baro and sandeul are just too cute <3

(14 January, Monday)

“We need more players,” I heard them say as I walked by their lunch table. The first half of school had gone by well. I’d made a couple friends and I was looking for them in the lunch room.

“Hey!” I felt someone grab the sleeve of my cardigan, pulling me back towards the table with two guys. “Do you want to play cards with us?”

I turned and saw a guy with wide, puppy eyes asking me, his cute face unfitting with his rather low voice.

“Oh, she’s in my composing class!” exclaimed one of the guys sitting at the table. My eyes followed the voice and saw the one other second year in my class; Sandeul. He was an energetic boy with light brown hair and a cute eye smile. “Will you play with us? We’re one short.”

“Um…” I said, glancing away. I saw my group of friends a few lunch tables down.

“Oh c’mon,” Sandeul insisted. He held up a card. Ace of spades, “A for Alice, right?”

My jaw dropped slightly, “H-how do you know?” The only person I’d told my American name to was Hyunseung, and I haven’t seen or heard from him since our encounter the other day.

“I’m a fan,” Sandeul smiled brightly at me, pulling me down to the empty seat besides him. “Your covers on YouTube are really good.”

Wow… he knew about them? That was surprising…

“Oh… thanks,” I said shyly.

“They are good,” puppy eyes mused. “I’m Baro by the way. Do you prefer Alice or Eunseol?”

“Eunseol,” I answered. I didn’t want to gather too much attention; not that my non-Asian looks weren’t doing just that.

“Mm alright, Eunseol it is,” Baro grinned. “So, do you know how to play Egyptian?”

“A little…” I said, taking my hand of cards.

“I win,” I grinned, holding the full deck in my hands.

“Wow!” Sandeul slammed his hands down on the table. “You were hustling all of us!”

“You said you weren’t good,” Baro accused.

“I’m not,” I smiled.

“Rematch,” Baro demanded. I expertly shuffled the cards, making Baro and Sandeul shoot me suspicious looks.

“You play cards often,” Sandeul said, sounding more like a statement than an accusation.

I shrugged, “Kind of… I mean, compared to my friends back home, I’m just decent.”

“Looking down on us Koreans?” Baro joked, raising his chin. “We’ll show you we’re better than your Migook chingoos.”

I laughed and dealt out the cards. After about five minutes, I once again held the full deck in my hands.

“Whatever!” Baro exclaimed. “I give up!”

I laughed, “Let’s go get food; I’m hungry.”

While we waited in line, we talked about our schedules. Turned out I had chemistry with Baro next period but no other classes with either of them.

“You guys are like brothers,” I laughed. It was almost the end of lunch and during the short fifty minutes, we’d become like old friends. “No, almost like twins.”

“Ew, I don’t look anything like this ugly kid,” Baro said, making a disgusted face.

“Shut up, you know I’m better looking than you,” Sandeul shot back.

I laughed, “No, I mean the way you two act.”

“Oh please, I am so much more mature than Baro,” Sandeul rolled his eyes. “Well, I better head to math. See you two later.”

“Aight,” Baro said, standing up too. “Eunseol, let’s go too.”

I stood up and Baro easily navigated the complicated hallways until we reached the science wing.

“I heard chemistry is impossible,” Baro commented as we looked for our classroom. “And our teacher, Mrs. Lee, is supposedly a psycho. Apparently she likes to put people on the spot and make fun of them.”

“Oh… lovely,” I muttered. “I at science.”

“I at school in general,” Baro laughed. “I wish I could just take music and dance classes all day. But nope, not happening.”

We found our classroom and walked in, purposely sitting at the back of the room. The teacher was a small old lady with sharp facial features and a stern looking face.

“Good afternoon class,” she said as the bell rung. “Everyone excited for chemistry?”

The class exchanged nervous glances. Did she expect us to answer that…?

“Well good; I’m glad no one is,” she smirked. “Because no one should be. Please do expect hell when you walk in everyday because I guarantee that all of you musically gifted children will not enjoy this class.”

“Wow… she is crazy…” I said under my breath. There was no way she could’ve heard that but as her eyes travelled around the room, they stopped at me.

“Oh, are you Eunseol, the transfer student?” she asked, slowly approaching me.

“Yes…” I said hesitantly.

“I heard you grew up in America. Do you think you’ll be able to keep up with us?” she asked, tapping a finger on the table.

“… Yes…” I said, fighting to keep my expression calm.

“Oh really? Are you sure you don’t want to sit in the front?”

“Yes,” I bit my lip. I wanted her to leave me alone.

“Alright, well if you start falling behind… I might have to move you up,” she said as she made her way to the front of the class again. “So class, let’s begin the first lesson.”

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

“So how was your first day?” Kyungmi asked as I took off my scarf and coat. The first day of school was over, and other than chemistry, everything had been fine.

“It was pretty good,” I smiled, hanging Hyunseung’s scarf on my bedpost. I really needed to return that to him… and I probably shouldn’t keep using it, but it was just so warm and whatnot. “I made some friends. Baro and Sandeul; do you know them?”

Kyungmi laughed, “Them? Of course I know them. They’re our school’s biggest pranksters. They keep things interesting around here.”

Suddenly, her eyes widened and she jumped off her bed. She grabbed Hyunseung’s scarf and exclaimed, “Is this Jang Hyunseung’s scarf?”

“Uh… yes,” I said uncertainly.

Kyungmi looked shocked, “How? How do you have it?”

“I uh… I ran into him yesterday when I got lost. He gave me directions and lent it to me. Told me to return it sometime,” I said. What was the big deal about him? Technically, he didn’t even go to this school…

“Eunseol,” Kyungmi said seriously. “Jang Hyunseung is like god around here.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Why? I mean, yeah, he’s good looking, but what’s so special about him?”

“Okay, don’t get me wrong; I’m not obsessed with him,” Kyungmi said, returning the scarf and sitting down on her desk. “I just know a lot of him because so many girls who go to Elite worship him. So, Jang Hyunseung is the one and only son of the principals of the famous music and arts high schools, Seoul’s Music and Arts Academy for girls, and for boys. The dad teaches the all boys school, and the mom teaches the all girls. But his parents are also the presidents of JS Entertainment. Jang Hyunseung is not only an amazing dancer and singer, but he’s also some sort of freaking genius. Of course, being Mr. Perfect, he got into Seoul University. It’s obvious that he’s going to take over the company and schools when the parents retire, so his future is already set. So many girls have their eyes set on him. Whoever he marries is going to be one lucky girl…”

I frowned, “Poor Hyunseung…”

“Huh?” Kyungmi narrowed her eyes. “Eunseol, every guy in the world wants to be him…”

“But he has to keep being so perfect all the time,” I sighed. “Imagine how stressful that would be.”

Kyungmi stood up and walked over to me. She cupped my face and squished my cheeks slightly, “Eunseol, I’ve known you for two days, but you might be one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.”

I laughed, “No, no don’t say that. I was just saying I wouldn’t want to be him even if I had the choice.”

“Oh whatever, I still think you’re too cute and too nice to be true,” Kyungmi said, pinching my cheeks. “I wish I had a little sister like you.”

Even as the conversation shifted away from Hyunseung, my thoughts lingered on him. Was he happy with the way he lived? Despite the fact that he was a total stranger, something made me want to know him better. Now that I knew more about him, I was shocked that he had treated me so well yesterday even though he was so popular. Not to be stereotypical but still…

“Hey, do you know where Hyunseung’s dorm is?” I asked Kyungmi out of the blue.

“Hm? Oh, why?” she asked, smiling slightly. “Suddenly interested?”

I shook my head, “Nah, I just want to return the scarf.”

“Oh, right, right,” Kyungmi said. “He’s in dorm building C, some room on the second floor. Elite students aren’t usually allowed, but I can get you in. Does tomorrow sound good?”

“Tomorrow sounds perfect.”