“The Boy Who Never Looked Back”

Rae Seok Kang - Quiet topper boy

Baek Soo-ah - Extrovert friendly talkative average studying girl

Park Ji-a - Baek soo ah's friend and neighbour

"I still remember 24 April 2026, when I entered to grade 11 like it was the beginning of something my heart understood before I did, the day I met Rae Seok Kang, the quiet topper boy with eyes that never stayed long enough for me to understand them but long enough to make me wonder if they ever paused on me, and I, Baek Soo-ah, the girl who talked too much, laughed too loud, and somehow fell without even realizing when it started, and beside me was Park Ji-a, my friend, my mirror in some ways, yet the one who stood unknowingly between my questions and his silence, and everything felt so normal at first, just another class, just another face, but slowly he became the one I looked for without meaning to, the one I noticed even when I tried not to, the one whose smallest actions felt like messages I couldn’t decode, and I told myself it wasn’t a crush, not really, just curiosity, just interest, just something light, but then why did my heart react every time he spoke, why did I care who he gave his notebook to, why did I notice that he talked to Ji-a more than me, why did I feel something twist inside me when he chose her without even thinking, and still I smiled, still I laughed, still I acted like it didn’t matter, because I didn’t even know what I wanted, just that I wanted him to notice me, just once, properly, not as the girl sitting beside Ji-a but as me, and I remember that day in class when there were only four of us, no teacher, just silence and silly games, and we played that game of putting fingers down, pretending everything was a joke, and when relationships came up, when liking someone came up, I looked at him without looking, waiting for something, anything, a hint, a confession hidden in laughter, but he only laughed it off, said no one was worth liking, and I laughed too, like it didn’t matter, like it didn’t sting, like I wasn’t searching for meaning in every word he said, and later I even searched it, like a fool and a dreamer both, typing into ChatGPT, asking how to make someone fall for me, how to become the person he notices, how to shift his attention from someone else to me, as if love could be calculated, as if feelings could be guided step by step, and the answers came but my heart stayed confused, because nothing changed, because in real life he still talked to Ji-a more, still looked at her more, and only sometimes, in between laughter, his eyes would flicker toward me and I would hold onto that moment like it meant something more than it probably did, and I hated that I couldn’t even tell if he liked her, or someone else, or no one at all, and I hated that someone else, that other boy, looked at me the way I wished Rae Seok Kang would, because it proved something I didn’t want to accept, that attention comes easily when you don’t want it and disappears when you do, and there was that day in the auditorium, twelve seats apart, where I kept looking at him thinking maybe he would look back, maybe he would search for me too, but he didn’t, not even once, and I sat there feeling foolish for expecting something that was never promised, and yet I couldn’t stop, couldn’t stop hoping, couldn’t stop imagining that maybe, just maybe, he noticed me in ways I couldn’t see, that maybe his silence held something I didn’t understand, and now July is coming like an ending I wasn’t ready for, and he is going to leave, just like that, without knowing, without asking, without anything beginning or ending properly, and I keep thinking that I will still love him, even if it wasn’t love, even if it was just a soft, confusing, incomplete feeling that never got the chance to become something real, and maybe that’s what hurts the most, not losing him, but never having him at all, never knowing what could have happened if I had said something, if he had noticed more, if time had been kinder, and so I stay here, holding onto glances, laughter, half-moments, and unanswered questions, wondering if I was ever even a thought in his mind, or just another voice in the background of his days, and even then, even knowing all this, I still find myself hoping, still find myself looking, still find myself thinking that maybe, just maybe, before he leaves, he will look at me properly, not by accident, not in between laughter, but intentionally, like I was someone worth noticing, someone worth remembering, someone more than just Baek Soo-ah sitting beside Park Ji-a, someone he might think about, even once, after he’s gone."

This is a real story and I don't know whether we can have fun together before he leaves in this july or not because after summer holidays we will never cross paths again never ever again even if we want , nowadays he is talking to me because I make him talk and I make others talk but I wish and pray to god that somehow his parents cancel moving to different places but its not possible I am really really gonna miss him :(