For hazelnuts

Lilac

“Yixing-nim, the best way to improve your Korean is by getting a girlfriend…”

Whenever Yixing walked the streets of Seoul, and especially after he had come from intensive Korean language class, he would take a look at every girl and decide whether she would have a chance at becoming his girlfriend, or whether he liked her and thought she was pretty. He had come to Korea as an exchange student from Changsha, and he had been very excited, even turning up to his Korean lessons half an hour early to make sure that he would sit directly in front of the teacher. He had also met one of his best friends on his first day – Xi Luhan – and the two were inseparable until Luhan had taken their teacher’s words to heart and got himself a girlfriend in the form of Yoon Bomi, a girl who had been working at the bookshop near the university that they had frequented whenever they wanted to buy books and textbooks for study or for general reading. Bomi had found Luhan adorable, and actually helped him with his homework (more like they flirted in Korean), and he asked her on a date, she said yes, and the rest is history. When they were having a speaking exam, Yixing was in the slot after Luhan and had heard what they were talking about. It was going to be a free ten minute conversation, and Yixin couldn’t help but laugh since Luhan had only tried to mimic the conversations he had with Bomi (which were very…romantic?), but that’s another story.

After living in Korea for two years, Yixing had become proficient in Korean, but he still lacked the fluency that would come after speaking the language for a long time. For example, he couldn’t understand proverbs, shortened words, sound effects and general Korean slang. Plus, he maintained his Chinese roots because he talked to his family every day, and he didn’t go out much so he stayed at his apartment and did things in Chinese once he had completed his homework. He still saw Luhan during class, and sometimes on the weekends, but most of the time, he would either bring Bomi to their outing, be texting her on the phone or just spending the entire day with her.

As he was walking home from another class, his phone beeped signalling another message. He picked it up and saw that it was Luhan.

Hey! Wanna hang out today? I know you’re probably on the way home but go to the café near the school. We’ll wait for you! J

Yixing shook his head. The ‘we’ had probably meant that he brought along Bomi, and he would be the third wheel again. Nevertheless, he wasn’t in the mood to go home and this was the perfect opportunity to go out and have fun, even if he was going to be the third wheel. He his heels and began to walk back in the direction that he had come from and within fifteen minutes he arrived at the front of the café. He spotted Luhan in the back waving to him and he greeted the manager and then walked in. He gave Luhan one of their ‘manly’ hugs and then turned to give Bomi a greeting, but instead, met two pairs of eyes. He and Bomi exchanged their usual bows and light banter, and then he looked at the girl next to her and bowed as well. Luhan had caught Yixing staring at the new girl and gave him a firm pat on the back to bring him back to reality.

“Yixing…this is Namjoo…Bomi’s friend…”

“Namjoo…this is Yixing…my friend, who is also from China…”

Namjoo extended her hand and he took it, noting how soft her skin had felt. He looked up at her eyes and she smiled. Yixing thought that she was really pretty and once again, his teacher’s advice rung through his mind.

“So, what are we going to do today?”

“We were thinking that we should go bowling?”

“Sounds good…”

“Let’s go!”

The group of four headed to the bus stop. Luhan had walked in front and held hands with Bomi while Yixing was walking beside Namjoo, unsure of how to start a conversation or even begin to get comfortable with her. He was taken out of his thoughts when Namjoo linked arms with him.

“Feels like you and I are going to have to stick together today…those two are probably going to use bowling as an excuse to be all lovey dovey…”

“I know what you mean…whenever I go out with them, I usually feel awkward…”

“Really? That’s the same with me! Bomi asks me to hang out and then she brings Luhan!”

In no time at all, the four arrived at the bowling alley. Luhan had paid for two rounds and then they all got their shoes and went to the designated lane. Bomi called out before the game started.

“Let’s take a photo first!”

Luhan sling his arm around Bomi’s shoulders as she held the camera up, Yixing stood beside Luhan and then Namjoo jumped next to him shouting out “Bbyong!” with a ‘V’ sign and Yixing looked at her weirdly which was captured by Bomi’s camera. Luhan hit his arm.

“What face did you make?”

“Sorry…it’s just that I thought Namjoo said something so I looked at her…”

“What did she say?”

“You mean, bbyong?”

“Yeah…”

“It’s like an expression…like a sound effect for when I popped in front of you…”

Yixing nodded, but his face looked puzzled at the sudden discovery of a new word in a new context.

“You’re having menboong right now aren’t you?”

“Menboong?”

“It means mental breakdown…”

“Ahhh…”

Meanwhile, Luhan already had his first bowl and was now helping Bomi, who was actually more than capable, of doing hers. Namjoo and Yixing were lost in their own world. Namjoo was fascinated by how much of the Korean language he still had to learn and found his confusion really cute. Yixing just thought that she had a pretty voice, and that her Korean sounded really good.

“Do you want me to be your Korean tutor?” she said as she went up for her first bowl. Yixing followed her and helped her in the same way that Luhan had ‘helped’ Bomi.

“Would you like to be my girlfriend instead?”

Namjoo dropped the ball and it rolled into the canal.

“What?”

“Be my girlfriend…”

“Why?”

“Because that’s how my teacher said I could improve my Korean…”

“I won’t be your girlfriend if that’s all you want me for…”

Yixing lifted his hand to his head and pretended to caress it from pain. “Ahhh...menboong…” Namjoo playfully hit his arm. “Yah! You’re already using the words I taught you against me?”

“See…I told you that I would improve!”

“That means that you don’t need me to be your girlfriend then if you’ve already improved…”

“Okay…you can be my girlfriend in the future after we’ve gone on our first date…”

Yixing winked at her and took his bowl. Strike!