11: Sincerely

#2: For one whole day, everytime you see me at school, you must give me a sincere compliment.

She’s nuts. She’s unbelievable.

I’m beginning to think that the Witch gave me these tasks for instant gratification. She wants to be complimented? By me?!

I can’t believe this.

“Yah, Sungyeol.”

“Hm?” Sungyeol paused the game he was playing with Sungjong in my X-BOX and turned to look at me. “What?”

Eversince the gang visited me two days ago, they decided to come by my house every friggin’ day. I don’t remember agreeing to that but here they are, invading my room on a supposed-to-be-peaceful Sunday.

“Does Jung Jieun have any qualities that are worth complimenting?” I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

Well, even though I tried to sound casual, the guys still looked at me as if I just asked a very controversial and out-of-this-world question.

Sungyeol, in particular, was the most shocked of them all. “Y-Y-Y-Yah! What’s up with the weird question? It’s as if…you want to know more about her!”

“Just as I’ve thought,” Woohyun remarked as he threw me a greasy look. “You’re already in that kind of relationship.”

Sungyeol and I both threw pillows at Woohyun.

“Stop spurting nonsense,” I said with a sigh. “I’m not asking this to know more about that woman. I just—“ I suddenly fell silent. What kind of excuse will I give this time? “Umm…you know, that woman and I aren’t really on good terms. Well, let’s just say I want to leave her alone already. But I’m so annoyed by her that I find it hard to leave her alone. So…perhaps, if I find a few good things about her, I’ll be able to let her off the hook.”

I looked at each of the guys’ faces to see if they find my excuse ridiculous. I know it sounded stupid but it was the only thing I could come up with at the moment.

Sunggyu scratched his head and gave a confused look. “So what you’re trying to say is, if you know a few of Jieun’s good qualities, you would stop bullying her?”

Sungyeol pointed at me with his eyes wide open. “So you’ve been bullying her all this time?!”

“It’s not like that! We’re just…on bad terms right now.” I replied as I placed his hand down. “So will you tell me about it? What are the good things about Jung Jieun, if there are any?”

“Of course there are,” Sungyeol said as he gave me an unbelieving look. “Jieunnie’s not a bad person. I don’t know why you think of her that way.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine, fine. So just tell me already.”

Sungyeol cleared his throat as he straightened in his seat. “Okay. Listen well.”

I nodded. All of a sudden, the frustrated look on Sungyeol’s face turned into a calmer one. He started telling me things about the Witch, and he seemed really bright as he spoke. He knew a lot of things to the point where he seemed like the Witch’s stalker.

“You know,” Sungyeol said after his long speech about the Witch. “Jieunnie may seem like a simple girl who has no presence, but she’s actually amazing. She’s also the type of girl who gets prettier the more you look at her, especially if you know her personality. I don’t know why you find her annoying. She’s actually very kind. Plus, she looks really cute whenever she gets shy. Oh, remember when I took a year off from school after 9th grade?”

“Yeah…but, what has that got to do with her?” Of course I remember. All of us in the gang would never forget that. When Sungyeol came back after a year, he was like a different person.

“It took me a whole year before I could return, so I had to start as a freshman. My coldness probably startled you guys back then. I thought I could never go back to who I was, but I met Jieunnie and before I knew it, I was able to smile again.”

I stared at Sungyeol’s face, which looked genuinely happy as he recalled those times. That woman…she was able to influence him that much? I never knew she was the reason why Sungyeol’s happy-go-lucky personality returned. “What happened between you and that Jung Jieun?”

Instead of answering, Sungyeol just gave me a V-sign. “I’d like to keep those beautiful memories to myself. All you need to know is that, Jieunnie is an amazing person who would never harm anyone.”

The more I look at Sungyeol’s expression whenever he talks about the Witch, the more I get curious about what he really thinks about her. I honestly don’t see what’s so good about that woman, and she’s definitely not his type, so why does it seem like he likes her? As far as I know, Sungyeol has never genuinely talked about his feelings for a woman since that day. He said he’d never get into a serious relationship. I’m really curious about what’s going on now.

Anyway, tomorrow, I’ll just do what I have to do so that I’ll be able to cross this task off the list. I’ll just clench my fist and endure it all.

~~~~★★★★★★★~~~~

As soon as I got off the car, I took a deep breath and looked around. I don’t see any signs of the Witch, so I guess I’m still safe. I’m actually hoping I’d only see her once today so that I could give her only one compliment.

Since she doesn’t seem to be around, I walked towards the campus confidently and with ease. Unfortunately, after a few steps, my eyes suddenly caught sight of the Witch. It was clear that she also saw me because we ended up having eye-to-eye contact. Crap.

“This is so annoying,” I mumbled to myself as I walked towards her with heavy steps. However, she suddenly had a panicked look on her face and started walking away from me. “What the—yah!”

Ignoring the people around who are staring, I immediately ran after the Witch who was heading towards the garden. Ugh. Does she really want to make things harder for me by making me run after her? She should just accept the compliment!

“Jung Jieun!” I finally managed to catch up with her when she stopped at the garden. “What the hell was that about?!”

She faced me after catching her breath. “Hah…idiot. I’m actually doing you a favor by not showing my face in front of you! That way, you won’t be able to compliment me!”

I gave her a confused look. “Are you kidding me? What’s the point when I already saw you? It was clearly stated that I have to compliment you whenever I see you in school!”

“Well…you could have just pretended as if you didn’t see me!”

I can’t believe this woman wants me to break the rules. I’m not that kind of man! “Look, I always make to never half- any task given to me. I would have loved it if I didn’t see you, but the point is, I did! So just accept my compliment, dammit!”

She bit her lower lip as she fidgeted. She even kept avoiding my gaze. What’s she so tensed about?! She’s the one who came up with these stupid tasks in the first place!

“Okay,” she finally said after a few seconds of thinking and fidgeting. “Just get it over with.”

I sighed as I tried to recall Sungyeol’s words.

“Jieunnie’s hair is nice. She may look as if she never uses a comb because of her disheveled hair, but her hair is actually soft and it smells nice. I know that fact because I’ve been seatmates with her for two straight years.”

That Lee Sungyeol is beginning to creep me out. But anyway, it was stated in the paper that the compliment must be sincere. Since I’m not sure if Sungyeol was telling the truth about this Witch’s hair, I can’t give her that kind of compliment. Well…I kinda smelled her hair before during the bus ride. But I can’t be sure so I have to re-confirm it. Okay, now I’m the one who sounds creepy, but whatever.

“Y-Yah…what—“ She suddenly backed away when I started walking closer towards her.

“Sheesh, calm down.” I held her by the shoulders so that she wouldn’t be able to walk away further. “I’m just trying to confirm something.”

Within a few seconds, I was already standing close in front of her. I looked down at her and she looked up at me. Once again, I began to notice her small face and long eyelashes. The distance and the staring thing actually made me feel a bit weird. I suddenly remember that rainy night—

NOOOOO! WHAT THE HELL.

After shaking those unnecessary thoughts away, I looked away from the Witch and focused on her hair. I raised my right hand which was still on her shoulder and slowly her hair. I noticed how her body froze at the touch. She looked so tensed and confused.

My own actions started to make me feel weird and I wanted to stop. But I ended up raising my other hand to the left side of her hair. Sungyeol was right. She does have soft hair. And they do smell nice…

“S-Stop…”

She suddenly stepped away, making me snap back to reality. The moment I realized what I just did, I wanted to punch myself. How could I just boldly touch a woman like that? Was I out of my mind?!

“S-Sorry about that.” Crap. Just look at you stuttering, Kim Myungsoo! You shouldn’t have done something so rude and unnecessary! What was the purpose, again? Oh…right! The compliment! “Your hair…is nice. So, don’t take it the wrong way. I don’t know what kind of compliment I should give you so I did that.”

Without saying anything further, I immediately turned around and walked away fast. I wouldn’t want her to see this expression on my face, whatever kind of expression it is.

Still, whenever I looked at my hands, I would remember the feeling of her hair brushing against my fingers.

It’s annoying