A girl follows Doyeon around in school.

Her name is Yeonjung, a classmate. The girl is a couple months older than Doyeon but one might guess that she was twelve from the way she behaved--immature, childish and completely incomprehensible, in Doyeon’s opinion.

At first Doyeon had been secretly pleased with the thought of someone following her around. She liked the attention and almost couldn’t believe that she had gotten popular overnight.

But then it dawned upon her that it was only Yeonjung and that dampened any hope she had of becoming famous in school. The girl liked to cling onto her like a puppy, following Doyeon wherever she went, and Doyeon wondered if it was time she regretted being nice to Yeonjung in the first place.

She should have said no to being friends when Yeonjung proposed the idea enthusiastically. The latter had her trapped on her first day of school--how was anyone supposed to reject something like that without any inkling of what was about to come?

At the moment she was leveraging towards the idea of ignoring the girl until she gives up and walks away. But that clearly wasn’t working from how Yeonjung was still yelling her name from the other end of the hall.

“Doyeon-ah! Doyeon-ah!” She didn’t need to turn around to know that Yeonjung had wide open as the girl bellowed her name like she had swallowed a microphone when she was a child. It rattled Doyeon and she picked up her pace, striding down the hallway with her long legs.

It was annoying--annoying enough for Doyeon to slap the label ‘Stalker’ on Yeonjung’s forehead in her mind.

“Go away!” Doyeon shouted back when her ears picked up the sound of familiar footfalls growing louder towards her. Then she turned around a corner and began running. She could almost feel the stalker’s looming shadow upon her (oh curse the girl for being a good runner!)

“Yah! Doyeon-ah, why are you running?” Yeonjung called out, keeping up with the pace quite nicely. There was no denying the excited tone in her voice. It was as though the girl thought they were playing some kind of wonderful game.

Doyeon wanted to roll her eyes but she was so out of breath that she collapsed before reaching the stairs. She propped herself up with a hand on the wall and tried to hatch a Plan B quickly but Yeonjung was already by her side asking the same question again.

The girl’s words quickly drowned out any attempts of brilliant plan-making she had whirling in her mind until all she could hear was Yeonjung’s loud and noisy cider voice.

“Doyeon-ah, were you running away from something?”

“Doyeon-ah, did you get into trouble with the teacher? Is that why you were running?”

“It doesn’t seem like any teacher followed us here. You are safe, Doyeon-ah!”

Doyeon raised her gaze from the floor and shot Yeonjung a look which she hoped could be interpreted as a glare. But when Yeonjung only blinked her bright eyes at her expectantly, like some kind of puppy waiting for a treat, Doyeon knew that wasn’t the case.

How do you get a stray puppy to leave you and go back home?

You don’t--puppies don’t understand simple English even if the words are spelt out for them and Doyeon wondered if there was some kind of mysterious language barrier between her and the girl.

It didn’t make sense that Yeonjung only followed closer whenever Doyeon told her to go away.

Yeonjung follows Doyeon around for lunch.

She’s there waiting when the recess bell rings. She’s there when Doyeon queues up in the cafeteria for her daily sandwich. She’s there when Doyeon leaves the canteen to find refuge in her quiet spot on the rooftop.

“Yah, I’m warning you. Don’t follow me.” Doyeon says, stopping before the stairs. She makes sure to say the words firmly and to frown like she meant what she said. But Yeonjung only looked at her blankly before trotting up the stairs along with her.

That was enough for Doyeon to establish Rule Number 1.

“Look here.” Doyeon points to her right foot with a finger and Yeonjung follows the line of sight. Then Doyeon drags her shoe across the floor slowly, drawing an imaginary line between them.

“This is a line. Don’t cross it.”

Then she leaves Yeonjung to stare at the floor and settles at a corner on the other side of the rooftop. Yeonjung looks at the floor like she can actually see the line and the air between becomes awkward when the girl walks around the invisible line before skipping over to Doyeon’s side.

Doyeon almost chokes on her chicken cutlet sandwich.

Doyeon feels so defeated that she doesn’t try to establish a Rule Number 2.

And so she listens when Yeonjung rambles on about school and homework, and about how Mr Lim has a tattoo hidden under his sleeve but the head teacher doesn’t know about it and about that one time she managed to flew a paper aeroplane out the class window and it landed perfectly into someone’s bicycle basket.

Doyeon can’t help but wonder what goes through the girl’s head but guesses that it’s all just a mesh of weird tangled thoughts. She’s not interested to know either way.

In the end she offers Yeonjung half of her precious sandwich because the latter is too daft to buy her own lunch and lets the cider-drenched words trickle back into her mind.

Doyeon hates that Yeonjung has so many questions to ask.

“Are you going to the rooftop again for lunch? Can I follow?”

“Doyeon-ah, where are you going?”

“I was looking all over for you, where did you go?”

And Doyeon hates that now she answers them every time even though she knew they were all terribly redundant. It wasn’t like you could answer a puppy’s questions and it would leave you alone. No, it wouldn’t understand a word of what you’d say and still follow anyway.

So today they sat together on the rooftop again and Doyeon’s Rules are scattered all over. She has made a total of eleven Rules but she couldn’t remember what they were.

Yeonjung’s cider voice had washed them away like how a wave would fold over words scrawled in the sand. The girl’s voice was sweet like artificial apple juice--too sweet in the way that it irked Doyeon and made her restless.

But the more she listened, the more she got used to the taste of Yeonjung’s words and if she listened long enough, she would find that it wasn’t so annoying and loud anymore.

Doyeon lifted her chin from the crook of her folded arms and rolled over to her side. For once she looked up at Yeonjung and thought that the girl seemed tall as she sat before her, legs crossed and hands waving about animatedly.

More questions.

“Doyeon-ah, are you a chocolate or strawberry person?”

“I like vanilla.” Doyeon finds herself answering again and her gaze runs up the length of Yeonjung’s light-brown hair which glows into a golden or orangey shade--whichever--under the light of the sun. She wonders if Yeonjung even felt bothered by the sun raining down on her back.

It didn't seem like it.

Yeonjung places a finger on her chin, wearing her thinking face. Confusion swirled in her walnut brown eyes.

“You don’t look like a vanilla person.” The girl stated flatly, dropping her hands down to her sides. “I’m a strawberry person.”

Doyeon raised a brow at that, not really quite sure on what to say. But the word strawberry plastered itself onto her mind and it reminded Doyeon of how sweet Yeonjung’s voice was--sticky sweet, like candy or honey caught in the fabric of her clothes.

“Why do you like vanilla?”

Doyeon brought her legs in and pushed herself up into a sitting position. Irritation tickled under her skin at the question. Like how was one supposed to explain their reasons for liking something when there was nothing to explain?

“It’s sweet,” she found herself saying, the words tumbling out in a manner she wasn’t used to. “But not too sweet.”

Yeonjung nodded her head at the answer like it made sense, then she met Doyeon’s gaze.

“I like that strawberry and vanilla go well together.”

And Doyeon wasn’t sure what it was but when the features on Yeonjung’s face softened into a kind of open smile, it was like she had watched it in slow motion, like something out of a daydream; crescent moon eyes, a crinkled nose, sunlight trickling through her golden-brown hair…

It was almost as if the girl wasn't annoying anymore. 

Doyeon felt her stomach churn as dread trickled into her veins and suddenly she got onto her feet, ready to leave.

“D-Don’t follow me.” Another firm warning issued and Yeonjung stared back at her with such round puppy eyes it made Doyeon angry. The latter tightened her grip on the doorknob.

“Doyeon--”

But the girl had already swung the door open and closed it behind her, leaving only the sound of her hurried footsteps echoing through the walls for Yeonjung to hear.

The next day Yeonjung catches Doyeon in a bad mood.

“Doyeon?”

“What do you want?” Her voice is low and gruff and it felt as though all her energy had been drained the moment Yeonjung stepped into her class. Doyeon remained slumped over her desk, refusing to turn to look at the stalker.

“Why didn’t you go to the roof today?” Doyeon scowled at the question, curling her fingers over the edge of the table. Who answers a question with another question?

Only stupid puppies who didn’t understand English.

There was a soft screech of metal and Doyeon didn’t need to look to know that Yeonjung had just dragged a chair over to sit next to her. Then she felt a weight rest itself on the desk she was on and caught onto a whiff of strawberry-scented shampoo.

“I like that strawberry and vanilla go well together.”

Yeah right, strawberries are stupid--they weren’t even tasty as ice cream.

“Why didn’t you go to the roof?” Yeonjung repeated, breaking the short silence which had ensued between them. Doyeon peeked out from under an arm to see that the girl had crossed her arms over the desk and was now staring at her. A puzzled look etched itself onto Yeonjung’s soft features.

Stupid questions.

“Well, why do you ask so many questions?” Doyeon shot back, lifting her head from the desk.

Two people can play this stupid game, she decided.

“I like asking questions.”

“You ask too many questions.” Doyeon stated, her voice unintentionally rising. She was sitting upright now, clearly agitated, but Yeonjung remained unfazed, her expression still open and puzzled.

“I like asking a lot of questions.”

“And don’t people ever tell you how annoying that is?” Doyeon snapped, standing up from her seat.

“No, not really,” was the answer.

“And how on earth is that possible?” She shouted as she turned away, throwing her hands in the air in frustration. Doyeon couldn’t stand looking at Yeonjung, she couldn’t stand those bright brown eyes that looked back at her with such open honesty, sincerity and warmth all at once.

She couldn’t stand it because it was all so incredibly stupid.

“Because I only ask you questions.”

“What?” Doyeon spun on her heel, brows furrowed in confusion. Her mind whirled and in that a moment nothing made sense. It only made her angrier and she gesticulated for words she didn’t have.

“You know what?”--a heavy sigh--“I’m done with all this. Every day you follow me around and ask me questions I don’t even like answering. Why can’t you follow someone else and bother them with your stupid questions for once? Why does it have to be me?”

Then a list of things she didn’t like about Yeonjung reeled into her mind: annoying, stupid, noisy, loud, weird, “Doyeon-ah!”, stupid, strawberries, stalker, words, puppy, stupid--

“I can’t do that.” Yeonjung looked down at the desk like there was something important scratched into the plastic surface, her finger twiddling themselves together.

“Why not?” Doyeon dug her palms into the table firmly, wishing to challenge the girl’s statement. Everything Yeonjung had said so far remained incomprehensible to her. 

“Because you’re the one I like.”

Silence.

Yeonjung raised her head from the desk and their eyes met. And for once the curious glimmer was gone and the excited sparkle had dissipated. Instead a flicker of fear and many other jumbled feelings replaced them in her eyes, and the deep twin chocolate pools swirled with emotion.

“I don’t understand.” The words came out as a squeak and Doyeon felt the hairs on the back her neck stand. Then she swallowed hard and took a step back when Yeonjung began walking towards her.

Her mind struggled to comprehend the confession but she didn’t move away when Yeonjung stopped before her, their feet an inch apart.

“I follow you because I like you, Doyeon.”

And suddenly it didn’t matter if Doyeon understood it or not because Yeonjung had tip-toed and leaned forward to peck her on the cheek, leaving the softness of strawberry lips to linger on her skin.

“Doyeon-ah!”

Doyeon groaned when the girl’s cider voice struck her eardrums sharply again. She didn’t bother to turn around because the growing sound of quicken footfalls was enough to tell her that Yeonjung was right behind her.

And sure enough, she was.

The girl caught onto her hand excitedly and locked their arms together, her soft fingers sliding into the space in Doyeon’s hand. Her shoes squeaked against the floor as she came to a stop.

“Doyeon-ah, did you see what happened at class 2B just now?”

“I heard a new shop just opened at the canteen. Wanna check it out later?”

“Did you know Mr Lim has a new tattoo?”

“Doyeon-ah, are you listening?”

And Doyeon nodded her head lazily as she listened to the girl’s sweet apple honey-coated words. They slid themselves down the sides of her brain until it became all she could hear. Doyeon intertwined their fingers carefully when Yeonjung began jumping up and down excitedly.

Then their eyes met and Yeonjung beamed at her, the colour rushing into her cheeks from happiness or glee--Doyeon didn’t know but it was something pure like that--and she couldn’t help but smile back.

A part of her was convinced that whatever Yeonjung had, that lovely thing that seemed to light the girl’s eyes from the inside, it was contagious.

And until now Doyeon still thought that Yeonjung looked like a puppy, but significantly less annoyingly so.
 

AN: thank you for reading