“So everyone’s here except for—oh that guy again, he’s already in senior but he still haven’t change,” the teacher sighed after a while of introducing myself to class. “Well you can sit right next to the empty seat back there Ji Yeon-ssi.”

I nodded and walked with my head bowed to the seat he was pertaining. I felt a bunch of eyes following me as if lacers might come striking out from them anytime. Almost thirty minutes had already passed when the door shut open with a bang. A boy who looked like he just came from a marathon stood at the door with his hands resting on his knees, panting.

“Chwesonghamnida seonsaeng-nim,” he bowed at the teacher and straightened up after.  He then coolly walked to the desk next to me.

All the girls looked at him admiringly while some of the guys frowned.

I gasped. Oh shoot! I forgot to wake him up.

His eyes landed on me after he sat down; I avoided his eyes before—before they could kill me.

~~

Courage. Courage

I took a deep breath before approaching his table at lunch break.

“A-annyeong hasaeyo?” my voice quivered giving away how nervous I felt.

“Wae?”

Thank goodness he responded,that gave me hope somehow. I sat opposite to him since he was eating alone, and settled my tray on the table. I gave him half of the food I bought.

“What’s this for? A bribe?” his brow raised.

I smiled unsurely and then started my repentance, “I’m sorry I didn’t wake you up at the bus. I totally forgot. Sorry.”

“Good thing you realize what you did. Oh well thanks for the bribe, I’m forgetting it all.”

“Really?!” my face brighten up. “I’m Park Ji Yeon by the way.”

“Lee Hongki,” he said as he munched up his food like a hungry lion. For a while, I thought the name sounds familiar and for a while, I thought he was cute. Just as I thought everything’s fine, I was wrong. He stopped and deliberately retained his cold serious face. “On a second thought, I’m going to forgive you totally only if you don’t talk to me from now on.”

“Eh?”

“Look around you and you’ll see,” he stood up and started to walk away.

I didn’t get him but in my curiosity, I wondered my eyes around the cafeteria. Is it just me or almost all the girls around were throwing me malicious glances.

“Annyeong!” a cheerful voice interrupted my thoughts. There stood beside me a smiling girl.

I greeted her back and invited her to sit.

“I’m Eun Hye. I’m one of your classmates by the way, in case you don’t remember my face.”

“I’m Ji Yeon,” I bowed my head. We exchanged basic info about ourselves before she started blubbering about Hongki.

“What do you see around you when Hongki-ssi left you earlier?”

“Well I saw few of the girls were staring at me,” I said clueless of what she was about to proclaim.

“They’re not only staring at you but they were glaring at you, cursing you under there breaths.”

“Eh?” seriously that crept me out.

“You see, Hongki-ssi is quite popular in our school. That table over there which was filled with flirty looking girls was a club dedicated only for him—no no no! Don’t look at them for a long time they might sense we’re talking about them. Well you can look at it this way; a lot of girls from that club will jump off the cliff if Hongki-ssi said so, and if that’s the only way he would recognize them. You see, Hongki-ssi doesn’t recognize any of them, he sees them as—how do I call this? Ah! Parasites! Yes parasites. But those girls are quite head-strong, you know they had a motto that goes like this ‘If we couldn’t have Hongki-oppa, no one will have him’. When we we’re still first years, when the club was just newly established, Hongki-ssi had a girlfriend and when those crazy fan girls learned about that, they made a little—no I mean a big scheme that resorted to breaking them apart. The girl went to study abroad instead while Hongki-ssi? He was left here with those evil fan girls; even some of the guys hate him for being that popular among the girls. And therefore, if I were you, you should refrain from talking to him even though you can’t help the fact that his loveable face can lure you.”

I gulped. This girl sure can summarize a very long story for a short while. “Does that mean he doesn’t have any friends at school?”

“Well I think he have friends outside the school or is there? But one thing I’m sure is that I haven’t seen him with anyone,” I heard a sympathetic tone in Eun hye’s voice. She abruptly stood up to walk away, “Well you should finish your food now, lunch time’s almost up. Oops! Just a reminder, you should avoid temptation my friend because if they see you next to him the second time around? You’re a dead meat. Well—see you later!

Eun hye’s warning didn’t scare me at all instead it made me want to talk to Hongki more. Not because I wanted to be challenge or even reckless but because I knew how it felt like to be alone and that is the scariest thing on earth.