1. The perimeter of a brain

  People say Sung Yeol is dumb. He is dumb enough to let his classmate copy his homework. He is dumb enough to open his cage door and let out all his pet birds. And he is dumb enough to use a ruler to measure Sung Jong’s head, trying to calculate the perimeter of his brain.

  Everyone says he is dumb. But Sung Yeol doesn’t think so. He isn’t dumb; he is just...innocently stupid.

  Yes. ‘Innocently stupid’ is the ideal way to describe Sung Yeol’s brain cells.

  He says the classmate needs help on his homework so he lets him examine it instead of copying it. He claims that the bird-escaping event is just an accident and accidents don’t necessarily define a person’s stupidity. And at last, he explains that he wants to know the perimeter of one’s brain so he does his experiment onto the top student of the class – Lee Sung Jong.

  Of course, that method doesn’t work out. It only results in Sung Jong wearing a hat on his head the next day as his hair became a jumbled mess and Sung Yeol had to suffer from glares for the rest of the week.

  ‘Don’t try to—ARGH—puck my hair! Gosh, what’s wrong with you!’ Sung Jong’s angry voice startles Sung Yeol as he scoops his head up and look at him in confusion. ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because it’s my hair! Don’t even touch them, you ert!’ The word ‘ert’ attracts some classmates to gather around the two of them. Sung Yeol hears one of them snickering at him and another two whispering among themselves. Just seeing the sight of the crowd makes Sung Yeol’s hand sweat.

  ‘I...No I did not! You—I mean, yeah, you gave me the permission to find the perimeter of your brain and so—‘

  ‘I said I will lend you an encyclopedia! Not checking on my head!’ Sung Jong’s yell is highly audible in the silent room.

 ‘Oops. Sorry.’ God this is so embarrassing what should I do should I go ruffle his hair and do something about it or oh yes buy him a present ah maybe hair gel—

 Sung Jong’s menacing glare stops the train of thoughts running in Sung Yeol’s head and he is suddenly sure that he is going to receive a lot of similar stares in the future.

  ‘Hey! Stop kicking me!’

  ‘I am not--wait. I am.’ Sung Yeol lowers his gaze towards his legs and finds out that they are stretching out all the way towards the seat in front of him. He is surprised when he sees his feet tapping onto the leg of that chair continuously. ‘Wow! I don’t even know my legs will move when I do mathematical problems! Do you think they will wriggle more when I do more exercises? Do you? Do you?’

  ‘Huh. No.’ Sung Jong leans half his body onto his right hand that is secured on top of the back of the chair. With this motion, his body turns round abruptly and Sung Yeol is faced a very angry Sung Jong.

  ‘Can you please stop your staring? It freaks me out,’ Sung Yeol tells Sung Jong which only makes the latter rolls his eyes in annoyance. ‘Seriously dude. You are kicking me first and you are now telling me not to glare at you? Without even apologizing? That is rude.’

  ‘Oh, then, um, ah, I am so sorry,’ Sung Yeol tries to perform a 90 degrees bow but he only gets his head banging onto the table. ‘Ouch!’

  ‘You are just so...dumb.’ Sung Jong sighs. Don’t kick me again. You are annoying.’ With that he turns himself back towards the whiteboard.

  For the rest of the lesson they don’t talk, but Sung Yeol really does his best in controlling his leg muscles and halting them to a stop whenever they are about to move. Sung Yeol thinks Sung Jong notices his tension as he catches him slightly glancing back towards him a few times. But Sung Jong looks away really quickly, and Sung Yeol can’t tell if it’s only his delusion or not.

2. The area of a heart

  They are not friends. But they are not enemies either. So Sung Yeol gives their relationship a name—friendnemies.

  Sung Jong rolls his eyes again when Sung Yeol talks about this but he can’t help smiling a bit when he sees Sung Yeol jumping around giddily and saying that they should do something to celebrate since they have found the correct term for themselves.

  Of course, Sung Jong doesn’t agree. But Sung Yeol still dashes to the tuck shop and buys two cans of cokes and later in the afternoon when they are shrouded in the warm sunlight, they open their cans together and the pop sound makes Sung Yeol laugh frivolously and Sung Jong following his laughter in embarrassment.

  ‘Where is your heart located, Jong-ie?’

  The question causes Sung Jong to spring around and Sung Yeol almost jump up in surprise at the suddenness. ‘First, don’t call me Jongie. And secondly, your heart is located here, hyung. The left side.’

  ‘Hmm? Here?’ Sung Yeol motions his hand around his bosom.

  ‘Yes. There.’ Sung Jong waves his hand dismissively. ‘Why ask though?’

  ‘Do you know the area of your heart?’

  ‘Huh?’ Confusion is written clearly on Sung Jong’s face and Sung Yeol almost laughed upon the knotted brows. Then he reminds himself that he shouldn’t do something dumb – or innocently stupid, as far as he concerned—so he gurgles the laughter into his stomach.

  Sung Jong examines Sung Yeol with both his eyes before saying, ‘You do want to know a lot about Biology, don’t you?’

  ‘No. I am just interested in calculating areas and perimeters and how they relate to our human body.’

  ‘Weird hobby.’

  ‘Don’t you know I am being called weird and stupid for a lot of times?’ Sung Yeol laughs off his statement.

  The silence thickened between them but Sung Yeol does not notice. He is too busy humming a song that he has just made up.

  ‘You are not dumb at all, y’know.’ Sung Jong broke the silence in a low and hushed tone. Sung Yeol jerks his head up and looks at him in confusion. What did he just say me not stupid no way I am always considered yeah innocently stupid I am not smart no not at all and—

  ‘You just don’t know how to express yourself.’

  Another statement that blocks the train’s way. This time, Sung Yeol is glad that it stops so that he can—for the first time—balance himself in the silence.

3. The perimeter of your brain; the area of your heart

  Sung Yeol does not know if it’s normal or not that time passes so quickly and the graduation exam is just around the corner. He and Sung Jong become intimate friends and they have been studying together for the last few months: Sung Yeol teaches Sung Jong Biology, and Sung Jong teaches Sung Yeol Mathematics.

  ‘Why do you always want to know about the perimeter of someone’s brain and the area of someone’s heart?’ It is a warm sunny evening and both of them are enjoying coke at the tuck shop near the library. Sung Jong’s sudden question almost make Sung Yeol choke on his own spit.

  ‘I want to understand more about people. They always seem to ignore me and mock me from behind. Why did they do that? Calculating these might help. But then I find out that they don’t work.’

  ‘Are you sure they don’t work?’ Sung Jong begins.

  ‘At least I didn’t get positive results,’ Sung Yeol shrugs. ‘They don’t seem to help me understand more about humans. I think I need to study psychology for that.’

  ‘I don’t think you need to, though.’ Sung Jong laughs. Sung Yeol looks at him, head tilting to one side in bafflement.

  ‘You have calculated the perimeter of my brain and the area of my heart, Sung Yeol Hyung.’ Sung Jong grins. ‘Don’t you see this is how we are linked together?’

  Sung Yeol is dumbfounded for a moment before chuckling. ‘This is exactly how we became close. So my method works!’

  ‘They do.’

  ‘Still, you haven’t told me the exact perimeter of your brain and the area of your heart...’

  ‘We still have such a long way to go, hyung. These two are left for your future investigation.’ Sung Jong whispers.

  ‘...Did you just propose to me? Or confess, in a better way?’

  ‘Huh. No, of course I did not.’

     Haha such big lies yeah of course you did lee sung jong you cute bunny —

     For the first time, Sung Yeol is glad for the existence of the train roaming through his head.

     (And the existence of Lee Sung Jong.)