Nae Chingu (My Friends) Chapter Ten

Nae Chingu (My Friends)

Chapter Ten

I jerked awake as soon as my alarm went off. Of course, it was pressed to my face so the alarm was exceptionally loud in my right ear. I dismissed it quickly so I didn't wake the rest of the house and groggily sat up. I checked the time and remembered I'd set it for two hours earlier than my normal time which would explain why the sun wasn't even up yet. The previous day's events came at me in a rush and I remembered why I was waking up on Jong Hwa's couch rather than my own bed at home.

    "Aish," I moaned and stood up. I felt like I could have slept for another ten hours but I had things I needed to take care of. First of all, I needed my school uniform and my backpack. Second, I needed those transfer papers so I could turn them in. Then and only then, would I go to school so if I was going to get that all done in two hours, I would have to leave now.

I folded up the sheets and blankets and put the couch back to rights. I found some paper and a pen in the desk in the living room and I left a note; firstly thanking Jong Hwa's mom for letting me stay; and secondly telling Jong Hwa I'd see him at school. Satisfied with that, I retrieved my shoes from the foyer and left as quietly as I could.

It hadn't warmed up much over night and was still frigidly cold the next morning which left me holding my arms to try and provide warmth while in my jacketless state. I only had to walk about five or six blocks to reach a busy street and from there I could hail a taxi to get home. The only hard part would be hailing a driver willing to take me home and wait for me to get my wallet from my apartment to pay them.

It took three taxi driver's before I found one willing to take a chance on an American 18 year old. I think he mostly took pity on me since my teeth were chattering so badly while I explained my circumstances. The warmth of the taxi hadn't even abated all the chill from my limbs by the time we reached my apartment building.

    "I'll just be a minute," I told the taxi driver who nodded at me. "Ok, I"ll be right--" My phone went off.

I got out of the taxi and pulled my phone out of my pocket to discover it was Jong Hwa. "Yeobo--"

    "Where are you," He asked--demanded. Whoa! Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I entered the code to enter the building and pressed the up button for the elevator.

    "I'm just getting out of the taxi and heading upstairs," I told him not realizing this would upset him.

    "A taxi? Upstairs where? Your apartment," he asked.

Well, duh! "No, the Namsan Tower, of course my apart--"

    "Lily," he huffed out a breath. "Why didn't you wait? Or wake me up, we could have gone back together," his voice resumed it's normally calm state even though it sounded a little forced.

I stepped off the elevator on the ninth floor and felt glad that Jong Hwa had called me. As I neared the door, I realized I may have made a mistake in coming back this morning without him. "You're right, I should have," I told Jong Hwa as much. Now, because I hadn't thought ahead, I might have to face my father. Under normal circumstances he'd be at work by now but after last night, he may have opted to stay home. It was his last day, after all.

But then again, after having Jong Hwa hang up on him, it might not have been a good idea to bring him anyway so I gathered my confidence and entered the code for my apartment without hanging up with Jong Hwa.

    "Are you inside yet," he asked me. I heard some shuffling on his side of the call but didn't think about what it could have been as I pushed open my door and listened intently for any sound coming from inside.

    "Yeah, but I think it's empty," I muttered. It was true, the apartment was eerily silent so it was a safe bet that my father wasn't home. The farther I walked into the apartment the more sure I felt about it being empty. "No, he's gone. He must be at work," I heard Jong Hwa sigh in relief. Honestly, I did too. I told Jong Hwa I'd call him back once I was done paying for the taxi and hung up.

I went to wear my backpack lay on the floor in the living room and pulled out my wallet and the money I needed to pay for the taxi and quickly headed back downstairs. The taxi driver thanked me with a lot of enthusiasm and pulled away from the curb.

As per my promise, on the way back up I pulled out my phone again and called Jong Hwa back.

    "I'm sorry I left without telling you this morning, I just needed to grab things from my apartment and didn't want to wake you up," I said as soon as he picked up.

    "You still should have woken me up, what if your father had been home," he asked and I didn't have an answer for him so I simply let it drop.

    "Well I just need to grab my uniform and my back--" I stopped as soon as I opened my bedroom door.

    "What? What's wrong," Jong Hwa asked when my silence dragged on.

My father had been busy all night but not worrying about where I was. I looked around my room one more time and could barely believed my eyes. My father had packed all my belongings over night. Not one thing was left unpacked, even my bed frame had been disassembled.

    "Lily, are you ok?" Jong Hwa asked frantically into the phone.

    "Ah, um, yeah, I'm-I'm," I had a hard time stringing words together and I completely blanked on my Korean  "It's all packed," I finished in English.

    "Packed? What's all packed," he asked back in English.

    "My room, I cant--I don't know where all my stuff is," I started looking at the boxes to check for some sort of description of what each box contained but it was like my father wanted me to be confused and left each box completely blank.

    "Hang on, I'm just getting out of a taxi now," there was a muffled exchange before he was back. "I'm on my way up." And he hung up. It was only a few minutes before he was standing next to me looking into my room.

    "Well let's open them up and see what's what," Jong Hwa said nonchalantly.

    "Okay," I agreed and we started opening boxes.

    "What do you need," he asked me as he opened his third box.

    "I guess, I just need my school uniform for right now," and that's when I remembered the milk stain from yesterday's lunch debacle. "Scratch that, I need my gym uniform too."

    "Well your gym uniform is in this box but I didn't see your school uniform at all," he checked the boxes again and I did the same. My school uniform was nowhere to be found. Hmm, maybe I left it in the living room? I wouldn't normally leave it there but maybe I had.

Soon we'd checked the whole apartment, even the inside of my backpack and we couldn't find it. There was no where else it could be except--oh no.

    "Oh please, don't tell me it's--" was as far as I got before I opened the trash to check the inside. And there it was. sitting right on top of yesterday's dinner was my school uniform. Well, my skirt and Mae Ri's jacket, that is.

Jong Hwa was silent as I pulled it out of the trash but it was pretty clear it was unwearable, at least for today but possibly forever depending on how deep set the stains were. Suddenly my transfer didn't seem so bad, considering I wouldn't ever have to wear it after today. I let it slunk back into the trash and closed the lid.

    "Ya," Jong Hwa went back to get it but I stopped him.

    "I won't need it," I told him quietly as I walked back to my bedroom for the gym clothes. Luckily the gym clothes were a pair of red sweatpants and a black T-shirt that had the letters SFLHS stamped in red across the chest.

    "What do you mean you 'won't need it'," he asked as he followed me to the bedroom.

    "Remember when I said I had good news and bad news yesterday," I asked him and he nodded. God, it seemed like a millennium had passed since that conversation. "Well, I got accepted into the program.

    "Chugha*--"

    "But," I said, cutting off his congratulations. "I'm transferring to a different school started Monday."

And it was like watching a balloon deflate. In a matter of seconds, Jong Hwa's face went from smiling and happy to sad and down trodden.

   "Yeah, that's about how I feel too," I chuckled at his expression. "Now leave so I can change," I shooed him out and quickly changed from yesterday's clothes to my, thankfully, clean gym clothes. I often wished I could wear these every day rather than the skirted uniforms but the school had a policy about wearing your gym clothes on days when you don't have gym. Considering today was my last day at SFLHS, I didn't think it mattered too much.

As soon as I was done, I opened the door and found Jong Hwa standing in the living room looking...almost sick?

   "Hey, you ok," I asked him as I bent down to retrieve my backpack. I checked to make sure the transfer papers were still in there and they were. Thankfully my dad hadn't thought to throw away my back pack too but I think it being in the living room is the only thing that saved it from the trash bin.

    "Of course," he answered a little too strongly but I ignored it. It'd been a weird couple of days and everything was changing so fast that even I had a hard time swallowing it so I assumed he did too. Well, that and it was still incredibly early in the morning. I went back to my bedroom and packed another set of clothes so I could change after school and wouldn't have to keep walking around in these bright red pants--comfortable as they may be--and draw attention to myself.

    "Want to stop at the store before heading to school, I usually do but--"

    "Sure," he said.

I grabbed my coat this time and we headed out to the store. The usual ahjumma* behind the counter noted I was in earlier than I normally was and I told her I had some things to take care of at school. She rang up our purchases--canned coffee and a blueberry muffin we agreed to share together--and wished us well as we left the store. We ate while we sat on the bench waiting for the bus.

    "Have you told Mae Ri yet," Jong Hwa asked as he broke off a piece of the muffin.

    "Ani," I shook my head and broke off a piece for myself. "Haven't had the time and honestly, I don't see her taking the news well so I wanted to wait."

Jong Hwa chuckled, "No, neither do I." He broke of a piece just as I reached for my own. Instead of eating it, he just handed me the piece he'd taken. I was about to smile and thank him when my heart started to flutter again. No! I commanded it to stop and quickly looked away from him without thanking him and shoved the piece into my mouth.

We didn't talk for the rest of the time we waited for the bus and even on the bus, we didn't say anything more personal than deciding where we'd sit. We silently sipped out coffees and despite me not wanting my heart to keep fluttering, this non-talking thing was pretty comfortable. Jong Hwa himself was just comfortable. I don't know what it would feel like if he started dating Mae Ri but I promised myself I would do my best if they did. But then again, it wasn't like Mae Ri had shown any interest in Jong Hwa either so I guess it wouldn't be Mae Ri I'd have to worry about but some other nameless, faceless girl he dated. But at least I could openly not like that girl, unless of course she's was great. Even then, ugh, stop it Lily, just stop it, I thought to myself. If and when Jong Hwa started dating, just give him well wishes and leave it at that, I chided myself.

Or you could tell him how you feel, I thought. I swished the option around in my head but eventually decided against it. First, for the sake of the friends I shouldn't say anything. What if things got complicated or weird? I wouldn't want to be responsible for that. Secondly, not having Jong Hwa in my life was scary and if I made things weird, I would definitely lose him.

My inner ramblings took me all the way to school. Jong Hwa and I got off the bus and meandered our way to the front doors.

    "Hey, I gotta head to the office, I'll see you in class ok?" I told him. He nodded and left.

I headed of towards the office and dismissed the weird look the front desk lady gave me. It wasn't very often you saw a student come into the main office this early in the morning and certainly not wearing gym clothes so I understood the look. I sat in the admissions office and waited for Ms. Choi to come back to her desk. She must have been in a meeting because it was more than twenty minutes before she returned.

    "I have transfer papers I need stamped and faxed over to," I pointed at the number Chan Min had written on the bottom. "That number," I handed the papers to her for her to look at.

    "Transfer," she asked questioningly as she looked over the documents. "To this school," she looked up at me like it was a prank.

I understood that Seoul Foreign Language High School was very prestigious, granted not the most prestigious school in Seoul but high enough that any transfer to a lower school would be considered a serious downgrade in social status and here I was asking to be transferred willingly.

    "Ne, Seonsaengnim," I nodded and pursed my lips. After the night I'd had and this morning, I found I was very low on patience. Also, I didn't want to transfer so having someone question my transfer as if I was being ridiculous made me feel very irritable.

    "Geurae," she said and if it would have been politely acceptable for her to raise her nose at me, I think she would have. I sighed and proceeded to pick at nothing on my pants to pass the time.

Almost fifteen full minutes later she got up and made copies of the documents and assumingly faxed it over to Chan Min at the ESE before handing me back my own set of copies.

    "As of Monday morning you will no longer be a student here at Seoul Foreign Language High School and will be an attendee at Gyoyug Gudeunghaggyo. Understood?" She asked in a clipped tone.

I envisioned punching her in the face, "Understood." I got up and gave her a halfhearted bow before leaving the main office.

What a--I can't believe--ugh, as if I wanted to leave! I thought this angrily to myself even though I wanted to say it out loud.

The next thing I did was go to my locker to pull out my textbooks. Since the school provided the textbooks to us, we had to return them at the end of the year. In this situation, I supposed I needed to hand them over today. It was only after I grudgingly handed over my textbooks that I headed to class.

I still managed to get there before Mae Ri did, which really was a shocker given the fact that I was much later to class than I normally was. Ji Soo was there, however and he was huddled in close with Jong Hwa.

    "Morning, Ji Soo," I said before setting my backpack on my desk and sitting down.

    "Oh, ah, morning, ah, Lily," Ji Soo really sucked at keeping things hidden. I mean really, really sucked at it.

    "Might as well spill it, you two, unless you want Mae Ri to find out when she gets here--"

    "Mae Ri is already here," Mae Ri said from the doorway and we all turned to look guiltily at her. "What's going on," she asked suspiciously.

    "Exactly what I'd like to know," I said and turned back to the two boys. The few students who were already sitting in the room stayed quiet and just watched us.

    "Ah," Ji Soo looked completely at a loss. It was actually quite comical watching him try and come up with a satisfactory lie.

    "What's up is that you didn't answer your phone last night," Jong Hwa quickly covered their tracks.

    "Yeah, where were you when Lily needed you," Ji Soo chimed in and Jong Hwa elbowed him hard.

    "What're you trying to do," Jong Hwa muttered to Ji Soo who shrugged and looked panicky. "Well shut up. Stop helping me," Jong Hwa instructed Ji Soo who quickly pulled his furry winter hat down to hide his face.

    "Ji Soo," I dragged out the 'o' and caused him to jump up guiltily.

    "It's class time," he announced and started walking towards the opposite door, the one that Mae Ri wasn't standing by but because of the lowered hat, he tripped over the leg of a desk and almost crashed to the floor before catching himself and continuing on out of the room.

At that point, I could no longer contain my laughter and buried my face in my backpack to attempt to contain the sound.

    "Lee Ji Soo!" Mae Ri called and ran out of the door to follow him.

When I had finally composed myself enough to lift my head, I caught Jong Hwa staring at me. "What? Am I not allowed to laugh?"

    "I've just never seen you do it so openly," he glanced around the room. "Usually you're just more...reserved, I guess."

It was true. Normally I did everything I could not to stand out and laughing loudly in the middle of the classroom did seem a little out of character for me, even I had to admit that. The thought sobered me a little bit.

    "No, don't," Jong Hwa shook his head vigorously. "I mean, it was nice to see you laugh like that."

Bah-bump. There went my heart again and I looked away from his eyes. I pasted a smile on my face, "I wonder what Mae Ri is doing to Ji Soo right now."

    "Probably beating him--"

    "Lily Smith!" Mae Ri shrieked and everyone looked at her. She had tears in her eyes and her face was blotchy. Oh no...oh no...

    "Ji Soo can't keep a damn secret," I said in English and quickly got up to try and waylay the tears. At least now I knew what Jong Hwa and Ji Soo had been talking about earlier. Jong Hwa must have told him about my transfer, wait...Jong Hwa wouldn't have told him about my dad too, would he?

I stopped halfway to Mae Ri and looked back at Jong Hwa, "Dd you tell Ji Soo...about my dad?" I censored myself enough to not announce to the whole class that I'd been slapped. I'd taken a glimpse of my face this morning and knew whatever mark had been visible last night was gone but--

    "I-yes," he admitted and did truly look guilty but I had Mae Ri to contend with so Jong Hwa would have to come later. Question was, how much did Mae Ri know?

I turned back to Mae Ri and pushed her out into the hallway which I soon realized gave us no privacy as students were swarming to their classrooms. I did, however, see Ji Soo standing outside his classroom looking just as guilty as Jong Hwa did. I shot daggers in his direction and tried to think of a place to have this conversation with Mae Ri. Well, I hoped she liked rooftop stairwells because that would probably be the only quiet place at this time of the day.

I held onto her wrist and pushed my way through the throng of students and towards the back stairs. It took a few minutes but Mae Ri was able to contain herself long enough to get there before completely breaking down into tears.

Ok, now to find out what she knew...

    "Why are you crying," I asked. There, I thought, that was a good question to lead off with.

    "I'm sorry," she blubbered.

Ok, that was of no help...

    "Sorry for..?" I probed.

    "My dad took my phone last night and I tried to tell him I was waiting for an important call but he wouldn't listen and then I never got it back," she kept crying and normally, her being emotional didn't bother me--she was just an emotional person but right now, I needed answers and fast because class was going to start relatively soon and we needed to get back.

    "Did Ji Soo tell you about my dad," I asked her tentatively while trying to wipe her face off with my shirt.

The seemed to snap her out of her reverie and she eagerly started touching my cheeks. "Which one was it," she asked and inspected them both thoroughly. "Was is this one," she asked while looking at my right side.

Ok, now we were getting somewhere.

    "Ji Soo told you my dad slapped me," it as more of a statement than a question.

    "Of course, what else would he tell me," she asked shrilly as she continued to touch my face.

Well, wasn't this going to be pleasant, I thought. I grasped her hands and held them in her lap. "Mae Ri-ya," I said calmly. "I have more to tell you but you need to stay calm, can you do that?"

    "No need to talk to me like a child, Lily," she pulled her hands out of mine and crossed her arms.

I laughed at her pose and it seemed to break the tension and she calmed down. I let her wipe her face and pull herself together. "You ok now," I asked when she was done.

    "Yeah, sorry, I just--I'm sorry I wasn't there for you," she grumbled.

    "Don't worry about it because you can be here for me now," I said. "I got accepted into the program but--" That was all I got out before she pulled me into a hug and squeezed  the air out of me.

    "Omo, omo, omo," she kept hugging me and I kept trying to pull away.

    "Mae Ri-ya," I said loudly and she finally released me. She pulled back far enough to see my face.

    "What," she asked cluelessly.

    "I got accepted but," I took a deep breath. She was on such an emotional rollercoaster now, God, how would she react when the real news came? "I have to transfer schools. Today's my last day at SFLHS."

One, I counted.

Two.

    "Mwo!" She shrieked.

***

Needless to say we were late to class and Mae Ri had another round of crying under her belt this morning. The front of my shirt looked like a wet paper towel. I cringed to even think about  how much snot had made it onto my shirt. We each paid the class fine for tardiness and sat down at our desks. It was pretty obvious that Mae Ri had been crying so it garnered us many curious looks but luckily no snickers. Jong Hwa tried to get my attention before we sat down but I promptly ignored him.

My plan had been completely dashed by him. I was going to wait until after school to tell Mae Ri, when there would be no one staring or curious questions about what had happened between Mae Ri and I. Instead, I sat at the beginning of the school day with tears and most likely a ton of snot on my only good school clothing with a sniffling, inconsolable Mae Ri on my hands.

Wait til lunch, Kim Jong Hwa, I thought as I glared at the side of his face. Just you wait...

***

As soon as Mr. Gu dismissed the class for lunch, I was up and out of my seat as soon as was possible. I bowed to Mr. Gu and headed straight towards the hallway that lead to Ji Soo's class with Mae Ri and Jong Hwa following close behind. As soon as Ji Soo came out of his classroom I hauled him by the earlobe over to where Jong Hwa was standing looking astonished at my actions. I let Ji Soo go and grabbed a hold of Jong Hwa's earlobe and pulled down sharply which caused him to wince.

    "You two," I used my best scolding voice. "You," I pointed at Ji Soo. "Learn how to hide a secret," I pointed at Jong Hwa next. "You, learn how to keep them to yourself."

    "Isn't that the same--" Ji Soo started to question but I cut him off with a glare.

    "Alayo," they both said in unison.

    "Good, now can we spend two seconds being happy that I got accepted," I asked shrilly and I think I caught them all by surprise.

    "De,"all three of them said and we shared a group hug.

***

After that, it was just a regular day at school. What came after would come but for the moment, everything was ok.

    "When do you move in," Ji Soo asked while we ate our lunch.

    "Chan Min-ssi said I should meet him at the dormitory on Sunday and he'd get me settled," I answered around the rice in my mouth.

    "What time does your dad leave," Jong Hwa asked hesitantly.

    "Um," I ignored the pain in my chest at the thought of saying goodbye to my dad on such terrible terms. "Tomorrow afternoon, I think," I never actually saw the plane ticket.

    "Where are you going to stay Saturday night," Mae Ri asked me.

    "Probably just the apartment," I contemplated the logistics. I'd have to carry a bux on the city bus to get to the dormitories but the buses weren't really busy on Sundays so I didn't think it'd be a problem. I never did take a look at the list but I supposed I could take a look at it tonight when I got home.

    "Stay at my place. I can have my dad take us over in the morning," Mae Ri suggested, which would certainly take care of the traveling inconveniences but I couldn't impose on her father until after she asked him.

    "Well ask him first," I told her and she pulled out her phone to shoot him a quick text. He never really minded when I stayed over and we normally had a good time with her parents. They wold tell me about their history and culture--in fact, most of what I learned about Korea came from her parents.

    "What are you going to do about tonight," Jong Hwa asked me while he picked at his food.

    "I don't know, talk to my dad, I suppose," it wasn't something I was looking forward too. Odds were he hadn't calmed down over night.

    "Not alone," Jong Hwa piped in.

    "I doubt he'd," I looked down at my own plate, ashamed that I even needed to feel fearful of my own father. "I doubt he'd do it again."

    "Still," Ji Soo said.

    "We'll all go with you," Mae Ri added.

And that's how I found myself at my apartment with my three friends behind me trying to build up the courage to enter the code.

    "Want me to do it," Mae Ri asked and pushed herself to my side.

    "Ani," I took a deep breath and entered the code.

Beep.

Ok, that was weird. I'd entered the same code for nearly four years, how could I have gotten it wrong this time? I tried again.

Beep.

    "What the--"

    "Let me do it," Mae Ri scooted in front of me and entered the code.

Beep.

    "Did you guys change it," she asked me.

    "Ani," I answered absentmindedly while I thought of the different scenarios for why the door wouldn't open but only one made any sense. My dad must have changed it. Between this morning and now, which meant, he was probably looking at the door screen and laughing at me at this exact moment.

    "Dad," I pressed the doorbell and waited for him to answer it. "Dad," I called again and knocked on the door this time. It opened a few seconds later.

    "You're home," he said quietly as he stood in the doorway. "And you brought your friends."

    "Yeah, we were going to," lie, I told myself. Lie. Lie. Lie. "Work on homework together," I finished.

    "So you're still planning on staying in Korea," he asked. I looked back at my friends, Mae Ri had sidled back behind Ji Soo who, I could see, put up a protective hand in front of Mae Ri. Luckily I was standing in front of him and my father couldn't see it. It would probably make him angrier to know my friends were afraid of him as well.

    "Dad, we should talk about--"

    "Yes or no, Lily," he asked in the same quiet voice.

    "I'm staying," I said after a moment of pause. Nothing good was going to come after this moment.

    "Then this is goodbye," he said and started to shut the door.

    "Dad, wait," I grabbed the door jamb and prayed he didn't close the door on it.

    "Lily." Jong Hwa grabbed my arm to pull me away but I jerked away from him.

    "Dad, let's talk," I pleaded.

    "I have nothing to say to you," he said harshly.

    "Ok fine, but what about my stuff--"

    "You mean the stuff you bought with my money," he sounded almost normal then, like he was really asking me a question. "It's coming with me. I bought it, I'm keeping it."

    "But, Dad--"

    "Move your hand before I close the door on it," without waiting for me to reply he went to close the door and if it hadn't been for Jong Hwa pulling me back at the last moment, I really think my father would have slammed the door on my hand. Before I knew it, I was staring at a closed door.

To Be Continued...

***

*Chugha-: "Chughahamnida" or "Chughahaeyo" means Congratulations

*Ahjumma: is a term used for older ladies. Basically it's the "Mrs." or Senora to the younger term "Ms." or "Senorita--or as the Koreans would say "Ahgasshi" which literally means "Young lady"