It was a new day for you when you woke up.   You put on your basketball shorts and long sleeve shirt.  You added on a pair of black Etnies and you tied your hair up before leaving your house.  You saw your best friend, Choi MinHo, waiting for you outside your house.  He smiled when you walked out.

                “Okay, let’s go!” you said happily.  MinHo chuckled and nodded.

You and MinHo were the best of friends since you two were born.  However, when you were thirteen, you had to move to Japan.  You just moved back a week ago. Since the week you arrived, you and MinHo caught with each other’s lives.

                “You haven’t really changed,” MinHo said.  “Almost same style, just, you’re more boyish like.”

                “I swear, my neighborhood had all guys, so I guess I was influenced by them,” you told him.  MinHo just nodded as you two walked around Seoul.  You arrived back and quickly called MinHo.  For five years, you two kept in contact.

                “Had you ever had a boyfriend?” he asked.

                “Anio.  No guy liked me like that.  Well, I didn’t like any guy like that,” you said.  “They were all like my brothers.  In Japan, all the girls made fun of me because I wasn’t like them and they hated me too because I was always with the guys.  They keep calling me a and because the guys were jocks and stuff, but they weren’t so bad around me.  They protected me and made sure I wouldn’t cry and…”

                “You never told me this,” MinHo said sadly.

                “Sorry, I didn’t want you to worry.”

                “It’s okay, but since you’re here now, I’m going to protect you and guide you.”

You nervously entered the school.  Eyes were glued to you.  MinHo had to hold your hand to calm your nerves.

                “_______, it’s okay,” MinHo whispered in your ear.  You nodded and looked around.  You bit your lip and looked down.  The girls gave you dirty looks, worst than when you were in Japan.  You heard them talk bad things about you already.

                “Oppa, hurry and bring me to the office, please?” you pleaded.  MinHo frowned when he saw you frown.  While you two walked to the office, MinHo would glare at the girls, causing them to yelp and stop.

You got your schedule and frowned.  You won’t have MinHo in your class which caused you to be extra nervous.

                “Okay, I will be here in front of the room before you know it, okay?” he said as he leaned down to your height and held your shoulders.  You nodded.  “You’re like my baby sister.  I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, okay?”  He smiled at you which always made you smile back.  You nodded and hugged him.

                “Okay, I’ll be strong today.  I’m going to have a feeling your popular in this school, huh?” you asked.  MinHo nodded.  “That explains everything, but oh well. Hey, we get lunch together!”  MinHo laughed and ruffled your hair.

                “Good luck, _______.”

You two said your byes.  You watched MinHo turn a corner before you entered the room.  You accidently bump into someone, causing you to fall.

                “Mianhe!” you said and stood up.  You looked up and your eyes widened. The boy you bumped into just gave you a small smile.

                “Don’t worry about it.  New girl, right?” he asked.  You only nodded. “Welcome to Seoul High.  I’m Kim JongHyun.  You?”

                “Lee _______,” you answered without sounding nervous.  You cheered mentally in triumph.

                “Nice to meet you.  Have a fun time here,” he said and walked inside and met up with his friends. 

You just stood there for a bit until suddenly someone harshly bumped your shoulder, causing you to fall back a little.  You looked up to see a girl with long, blonde hair.  She was really skinny and pretty, but her harsh look scared you.  She looked away and you heard her call out for JongHyun.  He looked back at her with a smile and the girl ran to him and hugged him tightly after she kissed him.  You bit your lip and walked to the back of the room.  ‘This is going to be a long day,’ you thought.

                “Okay, how was your first day?” MinHo asked you as you followed him outside to eat lunch.  “Oh, just for today, we’re going to eat together.  I’ll let you meet my friends after the weekend when we get back.”

                “Okay, oppa,” you responded.  “My first day was okay, by the way. There’s this skinny girl with long blonde hair and she was giving me a harsh look. It really scared me, oppa.”  You two sat down and while you took out your sandwich, you watched him ponder.  “And then, this guy, Kim JongHyun…oppa he was so nice to me.”  You watch him smile.

                “Looks like you met one of my friends,” he said.  “And the girl, that’s Kim SooYeon, JongHyun hyung’s girlfriend.”  When he mentioned girlfriend, you frowned, but soon, you perked up a bit.

                “Oh, I see,” you responded.  “So, who are your other friends?”

MinHo bit into his sandwich before he answered.  You two suddenly looked up when you heard someone call out his name.  There were four other guys running up to him.

                “Oh, hey!” MinHo said happily.  ‘They must be his friends,’ you thought. “Guys, this is my childhood friend, Lee _______.”  You looked up at them and bowed with a smile.  “_______~ah, this is Lee JinKi hyung, but we nicknamed him Onew.  That’s Lee TaeMin.  That is Kim KiBum but we nicknamed him Key.”

                “A pretty awesome nickname I must say,” Key said, making you laugh and then you faced the guy next to Key.  You suddenly smiled and felt shy.

                “Hi, _______,” you heard JongHyun say.

                “Hi, JongHyun~shi,” you responded.  You heard him chuckle and felt him sat down next to you.

                “You don’t have to be formal to any of us,” he said and you only nodded. MinHo stared at you with a smirk.

Lunch was actually really fun.  It took you about a minute to feel comfortable around them.  You and TaeMin are both child-like, so you two clicked immediately.  Since you and Key both like to cook, you two had a topic to talk about.  You tend to be clumsy like Onew and you found him adorable.  You and JongHyun?  There was something about him that made you want to just be with him, but you knew that was impossible.  Knowing that he’s together with SooYeon, you were out of his league.  However, you did love that he is really nice to you.  His smile just made you smile back and made you feel shy.  You usually don’t feel shy in front of guys like how were right now.

                “Thank you guys,” you suddenly said.  “You made my first day of school really fun so far.”  The guys smiled at you and you saw JongHyun’s gentle smile. You felt someone’s hand on your shoulder and you saw Key when you turned around.

                “No problem!  Any friend of MinHo’s is a friend of ours.  Plus, I felt like I was friends with you before we met.  MinHo talked about you so much!” Key exclaimed.  You turned to MinHo to see him blush.

                “Hyung!” MinHo whined and pouted.  You laughed and reached out to ruffle his hair.

Within two months of being in the school, you had a blast.  However; today, you had to go alone since MinHo caught a cold.  You put on a pair of skinny jeans and a over-size long sleeve shirt.  You braided your hair into pigtails and put on a pair of black and white Converse.  The closer you were to the school, you felt nervous.  It was always you and MinHo in the morning and then you two will meet with the other four for lunch.  You can tell that JongHyun wanted to go up to you when you enter the class, but SooYeon clung onto him every day.

                “Yah!  You!” you heard a girl harshly say.  You look up to see SooYeon with an angry face.  Her arms were crossed and you suddenly felt…scared.  “What are you?  Mute?  Yah!  Stay away from my boyfriend, alright?!  I know you like him and let me tell you something…”  SooYeon leaned in with a smirk.  “He likes girls like me.  Someone pretty and girly, not boyish and…not pretty.  Goodbye, loser.”

You just watched her walk away in the building.  Tears started to form but you held them back.  ‘I know,’ you thought and slowly walked in the building.  The whole day was slow.  You ignored JongHyun when you entered the class.  It hurt you to see SooYeon purposely become much closer to him.  You wanted to leave the class soon.  ‘Of course I would feel like this.  JongHyun treats me like his younger sister.  He’s the only one nice to me and it’s always fun teasing each other.  He always makes me smile and laugh and when I do feel down, he knows how to cheer me up,’you thought, not paying attention at all.

                “_______?” you suddenly heard your teacher call you.  You suddenly looked up and stared him confusingly.  He sighed.  “Please solve this problem on the board.”  You nodded and stood up.  You were lucky that you knew how to solve the problem.  You sat back down and saw him nod.  “Wow, correct.  Out of all the years I put this up, you solved it correctly.”  He smiled which caused you to smile back. “Good work.  Extra credit for the next test.”

You got a text from TaeMin that he’ll be in the auditorium, working on choreography during lunch.  Key text you that he’s going to be in the library to study for a huge test and Onew had to stay in class to remake a test and possibly a quiz.  You sighed and grabbed your lunch out of your locker.  You shut it close and headed outside to where you usually ate lunch outside.  You were the only one outside.  You sat down Indian style as you slowly ate lunch alone with breeze making the air colder.  You would shiver and hug yourself warm.

                “I wonder if MinHo is coming to school tomorrow.  I feel so lonely,” you said to yourself and sadly sighed.  “SooYeon is right; I’m not pretty or girly.  I’m no guy’s ideal type.”  You sighed again.  “Aigoo, I’m so bored.  Here I am alone.”  You suddenly heard someone laugh.  You looked up and smiled.  “JongHyun!”

                “Yah!  When are you going to call me oppa?” he asked with a pout.  You shrugged.

                “I don’t know.  I like saying JongHyun,” you answered with a smile.

                “Oh c’mon, you call MinHo, oppa.  I’m jealous,” JongHyun complained.

                “Mianhe, oppa,” you said, giving in.  JongHyun smiled and wrapped his arm around your shoulders and pulled you in close to him.

                “Hmmm, I like it.  It has a nice ring to it when you say it,” JongHyun said.

                “Shouldn’t you say that to your girlfriend?” you asked.  JongHyun just shrugged.

                “Eh, I’m only speaking the truth,” he responded, making you blush. “Okay, so there’s this girl that takes my interest.  She’s not like SooYeon, and I kind of like it that she isn’t, so I want to ask her out.  If you wanted a guy to ask you out, how would you want them too?  I need opinions.”  You bit your lip, feeling your heart break.  ‘He’s never going to like me.  For sure he hates how clingy SooYeon is and he found a girl that’s so nice and not clingy, yet really feminine.  I mean, I never really hung out with girls and I’m meant to be one of the guys,’ you thought. “_______?”

                “Let’s see…well no guy ever asked me out and I never really thought about how I wanted them to do it.  Let’s just say…a surprise?” you answered.  JongHyun nodded and smiled.

                “Thank you, _______,” he said.  “You always know what to say.”  You smiled.  You felt great that he would come up to you for anything.

                “Anytime, oppa.”

The rest of the time at school was better since lunch ended.  ‘I guess it’s because of JongHyun oppa,’ you thought with a big smile on your face.  The school was almost vacant.  You turned the corner, but suddenly turned back and hid when you saw SooYeon and JongHyun.

                “I like girls like you.  Someone girly and pretty,” you heard JongHyun say. 

You ran off once he said that.  You wiped your tears away, even though they’re just going to come back.  You quickly walked away, not wanting to be near the school.

                “I knew it.  I knew it.  He even said it himself,” you sadly said.  You sadly walked home.  Before walking inside, you made sure you looked as if you weren’t crying.  Taking deep breaths, you entered the house.

                “_______~ah, how was school?” your umma asked as she cooking.  She turned to you with a smile.  “Appa’s going to be at work for a few more hours.”  You nodded with a smile.

                “Umma, c-can you…” you stopped for a moment.  Your umma stared at you, waiting for you to continue.  ‘What am I doing?’  “Umma, if imagine you’re in my spot.  There’s a boy that you like and…he’s a good friend of yours, but he has a girlfriend.  His girlfriend is rude to you just because he’s close to you.  The boy likes girls like her; someone girly and pretty, unlike me.  You heard him say it, crushing you.  Would you still try to win his heart?”

                “Sweetie, do you want to?” she asked.  You thought for a bit more.

                “He told me that he didn’t like her anymore.  He said that he became interested with another girl.  His current girlfriend is clingy and he doesn’t like it,” you continued.  Your umma nodded.  “I still want to win his heart.”  Your umma smiled and hugged you.

                “Aigoo, you’re such a sensitive and fragile girl,” she whispered.  “You want me to help you style?”  You pulled away from your mother’s hug and nodded.

                “Okay.  Tomorrow at noon, be ready, alright?”

                “Araso, umma.”