CHAPTER~09
First Kiss
Kim Hwido let out a faint, bewildered laugh.
“Hey. Are you denying your first love now?”
“No. I’m not denying that I confessed to you. But you weren’t my first love.”
“…What?”
Hwido froze at the sight of Yeongwon’s utterly serious expression. Still, he couldn’t understand her.
“How am I not your first love?”
The day Hwido had left Yeongwon standing alone under the ginkgo tree and walked back the way he had come—
just like that first day he’d arrived in Mayeong-ri, walking off by himself.
“Kim Hwido!”
Yeongwon had chased after him and called out to stop him.
Breathless from running, she looked up at him, exhaling in short, uneven bursts. Hwido stared at her slightly parted, trembling lips before forcing himself to speak.
“You have… more to say?”
Yeongwon caught her breath, swept her messy hair back, and nodded.
“Yeah. I’m curious. You know I can’t stand not knowing something.”
“What are you so curious about?”
“Was my confession to you a joke?”
Her earnest eyes wavered gently, and Hwido’s gaze flickered.
Only for a moment.
He forced his face back into a calm mask and answered quietly.
He already sensed she would hate him for this, maybe forever.
“I see…”
Yeongwon looked briefly wronged, but that was all.
She didn’t scold him for treating her confession like a joke, nor did she get sad about being rejected.
Instead, she took a deep breath and placed her hand softly on Hwido’s shoulder. Rising on her toes, she leaned forward, and Hwido blinked, startled.
“Then think of my first kiss as a joke too.”
Yeongwon’s clear, bright face drifted closer. When she closed her eyes, her long lashes trembled like fluttering wings.
Her pale, fresh face.
The soft, ticklish sweetness of her scent drifted toward him, tightening around his breath.
Her soft, moist lower lip brushed lightly against his.
Hwido closed his eyes without thinking. With his eyes shut, all he could feel was her.
Yeongwon’s small, warm hand entwining awkwardly with his stiff fingers—
Her lips pressed so tightly together from nerves they barely parted—
Her hair tickling his cheek in the breeze—
Ten years later.
Hwido remembered every single detail.
“Yoo Yeongwon. How am I not your first love? You even had your first kiss with me.”
When he asked, face blank with disbelief, Yeongwon only shrugged.
“Well… the first kiss was real. It was. But…”
Her eyes darted back and forth as if she were deep in thought. Even that brief silence was torture for Hwido.
“What? What?”
“I mean… I guess at the time, you could consider that a kiss.”
Unbelievable.
So she didn’t even remember what she’d done to him back then and had to think it through, right?
That’s why she was rolling those cat-like eyes around like that—
trying to recall if it even counted as a kiss?
What?
“You could consider that a kiss”?
Ten years ago, she’d declared it her first kiss—and now this?
“Hey, Yoo Yeongwon. I didn’t call it your first kiss. You did. Don’t you remember?”
“I remember. And back then, I thought it could count as one.”
“What? So now it doesn’t?”
“……”
Yeongwon glanced at him sideways. Hwido didn’t need her to speak to understand.
Her face practically read: Have you really never kissed anyone before?
Hwido sucked in a long breath, struggling to hold himself together.
“…Unbelievable… What do you take me for? It’s not like I’d call that a kiss. You don’t know this, but I’ve actually kissed—”
He stopped.
He couldn’t bear to say anything more.
Finishing that sentence would make him sound pathetic—and desperate.
“This is ridiculous… I can’t even show you…”
“…You’re insane.”
Yeongwon wrapped her arms around herself like she was repulsed. Hwido’s eyes widened at the injustice.
“Wow. You’re unbelievable. Says the one who wasn’t even planning on giving anything.”
“I don’t like that kind of thing.”
“Great. Fantastic!”
Hwido stomped ahead in frustration.
“Kim Hwido! Not that way.”
But he only managed a few steps before turning back.
He woke up aching all over, barely managing to rise at five in the morning.
Yeongwon, who had woken earlier, was already preparing breakfast.
Yesterday, he would’ve refused out of pride. But now Hwido sat obediently, waiting.
He’d learned that not eating breakfast here was practically a death sentence.
“I’ll do the dishes.”
“Go ahead.”
Yeongwon placed a warm bowl of rice before him. Hwido lifted his spoon, then winced—sharp pain shot through his joints.
Not even heavy leg day at the gym had ever left him this wrecked. Every joint trembled with soreness.
Yeongwon must have noticed, but she said nothing and simply took a spoonful of rice. Hwido forced himself to copy her. His stomach felt empty from a day of labor; the food went down surprisingly easily.
“Yoo Yeongwon.”
Halfway through his bowl, Hwido spoke without looking at her.
“So I’m really not your first love?”
“Nope.”
“And the first kiss?”
“The first peck, sure.”
Overnight, Yeongwon had downgraded their “first kiss” to a “peck.”
Of course she had.
She was astonishingly decisive like that.
For ten years, Hwido had believed—without a shred of doubt—that he was her first love and first kiss.
If, one day, Yeongwon sent wedding invitations to his mother or to him, he would’ve laughed and thought,
I wonder how intimidated her husband will be when he learns I was her first love and first kiss. Must be terrifying.
But now?
He imagined receiving her wedding invitation thinking,
Her husband will never know that I was just some random guy she once sort of liked…
and that weird little peck wasn’t even a real kiss. Why would he care?
The thought stung him more than he expected.
Wait.
Why did it hurt so much?
Hwido frowned without realizing. His lofty pride must have taken a hit.
There weren’t many things in Kim Hwido’s life that ever bent his pride.
But ten years ago—
by a tiny girl in Mayeong-ri?
How much must that have bruised him?
That was how Hwido neatly organized his feelings.
Yeongwon, too, assumed Hwido was just being stubborn, throwing a fit because his pride was wounded.
What on earth had happened to make Kim Hwido act even more childish now than he had ten years ago?
But right is right.
“So who is your first love?”
Hwido stirred his spinach soybean stew as he asked. Yeongwon burst out laughing, incredulous.
“And even if I tell you, will you know him?”
“Not answering means it was—”
“Park Donghoon.”
“……”
She cut him off cleanly.
“I was seventeen. I liked him so much I got a fever. Couldn’t even go to school. My face got too red whenever I saw him.”
“Oh please. At that point you should’ve gone to the hospital. That’s angina.”
She frowned. What seventeen-year-old gets diagnosed with angina?
“You’re seriously delusional.”
“What?”
“It’s called the narcissist syndrome, right? Go see a doctor.”
There was no winning this argument. Hwido clicked his tongue and focused on his food.
Park Donghoon.
Seventeen meant he must’ve been a student at Mayeong High. And he was supposedly that impressive?
Hwido searched his memory.
Nothing.
No face. No name.
Then again, the only impressive student at that school had been Kim Hwido.
“So do you still keep in touch with him?”
“Sure. He’s at Mayeong High now. Pretty amazing, right? Came back as a teacher. The students love him.”
Yeongwon spoke brightly. She must have liked him a lot, if she was smiling like that first thing in the morning.
Hwido swallowed his irritation.
“If he’s that popular, why don’t I remember him? He get some work done?”
“No. He was popular from the start. You just wouldn’t know—you always sat in the back by the window looking like the world had ended.”
“……”
“You went to that school for over half a year, and you still have no friends, huh?”
His friendlessness—then and now—only made Yeongwon’s friendliness, her easy social life, her knowledge of her first love’s whereabouts…
all of it irritated him further.
“Good for you, Yoo Yeongwon. So social and all. You could’ve contacted me too then. I transferred schools, and you never reached out. Not once.”
Yeongwon cleared her throat and picked up her chopsticks again, offering no defense.
“Anyway, Kim Hwido. Rest today. Look around the village or something.”
“Why. Because I suck at the work?”
“Because I’m worried you’ll get lost.”
“……”
“And you’re sore, right? If you push yourself, you’ll get sick. I did too.”
Hwido thought her voice sounded oddly gentle.
And to be fair—
he was in pain.
Better to rest than wander around causing trouble.
He nodded and handed her his phone.
“What?”
“Put your number in. I’ll call if I get lost again.”
Yeongwon took the phone and entered her number without a word.
He pocketed it, then gathered the dishes and carried them to the sink, pulling on gloves.
Yeongwon glanced at him as he washed up. With his large frame bent awkwardly over the low sink, he looked almost pitiable.
She went to her room to grab a shirt and hat to block the sun, then stepped outside again.
Water was running in the bathroom—Hwido must’ve gone to wash up after finishing the dishes.
Right. He’s not a child. He’ll be fine on his own.
Yeongwon checked the time and headed out the gate.
She’d barely taken a few steps when her phone buzzed.
[It’s Kim Hwidoㅇ]
[Kim Hwido.]
[Not used to phones so typo.]
She chuckled at the stream of messages.
[Have a good time.]
A cool breeze blew from afar.
Yeongwon decided her good mood must be because of the wind.
