Lee Junghwan wrinkled his nose in confusion as the door was quickly closed in his face by the other young man. He seemed quite odd to say the least, but nice enough anyway. His mind seemed kind of occupied and he seemed to be a little awkward much like himself. How Junghwan, more commonly known as just Sandeul, wished he was less awkward, less lame. He was sure he would be able to obtain the interest of the girl of his dreams if that were so.

As Sandeul stood frozen in the doorway of his latest customer, his pager suddenly began to buzz, breaking Sandeul from his thoughts. Sandeul immediately started to head back to his motorized bike, quickly skimming over the address on his pager. His eyes automatically lit up at the address. This was Stephanie’s address, the girl he has been attempting to grab the attention of for years. Junghwan was sure he had made his attempts fairly, if not overly, obvious. However, the girl would show little interest in him. Sometimes she would smile at him but unfortunately that was as far as Sandeul could get. He was hopeless.

Sandeul made his way over there with a stack of about ten pizzas or so. She was obviously having some sort of party. As Sandeul made his way up the driveway and towards the front door, he almost tripped up the stairs to the front porch on account of not being able to see over the damned stack of boxes he clutched in his arms. Sandeul awkwardly pressed the doorbell button with his elbow and awaited for Stephanie to answer the door.

However, it wasn’t only Stephanie who opened the door, a large and muscular-in-all-the-right-places guy stood by her side staring down Sandeul with an iron gaze. Sandeul coughed a little and shot the two a fake bright smile, his gums showing a little too much.

“Pizza delivery” he managed to squeak out somewhat confidently.

The girl shot him a smile back.

“What is your name again? I think we went to school together” she asked “I think I recognise your face if I’m not mistaken”

Sandeul was taken aback. She could recognise his face!

“It mustn’t have been you. I’m sorry if I’m mistaken” she said, the guy next to her folding his arms.

Sandeul blinked furiously, his eyes deciding to fail him now of all times.

“I-Uh, no! I-I did go to school with you, my name is Sandeul!” he said quickly, stuttering like crazy.

“Sandeul? I don’t think I know anyone by that name” she said blatantly.

“Oh, sorry my nickname is Sandeul. I’m actually a umm… Junghwan!” he said, suddenly forgetting his own name.

The girl swiftly moved in to grab the huge stack of pizza boxes from Junghwan and Sandeul thought he would have passed out then and there. He was a nervous mess and he didn’t like it.

“I’m sorry I only really remember your face. It was nice meeting you anyways, you’re kinda cute” she said straightforwardly, pinching one of his puffy cheeks with her free hand.

Sandeul’s eyes widened and he thought he had grew wings and gone to heaven. A pretty girl like this has never even looked at him let alone called him cute! His cheeks grew a little red and he hid his face in his hands.

“Ah, oh my god!” he exclaimed in a muffled voice.

The girl rolled her eyes, unseen to Sandeul. He was just another dork, she thought to herself as the pizza delivery guy known as Junghwan had gone into meltdown mode. And she thought she could have messed around with him.

“Thanks for the pizza” she said boredly before turning to return to the party.

Sandeul removed his hands from his face to see that she had gone, leaving only him and the man who had a hard expression on his face. The American man leant forward toward Sandeul slightly.

Sandeul shook a little, afraid of what the other older, much stronger man would do to him.

“Don’t fall for that” he said with a strong accent, his pronunciation only a little bit off.

“What?” Sandeul asked, slightly surprised by this.

“That girl who was flirting with you, don’t fall for her good looks and her charming personality” the foreigner repeated.

“Huh? Why? Aren’t you going to hurt me?” Sandeul questioned, his voice still not level.

The man shook his head “I have been with Stephanie since I moved here a year ago. She has cheated countless times and she is always going on blind dates for fun. She doesn’t take relationships seriously. I don’t mind since I am accustomed to such a lifestyle. But you seem too pure, you seem like you are looking for something more serious” the foreigner spoke, struggling to explain. “You seem like you genuinely like her but let me tell you, Stephanie truly likes nobody. She uses people for fun. Don’t waste your time, okay?”

Sandeul just stood there, no longer shaking and he just blinked his eyes, his vision becoming slightly more blurry. He really had to invest in some glasses with actual lenses next time. Sandeul nodded to the foreign guy and tried to smile. However, it came out a little hurt. To think that the girl Sandeul had been fantasising about, using his everything just to have her notice him, was not the girl he thought her to be. Of course this was a possibility since Sandeul had never really spoken to her, had never really known her. But that thought had been too far back in Sandeul’s mind for him to even consider. He was much too proud.

“Thank you for letting me know” Sandeul said awkwardly before taking off back down the driveway and quickly hopping on his bike.

Without looking back he took off down the street. He was truly hurt and he regretted spending so much time chasing a girl who would never return his feelings but that didn’t stop him from having to get over his feelings for her.

Suddenly, Sandeul’s pager let out a distinct beeping noise, indicating the end of his shift. He was now free to do as he pleased and when Sandeul was upset he ate. When he was happy he ate. But in this case it was because he was sad.

Sandeul headed down to the market street, buying blackbean noodles, pork belly, kimchi and ham hocks to eat when he got back home and on the way out he ate any samples offered by the carts alongside the road.

As he headed home on his motorized bicycle, he decided to take the quick path through the park back home. As he rode, he took in his surroundings. Everything looked more beautiful as the sun was slowly setting. Beautiful like the way Stephanie used to look to him. Sandeul let out a long sigh. He was pitiful. He couldn’t even get over a girl who he only ever dreamt of being with.

Sandeul shook his head and came to a sudden stop when he noticed a lifeless figure in the corner of his eye. He cut the motor of his bike and briskly walked over to the park bench and looked over the figure, a little panicky. The small frame of the boy moved up and down slowly and Sandeul let out a breath of air with relief. The person had just been sleeping. Sandeul shook his head at his own stupidity and let out an exasperated chuckle.

He noticed the boy, who appeared to be only slightly younger than Sandeul, was far too thin in comparison to himself. Sandeul pulled out the bag of ham hocks from his backpack and placed it on the park bench beside the young man, along with his Sparkling Cider drink can he bought from the refrigerator at the meat shop.

Sandeul placed his backpack back on and took one last look at the poor boy sleeping on a park bench for the night and got back onto his bike, starting up the motor as quietly as he could before heading further down the path. Suddenly Sandeul’s problems didn’t seem that bad anymore. He had a home, he had a job and he had as much food as he wanted. Sandeul was sure now that he could get over Stephanie.