Chapter 57: Be in love

Daejeon is a city covering an area of less than 600 square kilometers with a population of about 1.5 million. Its infrastructure is comparable to a well-developed county-level city across the mainland.

The Emart in the city center, for consumers needing to buy cooked food, daily necessities, and the like, is large enough and its range of goods is complete enough to meet the needs of most citizens.

However, for a date, it is not a good destination. Yet, to ensure the fun of a date, young couples always have their own ways.

Black leather shoes stepped over the dust on the concrete path of the campus, leaving behind shallow footprints one after another.

A brown double-breasted blazer, a white shirt, a khaki pleated plaid skirt, and knee-high white socks made Shin Yuna look entirely like a high school student.

She squatted next to the flower bed beneath the maple tree, opened a small pack of cookies bought from a convenience store, crumbled them, and placed them little by little and gently next to the ants.

"Hording more food makes it easier to get through the winter..."

Golden maple leaves drifted slowly down from the tree, landing right on top of her head. Just as she raised her hand to brush the leaf away, a tingling sensation traveled down from the crown of her head.

Slender fingers gently picked up the leaf, and as if harvesting some precious treasure, carefully placed it into a bag.

"It seems this leaf is destined to be with you... If possible, I'd like to use it as a bookmark for my diary."

The girl tilted her head up slightly, her gaze meeting the boy in the school uniform just right.

Also wearing a brown blazer and a white shirt, that boy looked just like the male lead walking out of a campus manga.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

Reaching out to gently pull the girl up, Xia Xing pulled a piece of candy from his pocket.

"S-Senior, it's fine. Coincidentally, I just finished my club activities."

Although it was their first romance, for two people who had no high school dating experience, pretending to be high school students currently in a relationship seemed to require a tremendous amount of conviction.

The school uniforms the two wore had been bought from a clothing store not long ago. And the McLaren Artura they arrived in had been parked in the clothing store's parking lot about a half-hour bus ride away.

The girl kept the candy in her mouth, letting Xia Xing take her hand as they walked aimlessly through the high school located in the suburbs of Daejeon City.

A cool autumn breeze blew past, and the air seemed to be tainted with the refreshing, sweet-and-sour scent of citrus candy.

Shin Yuna had no time to mind her bangs being blown into disarray by the wind. Having fully immersed herself in the role, the girl felt as though she had truly arrived in some parallel universe.

In that universe, she was no longer a girl who had debuted early with few peers for friends, but merely a high school student who had to worry about academic grades, thinking every day about how to cope with exams, and fantasizing about how to engineer a chance encounter with the senior she had a crush on.

Feeling the warmth radiating from the other person's palm, Shin Yuna suddenly thought that romance might be even simpler than she had imagined.

There was no need to check in at trendy cafes, no need to hang a lock bearing both their names on Namsan Tower; even just walking aimlessly in autumn with someone she liked turned out to be unexpectedly full of poetic charm...

In the deserted weekend campus, only a chubby ginger cat—reverently dubbed "Senior Orange" by the students—was peeking around in a corner to observe them. Occasionally, a few migratory birds of unknown destination swept across the azure sky overhead, leaving behind lingering and poetic calls.

Aside from that, everything was so quiet.

The afternoon sunlight carried a trace of warmth, shining down on their heads and making them feel lazy, unable to resist the urge to stretch like Senior Orange and take a nap in the warm sunshine.

Thus, the two chose a bench barely wide enough for two people and sat down, shoulder to shoulder, feeling the slight rise and fall of each other's body caused by breathing.

She took a deep breath of the air still lingering with the scent of citrus, and with cozy contentment, leaned half her body weight against Xia Xing's left shoulder.

This brief, off-plan trip to Daejeon suddenly shifted from the bustling downtown area to a seemingly brand-new, heart-soothing world.

Here, Shin Yuna could extravagantly enjoy the feeling of wasting time with the person she liked.

This sense of peace... how wonderful it would be if it could last forever.

The boy let her rest her head on his shoulder, his free hands rummaging through his bag for something.

Then, one end of a wired earphone was smoothly handed over into her palm.

"Put it on? Let's listen to music together."

"Mmm..."

She responded softly, not because she found the date boring. On the contrary, the current feeling was so tranquil it felt somewhat unreal, and she couldn't bear to break the atmosphere.

Though it was an ambiguous trope she had seen countless times in dramas, the moment she actually put on the earphones, a slight, electric-like tingle traveled straight to the depths of her mind along with the music.

It made her heart race, yet without causing panic.

Her boyfriend's solid, muscular shoulder rose and fall rhythmically with his breath, and the melodious, soothing singing only intensified Shin Yuna's growing drowsiness.

Feeling the weight on his shoulder grow heavier and heavier, Xia Xing tentatively called out Shin Yuna's name.

After calling out several times in a row, he finally confirmed the fact that his girlfriend had fallen asleep.

Some words hidden deep within his heart could now be spoken openly and freely.

"Yuna, to be honest, I'm not afraid of you laughing at me."

"From the very moment I came alone to South Korea from the mainland, I've rarely truly felt this kind of inner peace from the bottom of my heart like I do right now."

"It's your appearance that made me realize that having someone to eat, wash dishes, and take a walk with is actually an essential part of life."

"The future may be full of many uncertainties, but I think the only unchanging thing is that I want to protect your heart."

"I only dare to try saying these words to you now while you're asleep."

"By December, I think I'll be able to say these words to you openly and boldly."

"Oh, really?"

A playful voice suppressed in amusement came from the side. Caught in a mix of surprise and shyness, Xia Xing turned his face to look at the smiling girl.

The girl rose slightly, and within his peripheral vision, her red lips parted softly to take the earphone cord belonging to him into her mouth, cutting off the music instantly.

In its place was her warm breath softly brushing against his earlobe, along with her gradually heating respiration.

A tingling sensation spread, as though countless ants were crawling over his heart and ears.

"Silly, I'll always stay by your side."

"Besides, it doesn't matter even if you're too shy to say it."

"I can take the initiative too."

"Lin Xingcan, I love you."

…………………………

Meanwhile, inside a luxury apartment in Seoul, because someone in her Instagram Close Friends list had posted a new update, Sullyoon's phone received a notification immediately.

Opening Instagram, what caught her eyes was a handsome boy wearing a brown GK uniform and a white shirt...