“Women still remember the first kiss after men have forgotten the last“
-Remy de Gourmont-
 

 01| The Kiss Aftermath

Nothing extraordinary had ever happened to my life.

Nothing.

My life had always been average, right on the verge of being boring. If I tell my life story to you, I bet I’ll drive you to deep slumber in no time.
That’s how boring my life was.

So, if you tell me that I would be kissed by Choi SeungHyun two days ago, I would have laughed out loud in your face.
If you tell me that then I would never stop thinking about the kiss, I would have laughed even harder.
And if you tell me that Choi SeungHyun would come to find me, I would laugh until I become asphyxiated.

The thing is, it wouldn’t make any sense to me.
My world and his world are just too different. 
We just don’t mix. 

He is the most popular guy in my school while I am only someone who is there.
Everyone knows his name while I would be happy enough if my classmates know of my existence.
He plays basketball and rides a really cool motorbike to school while I sell corns at a small stall every night and rides a rusty old bicycle to school.

Our worlds are completely different.

So, that’s why I will make sure that no one will know about that incident.
I will carry it to my grave if possible.
I’m pretty sure that the drunk kingka won’t remember a thing anyways since he was drunk beyond repair.
I didn’t want to complicate my life by having all those fangirls of his chasing after me. They wouldn’t even care if I told them that he was the one who kissed me. I bet they wouldn’t even believe me. They’re too delusional over him to even think straight.

Thus, I will make sure that no one knows what happened that night; not even my best friend.
No one will know.

I was wrong.

Everyone will soon know about it.
And it’s all because of Choi SeungHyun!

*********

When I arrived at school that morning, I saw him. 

Choi SeungHyun.

He was talking animatedly to his friends; namely Micky, JiYong, HeeChul and TaeYang or the Handsome KingKas as other people would address the group with.

He didn’t look like someone who was having a hangover. Perhaps he had experienced hangover for a thousand times, so it was probably nothing new to him.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
My heart was beating in a weird rhythm and I felt my breaths becoming shallow. Reminding myself that he didn’t remember about the kiss, I briskly walked past him.

I could hear them laughing with each other. I fastened my pace. I needed to get away. I didn’t want him to see my face, in fear that he might remember about the disgusting, smelling-like-vomit kiss.

“Hey, you!” I heard a boy called but didn’t think much of it until he called again, “The girl with the brown bag!”

I was wearing a brown bag.
I looked around me. No one else was wearing a brown bag so the boy must be calling for me. I stopped and turned, only to find SeungHyun with his friends looking at me.

My eyes widened.
I think all the blood had left my face.

“Relax,” Micky smiled, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“No!” I lamely defended myself, “This is how I normally look.”
“Right, I bet it is,” HeeChul said sarcastically.

SeungHyun was staring at me strangely. It was making me uncomfortable. Unbeknown to me, my palms were already moistened with sweat.

Please God, don’t make him remember me. 

“Hmm..” he said, scratching his chin thoughtfully, “Do I know you?”

Oh no! 
Does that mean that he remembers?
But he was supposed to be drunk that night, how was he able to remember?
Did someone saw us together and later told him?

Sh1t! 

“NO!” I yelled defiantly, shaking my head vigorously and made the ‘X’ mark with my hands, “No, no, no! You don’t know me! You don’t! We have never met. NEVER! I don’t know you!!!!” 

When I looked up to them, they were looking at me strangely. I just realized that I must have looked like a crazy girl. I looked down, deeply embarrassed by my own stupid antics.

SeungHyun cleared his throat. “Well, no need to be overexcited about the fact that we’ve never met,” he said, flashing me his infamous smirk.

I had heard many girls from my school gushed over his smirk. They said he looked iest when he smirked. Now, looking at him up close, I can’t really deny it.

He’s a y bas.tard; the bas.tard who kissed me yesterday.

Damn it! What the hell is wrong with me? 
I should just forget about the kiss.

“I’m not overexcited,” I defended myself, “I’m just stating the fact. We have never met! Absolutely NEVER! Never ever!” I make the ‘X’ mark with my hands again.

SeungHyun took out a lollipop from the pocket of his shirt and began to tear up its wrapper. He shoved it swiftly into his mouth and gave me a cheeky wink with his left eye. “You still wanna say you’re not overexcited?”

The five kingkas chuckled mockingly at me.

I bit my lips. 
In a way, he was right. I was acting so fidgety. I should have calmed myself down. It was obvious that SeungHyun didn’t remember me from last night or else he would have brought up the matter earlier. 

The five kingkas of my school were staring at me.

Any girl would die to be me at the moment to be talking to them but unlike the other girls, I would rather run away fast. Everyone knows that whoever gets entangled with any one of the kingkas would definitely end up on the most hated list. 

There was one time that JiYong accidentally hugged a girl when he was about to fall down at the stairs. The next thing I know, the girl was being chased by ten girls all around school for hugging JiYong. How ridiculous was that? It wasn’t like the girl was at fault.

If the fangirls knew that SeungHyun kissed me last night, they’d never let me go. Only God knows what would happen to me. Man, those fangirls are crazy. It’s not like he was a member of Big Bang or something.

I just wanted to go through my high school life peacefully. I didn’t want to cause any trouble. I was comfortable enough being one of the average girls.

“So, why did you call me just now?” I asked, hoping that I would be able to excuse myself soon.

“Ah, I nearly had forgotten,” SeungHyun said, taking out the lollipop from his mouth and pointed it towards my feet, “Your shoelace’s untied.”

I looked down to see my left shoelace was untied.

Huh? 
That’s it?
That was the reason why he had called for me?
Why was he so observant of people’s shoelaces anyways?
Did he walk around school watching people’s shoes?

Was he insane?

Seeing my puzzled look, he said, “It’s dangerous. So I just wanna tell you so that you know.”

It wasn’t just me. Turns out, even his friends were puzzled by this as well. TaeYang was wiggling his eyebrows at JiYong. Only God knows what those two were thinking; most probably all the weird stuffs. Micky and HeeChul exchanged meaningful looks, smiling to themselves.

“Man, do you like her or something?” JiYong asked, snickering to himself.

“NO!” SeungHyun and I yelled in unison. The rest of them laughed out loud, like it was so funny for them.

“Shut up,” SeungHyun said to me, “Just tie your shoelace.” He shoved the lollipop back into his mouth.

“Since when are you so caring towards other’s safety, Top?” HeeChul asked, giving SeungHyun’s head a light slap with the back of his hand.

SeungHyun slapped his hand away in annoyance. “Beware of the head,” he grumbled, “I’ve already told you that I’m having a hangover.” He closed his eyes and lightly massaged his forehead.

I contemplated on whether I should just leave them and tie my shoelace elsewhere. It seems like they were all concentrating on SeungHyun and his hangover.

They seem to forget that I was even ther