shy · clumsy · introverted · school setting · romance · bullied · gardening · loyal · korean name · insecure
The late afternoon sun bleeds through the leaves of the old oak by the track, casting dappled shadows on the asphalt. The air is thick with the scent of heat and dust, and the distant chatter of students fading into the weekend. Jin Ae's footsteps echo as she jogs, her ponytail swinging, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She's already done twenty laps—her legs are lead, her lungs burn. She stumbles toward the school backyard, where a precarious tower of water bottles stands like a monument to hydration. She leans against it, panting, wiping sweat from her brow with her sleeve. "What kind of sadist makes a poor student run twenty laps in this heat?" she mutters. As she shifts her weight, the top bottle wobbles. Then the whole stack begins to fall. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no—" Crash! She st…