Optimism:

1: a doctrine that this world is the best possible world

2: an inclination to put the most favourable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome

Pessimism:

1: the doctrine that reality is essentially evil

2: an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome

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Physical education. Oh god, even the thought of it made Hyunjung want to wrench her hair out and vaporize into the atmosphere. And she even volunteered to run the 400 metre. She was thinking about how Taehyung said she made the wrong choice, however she did it for the sake of someone else. She had to at least feel good about that.

Regular participation in physical activity is said to encourage the body’s production of endorphins, which are linked the sensation of euphoria and well-being. Well then how come it made Hyunjung want to get hit on the head with a basketball and get a concussion so she could go to the nurse’s office and miss the rest of the lesson?

It wasn’t necessarily the class itself she hated (she could at least throw a ball and had decent eye coordination), but it was more or less the people in the class who she didn’t like. For example, there are those people who are athletic but aren’t cocky about it; they encourage the people who perhaps aren’t so good with sports to participate and support them with their mistakes, for instance if their pitching isn’t so good and they help them by showing them how to throw a further distance, or running alongside people who can’t keep up with the others during a lap around the track, while at the same time saying motivating and encouraging words.

But then there were the students who treated P.E. as if it was the bloody Olympics.

Their competitiveness was terrifying.

Whenever they ran it looked like they were a charging bull, and she swore she saw some of the necks of the badminton rackets bent, and she was talking about the ones the P.E. department just recently purchased. But what Hyunjung dreaded was when she was put onto the same team with those kind of people; make one mistake and they’ll get all the more uncooperative with you.

Lucky for her that the school separated students into ability sets for their P.E. classes now. They had P.E. at the same time, but they weren’t all clumped into an odd jumble of athletic and un-athletic students. But at the same time she wasn’t particularly happy with it either, because her friends were all in the higher sets. Since Taehyung was new he was in the same group as her for that one time when the P.E. teachers didn’t know his sporting abilities, but as soon as they witnessed him playing badminton and basketball they immediately placed him into the same set as Jungkook.

But guess what? The P.E. teachers decided that it’d be a good idea to mix all the groups up for today since the sports festival was approaching.

Mr Hwa clapped his hands to catch the attention of the class. “Can you all partner up with someone while we wait for Mr Song with his set to come into the gym?”

No one complained or protested. Some were even happy about it. But then there were people like Hyunjung who weren’t too happy about it; none of her friends were in the same set as her so she just spent two minutes wandering around the gym awkwardly watching the people in her class who did find someone to partner up with.

But she felt a little hope rise when she saw Eunsook who was sat on the floor alone beside the badminton racket trolley with her knees huddled up to her chest and her chin resting on top of them. Hyunjung picked up her pace so that she could get to her before anyone else. When she approached, Eunsook straightened and brought her head up to look at her.

Hyunjung rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, hesitating to ask. Seeing the confused expression on Eunsook’s face she cleared . “Is it alright if I pair up with you?”

Eunsook glanced down at the floor then looked back up again and nodded. “Okay.”

Hyunjung sat down beside her cross-legged and the two didn’t even exchange another glance. It wasn’t that they hated each other, not at all. Last year whenever the teacher asked the class to pair up and Hyunjung and Eunsook were in the same class, they’d always go together. They didn’t consider each other friends, but they saw each other as similar affiliates which made them happy enough to be partnered up despite barely talking to one another.

The sound of sneakers squeaking and multiple footsteps approaching the gym grew louder and everyone’s heads turned to the door where Jungkook and Jimin were the first ones to enter, then followed by the rest of the group and Mr Song.

Hyunjung almost forgot what it was like to be in the same group as people whose sports abilities were ten times greater than yours. Not only that, but just from looking around the gym she could easily hazard a guess to which set each person belonged to - most of the higher set students wore their track jackets with their sleeves rolled up to their forearms and in general not only were athletic but looked like it too. But what gave it away the most was probably their stance; feet apart with a straight back and either had their hands on their hips or had their arms folded which highlighted their confidence.

Mr Song and Mr Hwa talked in low voices to each other, discussing what was going to happen while everyone else chattered amongst themselves.

A few minutes later Mr Hwa blew his whistle, the screech causing the whole class to immediately cease all conversation.

He faced the half of the gym where the lower set were gathered. “For those who have partnered up, please can you now join with another pair in Mr Song’s set so there are four people in your group? The numbers are odd so there may be some groups which’ll just consist of people from the higher set.”

No one said anything but just by looking at their faces you could tell that they did not lean towards the idea of mixing the lower and higher groups.

“HYUNJUUUUUUNG!”

“For god’s sake, you’re so damn noisy.”

Eunsook tapped Hyunjung on the shoulder and pointed to Jimin who was flailing his hands at them frantically to beckon them over, and next to him was a very irritated-looking Taehyung. Hyunjung wondered where Jungkook was, but she then saw he was partnered with Hoseok and was already in a group with Jungjae and Sungmin.

She exchanged prolonged eye contact with Jungkook before his face broke out into a grin and waved. She smiled and waved back while Eunsook stared between the two and then quickly looked down. Hyunjung turned away from him and with Eunsook, made their way over to Jimin and Taehyung and sat across from them on the floor, not really sure what else to say but a mere hello.

“You guys are so quiet,” Jimin remarked, who was the only person in their group of four who didn’t look like their soul was taken from them. “And Hyunjung, you look like you’re half asleep.”

She gave a slow, extended sigh. “I just hate P.E.”

“Really? I think it’s one of the most fun classes. You’re not cooped in a classroom for ages.”

“I’d rather that than run for an hour,” she responded, and Eunsook glanced up and nodded her head to agree with her.

“Come on, as long as we maintain some positive energy, we’ll be able to accomplish whatever it is we’re going to do. Don’t you think so Taehy –?”

“No.” Taehyung said in probably the most monotone voice they had ever heard come out of him.

Jimin’s grin fell and he crossed his arms. “Bundles of joy. You guys are too negative, you know?”

“And you’re too optimistic,” Taehyung muttered. Hearing this, Eunsook glanced over at Jimin but he looked more preoccupied with his indistinct reflection on the floor than Taehyung’s comment. She turned her head to the right and Hyunjung was just as distracted.

And at what? Eunsook wasn’t too sure.

But judging from the way Hyunjung and Jungkook constantly kept glancing at each other from the opposite sides of the gym, Eunsook could take a lucky guess.

Mr Hwa clapped his hands again to catch the classes’ attention. “You’ll all be playing a series of various team challenges. They don’t all necessarily include a great level of athletic ability, but you will work with your team to complete these. This year’s sports festival is going to be heavily team oriented, so we presume a lot of practise is needed before then.”

“But Jungkook’s team are all from our set, they’re going to beat every other group!” Jimin cried. Hyunjung and Eunsook ignored the fact that he had just indirectly implied that his own team had virtually no chance in winning. 

Mr Hwa checked his clipboard. “Of course there will be some inequity but it won’t be major. Besides, Park Jimin, this isn’t the real thing anyway. And as long as the people in your team have a positive mentality, it shouldn’t matter whether you win or lose all the –”

“HA! See, I told you, I told you! I – told – you!” Jimin shot up from his sitting position on the floor and unreservedly pointed back and forth between his team members. “I told you! As long as we’re positive, we can do anything!”

Hyunjung, Taehyung and Eunsook stared up at him, feeling the same second-hand embarrassment. They could hear Jungkook and Hoseok chuckling in the background.

“Uh, yeah! …” Hyunjung cheered uncertainly, speaking for the sake of their team, “positivity…”

Jimin tried to ignore the menacing stares Taehyung was shooting him. “Taehyung, I think you should smile a little, it looks like you have an aura of pessimism surrounding you. Seriously, don’t look at me as if you’re plotting my death - it’s scaring me.”

“But Taehyung would never do that,” Eunsook murmured quietly.

“Well, you never know,” Jimin whispered to her; “to be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if he put something weird in my food one day.”

Taehyung rolled his eyes at Jimin’s comment. “Yeah, because I would absolutely put potassium cyanide in your bread and force feed it to you.” He sighed exasperatedly. “Let’s just get this over with.”

*  *  *

“Great, just great.” Jimin continued to grumble incoherently to himself as he and Taehyung were inflating the basketballs while Hyunjung and Eunsook were busy sorting the misplaced equipment.

Taehyung rolled his eyes but resumed to finish the task at hand. “It’s your fault for complaining so much on how every other team was going to lose against Jungkook’s. Now we have to clean and sort out the storage room.”

“Your pessimism is contagious,” Jimin groused in reply, “I feel so hopeless right now.”

“I’d rather be doing this than do whatever the rest of the class are doing,” Hyunjung admitted while she and Eunsook were occupied with separating the new and old tennis rackets.

“I just suddenly thought of a good idea!” Jimin announced, suddenly standing up which caused the basketball he was inflating to fall to the floor and deflate again.

“Of course,” Taehyung grumbled. What happened to Jimin’s so-called pessimism?

“While we do this, we can take turns to say something about ourselves. Jungkook and I used to do this all the time in elementary. But now it’s boring because we know too much about each other now. It’s more fun if you don’t know each other that well.” He chuckled. “I’ll go first. When I was in kindergarten, I cried because Jungkook threw sand in my face.”

Taehyung looked at him incredulously. To him that was mere child's play, but he sighed in defeat when he saw both Hyunjung and Eunsook go over to Jimin. Hyunjung was the one who spoke next, but still continued to sort the tennis rackets. “When I was younger I thought the black specks in vanilla ice cream was pepper.”

“Um, I love science, but I’m really bad at mathematics,” Eunsook said while fiddling with her hands. “That’s why I always revise during homeroom.”

They turned to Taehyung.

“Well,” he began. The three stared at him as they waited.

Taehyung cleared his throat. “My grandma’s best friend owns a strawberry farm.”

They continued to stare.

Jimin broke the silence with a laugh, nudging him on the shoulder jokingly. “So… what’s your interesting fact?”

Taehyung remained indifferent. “What do you mean? I just told you.”

Jimin’s brows conjoined and he stared steadily with a stone expression. “Then you Kim Taehyung, are a very uninteresting person.”

Before Taehyung had the chance to retort something in reply, Mr Hwa entered the storage room, having to duck down a little to avoid hitting his head on top of the door frame.

“Good afternoon sir,” Jimin greeted monotonously – he was still unhappy about the fact that both Mr Song and Mr Hwa had sent his group to sort the storage room while everyone else was doing team-building activities.

Their teacher nodded his head slowly. “You too, Park. It’s a shame you couldn’t participate in the class today. It would’ve been good for you too since you’re in the sports fest.”

Jimin sulked as soon as he said that. As if he needed to reminded. “Is there something you need, sir?”

“Ah yes, can two of you take the bags of equipment over there to the field?”

“Yep, Eunsook and I will,” Jimin announced. Hearing her name, Eunsook snapped her head up and looked at Jimin confusedly but nodded anyway.

“Jolly good.” Mr Hwa gave a quick smile to them all before exiting the room.

After he left, Jimin stood up and went to the corner where the equipment was and dragged both bags to the door. “Come on then, Eunsook. We may get a chance to watch them practise if we hurry.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” Hyunjung asked, referring to herself and Taehyung. “We’ve nearly finished sorting everything here.”

Taehyung also had the same inquiring expression, and both looked steadily at Jimin.

Jimin chuckled, not knowing what to say. “Uh… quality time to talk? See you guys!” He didn’t give them a chance to reply before he, in a haste, shuffled out the room with Eunsook and shut the door.

Two minutes had barely passed and Hyunjung and Taehyung were sat across each other in utter silence. Hyunjung traced circles onto the surface of the floor while Taehyung was bouncing a tennis ball.

It wasn’t until Hyunjung thought of an icebreaker, which she thought would either go really well or really bad - she just had to rely on Taehyung’s sense of humour. “Hey Taehyung I have a joke, where do animals go when their tails fall off?” she began, and he only expected the worst. “The re-tail store!”

Taehyung gave no reaction.

He continued to play with the tennis ball, but Hyunjung had more. “Why was the South Korean sympathetic? Because he was Seoul-ful.”

No reaction.

Several bad puns later.

“What do you get with a fish with no eyes? A fsh.”

Taehyung wondered long it took for two people to carry two bags of equipment. Because Eunsook and Jimin were sure taking their sweet time.

No more, was what he thought. Please, no more.

“Hey Tae, here’s another one. How does a train eat? It goes chew chew.” Hyunjung would end in uncontrollable laughter every time she revealed the punch line, waving her hand up in the air as her flag of apology while Taehyung could feel his rationality slip away bit by bit at every pun. “What do you call a fake elephant...? Irrelephant.”

Taehyung’s nostrils flared as he inhaled slowly. “Anything else?”

Hyunjung’s lips slowly formed into a grin. “You know what’s so good about koalas?”

Taehyung didn’t say anything.

“They give koala-ty hugs!”

“I think you should stop now before I begin to lose faith in all humanity. I can feel myself getting dumber at all your atrociously bad jokes.”

She sulked at his comment. “Jungkook laughed when I told him the koala one.”

Taehyung’s brows fell into a disbelieving gaze at the mention of Jungkook. “Not everyone finds the same things funny.”

“Okay, then what makes you laugh?” she questioned, folding her arms and looking at him with a glazed expression.

Taehyung didn’t reply for a while and the tennis ball stopped bouncing as he thought about it. But in the end - “I don’t know,” was his simple response. Much like many other of his abstruse replies.

That put her down. There were rare moments when she ever saw him smile, but she wondered what his laugh would sound like. Would it be continuous and hearty? Or loud and throaty? But then again, it was Taehyung she was thinking about, so probably not.

But that made her all the more curious. She wanted to hear him laugh. She promised herself she’d make that happen, even if it was for at least once.

“What’s wrong?” Taehyung snapped. He had caught her staring at him while she was in a daze.

“Oh, nothing important,” she said, and then resumed to look raptly at the floor.

Just once, and that would be enough.