f o u r;

Despite the cold morning breeze of February, the sun was shining brightly behind the fluffy white clouds in the sky, warming me inside. It was the kind of weather that I liked most.

I stood in front of the gate of my house. Seeing the grass stains on the tip of my right shoe, probably from the previous trip to the hill with Chorong and Myungsoo last Friday, I started to run it against the brick wall of my house to scrape it off.

Two minutes later, I heard the familiar tender voice belonged to my best friend as she tried to explain to the ever smiling boy walking next to her about yet another food stall that she went with her father. Myungsoo caught my eyes. Which stall is she talking about now? I mouthed.  He shrugged.

Chorong only paused for a brief five seconds to greet me and resumed her chatter straightaway as we walked to school.

The school appeared a little different that day. I wasn’t sure if it was only me imagining it, but I could see more couples in the hallways than I usually noticed, and there were many groups of giggling girls with peculiar calculative looks on their face. Some of them even gave us deep stares full of meanings, which to be honest sent shrills down to my bones.

After dropping Myungsoo off at his class, Chorong and I proceeded to ours. That was when I realized what was happening. There were at least ten boxes of different shapes and sizes on my table, and most of them were pink and red. Curious, I quickly approached my table and took one of the cards attached to the boxes and read it.

To: Woohyun

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope one day you will
open your eyes and realize that Park Chorong is
not the only girl in the world.ᄏᄏ

Chuckling at the last bit of the note, I folded it back and tucked it into my pocket. I sat down and unwrapped one of the boxes ― the smallest of them all.

“So it’s that time of the year,” Chorong muttered as she settled down in her seat. She was my deskmate and had been one since we started school. That was one of many things I loved most about being the same age as her.

“Are you jealous of your best friend’s popularity?” I teased, popping the ribbon shaped chocolate into my mouth. I offered her one but she made a gagging face. “Speaking of which, where’s mine?”

She shot me a look. “What? Chocolate?” I nodded, and she scoffed. “Why should I make you one? You’re not my boyfriend.”

At that time, I didn’t understand why it felt like that sentence pierced me inside and made me uncomfortable, but I swallowed that feeling along with the chocolate that no longer tasted sweet in my mouth.

During science, we headed off to the lab which was located at the second floor of the next block. Halfway there, I noticed that I left behind my notebook. I told Chorong to save me a seat, which was actually unnecessary because we always sat at the same place every week, and ran back to our class.

I entered the empty classroom and went straight to my seat. When I bent down to look for the book under my table, a small pink box under Chorong’s table caught my eyes. I looked around to see if there was anyone watching, and once I made sure I was alone, I took the box out.

My heart skipped a beat when I realized that it was a Valentine present. I wanted to believe that it was meant for me, but misplaced by the confused sender. But I was proven wrong when I saw the heart shaped card on top of it. There was no message or even the name of the recipient, but only her name was written in a glittery pink ink.

Park Chorong

After staring at the note for a minute or so and wondering what on earth happened to my tomboy best friend who hated pink the most, I carefully placed the box back to where I found it. With my notebook in hand and hopes in my heart, I made my way out of the class to the laboratory where my best friend was waiting, pondering when I’ll be able to taste her chocolate.

Chorong disappeared as soon as the final bell rang. When I asked her where she was going, she just gave me a nervous laugh and said she was going to meet someone and told me to wait with Myungsoo at the school gate. I didn’t get to ask who she was meeting because she immediately sprinted off after stuffing her books into her bag.

Seeing her vanishing into the crowds outside, I peeked into her desk and found that the pink box was gone. I was still frowning when Myungsoo came in holding a paper box of … ginseng?

“Where is noona going?” he asked, looking at the direction where Chorong went to.

I shrugged. “She said she wanted to meet someone,” I told him. Pointing at the paper bag in his hand, I asked, “Where did you get that?”

He glanced at the bag. “My classmate gave it to me,”

“Is that,” I wondered, “a Valentine gift?”

He nodded as if it was not a big deal. “Last year she gave me a box of white chocolate, but I told her I can’t really eat sweet things because of my heart. So this year she gave me this,” he explained.

“You get the weirdest Valentine gifts ever,” I laughed remembering how he would always receive healthy food besides dark chocolates each year rather than the normal chocolates or candies.

After I was done packing my bag, we sauntered off in silence, passing rows of classes and more gawking and whispering girls. The cold winter breeze entered my lungs the moment we stepped outside the building. I pulled my scarf tighter around my neck and asked Myungsoo if he was warm enough, in which he replied with a polite smile and nod.

We almost reached the gate when Myungsoo stopped at his track, his eyes fixed on something that had caught his attention. “Hyung,” he called.

“What?”

“Isn’t that Chorong noona?”

I followed his gaze and my eyes landed on the girl with the long hair across the soccer field whom I had known almost my entire life. In front of her stood a boy taller than her who was wearing maroon coloured scarf around his neck and a matching beanie. I recognized him right away. Yoon Doojoon; the star of our school’s soccer team and also the captain, two years our senior. Being excellent both on field and in class, he definitely had a lot of fans. But I never knew that Chorong was one of them.

Myungsoo and I observed as she took something out from her bag and nervously handed it to him. It was the pink box I saw earlier. My heart sank. I imagined hearing a glass shattering to pieces and wondered why a broken heart doesn’t make the same kind of noise.

Doojoon mumbled something to Chorong before taking the box from her hands with a mannerly smile and left. Having witnessed that, I expected to see her jumping in joy or at least beaming with delight, but instead her gaze fell to the ground. Half her face was buried in her scarf and covered behind her long hair. I was about to make my way towards her when I felt my phone vibrated. It was her.

“Woohyun ah,” she called. “Something came up. I’ll be late, so you and Myungsoo can go without me.”

I felt Myungsoo’s eyes on me. Not taking my gaze off her, I questioned back, “Are you alright?”

“Mm,” she murmured. “I’m okay. Don’t worry about me,”

Still staring at her figure from afar, I nodded. “Okay then,” I responded, and she ended the call. I slipped my phone back into my pocket and glanced at Myungsoo. He, too, had a worried look on his face. We both watched her helplessly from a distant as she hunkered down, crying.

That was the first time my best friend ever lied to me.

I feel like the quality's decreasing with each update :(