LESSON 3

How the hell am I going to please Chaerin and make her accept my manuscript?

How am I going to write romantic scenes in my story when that wasn’t even the focus from the very first place?

What is ‘romance’ anyway?

Maybe I won’t be able to finish it before the deadline.

But I can’t just give up. Writing may have started only as a hobby and past time but now it has also been an essential part of my life and dream. I have to make it.

I mentally sighed and felt all of my hopes going down.

“Ehem”

I looked up from my desk and saw my physics teacher with an annoyed look on his face, his eyebrow raised in an expecting manner.

Damn, I almost forgot I’m still in the middle of class and here I am, dozing off because of romance. Unbelievable.

“Is there a problem Mr. Kwon? You seem to be in a trance, lost in thought”, his eyebrows only got high. If only that was still possible…

“Uhh… No Mr. Ahn”, I smiled sheepishly. All of my classmates were looking at me. All eye on the scene going on.

“Well then, I expect you to listen and not space out while you’re in my class. You look like some teenage boy thinking about his distant crush”, with that he strode off and continued talking about whatever topic he was discussing a while ago.

Then I heard some of my classmates snickering.

I mentally groaned. Aish! When will you stop embarrassing yourself Jiyong?!

When will things ever go my way?

When the bell rang signaling for a lunch break, I proceeded to the cafeteria, still deep in thoughts. I got in line and had my usual lunch. I sat at my usual table and ate like usual. Alone.

Anyway, that doesn’t bother me at all. What’s bothering me the most right now is that I have to think on how I am going to rewrite and finish my story…

Then I felt a sudden tap on my left shoulder. Lee Seungri

Then it was as if a light bulb had lit inside my head!

I know I am an introvert and quite anti-social but that doesn’t mean I don’t talk to some of my classmates. It’s just that I only talk either when a question is being asked or whenever talking is necessary. I have a lot of thoughts inside my head at most times, and I prefer them just to be like, just to be inside my head.

And Seungri happens to be this total opposite of me. He’s the kind of person who’s surrounded by the crowd. He probably knows everyone and everyone knows him. He talks to almost anyone and has a friendly approach. He also talks to girls and he’s pretty popular among them.

OF course, Seungri! He’s perfect! And then I heard the angels singing to me once again. The heaven had answered my prayers. All right!

“Hey”, he had this cheeky smile on his face. He sat across me and I realized he had his tray of food with him.

“Can I sit here?”, he asked.

Uhmm, you already are? But then I just nodded my head. Now how am I going to ask him to help me…

I was about to open my mouth when he spoke up, “So what’s with you? I saw what happened a while ago during physics class. And I must say, you were really spacing out”, he let out a laugh in which I just rolled my eyes at, of course, mentally. He continued on, “It was as if you were in a different world. And Mr. Ahn had been asking you the same question for five times yet you were still staring at some kind of blank space”, his laughter grew. I was truly embarrassed and I knew I should’ve been paying more attention but I’m having my greatest dilemma right now, I just can’t help it.

“Uhmmm…”, I trailed off. Now I’m acting like a total dork. “You see… I”, I was still lost for words, not knowing what to say and how to explain this right now. I just can’t find the right words and how am I going to say this to him? That I was unfortunately suppressed from a romantic DNA? That I know nothing about romance?!

“Ah! I see!”, he spoke up with his finger pointed upwards mid-air, like a bright idea has dawned on his mind. “It must be your love life!”

Oh? He got it! I mean not exactly, but quite…

“ Not really… but you can say it like that”, maybe I shouldn’t tell him anyway.

“Really? I knew it!”, now he sounded kinda cocky. “So what about it? Got dumped by your girl? Or perhaps you’re in the middle of a fight?”, he shook his eyebrows in a teasing manner. I know Seungri meant well and he’s a nice guy, but sometimes he just becomes too playful.

Okay, Jiyong, you can just wrap around a little story and tell him about it without him finding out what’s really going on.

“Come on, spill the beans~ Don’t be shy~”, now he has this goofy grin plastered on his face.

With a sigh, I said, “Okay. You see, I have this friend who has a girl he likes and—“

He suddenly cut me off, “Wait you have a friend?”

“Okay now you’re just making fun of me”, I crossed my arms, looking pointedly at him.

“Just kidding. Just kidding. Continue”, he chuckled.

“Anyway, there’s this girl he likes but the problem is he doesn’t know how to approach the girl and he doesn’t know anything about… romance. You see, he’s just a plain guy and he lacks… experience. He hasn’t dated anyone before. I mean, he did once but it seemed more like a friendly date, rather than a romantic one. So I was thinking of what advice I can give him, since we’re really close and all,” that should do. I mean I don’t have this ‘friend’, and neither do I have a girl I like.

“So who’s this friend of yours?”,he asked with an eyebrow slightly raised,

“He’s … someone. You probably don’t know him anyways”, I quickly thought of an excuse.

At first, he didn’t look quite convinced for a second but he may have just let it go. “Hmmm… So this friend of yours has never really been in a relationship with a girl before?”, I nodded.

“What does he look like? Could it be because of his attitude? Maybe he’s rude or arrogant? Or perhaps he’s ugly?”

“No, not really. He’s just really shy but he’s actually nice and good… And also has looks”, I said.

“Oh…”, he seemed to be deep in thought. Maybe he’ll be able to give me answers. Yes!

“So he lacks the understanding of girls…”, he continued on. “Well if he really likes this girl why doesn’t he start with being friend with her first? Since you said he’s a nice guy and he’s not that bad. Their relationship could start with being friends until it blossoms into something more. Or maybe, he just needs to confess to this girl. He could man up and straightly tall her how he feels? Who knows maybe this girl also likes him but she’s also just shy to tell him how she also feels. Girls are sometimes just like some guys who gets too shy from confessing. I mean, confessing may not be hard, but it’s the aftermath that we fear the most. So it’s just that simple”, my eyes widened at his words. “If he’s still unsure about all these…”, he trailed off.

“Ah! I know!”, then he started to take something out from his pocket.

He handed me a small flat envelope with a colorful cover.

When I examined it, I realized it was a CD. It had a print of letter at the middle top portion of the cover in bold pink font, saying: Fall in Love~ Like what the heck?

“Uhh… What’s this?”, I awkwardly gestured towards the object he gave me.

“A CD”, He answered.

“Yeah, but what CD?”

“It’s a dating sims game. Give this to your ‘friend’ and maybe he’ll understand a bit about girls and dating. My friend had just returned this to me a while ago and I’ll let you borrow this”, he said with a wide smile. “I’m sorry I won’t be able to give your friend much of an advice, though. I just couldn’t picture out myself in his shoes. I mean, I was born with a natural talent for a wide understanding of people, especially girls…”, Now I just don’t know if he’s being arrogant or just being obnoxious.

“Don’t worry, it’s pretty fun. And besides, there are probably a lot of girls to choose from”, he added. Now he sounded like a ert.

“Anyway, it was nice talking to you. I have to go and head back soon”, he gave a small wave as he stood up and walk off.

“Oh, and thank you… for this”, I said gesturing towards the CD.

“Anytime”, he bid with a smile.

As I finished my lunch I couldn’t help but stare at the object on top of the table.

How the hell am I going to learn with a game?