“Now you see a monocotyledon or as some would call it, a monocot, is a type of plant which has, blah bllllaaahh blah blah.”

Well that’s all I had been hearing come out of my Science teachers mouth before I fell asleep and felt my face slipping from my hand, onto the hard desk infront of me with an audible thud. I lifted up my head, face immediately turning red as I saw the eyes of the whole class fall on me.

As if my worst nightmare had been realized, I heard someone in the back row start laughing and immediately the whole class broke out into hysteria. I turned to see who would be so cruel as to laugh at my already embarrassing situation, but I already knew who it was. I turned my face towards him, giving him the most hateful glare I could... en Junhoe. I hated this guy so much.

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You see, my hatred for Junhoe has been embedded in my heart ever since we started High School. Even though it’s painful to think back to that day, it’s important that you know why.

Our parents were very good friends, and often Junhoe and his mother would come over to our house ever since we were babies. We would play together almost every day so it was only natural that we became very close. But when we started school, our relationship dramatically changed. Kids being kids, boys were usually thought to be smelly and disgusting, so unsurprisingly we ended up spending less time together as we got older. As time passed, we still used to see one another but our talks were limited to the occasional (and awkward) wave as we passed one another in the hallway with a small smile or a soft “Hi”.

This was basically how our “friendship” continued for quite some time, never having bothered with one another until we had entered high school.

Then things changed.

I noticed that girls seemed to be crowding around Junhoe more than usual. And my friends seemed to go crazy about him whenever he passed us.By this time we had stopped acknowledging one another so we had no contact at all.Until my parents decided to throw a party for their anniversary. Somehow, Junhoe ended getting dragged along to my house as well, and we were awkwardly stuffed together in my room because our parents thought we were best of friends.

“So er, this is kind of awkward, don’t you think?” said Junhoe as he lazily threw himself down on my neatly made bed.

“Do you mind? You’re messing up my bed, dork.” I threw him with one of the plush toys as I sat down on the floor in front of the bed.

“Oh I’m sorry, I never took you for a neat freak.” His voice dripping with sarcasm as he looked down at me.

“You wouldn’t even know now, would you? We haven’t spoken to each other since elementary school.”

“Ah, I seem to have faint memories of you. But I don’t remember much... Except that you’re still as ugly as you used to be. Seems beauty does not come with age in your case.” He brought his face closer to mine as he gave me one of those smirks girls claim have caused many deaths.

I was too shocked, having his face this close to mine so suddenly, to give him one of my smart comebacks. In that moment, I could see everything... The way his hair flopped to the side, the way his dark eyebrows scrunched up as he looked at me and how those pink, full lips turned up into taunting smile.

“You idiot! Get out of my damn face.” I pushed his head back.

“Hassshh! That hurt you know.” He said as he rubbed his forehead.

“Well I never told you to get that close. Don’t just invade someones personal space you fool.”

“Haha, you’re kinda cute when you get angry you know.”

And that’s how we spent our time together that day. Him teasing me and me unable to say anything back to him. In retrospect, I should have known that things would end badly, but I was enjoying my time with him so much and we even ended up exchanging numbers again.

The next day while I was eating dinner, I received a text on my phone. Thinking it was just Rena, I ignored it till I got to bed. When I finally opened it, I immediately froze as I saw it was from Junhoe.

Junhoe: Ugly duckling. I’m bored. Entertain me.

“Pfft, how childish,” I said to myself as I started fervently typing a message to send back. Thinking I would get back at him for his cocky behaviour the previous day.

We were regularly texting one another but he would always ignore me at school. It never bothered me and I never questioned why he wasn’t acknowledging me, I was just glad we could stay in contact with one another.

A few months after we started texting, I was standing at my locker, packing my books away when someone pushed me.

“What the fu...?” I turned around to see Eun Sal standing behind me, along with her squad of polished barbies.

“This is the I was telling you about.”

She turned her face towards me.

“Stop texting my bf, he doesn’t want you and you’re being annoying.”

“Mind telling me what you are talking about?” By this time the scene had attracted the eyes of everyone in the vicinity.

“Oh, are you yourself out so that many guys? I’m talking about Junhoe. He’s mine. He doesn’t want you so stay away from him.”

I felt my face heat up and tears fill my eyes. I don’t know if I was upset that she attacked me or angry that Junhoe had never said anything but I felt betrayed nonetheless. When I looked up, I saw him staring at Eun Sal as she ran to his side.

“Oppa, see? I sorted this problem out for you. Now this creepy stalker won’t be bothering you anymore.”

I don’t think I’ve ever felt more ashamed of myself as I did that day.

So here I am today, in my senior year of High School, being laughed at by the very guy I had fallen in love with.

And ended up hating even more than anyone else.

After my teacher had settled the class down and I excused myself to the bathroom, I finally got to relieve my pent up frustration.

“, why am I so stupid? Can’t believe I did that.” I said as I kicked against the bathroom wall.

I was determined to finish this year without anymore mishaps though. My plan to go to N University, which was as far from this damn place as I could get, was finally getting closer. High school was ending and I could finally leave all of this behind me.

Or so I thought.