August 18th, 1993

The sounds of a woman screaming echoed throughout the room of a busy hospital. She's experiencing the most wonderful thing in the world, the gift of life. Well wonderful to others, right now it's hell for her.

"Congratulations ma'am! Your child is a healthy baby girl. What would you like to name her?"

"Eunji. Jung Eunji" she weakly said. The nurses helped bring the newborn infant to her mother.

"Welcome to the world Eunji." the mother told her child as her husband watched and smiled.

~~

"This is your room Eunji! It's all pink, perfect for you my little girl." the proud father said to the baby as he brought her inside. Indeed the room was pink. Pink walls, floor, furniture, even the damn crib was pink.

Pink, the color for girls.

The baby was placed into the crib, completely asleep. Not a care in the world.

"You're the perfect daughter."Eunji's father told the baby and left the infant to sleep inside her crib.

~~

December 25th, 1996

"Merry Christmas Eunji!" The child's parents said to her and handed the small child her Christmas presents. Eunji excitedly opened up her gifts but frowned in disappointment when she saw a doll. And, of course, the doll wore pink.

"But mommy, I wanted that other toy!" 3 year old Eunji complained.

"Oh silly! That toy you wanted was for boys. You're a girl sweetie. Girls play with dolls while boys play with action figures." Eunji's mother explained to the child, who didn't seem to understand the concept other than it being 'wrong' for girls to play with boys' toys.

"Eunji, come try this dress your mommy and I bought for you." the child's father ordered her.

"But I don't want to wear dresses. Why can't I wear what Deulie wears?" whined Eunji.

"That's because Sandeul is a boy. Boys wear shorts, pretty girls like you wear dresses, now come try this on." Mrs. Jung replied and smiled as she carried the pouting Eunji into the bathroom to change.

~~

May 14th, 1998

Four, almost 5, years old Eunji shyly introduced herself to her classmates at kindergarten. The teacher kindly instructed Eunji to sit with another girl, Lee Jieun.

"Hello Eunji! I'm Jieun! Our names are similar!"

"N-Nice to meet you Jieun." Eunji greeted back as she gave her classmate an eye-smile.

"What do you like to do?" Jieun asked.

"I like drawing."

"Me too!"

"Okay class, you will all work with your partner and color a drawing you made together. Have fun." their teacher told them.

"Yay!" the children cheered and they all proceeded to work with their partners.

"What do you want to draw Eunji?" Jieun asked the other girl.

"Do you like superheroes? I like Hulk, Spiderman and Superman!" Eunji happily said, but her enthusiasm slowly decreased when she saw the disgusted look on her classmate's face.

"Yucky!" Jieun replied and stuck her tongue out while shaking her head.

"O-Oh... what do you want to draw then?" Eunji politely questioned.

"I like princesses. Who is your favorite Disney Princess?" Jieun asked.

"Uhm... snow white?" the other child hesitantly answered. She actually didn't like any of them so she just named the only one she knew.

"I like rapunzel! Let's draw them then!" suggested Jieun and they began their artwork.

Little Eunji didn't know why, but she felt strange having to lie to her new friend. And more importantly, she was wondering why it was wrong for her to like superheroes.

~~

"What do you want to do now?" Jieun asked the new girl during their recess.

"Do you want to play ball with them?" Eunji proposed and pointed to the group of boys.

"Nu uh! Boys are icky! My mommy says girls should play nicely with other girls. Boys run around and they're too loud." argued Jieun.

"Then what do you want to do?"

"Let's just play by the swings."Jieun smiled and held her friend's hand as they made their way to the swings. The two little girls sat on the swings and began playing.

"What is your favorite color?" inquired Jieun.

"Blue and black. Yours?" Eunji quickly replied.

"Blue and black? I like pink and yellow."

"O-Oh"

"You're really weird you know that Eunji?" Jieun asked as she giggled. She meant it as a joke, but Eunji didn't think of it as one.

'Am I really that weird?'

~~

2005

"What are you wearing?" Jieun asked me as she inspected my attire. 

"Comfy clothes" I dully replied. I was wearing a simple white t-shirt and cargo shorts. Meanwhile my best friend had on a button-up shirt with a cardigan over it and a colorful skirt. My hair was kind of messy because I got up late and I don't really take time to do my hair so it looked like I walked out with my bed-head. Whereas Jieun looked like she just walked out of a hair salon.

"You should care about your looks more dummy" Jieun sighed at my lack of concern for my outer appearance. She took out a comb from her handbag and began combing my hair.

"It's a lot of work. Besides, not like I'm trying to impress anyone" I mumbled.

"Well you certainly aren't going to impress any guys with these clothes."

I kept quiet after that, but I had the strangest urge to tell her that I don't care about impressing guys. If someone's dressing up, why does it have to be for a guy? Why can't they just dress up nicely because they want to look like that for the day?

~~

2009

"Eunji-Yah!" my best friend, Jieun, shouted as she ran into my room and jumped on top of me.

"G-Get offa me" I groaned. She giggled and slowly got of me. I glared at her and she only playfully stuck her tongue at me.

"What do you want?" I sighed.

"I got a boyfriend!" Jieun told me.

"So?" I thoughtlessly said out loud and she hit my head in return.

"Yah! Can't you be happy for your best friend?!"

"Fine fine fine! Omo! Congratulations Jieunnie!! Is he like totally hot?!" I pretended to care and used the most exaggerated voice ever.

"Okay never mind, please don't care. You sound so gross like that" my friend responded and shivered. I laughed at her and she sat next to me on my bed.

"Congrats Jieun" I told her and smiled.

"Thanks. So when are you going to get a boyfriend?" She asked me.

"I don't know" I shrugged my shoulders and looked away from her.

"You should get one. People are starting to think you're gay because you're don't seem to be interested in any guys at all. It doesn't help that your room only has posters of Girl's Generation, Kara, After School and f(x)." Jieun told me as she looked around my room. I knew she meant well, but what she said left a bitter feeling in my mouth.

"I'll find one eventually. Don't worry Jieunnie. So, to celebrate you getting a boyfriend, why don't we go get ice cream?" I said to change the topic.

"Sounds great! I'll let you change. See you downstairs."

"Alright."

She walked out of my room and closed the door, leaving me alone in the quiet room. I walked to my drawers and closet and inspected all of the clothes inside them. Most of my clothes were cargo pants, shorts, long-sleeved button-up shirts, leather jackets and cashmere V-neck sweaters. All of those were in either dark blue, black or gray. I knew I would hear another earful from my best friend if she saw my outfit so I decided to wear the few 'girl' clothes I had, which meant clothes my mom bought for me without me knowing and just stuffed into my drawers and closet. I can't just call out Jieun, my other friends and family are constantly judging my attire as well, my cousins especially. I've already come to the conclusion that I can't go through one family dinner without my older female cousins making fun of my clothes and telling me to dress up more like a girl or I'll never get a boyfriend. Some of them have tried to force me to go shopping with them but I avoided them like a plague. Everyone around me thinks I'm strange. They all call me that but they don't try to understand me at all. I can't even get mad because that's how they were raised. That's how we were all raised.

I changed into the striped, yellow dress my mom got me and stared at the mirror in my room.

'This is so bright and uncomfortable' I didn't like the feeling of the dress. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against dresses, it's just I don't really like wearing them, unless it's a special occasion. But maybe now I'll stop being strange.

No, I am not strange.

I'm just different.

Why can't you all just leave me be?

TBC

I hope this was okay. The next chapter will be by SunlightLocket. Thank you all for reading.
- Rachel

Bonus: Eunji and Jieun (IU) are adorable together