“You’re a disaster,” he said, his voice cracking. “You’re a beautiful, chaotic, infuriating disaster. And I don’t want to solve you. I just want to exist in the same equation.”
“We are neighbors who share a history of unfortunate proximity,” he’d say when someone asked.
Miraculously, or perhaps through a cosmic joke, Ha-ni’s father, the ever-optimistic Oh Ki-dong, built a new house. It was a cozy, slightly lopsided structure at the top of a hill. And directly next door, nestled among perfectly manicured bonsai trees, was the Baek residence. Seung-jo’s house. Playful Kiss -K-Drama-
He walked away. Ha-ni sat frozen, touching her lips. Her brain, for the first time in her life, was completely, utterly, blissfully blank.
That was it. The equation had found its answer. And it wasn’t her. “You’re a disaster,” he said, his voice cracking
But it was also a strange, silent education. One night, during a brutal thunderstorm, Ha-ni discovered she had left her chemistry textbook at school. The final exam was the next morning. She was hyperventilating on the Baek family’s back porch when a shadow fell over her.
He grabbed her shoulders, his fingers digging in. “Do you think I care about level? I care about function . You function in my life the way oxygen functions in a combustion reaction. Without you, I just… suffocate.” I just want to exist in the same equation
“Oh, you poor things! You’ll stay with us until it’s fixed,” she declared, her eyes twinkling as they landed on Ha-ni.
She walked home in the rain, not feeling a thing. She left a note on the Baek family’s doorstep: “Thank you for everything. I won’t be a bother anymore. - Ha-ni.”
Before she could process that, he leaned in. It wasn’t a gentle kiss. It was a decisive, almost exasperated press of his lips against hers. It lasted three seconds. When he pulled back, his ears were pink.
The real shift happened during the university entrance exams. Ha-ni, predictably, failed to get into the top national university. Seung-jo, of course, was the valedictorian. On the day of his acceptance, a popular, pretty girl from a rival school confessed to him. Ha-ni watched from behind a tree as the girl leaned in to kiss him.