Inspired by a Casual Route chat (Day 3, I think, when Yoosung was panicking due to the coffee illness thing and he apologized to people). He mentioned a first love named 'Areum'. I played Yoosung's route with the name 'Areum', not knowing about that, so it gave me this idea! So MC's name is Areum Lee, as it is important for the progress of the story.

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A little bit of spark

They say first love never dies.

A cliché statement, but a famous one nonetheless.

To some, the idea is a normal component of one's life, ironically forgotten when more loves come around to replace it in later time. To another set of some, it is simply a silly sentence that's overused in literary and film, and not something to ponder much about; just a fleeting flick of emotion. But of course, to yet another set of some, it is a nice thought: a pure and innocent thought and proof of one's own heart beating for another for the first time in their lives.

Most of the time, first love exists during youth when the heart is at its most tender stage, when the idea of love is a mere bud on a stem, with emotions being the nurturing guide towards bloom.

Do you remember your first love?

Thursday afternoons always held art classes under one of the most carefree teachers Yoosung has ever had so far in elementary. He looked forward to it because it gave him a break from all the textbook reading and problem solving. However focused he could be in those subjects, art class was a welcome change in pace. He wasn't all too good at it (he'd be lucky to draw what could at least look like a horse?) but he liked this time of day and he liked trying to draw the animations he watched on television with his friends.

Yet if his eleven-year-old heart would be much more honest, those were only little parts of the reason.

The biggest reason was because he could approach a certain young girl he fancied. Due to the freedom provided in this certain art class, all of them were quite free to wander around the classroom and mingle with their classmates, provided that you were still discussing the current project, not making any noise, and actually doing the assigned task to be submitted at the end of the period. So Yoosung takes this chance, albeit in careful portions.

He was a shy and sensitive kid, but he had an excuse to walk up to the aforementioned girl. She had a friend that was good with art. He could pretend to need help from that one but talk more with the other.

Today, they were tasked to draw sceneries with the use of pencils. Shading and outline were the focus. Yoosung was thankful they didn't dabble with watercolors this time around. He hated watercolors. He thought they were messy under his fingers so he wondered how artists didn't mind and still end up with masterpieces.

He may never really know.

Yoosung, along with his friend, Hyunsik, tabled with the group of girls. They had been doing this for about a week now and the former only hoped it didn't seem all too weird, although it seems nobody minded anyway.

"Hi!" Yoosung greeted the group. There were three of them: Hana Kim, the artist he could actually learn from, Miyeon Park, the quiet one, and last but not the least…

"Hey, Areum!" Yoosung's smile towards her was usually brighter compared to the others.

Areum Lee, the pretty one. When she smiled back at Yoosung, hiding the thin streak of blush on his cheeks would have been almost impossible. Her whole being, he thought, truly lived up to her name. He remembered she had longer hair in the first half of the year. She cut it short this time and always pulled it back with a red headband. It suited with her hair which was the color of sweet milk chocolate. How come she could still be pretty in any style? Yoosung saw others when they changed their appearance and sometimes he didn't think it suited them.

That's not the case with Areum.

"Heya, Yoosung! Time to draw again." She laughed. God, how it hit Yoosung's heart like a shooting star. "Got a scenery in mind now?"

Yoosung and Hyunsik took their respective seats beside the girls as they maneuvered their tables around to group together. The former made sure he could sit beside Areum and Hyunsik couldn't manage to even hide the snicker that erupted from his throat. He knew about his friend's crush but paid no mind. He knew he'd probably break down in embarrassment if Areum somehow found out.

Yoosung thought for a while, but drew a blank. "I… have no idea. I'm never really super prepared for art class."

"I know, right? Hana probably doesn't need to think so much about it compared to us!" She said, elbowing said best friend.

Hana stuck her tongue out at all of them. "It's not my fault I like drawing."

Areum winked. "We know! We're just teasing."

"Might as well start now. We only have about an hour left." Hyunsik reminded them. He was already starting to outline his shapes. Yoosung thought it looked too round for a mountain but kept his mouth shut.

"Any thought now, Yoosung?" Areum asked, turning her attention towards the brunette and his blank sheet of paper.

He thought sitting beside her was already the nearest he could get, but she almost leaned towards him and he grew flustered.

"A-Ah, no—not yet!"

Areum huffed then turned back to her own desk. Then, as if the bulb in her head lit up, so did the expression on her face and she offered an idea to Yoosung. "Why don't you draw a night sky with a lot of stars? It pretty much fits you and we can use colored pencils anyway!"

"Ooh, not bad!" It really wasn't, but how come he didn't even think of something that should have been obvious to himself? "How about you? What are you gonna draw, Areum?"

Her mouth formed a pout. He thought it was cute.

"I'm still at a loss but…" She tapped her pencil on her paper, then looked back again at Yoosung. "I think I'll draw a beach. I went there last summer with my family. I thought it was pretty! What do you think?"

"That sounds good. I'm sure you can draw it well."

"Yeah! It'd be nice to use a lot of yellows and oranges for it. I watched the sunset then."

"I should do that next summer. It probably looks nicer at a beach, huh?"

Their discussion kept on going between the two of them until Miyeon had to speak up. "You guys do know that you could run out of time by talking about it so much, right?"

Yoosung and Areum looked at each other and then scrambled on to their work. Even if neither of them was good at art, their teacher put in a lot of grades for effort and that wasn't to be overlooked.

"Ah, Areum, I forgot my eraser." Yoosung said, not looking up. "Can I borrow yours?"

She nodded, busy with her own work. "Sure. It's by the pencils."

"Okay, let me just…" He reached over to the bunch of pencils blindly, patting his hands over the table while his focus was all on filling up the hillside drawing with a deep shade of green.

Areum was on her way to doing so as well, unsure if whether Yoosung knew where it was so she might as well get it herself for him. Her reflection of the orange sun on the sea seemed to be lacking, so she colored it more to bring out the vibrancy, digging her pencil a little harder than she did earlier.

With one similar action towards one small item, two hands met in the middle and startled the owners. Both Areum and Yoosung looked up, first to the source of the surprise, and then to each other. It was easy to see that Yoosung was the most flustered and Areum giggled more at his reaction.

She was the one who got the eraser first, so she put it in Yoosung's palm. "Here you go!"

"T-Thanks!" To save himself from any more embarrassment, he took it gratefully and turned back to his work. All he wanted was to talk to her today, but it seemed fate was being more generous than usual.

He wasn't complaining, though. No, not at all.

But he did grow slightly nervous.

After some time, most of them were done with their artworks. Hana and Miyeon had submitted theirs already, waiting for grading from their teacher. Hyunsik was finishing with the details. Yoosung still thought his mountain seemed too round, but who was he to judge? His hillside might as well be almost flat.

He was staring at his work now, wondering what was still lacking, when Areum popped up to speak again beside him.

"Looks good! I knew you could draw that." Her eyes seemed to be beaming with delight, appreciating the better drawing from her classmate. "Are you gonna draw a person in it, too?"

Yoosung offered a confused face. "I don't know. I thought we were only supposed to draw the scenery?"

She shrugged. "People can be a part of it. I think it'd look nice if you drew yourself there."

"I think it's lame if it's me. I should… draw someone else to make it better." Yoosung laughed it off lightly as he started to take a brown shade of pencil to start.

"Oh? Who're you gonna draw?" Areum watched as Yoosung continued to sketch, then realized there was no need to ask. The red headband and brown hair was a big giveaway already, and even she felt a warmness rise up to her cheeks.

To be fair, she went back to her own drawing and smiled at the idea. It was playful and fun and harmless. She took up the same shade of pencils Yoosung had used and drew a person on her own beach. Once done, Areum stood up and admired her work. It seemed Yoosung was also done with his and ready to have it graded.

"Yoosung, look." Areum brought up her paper, a yellow-orange dominant version of a sunset on a beachside. A small, brown-haired boy sat on the sand. "Fair enough, right?"

He was surprised. His face clearly showed it to her. "You drew me."

"Yeah." Her grin towards him was laced with appreciation. "Thanks for drawing me in yours, Yoosung. I really like it. Come on. Let's get these graded. We're the last ones to finish."

He ended up following her to where their teacher was, but he couldn't help but feel flustered at what just happened. It was a silly sort of exchange, but Yoosung found it to be more than enough. As far as he was concerned, his day was more than complete.

They were fortunate to be able to pass it on time and still get a good grade once the artworks were handed back. As soon as art class ended, everyone started preparing for the next one. Was it Korean history already? The day was going to end soon. Yoosung had to part ways with the girls to go back to his seat in the classroom. He sat quite some distance away from Areum so talking to her during class was never really an option available to him. His extracurricular activities also prohibited him most of the time to hang out during the afternoons.

But tomorrow was Friday and he was free then. Maybe he could ask her to hang out then. He could wait until tomorrow to ask, just so he can gather up some extra courage to do so. Besides, it wasn't as if he wouldn't see her at school again, right?

… Right?

"Didn't you hear?" Hyunsik asked, his tone expressing surprise peppered with a tinge of concern. "Areum moved."

Yoosung frowned. He had barely even arrived at school that next morning and that was the first thing he'd hear. "What?"

"Miyeon told me."

"But we just had class with her yesterday." He said, glancing over at what was once Areum's seat. He thought she was just oddly late today or that she wasn't feeling well. But moving away?

It made him sad.

Yoosung walked over towards where Hana and Miyeon sat, hoping to hear something about it all. Hyunsik followed him.

"Areum left?" Yoosung asked.

Hana looked up at her classmate and nodded slowly. "Her dad's work thing made them move. We already knew about it a couple of weeks ago."

"Where?"

Miyeon shook her head. "We're not really sure. Areum didn't say much about it."

"I see. Too bad we couldn't hang out much."

Hana agreed. "I know. Yesterday, you two seemed to get along pretty well."

"She's always been nice." Yoosung shook his head once and bid the girls goodbye. "Thanks for telling me. Hope she's well."

It would be a clear lie to say he wasn't upset about Areum's leaving, but he never got close to her much to expect her to say something about it to him. At least he had yesterday to remember by.

Yoosung sighed.

He really did like her.

He went back to his seat and started fiddling with the contents of his bag, ready to pull out a pen and pad to distract his mind. That was when he saw a small object chucked inside the corner of his pencil case.

A rubber eraser.

He chuckled.

That was Areum's. Did he forget to return it?

Maybe he did, and he decided to keep it as a small token of knowing her.

With little contact they shared prior to this, it seemed impossible to see her again.

Do you remember your first love?

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[ Areum has entered the chatroom. ]

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There we go!

I hope you guys enjoyed this introduction. Tell me what you think and what I can improve on. Thank you so much for your time!