Orbiting You

An unfamiliar noise reached my ears.

A different kind of air settled over my skin.

All the announcements were in English.

After the English announcements ended, Chinese followed.

Dragging my suitcase behind me, I pulled my passport from my bag.

The line at immigration was long.

A short Black female employee was shouting something at the people in the line ahead of me.

Her accent was strong, and she spoke too quickly for me to understand.

The people in front of me seemed unable to follow her rapid English either and spent a long while fumbling around in confusion.

The employee told me to go to one of the booths at the far end.

I dragged my suitcase forward.

A stern-looking white man carefully compared the photo in my passport to my face several times.

He asked whether I had been here before.

I told him it was my first time.

Then he asked why I had come.

After hesitating for a moment, I answered that I was here on vacation.

The man raised an eyebrow at my hesitation before asking whether I had any food in my luggage.

I told him I didn’t.

After receiving my passport back, I left the immigration checkpoint.

People of all different skin colors stood together waiting for their luggage.

I switched on my phone after replacing the SIM card.

It took a long time for it to connect to the data network.

12:35 p.m.

In Korea, it was 1:35 a.m.

As I rubbed my face, exhausted from the long flight, I spotted my luggage appearing in the distance.

After collecting even the large suitcase, I turned around and saw a staff member wearing body armor searching the area with two black dogs.

Pushing through the crowd still waiting for their bags, I headed toward the exit gate.

The atmosphere was completely different from Incheon Airport.

Countless foreign languages I couldn’t understand blended together chaotically in my ears.

I stood there blankly for a moment before pulling both suitcases forward.

People waiting for arriving passengers stood in front of the gate holding flags and placards.

No one was waiting for me.

The sunlight was scorching.

It was hot summer air, but unlike Korea, it wasn’t humid.

Had I gotten even a little closer to you?

It was the beginning of a vague, uncertain journey.

It was the spring of the year I turned eighteen.

That was when I first met Han Gangun.

During lunch break, I left the cafeteria and planned to walk a lap around the track before heading back inside.

The booming voices ringing beside my ears were overflowing with energy.

I stopped for a moment and looked toward the field.

Groups of students chased a single ball around, clustering and scattering across the grounds.

The hot sunlight poured down from above as summer drew near.

As if they couldn’t care less, they remained completely absorbed in kicking the ball around.

I had almost finished my lap.

Then I instinctively sensed something flying toward me at tremendous speed.

The next instant, a sharp pain shot through me.

A soccer ball that had bounced across the dirt struck my forehead before rolling away.

I couldn’t even breathe.

I couldn’t make a sound.

Instinctively clutching my head, I endured the fleeting pain that felt as though something had shattered inside me.

Murmurs spread across the entire field.

The intense game came to an abrupt halt, and every gaze landed on me.

Then someone came running toward me.

Since I had my head lowered, I only realized someone was approaching from the sound of footsteps drawing closer.

Before long, the toe of a large sneaker appeared in front of me.

The person was tall enough to cast a shadow over me.

“Are you okay?”

At the gentle voice, I slowly lifted my head.

A boy with a flushed face was looking down at me.

The expression on my upturned face probably looked incredibly stupid.

I stared blankly at the face before me.

He was tall, with striking features, and even though he was wearing nothing but a simple shirt, the name tag on his chest was neatly fastened.

[Han Gangun]

It was a familiar face.

There wasn’t a single person in this school who didn’t know Han Gangun.

He had transferred from a middle school in a neighboring district, and rumors about his looks spread constantly among the students.

Rumors didn’t appear for no reason.

His handsome features were undeniable.

His eyes slanted upward and were both narrow and large at the same time.

His faint double eyelids made them look almost reptilian, yet somehow they also resembled a cow’s eyes.

“Did it hit your forehead?”

“…Yeah. I think so.”

With a dazed expression, I rubbed my forehead.

For some reason, I didn’t want him to see how red it had become.

Drops of sweat rolled down from beneath Han Gangun’s chin.

Scratching his forehead awkwardly, he looked troubled.

The cool scent of spring wind mixed with the dirt field and the smell of Han Gangun’s sweat blended together into a strangely pleasant fragrance.

“Hey! You guys keep playing without me!”

With one hand on his waist, Han Gangun shouted toward the field.

I stared at him as he said, “You guys keep playing without me.”

Because he had turned his head to the side, the line of his neck was clearly visible.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as the muscles along his neck stood out.

Then he looked back at me.

“Sorry about that.”

“But I think you should go to the nurse’s office.”

“I don’t need to.”

“You don’t?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Your nose is bleeding.”

Only then did I notice the ticklish sensation beneath my nose.

Startled, I raised a hand toward it.

The moment I did, Han Gangun suddenly grabbed my wrist.

Frowning deeply, he shook his head.

A clear signal not to do it.

“Blood stains are hard to get out of clothes.”

“……”

“Wait here for a second.”

“Tilt your head back a little.”

Han Gangun squeezed my shoulder firmly before letting go.

Then he sprinted up the stairs to the assembly platform at incredible speed.

Following his instructions, I tilted my head back slightly and stared silently at the field.

The students who had been watching me earlier had already turned away and were busy focusing on the ball again.

The shoulder Han Gangun had grabbed still felt strangely warm.

He returned in what felt like less than a minute.

His hands were full of tissues.

Tissues were only stocked in the bathrooms, and at minimum he would have had to run up to the second floor where the students’ restrooms were.

I couldn’t help blurting out exactly what I was thinking.

“You’re really fast.”

Han Gangun tore off a few tissues and handed them to me.

Since I got nosebleeds often, it wasn’t all that surprising.

Taking the tissues, I dabbed beneath my nose the way I always did.

Then I carefully cleaned the inside of my nostrils.

Holding the remaining tissues, Han Gangun grinned at me.

“There’s a restroom on the first floor.”

“…We aren’t allowed to use that one.”

The first-floor restroom was for faculty only.

If a student got caught going in there, they could end up with a lot of demerit points.

“Who’s going to know if I use it once?”

“You’ll get demerits if you’re caught.”

“I already have plenty.”

“Doesn’t make much difference anymore.”

I wiped away the last traces of blood while watching him speak so casually.

People who stood out too much usually attracted trouble.

Han Gangun probably got so many demerits for reasons like that.

Then his finger pressed against my forehead.

The skin he gently pushed aside revealed a swollen bump.

The red spot was still throbbing painfully.

Whenever his fingertip touched my skin, I experienced a strange sensation.

Like static electricity.

A sharp tingling shot through me, and my shoulders twitched.

“You really should go to the nurse’s office.”

“…Yeah.”

Embarrassed, I quickly stepped back.

I turned around intending to walk there by myself.

Instead, Han Gangun moved to my side and started walking beside me.

When I looked at him strangely, he shrugged his broad shoulders and raised an eyebrow.

“Why are you going alone?”

“You should go with me.”

“…Why?”

“What do you mean, why?”

“You’re the one who got hit by the ball I kicked.”

“……”

“I’m not the kind of guy whose conscience is completely dead.”

There was about a fifteen-centimeter height difference between us.

He was tall enough that it felt like there was an extra head stacked on top of mine.

Han Gangun was always easy to spot because of his height.

Even when the hallways were packed with students, it was impossible to miss him.

I often saw him walking past with his hands in his pockets, joking around with his friends.

“By the way, what’s your name?”

“…Oh. I’m Seo Ijae.”

“Ijae?”

“Yeah.”

“Yae?”

“No. I-jae.”

As we entered the building, Han Gangun spent a while repeating my name under his breath as though testing it out.

Pretending not to notice, I kept my eyes forward.

Then I had to stop when he gestured toward me.

“Wait.”

Han Gangun stared intently at my face.

He pointed a finger directly at me.

Caught off guard, I froze and stared back at him.

“…You and I…”

“That’s right.”

“We’re in the same class.”

Han Gangun snapped his fingers.

“Knew it.”

“Your face looked familiar.”

Apparently, Han Gangun had never really noticed me before.

Even if student numbers were assigned alphabetically, his was always near the end while mine sat somewhere in the middle.

There had never been any reason for us to interact.

The groups we hung around with and the atmospheres surrounding us were completely different.

In a class of around thirty students, especially this far into spring, I supposed it wasn’t that strange that he didn’t know me.

Still, we’d attended elective classes together.

We had passed each other in the hallways.

We had even run into each other in the restroom before.

Yet Han Gangun seemed to remember none of it.

For him, the existence of Seo Ijae was being engraved into his memory for the very first time today.

When we finally reached the nurse’s office, a large push-button lock was hanging on the door.

I cautiously looked up at Han Gangun.

The nosebleed seemed to have stopped, but my forehead still hurt just as much as before.