"It's a feeling I can't explain; you're like a girl out of my dreams but yet you seem to be just out of my reach and ever since you walked into my life I've just prayed it will all work out in the end."

Source Unknown

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First Year in High School

He was busy copying the assignment from another classmate when somebody hollered.

“Yonghwa-ah! Yonghwa-ah! Yong!”

His head snapped up to look and he felt somebody elbowing his ribs and looking at the direction of the classroom door.  His eyes followed to check the commotion when his heart stopped beating when he looked who is at the door.  It is the girl of his dream…everybody in the class knew that Jung Yonghwa has a crush on Seo Joo Hyun.  Assignment forgotten, he stared at her while she was talking with his classmate and he saw that she gave an envelope to his classmate.

It was a one-sided love.

She never knew him, has never met him nor introduced to him and yet he has fallen in love with her at first sight.  He could still recall the first time he saw her.

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A few weeks after the school year began

One Fine Day

He was from Gyeongsin High School and had to transfer to Hana Academy when his mom got assigned to the local area.  It was not really hard for him to adapt to his new school because by nature he was an extrovert, a people person and it is so easy to like and be friends with him.  One school day morning, it was break time when he didn’t feel like going to cafeteria, so instead he went to the rooftop of the school where some students take their snacks while being away from the bustle and noise of the cafeteria.  He was looking down the campus when he saw this lady walking with her friends, laughing and having a good time.  It seems like his eyes zoomed out only to her and his brain registered only her face and the tinkling sound of her laughter that shots through his heart.  He put his hand to his left chest and felt that his heart is beating crazily.  He has never felt like this before.  Sure, he has crushes back in grade school, some have confessed to him but he turned them down politely knowing that he is not yet ready for a relationship.

Dugeun, dugeun…who is she?  I need to know her name.  Whipping his head left and right to see if he knows somebody who knows her, he called his classmate, Ryeowook. 

“Hey, Ryeowook, na wa palli!” flapping his right hand up and down in a hurried fashion.

Ryeowook jogged to him and ask what is the matter.

“Nuga geu yeoja?” He asks.

“Nugu?” Ask Ryeowook.

“Geu yeppeun yeoja,” pointing to Seo Joo Hyun.

“Ah…that’s Seo Joo Hyun,  SeoHyun…” says Ryeowook while walking back to his friends.

“Gomawo!” yelled Yonghwa to Ryeowook.

Since then, he would take his break at rooftop to look at SeoHyun.  She always walks in his line of vision when going to the cafeteria with her friends.  He does not know how to introduce himself to her.  He is shy.  It will be awkward for sure.  He is racking his brains to confess, but every time he thinks he is ready, something would come his way and it will be postponed.

On the other hand, Seohyun is oblivious to him.  She does not know that a particular Jung YongHwa is harboring a liking to her.  She doesn’t know, never knew him in her life.  Her life revolves with her friends, family and, at that time, with her boyfriend.  Nobody knew that she has a boyfriend except her close friends, even her parents are not aware that she is seeing somebody.

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Earlier in the week

While at the grocery store, she met their new neighbor, Lizzy.  They exchanged greetings and Lizzy asked her what school she goes to and learned that she goes to Hana Academy, which coincidentally her friend and previous classmate transferred to.  Lizzy asked Seohyun if it is alright to ask a favor to give a letter to her friend as she has not heard from her since she transferred to Hana, and Seohyun agreed.  They chatted for a while before parting ways.

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Holding an envelope, SeoHyun walks to section 1-A to look for Nana, Lizzy’s friend, to give her the letter from Lizzy.  Little did she know that her presence in classroom 1-A would cause so much reaction to one person.

“Excuse me, is Nana-ssi here?” SeoHyun asks while looking around the room.

“Oh, wait” somebody tells her.

“Nana!  Nana-ssi! Somebody is looking for you.”

While waiting for Nana, she heard somebody yelling… “Yonghwa-ah! Yonghwa-ah! Yong!”

She's about to take a peek at the classroom to check who is YongHwa when Nana appeared at the door and asking who’s looking for her, forgetting the curiosity towards the bearer of the name, she introduced herself to Nana.

“Nana-ssi? Seo Joo Hyun-imnida” bowing to Nana while extending her hand for a shake.

Nana bowed too and introduced herself.  SeoHyun tells her that she has a letter from Lizzy, her friend from grade school that happens to be SeoHyun’s new neighbor.  Nana was surprised and thanked her in return, smiling widely and saying sorry for troubling her with it.  SeoHyun just waved off the apology and excused herself to go back to her class.

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The school year is almost over and YongHwa still haven’t confessed to SeoHyun.  By this time, he learned that she has broken up with her boyfriend and that she is not dating anybody right now.  He thinks this is now or never.  The golden opportunity has come when he was with his friends playing around when SeoHyun passed by and one of his good friends called her up.  He sobered immediately from playing and sat down in the farthest corner of the bench.

"Seo Joo Hyun-ssi! Seo Joo Hyun-ssi!” called Jungshin.

She paused midway and looked back to the boys who were playing rough a while ago.  Now, they are lined up as if they did something wrong and are at the principal’s office.  Eyebrow raised to ask who was calling her when Jungshin, the tallest among the group, stood up and came up to her.

“De, Lee Jungshin?  Is there anything I can do for you, that you cannot do for me?” asking while smiling at him.

“Come, palli.  I want to introduce you to someone.” Jungshin tells her while holding her wrist and pulling her towards his group of friends.  She looks at them one by one and most of them she knew but there’s this one guy at the farthest corner of the bench, about to fall flat on his bottom, that she did not know the name of, and would not look at her.   “Ah, the transferee guy” she told herself.

“Yah! Jungshin-chingoo, why are you dragging me?  Can’t I walk by myself?  I know all your friends, so no need to introduce me, ahra?” pulling her wrist and walking away from him.  But Jungshin catches her hand again and told her “there’s someone who really, REALLY, wants to meet you personally,” he told her, “Jebal? Just this once. Then you are free to go.”  So she walked with him again and said hi to his friends.  When Jungshin stands in front of this transferee guy, she walked beside him.  She was waiting for him to look up so that she can introduce herself, but the guy seems very fascinated looking at the ants lined up in the grass bringing a crumb rather than looking at her.

Jungshin cleared his throat for the third time, when finally the guy looked up to his friend and darted a glance to her then back to Jungshin.

“Seo Joo Hyun, this is Jung Yong Hwa.  Jung Yong Hwa, this is Seo Joo Hyun.  I hope you can be friends too."  Jungshin introduces the two and left them to themselves, going back to his friends who are now ribbing each other and making fun of YongHwa.

Standing up and introducing himself formally, YongHwa bowed to her “Jung YongHwa-imnida.”

SeoHyun bowed to him and said, “Seo Joo Hyun-imnida.  Nice to meet you.”

When she looked up, YongHwa was staring at her very intensely and she felt herself turn to crimson hue and had looked away, embarrassed at the way he openly stares at her, but not before she got lost in that brown orbit with a mole underneath his left eye.  That is the first thing that she noticed about him.  It is getting awkward and she wants to get away soon, so she bowed once again and waved goodbye to all of his friends, then ce more to him saying,

“ It was nice meeting you.  I hope you had a great start of high school this year.  I’ll see you around.  Bye.” And with that she walked away.

YongHwa stood motionless for about five minutes until he cannot see her figure anymore, craning his neck to look for more of her, but she disappeared in one of the corridors.  “This could be the happiest day of my life” he thought to himself.  Smiling like a fool, he went back to his friends where he received endless teasing, but he doesn’t mind.  The girl of his dreams appeared before him and nobody could take that away from him.  Finally, they are formally introduced to one another.  Now, he can say hi to her without sounding like a creepy fellow, and he can be in the same place with her without looking like a stalker.  Yes, yes, yes! He feels like whopping in the air.  It feels so exhilarating!  He has to thank Jungshin.  Sometimes, this Avatar can make himself useful.  Who would have thought that Jungshin can pull it off like that, it seems so easy for Jungshin to approach her yet he was sweating nervously and about to have panic attack when Jungshin called her and asked her to come.

He walked up to Jungshin and headlocked him, “Gomawo, Avatar.  You really make my day.  Didn’t know you had it in you the guts to call her as if you’re friends.”

“Yah, yah, yah! YongHwa! For your information, this person and these pabos here knew her since we were in first grade.  We’ve been classmates with her since elementary so, of course, we knew each other.  It’s just that she has different circle of friends so we don’t keep in touch, but it doesn’t mean that we cannot approach her if we want to.”  Pointing to himself as well as to his other friends who were all nodding their heads in agreement to Jungshin.

The school year has just ended, but he canno