her front.

People were walking together, sharing great stories she can overhear but can't actually comprehend, smiling at each other, especially some couples who look very in love, carefree and using the first-ever snow of the year as a romantic thing, kids catching snowflakes and letting it melt in their palms - a happy scenery, yet she couldn't force a smile and instead continued to murmur more words intended for only one person she can't meet at the moment. "I hope we'll bump into each other again and smile like how we did the last time, talk normally without pain and any regrets or guilt, say hellos and ask how both of us have been doing and what happened in these years."

She closed her eyes with a heavy heart, she looked up and took one of her gloves off to catch a flake and feel it against her skin. This was one of their promises, to wait for the first snow together and play like dumb and unproblematic kids not caring about the future and just savoring their present moments, and she can only wish that they can actually do that, or at least meet and stare at her face - the only thing she wanted to do every time she wakes up but to no avail.

"As much as I want to trace and paint your smile for it to not disappear, I can't. I can't," a single snowflake landed in her palm, staying for mere seconds and disappearing into nowhere, melting, "maybe I was destined to sketch you and make a blueprint, but I'm not meant to paint you nor build you for I am just one of the points in a line, but not your other end point..."

A sigh. For the nth time that day, she heaved a sigh, not contented but unable to find the contentment she's been dying to hold, and maybe will never see it anywhere else. Another sigh. She made her first step in almost five minutes of just standing in the same spot as an unmovable statue, chest full of regrets, "I should have told you."

"I like you, I still like you even though it's unbearable like the coldness of air during the last night we were together," she whispered. "I'm wishing on your love, I always do. And I always will....."

"Hey, Mina..."

"Oh, hi, Jeongyeon," her eyes dropped upon turning around. She beamed a forced smile when her gaze met the girl, who was currently wearing a sad smile in her face. Knowing the reason behind the painful look, Mina looked away, guilt tripping her system - but she can't do anything, not when she's the mere reason of that look, no sir. Especially because she's expecting somebody else to call her name and meet her there... of honest course, she is, and it is more than sad to find Jeongyeon again this time. "How long were you standing there?"

"Just for a few minutes," the girl's face turned soft, feeling the awkward atmosphere between them two. "You seem too occupied. What's bothering you? Tell-tale?"

"I'm not. Just savoring the first snow and looking kind of dramatic like an actress, you know?"

"You miss her?" a halt. Jeongyeon doesn't know what to do, if she'll be embarrassed for not thinking twice before opening the topic about the other girl again and making Mina's sad expression even sadder, or if she'll actually be able to handle the upcoming answer she supposes to get - although she didn't.

Mina shook her head, looking more vulnerable than she was beforehand. She balled her hidden fist that was luckily inside the thick and long sleeve of her padded coat, then replied, "it's been a year, Jeong, I already moved on. And besides, you're already here."

"Chae- sorry for the mention... but I know she misses you. And you miss her, too."