Just My Size – Ch. 1
Han Ji-Eun
 

“Let's go to the mall, Ji-Eun! It'll be fun,” they said. “It'll be just us girls! C'mon, Ji-Eun!” They lied.

 

Sure, it had been just me and my two best friends, Mi-Sun and Hea-Jung, at first. But then their boyfriends, Choi Minho and Kim Jonghyun, showed up not 20 minutes later and stole my friends away. Again.

After the two handsome boys greeted my friends in their usual sappy way – kissing, right in front of me, Miss Forever Alone – Mi-Sun asked Minho, “Oppa, where is Lee Jinki-sshi? I thought you said he was going to be here, too!” I thought this was an odd request, seeing as she's usually so Minho-focused she can't concentrate on anything else.

“Aigoo, I'm sorry, but he started his first job today,” Minho looked genuinely remorseful.

I, on the other hand, looked completely livid. Had my best friends betrayed me by telling my crush's best friends that I've been pining for him since middle school?! I tried to get my face to return to a neutral position, but I'm fairly certain I failed.

Hea-Jung glanced over at me and gave me what I was sure was supposed to be a sympathetic look, but it was hard to take her seriously while she was completely wrapped around Jonghyun's arm. “It's really weird though,” Jonghyun started. “Onew never even told us he was applying.”

“We didn't know until we called him to meet us here,” Minho finished. “And he was in such a hurry getting ready that he didn't even tell us where he's working.” Minho tried to give me the same look that Hea-Jung had failed at. He also failed.

I sighed loudly. “I see what's going on here,” I tried to keep the hurt out of my voice, but judging from the looks on my best friends' faces, I, too, failed. “Hey, I'm just gonna go on up to my favorite shop and wander around in there for a while. We can meet back up later, OK?”

My second attempt seemed to work better. The guys nodded, and my friends' smiles lit up. “We'll meet at Quick Burger in an hour, then,” Hea-Jung replied.

“Sounds like a plan,” I tried a smile, and it worked. We waved our goodbyes, and I headed in the complete opposite direction as my friends and their “Oppas.”

Mi-Sun, Hea-Jung and I had been best friends since we were in elementary school. We all grew up in the same well-off neighborhood, and stuck together through middle and high school. We're seniors now, taking a break from our studies and college applications to relax a bit.

Before we hit puberty, people used to think we were triplets. Not only from our closeness, but we looked similar as well. Some times we would play along and pretend we were. But once we started growing up, it became apparent that we were not related at all.

At least, not me to them. They still get mistaken for sisters. Not me, though.

Mi-Sun and Hea-Jung are long-legged, thin, and glamorous naturally. They don't have to wear a lot of make-up to look gorgeous.

I, on the other hand, am a freak of nature. I'm a good three inches taller than either of my best friends, and completely disproportionate. My torso is long, which makes my legs look short. I have chubby cheeks and super-wide hips, neither of which help me at all in the looks department. And my vision is so bad that not even contacts can help, so I'm stuck wearing glasses for the rest of my life. At least frames are stylish these days.

But due to my height and often intense-looking eyes, I tended to scare boys off. My friends, on the other hand, get fawned over by boys all the time. Minho and Jonghyun are, however, their first serious significant others.

I've never even been hit on, let alone had a boyfriend. I had a decent number of girl friends and friendly acquaintances, though. Relative popularity through association with Mi-Sun and Hea-Jung, I guessed.

All of these thoughts were running through my head as I walked into an American store that my friends were afraid of. It was called Hot Topic, and I loved the clothes they sold. The atmosphere of the store fit my mood, too – dark and brooding.

Even though we wore uniforms at school, I still bought a lot of clothes and accessories from here. My current outfit was almost exclusively from this store, actually. I was wearing a cute sundress that had the morbid touch of a delicate skull pattern on it, a fishnet top was under that, and on the bottom I was wearing thigh-high striped stockings and Mary Jane wedges. I wore a black headband adorned with a cute bow on my head. I might have looked like a cute Gothic doll - if I had been about 6 inches shorter.

I was absentmindedly flicking through the hangers of tops on the girls' side of the store when a nervous voice came from behind me. “C-Can I help you find anything?”

The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but I didn't even bother turning around. “Not right now, thanks, though,” I mumbled. I heard footsteps quickly retreat, and returned to my bitter thoughts.

Finally, a top stood out to me – a neon pink, light-weight sweater that had a chibified skull with a pink bow. “Monster High!” I exclaimed excitedly. I adored these dolls from the USA!

I grabbed the first one I found and ran back to the fitting room. With some difficultly I stripped off my dress and top – the sleeves of the fishnet top were so constricting whenever I tried to take it off, kind of like getting your fingers out of a Chinese Finger Trap. Then I hurriedly put the sweater on, and looked in the mirror.

“Wow,” I said brilliantly as I looked at my reflection, “I actually grabbed one that too big!” I honestly couldn't remember if that had ever happened before.

I slipped the over-sized sweater over my head, and was about to start putting my fishnet top back on when I decided I was feeling lazy. After the difficultly I had before, I really didn't feel like putting it and my dress back on just to take them off again in a minute or so. So, I hung the sweater neatly on its hanger, and checked the size tag. “XL? No wonder! I may not be as thin as my friends, but I'm more like a Medium...” I poked my hand holding the hanger out from behind the changing room's curtain and called out, “Hey, can someone help me?”

I heard footsteps rush over, and the same nervous voice responded, “Y-Yes, h-how can I h-help you?”

“Would you mind fetching me a smaller size of this sweater? I accidentally grabbed the wrong one!” I giggled a little bit, trying to put on some aegyo.

“C-Certainly,” the staff member replied. He took the hanger and rushed off.

“This guy sounds so familiar... I wonder if he goes to my school.” I wondered as I waited for the footsteps to come rushing back.

When I heard them, I stuck my hand out again. In it was placed a hanger, and I withdrew my hand. “Kamsahamnida!”

I thought I heard a mumbled, “You're welcome,” but I wasn't sure. When the footsteps were gone again, I looked at the size tag. Medium.

“Hopefully this fits!” I said to myself as I pulled this one on over my head.

When I had it correctly adjusted, I looked in the mirror. “Just my size!” I exclaimed loudly. The shoulders and sleeves were a perfect fit, and it was long enough that it didn't ride up my torso. I snapped a photo with my phone and sent it to my friends with the caption of my exclamation.

Hea-Jung responded as I was taking it off with, “Looks cute on you!” Mi-Sun replied seconds later, “Glad it fits!” I was happy they took a couple seconds to focus on my photo instead of their boys.

With my mood a bit brighter, I hung the sweater carefully, and got my top and dress back on. After making sure I had everything, I exited the changing room and headed over to the accessory display. I was looking at a pair of delicate earrings when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

“I think this w-would g-go with your sweater.” My line of sight was filled with a cute headband with a bow on it like mine, but it was black and neon pink, with little silver studs on it.

“Oh, it's perfect!” I took it from the staff member and compared the pinks in the two articles. An exact match. But when I lifted my head to thank him, he was gone. I looked around and saw someone standing with their back to me at the register. I was done shopping anyways, so I walked over.

“This goes perfectly with the sweater, thank-” I stopped. I knew the back of that head. I'd been starring at it since middle school. And my suspicions were confirmed as he turned around to face me finally.

It was Lee Jinki, known as Onew to his friends. My crush.

I hope you like this so far! Please leave feedback, and let me know if you see any mistakes. ^__^