WARNING: This chapter will have lots of grammatically incorrect mistakes and typo. I didn't have the time to correct them. If you're really particular about these things, then you might vomit after reading this. Don't say you haven't been warned :)

Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason.
-Samuel Adams-
 

Interlude || Inside My Head – A Choi SeungHyun’s POV

I knew I shouldn’t drink too much but that time I had an excuse; I was damn heartbroken.

Isn’t it funny though? The most sought after guy in ShinJi High was turned down by a girl and her name is Lee ChaeRin. The funniest part was that I had turned down so many girls before and yet, the only girl whom I had fallen for had chosen a douche over me. I would feel a lot better if the guy who won her heart was some prince-like college guy or a handsome super rich dude but this douchebag, Kang DaeSung, that had won her heart is just that— a douche.

That was the reason why I was so freaking pissed.

I mean, judging by looks, I’d win over him hands down, no questions asked. Then, if we were about to fight it out like real men, I’d definitely win too.

It perplexed me still. What the hell does he have that I don’t?

This question and the burning ache in my heart were the reasons why I couldn’t stop drinking that night. Even when the ahjumma had refused to give me the fifth bottle of soju, I glared at her and started to make a scene so she had no other choice than to serve me another three bottles—or more. Truthfully, I had lost count from the sixth bottle.

I could barely remember what had happened to me later that night. All I remember was something vague —like a dream— of how I walked in my drunken state from the ahjumma’s stall and started to roam along the road until I smelled the scent of sweet corns. My sister and I used to love eating sweet corns while watching our favourite drama on the television. The sweet memory of us together came rushing back and suddenly, as drunk as I was, I was craving for some sweet corns. I found myself following the smell until I reached at the stall.

“Give me some corns!!” I remember yelling out loud like a true drunkard. The girl who was selling them looked at me, her eyes widened like she was apalled at the mere sight of me. The other customers at the stall turned to look at me with disgusted looks on their faces but I didn’t care. All I wanted at the time was some sweet corns.

However, the girl didn’t even make any move to prepare my corns. She couldn’t stop glaring at me. I knew that she wanted me away from there as soon as possible but couldn’t she tell how desperate I was for some corns at that moment? Was she going to reject me like how Lee ChaeRin rejected me?

Furious at the thought of being rejected again, I made my way towards her and knocked down a few tables, kicked a few chairs, walked into a few customers and made some new enemies as I did so. I could hear the girl saying her apologies to the customers whom I had interrupted but I couldn’t care less. Then, when I was at one table where an old lady was seated, I started to feel sick.

Before I knew it, I vomited on her lap and then went to the table next to hers and vomited all over the guy who was sitting there. Then, all hell broke loose. The two people were angry at me, the other customers fled the place with disgust in their eyes, and the girl who was selling the corns was beyond mortified. If I wasn’t so drunk, I would feel sorry to her for ruining her business but at that time, all I could think about was how people hated me. I couldn’t stop dwelling on the fact and I sat at one of the tables, sobbing like a loser.

“Lee ChaeRin!” I had called out. I hated that feeling—the feeling like your heart had been crushed with a heavy rock— and my throbbing head was certainly not helping at all.

 The girl was bowing her head profusely trying to apologize to the customers but unfortunately for her, all of them left without even as much as a glimpse back. I think I had totally ruined her business.

I thought the girl would chase me away but she didn’t. After hinting that I should leave, she sat on the stool beside me and began to pat my head like how my babysitter ahjumma used to do to me whenever I was crying. I looked at her and saw those mesmerizing doll-like eyes. Even though I was drunk, I could never forget how beautiful her eyes were.

From that point on, everything was a blur to me. I do remember that we kissed at some point but I couldn’t remember anything about it. However, I most certainly remember how my head felt like bursting the morning after and how my mother yelled at me for being drunk the night before. Wanting to avoid her nagging, I washed, got dressed into my school uniform and went out of my room through the window. When I was riding my motorbike away from the house, I heard her angry yell from behind me asking me to turn back.

Like hell I want to do that.

The stupid friends of mine were laughing at me when I met them at the front gate; teasing me for being rejected by a weird girl. My best friends, although some girls considered them godly, I always think they were a bit too silly to be called godly. Take this for example. HeeChul would always deliver the world’s most ridiculous punchline and JiYong would wiggle his eyebrows like a douche. Then TaeYang would join in by laughing like a madman. The quietest among us, Micky would only smile wryly and shook his head at the madness that was going on.

That day, HeeChul’s punchline was about me, no surprise there.

“So what do you call a guy who can get any girl he wants but chose a weird girl instead but ends up being rejected by her?” HeeChul asked as soon as I was within hearing distance.

I saw how JiYong pretended to be thinking about the answer, that douche! “A dog?” he asked.

“What?! Why do you say that? I told you clearly that it was a guy!” HeeChul argued.

“You know the story of that dog who was too greedy that when he saw his own reflection with a bone in his mouth, he wanted to snatch the bone away from the reflection only to lose his own bone because he opened his mouth?” JiYong said.

“Uh huh, I remember that story from my kindergarten teacher,” TaeYang nodded eagerly, “But how do you connect that story to HeeChul’s riddle?”

“Easy! The guy in HeeChul’s riddle is greedy, and so was the dog!” JiYong chirped happily.

“You’re so clever, I have to admit, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the correct answer,” HeeChul said.

“What is the answer then?” TaeYang inquired, like the answer wasn’t so obvious.

“It’s him,” HeeChul pouted his mouth towards me, “Choi SeungHyun.”

Together, the three of them laughed like it was the funniest thing on earth while Micky looked at them, shaking his head and smiling to himself.

“Oi!” I yelled and the three clowns stopped laughing in an instant. Although I was very annoyed at them, my throbbing head had kept me from giving them a punch, or two.

“How are you, man?” Micky asked.

“I’ve been better,” I muttered.

Then, when I was massaging my head, I saw a girl walking hastily passed us with her head looking down to the ground. I don’t know why but I had this feeling of déjà vu when I saw her. My eyes fell on her shoes and I saw the untied shoelace and called for her. Like my douche friends, she was surprised when I told her about her untied shoelace. Then, all of a sudden, the memories came rushing back and I remembered her from the night before, as the girl who sold corns. Following soon after, was the memory of the kiss.

When I confronted her about the kiss, she was mortified. Heck, she even went on as to blame me for the kiss. Like hell I would believe her. I wasn’t even thinking straight so how would I be able to kiss a girl, no matter how cute she had looked with her pure, wide eyes. Then, she did the unthinkable. She ran away from me. I had to admit that she was clever doing so but if she thought that I was going to let her be free, oh she was dead wrong!

It was hard at first trying to find her. The only information I knew of her was how she looked like and that she sells corns at a stall. HeeChul and JiYong had ‘helped’ me find her by snickering loudly whenever I described her to any students passing by.

Yes, my best friends are going to be killed by me someday.

Then, just when I was getting annoyed that no one knew of her existence, a boy claimed to be her classmate. I got a name: Park Bom. Upon hearing that name, Micky was acting kind of weird and suspiciously, he immediately went to make a phone call. Even I felt like I had heard that name somewhere but couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

I decided that I wouldn’t be indiscreet. I went to her table when she was eating her lunch with her nerdy friend and they both nearly had a major heart attack. I confronted her about the kiss and she was still adamantly saying that I was the one who kissed her.

Who the hell does this girl think I am?

I mean, I was Choi SeungHyun and she was just a nobody. It just makes perfect sense that she would be the one taking advantage of me when I was drunk. However, there was this tiny feeling in my heart that told me that what she said could be true. I mean, looking by how mortified she looked and how earnest she seemed, maybe she really was talking the truth.

Then, she accidentally blurted out that I kissed her for the whole cafeteria to see and she looked beyond horrified when she realized that everyone was looking at her. She ran away again but this time, of course I wouldn’t let her get away.

To be honest, it was kinda fun for me to be seeing her squirming like that. She was really cute; her huge doll-like eyes looking petrified mixed shame whenever she saw me. You know, I could be drawn into those eyes any day. Then, I found myself being intrigued by this non-popular, strange and witty girl.

Before I knew it, I was already looking forward to meet her and to torment her so that I could see that beautiful eyes squirming with fear again. You see, my friends had always mocked my taste in girls. I never had liked typical pretty girls as I would be easily bored by these girls. I had always preferred the strange ones; one who can make me laugh just by thinking about them, one whom I could never predict, one who would be a challenge.

To be honest, I couldn’t care less about the real deal behind our kiss that night. In my mind, I was already excited at the prospect of having someone to bother. After Lee ChaeRin rejected me, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to find someone more interesting to bother but after meeting this corn girl, I think she had just changed my mind about that.

I made up the lame excuse of wanting her to take the responsibility for the kiss. Should she ask me what was the responsibility for, I wouldn’t have a clue on how to answer since I made it up on the spur of the moment. It just sort of blurted out from my mouth without thinking.

Truthfully, I just needed an excuse to see more of her. Luckily I had idiotic friends; they had previously been mocking me non-stop about Lee ChaeRin’s remark that I kissed like a girl and that gave me an interesting idea on how to get this corn girl to help out. In a way, it was like killing two birds with one stone; I get to make my stupid friends to shut up and I have an excuse to bother that strange girl.

Then, I chased her with my motorcycle after school and had a really hard time controlling the urge to laugh when I saw how determined she was to get away from me with her old, rusty bicycle. I couldn’t believe that someone our age would even be using that old bicycle. No wonder she was not popular. I bugged her again about the responsibility and when she refused, I told her that she was going to regret it.

My plan couldn’t be more perfect. As fate would have it, later that day Micky’s cousin, JangHyun, had asked us to meet with him at a cafe downtown for something important. Turns out, JangHyun’s girlfriend, EunJae, a really pretty and cool noona, wanted Micky to go out on a sogaetting with her cousin because she thinks that the girl’s perfect for him. Due to Micky’s refusal, she had asked her cousin’s best friend to tag along for the sogaetting and thus I found out that I was the unlucky one who has to entertain this ‘third wheel’ girl.

“Sorry noona,” I said, “I’m not really in the mood for a sogaetting.”

“But SeungHyun, please,” EunJae pleaded, “This girl is really sweet. Plus, she’s really pretty, really.”

“I don’t care,” I said firmly, “I’m not interested.”

I had always thought sogaetting was the stupidest thing in Korean youth culture. I wonder how girls got this delusion that boys would be interested to date them from an awkward 30 minutes or so of a getting-to-know-each-other session.

To my dismay, I saw Micky’s lips curled up to form a wry smile. I had been friends with him too long to know that he was about to tell something that would soon make me change my mind.

And he did.

“Can you tell SeungHyun what is the girl’s name, noona?” Micky said, “Maybe he’ll be interested after finding out the name.”

I rolled my eyes. As if a mere name would get me all hyped out for that ridiculous thing! I crossed my arms against my chest as I waited for EunJae to do her magic.

“Her name’s Park Bom. Yes, like the Spring, and you know how beautiful Spring is. I’m sure you’ll like her,” EunJae said enthusiastically, “Besides, she goes to your school with my cousin so I’m sure you’ll both get along fine. She’s really sweet, SeungHyun. She sells sweet corns after school so you know that means she’s independent and hardworking. You won’t regret meeting her.”

I nearly choked on my saliva when I heard the name. Selling sweet corns? That could only be one person. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw how Micky hid his smile behind the back of his hand. I bet he wanted to laugh at me. No wonder he was acting strange after hearing her name in school earlier that day.

“Tell me more about this Park Bom,” I said, trying to sound bored so that EunJae wouldn’t suspect a thing. From beside me, Micky chuckled quietly to himself.

So, EunJae began telling me about her mother who passed away some years ago and she was an only child. I found out that she lived with her father who works as a clerk. He doesn’t earn much so that’s why she has to sell corns after school to pay for her expenses. EunJae said that Bommie –as how her closest friends called her— was taught since small to always be grateful and respectful of others and her father is really strict on discipline. So basically, what I found out from EunJae was that this corn girl is practically a saint.

After she had finished boasting about Park Bom, she then turned her attention towards Micky. “So Micky, will you please meet my cousin, MinYoung? You guys will hit it off, I’m pretty sure,” she said, her large eyes boring into his.

For some weird reason, after knowing that Park Bom would be my date for the sogaetting, I found myself really anticipating Micky’s answer.

“I think I’ll pass,” Micky said apologetically, “There are lots of good books that I want to read nowadays. I don’t think I can manage to find the time to date.” He then glanced sideways at me, mocking me with his smile.

I knew it, he was anticipating for me to beg him to go. You see, Micky had been my oldest friend and he practically knows everything that goes on inside my head. Like now, he knows that I would be interested to go to the sogaetting to meet with corn girl but he was just toying with me, to see my reaction.

Well, I wouldn’t give him the pleasure. Instead, I used the childish method of convincing him to go: I used his cousin.

I took out my cellphone and began texting JangHyun. Hyung, you should really make him go to the sogaetting. If not, I’m sure EunJae noona will never let you off the hook. For the safety of your romance, I suggest that you act fast.

Upon reading my text message from his cellphone, I saw JangHyun’s face became disconcerted. He stole a quick glimpse at me and I discreetly gave him a thumb-up.

“Micky, either you go to the sogaetting or I’m telling your mother that you’re gay,” JangHyun was always known to be quite ruthless and a bit on the idiotic part whenever he speaks. This time, it was no different.

Micky coughed loudly.

So that was how I secured a sogaetting date with the corn girl. I just couldn’t wait for the day for that sogaetting to happen. I imagined how horrified she looked when she saw me sitting there and could not help but to laugh at the thought. Before I knew it, the image of the different faces of corn girl was already intruding my mind and I just realized that it had only been one day since I know her.

So I had the most brilliant plan on how to bother her again. I would fight her at her most vulnerable place; her corn stall. I asked the four Bozos to help out. HeeChul was whining non-stop when we were setting up the stall and JiYong couldn’t stop mumbling angrily when he was asked to buy the corns from the market, using his own money. Micky was giving me a knowing smile and TaeYang was smiling because he thought that selling corns would lead him to girls. Like I said, my best friends are idiots. They couldn’t stop asking the reason why I was forcing them to open the corn stall but I just kept quiet to make it seem mysterious. If I told them straight away that I was only doing that to see corn girl’s angry face, they would be laughing at me right?

So when corn girl arrived later that night, her eyes nearly popped out when she saw me selling corns at the stall next to hers. She must be alarmed by the long queues that we managed to pull in. What can I say – girls would never miss the opportunity to buy things from kingkas. When my friends saw corn girl, they immediately knew that I opened the stall to irritate corn girl and they actually made up a bet. However, I couldn’t believe that I had won the bet when I confidently told them that I can lure her to our corn stall and make her praise our corns; and she did just that.

When corn girl knew about the bet, she was mortified and I loved seeing that horrified look in her beautiful eyes.

So, I kept bugging her all throughout the night and endlessly when I found out about her odd habit of talking to herself when she suddenly decided that she had had enough. She insisted on re-enacting the kiss that we had the night before but I would never had imagined—not in a million years— that she would kiss me for real this time. I had this tingly feeling at the pit of my stomach and I couldn’t even breathe after she pulled away. I suddenly remembered what had happened that night and found out that she was telling the truth after all. But too bad, if I admit to it, I would not have a reason to bother her again so I pretended to be shocked by the kiss and asked her to take responsibility.

I was lucky that HeeChul got to witness the kiss because corn girl surely was super mortified by it. It was like she didn’t even believe that she would do such a thing. HeeChul was a great help and in the end, corn girl was running all the way home without even closing her stall. With her gone, it was useless selling corns anymore so I told the guys that we needed to close our stall. The remaining corns that we had, I had put them at corn girl’s stall so that it wouldn’t go to waste.

Afterwards, I counted our sales and was surprised to know that we had made quite a lot of profits—must be due to my ‘buy a corn for charity’ excuse. All the customers bought extra whenever I told them about the ‘charity’ project. I paid JiYong for his corn money and he was beyond delighted, that cheapskate!

“What are you going to do with the profit?” Micky had asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Something,” I said nonchalantly.

“Will it concern that weird girl? Park Bom?” TaeYang asked.

“Maybe,” I said and gave them a wry smile.

HeeChul rolled his eyes. “I knew there was something going on between the two of you! I had thought that you were being strange when you told her about her untied shoelace. Before this, you never seem to care! Then, I sa