“Youngmin Oppa! Eodiseo?!” A girl with long, straight brown hair sprinted all throughout the crowded cafeteria of Namnyeo high school during the busy lunch hour rush. With her hawk-like eyes she still found it hard to believe that she still lost sight of her ‘boyfriend’ who had ‘promised’ to spend the entire lunch hour with her and only her.

            “Oppa! I found you!” She squealed with her overexcited smile, running towards a skinny male student sitting by himself at the end of a long lunch table, nibbling on a ham sandwich. Before the boy could brace himself, the girl had already ran full force at him, circling his neck with her possessive arms and nudging him playfully on the head.

            “Youngmin Oppa! Why did you run so fast after English class?” She pouted like a child, removing her choking grasp on the boy’s neck. He rubbed it with his right hand and gave her a confused stare.

            “Ah! M-mianhae, Kwangmin-ah! I thought you were Youngmin Oppa!” She apologized with a 90 degree bow followed by her signature sarcastic laughter to release the tension. Kwangmin tried to laugh sarcastically with her but the awkward atmosphere that followed his every footstep was a force field strong enough to send her running in the opposite direction. It was lucky for him, because even though she never showed interest in him, it felt like her annoyance was bounded trap him in. After all, it was the sixteenth time this week she had mistaken Kwangmin for his twin brother, Youngmin.  When the sight was clear of her, Youngmin poked his head out of the guys’ wash room and threw a rolled up ball of paper towel at Kwangmin. He turned and gave Youngmin a reassuring nod, luring him from his hiding place.

            “I seriously don’t understand why you don’t just break up with Hyewon; she’s crazy.” Kwangmin rolled his eyes in annoyance at his twin brother’s irresponsibility. Youngmin shrugged and took a seat across from him, stealing the other half of his sandwich and taking a bite.

            “You already know the reason. She’s crazy! I never agreed to date her.” Youngmin reminded, looking around for his usual crowd of friends. Kwangmin pointed towards the west exit where a loud group of Namnyeo’s most outgoing and desirable guys stood play fighting with each other despite the fact that they were juniors in high school.

            “They’re over there.” Kwangmin sighed, readying himself to be ditched again. He actually grew accustomed to being the loner of the school and wouldn’t mind if Youngmin left him like he usually did.

            “Oh, great! See you at home, bro.” Youngmin smiled, jumping from the cafeteria table and sprinting towards his group of friends, entering the circle with a warm welcome. Kwangmin turned around, bored of always watching his twin have fun without him and kept his mind focused on his lunch. With his peripheral vision he could see Hyewon rushing animatedly towards Youngmin. Rolling his eyes again, he pulled out his biology notebook and began scanning the lesson from first period. It was unnecessary, but this was the typical routine of an academic introvert like himself.

            “Youngmin Oppa, bogo shipeosseo!” She gushed from metres away. Her loud voice echoed through the entire cafeteria, loud enough for every student to hear. Youngmin was not in the mood to deal with her.

            “Look, Hyewon. I never agreed to be your Oppa. There’s nothing between you and I, and I am not your boyfriend. Give a guy some space.” He bluntly ordered, eyeing her as she slowly sunk away from the group before he turned back to his friends who were all shocked at how harshly he put her down. His closest friend, Minwoo, held his hand out for a fist bump but instead, Youngmin shrugged uncaringly in response and headed towards his locker before classes started again. When he made his exit, the entire cafeteria made a loud, reminiscent, ‘oohing’ sound and Hyewon kept her head held low, dragging her feet back to her locker on the opposite side of the school from his. Kwangmin sighed from where he sat muttering,  

            “She had it coming.” Shaking the thought from his head, he proceeded to studying the notes on the human immune system, preparing ahead for the upcoming research report on the origins of lymphocytes and their relationship to the red bone marrow.

~~~

            During dinnertime at the Jo household, the twins’ mom announced that she had exciting news for the two of them. The two sat beside each other facing their mom, mouths stuffed with delicious food as they waited for her to speak.

            “An old friend is coming back to Seoul from Japan tomorrow!” She declared; the word ‘Japan’ caught Kwangmin’s ears. He stopped chewing on his food and leaned in closer to hear his mom clearer while Youngmin continued munching, even stealing all the bulgogi from Kwangmin’s plate and gobbled it up.

           “You all remember Kim Jangmi, don’t you?” She asked, watching two pairs of eyes grow wide with disbelief. They never heard news from her ever since she left when they were nine years old. Now that they’re seventeen, all memories of her seemed like a segment of their distant and insignificant paths. Though only eight years have passed, Kwangmin couldn’t bring himself to see her again. After the day she left him rain-soaked at the playground, he felt like a part of him died.

            “One of you is in charge of picking her up every morning; she moved in just down the street.” She proclaimed, eyeing both of them back and forth with a smirk. Youngmin prayed that she would choose the goody-two-shoes responsible twin, but instead, she pointed at Youngmin. Youngmin now pointed at himself with a confused expression and asked,

            “Me? Are you serious?” his jaws practically dropped to the ground. Their mom nodded and left the dinner table for the two of them to clean, and frustrated, Youngmin was second to leave without so much as to putting his bowl in the sink. Kwangmin was left with the chores yet again. With a sigh, he grabbed all the dishes and headed towards the sink.

            “Yah, Kwangmin,” Youngmin’s hushed voice called. Kwangmin turned to see youngmin poking his head past the doorway to the living room with his signature puppy face in play.

            “What do you want?” Kwangmin asked annoyed, scrubbing the dishes roughly with a wet cloth and large excess amounts of dish soap. He slammed a glass plate so hard on the dish rack it nearly broke from the mere impact. Youngmin clapped his hands together to add to his pleading image and begged,

            “Will you pick her up every morning for me?” His whining was equivalent to that of a five year olds’. Every morning, Youngmin would leave the house early and head to school because he and his friends were part of the dance club at Namnyeo high school. It would take a lot more than a parent’s request to make him compromise dance practices, and Kwangmin knew that well. With no energy left to argue, he made a hand gesture to get Youngmin to come and when he came closer, Kwangmin threw the wet towel at him.

            “What the hell?!” Youngmin cursed, holding the dripping soapy towel in his hands. Kwangmin folded his arms and sighed,

            “If you want me to do that for you, then you’re cleaning up after dinner from now on.” Without waiting for Youngmin’s thoughts on his proposal, he sped up the stairs to his room. In his mind, he was only relieved that he didn’t have to clean the tornado that was post-dinnertime mess anymore. Back in his secluded room, he laid his exhausted body on his bed and savoured the peace and quiet of it all.

            “Kim Jangmi?” He mumbled, pulling out a framed picture inside the bottom drawer of his dresser and gazed into the eyes of the nine year old girl inside.

            “How much can one person change in just eight years?” He never fully forgave her for leaving him like that in the rain, but he also never really understood what it was she did wrong. Maybe it was the fact that she chose Youngmin over him that kept the flame of his grudges burning, but even now, he was used to being second. Kwangmin heard the loud ruffle of footsteps marching towards the door of his room and he quickly pulled out a random notebook, placing it over his head. Right after he did, the door slammed open and a fuming Youngmin stood at the opening.

            “Go away, I’m studying.” Kwangmin shooed, staring at the sloppy handwriting in the notebook that was labeled ‘comprehension basics’.

            “Nabbeun twaeji…” Youngmin huffed, entering the room without permission and tossing the notebook onto the floor.

            “Keojitmal; you’re a science student. For what reason do you have to study elementary level comprehension?” Youngmin rolled his eyes and then bounced onto Kwangmin’s bed, landing right on his hand.

            “Okay, well, what do you want?” Kwangmin rolled his eyes, trying to shove Youngmin off but failed to. Though in presence they looked identical, it was evident Youngmin had a tad more muscle than Kwangmin due to his athleticism.

            “Can’t we change the compromise a little bit? I’ll do your biology homework instead of cleaning after dinner. How does that sound?” Youngmin pleaded, still sitting on Kwangmin’s hand.

            “Screw off, Youngmin. The deal is sealed, there’s no backing out now.” Kwangmin scolded, still struggling to free his hand. Unexpctedly, Youngmin moved up to sit on his stomach and begged again. With all the force Kwangmin could muster up, he shoved Youngmin off the bed and sent him rolling towards the hard ground of his floor.

            “Ka.” KWangmin ordered Youngmin to leave, pulling out a relevant notebook and a textbook from under his bed and setting up a study area among his bed sheets. Youngmin made whimpering dog noises but Kwangmin ignored him completely, so in defeat, he left. At the sound of his room door closing at last, he pushed all his homework off his bed and tucked himself in. Secretly he couldn’t wait to see Jangmi again.

A/N: Sorry I took forever to post chapter 1. To me it doesn't seem too interesting but I hope as the story progresses it will get better. I'm kind of brain fried at the moment so this was all I came up with for now.

Eodiseo - Where are you?

Bogo Shipeosseo - I Missed you

Mianhae - Sorry

Nabbeun Twaeji - Bad Pig

Keojitmal - Lies

Ka - Go/Leave