Spring Days

**Song Suggestion: Spring Day by BTS. 🎶

Namjoon stood at the front of the classroom, looking flawless as ever in his casual wear and slick brushback hairstyle. He calmly flipped through his book which was complete with a bunch of poems.

When the lesson had commenced he mentioned something about getting started on a new poem which he personally believed was brilliantly written mainly because of the meaning behind it.

Apparently, it held a strong message about life and its phases which humans experience. And so, he felt it was applicable to these seniors since graduation was on the horizon which only meant a new journey would begin for them thereof.

Sooyeong stared at him while she rolled the pencil between her fingers and finally he stopped flipping. He then looked up at the class with a bright smile which revealed his deep dimples that she personally believed should be illegal.

“Season’s of Life.” Namjoon stated. “If any of you took the time to skim through your little booklet of selected poems, you would have come across this masterpiece. It’s on page thirty.”

Flipping of stapled sheets of paper were heard throughout the classroom and soon enough Sooyeong's eyes were skimming through the poem that was built up of five stanzas which also had a Hangeul aid next to the English.

And just like the title suggested, it was in fact about season’s but it seemed to represent each phase of life as Namjoon had mentioned before as he searched for the poem and this really piqued her interest as a lover of literature.

“Shall we get someone to start us off by reading the first stanza?” Namjoon suggested which immediately sent everyone into submission.

Not a single person made eye contact with Namjoon because if one person did then it would be over them — no-one ever liked reading out aloud in class, it was flustering.

Everyone had their heads faced toward their booklet and their eyes were intensely glued to it, pretending as if they’re completely engrossed by the words printed over it.

Even Taehyung was apart of the mutual ordeal. He had slowly lowered his upper body over his desk while he tried to hide behind the person in front of him and for extra protection he held his worksheet upright and directly in front of his face.

She softly chuckled to herself because of how awkwardly cute he looked but she couldn’t help herself so she leaned over near the edge of her desk.

“I didn’t know that the heartthrob of 2022 could feel intimidated by the mere thought of reading out aloud in class.” She whispered and his gaze caught hers.

“It’s normal to not want to read aloud in front of your classmates.” He shot back. “If you slip up with even a single word, your brain won’t let you forget that moment, ever.”

She pursed her lips and nodded, “That’s true.”

“How about Jeon ssi seated at the back.” Namjoon's voiced sliced through the room and from her position near Taehyung her gaze fell over a wide eyed and frozen Jungkook.

“Pardon?”

Soft laughter was heard after his words because just recently pardon had become class 3-A’s top answer to any question Namjoon had thrown at them.

“Stanza one. Let’s go.”

Jungkook shook out of his caught-off-guard state whilst everyone else relaxed comfortably and he cleared his throat before he spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.

His English accent was absolutely sweet, harmonious and it was doused with cuteness, “How like the seasons is our life. We face sunshine, storms and strife. As seasons come, they must go. We are enjoined within that flow.”

“Excellent, Jeon ssi.” Namjoon praised but after Jungkook spoke Sooyeong's features contorted pensively because just from the first stanza she a felt a deep connection. “Let’s break down what this stanza means.”

She stared over at Taehyung who had been highlighting a few words in the first stanza.

Life was full of ups and downs that would suddenly come and go allowing humans to understand what are good and bad moments — this was how she analysed it because this was exactly what she’d been going through. Moreover, those were the words Taehyung uttered to her the day she wanted to end it all.

“In the first stanza, a comparison between life and the seasons are clearly stated. We’ve been given obvious hints about a life cycle with hurdles and joys.” Namjoon explained as everyone jotted down points. “Which means we all go through joyous and ominous times throughout our lives but according to the poet, those moments are only temporary similarly as the seasons are. And although that is true, those joyous and ominous times repeat themselves but throughout different phases in life.”

Namjoon’s words made Sooyeong feel overly anxious and she bit on her bottom lip. Sure everybody goes through tough and rough patches in their time set on this earth but she wondered why did her rough patches have to hurt others.

For instance, Jungkook and Jimin. They were threatened by Suhjin to be quiet about the whole Outhouse living arrangement or things would go awry. Seokjin had been threatened multiple times with the notion of being fired then there was Taehyung whose friendship with other people were shaken because of her. Eunwoo scraped the surface a bit when he stood up for her but despite all of that the only two people that didn’t get too mixed up in things were Hoseok and Yoongi but she was thankful for that.

In her moments of pondering Namjoon caught Minho to read out the next stanza and he monotonously spoke, “In Spring we start our journey new. When flower’s bloom and skies are blue; the trees are budding, birds will sing, with youth in bloom it’s always spring.”

The mention of Spring warmed her heart because it was her favourite season since it was a time where family or friends attended various festivals to celebrate the cherry blossoms budding and blooming in absolute beauty.

But as Namjoon gave his analysis Sooyeong glanced over at Taehyung and she noticed him circle the first line in stanza two multiple times. She cocked a brow at his behaviour and wondered what was his reason behind it but although curiosity had taken over her, she never inquired about it instead she continued to jot down notes.

Namjoon had spoken about how Spring was a time of rebirth and renewal. Where the earth filled with life again. That it was a symbol for growth, hope and youth. It was all very interesting but it seemed more so for Taehyung because unlike the other poem they had recently completed — where not a single highlighter was pressed to paper for him — he showed more concern for this one.

Again, she brushed it off and thought maybe he was just in the mood to study.

Namjoon had taken the honour of reading the third stanza, in a very formal tone, “Tis' summer soon, we are mature. Face love and kids, home and career. It’s harvest time, success we seek. These sounds of summer leaves us weak.”

After concluding his sentence, he looked up at the class and everyone’s eyes had been skimming over either the English or Hangul lines he had just read.

“Would anyone like to chime in their analysis on this stanza? It doesn’t have to be very long.” He informed.

The class was silent for a bit but that was until Dansae haughtily raised his arm into the air to which he immediately got the go ahead from Namjoon to speak.

“I believe summer would represent maturity and adulthood.” His voice had a confident ring to it.

Sooyeong had only stared at him. His answer wasn’t wrong. The stanza itself was quite obvious in its meaning but like always, her thoughts wandered.

She wondered if she’d be able to survive adulthood. If she’d actually be able to pursue her career in Pulmonology. In the process, maybe even meet someone that she really loved — her thoughts froze then and there because ironically she had already met someone who she loved.

Once more, she meekly turned to face Taehyung and she felt her heart flutter in her chest.

Her mind went haywire for a good couple of seconds and she pictured her so-called one-sided crush crumble to bits and pieces.

She wondered what if Taehyung actually fell in love with her despite all of her flaws, dysfunctional home life and imperfections.

If it ever could happen, she pondered if they’d be able to have a few kids and maybe live an average lifestyle in a nice warmly home.

She suddenly gasped in embarrassment and shunned her shameful thoughts.

“Yah… that’s too far… It could never…” She mumbled to herself and leaned over her desk, flustered. “This isn’t fan fiction… And things don’t always work out in real life.”

She remained flat over her desk, staring at the wall that had multiple scrawling’s over it while Namjoon spoke in the background.

“As part of this semester’s assessment which will count toward your grade for English. I want you all to deeply analyse the remaining two stanza’s. Identify the rhyming couplet scheme used throughout the poem as well as an overall reflection of your thoughts and feelings toward this poem. Due date, March seventeenth which is next week Thursday.”

Sighs and groans were chorused throughout the classroom and someone had even yelled seriously because analysing a poem in English was one thing but a reflection was just painful — everyone hated it mostly because you couldn’t actually write how apathetic you felt toward the task. It had to be sugar-coated with how life-changing and mind broadening it was when in actual fact it wasn’t.

But contrary to everyone else, the only two people who seemed content and hadn’t let out cries of despair had been Taehyung and Sooyeong.

Perhaps, Taehyung had a reason for looking forward to completing the task just like Sooyeong had.

• • •

Before Sooyeong could leave Café Shooky yesterday, she had informed Yoongi about returning back to work the next day because she didn’t want to abuse his kindness or seem like she’d overplaying her role by stalling her work.

Because although things have been tough for her recently, she felt like she had stepped out the dark place she had been trapped in, even if it was just a baby step.

Plus, by waitressing, it would keep her mind extra busy and off the turmoil that was life. Too add to that she had to keep a sharp look out for Ahro, her minions and Suhjin — who stopped by time to time since they didn’t know she still had this job.

After a couple of high schoolers had vacated from their seats at one of the booths, she cleared the table and started to wipe it down with a cloth from her apron pouch.

As she did so, she mentally brainstormed ideas to a possible introduction for the analysis of the poem Namjoon had tasked them with. For some reason she really liked that poem. Perhaps the reason behind it was because of the nostalgia she felt with the simple reference to Spring.

Spring reminded her of her parents and there was no doubt in her mind that if Spring were people it would definitely be them. They were symbols of hope, love, growth and youth just as Spring itself was.

The love they had for each other was so pure. Their hopes for the future always had Sooyeong in priority. They had also met when they were in their late teens and grew old together until death tragically tore them apart.

She loved their love story, where everything had revolved around Spring and the pastel beauties called cherry blossoms. Magically, they had met each other on a metal bridge on a little canal at a park one day during a Spring Festival.

Sparks were ignited between them and it had blossomed into love soon after. As for that metal bridge it became their special place where Sooyeong would visit quite frequently but ever since her father passed on she hasn’t been there.

She let out a soft sigh at how her mind always loved to drift off track. Nevertheless, she kept a firm hand over the cloth against the table and she heard the bell on the entrance chime at a higher frequency than usual.

Her body immediately turned in the direction and she witnessed a very panicked looking Taehyung run in. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and watched him run toward the cash register.

“Hyung! Please help me! I need to hide!” His voice was overly panicked and deeper than usual.

Yoongi looked at him in distress and got up from his seat in a heartbeat but in Taehyung’s frantic state his eyes unconsciously started to rake over across the café.

But that was when he saw Sooyeong and his frantic state had disappeared for just a second because an idea suddenly popped into his brain and he hastily ran over to her long forgetting Yoongi who had asked him to get behind the counter (without even asking why he needs to do so because he was well aware of why).

“Yah! Sooyeong ah! I really need you!” He grabbed her by the wrist once he reached her and tugged on her so she faced him. “Please be my girlfriend!”

She gasped from his sudden contact and stared at his features, blinking her eyes in surprise, while she let his incredulous words sink in.

That one-sided crush which had been crumbling to bits and pieces was seemingly on the horizon and her heart felt overpowered but her mind didn’t believe it for a second.

“P-Pardon?”

A U T H O R ' S  N O T E

Hey you guys! I'm back! And I hope you've enjoyed this little chapter. If so please don't forget to vote and comment!

The poem that Namjoon was covering is an actual poem written by Joseph Anderson. You guys can go check it out if you want.

Thank you for 4k reads! 정말 보라해요!

Author, Lu 💜