Prologue
Thirteen years before ...
“Ready or not, here I go!”
Jaewha removed her hands from her eyes and turned away. In the woods Supernatural silence reigned, but she sensed that her friends were close. Without hesitating, she ran, making the vegetation and twigs creak under her.
slippers as she zigzagged among the huge pine trees. She strained her ears to hear a giggle.
She headed towards the sound, but the echo confused her and only managed to surprise a squirrel that was busy with a huge walnut. The cool shadow urged to go into the grove. A quick look at the usual hideout of Rose revealed that there were only leaves. Jaewha slowed her pace and was about to turn when he heard a voice.
“A little more orc to play hide and seek, right?”
Jaewha turned and glared at the older brother of her best friend.
-It’s fun. He snorted disdainfully. They had been very close, until he woke up one day and suddenly decided it was not worth losing the time with her. I never spoke to her or sneaked into her house to get cookies of chocolate or tell bad jokes. It seemed that they only caught her attention.
The older girls, silly and with tits. Of course, who cared? I know She refused to follow him around like a lapdog. Also, you don’t you would understand. You never want to play with us. What are you doing out here?
He rose from the ground and approached her. Jimin was still sixteen years old and a nuisance of the worst. He was laughing at everything she did and seemed to have right to play God because he was two years older.
She had long, strong legs. Her hair curled over her ears and above the forehead, with an intriguing mix of shades ranging from chestnut clear to gold. Like the cereal she ate for breakfast, Jaewha thought. A combination of rice, wheat and corn. Her face was slim, defined features, with. a plump lower lip that had always intrigued her.
Those colored eyes Light brown they had an intelligent shine and a hint of melancholy. Jaewha I knew that sadness. It was the only thing they had in common.
Park Jimi was a rich boy who isolated himself in his world and who seemed to have no friends. Jaewha had always wondered how her sister, Rose, was so outgoing.
“You should be careful in the woods, brat.” You could get lost.
“I know the way better than you do.”
He shrugged to dismiss the matter.
-Surely. You should have been a boy.
His blood boiled when he heard it. He clenched his fists at his sides and shook his head, making his ponytail flutter.
“And you should have been a girl.” Everybody knows you don’t like it stain your hands, pretty boy. A low blow. Which seemed to have an effect, because she got angry.
“You should learn to behave like a real girl.”
-How?
“You should put makeup on.” To fix you. Kiss some boy.
She had never squandered her precious money on lip gloss. It was enough difficult to buy something new, needless to say makeup or perfume. Jaewha faked a rcade.
“Yuck.
“I’m sure you haven’t kissed anyone.”
He detected the mocking hint of her voice. Almost all her friends, who were fourteen years, and they had experienced their first kisses, including Rose, but in their The idea had always made his stomach turn. Although before dead that admit it in front of Jimin.
-You are right.
-To who?
-It is none of your business. I’m out.
“What dare you not?”
She left one foot suspended in midair, still not taking the step. The squawk of a bird sounded high above, and Jaewha had the feeling that he had reached a inflection point. She raised her chin.
-To what?
“Show me you know how to kiss.”
Her stomach flipped, her heart raced, and she began to sweat. hands. He made a disgusted face.
“Kissing you?”
-I knew it.
“Do you think I would like to kiss you?” I hate you!
“Okay, forget what I said.” I just wanted to check if you were a girl from true. Now I know you are not.
Her words stung him. All the doubts and uncertainties that the Consumed they surfaced to confirm that it was different. Why not Was it like Jaewha? Why did you prefer to paint, read and play with animals before what to look at the boys? Maybe Jimin was right and defective. To what best…
He made to leave.
-Wait!
Jimin stood with his back to her for a moment, like he was considering your supplication. She turned around very slowly.
-Than?
Jaewha forced herself to shorten the distance between them and stand in front of the. Her legs were shaking. She felt something very strange in the body. Like I was about to vomit.
“I know how to kiss.” And I’ll ... I’ll show you.
-Voucher. Come on.
Jimin tilted his hip, taking an arrogant pose, like he did all the days and he was already bored.
Jaewha remembered what she had seen in the movies and leaned forward. I’m not going to screw up. Relax your lips. Take a deep breath. Tilt the head so we don’t get Let’s give it to the nose. God what if I hit him on the chin and I do to bleed? No, don’t think about it. Kissing is very simple. »
Nothing special. Nothing special. Nothing special…
She felt the light warm touch of his breath on her lips. He threw his head towards back and stopped. Then Jimin’s lips brushed hers.
Although it was a simple caress, he experienced endless emotions.
He contact of your fingers on the shoulders. The sweet pressure of his mouth. The smell of forest mixed with the tantalizing notes of its soft colony.
In those brief seconds he gave her an extraordinary gift. He gave wings to his heart as a strange happiness ran through his veins. His first kiss from true. How many times had he dreaded the experience, letting himself be carried away by the Panic that she would hate boys and kisses, and that it wouldn’t be normal? In that By now I knew I was an adult and would never question that part of herself.
Jimin pulled away very slowly as she opened her eyes. Their looks are They found. Jaewha felt her emotions assail her like rough waves, like I’m about to go down the slope of a huge mountain Russian and consumed by fear and expectation. She held her breath, waiting.
Jimin had a very strange expression. He looked at her as if he hadn’t seen her in life. For a glorious moment, he caught a glimpse of something deep in her eyes gold ... a streak of vulnerability he never shared. Her lips They smiled.
Jaewha returned the smile. She felt safe. I knew that she would no longer laugh or would pass her. Things had changed. What I had been denying for so long It burst from her lips suddenly, without thinking and without considering the consequences.
—I love you. One day I will marry you.
She did not doubt her response at any time, certain of her friendship and kiss. I trusted her innately, without reservation. Jaewha waited for her smile to widened, waited for her to agree, hoped their relationship would finally change after that perfect kiss.
However, she had the impression that something was covering the face of Jimin and the boy the one she had kissed disappeared.
Then he laughed out loud.
Jaewha blinked, and she didn’t understand her reaction, but when she returned to Looking her in the eye, ice gripped her chest.
-Get married? What an idea, Jae. When I marry, it will be with a woman from true. Not with a calf.
She shook her head with a sly and dismissive expression, as if the mere idea I could make him laugh for days. As if she could make her friends laugh. Already her real girlfriends.
Jaewha remained planted in the forest, unable to do anything other than were to look at him with a scared face, unable to release an ingenious reply for first time in life.
Jimin’s laughter ended with a giggle.
“But you have potential.” With a little practice, you can kiss the same thing well and everything. See you, brat.
And she left.
Jaewha heard giggles. Horrified, she turned and saw one of her friends hidden in the bushes. Everyone would find out.
At that precise moment, about to become a woman, she took her first adult decision: she would never allow Jimin or any other boy to they will humiliate again. The only love that was worth it was her family and friends. The boys were not to be trusted, and she was smart enough not to need more lessons.
She turned around and ran out of the forest, already forgetting the game of hiding, while wondering what was the pain that invaded his chest.
Of course, she was still too young to know the answer.
He understood it years later.
His heart had been broken.
