Nae Chingu (My Friends) Chapter Fifteen

Nae Chingu (My Friends)

Chapter Fifteen

Chan Min insisted on buying my uniform himself rather than letting me use what little allowance I was afforded on the uniform. I had to admit, I was grateful because the price of the uniform would have eaten all but a few won from my allowance and I would have been stuck with nothing until next month. That’s if I couldn’t find a job first, I told myself. I still held hope that someone would hire me but I needed to keep looking. Chan Min wanted to take me around to buy more stuff but I insisted that I needed to get back to the dorms and he reluctantly drove me back.

    “If you need anything, you will call me,” Chan Min said sternly which, admittedly, wasn’t very frightening, what with his glasses being slightly askew, but I gave him kudos for trying. The glasses reminded me of Jong Hwa and I idly wondered what he was doing. Had he left Ji Soo's house yet and gone home? Not for the first time I wished my father hadn't turned my phone off. Had it been on, I don't know if I would have called Jong Hwa but I knew that I wanted too.

I had been mean this morning by not leaving him a note or saying goodbye in person. At the time it had seemed like a good idea, a clean split if you will, after the last two terrible days but now I was only filled with regret. So much regret, I thought, as it settled like a lump in my throat.

    "Lily," Chan Min said my name questioningly and I was pulled back to reality. "Are you okay?"

    “Of course,” I said even though I knew it was a blatant lie. I had asked for help today because it was a matter of survival and I would most likely ask for help again under the same condition but as far as letting anyone get close to me any more, well...let's just say my father had killed that dream for me. 

He said goodbye and I waited until he’d driven out of sight before I headed down the street in the opposite direction than I’d taken earlier. I’d seen my options on the east side of the dorms but now I needed to scope the west side. As long as it was within walking distance, I would pretty much accept any job at this point, that’s how desperate I was. I was also hoping I could find a cellular store down this way as well.

It was only after two hours of searching that I realized how dismal my options truly were. I found a delivery place that was hiring but nothing else. I hadn't taken note of the neighborhood when I first arrived but now I had time to observe my surrounding streets and it was pretty. I assumed that when my mother talked about growing up in the 'ghetto' of Minnesota that it looked a lot like this. Of course, my idea of a ghetto was far different considering I'd had most of my education in Germany and there, well, history had a different description of the word.

The neighborhood looked like it was borderline impoverish with buildings that looked bleak and dirty. It bustled with the movement of people but there was a lot of idle people-watching from some very sketchy looking characters. Of course it was Sunday so most people didn't have to be at work so that might account for the lack of purpose in most people's movement but it still had made me uncomfortable. At least on the east side of town it hadn't been so bad or so...creepy. I was really questioning whether I wanted that delivery job or not.

I walked back towards the dorms and by now it was already well past sundown and I was almost sure I had missed dinner so I stopped at a nearby gas station to pick up a couple snacks. I hadn’t noticed how hungry I was until I bit into the red bean bun I bought. Normally I wasn’t a huge fan of red beans but it tasted delicious today and it was gone within seconds. I took out my list of priorities and crossed off the few I’d been able to get today and decided I would run past the two places that were hiring tomorrow to see if one of them would give me a job. Of course, that would be after school, I sighed. I may not have switched countries this time but once again I was starting at a new school and dreaded it just the same.

I walked back to the dorms and bypassed everyone in lieu of getting to my room as soon as possible. I opened the door to my room and noticed it was empty, which I silently thanked the Gods for. I took the alone time to change back into my gym clothes and wrapped my jeans into my t-shirt and threw it on top of my bunk as a makeshift pillow since I denied the bed sheets Chan Min had suggested buying earlier. I put my jacket back on and carefully climbed the shaky stepladder in my slippers and curled up for the night.

I hadn’t realized I was asleep until I was woken up by the whispered mutterings of my roommate.

    “No, it’s weird. She doesn’t even have a blanket. She has her backpack and as far as I can see, that’s it,” Emily loudly whispered into her cellphone. She waited to hear the reply from whoever she was talking to on the other side of the line. “No, I didn’t ask her, why would I?” More silence, “Who cares?”

    “I can hear you, you know,” I muttered.

    “Look Jaina, I gotta go,” she said and hung up. “I thought you were sleeping.”

    “Kind of hard with you yapping away,” I said and was totally okay with how rude I sounded.

    “Excuse me,” she sounded affronted.

    “I don’t care if you talk about me, but at least have the decency to leave the room first,” I told her.

    “Whatever,” she responded and all I could do was roll my eyes. Yeah, because that was a staggeringly good response, I thought. It was hard to fall asleep after that but eventually, after Emily went to bed herself, I was finally able to sleep.

***

I felt like I’d only been asleep for a few minutes when Emily’s alarm went off in the morning and she grumbled as she descended to the ground level. She opened her small closet door and took out what looked to be a basket and left the room. Figuring she was going to shower, I took the time to descend and change into the uniform. I had to admit, these uniforms were much better than my old ones because at least they weren't tan. They were dark blue with a white border on the lapels. SFLHS hadn't required a tie or bow for the girls but this school did and because I hated the idea of something around my neck, I opted for a loose fitting tie style rather than a bow. The skirt hung a little longer on the legs and was pleated. The only bad part was I no longer had any nylons to go with the uniform so instead I had to bare-leg it. I mentally added nylons to my list of priorities. I checked my watch and realize I still had a little over an hour before the bus would be downstairs to pick us all up.

I  used that time to get breakfast and found it mostly empty of people. There were a few people sitting at one of the tables but I paid them no attention as I picked up a tray. The buffet offered things like eggs, bacon, and limpy looking pancakes, all of which I ignored in lieu of oatmeal and an apple. I snagged a small carton of orange juice and situated myself at the back of the cafeteria and away from everyone else.

I was about halfway through my oatmeal when a tray clattered to the table in front of me and I was broken out of my peaceful reverie. I glanced up only to find Brian sitting down in front of me.

    “Morning, Newbie,” he smiled and I barely refrained from cringing. I could see it now, by the end of the day everyone would be calling me Newbie. “Why are you sitting over here,” he asked me.

Because I’d like to be alone, I thought but said “No reason.”

    “You aren’t one of those girls are you,” he asked me with a cocked eyebrow as he stuffed a whole piece of bacon into his mouth.

    “’Those’ girls?” I regretted the question as soon as it was out of my mouth.

    “You know, loner types, the mysterious girl that everyone wonders about,” he wiggled his fingers when he said ‘mysterious’ and I couldn’t hold back my annoyance.

    “You mean the type that like to be left alone,” I asked.

    “Is he bothering you,” a newcomer asked and I looked over Brian’s shoulder to see Derek coming up from the buffet line.

This morning just got better and better, I thought bleakly to myself.

    “Nah, just getting to know the Newbie,” Brian said between bites of pancake and bacon.

    “Don’t call her that,” Derek scolded lightly.

    “Thank you,” I said in his direction and went back to eating. Aside from getting up and walking away from these two and leaving the cafeteria entirely, I wasn’t going to be able to avoid the stares that were already being directed my way from the other table of students so I might as well ride it out until I was done eating. Just because they were sitting here didn’t mean I had to talk, I told myself.

    “You ready for your first day,” Derek asked me while he started eating his own plate of food.

Of course, if I was asked a direct question, it would only be rude of me not to answer and even though I didn’t want to interact with these people, I didn’t want to be overtly rude either so I answered his question, “Sure.”

    “You don’t sound all that excited,” Brian commented.

    “It’s not my first time at a new school, or my second, or third for that matter. The excitement tends to lessen as times goes on,” I responded blandly and spooned the last bit of oatmeal into my mouth.

    “Yeah but you’re in a different country, doesn’t that make you nervous,” Derek asked.

    “Like I said yesterday,” I stood up, prepared to take my leave. “I’ve been living in Korea for three years. I think my first day will be infinitely less nerve-wracking than yours was,” out of habit I nodded my head in their direction and left the table. I’ll finish my apple in the commons area, I decided.

No one bothered me after that and I was able to board the bus in peace, except for the background noise. I would have given anything to have my iPod at the moment just to—wait a minute, I thought. I desperately grabbed at my backpack and opened the small pocket on the side. I wanted to cry as soon as I saw the white cord of the headphones, it was the best thing that had happened to me in as many days. I pulled out the iPod and slipped the ear buds in my ears. The sound of VIXX in my ears almost brought another wave of tears, I could drown everyone out now, or at least until my battery died, I remembered. My iPod cord had been plugged into my laptop back at the apartment which had assumingly been packed up and sent back to the States with my father. Well, that was great, I thought. I’d just have to pick up another one.

The bus ride was short, thankfully, and I was halfway to the front entrance when someone grabbed my elbow and swung me around hard enough to dislodge the earbuds from my ears and I took a quick step back from whoever had done it.

    “Don’t,” I said loudly enough for the people near me to look in my direction. Derek was standing opposite of me looking confused. “Don’t ever touch me again.”

    “I’m-I’m sorry, I just—“ he lowered his hand and did truly look sorry. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I needed to tell you that you need to go to the Administration’s Office before you come to class. I forgot to tell you that yesterday,” he finished lamely.

    “Thank you,” I said tensely and walked away from him and towards the entrance.

Unlike the first time I transferred to a Korean school, I no longer had problems reading the placards and found the Admin’s office fairly quickly. The woman registered my file, took a photo for my student I.D., walked me to the library to pick up my required text books and escorted me to class. When she knocked on the door, I prepared to give another introductory speech, one that would be better than my last attempt.

    “Students, this is our new student, Ms. Lily Smith,” The teacher said in perfect English despite her relatively thick accent. “Lily, won’t don’t you tell us a little about yourself.”

Here goes nothing, I thought. “Annyeonghaseyo Yeoreobun, Jeoneun Ril-Li-imnida,” I spoke the rest of my introduction in Korean and watched as the faces changed from idly curiosity to amazement as I spoke in clear and concise Korean. "I moved to Korea almost four years ago. I transferred here from Seoul Foreign Language High School and my only goal is to finish high school in Korea without incident. Thank you."

    The teacher let out a nervous chuckle, "Well, that is impressive, Lily but," she awkwardly patted my shoulder. "You might you want repeat that all in English. This classroom is English oriented so Korean is rarely used and only during the Korean teaching lesson."

Oh. I refrained from sighing and repeated everything I'd said in English. Here I'd been thinking I could avoid any awkwardness and not only had I just walked into an already awkward situation but then I'd compiled it by trying to avoid it. After I'd finished, the teacher ushered me to a desk that was near the back and effectively moved on with her lesson plan. 

For the first time since I’d left Ji Soo’s yesterday, I missed my friends. I could picture Mae Ri, clear as day, sitting in front of me twisting the end of her hair around her finger as she listened to the teacher talk. I could only imagine what her outfit looked like today. Ji Soo would be sitting in his classroom by now doing only God knew what. And Jong Hwa…if I closed my eyes, I could see him sitting at his desk looking intently at the teacher and taking in every word that the teacher spoke. Every once in a awhile he’d look down to hash out a few notes but then he’d be back to focusing on the teacher.

I didn’t notice I wasn’t paying attention until everyone began pulling out books from their backpacks and I had no idea what the teacher had said. I paid attention from that moment on and didn’t think about my friends after that. They were off doing their own thing at their own school and I was here and I couldn’t afford to waste time not paying attention, not when my entire livelihood was riding on my academic success.

***

The morning classes breezed by and I was happy to find out that my expensive education at SFLHS had paid off. We had been much farther ahead and although I felt like my final semester of high school would be a breeze, I didn’t want to get too cocky and let down my guard.

When the class was dismissed for lunch, I opted to head somewhere quiet rather than face my peer’s scrutiny. It seemed I wasn’t so lucky when Brian stopped me in the hallway, standing next to him was Derek and another girl I hadn’t met yet. She looked at me curiously. She had short brown hair that some how managed to be messy and cute at the same time. She looked rather small standing next to Brian and only reached about shoulder height. I hadn’t seen her around the dorm but then again, I hadn’t seen much of anyone really.

    “Newbie, the lunch room is over here,” he called after me when I’d gone in the opposite direction.

    “I wasn’t planning on going to the lunch room,” I said as I turned around.

    “Why not,” Derek asked, looking concerned.

    “I was attempting to be ‘mysterious’,” I put emphasis on the word and looked pointedly at Brian. There was a moments silence before Brian’s loud guffaw echoed down the hall.

    “Touché, touché,” he nodded as he said it. “Well you’re welcome to join us if you feel like not being mysterious.”

    “Duly noted,” I said.

    “You’re not even going to introduce us,” the girl said from in between the two boys. “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” She took a few steps forward and very boldly stuck her hand out for a handshake, “I’m Annabeth and you must be the new kid on the block.”

I debated weather to take her hand and opted for not being completely rude so I took it and introduced myself, “What tipped you off?”

She laughed openly,“That was quite an impressive speech you gave earlier, not that I understood a word of of the first part, mind you.” She smiled sweetly at me and let go of my hand. “You must have picked up Korean really quickly."

    “Well, like I said, I’ve been living in Korea for three years, kind of had to learn it to survive.” I informed her. She didn’t seem so bad, I thought.

    “Really,” She sounded impressed and looked back at the two boys. “Looks like I found my new language tutor,” she looked back at me and sidled up next to me. “I struggle over the littlest pronunciations but you obviously have them down pat,” she hooked her arm with mine and started walking towards the lunch room and I had no choice but to go with her. I glanced at the boys after we walked past them, hoping they’d offer me some assistance but Brian simply waved at me and Derek looked like it was better me than him.

    “Careful, she’s sneaky,” Brian whispered at me as Annabeth kept prattling on about the Korean language.

Needless to stay I spent the entire lunch period sitting next to Annabeth as she talked at me about everything she experienced since coming to Korea. Rather than finding her annoying, I found her to be a pleasant distraction from missing my friends. In between her ramblings, I tried to imagine what my friends would be doing right now. I’m sure Mae Ri was doing her own bit of rambling to Ji Soo and Jong Hwa about what Kdrama she’d seen the night before and Ji Soo and Jong Hwa would make noncommittal comments just to appease her. I smiled at the thought.

    “What,” Annabeth asked innocently.

    “It’s nothing, keep going,” I told her and she happily complied.

When lunch was over, Annabeth and I walked back to the classroom arm-in-arm which I assumed she did because she knew I'd just as soon as walk away from her than stay glued to her side as I currently was. However, her luck ran out as soon as we hit the classroom because my desk was clear across the room from hers. I disengaged from her arm as soon as I was able and took refuge at my desk until the teacher announced the start of class.

***

I had learned from my previous experiences at every school I had ever attended that there were several universal truths and one of them was this: when the school bell rang, the students all vacated their desk as soon as it was possible. It didn't matter if it was Spain, Germany or Korea, every student wanted out of the confines of school as soon as they could. I was no different, except that when the school bell rang, my first order of business wasn't to get up and leave the classroom, it was to immediately put headphones in my ears to avoid the awkward after-school-chatter. Back at SFLHS, it wasn't never an issue because I'd been with Jong Hwa, Mae Ri and Ji Soo but here was a totally different circumstance.

With the sound of Infinite's "Before the Dawn" playing in my ears, I packed up my backpack and left for the bus that would take me back to the dorms. I needed to run by the delivery place that was hiring as well as the gentleman's after hours club; I hoped one of them hired me otherwise I'd have to go farther than a mile out to find a job and that would be a lot of walking since I didn't want to use whatever money I had left stored on my bus card on anything that wasn't borderline emergent.

I didn't notice that Derek had been trying to catch my attention until he jumped in front of me. Annoyed, I pulled out my earbuds, "What?"

    "Sorry, it's just that you, um, told me not to touch you this morning and I didn't want to make you angry so," he stopped midsentence.

    "Okay," I dragged out the word indicating I was waiting for him to continue.

    "Well, we have an after school study hall, um, I was--we were wondering if you wanted to join," he asked and ran a hand through his hair. The gesture reminded me of Jong Hwa because it was his usual habit and I unconsciously softened my tone for what I said next.

    "Thank you for the offer, really, I can't," I said. "It's just that I've got these errands that absolutely need to be taken care of today. Rain check?"

    "Sure, yeah, sure," he smiled widely and nodded. "We meet Mondays and Wednesdays, just, you know, so you know," he finished.

    "Great, um, count me in," I cringed inwardly. The words had left my mouth before I could think to change them and now it was too late. Crap!

    "Awesome," he said and walked away.

 Double crap! Ugh, did I really just join a study hall group, I asked myself. Yep, I nodded, sure did.  I decided to blame Jong Hwa and his endearing mannerism. I sighed and logged it as a problem for another day.

***
Nearly two hours later, I walked out of the gentleman's club feeling like I'd finally won the lottery but only to find out that it was only for $20. The delivery place required a mode of transportation so I couldn't even apply but the gentleman's club had no such requirements. In fact, I left the building with the job but the only problem was--I had very little time to work with. The manager hired me with the understanding that I could work whenever I wanted during the day as long as I got the job done by the start of the business night. In order to do that, I'd have to work at the wee-hours of predawn since I'd be in school all day. My only saving grace was that the club was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. That meant Wednesday through Friday I'd have to wake up around three in the morning just to clean the whole building by the time I needed to be back at the dorms to catch the bus to school.

My inner child wanted to sit on the floor and complain except I couldn't and it wouldn't help me even if I did. So instead, I walked back to my dorm and all the while making a schedule in my head. I hadn't been paying attention to anything around me until I hit the common room and heard my name shouted clear across the room.

I looked up to see the source of the voice and was nearly floored when I saw Mae Ri jump off one of the couches and come towards me. Actually, I was pretty sure my mouth had been hanging open because when Mae Ri swung her arms over my shoulders in a tight hug, her shoulder gentle nudged my mouth close. As if seeing Mae Ri wasn't astonishing enough, watching as my other two friends stroll over at a much slower pace had me looking around the room in confusion just to make sure I was, in fact, actually at my dorms.

    "Mae Ri-ya," I gentle hugged her back.

    "Bogoshipeo*," she whined into my ear and pulled back. "Jeongmal*!"

    "Na du*," Ji Soo said once he'd gotten closer and he reached out and squeezed my shoulder in true Ji Soo fashion.

I looked at Jong Hwa who nodded and quietly whispered a "Na du" as well. I couldn't take my eyes off of him, I couldn't believe he was actually standing in front of me, especially in a place as foreign as this. It had only been a day since I'd last seen him but it had felt much longer. My fingers itched to touch him but I refrained, mostly because I knew everyone else in the room was watching the four of us. I could almost feel their beady little eyes staring and it was enough for me to be very conscious of my actions.

    "Yeo-yeogiseo*?" Even though I had been speaking Korean much longer than I'd been speaking English, I still had to consciously switch back to Korean after speaking in English for 99% of my day.  "Wae*?"

This obviously had not been what Mae Ri was waiting to hear because she looked at the boys questioningly before looking back at me and said in a much less excited voice, "We missed you and wanted to see how your first day went."

    "Oh, it was-it was fine," I said and nodded somewhat encouragingly but it was clear that I'd made a mistake just by the look on their faces. "What?"

    "'It was fine'," Ji Soo repeated. "That's all you can say about it?" I think he tried to make it funny except it wasn't funny to me. In fact, this whole situation was incredibly uncomfortable which was something new for me--for us, even. I'd never been uncomfortable with them but I was completely caught off guard.

    "Well, what do you want me to say Ji Soo? It was exactly like every other first day of school I've ever experienced," I said, maybe a little too coldly because his half-smile was completely wiped off his face after I was finished talking.

    "Hey, Lily," Brian walked up to my group and nudged me on the shoulder. "Who are these guys?"

Your timing couldn't be worse, I silently shouted at him. Ugh, I so didn't need this right now. "They are my friends from Seoul Foreign Language High School, my old school," I said after a moment. "Jong Hwa, Ji Soo, and Mae Ri." I pointed to each person individually and if Brian was smart he would see the tension that was etched on all of our faces and walk away.

He wasn't smart. He smiled and said "Nice to meet you" instead. If enunciating each word loudly as if my friends were deaf wasn't bad enough, he stuck his hand out for a handshake to top it off. First off, every Korean was taught basics of English and second, shaking hands was a very western custom and although Jong Hwa shook Brian's hand out of sheer politeness, Ji Soo wasn't feeling as generous. Actually, Ji Soo just stared at it as if the very act of touching it would give him AIDs and an already awkward situation just got more awkward. Wonderful.

    "I'm sorry, Ji Soo is moody, don't take it personally," I said to Brian which earned me a surprised looked from Ji Soo at the sound of me using his name.

    "What did you tell him," Ji Soo asked quickly. When I didn't answer, he looked at Jong Hwa, "What did she say?"

Jong Hwa and I just looked at each other and just like that the tension eased. We laughed freely at Ji Soo's expense. I didn't bother to explain the situation to either Brian of Mae Ri or even fill Ji Soo in on what I'd said.

    "Sorry," I said and wiped a humor-induced tear out of my eye. "They're my friends," I reiterated to Brian just as Derek came walking up to the group. We were creating quite a stir in the common area since no one had even bothered to hide the fact that they were all staring.

    "What's goin' on over here," Derek asked with a smile as he mosied up closely next to me but with Brian on my other side, I couldn't move and had to remain wedged between the two.

    "Lily here was just introducing me to her friends," Brian informed him.

    "Oh, it's nice to meet you," Derek also held his hand for a handshake although I had to give him kudos for not raising his voice like Brian had. Jong Hwa once again shook hands but did so out of politeness, I assumed. When Derek moved to shake hands with Ji Soo, Brian slapped his hand away.

    "Don't bother with that one," he said.

I looked at Jong Hwa and we both looked at Ji Soo at the same time before breaking out into fits of laughter again.

    "Ya! What did he say," Ji Soo asked indignantly while gripped Jong Hwa's shoulder to try and shake an answer out of him.

***

It was nearing the time for the last bus when I finally said good bye to my friends. I had showed them around my dormitory but I managed to steer them clear of my room. Mae Ri had asked repeatedly to see my room but I'd always been able to distract her with something else. The last thing I needed was for them to look at the room and realize I didn't even have bed sheets, not to mention that having my friends meet the venomous Emily would only end in disaster.

I was walking them to the front of the building when Mae Ri exclaimed loudly, "Oh, I almost forgot!"

    "What," I asked as we walked through the door that separated the dormitories from the main entrance.

    "Let me see your phone," she held out her hand as if me giving her my phone was a sure thing.

Which it was, I thought to myself as I reached for my phone automatically. I didn't even know why I still had the thing considering it didn't actually work outside of a zone with wifi but I handed it to her nonetheless.

    "You have wifi here right," she asked me while clicking on the touch screen.

    "Yeah," I said as I peeked to see what she was doing.

    "I know your phone is turned off, but," she left the rest of her sentence dangle and she waited for something to download.

    "Mae Ri what are you putting on my phone," I reached to pull it out of her hands but she stepped back quickly out of reach. "Ya, Mae Ri-ya," I warned.

    "There," she said and handed me back the phone. I looked at it and all I could see was a green screen with a speech bubble with the word "Line" in it. I'd heard of it but I'd never understood the use, as far as I knew it was a messaging system and that was all.

    "Mae Ri, I can't use my phone, it's disconnected," I told her but she kept smiling.

    "I know, but Line lets you use the text messaging feature as long as you have wifi," she said excitedly. "As long as the other person has it as well and today we all downloaded it onto our phones."

She pulled it up on her phone and showed me. I looked from her to each of the boys and they both nodded to confirm her words.

    "This way you can get a hold of us at any time," as if to prove her point she shot me a quick text with the word 'daebak*' in it. "As long as you have wifi, I mean."

My heart lurched in my chest uncomfortably and I had to rub the spot of my heart just to ease the tension, my voice sounded thick even to my own ears as I said, "Thank you."

    "No problem," she came in for a quick hug and I hugged her back graciously. "We better get going before my dad calls out the police," she joked.

    "You're right," I let her go and turned to the boys. "Make sure she gets home safe," I pointed at each of them in turn.

    "Of course," Ji Soo said and did something completely unexpected. He hugged me. In the past three years, all I'd ever gotten from Ji Soo was a shoulder nudge so to say I was completely taken aback was an understatement although I understood his reasoning as soon as he started whispering in my ear.

    "You are taking your pills, right," he whispered so only I could hear.

    "Yes," I whispered back and felt grateful that he had known I wouldn't have wanted him to ask me that in front of the other two, especially Jong Hwa.

    "Good girl," he teased and pulled back. He had such a look of concern on his face that I had to swallow hard to keep back the tears I knew wanted to spring into my eyes. He nodded at me as if he understood and patted my shoulder.

The moment was broken the second I looked at Jong Hwa though. He'd been exceptionally quiet all night but then again, it might have just been because Mae Ri had been doing most of the talking, as usual. Ji Soo must have sensed the difference in the air because he clapped Jong Hwa on the shoulder and said, "We'll head out first. See you at the bus stop." He took Mae Ri by the arm which was a good thing because she looked like she was about to protest. "Come on beautiful, let's get going."

    "But--" and they were gone.

Jong Hwa simply nodded and never took his eyes off mine. As soon as Ji Soo and Mae Ri walked through the doors we were in each other's arms. I'd wrapped my arms around Jong Hwa's waist and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and gently held the back of my head with the other. It felt like the most natural thing in the world even though we'd never hugged like this before.

Maybe Jong Hwa and I had always been headed towards this change in our friendship but I had never even considered it a possibility. How had he become my world? And so quickly. I breathed in his clean scent and realized I didn't care how we'd gotten here as long as we'd gotten here. I buried my head further into his neck and was unwilling to let him go until I absolutely needed too. Had it really only been two weeks ago when all we'd been was friends and now it seemed like we were so much more.

    "I miss you," I said into his neck and felt him hold me tighter. "Everything seems to hard now, I can't even control my emotions, I'm mad all the time. Sometimes I just feel like falling asleep and never waking up again, it's so hard."

    "I know," he said and pulled back just enough to see my face. "I know but you'll be okay."

The tears I'd held back with Ji Soo flowed freely now, "You can't leave me, okay?" I gripped the back of his jacket, not willing to let go until he'd promised me he'd never leave my side.

    "That will never happen," he said and kissed my forehead.

Which is the exact moment that Derek walked through the door behind us. "Hey Lily, it's last--oh," he stopped talking abruptly and just stared at us.

We didn't exactly jerk back from each other but we did drop our arms and stepped back from each other. My shoes looked really interesting all of a sudden, I thought, as I picked at something on the tiled floor with my toe.

Derek cleared his throat and said in a much more subdued tone, "It's, ah, it's last call. The security guy is going to lock the door so you better come back inside."

    "Alright," I said and nodded. Derek looked at Jong Hwa once more and nodded before walking back inside.

It seemed strange that we hadn't felt awkward moments ago but now, with Derek breaking us out of our reverie, we could barely manage eye contact. "I'll text you when we get Mae Ri home," Jong Hwa said and I bit the inside of my cheek and finally looked at him.

    "Thank you," I said. He reached up and gently stroked my cheek with his thumb before turning around and walking out the door. When the cold blast of night air hit my face I had a sinking feeling. He'd just promised to not leave me but experience had taught me that everyone left so it was only a matter of time before I would be forced to say goodbye to Jong Hwa. The thought hollowed out my chest and my heart ached.

I shook my head to shake the thought loose. It hadn't come to pass yet and I would deal with it when it did, I told myself. I walked back inside the dormitories and immediately headed for the stairs that would take me to my room. I hadn't changed out of my school uniform even though it had been several hours and I was dying to not only get into something comfy but take my mind off everything that had just transpired even though I knew when I closed my eyes for the night, all I would be able to see was Jong Hwa's face.

I saw Derek watching me out of the corner of his eyes but since I didn't want to answer the questions I knew he wanted to ask me, I pretended like I hadn't seen him and left without even uttering a goodbye. Emily was asleep by the time I got to my room and I quietly thanked the Gods above.

***

Jong Hwa...

At first I cursed at Derek for breaking in on the moment that Lily and I had shared but as I walked to meet up with Ji Soo and Mae Ri at the bus stop I chalked it up to being a blessing in disguise. I hadn't liked the fact that in only a day she'd somehow attracted the attention of two boys. I knew she hadn't done it on purpose, the look on her face when they had come over to us had all but confirmed that she'd felt anything but affection for them but the relief hadn't lasted very long when I realized that Derek obviously didn't feel the same. When she hadn't been looking, Derek would watch her and I felt the pangs of jealous deep in my stomach.

I decided he walked in at the right moment, at least he'd have no question about who I was in Lily's life. Hopefully he would take the hint. I'd never been a possessive person but I wanted to stake my claim on Lily even though she wasn't technically mine to claim. Yet, I hoped. Things had changed tonight whether Lily and I had expected it to or not and I couldn't help but feel a kind of exhilaration at the realization.

I felt like I had secretly like Lily for so long that I didn't know how to actually like her in the open, in front of our friends, much less strangers. Walking away from her had been the hardest thing, especially when I knew that Derek guy would be waiting for her beyond the door. I wished I could just take her hand and bring her home with me but that wasn't possible so I had done the only thing I could, I left. Mae Ri waved to me as I got closer and it broke me out of my train of thought.

To Be Continued...

***

*Bogoshipeo: Literal translation "I want to see you" but more accurately means "I miss you"

*Jeongmal: "Really" or "Seriously" it is interchangeable with Jinjja.

*Na Du: "Me too"

*Yeogiseo: "You're here?"

*Wae: "Why"

*Daebak: Korean slang for "Awesome"