CHAPTER 5: Younghyun / Brian

Sitting in the back row of the class is great fun. I can see what my classmates do without them knowing. Like how Dowoon pretends to sleep so as not to be disturbed by his fans, or how Sungjin throws a loving stare to Jieun but at the same time, Wonpil, Sungjin's best friend looks at both of them with a hurting looks. Ah, many stories are going on in this class. I only mentioned a few examples.

I am an excellent observer, who sees a thing from an unseen angle in silent, that sometimes make me know things I should not need to know. Like when my parents decided to divorce, I knew ahead of time before they told me. I know my mom has kept the divorce papers on the sidelines of her book before she dares to give it to dad. I also know dad has another woman besides mom. But even though I know, I remain silent. What can I do if I speak, anyway? They will not listen to me, they will not give me rights.

Sometimes I'm also confused why this universe loves to tell me various secrets. Just like one of the secrets about two people in my class that no one else knows.

Jieun and Dowoon are actually step siblings.

If you ask how I know, I will answer that I know it accidentally. As I was walking toward the mini market where I worked part-time, I noticed a car pulling up at the side of the house and from there came Dowoon with an irritated face. He walked hastily into the house. Shortly thereafter, a middle-aged woman also intends to pursue him but then was hold by a man who looks like her husband. And then there was another person who got out of the car, a girl with a tired face. And that girl is Jieun.

As her parents went into the house, Jieun followed their steps. But just before she entered the house, she turned to me.

Our eyes met.

For a moment we fell silent, though I knew she was quite surprised to see me watching what was supposed to be a secret.

But I relaxed, looked away, and walked toward her direction.

She still statued as I walk past her.

But a moment later she called me, "Kang Younghyun."

I turned around, making face like asking what she wanted.

She walked over to me and said, "We need to talk” and asked me to follow her to the park.

As soon as I got to the park I said to her, "What do you want to say? I cannot stay long." That was true because I have to get to the mini market on time if I do not want my salary cut.

Jieun looked at me sharply. But she asked quietly, "You see what happened just now?"

"What happened just now?? What?" I asked back, pretending not to understand.

"My family drama." She answered is softly.

"No, I don't see it." I replied shortly, deciding to lie.

"You've got to see it all." Jieun was taking a breath before continuing, "Whatever you think now, I want you to keep it a secret."

I smiled for a moment, before standing up and said, "Just calm down Kim Jieun, I guarantee even Yoon Dowoon will not know that I know his secret.

After saying so, I walked away, leaving Jieun alone in the park.

I’m sure she's worried that later I'll spit her secrets.

I understand why they both kept secret about them being step-sibling, because that would be the subject of gossip. A popular girl and a popular boy at school are actually step siblings who live together in a house? Yeah, that would be a headline news. Not a year I was in that school, I already understand that there, gossip spread really quickly and that is bad.

But I salute, they keep their secret very neatly. At school they look like friends in general, or even do not look close at all. Woah, they're such professional actors and actress.

The next day, I ran into Jieun. She looked at me with anxious eyes. But I prove my point, nothing has changed since that noon. The secret is still safely locked in my memory box.

Yoon Dowoon also does not seem to know anything about what happened. He was still cold as ever.

I accidentally met him in the game center. He made a fuss there for something I didn’t know, until the bigger man intended to hit him. Good thing my hand was fast enough to keep that man’s hand from hitting Dowoon. Instead of saying thank you to me. Dowoon just walked away leaving me with that furious big man.

Damn you, Dowoon.

As a result I was the one who being hit by that man. The corner of my lips wound, my cheeks bruised. Ah, all this because of that bastard.

When going home, at a crossroads near the game center, I saw Dowoon sitting in front of a mini market while drinking yogurt. Geez

I immediately approached and scolded him, "Well, you see what you do?"

I sat down in front of him and showed him the wound on my face. "It's all because of you, you punk!"

With a poker face he gave ointment and boiled eggs to me

"Is this the compensation you gave me?" I asked him and he nodded.

I took it and still cursed. "Damn you."

While rubbing a boiled egg on my bruised cheeks, I saw him smiled.

Yeah, the infamous cold man, Yoon Dowoon, is finally smiling.

Damn, I really want to punch his handsome face.

But since then, I've become quite "close" with Dowoon. Usually when in class, we act like we do not know each other. Yes, he did act like that to most people, but after that, he saw me with a kind of friendly gaze. Once, he even initiated a bro-fist after I managed to score when we played basketball together.

Who changed not just Dowoon, Jieun also somehow changed since the incident when I accidentally know her secret. Several times I caught her watching me. She also started to interact with me, though often it is expressed with anger. I think being a tsundere is her trick to get near me. Like when we had to clean the class together, she would start getting mad, asking me to do this and that, but I deliberately left her. Because I know, she did try to get to clean the class on the same day as me.

She seems to like me, I know that.

I told you I'm a great observer, I can know something easily because my level of sensitivity is high. I could tell she was getting interested in me because after that incident, she was often shopping at the mini market where I worked part-time. She seems to love the green plum drink because she always buys it almost every day. But the question is, why doesn’t she buy it in bulk at one time? Why go back and forth to the mini market just to buy it every day? And in fact, no member of her family ever stopped by the mini market. I guess they're a pretty rich family who always buy their needs in the super market. Kim Jieun, ah I mean, Yoon Jieun is an exception.

When I had my schedule in the mini market, Jieun came as usual. This night, my supervisor came to check and he started scolding me for the cash difference that was supposed to come in and the cash at the checkout. I kept quiet, my supervisor was like that, he likes to make it up, make small problems bigger. I'm really tired of working here, so I just let him scold me because I intend to resign. But Jieun suddenly came and defended me. She rebuked my supervisor that he could not accuse me of anything. Everything is recorded in the CCTV in the mini market. If he intends to investigate the perpetrator who took the money, he can see it from the CCTV. But my supervisor was still on his stand. Yes of course, because by looking at CCTV, it will all prove that what he accused me of is wrong.

Since my supervisor never acknowledged his mistake, Jieun took my hand and pulled me out of the mini market.

She took me to the same park when she talked to me back then, but this time we sat on the swing. She scolded me, why did I keep quiet when I was treated unfairly like that. She did not stop talking, raving about how I should have done. I let her talk. Seeing her like that was enough to cheer me up.

Naturally I laughed.

Turns out Jieun is a nice and fun person. I feel pretty comfortable being next to her.

But as I see her being good to me, it reminds me of someone else, and somehow it makes me feel guilty.

Forgive me Jieun, I can only think of you as a friend, nothing more.

There’s another girl who stole my heart long before I met you.

I really don’t like to be involved in drama. I prefer to observe it from the outside as I've been doing. But unfortunately, this drama is inevitable. Because who has stolen my heart is Lee Haru, Jieun's bestfriend.

The main actress in my story isn’t Jieun, but Haru.

I'll tell you how I met Haru. It all started from the hospital. Do you remember that I am a transfer student? I'm a transfer student from Canada. Since the divorce, I was taken by my father to Canada, while my mother lives with my younger brother in Seoul. Just a year living with my dad, I decided to go back to Seoul after hearing that my younger brother was seriously ill. He has cancer. My heart breaks to pieces as I know he is sick. Ever since I heard the news, I was determined to stay with him. So in this early year I went back to Seoul and spent my time to accompany him to undergo chemotherapy at the hospital.

He was so happy to see me coming. "Woah, Younghyun hyung is coming! Ah, no, Brian hyung .. I prefer your english name, hyung. It’s cooler!"

I hugged him tightly. Kang Daehyun. My eleven-year-old brother had to go through all this. My heart hur