”Yo, that girl is kind of cu—”
The word is cut off along with Jayden’s step in the food line. His fingers strengthen their hold on the plate he’s holding while his jaw slackens, allowing his lips to part in order to finish building the dumbfounded expression. His casual study of the girl a couple meters away soon becomes a thorough investigation of every aspect of her face, from the rounded eyes to the button nose she wore, even her endearing ears tugged on his attention until recognition was all there was. Bit by bit, as if his mind was a machine and each memory was queued up for loading, they return to him in bright memories. Slowly, her surroundings seem to melt away, the food in her hold fragmenting off into dust as she turns to look at him. She smiles and her whole face lights up—beautifully plain, simple. There wasn’t anything extravagant about her looks but there wasn’t any boring details either; she simply was, her regal looks were as casual as the look she was giving him—a look he thought he’d never see again.
His toes squirm together in his sneakers as she approaches, each step sending a minuscule static through his spine. Each inch of distance she pushes past brings another memory spiraling into his conscience. Some are of flighty kisses, others of the sparks they never bothered to explore, but the one that ends it is the goodbye: a short wave they’d exchanged at school before he graduated, and although the scene was simple, it almost topples him over when he remembers. How could he have forgotten? How could he have not gone looking for her?
Queries become meaningless when her lips begin to purse and move in soothing gestures, giving flight to the sounds that reach his ears:
”Jayden… Jayden… Jayden… Jayden move already!”
Her voice—the girl next to him—reels his mind back into present day, and the bustling scene of the dining room slams into place among his senses. Fuck. He can feel his cheeks hold a tepid temperature, a sure sign of visible embarrassment. With a muttered apology met with an angry response, Jayden returns to filling his plate up with food. Occasional glances shot in Hyeri’s direction inform him that she’s still in the same spot speaking to the same person—not even looking his way whatsoever. Daydreaming had gotten the better of him. Again, although this time there was something more than his friends’ joking around at stake. She could’ve caught him ogling her foolishly, and that wasn’t the first impression he wanted to make—not after those years without communication.
There isn’t much time to get ready, and he can’t change out of the harem pants he wishes he hadn’t put on or the loose t-shirt that covers his torso. A sigh precedes his walk over to her, better now before he could feel embarrassed again, which is composed of an awkward step that’s meant to be natural. He thinks to clear his throat along with however many cliche actions he can get through before reaching her, but his long legs cut the time short and he’s standing in front of her before he has anything to say. “Ay, uh,” he begins and never finishes. His lips become occupied with forming a smile: one loose enough to feign normalcy, but not so subtle to seem cold, though the requirements become too many to follow and he ends up with a boyish smirk filled with confidence he didn’t know he had. “Hyeri, fancy meeting you here.” He doesn’t think to add all the other lines that line up right after it that include: I missed you, you never called, and his personal favorite, you’re looking so good today. Instead he stares without the added intensity of before; instead of a focused effort, he begins to enjoy the close view he has of her—especially the way her hair seems to curl around her ears, reminding him of exactly why he’d been drawn to her in the first place.
She’s even cuter than before.
