Ianthe

By the end of that day, Deer and I were dressed in matching plain tees, with ‘I LOVE THEMEPARK’ written in Korean printed on its front.

As a memento, Lu Han had said.

A pity, perhaps, for I actually liked the torn colorful top, but somehow doing whatever similar to Lu Han mattered more, including dressing alike as him. It just brought that glee I enjoyed when I saw a number of girls scrutinizing us, some glaring with green eyes, even. I laugh quietly to myself at the reminiscence of their faces when they see me with the cute, yet hot boy beside me. Like couples.

My cheeks flushes with heat, unconsented.

 

Back in reality, the main doors of the apartment click open and I swing around, meeting Deer’s warm brown eyes instantly. He smiles a heart-wrenching greeting smile as he kicks off his shoes and dumps his bag aside.

School was tiring.

What happened?

Lectures, tutorials, research homework and…girls.

My lips form a line as he sighs and plops himself down in his chair. He stays there for a minute or so, then fumbles around in his trousers pockets and throws a bunch of mostly girly-pink envelopes on the wood desk.

Off to the shower, he says brightly and heads for the bathroom, grabbing a set of clean clothes from his wardrobe on the way. I peer at the suspicious-looking letters, then, even though knowing it and was inappropriate, opened one carefully.

Dear Lulu,

Your heartwarming smile throws me off guard and sends me over the edge with joy. My heart beats a million per second whenever you walk by. Your usually disheveled hair, gentle eyes and melodious voice are the highlights of you. I love the way you smile at me. I love the way you treat me. I love the way your lashes flutter when you blink, like butterflies. I love your smart brain that has brought you a reporting success and most of all, I love the way you are born with, good looks and a clever mouth. I have loved you ever since you entered this school and became so famous. Do you like me, too? Go out with me, be with me.

143,

Natalia

Lo…Love letters! Romantic, mushy, outrageous and challenging love letters from girls at his university! Screw this! Natalia? Who the heck was she?

My eyes scan through the neat handwriting of a confession again.

Oh Lulu, your hair, eyes and melodious voice are the highlights of you! I mimic how this love-struck girl would recite the letter sarcastically, I love the way you are born, with good looks and a clever mouth! 

 Are you sereal? Good looks, smart brains and clever mouths? Is that all this Natalia can do? I wonder if she really knows him at all; how can she miss out his kind soul? I scoff, flapping the letter in thin air. Deer’s probably got the kindest heart in Seoul, and she doesn’t mention a hint about it! Bet she’s just momentarily blinded, this woman.

The sharp rap on a door and the click of a bolt unlocking interrupts my self-blabber, and I panic. Quickly, I stuff the offending letter back into the pink envelope, smooth out the wrinkles, stick the love sticker back on again and pretend nothing’s happened.

Hey, Lu Han nods at me as he runs a towel through his hair and hangs it over a chair on his way to his desk and me. I smile innocently, and gesture at the letters.

Deer, what are those?

Lu Han raises his brows at the pile of letters, then directs them at me. Oh, those? I don’t know, but I can guess. They’re from girls at school.

Freaking love letters. I might as well copy “wherefore art thou?” off Romeo and Juliet and can do better than some Natalia.

I plead. Can I go to your school? Explore it? Check it out?

What? Lu Han’s eyes widen briefly, and he seems to reconsider the proposition.

He inclines his head once slowly. I guess so…

I whoop, and am able to tolerate Lu Han slitting the letters open one by one and reading them. He didn’t show me the rest after he and I read Natalia’s first letter, with the excuse that it was embarrassing, and he smirks discreetly to himself as he reads the rest privately, thinking I can’t see. What does that mean? That he’s secretly pleased?

You know Natalia?

She’s the girl I used to admire, more in a heroine way, though. Lu Han says pleasantly, amused that his ‘heroine’ just sent him a love letter professing her oh so great love for him, like Romeo to Juliet.

I look at the letter from behind him. Then, I see. I’ll go to sleep first, then. Goodnight. Wake me up tomorrow before you leave.

~

We settle for me arriving later after his lectures end so that he can do a tour around his school for me properly, unrushed.

I take a taxi to his university. I thank the driver as I get off the car and pay him Lu Han’s money.

The school is big, made up of several buildings clumped together in an area. Students stream in, books and all.

Excuse me, do you know a Lu Han in this school? I catch a boy’s arm as he passes and ask him.

Lu Han? The boy raises his brows, sweeps his eyes up then down me then back to my eyes. Sure, you looking for him? I can bring you to him.

Please, thank you. I smile gratefully. He acknowledges my gratitude with a nod and tells me to follow him.

I spot Deer talking to a bunch of girls. I hear people whispering about the scene, and pointing. What’s wrong? Or is it that he was just so popular? I know the latter is true, for girls are swooning. Wow. Smart, good looking guys really take a toll on them. Lu Han is too smart for his own good, a gifted talent.

My leader calls to him. Lu Han! Check out who came to see you!

Lu Han turns, and his eyes light up when he sees me. He grins his beautiful unravelling smile. He thanks his…friend, I think, for bringing me over.

Who’s she? She’s hot, I hear his friend murmur by his ear. Lu Han swats him on the back playfully.

Good friends, I bet.

There’s another guy in the group. He looks like he’s about to fall asleep and is listening to conversations with half an ear. But thing is, something just tells me he isn’t what he looks like. ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ agrees with this guy, similar to Lu Han in height. He seems vaguely familiar, too, but his name doesn’t surface my mind.

Guys, this is Ianthe, my… new friend from not long ago. Lu Han does the introductions. Ianthe, these are my classmates. This is Max, Yi Xing, whom he prefers you call him Lay, Natalia…

I don’t hear him anymore. Natalia? I notice the brunette standing beside Lay now. Slim, curvaceous body. y model height, glossed lips, thick eyeliner…She’s pretty, and Lu Han’s ‘crush’, who now claims to ‘love’ him.

I am not shorter than her, and we gaze levelly at each other. Predatory warning bells ring, and the stare morphs into a glare. Natalia thinks I am her rival in a love triangle, and I can’t totally deny the urge to smack her down. Hello, Ianthe, Natalia greets me sarcastically. My tone naturally matches hers, dripping with derision.

Hello, Natalia, I say.

Lu Han tugs on my arm with a hint of nervousness and directs me to Lay, the sleepy-looking guy. He tells me about Lay, or, Professor Lay, smarter than Lu Han himself, a Professor at his young age of twenty and still studying while researching.

I knew it. Lay was something. Smart brain, huh. Could he be the one who picked up my feathers? 

Lulu, is she your girlfriend?

God knows Natalia is jealous. Lu Han shrugs.

Nah, no! She’s a special friend, came to pick me up today and requested to see where I studied in.

I note Natalia’s relieved sag of her thin shoulders and smirk. They strike up a conversation again, and I am forced by Natalia beside Lay. Lay is staring at me, hmm…written all over his face, observing me, and the scene. I greet him.

The too-young professor half smiles. You’re special.

I blink, startled. What did he know?

I don’t know what, but you’re special…Unique, perhaps? Different from other humans. Lay taps his lips thoughtfully. Lu Han swoops in, sliding an arm around me shoulders for the first time, humor alight in his eyes. His oh so close lips lift in a teasing grin. Don’t mind him, Ianthe, he’s like that. Has some intuition or something.

Yep, must be hallucinating at times because his shrewd mind conjures up so many ideas in a second that they come true, Max, the guy who lead me into the school, laughs. I don’t know if that is meant to be a compliment or not, but Lay smirks good-naturedly at him. Deer’s friends are interesting. The young professor is striking in a way; he is gifted. Spiritually. I can feel it.

Lu Han! How about we come with you to the tour? We could help explain some stuff, too. Natalia and her clique exclaims sweetly. I nearly roll my eyes. Max refuses to be left out and insists on dragging Lay along, though I think he would rather be in a lab studying chemical reactions…

Their campus is really big, larger than I imagined. There are plenty of facilities for Co-Curriculum Activities, which Max explains that each and every student has to take up at least one of. I ask him what he is in. He answers me sports, badminton. Kind of explains his bulging arm and calf muscles.

Lu Han tells me he is in two: Photography and Choir. Explains, too.

Meeee, too! Natalia boasts enthusiastically. I can hardly imagine her holding a camera and taking pictures of plants and whatever. Choir? She seems more like those in Cheerleading, but I keep my mouth shut and smile with fake pleasantness. I am second-guessing her intentions, and she does not need to know that.

I hang out behind with Lay and Max as Lu Han is being dragged up front with Natalia, who clings onto him like he belongs to her. As if.

Nope, do it yourself. Max is trying to bribe Lay into letting him copy his notes needed for lesson tomorrow. Heyyyy, buddy, pleaseeee, we’re buddies, right? Right…

I chuckle to myself quietly as the group before us stops. We stop, too.

Lu Han casts a look behind him at me, his eyes proud. Ianthe, this is the ever-changing Walls of Memories. The photography club, which includes me and a few others, started this whole thing, he explains, waving a hand over a towering wall, b with scribbles, photographs and colorful post-its. I gasp. I see marker-drawn drawings and words praising, complaining, encouraging and, well, confessing their marker’s love for someone.

My eyes catch Deer’s name, some in Chinese, even, and I raise my brows and initiate.

Lu Han’s cheeks heat up and he quickly blocks it with his body. I stifle a laugh and point up again, above his head, where he can’t exactly reach normally.

Lu Han is so HOT!

I have a huge crush on you!

Deer looks up, scowls, and steers the topic away. He continues explaining. So, anyway, every year, because the wall would be too full to write any visible thing anymore, the school would paint a new coat of paint over it after plucking those ‘memories’ out and storing it somewhere, and students would gather and watch as they splash paint over their words and ‘erase’ the old memories to make space for new ones. Happier ones, of course, we all hope.

I my head at Lu Han as he speaks, and watch as he swells with joy at the fact, written on the walls, that the idea was such a…successful one. He seemed to glow. It makes him more handsome.

Your idea? I ask. Lu Han beams at me and nods.

To test how many confession from girls you can acquire secretly? I tease again.

Lu Han’s big eyes narrow. No.

He tries to be stern, but his voice knows I’m jesting. I wink buoyantly. I feel the tension buzzing off of a long-forgotten Natalia, and I smile sweetly at her. She says that the wall is the last piece-also adding in the redundant fact that it was her ‘favorite’ piece-and walks briskly away with her clique, expecting us to follow. We shrug and do so.

Ianthe, may I have a word with you? I would love to get to know you better, since you are Lu Hannie’s friend and all…You know. Natalia catches me by the arm before we reach the canteen, where they’ve left their bags before the tour. The boys throw looks of suspicion our way. Max more curious, Lu Han concern, and Lay worry.

I trust Lay’s prediction.

Sure, I say with care.

She stalks further away from the group so that only we can hear each other. The others start discussing random things while they wait for us.

Are you Lu Hannie’s anything?

Oh, so this is where the private word going. Like as if I haven't already guessed.

Perhaps? What do you think? I shrug casually.

She glares at me, eyeliner-ed eyes narrowed dangerously.

I care not. I think he doesn’t like you that way, sadly, she jeers.

I laugh lightly. You initiating that you're jealous because you wish he notices you more?

 She drops her hands to her sides forcefully. I pretend not to take the silent message that she’s sending to ask me to shut up, or else.

She was the one who wanted to talk to me. So you know he will be mine soon, I hope you-

No, I don’t know, I interrupt hotly. All I know is that you write unconvincing love letters. It was an accident I came across it, my apologies.

And can you write any better? What school are you from? Natalia scoffed disbelievingly.

Not one that you can attend. I smile serenely and shrug. Maybe. At least I can consult Lu Han, since he’s only a few inches away from home. Now, if that’s all you want to ‘have a word’ about, I shall not let my dear friend wait any longer. We need to catch the bus home together.

It was a deliberate act to raise her jealousy’s ugly head. I bow my head a little and skip exuberantly back to the guys. I ask them if we should go now and catch the bus, loudly.

They nod and waving to the girls, we left. Our paths untangled as we neared the university gates. Lay lived on campus, we took the bus, and Max opted for the train, claiming it was quicker.

Goodbyes were exchanged again, including me.