After Christmas, things returned to normal or as almost normal as they were. Ji and I still hang-out. I wear his bracelet and he wears my scarf. We weren’t branding each other or anything. It was just a sign of our friendship.

Then I turned 16 and suddenly became a woman.

I was always thin and was an athlete but I didn’t expect for my menses to come this late. I was probably the last in class to get my monthly visitor but I don’t have the courage to ask the rest of the girls in class.

Crap! Menstrual cramps and don’t even get me started on all the ickiness of blood trickling from my “you know what”. The worse was when I told my mother and she and my father sat me down for “the talk”.

I’ve never felt traumatized in my whole life even when I saw our old neighbor walking in his birthday suit. It was just too much information. I was hoping they would get better when the time comes they would need to speak with both of my siblings. The horror!

The thing they have advised me most about was how I should act now when I am with Ji; that since I’m a lady now, I should act demurely and avoid inappropriate behavior. Weren’t they just suggesting that last christmas?

They said that they trust him but it doesn’t mean that Ji can’t act like any other boy. So I defended Ji and told them that he’s not like that and he doesn’t even see me like that. Of course, I haven’t told them about the kisses. But even without those kisses, if Ji liked me he would have told me by now wouldn’t he?

It was during our classmate Chaerin’s birthday that I attended my first high school party. She was popular in class so most of our classmates and even some from other sections attended. Her parents weren’t strict and allowed us the house for the night.

As most high school parties go, they start out innocent enough and by the end of the night, almost half the class has gotten drunk after sneaking out beer and other liquors.

We were playing spin the bottle and whoever the bottle points to will take a shot. I was unlucky enough to be chosen 8 times, 5 of which Ji drank on my behalf aside from the 3 he already drank for himself. So by the end of the night, Ji was pretty much hammered.

When many were already bored with the game, someone suggested a new game called “7 minutes of heaven”. Say what? I wasn’t familiar with the game and when I asked Chaerin what it was all about. I immediately blushed.

The idea of locking yourself up in a room with a boy and then be expected to make-out or whatever for 7 minutes was appalling and unacceptable. Only to me anyway, the rest of my classmates seem to think it was a good idea. I looked at Ji and he was sitting in a corner chair drunk and without a care.

A pair was chosen serially and was locked inside Chaerin’s guestroom to do whatever for exactly 7 minutes. The rest of the class went in like that and always came out appearing flushed, sometimes with smeared lipgloss or with rumpled hair and clothes, much to the delight of the waiting and teasing crowd.

I was anxious whether I would get called and prayed that I wouldn’t be stuck with someone I didn’t know. I was hoping on appealing to just giving him a kiss on the cheek if needed.

Suddenly my name was called and so was Ji’s. Great! By now everyone was teasing us again. Jiyong and Dara sitting on a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!   I felt them pull me and someone grabbed Ji form his spot and we were both pushed inside the room.

Ji sat on the floor by the foot of the bed leaning back on it with his legs outstretched. He was looking at me oddly and I was staring at him back.

“Don’t just stand there, sit beside me.” Ji said and I followed, sitting beside him and hugging my knees to my chest. Crap! What happens next?

“So what do you want to do?” Ji asked first.

“Seriously? I don’t know. I didn’t know things like this happen in parties. If I knew then maybe I wouldn’t have come. But I’ll just chalk this up to my high school experience next to drinking. Speaking of which, I’m sorry you had to drink a lot because of me. You’re probably drunk now and I probably am too because I think I’m speaking too much. Am I speaking too much? I think i’m speaking too much. Woah! I suddenly feel dizzy. Are you dizzy?” I continued to babble, which Ji stopped by pressing a finger to my lips.

“Sshhh! I’m getting dizzy. And yes, you speak too much. We don’t have to do anything you know so you don’t have to be nervous. We could just pretend” He said as he removed his finger slowly, leaving a trail of tingling sensation where his finger touched my lips.

“Okay” I said, agreeing with his plan. “So what do we do for the next 5 minutes?”

“I have an idea.” He said as he pulled me up from the floor and onto the bed.

We laid down side by side, facing each other. I was getting sleepy and so was Ji. My eyes fluttered close with the last image of Ji leaning towards me.

The rest of the class later found us in bed sleeping and didn’t disturb us. Weird! You’d think that after seeing the 2 of us sleeping together that they’d tease us more, turns out it had the opposite effect. As confusing as it was, they thought that Ji and I were boring.

My only other confusion was when I woke up I felt warm breath on me and Ji was asleep with his nose touching mine. I didn’t know how to react but it was just as well because he woke up soon after, unfazed. It seemed like no big deal to him, stretching his arms complaining of a hang-over and urging me to move so we can go home before our parents ground us.

Even if his lips hasn’t touched me again, I wasn’t that stupid not to know that it was an Eskimo kiss.

Now I’m back to thinking, do all these kisses ever mean anything to him?