Chapter 4

The two settled down on a grass patch outside the first aid room as Ye Rin helped to pull the gum out of Da Eun’s hair.

 

“Any idea what school those boys came from?”  Da Eun questioned as she picked up a stick from the grass patch.

“JeongWon Highschool.”

“I see…” Da Eun memorized the name of the school as she wrote the word, ‘JeongWon’ into the soil using the stick she held.

 

“I noticed your uniform just now.  I’m pretty shocked that someone from CheoNan Highschool came to help me out.” Ye Rin spoke her mind.  “I’m from class 2-1. What class are you in?” She asked as she glanced at her unfamiliar looking face.  She’s never seen Da Eun in school before…

“Uh…actually I’m a new transfer student.  Today is my first day of school in CheoNan High.” Da Eun explained herself to the confused looking girl, “I’m supposed to be in class 3-3.” Da Eun finished her sentence as she noticed Ye Rin’s face lit up.

 

“That’s my boyfriend’s class! Oh you’re so lucky to be in his class.  He’s a fun and easy going guy, you’ll love him the moment you meet him.” Ye Rin looked so excited to be talking about her boyfriend that she kept going on and on and on.  Da Eun was pretty sure she mentioned his name, Lu…something.  She didn’t really bother remembering it because she was still quite shocked at the fact that she has a boyfriend.  Well it made sense since Ye Rin was such a pretty girl, Da Eun thought.

 

“Why did you help me out at the back alley?”  Ye Rin asked out of the blue, eager to know Da Eun’s reply.  “To be honest, if I were you, I wouldn’t have gotten myself involved in the fight.” 

 “Well…I just heard you screaming for help and I actually did thought of running away, or asking someone else for help instead so I wouldn’t get myself involved. But there wasn’t anyone else out there except for me, so i went in in the end.”  She answered truthfully and she heard a soft, “oh I see” from Ye Rin.

 

“But why were you there at that time?” Da Eun asked.

“I wanted to ask you that as well.”

“Ha-ha…well I left my house an hour earlier because I was afraid I would get lost on the way to school…and I did… I mean it is my first day afterall.”

 

“Ha-ha that’s normal for me as well...  As for me, I’m the chairperson of my class so I have to reach school an hour earlier to prepare some things.  By the way Da Eun, I’m almost done with your hair. Phew…!”  Ye Rin sighed in relief as she pulled the last few strands of hair away from the gum.

“Alright!!! Thanks Ye Rin.” Da Eun couldn’t contain her smile, she literally thought her hair was gone for.  She pursed her lips as she thought of other questions to ask Ye Rin.

 

“Is it normal for people to just bully you like that?”  Da Eun asked.

“Well… in this form of bullying, it’s actually a first for me.” Ye Rin pouted at that thought.  She sincerely hope that something like this wouldn’t happen to her ever again.

“In this form of bullying…?  Wait… Are you still getting bullied in some other way?” Da Eun asked worriedly.  What kind of people were they?  Why her?

 

“I do get bullied often actually, both verbally and cyberly.  But this was the first time I got bullied physically.” Da Eun noticed the change in Ye Rin’s tone of voice.  She sounded pretty hesitant to reply, thus Da Eun stopped herself from asking anymore questions related to that topic by changing the subject. But she was curious as hell.

“Why didn’t you accept the passerby’s offer for help just now?”

 

“Well…” Ye Rin sounded a little hesitant again, but she figured out that Da Eun would know the reason sooner or later.  So why tell her later when she could just tell her everything now?  Ye Rin fidgeted with her fingers a little while she her fingers down Da Eun’s ponytail.

 

“Well you see…Remember I told the lady in the first aid room something about my injuries? I told her not to tell anyone?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I was actually a child actress in the past, you may not know me because the shows I used to act in were from many years ago.”

“Really?!” Da Eun gasped in shock.

“And the thing is, I just got a new role as a main actress in an upcoming drama and this will be my first drama acting as a young adult… So… if I went to the hospital, people would know that I’ve injured myself and it might spread like some wild fire and create a big ruckus among my company.  The worst part is… if my company knew about all of this ruckus, I might actually lose my role in that drama to someone else and that role really means a lot to me.  I really do love acting…” Ye Rin paused to catch her breath from talking so fast.  She wanted to let that all out and she finally did.  She was actually pretty glad that someone was willing to listen about her rants for the first time in so long.

“Ahh…” Da Eun nodded her head.

 

“As for the verbal and cyber bullying, I get that a lot… almost every day in fact.  The bullies are mostly girls.  I’m really not intending to boast or anything but they hate me because they think I’m pretty and they are jealous of the many opportunities that constantly came flowing towards me.  Like how boys would chase after me, how media and entertainment companies would scout for me to act or sing.  The girls from my class are jealous of me as well, and honestly, all I wanted was to be their friend.  I just want to follow my passion of acting and have a normal life as a student instead of getting attention every time I stepped into school. But I guess I can’t have the best of both worlds… and I really hate being popular among the boys… It makes my boyfriend sad at times…”  Ye Rin explained truthfully as she unconsciously tangled more of Da Eun’s hair with the piece of gum. 

 

Da Eun was listening intently at what Ye Rin has to say.  Everything made so much more sense now… She nodded her head every time Ye Rin finished a sentence.  What a tough life she’s got.  Da Eun fully understood her pain.

 

“Oh no!” Ye Rin exclaimed when she noticed the tangled mess on Da Eun’s ponytail.  The gum was originally tangled to a few strands of hair but Ye Rin managed to get the whole ponytail tangled up in the mess.  Looks like she’s back to square negative one hundred.

 

“What?” Da Eun heard a hint of guilt in her voice. Don’t tell me…

“I messed it up… ” Ye Rin muttered guiltily as she picked on the piece of gum, pulling strands of hair off of it again.  Da Eun frowned, clutching her head in despair.  This. Will. Take. Forever.

“I’m sorry.” She apologized.

“No, it’s fine.” Da Eun lied, “I’ll just cut my hair off.” She wished she was lying, but she didn’t want to bother Ye Rin with all that hard work again. It wasn’t her fault in the first place.  Besides… hair will grow. She convinced herself. 

 

“What?  No way!  You look pretty with your long hair!  I’ll take that piece of gum out no matter what!  Count on me.”  Ye Rin never sounded so sure in her life before, she started picking at the strands of hair on Da Eun’s ponytail again.  Da Eun honestly didn’t know how to react to what Ye Rin had just said.  She didn’t know if she should he happy that Ye Rin had just called her pretty or touched that Ye Rin was so determined to get that stubborn gum out of her hair.

 

“It’s fine.” Da Eun beamed at Ye Rin as she dug into her school bag.  “I’ll just cut my hair off.” She repeated everything she had said to Ye Rin before, this time, she wasn’t lying.  She took a pair of scissors out from her pencil case and Ye Rin gasped in amazement.  She really meant it.

 

Da Eun closed her eyes shut as she held the scissors beside her ponytail.

 

“Wait… wait…!” Da Eun got interrupted by Ye Rin’s voice.  What. Was she still feeling guilty about it? 

 

“It’s fin-”

 

“Any last words for your beautiful hair?” Ye Rin clenched her right fist as she held it below Da Eun’s lips pretending it was a microphone.  Da Eun was at loss for words, Ye Rin literally robbed her of speech.  The ends of Da Eun’s lips curved into a smile and the two started giggling to eachother.  She’s one cute girl, Da Eun thought to herself.  She honestly couldn’t understand how people could be so mean towards her.

 

Da Eun smiled brightly as she grabbed her ponytail with her left hand and held the scissors in her right hand against her ponytail.

 

“See you soon.” were her last words to her long hair.

 

And she slashed the sharp edge of the scissors across her hair.

 

 

~~~~

 

Lu Han checked his watch for the nth time that day.  He took his phone out to see whether his girlfriend had replied him yet.  He widened his eyes in joy and broke into a wide grin when he saw her reply.

 

Lu Han:

“Yo yo yo, I’m in the school now.  Where’s my pretty little girl at?”

[7.55am]

 

“Ye Rin, I don’t see you in school.  Where are you?”

[8.23am]

 

“Are you feeling sick?  Are you resting at home now?  Please reply me if you see this.”

[9.04am]

Ye Rin:

“I’m walking to class now.  Sorry to make you worry… Something came up just now.”

[9.52am]

Lu Han:

“Thank god, you really had me worried there.  Meet you after school?”

[9.59am]

Lu Han hit the send button as he sank into his seat, feeling a weight off his mind.  The school rang and it indicated the start of Math class.  Lu Han sat right up the moment his Math teacher entered the classroom.  He immediately shifted his gaze to a petite figure following right behind him. “Attention class.” He knocked his fingers on the black board in front of the classroom.  The students scurried to their seats, they were staring at the petite figure standing behind of the Math teacher feeling pretty stupefied. 

Lu Han hurriedly shoved his phone into his bag when the teacher spoke again, “This is your new classmate.  I believe your form teacher already informed you guys about this matter?” He gestured Da Eun to the front of the class as he told her to introduce herself to her new classmates.

The class became riotous and Lu Han couldn’t hear himself think.  Murmurs were heard everywhere and Lu Han eavesdropped on one of his classmate’s conversation. 

“Didn’t he told us that the new classmate was a girl?”

“I’m pretty sure he did.”

“Gosh I was looking forwar-”

 

“Annyeonghaseyo.” Da Eun greeted, her silvery voice had interrupted Lu Han’s classmate from all the gossiping. 

“My name is Kim Da Eun and it’s a pleasure meeting everyone.” She beamed sweetly to everybody.  

Lu Han heard his classmates reacting a little strange at her name. Kim Da Eun.  They were as confused as chickens in a pillow factory.  Their new classmate was supposed to be a girl yet she looked like a boy and yet she sounded like a girl and had a name that belonged to a girl.  Lu Han glanced at Da Eun as the Math teacher instructed her to take the seat beside of him.  He gulped to himself, he was pretty sure she looked like a boy but he could tell straight away after he heard her voice that she was a girl.

 He adverted his eyes away from her naturally as she walked closer and closer towards him, but he had to look at her once more before he adverted his eyes away again.  Her thick framed glasses covered a piece of plaster that was stuck on her nose bridge which Lu Han had not noticed before.  He pondered on what could have caused a plaster to be on her nose but he stopped because he was way too lazy to think about it.  He then shifted his glance to what she wore.  It was skirt.  A school uniform for females.  But what intrigued Lu Han the most was her hair.  Her hair was short, brown and bobbed.  It seemed as if she cut it herself by placing a bowl over her head.  Lu Han couldn’t stop himself from staring at her hair.  It was so…weird. Maybe unique in a way because no girls in their right mind would want to have that hairstyle at this time or age.

 

She settled down awkwardly as she placed her bag on the floor and took out her pencil case.  She felt many eyes looking at her direction and she bit her lower lip nervously. “Ow!” she clenched her teeth together.  She had forgotten that her lips were bleeding just a while ago and that it was healing right then.  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, it’s been a while since she’s gotten so much attention from people.  She decided to turn and face her classmates and she smiled at them, hoping that she wouldn’t seem too awkward in front of them.  She really wasn’t in the mood to make new friends, she was exhausted from everything that had happen that morning.  She really wanted her old friends back. 

Everyone who saw her smiling at them, faked a smile back at her.  Da Eun felt the edge of her lips curl into a frown and sighed to herself as she turned back to face her pencil case.  As expected… No one was willing to speak to her.  Da Eun sulked as she took out a piece of foolscap paper from her bag and started doodling all around it.  She didn’t bring her textbooks or assessment books to class that day because she wasn’t informed of the timetable. 

 

Lu Han noticed her doodles on her foolscap paper as he tried to read them.  He wasn’t particularly interested in her doodles but he knew he definitely wasn’t the tiniest bit interested in math class either.

 

“Kim Da Eun you stupid pig.  You messed your introduction up!  Now everybody is going to hate you.” Lu Han muttered under his breath as he read her writings.  He tilted his head in uncertainty as he recalled her introduction just moments ago.  It was perfectly fine… Lu Han thought.

“Pig Pig Pig Pig Pig Pig Pig Pig.” Lu Han chuckled lightly to himself when he noticed that she has been drawing pigs all around her piece of paper.  There were some happy pigs, some sad pigs and some flying pigs.  He coughed a little so he could stop himself from giggling too much.

 

“Ah…Ahem…” he cleared his throat.

“It’s not that bad…” He uttered softly.

Da Eun hit the pause button as she furrowed her brows at the paper.  She lifted her head up and flushed when she saw Lu Han looking down at her piece of art work.  On the spur of the moment, she blinked rapidly as she crushed the paper and threw it into her bag with a stuttering, “Y-You t-talking to me…?” hoping she was fast enough to hide her paper away from Lu Han before he could read it.

Lu Han blinked and pouted cutely at her, not understanding why she was so surprised at him, “Yeah I am.  Your introduction was not that bad.” He repeated.

Da Eun pinked, she was too late, he already read it.  

“Uh thanks.”  Feeling a little nervous, she held her hand unconsciously to the back of her head and grabbed the air around it.  She widened her eyes in surprise when she couldn’t feel her ponytail.  Oh that’s right, it’s gone.  Her eyes became duller and she blew her bangs in despair.

 

Lu Han raised his brows at her curiously at her actions.

“You…” he muttered out of the blue.  Da Eun adjusted her bangs as she turned around to face Lu Han.  Is he talking to me again?

“You look like a mushroom.” Lu Han commented at her hair and he started giggling hysterically to himself.

 

Da Eun gave an oh-my-god-you-did-not-just-called-me-a-mushroom face at him.  She smiled sarcastically at him a she replied him with a, “Well, you look like a girl.”

Lu Han snapped his mouth open at her, feeling slightly offended.  She did not just said I looked like a girl did she?  “Excuse me but I’m much manlier than you think I am.  Besides, I’m probably prettier than you as a girl because you look like a boy to me.”

“Oh yeah? I probably look much manlier than you as a guy.” Da Eun retaliated immediately.

“Don’t judge a person by their looks!” Lu Han blurted out, wanting to teach her a lesson of wisdom.

“You can say that again.” Da Eun shook her head as she grinned at him.

“Do.not.judge.a.person.by.their…l-looks…” Lu Han paused for a moment as he knocked some sense to his head.  He pursed his lips together into a straight line.

“Hm. I advise you to listen to your own advice before teaching others a lesson.” Da Eun punched her fist into the air, feeling so smart all of the sudden.

Lu Han kept silent the whole time while listening to her lecture.  He was cursing internally at his own clumsiness and slip of mouth but when he saw Da Eun grinning so widely, he couldn’t help but laugh at her.  She did teach me a lesson all right.  Things might be fun with her as my seatmate! Lu Han giggled.

“But you really do look like a mushroom!” Lu Han honestly never expected himself to call her a mushroom again but he couldn’t hold it in.  She really looked like one.  “A smiling mushroom!” He joked to himself and started laughing hysterically at it, he even clapped his hands together and banged the table so loudly that he was unconsciously getting attention from the whole class even the Math teacher.

 

Da Eun widened her eyes at Lu Han and the rest of the class as she tried to shush him up.  Everybody was staring at the two at the back of the class and Da Eun turned to face the window, pretending she wasn’t involved in anything.

“What’s the matter here? Lu Han? Da Eun?” The math teacher knocked his fingers on the board as he asked them.

Lu Han came to a halt immediately after hearing his teacher’s husky voice calling out for him.  He gulped down a lump in his throat and he stared at Da Eun, who looked as if she was being wronged.

 

~~~~

 

And thus, this was how the two of them got themselves into trouble and detention. They were supposed to clean up the classroom, every nook and cranny of it. The math teacher told them that he will come and spot check on them anytime.

 

“But what happened to your nose?” Lu Han continued to question Da Eun curiously.

 “I fell.” Da Eun lied and Lu Han shook his head as he wiped the window back and forth with the cloth in his hands.

“Your mushroom head must have been too heavy for you to handle.” Lu Han joked.

“Shut it.” Da Eun laughed, she wasn’t able to think of a good comeback.

Suddenly, Lu Han felt vibrations coming from his pocket and he took out and glanced at his phone.  Ye Rin was calling him.  He picked the call up and mumbled a few words softly into his phone.  Da Eun didn’t bother to listen, she wasn’t interested in knowing.  This continued on for a minute or so.  He had been talking to her the whole time and she felt pretty comfortable with it but now it was quiet without him talking to her. Da Eun realized. 

 

“You know what? Let’s just stop cleaning the classroom.  Mr Geum didn’t even check on us, not even once. Besides, I need to go meet my girlfriend now.” Lu Han threw the piece of ragged cloth onto the table as he placed his phone back into his pockets and grabbed for his bag.

“But it’s not six yet.” Da Eun checked her watch.

“Yeah but I bet Mr Geum isn’t even going to check on us to see if the classroom is cleaned or not, so let’s just go.” Lu Han pulled on her sleeve.

“It’s just another thirty minutes, can’t you stay till then? You were the one who got us both in detention and for goodness sake, it’s my first day of school today!  I don’t want to get into trouble again if Mr Geum comes and spot check on us later.” Da Eun flicked his finger off her sleeve.

“Exactly why we should go.  It’s just thirty more minutes.” Lu Han headed towards the door, he ain’t got the time to persuade her further.  His girlfriend is waiting for him right at this moment.

“Are you coming or not?”

“But…” Da Eun clenched the ragged cloth in her hands, she was really tempted to leave the classroom as well but she didn’t want to risk becoming a bad student.

“Well then, sayonara!” Lu Han waved at her as he exited the classroom, leaving Da Eun all alone to clean up the rest of the classroom.  The classroom was empty and Da Eun felt her heart sank a little.  I guess it’s pretty lonely doing this alone huh.  She frowned to herself.

 

Da Eun waited patiently for the clock to strike six and she blew a raspberry.  Lu Han was right.  The Math teacher didn’t came to spot check on them. 

She took the bus back home and she sat in one corner, her head leaning on the side window.  Her phone suddenly vibrated and she went to check on it.  It was a text message from her mother asking about why she was coming home so late, her whereabouts and how her first day of school was.  As Da Eun typed her reply on her phone, she glanced out of the window as she recalled the events that happened that day.  Just how was my first day of school? She asked herself.

“It felt like a rollercoaster ride.” She mumbled under her breath.

“And I think…I made two new friends.” She added.

Sent.