Poetry involves the mysteries of the irrational

perceived through rational words.
Vladimir Nabokov

 

My second client was a referral from Dae. His name was Lee Seungri, who was also a member of his Math club.

Now, I know Seungri. Everyone calls him rat since he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. No secret is safe from him hence, no one tells him anything important. So I was surprised when he came to me asking for help saying that Dae pointed me out.

I’d smack Dae if only I wasn’t curious who Seungri was holding a torch for. I’d always thought of him as a happy go lucky guy and a flirt around girls. So who was he having a problem with?

I got the surprise of my life when I learned who.

It was the rat’s archenemy, the cat. Lee Chaerin has always been hard to approach even by other boys and she has been fighting with Seungri since kindergarten. I don’t know how their tiff started. Seungri claimed it all started when he spilled juice over Chaerin’s favorite dress. Since then, they were always involved in shouting matches and revenge pranks.

No one knew but Seungri stopped hating Chaerin a long time ago and actually started to like her. He just continued pretending to hate her so he’d still have her attention. Weird, I know, but Seungri said we always tease the ones we love.

Now, this was a big problem for me. Even if Seungri felt deeply for Chaerin, how would I know if she might possibly return his affection? I told Seungri to give me a week to sort things out.

I watched their interaction throughout the week and saw them at each other’s throats. I noticed the mischievous gleam in Seungri’s eyes trying to rile up Chaerin. In turn, she was all feisty and fiery.

The one day Seungri was absent, I got my breakthrough. Without him to fight with, Chaerin would just seem bored to anyone but I see what others fail to see. She’s lonely and I know she misses Seungri.

By the end of the week, I wished Seungri luck and gave him my note to copy and give to Chaerin.

“Will this really help?” he asked dubiously.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But at least she’ll know. What’s the worse she could do to you anyway? You’re already fighting.” I said.

“She could stop talking to me. I’d rather be fighting with her everyday than that.” He replied.

 “Trust me.” I implored him.

I saw Seungri approach Chaerin at the cafeteria during lunch and handed her the note. He was silently sitting in front of her, looking sheepish, while she read the letter.

Like cat and rat

A magnet’s north and south

Like you and I

Opposites attract

I saw her expression change from anger to surprise. Then she suddenly threw her arms around him. Seungri was surprised and so were the rest of us.

So it came to pass that day, the cat and rat stopped fighting and started loving. Turns out, Chaerin liked him since kindergarten even before he spilled juice on her. She just stayed annoyed at him to get his attention. I guess they are a sadistic pair. The more you hate the more you love.

Seungri thanked me profusely. I told him to shut his mouth.