seven;

Spring came, and soon it was warm enough to start running again.

It was a blessing in disguise, I thought, as it gave me some time alone. For myself, at least, so that I could clear up my mind and think. Besides, it worked very well as an excuse to distance myself from Chorong and Myungsoo.

I was massaging my calves, getting ready for a practice run, when a voice approached me. “Is something bothering you?” a certain someone asked. I glanced to my right to find its source. It was Hoya, my classmate who also was in the running team, joining me at the starting point of the racetrack.

“Not really,” I lied. “Why?”

He shrugged. “It’s just… I don’t see you with Chorong and Myungsoo that often anymore. Did you guys fight?”

Close, I wanted to say, but instead I just threw him a nonchalant smile. “Nope,” I replied. “I just thought that maybe once in a while we all need time for ourselves.”

“Really?”

“Really,”

“If you say so,” Hoya gave up.

“Hey,” I looked in front, ready to sprint. “Let’s run.”

I don’t know how long did I run, or how much, because by the time I stumbled on my feet and fell flat on my back, I felt my legs sore and my thighs cramping. The school was now a ghost town, now that everyone else had gone home. Everyone, except for me who kept on running, chasing after something that even I did not know what.  Everyone, except for the person whom the vague sound of footsteps from a distance belonged to.

I glanced up to find out who my unlikely company was. From afar, I saw a petite girl walking from the school building, heading towards the gate. A girl I recognized but never talked to, and never bothered to. She caught the sight of me and jumped to discover my eyes observing her steps. With a nervous bow to acknowledge my presence there, she quickened her pace and vanished from my vision.

Seeing that the sky is turning dark, I got on my feet, headed to the bleachers to pack my stuff and made my way home.

April 14^th.

I was eating black bean noodles and enjoying my own company while pretending to read The Phantoms of the Opera which I had abandoned for some time at a stall two blocks away from home. There was nobody else at the shop except for the elderly woman who runs the place, but she was sitting at a corner minding her own business. That was fine for me since I was not in the mood to talk to anyone.

The door then slid open and Myungsoo stepped in. He flashed his signature childlike smile upon seeing me, before progressing to sit next me. “Ahjumma, can I have a bowl of black bean noodles?” he requested the woman, who then proceeded to the kitchen. Two minutes later, a huge bowl was ready in front of him.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

“What do you mean? I’m eating of course,” he replied with his mouth full. The two corners of his mouth were smeared with the grease from the noodles.

“But you’re not single,” I pointed out.

He did not answer but continued to slurp on his noodles until half the bowl was emptied. “Hyung, are you mad?” he asked, putting down his chopsticks.

“Why would I be mad?”

“Because I took Chorong noona from you,”

I stopped chewing and looked at him. “You didn’t take anyone from me,” I mumbled back.

“If you’re not mad, then why you don’t hang out with us anymore?”

“I thought you need some time alone,”

“But she misses you,” Myungsoo remarked.

While gulping down the last strands of noodles, I placed my chopsticks on top of the now empty bowl and slipped some money from my pocket and put it under the bowl. “That’s very nice of her,” I snarled as I got off my chair, grabbed my book and left.

“Hyung,” I heard his soft voice calling before I stepped out from the stall. “I do, too.”

“Woohyun ah,” my mother’s gentle voice called. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon. Usually at times like this I would be off somewhere with my best friends, embarking yet another adventure as we preferred to call it. I was playing the video games alone when she came to sit beside me. “Did you fight with Chorong?” she asked.

With my eyes locked to the screen, I shrugged. “Kinda,”

“Do you like Chorong?”

I hit the pause button and gulped. I looked up to see her face, and when my eyes met hers, I knew I couldn’t lie any further. “Kinda,” I nodded lightly.

“Is that why you don’t hang out with her and Myungsoo anymore?”

Another nod.

She patted my head and ruffled my hair gently. “My poor baby. It must have hurt a lot.”

I felt my eyes burning with hot tears and lowered head so that she could not see my face. But then she pulled me into her embrace and let me hide my tears there as she continued to rub down my back. “Kinda,” I said, ignoring the lump in my throat.

“Go on and let everything out,” she whispered. “My poor Woohyunie.”

When I was five, before I befriended Chorong, I would come home running to my mother’s embrace and cried there whenever I was upset that I couldn’t be the first one to help Chorong get back to her feet. She never asked me why or what happened, but she would just sit there, hugging me until I stop crying.

At that time, I felt like I had returned to being a five-year-old again.

Note: In Korea, February 14th or Valentine's Day is where the girls give chocolates to the guy they like. March 14th or White Day is where the guys return the favour and give candies/chocolates to the girl they like. April 14th is where single people (usually gather and) eat black bean noodles.

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