Books and Games

Third Short Story   

Prologue

       When I was younger, I found myself asking, is living something to be thankful for? Should we be mad if life was taken away from us? Or do we even have the right to hate the world if one of our love ones dies?

       I don’t know… Life was mysterious. Growing up into different people, turning into different grownups, we still have something in common. I guess it’s the part that someday we would all crumble back into dust.

       I was thinking, do I have something or someone to live for?

       I think I did. At some part of my timeline, that is.

Our Song: Books and Games

       When did I first start to learn how to write? I don’t know about others but living on a third world country was plainly different. When I was a just a baby, our family transferred into this country where the sun shines tremendously and the surroundings were very different from what I our past country is.

       I guess that was the difference of places. In different places, there are also different people and different cultures. And our ways of living was really different.

       When I was four, I learned how to write using those small and thin yellow books that shows us those ABCs and 123s. I remembered how our teachers made us speak those syllables a hundred times. “Ba-Be-Bi-Bo-Bu” “Ka-Ke-Ki-Ko-Ku” "Ta-Te-Ti-To-Tu" "Nga-Nge-Ngi-Ngo-Ngu" it sounds hilarious and horrible but that's how it was and thats how we learned. Even if our classrooms were only made from logs and even sometimes just under a tree. It didn't matter. Because for us, knowledge is important.

       That was our life when we were kids, just write and speak and write again until you learn what dogs are, cats are and humans are. We learned what a family is, what a hospital is and what true knowledge is.

       When I got older, our lessons leveled up of course. It wasn’t about letters and simple digits anymore. It was all about addition and subtraction. I remembered how our teacher just drops in the class and gives us a couple of papers, saying that it is our homework and it’ll be passed tomorrow. I didn’t even know how to answer it yet but I strived hard and at least manage to make it throughout elementary.

       High school came, and just then I’ve proved that the most memorable time of your life is high school. Why? Because I’ve met a lot of great people. Because people in high school come into your life to teach you a lesson before disappearing, as if their only role in your life is to teach you that lesson. Sometimes, they were not meant to stay. Sometimes, some of them do.

       Getting on a good high school back in our place was hard. It’s either you go to an expensive private school where you have to work your off to pay your tuition or you go on a public high school which is free but the education is not that promising.

       I guess I am part of that lucky crowd who got into a standard state university, having no problems in either the tuition fee or the quality of education.

       And then I met her.

       Her… hmmm… I still don’t know what to think of her up to this very day. She was that mysterious girl in our class who is both open and reserved, who is both warm and cold, who is both easy to approach but sometimes hard too. What I’m saying is, she’s the most unpredictable person I’ve ever met.

       I was biking around the neighborhood at that time when I got out balance and fell on the ground with my knees first. My knees definitely had a wound that moment.

       Then like a cliché love story that plays every night in the television, a prince charming came and offered me help. The sun was shining like how it would look like in a cinematic film and the flowers were blooming like it was so colorful. Even the breeze of the wind was so soft and gentle...

       He held out his hand on me, and smiled sweetly. “Are you okay, miss? We should get you treated.”

       Unlike cliché love stories though, I didn’t fell in love at first sight on him. But something did catch my attention.   

       Standing a few feet beside him was a girl around his height, with those dark hair and cute eye smile.

       I later found out their names. It was Jung Daehyun and Jung Eunji.

       I definitely had a certain something on that Eunji though, and it turns out she was my classmate at school after all.

***

       “Hey Naeun!” She greeted me.

       “Hey… Eunji…?” I asked in uncertainty at that time because I never really knew her. We’ve never really talked. And when I look at her, it’s either I see the boastful and proud side of her or the cold side of her.

       I remembered it well, as if it was just yesterday, when we first actually had a conversation. We were in third year high school. And we were being paired up for a project. She greeted me with that warm smile that looks so genuine but fake at the same time.

       That afternoon, we just get stuck planning for our project. At the same time, I was also busy making my report for another class. It wasn’t any special actually. In fact, it was just like time passed softly, without me knowing.

Back then I didn’t know what it meant.

       When we finished, she even walked me home much to my protest.

       “Why are you walking me home?” I asked her.

She just shrugged, “My house is on the same way anyway so why not?”

       And so I just let her.

       That night, I became friends with this girl named Jung Eunji, and from then on I started realizing how special she was, in her own way.

***

       Back in first grade, the first lesson the teacher must’ve taught me is addition. I remembered how many times she keeps repeating those questions. “1+1=2” and “2+2=4” Sometimes, the teacher must’ve gone crazy and would ask us until we reach 2048. Things were different when you are in high school.

       “What’s one plus one?” Eunji asked me one time as the half of our class hangs out on that small hut near our class room.

       “Two.” I answered, not bothering looking up on her and just focused my attention on the book I am reading, which is in fact a book entitled ‘The Fault In Our Stars’.

       “Ekkk--- Wrong, Son! The answer is three!”

       That made me look up and raise my eyebrow, “Are you joking me right now?”

       She just laughed again before asking me once more. “What is 3+3?”

       “Six.” One of my classmates answered, but was still wrong.

       “No! The answer is three! Next question, what is ten plus ten?”

       “Twenty!”

       “No! It’s six!”

       “Hey! You’ve to be joking!”

       “No! Am not! Even Vince knows the answer! Now what is one factorial?”

       “One!”

       “No! The answer is three!”

       “What is 4+4?”

       “8!”

       “No, it’s five!”

       “Yep! Five is the correct answer!”

       Both Vince and Eunji giggled in delight, as they were the only ones who know the logic of the game. It was kinda stupid but I was having fun all along. I was really clueless as to how it works but the game was challenging… it even took me three days to realize how the answers turns out like that.

       The logic of that number game was easy. The answer of the number is the number of the answer. Just then I realized how slow I am. And at the same time, it makes me admire Eunji too, because she can easily think of such stupidity.

      Later that afternoon I've seen Eunji in the basketball court, throwing some hoops. I just stayed there, watching her do her thing... And then i noticed that she was indeed playing a game alone, as if she was having a battle between herself. I realized then on she was indeed special. Because unlike some people I know, she has deep way of thinking... she's really something.

***

       It was December when we were tasked for a special production, which is a musical. Being one of the only good singers in class, I was stuck with the lead roles. We were doing High School Musical and I was given the role of Gabriela Montes, which is the female lead. I was partnering up with this guy named Yeol and let’s just say his not my type of guy but our chemistry was something. The whole class practically ships us but I didn’t mind them.

       I was too busy admiring someone else to actually think of him.

       “Hey Naeun-ah!” Jung Eunji called me as we were having a break that time. “Let’s play a little game!”

       “If this is another of your logic games then better quit it. I’m not a fan of your games, Jung…”

       “Ooohhh… Last names, huh? It makes us sound cool!” she chirped enthusiastically, before sitting next to me. “Come on, let’s play!”

       “Okay, fine. Whatever.”

       She then first cleared before speaking, “Today is Tarzan’s birthday. I am bringing a cake, what would you bring?”

       “Uhmmm… a gift?” I asked cluelessly in which she shook her head, “No. You can’t bring a gift. But I can bring a gift! What would you bring?”

       I also shook my head, “How can that be? I would bring a gift if I want too!”

       “Well now you can bring one! Wow!” she clapped her head before turning to my other classmates, screaming likes a lunatic, “Hey!!! Naeun’s bringing a gift in Tarzan’s birthday! What would you bring?!!!”

       My classmates started enumerating stuffs in which Eunji just said no. I don’t even know what the objective of the game is. Stupid girl, just how weird does her mind goes?

       The rest of the class was already having fun playing around. Not until a strong breeze happened and was able to push the panels around us down… and how unlucky of me to be standing right then in the panel’s way.

       Yep. That stupid panel just hit my head. It didn’t bleed, thank god, but I felt like my head got a huge lump, probably because of the hit. Just great.

       I remembered how Eunji frantically took an ice cube back then and slowly applied it on my head, wrapp