It was just an ordinary day.
The kind of day where the heatwave warning text arrived before the secretly sent text from a friend two desks over, sneaking past the teacher’s notice. The kind of day where, thanks to our school’s oldest teacher who preferred a fan over the air conditioner, the hot wind pouring in through the wide-open windows made it feel like we might steam to death.
It was just that kind of ordinary day, and that’s when it happened.
Bang! Screech, clatter!
For a moment, the classroom, where the cicadas’ cries had been louder than the teacher’s voice, suddenly went even quieter. Along with the other kids, I turned my head to find the source of the sound.
A chair lying overturned on the floor.
The owner of that chair had already pushed open the back door of the classroom and left. He’d moved so fast that by the time my eyes landed on him, all I caught was a glimpse of his broad back disappearing through the door.
“Ahem!”
The teacher, who’d briefly worn an irritated expression, redirected the students’ attention with a single cough and said nothing more about what had just happened. The boys, worn down by the heat, didn’t pay any more attention to the minor commotion either. Neither did I.
It was just a guy with some pull and backing at school venting his irritation at the heatwave by knocking over a chair before disappearing. Just another summer day like any other.
“Yeoreum, why on earth do I have to go to school even during vacation?”
“Beats me.”
“Hey, are you even listening. My mom said this, right? That I gotta go to school and stuff something into my head so I can eat well and live well later. But seriously, I went all the way to school during this precious vacation, and why does my head still sound empty?”
“Right.”
“…Are you even listening to me?”
“Would you, if you were me?”
The day was hot enough to be irritating, way too hot to play along with my friend’s random bout of self-reflection.
“It’s really hot. Don’t they hand out fans or something these days?”
I scanned the street, ignoring my friend’s resentful glare loaded with hurt feelings, and that’s when I heard him, having given up on self-reflection, let out a sigh deep enough to crack the earth.
“The world’s basic decency must’ve all burned up in this insane heatwave. Watch, the earth’s gonna end soon. And remember, this is entirely your fault.”
Hit by that out-of-nowhere arrow, I frowned.
“How is that my fault.”
“Why else! You’re Yeoreum, aren’t you. Midsummer, no less! The reason we’re steaming to death right now is because of this midsummer heatwave!”
He wasn’t wrong. All of this really was midsummer’s fault.
The coincidence that I happened to be born on a day like this, that my parents, who’d given birth to me, happened to want to give their only child a name in pure Korean, that my father’s surname just happened to be Han — all of it. On top of that, having endured this tediously repetitive teasing for seventeen years straight was also midsummer’s fault.
“Now that you understand, hurry up and prostrate yourself before me in apology, oh Midsummer.”
“You want to die?”
“…Or just buy me ice cream.”
So that was the real point.
I looked over at the stand at the end of the street selling Turkish ice cream. But I felt no particular excitement. Eating that stuff would just give me a stomachache no matter how many times. What I needed was something that would sting the tip of my nose, something bone-chillingly cold — winter, basically.
“Ah, I miss winter.”
“You’re literally named Midsummer and you’re pining after winter? Aaargh, it’s hot. So hot!”
Yeah, I’m Midsummer. But even so, there’s no obligation anywhere requiring me to endure both a guy’s musky sweat smell and the murderous heat rising up from the concrete.
I suddenly thought of a particular place. Right then, the blinking green light across the street caught my eye.
“Gyeong-ho, see you tomorrow.”
“Huh? Hey, Han Yeoreum!”
Leaving my friend’s shout behind, I dashed across the crosswalk. By the time I stepped on the last white line, the light had already turned red. Glancing back through the cars speeding down the road, I caught a brief glimpse of my friend’s sense of betrayal, but those kinds of feelings would vanish by tomorrow anyway.
“Ugh, the sweat.”
I’d only run for a few seconds at most, but my school shirt was already drenched in sweat. The dampness of my bag pressing against my back only raised my discomfort level even further.
I wiped the sweat dripping down my chin and adjusted my bag, slinging it over one shoulder. Leaving behind the red light, my friend, and various other things without a second thought, I kept walking.
Even being part of the city, it was still the outskirts. If I just kept my steps brisk enough, I could easily escape the scorching concrete ground. The face of the friend I’d abandoned at the crosswalk briefly crossed my mind, but since he had none of that kind of diligence in him, asking him to come along would’ve gotten a predictable answer anyway.
“Ah, nice.”
Around the stream, where the bottom was faintly visible despite the water not being entirely clear, rows of trees lined the banks, turning the blazing sun into a miraculous canopy of shade. Walking along that riverside, my collar fluttered in the breeze. A sigh of relief escaped me at the coolness sweeping away my sweat.
I picked up my pace a little more, searching for some shade to sit and rest in. Walking along the stream, there stood a big, old tree. Lying in the shade cast by its countless outstretched branches and wide-spread leaves, gazing at the flowing river — that was my own secret spot where I could completely forget the scorching heat.
Just as the big tree I’d been looking for finally came into view —
“Huh?”
My hurried steps came to a stop, and my mouth fell open without me even realizing it. An uninvited guest had already taken over my secret spot. The guy leaning against the tree trunk, his backpack crushed beneath him, eyes closed in total comfort, was someone I knew all too well.
“Choi Seol.”
At the name murmured quietly under my breath, his eyes slowly opened. I’d only moved my lips without thinking, but as if answering a call, he looked straight at me.
The moment our eyes met, my shoulders gave an involuntary jolt. At his sudden appearance, the area around my chest, which had gone completely still, began to stir.
“What?”
Is this what they mean by poking the nose hairs of a sleeping lion? His gaze and voice were anything but gentle.
His eyes narrowed at me as I stood there, frozen, unable to answer. He didn’t seem angry, but that relentlessly persistent stare was anything but comfortable. I felt like I’d burn up from his stare before the heatwave even got the chance. It really was hot.
“Tch, it’s hot enough as it is.”
His relentless stare paused for a moment, and then, looking like something had displeased him, he clicked his tongue and muttered under his breath. For some reason, the atmosphere felt just slightly softer. That’s when it happened.
“Han Yeoreum, come here.”
He knew my name?
My mind went blank for a moment. Half a year had already passed since we’d become classmates. But neither he nor I had exchanged a single word or even made eye contact. Even today, the only time I’d been aware of him was exactly once — or more precisely, I’d just glanced sadly at the chair he’d abandoned mid-class.
“Hurry up and get over here.”
“Huh? Okay.”
Catching the sharpening edge in his tone again, I dashed over to him before I even knew what I was doing. Stepping into the shade of the tree, I could finally feel just how ridiculously, insanely hot I’d been standing in until now. Maybe because of that aftershock, my vision spun.
“Huh? Uh…”
A sudden wave of dizziness tilted my view. I felt my bag hit the ground with a heavy thud before my own body did. I’m probably about to do the same thing soon.
Ah, I’m falling. The moment I realized it, I squeezed my eyes shut.
“What? What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?”
Something solid blocked my fall. A sour scent of sweat rushed into my nose. Aside from the heat of the weather, there was a different kind of warmth I could feel. I slowly lifted my eyelids. Filling my narrowed field of vision was a face with sharp features, brows furrowed deeply.
“This guy’s quite the troublesome one.”
“…..”
Along with a short click of his tongue, my vision tilted once more. My weakened body slowly sank down, and something soft touched the back of my head. Before I knew it, lush leaves were glittering above my eyes.
“A guy keeling over just from a little heat exhaustion? Your name’s wasted on you.”
He looked down at me with disdain as I lay there, still trying to process the situation, my eyes just rolling around uselessly. And yet, his persistent gaze swept over me, here and there. He seemed to be checking on my condition.
Maybe he’s actually a nice guy, deep down.
Thanks to the cool shade, the dizziness in my head eased considerably. It seemed I’d collapsed from heat exhaustion after all.
Once I got that far in my thoughts, I felt a little wronged. If he hadn’t been there in the first place, I wouldn’t have been standing around like an idiot in the scorching heat either. And besides, what did my name have to do with heat exhaustion anyway.
“Thanks.”
But I wasn’t bold enough to say any of these thoughts out loud. Even though he’d helped me, the guy in front of me was still, to me, nothing more than a scary classmate.
He seemed satisfied with my answer, because the furrow between his brows smoothed out, and he leaned his back against the tree trunk again. The old tree trunk was fairly large, and since I was lying down in front of him, there was plenty of room.
Wait, lying down? Wasn’t he sitting—!
That’s right. What my head was resting on was none other than Choi Seol’s lap. Or more precisely, it seemed to be the bag placed on top of it — but either way, I couldn’t just keep lying there like this. Startled, I jolted and tried to sit up. Or rather, I tried to, but…
“Hey!”
Just from raising my upper body slightly, my head spun again. A vicious wave of dizziness threw my balance off, and my body sank back down. This time, the back of my head met something firmer and warmer.
“Hey, Han Yeoreum. You okay?”
His urgent voice rang through my head. Why is it that, instead of annoying, it just feels nice? I blinked my blurry eyes, trying hard to look ahead. Instead of the sky, Choi Seol’s face filled my view. The distance was far too close. I didn’t even need to check what position we were in right now.
“S-sorry.”
The moment I realized the warmth at the back of my head was Choi Seol’s body heat, I tried once again to sit up. But a hand gripping my shoulder stopped me, as if to say it wasn’t going to happen.
“Stay still. If you collapse one more time here, you’re getting an ambulance ride.”
“B-but…”
Being held in Choi Seol’s arms like this was even more embarrassing than resting on his lap. Still, defying him when he’d told me not to be a bother any further felt hard too, so I rustled weakly in protest, and a sigh fell down over my head. Before long, my body was leaned back against the tree trunk.
“If that position was uncomfortable, just stay like that then. Move one more time and I really will kill you.”
I nodded quickly, doing my best to show I’d stay obedient. Seemingly not fully convinced, Choi Seol observed me for a long while before finally leaning his own back comfortably against the tree trunk again. Even a tree that large struggled to fit two high school boys leaning side by side, so our shoulders ended up precariously touching. Despite all that fuss to avoid contact, it felt like the distance hadn’t closed even a little.
