You dial Song Joongki's number. You didn't change his name from Appa to something else, for fear that Heechul might answer your phone if he finds out that SONG JOONGKI is the one calling you.

RRRRIIIIINGGG... RRRRIIIIIINNNGGGG...

"Haneul~ Miss me?" a sneer voice from the other side of the line answers.

"Ugh, no, I just wanna de-stress with someone who doesn't remind me of school," you groan. "And my room mate is watching 'Death Bell' so it's sorta not helping me..."

"Aww, really? Okay, I'll come to pick you up in 30 minutes," he says.

"Okay, I'll wait at the school gate," you say. You go there after 20 minutes in your normal boyish get-up.

SEOUL HIGH GATES

You wait for a few more minutes and you see Joongki casually walking over. You wave.

"Haneul!" he waves back.

"Thanks for meeting me, Joongki," you say. "I'm super stressed."

"No problem," he chuckles. "Although why are you dressed like that still?"

"Huh? Like what?"

"LIKE A BOY."

"B-but... I'm supposed to be a boy." =_=

He sighs. "Remember what I told you last time? Next time we meet, you should wear GIRL'S CLOTHES."

"WELL, I CAN'T GO OUT OF SEOUL HIGH WEARING GIRL'S CLOTHES!" you argue.

"You're right," he smiles.

"Good, you understa--"

"So I brought you some girly clothes with me~" he says playfully. "Wanna try them on?"

"N--"

He takes your uninjured wrist (although by now your other wrist is pretty much healed up) and takes you to a Japanese restaurant. You're a bit touched that he remembered your wrist. However, he pushes you into the restroom and throws the bag of clothes in with you. 

"And don't come out until you're done changing!" he says.

"FIIIIIINE," you groan.

You check the bag of clothes he brought. A blue summer dress, a long-haired wig, a pair of white doll shoes, and a necklace that looks like a blue water drop. It looks exactly like the one Jiwon lent you that time at the beach. You wonder if they could be the exact same one.

Nah, I'm sure it's just a coincidence. =_=

You change your clothes and stuff your boy clothes into the bag before coming out of the restroom. He is sitting at a table near the counter. When he sees you, he has a look of surprise that quickly changes to a grin.

"Not bad," he says as you take your seat across from him. You place your bag of clothes beside you.

You roll your eyes in response. "Whatever. If anyone from school sees me, you're dead."

"Ahahaha, you're so cute talking like this and looking like that all dainty."

"Come on, let's just eat. I'm hungry."

You order a bowl of ramen each. Midway through the meal, Joongki asks, "Wanna try my ramen?"

"Uh... we ordered the same thing..."

"Well, maybe you'd like to taste something that the great Song Joongki has eaten~" he smiles sheepishly. "Here, have some."

You raise an eyebrow at him.

"Do you really expect me to eat that when you're feeding it to me?"

He nods, looking like a naive child.

=_=

Whatever.

You take a bite. He seems really happy. "Now you feed me," he says, excited.

You whack him on the head.

"Ow, okay fine fine, don't feed me," he says. "I'll just take your meat for myself." He quickly steals a piece of beef from your bowl.

You look at him with horror. "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING???"

"Stealing your meat?" :P

"NO ONE STEALS MY MEAT BUT ME!!" you roar.

"That didn't make sense," he laughs.

Everyone in the restaurant looks at you because of all the fuss you're creating. You slowly slouch in your seat and try to cover your face with your hair.

TT TT

After you're done eating, the sky has gotten darker. Joongki pays for your food even though you insist that he shouldn't because, "It's not like you're my boyfriend or anything. =_= "

"I don't care, I'm richer than you, I'm paying."

He takes you by the hand out of the restuarant you go to the subway.

"Where are you taking me?" you ask.

"Some special event that you might not know about," he says. "Just trust me, Kim Haneul."

Why do those words keep following me around? @_@

BONGEUNSA TEMPLE

"Since when has there been a temple in the middle of Samsung-dong???" you exclaim.

"Uhh... since forever?" he says. "It's the lotus lantern festival now. Come on." He wraps his fingers around yours and you walk through the various brightly lit and colorful lanterns on display.

"So pretty~" you gasp.

"Yes, it is," Joongki says.

You turn to look at the lanterns behind him and realize that he had been looking at you. He quickly turns away. You blink, not wanting to assume anything, but your heart does otherwise.

NO, HANEUL, NO.

"Ugh, there are so many couples..." you mutter.

"Well, you don't need to be jealous because I'm here," Joongki teases.

"We're not a couple." =_=

"Tonight, we are," he says. "Stop talking like an idiot."

You are dumfounded. "Wha--?! Me? The idiot??" You start complaining to him and proving that it's not you who is the idiot, but rather it's him. He just looks at you amused as he pulls you through the temple.

"Omo, what's this now?" you wonder.

"It's the main temple, duh."

You both climb the stars at the end of the hall and you are simply awestruck at the sight that greets you.

"That's a loooot of lotus lanterns..." you whisper.

The whole area is filled with red lotus lanterns from the ceiling to the walls. It casts a red glow on the dirt ground. You feel Joongki's hold on your hands tighten. You blush and are thankful that the red from the lanterns also covers up the color of your cheeks. You look at him and bite your lower lip.

"Follow me, I want to show you something else," he smiles, eyes twinkling very brightly.

In another part of the temple, there is a lone lantern that sits on a stand.

When you go closer to it, you see that there is a girl sitting inside a big white lotus flower. There are people and other flowers around her.

"What's this doing all the way over here?" you ask.

"Do you want to know the story of the lotus flower, Haneul?" Joongki asks you in reply.

You nod, still admiring the colors of the robe that the lantern girl is wearing.

"In the last years of the Hongpung era of Sung, in Tohwadong in Hwangju," Joongki begins. "There lived a poor blind yangban by the name of Shim Hakkyu. He and his devoted wife, Kwakssi, were childless for the longest time, and it was only after many years of faithful prayer to the spirits that Kwakssi bore a beautiful daughter whom they named Shimchong. But, alas, the ordeal of giving birth at such an advanced age was too much for Kwakssi, and she passed away. Shim did his best to raise his daughter alone, and together the two of them endured great hardships.

Shimchong was an obedient and filial daughter who accompanied her father as soon as she could walk and begged alms with him the moment she could speak. It was not many years before she was a beautiful young girl.  

One day, Old Man Shim was out alone begging for alms and he stumbled into a deep irrigation ditch. As he was foundering in the water, trying vainly to climb out, be his bad fate and his handicap, he heard a voice speak to him from above. “Old man,” it said, “I have heard you lamenting about your blindness. If you will give 300 sacks of rice to my temple as a tribute to the Lord Buddha, we will offer up our prayers to return your sight.” Gentle but firm hands that seemed to reach down from the heavens themselves took hold of Old Man Shim’s trembling arms and pulled him from the water. Shim was so thankful and so full of hope that he momentarily forgot his dire circumstances, and without thinking he blurted out, “Thank you kind monk. Thank you! I will give you those 300 sacks of rice! I swear it!”

It wasn’t until much later, when his elation had worn off, that Old Man Shim had the terrible realization that he did not have the means to offer three bowls of rice—let alone 300 sacks—to the temple.

“Shimchong-ah,” he said to his daughter that evening, recounting his misfortune. “What shall I do? I was filled with gladness and the world seemed bright to me. Other men jostle me out of the way or steal my alms from out of my hands but the monk was kind. All I wanted was to return his kindness, and look what I have done. What terrible thing will befall us if I have offended the Buddha?”

That night Shimchong lay on her thin bed mat unable to sleep, worrying about her father’s promise to the monk. She could think of no way to raise the 300 sacks of rice as tribute to the temple, no matter how much she pondered it, and by and by she drifted off into a restless sleep.

In her dreams, her mother appeared and told her how she might get the rice for her father. “Go to the harbor,” she said. “There you will find a merchant looking for a young maiden. Go with him and he will provide the 300 sacks of rice.”

It just so happened that the Dragon King of the East Sea was displeased with the merchant fleet and had sent foul weather and storms that had sunk ship after ship on its way to China. To appease the Dragon King, the merchants needed to sacrifice a beautiful maiden, but as of yet they had found no family willing to sell a maiden daughter. So when Shimchong appeared the next dawn and offered herself in exchange for the tribute for her father, the captain of the merchant fleet was more than happy to accept.

The 300 sacks of rice were taken to the temple and the prayers to the compassionate Buddha were offered up as agreed, but Old Man Shim did not immediately regain his sight as he had hoped. The monks said that it would not simply happen overnight. Now Old Man Shim was not only poor and blind, but had lost his only daughter.

The sea was calm at the beginning of the voyage, but soon the sky grew gray and ominous. The water, at first, was only choppy, but then the sea boiled as if the Dragon King were thrashing his massive body beneath the waves. Lightning flashed from the dark clouds and the wind ripped at the sails. Oars and anchor chains snapped in the violent sea.

The merchant captain brought Shimchong out of the hold, dressed up in brightly-colored bridal finery. Although Shimchong told him that she would leap into the waves of her own will, he did not believe her, and he had her hands and feet securely bound. The sailors all wept copiously with their admiration for her bravery and her filial virtue as Shimchong said a quiet prayer and leapt overboard into the ocean. And just as she disappeared under the waves, the violent seas grew calm.

Shimchong descended into the cold water. As she sank deeper and deeper, the water around her grew suddenly bright with light and she found that she could breathe. She looked around her in wonder as the minions of the Dragon King approached her, released her from her bonds, and escorted her to the magnificent underwater palace.

And there she dwelled, happy, for it is said that the spirit of her mother also dwelt there. But after a time she was homesick for the world of the surface, and she longed to see her dear father again. Her cheerful demeanor grew sad, and it came to the notice of the Dragon King, who called her to him one day and said, “I cannot bear to see your unhappiness any longer, Shimchong. I have seen that your filial piety and your selfless devotion are far greater than that of any other mortal I have known. It touches my heart to see your concern for your poor father, so as a reward for your devotion, I will send you back up into the world above.” And with this the Dragon King transformed Shimchong into a giant lotus flower.

So it happened that a giant white lotus blossom was found at the mouth of a river along the coast, and the local fisherman, awed by its beauty, decided to make it a gift for their king. The King was recently widowed, and known to be in a deeply mournful state of mind. They hoped the bright flower would lift his spirits.

When the King first beheld the flower, his eyes lit up in wonder. He rewarded the fishermen handsomely and had the lotus installed in its own special room where he would stand for hours each day in a melancholy mood, admiring its beauty. Each night Shimchong would emerge from the blossom, and at the crack of each dawn she would disappear into it again. Time and seasons passed and the King’s love for the flower did not wane.

One moonlit night the King was restless, and as he wandered the palace he found himself, by and by, at the chamber of the lotus flower. He stepped inside to gaze upon the lotus in the moonlight, but what he saw was far more wonderful—a woman so beautiful it took his breath away. “Who are you?” he said. “Are you a ghost come to bewitch me, or are you real?”

“It is only I,” said Shimchong. “It is I who live in the giant flower.” Out of modesty, she tried to hide herself, but when she turned, she found the lotus flower had vanished.

And this is how Shimchong came to be the King’s bride. There was a magnificent wedding, and they passed their days together in great happiness, but the King sensed a great sadness about his new Queen. One day he found her weeping in the garden. “My dear wife,” he said, “I cannot bear to see your tears. Tell me your wish—any wish—and it shall be granted.”

“There is only one thing I desire,” Shimchong replied. “Let there be a great public banquet to celebrate our marriage, and let all the blind men of the Kingdom be invited to partake of the feast. That is what will make my heart glad.”

The King honored his Queen’s strange request, and so from far and wide, from all corners of the kingdom, the blind beggar men were invited to a banquet to celebrate the wedding. For three days they came to drink and to dine on fine foods, and each day the new Queen watched from behind her gauzy silk curtains, hoping that the next blind man might be her father. But it was to no avail.

On the last day, as the gates were closing and the Queen had turned forlornly away, a loud racket was heard outside. The servants were turning away a blind beggar who had arrived too late. And just as the gates were closing, the Queen happened to glance backwards to see that under the dirt and dust of his long journey and under the tatters of his rags, the old man was none other than her father. “Father!” she cried. “Father! It is my dear father! Let him in!”

Old Man Shim staggered inside, nearly losing his balance from the shock of hearing the familiar voice. “Aigo! Shimchong-ah!” he called. “Is it a ghost or have the dead come to life? My daughter! Is that your voice I hear? Let’s have a look at you, girl!”

Once again, in his enthusiasm, Old Man Shim forgot his circumstances. He opened his eyes wide, oblivious to his own blindness, and when he did so he found that he could suddenly see. Before him was his daughter, more beautiful than he could have imagined. Shim wept with joy and embraced her, and she, too, was tearful with joy. Soon there was a happy commotion throughout the palace, and it is said that every blind man there who wanted to have a look at Shimchong, the filial daughter, had his vision restored that day.

The end."

"She sacrificed a lot, huh?" you say softly. "Just for her family... But in the end, she was able to help her father and be reunited with him once again. She didn't even care what she did, nor if she was made Queen. She just... wanted to help her family."

"I figured you might have wanted to meet her," Joongki says. "I think both of you will get along quite well." He chuckles gently. 

A monk passes by holding a red lotus lantern.

"Good evening, Brother Do Min Joon," Joongki bows.

"Ah, Joongki-ah! Good evening!" the monk bows back. "I'm so happy to see you again!"

He knows monks? o_O

"Who is this pretty young lady?" the monk asks, smiling.

"This is a friend of mine. Her name is--"

"My name is Kim Haneul, sir," you bow politely. "It's nice to meet you."

"Aigoo, she's lovely," the monk chuckles.

You chuckle as well. "Thank you, sir..." The red lantern he is holding catches your eye.

"Aw, the lantern is broken?" you say.

"Yes," he says sadly. "But I'm taking it in to mend."

"Why is this lantern still needed? There are a lot of lanterns everywhere," Joongki says.

"Ah, Joongki-ah," the monk chuckles like a loving grandpa. "Just because there are many lanterns like it doesn't mean this broken one is not necessary. It is just as important as each of those lanterns, no matter how small a part they might seem to be playing." 

You and Joongki look at each other in understanding.

"Well, I should hurry so that this little lotus can bloom together with her friends," Brother Do Min Joon smiles. "You young'ns have fun. If you need a place to stay, you're welcome here at the Bongeunsa anytime."

"Thank you, brother," you and Joongki say, bowing.

You look at the other lanterns and chat a bit longer with Joongki. Afterwards, he offers to walk you back to the dorms.

"I need to dress up first," you say.

"Oh... right... okay then," Joongki replies. He seems a bit disappointed but you shrug it off.

Stupid guy making me wear girl clothes outside when it's so dangerous to do so. Dx

You quickly change back into your boy clothes in the Bongeunsa restroom. You give the bag of girly clothes back to him.

"What am I gonna do with this?" he says.

"I dunno, you were the one who gave it to me."

"You keep it."

"I can't! If they find out that I have girl clothes, they'll know for sure that I'm a girl!" you say, worried.

"At least keep the necklace," he says, taking it out of the bag.

You look at him, unsure of what to do. "Fine, put it on," you finally say. 

He smiles and slowly puts the necklace on you.

You look down at the pendant.

It really does look exactly like Jiwon's necklace, doesn't it?

"Thanks, Joongki," you smile.

"It's nothing," he smiles back. "Shall we?"

Halfway to Seoul High, you cross a pedestrian overpass and you realize something.

"Where do you live anyway?" you ask curiously.

"Hm? Oh, actually just in that building over there," he points.

"AND YOU'RE GOING TO WALK ME ALL THE WAY BACK TO SEOUL HIGH WHEN YOU LIVE RIGHT HERE?? ARE YOU STUPID??" you shout with exaggerated hand gestures.

"Hey, relax, I just want to make sure you're safe," he says.

"Nah, I can handle myself. As long as I'm not wearing girl's clothes, I'll be alright."

"But--"

"I can beat your any day if I wanted to, you know."

"Fat chance," he replies. "Fine, since you're so independent, go strut your stuff all the way back to school."

"I will!" you say with conviction as you begin to walk away.

He just laughs. "Okay, Haneul, I guess I'll just see you again some other time. Take care of yourself, okay? If you die, I'll kill you."

"That didn't make sense!" you laugh going down the stairs on the other side of the overpass. "Thanks Joongki!!" you wave. "I had fun."

"Thank YOU, Haneul," he waves back. He turns around and heads in the opposite direction. When you look back at him, you notice that the smile he had earlier was gone and he looked really forlorn.

Life of a rising star, huh? Must be tough. :(

You're thinking about seriously paying for the food the next time you hang out when suddenly, you see Jungsu across the street.

"Oh! Hyung! JUNGSU HYUNG!" you shout, running. You stop right before the road and a car zooms past, just missing you by inches.

Wooh, it's not my time to die yet. @_@

When you look at Jungsu again however, he is gone.

Dammit, missed my chance to figure out wherever the heck he goes at this hour. If he goes clubbing like this on a school night, I'm so going wring his neck. Irresponsible student. Dx

What if he and Kibum go clubbing together?? Oh my god, why???

And why is Kibum able to keep his grades up when he has a secret social party animal life outside of Seoul High where he is obviously known as a loser nerd???

So unfair...

You decide to just return to Seoul High.