Reply Three

We were sitting on the big stairs that were the seats of students during lunch break. In front of us were some guys of our class, playing basketball. Because that Busan guy was there, too, my best friend, who was ogling at him, didn't even notice that I searched for my first love on the school yard. Since it was still warm outside, many pupils went out to eat their lunch. Some girls were sitting behind us, talking about that Busan guy who introduced himself as Lee Howon. Eunji had thrown daggers at them with her fierce glare which had made me laugh. It was stupid how she had thought they would steal him away from her. Especially since I knew that her ideal type changed frequently.

"He is quite popular." I remarked, munching on the sandwich that Eunji's mother made for her.

"Of course. Since he is new and good-looking. And that Busan accent is darn hot." Eunji bit down on her lower lip. I giggled at the sight. Just like her, I was pretty sharp in noticing things, too. She stared at me, then at my bag of ojingeo ttangkong. "Yah, why did you buy it if you won't even open that?"

"I'll save it for later." I tried my best not to let her notice my flustering. Instead, I turned her attention back to Howon. "Look, your Busan guy shot a hoop."

I stared at his smile for a little longer than I had wanted. He was indeed really handsome. Especially his smile and his laugh. That throaty laugh that was damn attractive. I almost thought for a moment that his smile was prettier than Woohyun's, but quickly dismissed that idea. Instead, I continued watching our guys playing with the ball. He stood out among all the others since he seemed more sporty than they did. I wondered whether he practiced dancing in his free time because he looked like someone who knew how to move his body. My attention was averted away when I saw Woohyun approaching the group of players. I immediately forgot Howon's attractive smile. It was replaced by that beautiful human being on the basketball field, instead. I could hear Woohyun and Sunggyu asking if they could play together. The guys of our class nodded, since they really admired the both of them. Howon seemed a bit shy at first but returned their smile with his attractive one. Woohyun, Sunggyu and Howon were in one team, whereas the other losers of our class had formed the opposing one. I called them losers because they were little punks who read magazines in breaks.

It was my forth time watching Woohyun playing sports. The first time was when he had kicked the ball right into my face. The second time when he had sung SNSD's Baby Baby because he had kicked a goal into the net. The third time was when he  had played volleyball in physical education. This was the forth time and he was still as attractive as before. People always said that guys looked the best when they played sports or when they played with kids. It was indeed true. Sporty guys were the most attractive ones.

But when he suddenly weakened his dribbling, when he started walking slowlier, fixing his gaze at a spot and when Sunggyu yelled at him, asking what was wrong with him, I noticed the girl who passed by the basketball field. It was that pretty girl from the bus. The one with the long hair. The new classmate of Woohyun. He didn't even pay attention to anyone other. He just stared at her beauty. "Yah! Woohyun, look out."

He ran into the pole where the basketball hoop was situated. The ball jumped to Howon who picked it up. Woohyun rubbed his forehead that came in contact with the cold pole, hissing. It probabaly hurt. I giggled at the scene when I realized why he had hit the pole. It was because he hadn't paid attention. Because he had stared at the beautiful girl who was passing by. My smile disappeared the instant, realization had hit me.

"Seriously, Woohyun, what were you doing?" Sunggyu couldn't suppress his laughter as he patted his friend's shoulder. Howon on the other hand, who stood right beside him, turned his head to the girl whom he assumed to be the reason why Woohyun had crashed into the pole.

"Were you looking at her?" He pointed his thump to the girl a few meters behind him walking away, a smirk playing on his lips.

"I wasn't." Denial. He was in denial. He pretended as if he had never looked at her. As if he hadn't drooled when she had walked past them. The first sign of starting to like someone.

"You were." Howon grinned, turning on his heels. The next thing he did was unexpected. I hadn't expected it. Neither did Eunji or the guys on the field. Nor Woohyun or Sunggyu. He called her name. 

"Goo Hara."

I think back then, everyone of us had wondered why he had known her name. Sunggyu was the first one to utter our surprise. "Why do you know her name? You aren't in our class."

"Dude, shut the hell up." Woohyun beside that Busan guy spoke up between his gritted teeth. Embarrassment. The second sign of liking someone. He was embarrassed that Howon had called out her name. He was embarrassed because he liked her and he wanted to look good in front of her. Because he didn't know what that Busan guy proceeded in doing.

But Howon didn't listen to him. He smiled at the girl, who turned her attention to the group of males. "I'm the guy you met at the bus station. Lee Howon."

She returned his gentleness with her pretty smile, bowing politely. "Hello."

"A friend of mine likes you."

My jaw, Eunji's jaw, the other girls' jaws, Sunggyu's jaw, Woohyun's jaw and the guys' jaws were wide open. We couldn't quite understand why we were so surprised. Maybe because he had done something teenagers had done back then in middle school. Calling the friend's crush's name and telling them that their friend liked them. It was a typical behaviour of teens. Then again, we were still young. Who said as an 18-year-old you were mature?

"Thank you." She bowed again, smiling, before she walked away from the whole scene. Woohyun was the first one to close his jaw as he asked Howon whether he was his friend because he just called him that.

"Well..." Howon touched the nape of his neck, flustering a little. "You know, I'm new here and..."

"Okay." Woohyun smiled at him, reaching his hand out. "Welcome to our high school, Howon."

Don't ask me why I had stood in the hallway alone. I was probably waiting for Eunji in front of the girl's toilet. But I can't be sure. I just stood there, holding the unopened bag of peanuts in my hands. Even though I hardly remember the reason why I stood there or what had happened between the scene with Woohyun becoming friends with Howon and this one, I still need to tell the story that had happened here in the hallway of the third-years. Here in Summer 2008 because I can still remember that day clearly.

As I had mentioned, I stood in the lonely hallway, probably waiting for Eunji as I stared into nothing. I thought of the dinner my mom would prepare when Sunggyu ran to me, his mouth gasping for air. Regarding his expression and the sweat on his temples, he seemed to be burdened. His tongue was stuck out.

"Elizabe-, I mean Hana. Give me some." He pointed at my bag of peanuts.

My eyes widened as I shook my head. "NO!"

"Please, it's urgent. I just drank a mix of lemon juice and chili." His eyes were already teary as he pleaded me. I still insisted in rejecting him. Guess, I should have given him the bag or something else since he just grabbed my peanuts away from my hands and opened it violently that some of them landed on the floor. I screamed at him when he took a handful of peanuts out and ran away, not before stuffing them into his mouth right in front of my face. I stomped my feet, acting like a child. I was so angry at him and I started regretting to have apologized on Eunji's behalf. He was irking me and I hated him for that. He had destroyed my reminder. He had destroyed my beautiful memory of Woohyun buying me that bag of ojingeo ttangkong. Out of frustration even I started eating some. I was fuming with anger and I didn't even care if I looked like an idiot, stuffing peanuts into my mouth in front of the ladies. I didn't even care that Howon was passing by for whatever reasons. He stared at me weirdly before pretending not to have noticed me. My throat started hurting suddenly. It was burning. I looked at the bag, searching for the fact that it was spicy but didn't found it. It suddenly felt itchy and I wanted to scratch my tongue. I felt like throwing up, coughing in between. When my knees fell to ground, I saw Howon running to me, uttering incoherent words. I think, he was swearing or somethin, but I only heard the word 'oh my god'.

"Come, jump on." He told me as he positioned himself in front of me in a kneeling position, the back facing me.

"Hell, no." I didn't want to have skinship with someone who was a stranger to me. But when my throat began hurting even more, I decided to forget that he was a man and jumped on his back. He carried me with easiness to the infirmary, running like his own life depended on it.

I was sitting on a chair in the infirmary, Howon beside me. He had apparently sweated a bit. I noticed by the way he clasped his hands together nervously. I couldn't help but feel bashful because he seemed to care for me. I wasn't one of those girls who thought the guy, who helped them, was in love with them. It was just that I found it pretty cute that he was nervous and even helped me when we hadn't spoken before. Our first conversation was during the moment he had wanted me to jump on his back.

"You are allergic to peanuts." The nurse remarked, looking through her thick frames.

"What?" I widened my eyes, processing what she just said. I never knew that I was allergic to peanuts. Especially since I had eaten peanut-prepared dinner by my mom before.

"Not as strong as you might think. You can still eat dak kang jung if you prepare it without peanuts. Products that may contain traces of nuts can be eaten, too. But avoid a big amount of them. But please, don't eat peanuts directly." She pointed at the bag Howon held.

"What to do now?" I asked her.

"You said your throat hurts. Drink enough water. You may go home now. After emptying out your stomache and the peanuts, you may feel better." She wrote a note, excusing me from today's classes.

I nodded slowly, as Howon spoke up. "I'll walk her home."

The nurse smiled at the both of us, before closing the door. We both walked side by side, him holding my bag of peanuts,whilst I had the note in my hands. We were walking to our classroom to take my stuff and give the teacher the apology. He didn't speak, neither did I. The only sound we both heard were the steps we took and some murmering of the classrooms we passed by. When I decided to fill the silence by thanking him for helping me, he interupted the awkward situation first.

"Should I throw it away?"

He meant the bag of peanuts. The bag that had almost killed me. But it was still a Woohyun reminder even though Sunggyu had destroyed it for me. Now that I thought about it, I should have blamed him. He was the one who had started this whole malheur. He had opened the bag of peanuts which had triggered me to eat it, too. He was my bad luck. My bad karma. I asked God in my head why I might have deserved it, before responding. "No, I'll keep it."

He chuckled when I pulled the bag off his grasp. "To remind you of your choking?"

"No, to remind me that there is someone I have to kill." I retorted back. My hands balled into fists as the image of Sunggyu's face popped up in my head.

"I hope you are not talking about me since I was the one who has saved you." He smiled, not facing me. His profile reminded me of an animal. Not a weird one like a horse. Rather a beautiful one. An adorable one.

After we had entered our classroom, given the teacher the note and had taken my stuff, not before catching a stare from my best friend, I walked next to Howon the way back to my home. He was one of the first guys who would meet my place. Of course, I had had male childhood friends who had entered my room but since I had been in puberty and I had understood what the difference between guys and girls were, I started realizing that when guys were invited into girl's room or vice versa, it meant that. But it was an exception with that Busan guy. Because he wanted to walk me home. He was being friendly.

"Hey Howon-sshi."

____________________________________________________________________

● ○