~

기억하며 불러본다 그대.. 잊으려고 노력해도 그대..

I call out to you, remembering.. I try forgetting you..

~

“Somi? Somi?” Howon waved his hands in front of her face for the fifth time.

“Oh.. Sorry..” Somi looked at him, a little dazed.

“Class is about to start soon, and Dongwoo is coming around to take attendance,” Howon informed her, gesturing to the Class President of 2-1, Jang Dongwoo, who was walking by the desks and taking roll. Dongwoo was a nice guy, and always looked out for everyone. He was especially close to Howon, because they lived in the same apartment complex. However, since Dongwoo loved to tell jokes and study, and Howon had a passion for sports, they didn’t really hang out together.

“Hey,” Dongwoo smiled at Somi, being the friendly person that he was.

“Hi,” Somi replied, feeling down.

“Something wrong?” Dongwoo asked her, scratching the back of his neck.

“No, I’m just tired,” Somi forced a smile on her face as Dongwoo checked her name off, continuing down the rows of desks.

Somi looked over to Howon, who was sitting beside her, and he gave her a reassuring smile.

Today was going to be a long day.

~~~

“Class dismissed,” Mr. Kang said, as he picked up his books and left the room.

Somi quickly gathered up all her belongings, and stopped for a second.

She had spent the previous hours thinking about Sunggyu.

Where he was, what he was doing. Somi wondered if he still thought about her, too. 

Now that class was over, Somi was able to freely talk and socialize with others. She tried to set her mind off things by hanging out with Howon and his two guy friends, Junho and Chansung. 

Chansung and Junho were two very athletic boys, and they were Howon’s guy best friends. Somi, being somewhat quiet and introverted, didn’t have any girl best friends. She wasn’t into make-up and cute clothes, like the other girls. But Chansung and Junho were nice to her, or at least, Chansung was..

“Yah! Howon-ah!” Lee Junho called Howon over.

Junho never addressed Somi directly. When they met in their first year of high school, he was very awkward.

He wasn’t the best student, and he took enjoyment in soccer, and only soccer.

Junho would always get annoyed when Somi hung out with Howon. However, Somi had no one else but Howon, and Junho hated it when Howon cancelled plans with him to hang out with her.

Once, Somi overheard Junho telling Howon not to hang out with her anymore. Somi was hurt, and went to Howon about it, and Howon promised her that he would talk to Junho about it. Somi wanted him to find out why he was always so cold towards her.

“Somi, we’re going to practice soccer now. Tryouts are on May 5th. You can come watch us practice, or even play with us if you want,” Chansung invited Somi with a grin on his face.

Somi studied Junho’s expression, which went from smiling to sour.

Since Somi had nothing better to do, and she had to keep her mind off Sunggyu, she accepted Chansung’s invitation, pretended to ignore the scowl on Junho’s face, and followed him, Howon, and Chansung to the field.

As Somi walked down the hallway towards the soccer field, a girl from class 2-2 looked at her pitifully.

Somi stared back at her, wondering what was up. She had no idea who the girl was.

“You’re hurting,” the girl said to Somi. She grabbed some textbooks and closed her locker, before linking arms with an overly-peppy boy and walked away.

Somi recognized the boy. He was Nam Woohyun, the Class President of 2-2, and probably one of the most popular boys in the school. He was super handsome, and he knew how to charm the girls.

The girl’s voice kept repeating in Somi’s head. She was so confused.

“Ugh!” Somi threw her arms up into the air when Howon, Chansung, and Junho finally reached the field.

“What’s wrong?” How asked her.

“Ah.. Nothing..” Somi replied.

Howon gave her a weird look, before he said, “Let’s play! How should we make the teams? Should it be Somi and I against the two of you?”

“Why don’t we put Somi and Junho on one team? Somi is probably the weakest player, no offense,” Chansung smiled at her and Somi knew it was true, “and Junho is the best among the three of us.”

Junho glared at him.

Chansung was always pretty ignorant to his surroundings, even after a year of Junho shunning Somi, he still didn’t get the hint.

Howon sensed the awkwardness and clapped his hands together.

“Okay, how about something different than what we usually do? Somi, do you want to try playing on the same team as Chansung?” Howon suggested.

“Hey! That’ll be fun!” Chansung agreed.

“Okay,” Somi nodded.

Howon placed the soccer ball on the field, and kicked it over to Chansung.

“Chansung, wanna start? You guys are at a disadvantage, since one of you is a girl,” Howon teased Somi, showing off his white canines.

“Don’t underestimate Somi!” Chansung laughed. “Remember when she kicked the ball into Lee Junho’s face?”

Junho kept his stoic expression, as Howon yelled, “Begin!”

And Somi was off.

She ran forward towards the goal that Junho was defending, and watched Chansung dribble the ball towards her.

“Come on!” Somi cheered on Chansung, as he passed the ball to her.

She kicked it with extreme force, and it shot directly into the goal!

“GOAL!” Somi screamed, jumping up and down and hugging Chansung.

~~~

An hour and a half later, Somi was at a restaurant, sitting in front of Howon. He was eating his bibimbap and scrolling through something on his phone.

“What are you reading?” Somi asked her best friend, curious.

“Oh, just this article about North Korea. Reports have recently shown that they’ve been digging tunnels into Seoul again,” Howon informed her.

“I see..” Somi took a sip of her water.

“Yeah,” Howon chuckled. “Don’t fret, Somi. We’re way more powerful than them.”

Somi smiled at his words of reassurance. She finished up her bibimbap and thanked the ahjumma, who collected her bowl.

“Let’s go now,” Somi grabbed Howon’s hand and the two of them walked along the street, bowing to the people who were selling clothes.

Somi frowned as they passed a man selling lockets and necklaces.

Of course. There’s something here that reminds me of him.

She the heart-shaped locket around her neck, and that was when Howon knew that something was wrong.

Howon knew about Somi’s locket.

Well, he knew that she had received it when she was younger, from someone who was important to her.

A year or so ago, Howon realized that Somi had always touched that piece of jewelry around her neck whenever she was stressed, nervous, angry, or scared.

That was when he made the mistake of asking her about it. Somi had yelled at him and told him to mind his own business. He was a bit hurt, because he believed that best friends were supposed to tell each other everything.

Howon had just assumed that it was something from Somi’s parents.

“Somi..” Howon cautiously said as her eyes started tearing up. Sunggyu had meant so much to her, and for some reason, she was mad at him.

Mad at that small-eyed older boy who had left, without a trace.

“Somi, are you crying?” Howon sincerely asked, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close to him.

Somi began to sniffle, and wiped away her tears.

“N-no. Howon, I’m okay,” Somi choked on her words, burying her head into his shoulder.

“I know you’re hurting, I know you miss them..” Howon said.

He was talking about her parents.

This caused Somi to cry even harder. She felt guilty because she didn’t even miss her parents. She couldn’t even remember them at all.

But, why would she miss them? They weren’t even dead, at least from what she knew. They just ditched her and left her with her older brother and her sickly grandmother.

“I wish she would tell me what’s wrong. Then, I would be able to help her.” Howon sighed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Author’s Note: I hope you guys were okay with that chapter, haha! I’m trying to introduce a lot of characters in the beginning, so everyone can be familiar and used to all the characters. Thanks for reading!