“So, Bang Yongguk,” the MC turns to him “You seem really like Tigger right? Many fans gave you that stuffed Tigger.”

“Ah…” he smiles shyly “When I was young, I don’t have many friends. But I got a Tigger plushie and he was always there with me.”

“You really didn’t have any friends at all?” The MC expresses his surprise.

“Only Tigger. Until I met my girlfriend…” he smiles brighter when all the first memories slowly appear in his mind, those very first moments of them.

========♥========

The bell rang. All the classes’ doors were open and the students burst out from them, fulfilled every space of the corridor.

A bunch of boys ran quickly towards another guy and pushed him fall down on the ground. His Tigger fell off his hands.

“Oops! Sorry loser! If only Tigger were a real person to pick you up hahahahah!” the boys laughed out loud and walked away. Some other boys wanted to help him. But they looked at each other with fear. They didn’t want to be bullied too.

Yongguk glanced at them, leaning on a locker to stand up. He fetched out a sigh, picked up his bestfriend, “Let’s go, Tigger. Just ignore them.”

He found a quiet corner and sat there, continued doing his “secret project”. It was going to rain soon. A storm seemed passing by, with thunders and lightning.

Tigger was sitting beside him while he was writing something on the papers. “Yeah, it’s cold, Tigger. Keep yourself warm.” He wore a small carf around the plushie.

A strong wind sneaked through the windows and flew to him, blowing his papers away. “Aish…” he tried to catch them.

But one of the papers flew far away from him so he didn’t see it. It crashed into a schoolgirl’s legs when she was walking along the corridor. She leaned down, picked the paper up and read the words written on them.

Firstly, she noticed a name on the right corner of the paper. “Jepp Blackman?”

Then she moved her eyes down to the lines of words below. They were tablatures and music notes. Jieun tilted her head to the side, blinking at the song.

“Never give up himeul-le kkumeul hyanghe Never give up

irona irona noramyon hal suga isso~”

She sang softly along. “Ooh wow, such a nice song…”

Jieun looked around and saw Yongguk sitting at the corner, with his back leaning against the wall. She held the paper in her hand and dashed towards him.

“Excuse me… Did you drop this paper?”

Yongguk gasped hearing someone’s voice. It was supposed to be no one left at school right now since it was a while after the bell rang. He looked up at the girl and slowly received the paper back from her hands, “O-oh… thank you!”

Jieun took of her packback’s straps and sat down next to him, “You wrote that song?”

“Huh?” Yongguk scratched his hair, blinking at the girl. He seemed so surprised when someone cared and talked to him.

“That song is jinjja daebak!” Jieun lifted her thumb up and snatched the song back from him.

“Never give up himeul-le kkumeul hyanghe Never give up

irona irona noramyon hal suga isso

wake up wake up gokjong ma jal dwelgoya Never give up

nonikka geuge nonikka no jasineul midobwa Never give up”

Jieun sang it again. Even nodding her head to the rhythm of the beat.

Yongguk looked at her blankly. To be more exact, he was staring at her and his soul got lost somewhere in her eyes.

She put the paper down and looked back at him. “Is there something wrong?”

“N-no…” Yongguk was awakened up by her “Ah… I was just… wow you’re really the Nightingale…”

“Nightingale? I don’t like that nickname seriously. It’s just too much… by the way, you know me?”

“Oh please…” Yongguk scoffed “Who doesn’t know you in this school huh? You’re very popular, Miss Song. Unlike me, I’m just a loser to them.”

“Don’t say that, Mr. Bang!” Jieun waved her hand to deny.

“You know my name?” He widened his eyes. This was a bit unbelievable.

“You’re my favorite member of the school’s basketball team… But what happened? Why did they kick you out?”

Yongguk shrugged. He didn’t want to talk about it. “I guess the leader was jealous because a country boy like me scored more goals than he could on that match…”

“Really? That’s all? They treated you like that because you just moved to Seoul? Racists!” Jieun frowned cutely. “And mean, too!”

Yongguk laughed. “Hahaha I don’t care though. Those bad boys gave me ideas to write my songs. It’s like I can rant about these bad people…”

“Your songs are so good” Jieun smiled at him, looking through other songs of his.

“Thank you. You’re the first to know about them…”

Jieun put a hand on his shoulder. “I want to be your friend, Yongguk. I don’t like the way they treat you.”

“I appreciate your kindness, Jieun. But I don’t want you to be discriminated too.” He turned to Tigger and picked him up. “And I don’t want to make Tigger jealous.”

Jieun smiled again, patted Tigger’s head. “You have such a good friend there, Tigger. Be loyal to him okay?”

Yongguk showed up his gummy smile. It’d been a while since he felt happy again. He couldn’t remember when the last time people talked to him was. Since he moved to Seoul, he had received these cold and mean attitudes from the other students. No one was with him. He was all alone getting through everything. He lived with himself and dealt with the loneliness. Suddenly today he was able to flash a smile.

“By the way, why are you still here at this time?” Yongguk looked at Jieun playing with his Tigger.

“I practiced a bit more after school. And you? Why you didn’t go home?”

“My parents are in a business trip. So now I’m home alone. It’s boring at home so I stay here for a while…”

There was a noise from the other side of the corridor. They guessed it was the security man checking around before closing the school’s gate. It was time for them to go home.

Suddenly, it started to rain.

Jieun opened her bag and looked for the umbrella. “Ah where is it?”

An umbrella was opened over Jieun’s head. “Take mine!”

“I forgot to bring my umbrella!”

“Just take mine then. My house is just three blocks away. I will run fast so I won’t get wet!”

“How about Tigger? He’ll get wet too!”

Yongguk shrugged. “I bet he won’t mind being wet, right Tigger?” He pushed the plushie’s head down, acting like it was nodding. “See? He agreed with me!”

Jieun burst into laughters with his wittiness. “I will go that way too. How about if we walk together to your house, then I’ll take your umbrella to go home. I will give it back to you tomorrow!”

“Well, I will agree if Tigger agrees. What do you think, Tigger?” he looked at the plushie on his hands.

“It seems like Tigger agrees with it.” Jieun took it from him, “Let’s go!” and pulled him out of school.

A boy and a girl started walking together under the heavy rain with a small umbrella.

========♥========

“Hi Jieun!”

“Good morning Ji!”

“Hey Jieun! Good morning!”

Other students friendly greeted Jieun when she walked along the corridor towards a class.

She stopped at the door and looked around that class to search for a familiar face.

“Bang Yongguk!” she called loudly. All the eyes turned to her.

“Yongguk, come here!” She waved to him.

He was sitting at the table near the window, writing songs again, she guessed. Seeing Jieun, he immediately stood up and headed to the door.

The other boys were glancing at him with suspicious eyes. Especially the boys in the basketball team.

The students started gossiping about what was happening.

“Omo, did you see that? Yongguk is now Jieun’s friend?”

“How can that loser dare to get near to our princess?”

“This is so unbelievable. She should know that he’s just a loser!”

Yongguk ignored all of the gossips. He somehow had the strength to ignore everything else and only focused on Jieun.

“Here is your umbrella~” Jieun gave it to him. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome, Jieun!” his gummy smile appeared again, without his knowing.

“By the way, Yongguk, I already asked my mom. Since you’re home alone now, do you want to come to my house for dinner tonight? I bet Tigger will agree right?”

“Dinner? At your house? Oh sure! Tigger is very willingly to be there.” He scratched his head. He was shy.

“Okay… Then, see you there!”

“I’ll come to your class after I’m done. See you!” He waved to her.

When he turned around, the whole class was staring at him. There were many kinds of reaction. The basketball team was jealous while the girls were spreading rumors. But he didn’t care at all. He just walked normally back to his seat.

“Hey Yongguk!” the leader of basketball team stood in front of his desk.

He looked up. “Wassup? Not loser anymore?”

“I don’t understand what Jieun sees in you, to be honest.”

“You don’t need to understand. I just need Jieun to do that. And she does. By the way, I don’t see what in you that Jieun should understand too, to be honest. Now who is the loser huh?” Yongguk stood straight up and left the class like a boss. He smirked. That leader of basketball team just gave him more ideas to write his songs.

Guess who got his popularity back?

========♥========

Yongguk silently approached Jieun from behind and covered her eyes. “Guess who?”

“Tigger!” Jieun laughed.

“No, not Tigger!!!” Yongguk pouted, letting go of her.

“I mean Tigger’s owner~” She turned around and pinched his cheeks.

“How about Jieun’s owner?” He touched the tip of their noses together.

“You can’t own me!” Jieun frowned.

“Why not? You’re mine!” He tightened his hug, with a will to never let her go.

She looked deeply into his eyes. “Tell me, why do you love me this much?”

“I’m not so sure. I just love you, Jieun. My life was so bad. I didn’t think I could smile again, but you helped me. I thought it was all over, but then came you…”

“I love you too, Yongguk!”

He gave her a deep kiss. It was their first kiss ever.

========♥========

“Ah… so your girlfriend is also your bestfriend?” the MC asks again.

“Ne…” Yongguk nods “Jieunnie, she is everything to me.”

The MC laughs. “Aigoo this cheesy boy. So, as the V day is getting close, do you want to send any love message to her?”

Yongguk was choked by the MC’s suggestion. “Right now? Via TV?”

“Of course!” the MC replies “How long have you been dating?”

Yongguk smiles sheepishly “We’ve been dating for three years, after a long time being friends.”

The MC nods “Oh… then you should send her a love message now. Let’s start!”

“Ah… Jieunnie ah… It’s so sudden, I really don’t know what to say. I just want to thank you for coming into my life. I love you!” he makes a small heart with his fingers in the end.

The MC mocks him, “Ayy that was so short!”

“I’m sorry but I don’t know what to say. There’s no word to describe my love for her.” He shyly covers his gummy smile.

Yongguk makes the MC laugh again “Ahahaha now that’s cheesy! Ok, thanks for coming to our interview today.”

========♥========

Yongguk silently approaches Jieun from behind when she is cooking dinner. “Guess who?”

She turns around “Jieun’s owner!”

“Nah~ It’s Tigger!” he winks. Sliding his hands around her waist, he pulls her closer and hugs tight.

“I miss you, Tigger”

“I miss you more, Jieun”

He leans closer to her face and kisses her lips.

At the corner of the house, Tigger is covering his face, thinking “Aish, get a room please. There’s a plushie here!”