CHAPTER 4: GETTING USED TO

A few weeks had passed. It was already mid-September. The weather had gotten a bit cooler, the kind of weather I preferred over summer’s heat. I was surprised by how well things had actually turned out. I did face some staring at school, but pretty much everybody, excluding Mikyung and her clique, had left me alone. I had to deal with whispering behind my back and some insults from time to time, but knowing it all came from just one person, I felt almost assured I would be able to study and graduate in peace.

Me and Eunwoo had gotten a lot closer. We didn’t just sit silent next to each other anymore, we would talk about anything – of course Eunwoo hadn’t lost his serious, somewhat pessimistic view on life, but now he at least tried to communicate with me and Youngmi. And she was another person that had become very important to me. I think she was my first real friend in the last five years. I had been to her place and knew that both of her parents were doctors so she had to be alone a lot; that’s why I had been staying the night at her place quite many times.

And then there was Minhyuk. When about a week had passed after my request for him to eat with us and he hadn’t showed up, I almost thought I had just scared him further away. But then one day he just walked into the cafeteria, got his food and came to our table. Since then he had been eating with us every day. He was slowly starting to get out of his shell. One step at time, but there was clear process already. We had managed to make him smile a few times and that made me and Youngmi feel so proud, because the boy’s facial expressions were minimal at first.

Our class, anyhow, had gotten one problem more. Moon Bin. He had caused too much trouble and quarrelled with his homeroom teacher, so he had been transferred into our class. I had heard that our class was the “troublemaker class” of the whole school. From what I had heard, all the worst students were put together. Youngmi’s warning to stay away from Bin was pretty hard to follow. For my luck, he hadn’t been much of a problem for me – unless Mikyung had a bad day. It had been clear for a while that Mikyung had a major crush on Bin, and the two troublemakers could have made a perfect couple… but Bin seemed to despise Mikyung just as much as I did. So whenever Bin showed signs of dislike to Mikyung, I got more insults to listen.

But isn’t high school always a bit messy? And this was a million times better than when I had to go to school in the small town in Jeju where everybody knew what the others ate for breakfast.

One especially warm day I went to school together with Youngmi and Minhyuk who actually lived close to our home. We jumped off the bus together, me and Youngmi chattering as usual and Minhyuk being his silent self, listening to us and letting a small smile rise on his lips from time to time.

I was a little bit hesitant about going to the first lesson – I had maths and to be honest I really at it. The teacher had also noticed this so she had started picking on me every time she saw a chance coming. It was annoying but I couldn’t really do anything about it. Despite the hesitation I found myself walking into the classroom with Youngmi, after saying bye to Minhyuk whose lessons were usually on the other side of the building. Me, Youngmi and Eunwoo still sat beside each other but we had been rotating the seat order so we weren’t in the last line anymore – but the second last. At the back were Mikyung and her clique, and who else but Bin. It was kind of annoying to have them sit behind me because you could feel them throwing paper balls at my back and when I’d turn around to go through my backpack, I might see someone staring at me.

“Good morning!” I heard a nasal voice greeting the class at the front. I looked up and saw our teacher who was eyeing the classroom, like she was trying to differentiate the good and bad students. Her glance stayed a bit longer on the last two lines, like she was trying to make it clear that we were the worst students of the class. Yes, everybody but Eunwoo. He had been improving a lot lately.

“We’re going to make some exercises in small groups”, the teacher said. “Team up. Pick people who are your level so there won’t be any difficulties. Eunwoo, you can come to the front, leave Minji and Youngmi be with Mikyung.”

I let out a sigh. I really didn’t want to do anything with the arrogant girl sitting behind me. I heard her let out a frustrated noise as well, but the teacher seemed to only notice me looking annoyed.

“Do you have a problem, Minji?” she asked. “If you’re not pleased, you should study.”

I couldn’t help myself and talked back at her. “I do study a lot!”

Her expression darkened. “You should study more. And check your manners.”

Leaving the conversation there, she checked that everybody had a group, marked the exercises on the chalkboard and then exited the classroom. I turned to look at Youngmi and rolled my eyes.

“Well, miss I do study a lot!” Mikyung said behind me. “Let’s study some more.”

I turned around and looked at the girl who didn’t even have her books on the desk, but it was covered in candy papers and cosmetics lying around as she was correcting her eyeliner.

“Look who's talking…” I said quietly.

“What did you say?” she hissed, squinting her eyes at me.

“Nothing”, I sighed.

She smirked as she patted some powder on her chin. “That’s right! At least you know when to shut up.”

The lesson felt deadly long and since we had science right after it, it felt like one really long lesson that continued and continued and still had some more time to it. When the clock finally hit 11 o’clock everybody rushed out of the classroom with a hurry, like the cafeteria wouldn’t have enough food for everybody. I got up to leave for lunch as well and was about to grab Youngmi with me, but I remembered she had mentioned she had a permission to leave school for the lunch break because her coach had something to tell her – she had started figure skating when she was in elementary school but she had a long break before taking it up again just a few months ago.

“Will you have time to eat?” I asked her when we walked out of the classroom.

“I’ll buy something on the way back!” Youngmi smirked and waved at me. “See you!”

“Let’s go eat now, I’m starving”, Eunwoo hurried me and we headed towards the cafeteria.

We were so into our conversation as we walked in through the cafeteria’s doors, we didn’t really pay attention to our surroundings, and so didn’t notice Bin who walked from the other direction. Eunwoo accidentally bumped into his shoulder. Bin glared at Eunwoo like he had punched him.

“Aren’t you going to apologize?” Bin asked, still glaring at Eunwoo.

I realized this was actually the first time I heard this boy speak. He was always just listening to music or sleeping in lessons, he didn’t seem to have friends – he didn’t seem to want any company – and he just basically never had the reason to open his mouth. Until now, apparently. His voice was unexpectedly soft - but his expression was quite fiery. Eunwoo just snorted and looked at the younger boy. “It was just a small bump, that happens."

“What?” 

“Alright!” I gathered my courage to step in. "Eunwoo is sorry, let's go our separate ways."

“See?”, Bin said quietly, not moving his eyes from Eunwoo. “Manners.”

Something about Bin's calm demeanor and voice made me feel indimidated and I wanted to get out of the situation fast so I grabbed Eunwoo’s wrist and walked away.

As we sit down at our table, Minhyuk joined us as well. He seemed to have seen our scene with Bin. His eyes were enlarged as he sat down and asked if everything was alright.

“He has always been like that”, Eunwoo stated. “Overreacting over the smallest things.”

“He was overreacting, but you could have just apologized”, I mumbled as I stuffed my face with food. Eunwoo just shrugged.

“Do you know him?” Minhyuk asked curiously.

Eunwoo shook his head. “No, not personally.”

“I don’t think anyone knows him any better. He doesn’t seem very social”, I pointed out.

After eating we parted ways with Minhyuk again. Me and Eunwoo went back to our classroom where we spent the rest of the school day. Bin seemed to have gotten enough for the day as he didn’t appear to the following lessons, but neither did Youngmi. Luckily the rest of the day passed by quickly and in no time I was sitting in the bus next to Eunwoo, heading back home.

As if I wasn’t tired already, my aunt started fussing around the moment we walked in. Her company had gotten a new CEO as the previous one had decided to retire and give his position to his son, and since aunt was the CEO’s personal secretary she had been invited for dinner in a fancy restaurant later the same evening. She was running around, trying on different outfits and trying to make her mind on how she’s style her hair. She stated she wanted to give off a good impression so that she could continue in her position for a long time.

Me and Eunwoo sat on the sofa in the living room and stared at her run around the house, shaking our heads.

“What are you doing?” she asked suddenly, stopping to look at us. “Why aren’t you getting ready?”

I tilted my head. “We too?” Eunwoo asked.

“Yes, of course you’re coming with me”, aunt stated. “The president said he’d bring his kid with him too.”

“I have to go to the academy”, Eunwoo stated. “It’s been paid for so I don’t want to skip it.”

Aunt stopped her fussing and sighed. “Oh, how could I forget that… Well, Minji, you’re coming with me!”

I didn’t get to say anything as she rushed off again so I just turned to stare at Eunwoo. He shrugged his shoulders and turned the TV on.

I sighed and got up. If I had to eat in a fancy restaurant, I needed to wear something at least decent. I rushed to my room and started going through my closet. I didn’t really have any nice clothes. Pretty skirts or flashy dresses weren't really the number one choice in the windy, muddy village where I had spent most of my life. I ended up picking a black pleated skirt with a white dress shirt that had a cute, loose bowtie sewn onto it. I stood in front of the mirror, staring at myself. I still hadn’t made it to the hair dresser so my hair was still dull and dry, but at least I looked somewhat decent. I couldn’t resist the urge to take a few pictures with my phone.

I hadn’t really taken any pictures of myself back in Jeju. There it just seemed so unnecessary and vain but here it was the most normal thing to do. Me taking pictures of myself – how much my life had actually changed… how much I had actually changed. I suddenly thought of mom. How was she doing? I had tried contacting my old number but it didn’t work; she probably hadn’t paid the bill.

“Minji!” I heard aunt knock on my door. “I think we should go now!”

I grabbed my bag and got out of my room. Aunt glanced at me. “Oh, look at you! You look very pretty.”

I smiled at her and brushed my hair back from my face. We said bye to Eunwoo and got out of the apartment. In a moment we sat in my aunt’s car, driving towards Gangnam.

When we arrived at the restaurant, I was assured my aunt really worked for a big company. There was a doorman dressed in fancy clothes, bowing and greeting us as we went inside. This was my first time inside a real fancy restaurant. Apparently aunt’s CEO had rented out a private room for us to eat in as we were guided towards a door in the end of a hallway. Inside the room, there was a huge table with just five chairs around it, and a middle aged man who was standing behind the table, apparently waiting for us. He was wearing an expensive looking suit and he had a friendly smile on his face, but the look in his eyes was still somewhat tired and cold.

“Miss Seo”, the man greeted us.

“President Moon”, aunt bowed at her boss before shaking his hand.

“This must be your niece”, president Moon said and offered his hand to me.

“Ryu Minji”, I introduced myself while bowing and shaking his hand.

“Unfortunately my son wasn’t able to come”, aunt said.

The man smiled at her. “That’s alright! My son is supposed to be here any second now.”

Right then I heard the door behind us opening and footsteps as someone walked in.

“There you are! What took you so long?”

I turned around, ready to greet the newcomer, but the moment my eyes met with the boy’s eyes, I froze. On the door, his hair styled up and dressed in a nice suit, stood Moon Bin.