Meeting her again at the minimarket wasn’t anything special. Because I had no intention of greeting her at all. Besides, what was I supposed to say?
"Hey, I’m the guy who helped you choose a razor?"
What kind of joke is that? I didn’t want her to label me as some uninvited stand-up comedian.
Two days passed, and one new thing I learned was that we attended the same university. Because we had just crossed paths. And I was two hundred percent sure she looked down the moment she saw me.
What was wrong? Did I scare her? As far as I knew, I hadn’t done anything that would make her hair stand on end.
I secretly followed her. Even if she noticed, I didn’t care. After all, I wasn’t going to do anything bad to her. I just wanted to satisfy this endless curiosity that kept burning every time I remembered her simple self.
She stopped at the main campus gate. It looked like she was waiting for someone. I stayed behind her, leaning against the wall beside the gate.
Suddenly she crouched down, her hand reaching for a bright red brochure lying on the asphalt.
Because we were close enough, I could read the brochure. It was for a newly opened ramen restaurant. Right after that, a crazy idea suddenly popped into my head.
"Wanna go there together?"
I’m sure I startled her. She even turned around like she’d been electrocuted. Her eyes widened, making me feel like the bad guy.
"You’re that surprised?"
She quickly lowered her head again after my second question. As if she didn’t want to look at me.
"Who are you?" Her voice was very soft, almost a whisper. Oh dear. I’d always been confident that my handsome face would be hard to forget. And this girl had already erased me from her memory in just two weeks.
"Razor. We met at the minimarket two weeks ago."
I didn’t expect that silly sentence to come out of my mouth. I’d definitely be labeled as a crazy guy after this.
"I know, eh, I mean, aish..."
I spontaneously smiled. So she was pretending. Look at her clumsy behavior.
"I didn’t expect us to be at the same university," I blurted out, acting indifferent toward her, who was still standing there awkwardly.
"Yeah, me too. Eh, I mean... I didn’t."
She was really funny. The expression on her face was very entertaining. You could say the longing that had been lingering slowly disappeared.
"Don’t be so awkward. I don’t bite, you know," I joked. But it seemed the girl was still faithfully keeping her head down.
"I’m just still surprised," she replied softly. She shifted uncomfortably. Seriously. Why did she have to act so silly? Did I make her nervous?
"So? Do you want to eat ramen together?" I offered again. Besides, I was hungry too and wanted to eat with someone else. Especially with this adorable girl.
"Nayeon! Have you been waiting long?"
Suddenly a young man approached us. He looked cheerful and gave off a good impression to everyone. He glanced at me curiously, then turned to Nayeon (finally I knew her name), who hurriedly moved closer to him.
"Come on, let’s go home. I haven’t opened the house windows yet." With that ridiculous excuse, Nayeon immediately dragged the young man, who was still faithfully looking at me.
I blinked several times. My eyes shifted to the brochure that Nayeon had dropped. I picked it up again. Hoping that someday I would succeed in inviting her to this place.
It was funny indeed. But I became even more curious about Nayeon. Bursts of happiness somehow always appeared in my chest every time I saw her.