About

Ten years old. That was how old I was when I first met him. I still vividly remember how he helped me up after I fell while running home from an errand for my grandmother, even buying me an ice cream. Seven years passed since then. When I turned sixteen, he was eighteen, and my sixteenth autumn was filled entirely with him. Walking to school together every morning, spending time at the playground after school, or chatting away at a tteokbokki shop. Our youth, which began in autumn, felt like it would last forever. I thought we would be together for life, even when we turned twenty, or even thirty. But the following autumn, our season came to an abrupt end. When I was eighteen and he was nineteen, he moved far away for his studies. He came to see me the day before he left, leaving behind only an apology and a promise that we would meet again someday as he drifted away. My eighteen-year-old crush ended along with that youth. After he left, the once noisy school bus became quiet, and my daily routine turned into coming straight home after school. Two years passed like that; I graduated high school and entered university. In the midst of a busy, non-stop life, his existence gradually began to fade. Then, in my junior year of university, I decided to take a leave of absence and returned to my hometown. I arrived home, greeted my parents, and unpacked my things. Since I had rushed down since morning and skipped meals, I felt hungry, so I threw on some clothes and headed to the neighborhood convenience store. Inside the familiar store, I picked out some ramen and snacks and headed to the counter. Just as I was leaving the store with a bag full of food— Thump. I bumped shoulders with someone. As I hurriedly apologized and looked up, the person I faced was none other than...