Chapter 22
Forgotten Memories: Once parents

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The bell had ringed throughout the school at its usual time. It announced the end of the day for the students who would be rushing out as soon as possible to meet with their friends or leave for home, each had its reason to hurry. Yujin’s reason today was the same as ordinary even if she didn’t always make it first at the school’s gate. She waited at the side, pacing side to side while younger and older students went pass her. She wouldn’t mind waiting.

There was a short ringtone that resounded from her vest’s front pocket. She took out her cellphone to see that it was a message.

From: Jupaaaaaal the loveliest person on the earth that you love very much
Sowwy sowwy sowwy >< you know what I’m going to say already, don’t you? Well yeah, I’ll be getting off a little bit later so please please please wait for me at the good ol’ park, okay? I love you lots lots lots :*
PS: Wow you didn’t remove the extra a’s?

This girl, sighed Yujin as she pressed off the power button to put it back in her pocket. Does she love repeating everything three times? And what is this new name, always editing her name in my contact list, ah really, thought Yujin as she smiled to herself. Jooyeon had last edited her name to add more “a”s because, according to her, Yujin would always call her nickname and extent the last part, whether she was shouting angrily or happily.

She threw her backpack over her shoulder and walked onto the path that she knew very well. She waved at some people from the neighborhood that she had learned to get acquainted by helping them various times. She stopped in her tracks when she smelled a warm smell.

“Come in, come in, they’re fresh out of the oven,” said the owner when he saw Yujin stop in front of his bakery.

“Hello ahjussi, how are you doing?” she asked politely to the middle-aged man as she got caught.

“I am good,” he smiled as he removed more bread from the giant oven next to him. “Oh, where is your friend?”

“She told me to wait at the park because she’ll get out later,” she sulked.

“Haha, here have this sweet bread, you must be hungry now, and take this red bean filled bread for your friend too,” he said as he took out two round warm bread from the display.

Yujin quickly took out her small wallet to take out the money when the old man stopped her. “B-but I should p-

“No buts! This is a gift for this Sunday, when you lifted up my mood.” He laughed, remembering the incident.

She turned red from embarrassment. “Ahjussi! You promised you wouldn’t talk about it again!”

That Sunday, after living Jooyeon’s rant and random mood change for less than five minute, Yujin couldn’t bear to listen more to her. Jooyeon was living the consequences of her period, resulting into mood sways and random sweet cravings, adding onto her already exaggerated hunger, earning her the title of ‘shikshin’ from many of her classmates. To calm her down in the less amount of time, Yujin had left her and ran out the fastest possible to the closest store. To her dismay, stores closed at five in the afternoon on weekends. Fortunately, she had seen the bakery’s open lights. Although, she didn’t know they had cleaned the windows today, making it seem like the glass door wasn’t there. The result was a girl dashing into a door, ending up with a bruised forehead on the ground. In her confusion, the store’s owner laughed for the first time in the day, after being moody.

“Okay, okay, I promise, now go and pay me next time, alright?”

“I prefer it that way,” she beamed. “Bye bye ahjussi~”

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One of the lockers in the empty hallways was open, with different articles being furiously thrown out of it. A girl fell back on her bum for she had bent her legs for too long in one position. She ruffled her hair, trying to think in concentration.

“Where did the cap go?!” She asked to no one in particular.

She had been in here for more than 20 minutes, searching a missing cap from the new duffel bag she bought. She had filled it with various objects that an athlete would need which she was going to surprise someone by giving it away.

She heard footsteps and turned her head to the source. A boy with thick rimmed glasses with a fringe almost hiding his eyes looked at her. He was part of the student council and was checking the grounds for any students left.

“Oh, it’s Jooyeon, what’s up?” He flashed a smile.

“Joonie boy! There’s something missing from the gift I’m gonna give to her!”

“Her? Do you man her?”

“YES!” Jooyeon once again started panicking.

Joon was also panicking even if he didn’t know what he had to find. “Oh , oh ! Even I gave it much earlier, why did you take time to find it now?!”

“I don’t know, because you’re smart and I’m stupid? Help me instead, idiot!” She started punching his legs.

“W-what do I need to find?”

“A red and green cap! Oh my god, I’m late and she’s waiting!” She had now started searching in her school bag for the nth time.

“Wait,” he said as he noticed the outstanding bright colors on Jooyeon’s uniform. He bent down to her level while Jooyeon watched his movements with her eyes as she sat immobile. He approached his hand slowly to her chest and her eyes were about to fall from their holes. He quickly swiped up what he was trying to get hold of before Jooyeon was going to mutilate his arm, “Yah! ERT!”

“Look who’s talking! I wasn’t going to do that! I was trying to get THIS from your front pocket. BLIND IDIOT.” He waved the piece of cloth in her face frantically.

She paused as soon as she saw what he had in hand, “Oh.” Her mind had finally registered the foreign object, “OH, OH.” She smiled from ear to ear before tackling him down “Thank youuuu Joooooon!” She quickly took the cap from his hand and stuffed it in her bag. Joon got up and dusted off his pants, watching Jooyeon hectically put back her books in her locker and clos