CHAPTER 2: ENCOUNTERS

It was one of those morning when you wake up covered in sweat because of a horrible nightmare, just to look at the clock and see there are another 45 minutes before the alarm – but you just can’t sleep anymore. So you just kick off your blanket in frustration and sit up stretching and massaging your eyes. That’s how the morning started for me. As I wasn’t in any rush, I slowly got up, opened the curtains of my window just to see the morning sun starting to rise up to the sky, reflecting on the Han river’s surface. It looked beautiful – not just as beautiful as the mornings on Jeju, where the rising sun could be seen on the surface of the sea, but still beautiful.

I got out of my room and quietly walked through the apartment to the bathroom. I had showered yesterday but after sweating because of the nightmare I couldn’t even remember… I felt dirty so I wanted to shower again. And since I had a lot of time, I took a long shower – probably the longest I had ever taken. I tried to relax, letting the hot water run down my skin and wash away the worries. I took deep breaths to calm myself down, and slowly the tension and nervousness seemed to tone down a little bit.

I got out of the bathroom dressed in a fluffy bathrobe, a towel tied up on my hair – just to run into Eunwoo who was already standing behind the bathroom door, looking somewhat displeased.

“Good morning to you too”, I said quietly.

“Not so good”, Eunwoo sighed. “I woke up almost an hour too early because of you.”

“I don’t think aunt woke up… You sure are sensitive”, I chuckled, patted him on the shoulder and walked back to my room, leaving my cousin to struggle by himself.

I didn’t dare to start blow-drying my hair because of my aunt who was still sleeping, so I just towel dryed my hair, tapped some moisturizer on my face and sat at my desk, glancing a the school uniform waiting to be worn. Somehow I felt like putting on the uniform would mark the real beginning of my new life, so I noticed myself stalling. At some point I heard my aunt coming out of her room and saying good morning to Eunwoo. While she made breakfast, I was going through my backpack, making it sure I had everything I needed. My hand touched a small bottle on the bottom of the backpack and I slowly pulled a bottle of vitamins out. I couldn’t hold back a small chuckle. Aunt must’ve put them there. I opened the bottle and quickly swallowed one yellow pill.

After blow-drying my hair, I went to kitchen and ate a quiet breakfast. Aunt and Eunwoo didn’t seem to be morning people as they just looked very tired and seemed to want to stay in their own little bubbles during their first hours. It was fine for me – I loved the thought of at least eating together as I had eaten alone for the last five years.

After breakfast I went back to my room to change into the school uniform. I stared at my reflection on the mirror of my room. I looked almost like any rich girl going to a nice school with this uniform – almost. Ignoring the fancy uniform, the girl standing in front of the mirror looked tired, washed-out and devastated. Even my hair had lost it shine and it looked flat and lifeless.

“Minji!” Eunwoo’s voice broke me out of my thoughts. “Let’s go!”

Right. School. First day. It was time to go.

I could feel the curious stares on me from the moment Eunwoo and I jumped off the bus near our school. I couldn’t tell if they were positive or negative yet, but I was sure I’d get to know soon. I glanced at Eunwoo. We had been all silent ever since we left the house. Still I felt like Eunwoo was encouraging and supporting me without words because he would glance at me from time to time with a worried look in his eyes, he would grab my hand if I was about to drop behind or fall, and he opened all the doors to me.

“I would prefer them saying at least something”, I whispered to Eunwoo. “Instead of just staring.”

“Don’t think too much”, Eunwoo replied. “They’re probably just wondering who you are and why are you coming to school with me.”

“Oh, I forgot I'm walking with the school celebrity” I chuckled.

“It's not like that", Eunwoo said quietly. "I'm an outcast, I had to repeat my first year if you remember.”

Eunwoo was a year older than me, yet we were both graduating next year. He hadn’t been very interested in studying so the first grade of high school had been too hard on him. He had repeated it and according to aunt, he had been able to raise his grades a lot since then. Because of this, Eunwoo was known as the outcast prince of the school - he was polite and handsome, meaning he had all the girls running after him, but on the other hand - how could someone in such a prestigious school have to repeat a grade and bring shame to the school!

Eunwoo walked me to the teachers’ lounge where I got a few curious glances, but I believed most of the teachers knew there was a new student coming today. Eunwoo lead me to a friendly looking, middle-aged man. He had some English books laying around on his desk and he was very into reading the morning’s paper so he didn’t notice us at first.

Eunwoo bowed. “Good morning, Mr. Song.”

The man raised his eyes from the paper and flashed a big smile. “Good morning! This is the new student we have, right?”

“Yes”, I said and bowed at him. “I’m Ryu Minji.”

Mr. Song nodded very eagerly, and the smile never withered from his lips. “So you’re Eunwoo’s cousin? You must feel comfortable to have someone you know in your class.”

I blinked my eyes. “Ah, are we in the same class?”

“Yes! I’m your homeroom teacher", the man replied. “The lesson start in then minutes, should we go?”

We three walked through the hallways of the school, and as if I wouldn’t have gotten enough curious stares already, we were walking with a teacher so we gained even more attention. For the first time I actually heard some whispering. I tried to close my ears from listening and tried to walk with my head high.

“Is it her?” I heard someone whisper. “The one who moved here from Jeju?”

We got to the classroom, where most of the students were already, chatting, playing around and being all cheery. At the exact moment Mr. Song stepped in, everybody returned to their seats and got silent, but I believe most of them were just too curious about me. Eunwoo left me with the teacher and went to sit at the back of the classroom.

“Good morning!” Mr. Song greeted the class and went on to introducing me. “As you know, we have a new student joining us today. Could you please introduce yourself?”

I swallowed nervously and stepped forward slowly, glancing all over the classroom. “I’m Ryu Minji. Nice to meet you… I hope we will get along well.”

“Great, Minji, you can go and sit next to Eunwoo, since there’s an empty spot”, Mr. Song said and with a smile motioned me to go. I sneaked through the classroom and quickly sat next to my cousin who flashed me a tiny, almost non-existent smile, trying to encourage me.

The lesson started and even though Mr. Song was busy lecturing at the blackboard I could see people whispering to each other and glancing at me. I tried to ignore them and started drawing some doodles on my notebook. When the teacher finished his lecturing and told us to do some exercises from the books, I already knew what was coming up. As Mr. Song exited the classroom, two girls who had been whispering and staring at me the whole time, walked up to me. I could hear Eunwoo letting out a deep sigh.

“Ryu Minji, was it?” one of the girls asked and grinned at me. I didn’t even get to answer as she already continued. “From Jeju, right? I could hear it from your dialect.”

I raised my eyes from my notebook and nodded at her. “Yes.”

“Just between us”, she whispered and bended over to me. “Is it true you’re an orphan? I heard you father died and mother abandoned you.”

I didn’t want to answer her, so I just replied with a dirty, poisonous glare. The girl stood straight again and put her hand over , flashing me a fake apologizing glance. “Oh my, it’s really you. I’m so sorry for you. You’re so lucky to have a cousin like Eunwoo.”

At that moment every single eye in the classroom turned to stare at us, even the nerds on the first row that didn’t seem interested earlier. I was still staying silent, just staring in front of me. I didn’t feel embarrassed or sad, I felt angry. This girl represented the type of people I hated and wanted to slap – but I couldn’t do that on my first day. I might get expelled right away!

“Is Minji Eunwoo’s cousin?” someone asked.

“Yes, they live together! Eunwoo’s mother adopted Minji because her father died and mother abandoned her”, the girl who was just continuing to throw death wishes at my face explained, with a smile on her face, trying to mask her remarks with a friendly tone of voice. That tone really annoyed me. The way this girl – a complete stranger – told everybody about my life that she had no idea about, made me feel like my veins were boiling. Oh, how I wanted to slap her.

“I think she got into this school with relations, am I right, Minji?” the girl asked me.

At that moment I lost it. I got up with the speed of light, and like in a slow-motion film I could see the girl’s eyes grow bigger as I raised my hand to give her cheek a slap. As my hand draw nearer her face, someone suddenly rushed in between us, facing the other girl. The moment was cut so short I got startled and just stood there dumbfounded. I almost got in trouble...

“Let’s end this here today”, I heard a deep female voice say. “Go back to your seat, Mikyung.”

The girl I was about to slap stared at the girl who had come between us for a while before turning around and quickly returning to her seat. Slowly everybody’s interest ended and everybody started doing their exercises. The girl who had stopped me turned around to look at me and smiled at me.

“Sorry for that, but it was probably for the best”, she said. “I’m Hwang Youngmi.”

I blinked, still feeling dumbfounded and sat down too. “Yeah, probably you’re right. I guess you already know my name.”

“Can I sit next to you?” she asked suddenly.

I stared at her. “Why?”

“Well”, she shrugged her shoulders. “Better to be an outcast together with someone, rather than alone.”

I didn’t answer, but I didn’t refuse either, so she sat to the seat next to mine and started doing her exercises. I glanced at her and then at Eunwoo, who had sat silent through the incident, looking like a time bomb about to explode, but still silent and calm. Now he had clearly calmed down too. He wasn’t doing anything though, just staring into emptiness and from time to time, sighing deeply. Did he really feel this stressed out because of me?

“Eunwoo”, I said quietly. “Are you alright?”

He turned to look at me. “Me? You should think about yourself.”

I flashed him a small smile. “I’m used to this. I’m alright. I just think I found my arch enemy in this school. What was her name again?”

Eunwoo turned his head a little bit. “Nam Mikyung. Her father owns a few hospitals.”

I didn’t care about her father. I didn’t really even care about her name. I just wanted to make it sure for myself that I would try to stay away from her – from trouble. I didn’t want to get expelled after beating up her, because then she’d still be the winner. She’d get pitied and she’d stay in this school.

“You know”, I heard the girl next to me say quietly. “There are two people in this school I’d stay away from.”

“And who are they?” I asked. It was like she had read my mind!

“Well, Mikyung right there”, Youngmi said. “And the other one’s Moon Bin. There are rumours his father has some sort of underground connections. And I don’t mean the subway. I mean like, gang stuff. You better stay far from him, he’s just a big bag of trouble.”

“Alright then”, I said while nodding my head. “You can point him out to me sometime so I know to stay away.”

Youngmi smiled widely. “Okay! That means you’re going to eat lunch with me today!”

I blinked. It felt so weird to have someone not related to me, talking to me with this friendly tone. It didn’t feel that bad at all, it felt almost comfortable. I glanced at Eunwoo. “Well, that means he will join us too!”