I Caught You

No, why did he come out so fast? He should have waited and left with more of a gap.

Flustered, Somi whipped her head away. Her heart was pounding so loudly she could hear it ringing in her ears, but she kept her eyes forward and walked as if nothing had happened.

Thankfully, Hwi-young didn't acknowledge her or come any closer. All she heard was the steady thud of his footsteps trailing at a fixed distance behind her. That just-right gap was oddly reassuring, and yet somehow it left her wanting more.

Even as she repeated to herself over and over that she couldn't get caught, she couldn't help feeling sulky that he was walking so far away. Unable to make sense of her own flip-flopping heart, Somi pushed out her lips in a pout.

Passing through the main gate, the whole campus spread out before her in one sweeping view, rolling gently downhill. Autumn had already settled in deep, but the vast grassy plaza still held onto a fresh shade of green.

The walkways between the college buildings were bustling with students hurrying along, desperate not to be late for first period.

Somi kept rubbing her ticklish nose with the back of her hand. It wasn't hot or cold out — just that crisp, dry wind of this exact time of year — and her oversensitive nose was firing up again. She wasn't a street performer, but this cursed rhinitis showed up like clockwork every time the seasons changed.

She squeezed her eyes shut and open, shut and open, trying her best to ignore the twitching in her nose. But the moment her foot landed on the grass, all that effort went out the window and a sneeze burst out of her.

"Achoo!"

Her whole body jolted with the short sneeze, and her toe caught on something. Whether it was a hidden rock jutting out of the grass, the timing couldn't have been worse — Somi swayed wildly. Her feet tangled, and her body, center of gravity gone, pitched forward before she could do a thing about it.

"Eek!"

A shriek tore out of her before she knew it. As she toppled, Somi instinctively wrapped her arms around her belly. Then, a split second before she crashed to the ground, she heard the sound of feet striking the earth hard.

An arm shot out from behind at terrifying speed and hooked around her waist, yanking her tight into a embrace.

Fwump.

With the rustle of brushing fabric, Somi's body — airborne for a fleeting moment — landed against Hwi-young's chest.

She clung to that savior of a forearm for dear life, propriety be damned. Nothing else existed in her mind. Only one thought: she absolutely, under no circumstances, could not fall.

"……!"

Is that why you can't even make a sound when you're scared out of your wits? Every cell in her body had frozen stiff, too paralyzed to move so much as a fingertip.

Sure, it was just a grassy field — but what if she'd landed badly?

The ground seemed to sway beneath her, and goosebumps rippled up from her toes, far too late.

And Hwi-young, holding her trembling body in his arms, was no better off. His chest heaved with ragged breaths. Somi gripped his arms even tighter. In that moment, she had no room in her head to care who might be watching.

"Are you okay?"

A gentle voice settled low against her ear. When Somi lifted her head in a daze, she found Hwi-young's eyes, pale as death, searching her body from head to toe. The moment she met that desperate gaze, the tears she'd been holding back came surging up.

Hwi-young, still unable to get a word out of her, wrapped his arms softly around her shaking shoulders. Then he nuzzled his cheek against the crown of her head where it rested against his chest and murmured in a low voice.

"It's okay. Nothing happened. I caught you, didn't I?"

"...Hic. Yes... yes."

Sobbing, Somi bobbed her head.

How long had she been clinging to him like that? Her body, strung taut with every nerve on edge, slowly went slack as relief washed over her.

Once she came back to her senses, it dawned on her, belatedly embarrassing, that she was trembling this hard over nearly tripping on a single rock.

"I... I'm okay now."

With an awkward smile, Somi peeled herself carefully away from him.

Only then did her runaway sanity snap back into place. She glanced frantically around, but thankfully no one passing by seemed particularly interested. Everyone looked too absorbed in their phone screens to notice anything. It was one of those moments when she felt a profound gratitude for the existence of the smartphone.

"Come over here."

Hwi-young led her to a quiet patch of shade beneath a tree at the edge of the grassy plaza. She could feel him searching her face, looking for something he could do for her. But Somi was already scrubbing away her tears with the end of her varsity jacket sleeve, sniffling behind his back, doing her best to pull herself together without Kwon Hwi-young knowing.

"Are you really okay?"

It felt mortifying to look him straight in the eye, like she'd made a huge scene over nothing.

"I told you I'm fine. Really."

Brushing the bits of grass off her pant leg, Somi forced a smile. But her fingertips were still trembling all on their own.

Hwi-young's gaze, which had been resting quietly on her hands, drifted slowly upward. She hastily hid them behind her back, but not before he drew in a short breath. Tilting his head, he said quietly:

"Your face is still white as a sheet."

At that, Somi rubbed her cheek with the back of her hand.

"And your nose is all red from crying."

"I wasn't crying."

A mumbled protest shot out, stung at being caught so squarely. Then Hwi-young pulled his phone from his pocket. He switched on the front camera and thrust the screen right in front of Somi's face.

"I'm telling you, look for yourself."

She looked down at the screen in a daze — and froze. Her face, drained of color from the shock, was flushed scarlet right at the tip of her nose.

Hwi-young's eyes suddenly narrowed, his trademark mischief creeping quietly back in.

"This won't do. We need proof."

"......"

"I'm taking this one."

"...A photo? Out of nowhere?"

She looked up at him with a face that said, *a photo, right now?* — but he already had his phone out and ready.

Honestly, what is it with him and photos? Did a camera ghost possess him or something?

"What if someone sees...?"

Somi glanced nervously toward the buildings behind them.

"What if they do?"

"They won't. Don't worry."

Hwi-young took her bag, slung it over his own shoulder, then stepped up right behind her. His tall frame and broad shoulders formed a natural screen, blocking her from view on all sides. With the tree's shade above and Hwi-young standing guard behind, the world around her sealed off completely, and a wave of relief washed over her.

He pressed in one step closer. The warmth of his body against her back sent her carefully suppressed heart racing all over again. The trembling that had finally stilled now rippled up from somewhere deep in her chest.

"Somi, look at the camera."

Hwi-young tipped his chin toward the end of his outstretched arm. Somi timidly lifted her gaze to the screen.

Inside the rectangular frame set against the green expanse of grass, there were exactly two people. Somi, her eyes still glistening with tears, and Hwi-young standing firmly behind her.

As she quietly studied the two of them on the screen, Somi finally understood. Why he'd asked out of nowhere to take a photo, at this very moment.

At school they had to be perfect strangers to each other — but on that screen, the two of them were a complete world unto themselves. A world that belonged only to the two of them, where no outside gaze could reach.

All that rambling, the constant changing of subjects, the sudden insistence on a photo — it had all been his own roundabout way of bringing her back from the edge of panic.

As if to reassure her: as long as we're together, it'll be all right.

That solid embrace comforted her, and yet at the same time she couldn't stop noticing how pitiful she looked on the screen. Standing beside strikingly handsome Hwi-young, her own face — puffy and red from crying — seemed unusually plain.

"...I look ugly."

At her disgruntled mutter, tinged with frustration, Hwi-young swallowed a laugh behind her.

"Taking it now."

Flustered, Somi quickly covered her mouth with both hands. At the same moment, his arm slid down in front of her shoulders, wrapping her in a gentle embrace that made her head spin.

*Click—*

The screen flashed with a short shutter sound.

It was the first photo of the two of them together.

The outdoor steps in front of the Arts Building, drenched in crisp autumn sunlight. Somi sat with her classmates on a landing scattered with tumbling ginkgo leaves, a bag of snacks at the center of the group, deep in a round of chatter.

"Hey, look — there's tons of seats open."

Seo-kyeong held out her phone, its screen webbed with cracks, in front of the girls. Pointing at the theater seating chart displayed on it, she went on.

"We can just plunk ourselves right down in the middle here."

"Me and Ju-hyeong want seats off to the side, away from everyone."

Ga-yeong said this so matter-of-factly that jeers erupted from all directions.

"Um, excuse me? Look at you two, all precious. What, do you need to be spoon-feeding each other too?"

"Knock it off, you're blinding me. I'm sitting in the back row with a lighter, keeping watch on the backs of your two heads."

After making a huge production last week about going to a late-night movie together. Typical of the Scene Stealers — all big talk, slow to act — they'd only now descended into a frantic scramble to book tickets on the very day of.

To make matters worse, the group had suddenly ballooned. Ga-yeong was bringing her department boyfriend Ju-hyeong, and with him coming, two more of the closer guys tagged along, and just like that they were nine.

"Okay, so, paying now?"

The moment Seo-kyeong looked around at the group and said this, Somi froze.

She hadn't told Kwon Hwi-young. No — truthfully, she'd completely forgotten that she even had plans with her friends in the first place. Lately she'd been forgetting things left and right. She'd heard somewhere that pregnancy made you more forgetful — was that why?

My brain hasn't turned to stone, she consoled herself. It's all the hormones.

Still....

It was a late-night movie, though. Shouldn't she at least give him a heads-up?