How I Know Jung Eunji

Focus: Jung Eunji

One shot

It’s simple. Just how I think Eunji would be as a classmate.

In high school, there’s always that one person everyone is friends with. They aren’t popular per say. Just that everybody knows them. Jung Eunji was that person. You didn’t need an hour to know how a friend knew Eunji. She was friendly and outgoing. Not the type who was constantly crossing boundaries. The type that was always there for you when you needed her – most of the time, you never really knew so yourself.

I had a friend, Yookyung, who was painfully shy. She didn’t know how to begin a conversation with anyone but she was pretty expert on ending them herself. We’d been classmates for years and always expected to be classmates at the beginning of each term. Until the last term rolled in and we’d been separated. I was fine. I got along well with myself and liked to think of myself as independent; but I’d been worried for Yookyung.

Well, I’d found out a couple days later that there was nothing to worry about. Unsurprisingly, Eunji had approached Yookyung. They weren’t the best of friends, as Eunji already had a set of her own. But, I never saw Yookyung uncomfortable as I passed by her room. I’d get her for lunch and find the two in a conversation. And if not, she’d be listening to Eunji’s stories, laughing along with the class.

Eunji was that person. She never let you feel left out. I’d always though that she was the glue that kept the class together. But, I’d had a strange feeling that despite how she comfortably greeted classmates, there was an indescribable wall between her and you. You never really knew her. She’d always comforted people but no one really knew if she needed comfort or not. Whether she had heartbreaks or whatnot.

If everyone had a Eunji, then who was Eunji’s Eunji? It always bothered me.

We graduated and I never saw her again. I admit, once in a while I thought of her. But, I never expected to her again on TV.

The only reason I even saw her on the TV in the first place was how crazy group chats had been. After working my shift, I’d found a good fifty messages. They went ballistic. Everyone knew Eunji had an amazing voice but no one knew she’d been trying to debut as an idol.

As I watched Apink News after being aggressively cajoled by old classmates, I smiled. Do you know how you find out something new about someone you’ve known for a long time? I felt that. Jung Eunji had always been the class’s mother. But seeing her carefree and playful with these members she’ll soon call family made me insurmountably happy. I was glad that finally Eunji had a shoulder to lean on, and that it was Apink. Truth be told, I never worried for her again. She was in good hands.