*~Leejin’s POV~*

The past month had been rather tiring because of the grudge that the SC head held against poor Yonni. As her partner, I had suffered alongside her.

Suffered not because of the tedious tasks that she assigned us to do, but because my ears have to suffer Yonni’s incessant chattering.

That girl amazes me. She always has endless things to talk about. Every time I think she is going to be done, she jumps into a new subject. She seems to have energy and joy that never runs out. And Yonni is always around people. When I see her along the corridors, she will be with some of her classmates. When I see her at our duties, she will be with me. When I see her leaving school, she will be with these one or two guys. In other words, I’ve never seen her alone. Neither have I seen her quiet moments.

In fact, it remains incomprehensible as to why two polar individuals such as me and Babo-ni are capable of getting along without much conflict. Perhaps it’s because we’re both comfortable with the current situation, since she loves talking while I prefer listening. I am more of a loner since young. Rather than rooting from my personality, it is more of a result of past experiences.

I, the taekwondo champion of the youth female league, was born with a disease known as Atrial Septal Defect (ASD). Basically, it means I was born with a hole in my heart. With my condition, I was unable to do many things that many children are able to do. I never had the chance to play “Police and Thief” under the hot sun with other children. Nor the chance to enjoy sports lessons in school. I didn’t even go on any school field trips.

Because of my illness, my family was always very protective of me. Especially my brother. Although he is just 5 years older than me, Jungsoo-oppa had been the one who took care of me for as far back as I can remember. My father was always busy with work and my mother didn’t really cared about the two of us as well.

I would say that I came from a middle-high income family. Father was a politician, and Mother loves to spend her time outside. Jungsoo was the ‘mother’ of the house, being in charge of keeping the house in order and taking care of me. My father used to tell me that when I was a baby, my brother adored me. He would spend hours just staring at me and playing with me.

When I got older, he was the one who would send me to school and pick me up after school. He was the one who would stay up throughout the night when I fell sick, and the one who took care of my daily needs. If I had any homework which I did not understand, he was also the person I would go to for help.

When I could not play with the other children because of ASD, he was the one who would play with me. Apart from school time, oppa was with me almost every other minute. However, as time went by, I began to find his constant attention suffocating. I understood that my brother only wanted the best for me, but I was beginning to loathe his desire to control every aspect of my life.

Even though I was born with the defect, my parents were unwilling to let me suffer the pain of surgery. Hence I did not undergo any surgery for my non-critical condition. Nevertheless, I was determined that I did not want to lead such a restricted life. I finally managed to convince my family to let me go for a correction surgery when I was about 10 years old.

The surgery was a success and I finally became a normal person. However, it did not stop my brother from thinking that I still required special care. Even when the doctor cleared me for physical activities, Jungsoo still treat me as though I was going to die from a heart attack as soon as I started moving.

We got into endless arguments over the past few years after I had recovered, and eventually, it caused a small rift to appear between the two of us. Although we’re still on great terms, I found it hard to talk to him sometimes. Especially when it comes to things that he disagree with.

I clandestinely took up taekwondo when I entered middle school. Knowing Jungsoo would flip if he ever found out that I was taking part in such a rigorous sport, I kept the whole thing from my family. Using Chess Club as my excuse, I went for my training sessions secretly. At that time, something had happened in my family that caused me to become the target of bullying in my school. I channelled my anger from the bullying to the training, practising much harder than the normal student would.

Eventually, together with my flair for this sport, my efforts in practising paid off when I cleared my yellow and green belts within my 1^st year of training. I then took another two more years to work my way up from blue, to red, and finally the black belt.

Before that, I represented my taekwondo school in various small competitions and always emerged either second, or the champion. Since they were just small scale competitions, I was able to keep it from my family. However, my break came last year, when I joined the National Taekwondo Championship and came out as Grand Champion.

Prior to winning the Championship, I had been studying at another high school in our city. Jungsoo-oppa and I had moved to the city at the beginning of the year due to some problems back home. My poor brother had to hold a few part time jobs just to take care of the many expenses. When I was offered a fully-subsidised education scholarship at my current high school, I simply could not pass up on the opportunity.

However, this meant that I had to seek approval for my transfer from my guardian, who was my brother. Needless to say, World War Three broke out in his apartment, where I was staying at for the first few months of the year. In the end, his senseless stubbornness could not outfight my reasonable logic, and he had to grudgingly sign the consent form for me.

After all, I was the baby sister that he adored and doted on the most.

Anyway, ever since I moved out from his apartment and into the school dorm, I only saw him once a week. Every Sunday, I will pop by his house to play mum for a bit, before heading back to the dorm after dinner. Sometimes, we would even go outside to spend some sibling time together. Our usual hangouts include the mall, and the cinemas.

Oppa and I get into small arguments once in a while over where to go. I am not the usual kind of girl who enjoys shopping and loves cutesy stuff. Instead, I hate shopping, and I also hate cutesy things like dolls and fun fairs, and definitely did not enjoy taking strolls along the beach or in some parks. My brother, on the other hand, always pesters me to act more like a younger sister and let him enjoy being an older brother.

I guess he loves the feeling of taking care of others.

This kind of reminds me of Yonni. Or more accurately, Yonni kind of reminds me of my own brother. They both had that bright spark in them that is capable of lighting up a dark room, and they both have difficulties keeping their mouths shut. However, I got to say Yonni feels more like a younger sister to me than an older sister.

From the one month that I spent with her, I couldn’t help but slowly open up to this sunny individual. Due to the bullying that I got in school and the lack of friends because of my previous illness, I would push people away as I preferred to be alone.

I still remembered the first time when I met Yonni. She had given me a bright smile after having accidentally bumped into me. It was not just a normal bright smile, but the same kind that my brother has, those that can instantly lighten a heavy heart. The sense of familiarity caused me to take to her almost immediately, and also to soften when she tried to make friends with me.

Then when I saw her getting bullied by the Student President, I couldn’t help but feel more for her as I knew how it felt to be the target of bullying. Although I couldn’t say I was overjoyed when I was assigned to partner her, I didn’t mind it too much. Speaking of which, I had a gut feeling that the arrangement was deliberate, since people tend to keep away from me due to my “cool” personality and Taekwondo mastery. Inhyeon probably thought Yonni would suffer if she was placed with me.

However, Yonni’s reaction surprised me. I thought she would be all whiny and grouchy as to being placed with me. But she actually seemed happy and thrilled. Initially I thought it was because she probably didn’t know I was the overall captain of the school’s Taekwondo teams. Yet when I invited her to one of our training session, she was awestruck and proud that she was my friend.

A self-proclaimed friend.

And when we were assigned to perform ridiculous duties, she actually felt apologetic to me. In fact, her level of soreness that she exhibited was much lesser than I had anticipated. Although she did whine once in a while about Cho Kyuhyun doing her in.

Now, speaking of Cho Kyuhyun, this man spells trouble. I have no idea how Yonni got involved with him, but he certainly did make her life hell in the SC. According to Yonni, even though he was not part of the SC, he was the direct reason behind Inhyeon’s hostility towards her. From what I know, he is one of the most popular and influential figure in the whole school. Rumours have it that his influence outreach all the way up to the director board of the school.

The girls in the school are C-R-A-Z-Y about him. I had only caught glimpses of him for he was always surrounded by tons of girls whenever he appears in parts of the school compound. Personally, I did not really like this guy. I never really liked attention-seekers. Not to mention I was suffering alongside Yonni because of him.

Yonni did not seem much of a fan either. She didn’t really mention how she got to know him, but she always seems sour whenever she grouses about him getting her into trouble. But unlike some people whose grumbles were often accompanied by curses and wishes of ill-luck befalling onto their sources of unhappiness, hers were always mere harmless whining.

Actually, I am rather curious if anything in the world will bring Yonni down. She seemed rather proficient of jumping back up on her feet no matter what happens. In fact, I think she is incapable of any other emotions besides from her constant happiness and frequent worrying.

She should really train up on her anger. I’ve never seen her getting angry no matter what Inhyeon threw in our court. Maybe if she flares up once in a while, she wouldn’t seem like such a soft person. But then again, it was her lack of temper and optimism that gave her that sunny personality that gave me the reason to allow her to get close.

This was why I held my tongue when she too started using the name that irks me when my brother calls me by that. We were in the SC room, reporting in for the early meeting in which we would be informed of our duties for the next two weeks.

“Jinnie, what do you think will be our duties for these two weeks?” Yonni whispered as she leaned in closer to me, the dark rings around her eyes suggesting that she did not sleep much last night. Since it was only 6.30am, we were among the first few people who reached the SC room.

“I doubt there are anymore ty jobs that they can assign to us...” Stifling a yawn, I tried to reassure her as I could feel her anxiety. I was up the whole night preparing for a project presentation that was due.

“What if...” She pondered for a while before a horrified look appeared, “What if they want us to wash the toilets this time?”

“Mwo?” I was very amused that this thought even crossed her mind, “Baboya?”

“You’ll never know...” She wailed softly as she tugged on her long hair, “They’ll definitely come up with something new to torture us! I just have a bad feeling about the duty for these two weeks! Aish! This is all Kyuhyun’s fault!”

Trying to hide a smile, I patted her shoulder. Groaning, Yonni slumped lower in her chair, certain that horrible duties awaited us. I was less apprehensive because I really couldn’t think of any more tricks that they can pull on us. There’s only that much Inhyeon can do without rousing the suspicions of the teachers.

The room slowly filled up as it got closer to the scheduled meeting time. Inhyeon and her band of minions were among the last few to arrive. As they began announcing the various duties that each pair was assigned to, I felt Yonni gripped my arm tightly.

There was a haughty look on Inhyeon’s face as she closed her notebook with a loud snap, “Yonni-sshi, Leejin-sshi, please come talk to me for your duty. That’s all for today, people. Dismissed,”

I heard Yonni gulped softly beside me as the colour drained from her face. Determined not to let Inhyeon get the satisfaction of scaring us, I whispered softly to Yonni, “Babo-ni, get a grip on yourself. She’s just trying to scare us. Breathe!”

Yonni flashed a helpless look at me as I pulled her up onto her feet after me. Taking deep breaths like I ordered her to, she followed me as I walked towards Inhyeon.

Just as Yonni had predicted, our duty for the next two weeks was to clean up the roof of the Clubs and Societies block. I was livid. Why would we need to clean the place where no one ever goes?

“Inhyeon-sshi!” I called out after her, “Why is that our duty?”

“Do you have a problem with that?” Her voice was dangerously smooth as she threw a fiery glance at me, daring me to challenge her openly.

“Of course not, Inhyeon-sshi!” Yonni gave my arm a warning squeeze as she interrupted before I could say anything, “We’ll perform our duties well,”

“Good, and Yonni-sshi, since you do not have additional managerial duties unlike the rest of us,” Inhyeon looked at her smugly before continuing, “Would you mind making 2000 copies of the flyer for the school carnival by tomorrow?”

“20-2000 copies?” Yonni was very shocked. There was only one copier that is for the students’ usage and it was in the library. The photocopier in the library was loud and prone to paper jams. To make 2000 copies would take more than four hours. Not to mention the racket she would be causing.

“Shouldn’t the SC have funds to go to a shop and order the flyers?” I was feeling indignant for my partner, “Why do we have to do it?”

“Besides, I already have plans for the day... I won’t be able to make 2000 copies by tomorrow...” Yonni had a pained look on her face as she tried to reason with her bully.

“Yonni-sshi! As representatives of the student body, we should always place the interest of the SC before our own! This is your responsibility and yet you’re shirking from it?” Inhyeon had a look of contempt on her face as she shook her head in mock disappointment, “No wonder you don’t hold any leadership positions...”

“Take it back!” My smouldering temper exploded at Inhyeon’s hurtful comment, “You have no right to say that!”

“Jinnie...” Yonni pleaded softly, tugging gently at my arm, trying her best to swallow the tears that were beginning to fill her eyes.

“Did I say anything wrong?” Inhyeon challenged as she sent an equally fiery glare at me, “Shouldn’t we all act in accordance with our responsibilities?”

“Is making us do ridiculous duties out of your childish whims part of your responsibilities?” I spat back at her, trying to shrug Yonni’s hand off my arm, “Or did you earn your position using petty tricks like these on your competitors?”

“MWO? HOW DARE YO-”

“We’ll be leaving now!” Yonni exclaimed as she jumped between me and Inhyeon, “I’ll give them to you by tomorrow,”

Then, without giving either one of us chance to speak, she pulled me out of the SC room behind her. I was furious at Yonni for not letting me speak my mind. After all, everything was for her sake!

“Let go!” I flung Yonni’s hand away angrily, “Why didn’t you let me finish what I want to say?”

“I...” Yonni was taken aback by my fierce tone, “Jinnie... I-I just didn’t want her to start targeting you too...”

“What do you me-” I had already started lashing out at her before what she said sank in, “You...”

“Because of me, you already have to suffer performing stupid duties...” Yonni paused for a while, before continuing with her head hung low, “I don’t want you to become the target of her wrath because of me too...”

I was rendered speechless by her words. Besides from my brother, I’ve never had another person care for me. I was unsure of how I should react to Yonni’s kind intentions. Meanwhile, that silly girl had her head hung so low that her forehead was almost touching the ground.

"Even when she's not targeting me, I'm getting the same 'punishment' as you, am I not?" I answered her gently, giving her head a gentle whack before continuing, "So you should have let me scold her just now! At least we could get some revenge!"

Yonni looked up at me blankly, before her face brightened when she understood my reasoning, "What if she turns into a banshee and start attacking you?"

"Attack me?" I cracked my knuckles and smiled a little back at her, "I'm the taekwondo team captain! Unless she has a death wish,"

"Oh!" Yonni jumped a little in realisation before breaking out in a huge grin, "I forgot!"

"Aish..." I crossed my arms as I shook my head in mock dissatisfaction, "Babo-ni!"

"Jinnie..." She whined as she trapped me in a big hug, "You'll protect me if anyone tries to bully me right?"

"AISH!" I struggled to loosen her grip, feeling embarrassed with the unfamiliar act of affection, "People's gonna get mistaken that there's something between us! Let go!"

"No!" She laughed heartily as she tightened her hold, "I want to hug my best friend for life!"

"Best friend?" The two simple yet powerful words reverberated in my head as I continued trying to free myself, "Best friend..."

Yonni finally released me after another gruelling 10 minutes, when more and more students arrived. Beaming, she then declared that she was going to walk me to my class and started dragging me off. We had barely just reached the foyer when a growing commotion stole my attention from Yonni’s chattering.

“That must be Cho Kyuhyun…” I muttered under my breath as a quick glimpse confirmed the tall figure surrounded by the girls by his side. I was about to continue walking forward when Yonni suddenly came to a stop.

“I’m sorry, Jinnie,” She flashed an apologetic smile at me as she steered me towards the crowd, “I need to talk to somebody,” Without releasing my arm, she pulled out her mobile phone and started dialling single-handedly before holding it up to her ears. I stood beside her, hopelessly trapped in the tight hold she had on my arm, listening vaguely to the conversation that she had with the person on the other side of the line.

“Annyeong! I need to talk to you… Yes, I’m behind your welcome party,” She tiptoed and craned her neck to look over the crowd before us, waving enthusiastically as the tall guy I saw previously turned in our direction with his phone held up to his ears, “So I’ll meet you at the usual place okay? Bye!”

Slipping her phone back into the pocket of her school skirt, Yonni began walking towards the nearest stairway. As we ambled up the steps, she explained that that was Cho Kyuhyun, the source of our troubles in the SC. They were actually housemates and there were four people in her house in total. Namely Yonni and her brother, Cho Kyuhyun and his cousin, who was Yonni’s classmate.

The ‘usual’ place that Yonni was talking about was actually the small open space at the stairway of the topmost level of the school, a place where the other students hardly visit. Cho Kyuhyun was already there when we finally reached. With a smirk on his face, he glanced at us from head to toe before commenting, “Aish… Short legs really do move slower… Did you crawl up here?”

“Yah! We were taking our own sweet time!” Yonni shot back sourly, “Besides, what’s the use of having long legs when all you do is to sit in front of the computer all day long?”

“Deny it for all you want,” He dismissed Yonni’s words with a slight wave of his hands before looking straight at me, “So… Who is this?”

“She’s my best friend partner in the SC!” Yonni answered him when I kept quiet, “Her name is Leejin!”

“Oh… So she’s the poor soul that is being tortured together with you?” He teased, earning a kick from an enraged Yonni.

“You still have the face to bring that up? It’s all your fault that this is happening to me!”

“I offered to talk to Inhyeon-sshi for you…” He answered in a matter-of-factly way before walking over to us, “You are the one whom refused my offer,”

“Let you talk to her so she will torture me more?” Yonni said as she smacked Cho Kyuhyun’s shoulders lightly, “Do I look stupid to you?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?” There was a mischievous glint in his eyes as he looked squarely at her. I stood by the side silently, taking in the playful banter between the duos, and finally understood why Inhyeon had a misunderstanding about them. Just by one look, I could tell the close relationship that they shared. As an outsider, they really looked as though they were dating.

A quick glance at my watch showed that it was already 7.40am. Not wishing to be late for class, I interrupted them, “School’s starting soon,”

“Arasso,” Yonni flashed a big smile in my direction before turning back to Kyuhyun, “I just wanted to tell you that I can’t go to the mall with you later,”

“What? Why? Then how am I going to know what to get?”

“We can buy it tomorrow? I have duties today,”

“But your duties end at 5pm right? Why can’t we go after that?”

“I know… But after my normal duties,” Yonni paused and reached into her bag to pull out the small stack of flyers that Inhyeon passed to her previously, “I need to go to the library to photocopy 2000 copies of this. Inhyeon-sshi’s instruction.”

“2000 copies?!” He took one of the flyers from her and studied it closely, “That would probably take your entire lifetime to complete…”

“Exactly! That’s why I can’t make it today…”

“Aish… Only stupid people like you will get into this kind of trouble,”

“MWO? CHO KYUHYUN! Do you want to die? How can you be heartle-“

“Arasso,” He suddenly exclaimed, cramming the flyer into his back pocket, “I’m going to class. Bye!”

With that, he turned and went down the stairs without a second look at us. We stared after him with our mouths agape, shocked by his lack of sympathy for Yonni’s sticky situation. Annoyed, Yonni shook her fist at his back before screaming some unintelligible words after him.

I was rather irritated by him. From what I saw, he seemed like a selfish person who only thinks about himself. I’d only known Yonni for a month, and I feel unjust for the treatment she was getting in the SC. He was her housemate, yet all he did was to rub salt into her wounds! I really did not understand what all those girls saw in such a jerk like him.

I parted with Yonni after we arranged to meet at the roof half an hour after school. Boiling with anger over the unreasonable duty that was assigned to us, I went straight up without taking lunch. She arrived at the fore-arranged time. Leaving her school bag beside mine, she walked up to me and handed me a small warm box.

“What’s this?”

“Your favourite food,” She replied, moving to get the brooms from the supply cabinet that was beside the roof access door. I opened the box carefully, and to my surprise, the aroma of Ddeokbokki floated out.

How did she know that was my favourite food?

Noticing the shocked look on my face, she broke into a grin before addressing my surprise, “Whenever I see you in the canteen, you were always buying Ddeokbokki. So I assumed you like eating it. And I didn’t see you at the canteen just now, so I supposed you haven’t had lunch yet. Am I right?”

I kept silent as I picked up the chopsticks and started eating. A small warmth was beginning to tingle deep in my heart. I was a little touched that Yonni actually spent the effort to try to pay attention to me.

Is this what friendship is about? Unconditional care and concern?

As I leaned against the low metal grill barriers quietly, feeling the warm Ddeokbokki slide down my throat, Yonni had already began sweeping up the fallen leaves that were lying all around the cement ground. The building that we were on was only 3 storeys tall. This meant that the surrounding trees were towering over the roof. Looking over the barrier, I could see that the surroundings floor was also littered with fallen leaves.

“Jinnie! Hurry up and come and help me!” Yonni shouted as she used the hand that was holding the broom to wave at me. Her absent-minded action resulted in the small heap of fallen leaves that she had swept to scatter. She started spluttering and coughing from the cloud of dust that had risen. She waved her hand fervently, trying to shield her face from the flying dust, but the broom that she was still holding only swept up more and more dust.

“Aish!” I yelled, annoyed by Yonni’s inattentiveness, “Babo-ni! Let go of the broom! You are only going to make things worse!” I stormed over her side and yanked the broom from her hands before pulling her to the side, away from the dust cloud. We exchanged looks briefly, before she broke into laughter.

In next to no time, she was laughing so hard that she doubled over, holding her stomach. The hilarity of the situation did not escape me, I was fighting hard to keep the grin off my face. It had been a long while since I had to fight so hard to keep a straight face. However, the battle was soon lost as I too was consumed by laughing fits. The two of us just kept laughing and laughing for the next 5 minutes before the laughter finally ceased.

“Aww… My stomach hurts… That was so funny!”

“Aish… You’re really a babo! Which normal human being would wave with a broomstick in her hand?!”

“I really forgot about the broom!”

“Gosh… My face hurts…”

“You should laugh more! If not your face will crack if you laugh!”

“Yah! This is all your fault!”

“Hey! I brightened up our boring duties didn’t I?”

“Baboya?”

“NE~~~ Babo…YOU!” Yonni laughed as she poked me at my waist before scooting away. I started running after her, trying to get my revenge for her teasing. Eventually, we collapsed onto the platform leading to the water tanks, tired from our little game. As Yonni sat there panting loudly and laughing endlessly, I stole a glance at her happy form. “I could really get used to this…” I thought as a small smile worked its way up to my face again, “I have already forgotten how easy it is to be happy…”

After we rested for another 10 minutes, we finally got down to the cleaning that we were supposed to do. The roof was rather big, but between the two of us, we managed to sweep all the dead leaves and dust into small heaps in slightly less than 2 hours time. Wiping the beads of sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand, I stared at the many little heaps that we had made. Somewhere to my right, Yonni was trying her best to sweep one of the piles into the garbage bags that we had gotten from the janitor’s closet. It wasn’t easy because the stuff kept pouring back out from the opening of the bag. The strong wind that was attacking the roof was also undoing our work by scattering some of the heaps.

“This is going to take forever…” I muttered as I looked around the roof for another way to remove the leaves, “Stupid Inhyeon… You better hold on tight to your throne… If there’s going to be a way to pull you down… I’m going to throw you off before you can even open your mouth…”

Suddenly, a bright idea came to me. I recalled that the ground below was also filled with fallen leaves. This meant that instead of having to stuff all the fallen leaves into the garbage bags before carrying them downstairs, we could just sweep them through the openings of the metal grills and save all the trouble. Giving myself an imaginary pat on my back for my ingenious solution, I shouted instructions at Yonni to start gathering all the small heaps into one big heap by the metal barrier.

To my surprise, she followed my instructions without a second word. Staring at her wet shirt that was soaked by sweat, I could tell that she was really tired out by the manual work that she just completed. I tried to encourage her by teasing her about having to work out more so she would not be so lousy. Determined to prove to me that she was not as weak as I had said, Yonni regained some of her energy as she started sweeping at top speed. 10 minutes later, all the dead leaves were lying in a huge heap at the base of our feet as we stood by the low barriers.

“Jinnie? Why are we doing this?”

“To complete our job, of course,”

“But… We were supposed to remove these leaves from the roof… Not leave them in a heap…”

“I know, that’s why we have to do this!” I answered as I gave a hard kick at the heap before us, causing a significant portion of the dead leaves to fall through the barrier and down to the ground below. Yonni wore a horrified look on her face as she stared at me with her big brown eyes. I winked at her before taking another shot at the heap, urging her to join me.

Initially, Yonni was very unwilling to. She tried explaining that it was not right, but after I reasoned that the ground was already littered by dead leaves, and that it wasn’t going to make much of a difference, she finally joined me in my ‘soccer’ training. Soon, she was having even more fun than I had.

At long last, all that remained in front of us was a medium sized heap. Tired by all the kicking, we took a short break by drinking some water before returning to it. We decided that we were going to push it down at one shot so that she could go and finish the photocopying that Inhyeon wanted her to do.

“Ready?” I asked Yonni, who was also squatting beside me with her hands outstretched in front of her.

“Ready!” There was an excited smile on her face, like that of a child who was about to open her Christmas present.

“One… Two…” I started counting down the time. On three, we pushed forward at the same time, sending the remaining fallen leaves and dust down to the ground below. Satisfied and happy, we were about to exchange high-fives when a shrill scream rang out down below.

“AH!!! WHO THE HELL THREW THESE THINGS DOWNSTAIRS! AISH!!! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!”