I. STRAWBERRY & MELON

It was pretty much blurry how they finally became friends.

She was nine and so did he. Not that they hadn’t met before, his house was just two blocks away from her father’s dojo. And she was sure that he was once had been in the same class with her, was it in her first grade? Park Chorong never really paid any attention to this Kim Jinwoo boy before. Boys are weird and they stink and gross. So it was just in her nature that every boys in her school looked like a bunch of octopuses in her eyes.

Except those who train at her father’s hapkido dojo (just because she took a good look at her training opponents).

And that time Kim Jinwoo didn’t look like octopus anymore. Well, he at hapkido real bad and there’s no way she would ever forget that bloated crying face every time she took him down. She just couldn’t understand why would Mr. Kim even bother to force his only son to join this dojo, when clearly he doesn’t enjoy it as much as everyone does. This wasn’t his right place.

On that day, when his father came to pick him up --slightly yelling at him for crying (again) and telling him to be a man--, Chorong walked to the older man’s side and tugged his sleeve.

“I think he doesn’t want to do this.” she said. Her father teached her to always tell the truth anyway. “Jinwoo hates this place. He is not happy and always crying.”

Behind his father, Jinwoo peeked at the brave little girl curiously, even when Mr. Park dragged her by the ear for being disrespectful.

The day after, Jinwoo didn’t show up. Instead his father came to visit the dojo, saying his deepest apology for troubling the Chief, Chorong’s father. He decided to let Jinwoo rest for awhile, and from then on his kid wouldn’t be attending the training session anymore. It was just that he doesn’t want to force his only son to do something that he doesn’t feel right.

Just like that, Chorong never saw him in the white hapkido uniform again for the rest of her life.

Not that she couldn’t see him anymore, in fact he became a regular sight in her daily life.

One day Kim Jinwoo just randomly showed up in front of her during lunch time in school, offering a box of strawberry milk and a melon bread.

“Dad said a real man is someone who always returns the favor. My mom packs them for me every Friday but I don’t really like it anyway, here you can have it.”

How could she say no to the alluring strawberry milk and melon bread?

And so Chorong and Jinwoo often spent their lunch time together on Fridays for the rest of the semester. Before they realize it, they happened to be friends since then and stick to each other even more when they found themselves to be classmates during the 4th grade.

He was still a crybaby though, and she was always there to tell him to shut it up and be a man for real.

II. THE GLUE

She was a nice addition to their little clique. Afterall, she was the glue that holds them together, the rain after the drought, the warm spring breeze after a cold winter night.

She was just simply refreshing in so many ways.

But having known each other for more than five years and still counting, no one really welcome the new kid at first. Not the entire 6-1 class apparently. To top it all, they were about to graduate in 8 months from now. An additional member to the class made the whole situation kinda awkward and uncomfortable. Especially when the newbie was the daughter of a well-known Congress member.

Even though they had no idea what does a ‘Congress member’ really do.

But one thing for sure, she came from the Upper Class and raised well to be the recent generation’s future hope.

And the whole things felt intimidating at first.

Her voice were always soft and polite, and her long wavy dark locks with glowing pale skin made her look like little snow white who popped out from their story book. Irene stood out easily compared to the other kids with her clean figure and finely made clothes. Plus, her name sounded so foreign to the local kids and it was just like a name of a princess from a fairytale. All of that just made her presence to be very striking and different from the other kids. In the end, nobody really befriended her at first because she felt so out of their league.

Irene’s transfer to their class was almost at the same time when Chorong lost her dearly mother. Even if the lost was never really surprising because her mother was always sick in bed, Chorong prepared herself for the day to come since her mother always stayed at the hospital for the past two years.

She prepared for her heart to be ready, but it didn’t mean she could recover from the feelings in such a short time.

Weeks after her mother had passed away, Chorong had shut herself from others. She would never started any conversation, and she looked lost most of the time. This was made worse because Jinwoo, her only close friend, was in different class with her in their sixth year. Her classmates and friends from dojo began to worry about her a lot because they knew the once bright and cheerful Chorong.

Just like this time, Jinwoo was so confused and didn’t know how to deal with this Chorong.

Apparently after the P.E. class, Chorong refused to go out of the school’s toilet. Her classmates immediately called Jinwoo (because really, he was their one and only choice) and the boy was flustered enough because that was the first time he entered the girls’ restroom. Jinwoo called Chorong’s name and carefully asked her what was going on and if she was okay. He didn’t have to repeat his talk because Chorong stormed out of the toilet’s door instantly. She grabbed Jinwoo’s hand and then dragged him to her class in a dash.

There were almost no one in the class, and Jinwoo --with his physically weak body-- was gasping for air from all the running Chorong forced him to do. “What’s wrong with you??” protested him in between his gasps.

But Jinwoo stopped his protest after he saw Chorong’s seemingly pale white face, definitely not something that you see everyday from the brave little Park Chorong.

“Ji-jinwoo… I think… I think i’m dying.” said the girl in a panicked voice. Both of her hands were visibly trembled from fear.

The boy was stupefied, he could not really process what Chorong had just said.

“HAAA??” Jinwoo’s shout was quickly silenced by Chorong’s hands on his mouth.

“Psssttt!! Be quiet! I am being super serious right now!”

Jinwoo struggled to release her grip on his mouth, “What do you mean by that?”

“Well you know…” the girl looked down on the floor, feeling anxious engulfed her tiny body. “From today’s P.E. class… i know i just felt uncomfortable and i didn’t feel well.. But today… when we changed our uniform, then i realized that i…”

She stopped for a while to take a deep breath, “I bleed.”

Jinwoo was stunned.

“Ha?”

“Ifoundbloodinmypants” she quickly mumbled. It took a while for Jinwoo to actually understand that Chorong’s fear was actually useless.

“Wait! I don’t think you’re dying!” Jinwoo held out his hand in front of Chorong, “My idiot older sister said something that was similar to you before, only i could not really remember everything. I just remember that Mom said it was actually natural for girls to bleed.”

Chorong tilted her head in confusion, “What do you mean it’s natural for girls to be dying like this?”

Jinwoo ruffled his friend’s hair in frustration, “I said, you’re not dying! And i don’t know anything about it okay!” The boy looked around for a second, “Why don’t you ask the other girls and let’s check if you’re about to be really dead or not.”

It was already lunch time so the rest of the kids were already heading to the cafetaria, except one.

“Who’s that?” Jinwoo pointed to the girl who was sitting in the corner beside the window, unlike others she was there eating her lunch alone.

Chorong trailed at the direction Jinwoo pointed out, “Ah that’s Irene. The new girl.”

“Well then let’s ask her.” Without any warning Jinwoo already walked to the girl. Chorong was flustered because she never talked to the girl before, let alone asked her about a matter of life and death. But Jinwoo was much more the friendlier one than her anyway, it was easy for him to talk to a stranger like nothing.

“Hey.” He already greeted her with his boyish smile. When the girl looked up, Jinwoo was taken aback for a while.

(Uwaaaa her eyelashes are so long)

“Yes?”

(Ah… She looked just like my grandmother’s ceramic doll)

“U-uh-uh, That’s… You know… My friend…” It was so unlike of him to be this nervous when he approached someone first. Behind him, Chorong already facepalmed so hard from the secondhand embarrassment. “My friend… I think she’s dying.”

She just stared at them with a blank look and furrowed eyebrows, and the two of them were getting uncomfortable with each second passed. Knowing that Jinwoo actually didn’t really help, Chorong butted in and tried to explain everything from the start. When the girl was done with her version of story, Irene stayed silent but she had softened her gaze this time. Without saying anything, she closed her lunch box and stood from her seat. And then the girl gently took Chorong’s hand and assured her with a soft voice, “It’s okay.” Chorong who wasn’t expecting it followed Irene when she brought her to the infirmary while the confused Jinwoo silently trailed behind them.

When they were about to stepped in, Irene turned around and calmly told Jinwoo to go back to their class, “Can you please tell our teacher that we won’t be coming back for a while? Just say that Chorong is sick and i need to accompany her. Lunch break is about to end soon so i’m afraid we won’t make it in time for the next class.” She said it all with so much composure it was so hard to believe that she was only twelve at that time.

Jinwoo didn’t have any choice, he nodded and trusted her friend to the new girl since it seemed like she knows what to do.

After the class ended, Jinwoo came back to picked Chorong up, he was a little bit worried because he was kind of left in the dark, not knowing what actually happened to Chorong. And yet what he found was the sight of Chorong talking comfortably to the new girl and that they were laughing softly. What made him to be so surprised was because it was the very first time since the day her mother passed away that Chorong looked so happy and warm with someone else, even though Chorong said she never talked to the girl before.

On the way home, Chorong told him what actually happened to her (not everything of course, she just told him that it was the sign of her maturity -- jinwoo loudly snorted at that). Whatever it was Jinwoo was glad that his best friend was alive and okay.

But something was bugging inside his mind.

“Chorong-ah,” said Jinwoo softly, “Well i’m glad that you’re not dying, and i bet you do too. But you look exceptionally happy.”

“Eh? I do?” Chorong held her cheeks unconsciously in reaction to that.

Jinwoo nodded, “Happier actually. When you talked with the new girl.”

“Ah yes Irene…” Chorong mused with her now flushed cheeks, “Hey Jinwoo, i think… i think…”

The little boy already perked his ears up to whatever will come out from Chorong’s mouth.

“I think she reminded me of my mother.”

It was so short, but the way she said it made Jinwoo realize there was a hidden longing on her voice. The boy gently smiled and he took Chorong’s hand into his. “Let’s invite her to eat my mother’s roll cake next saturday.”

And that said a lot because Jinwoo never shared his mother’s roll cake other than Chorong before.

III. WINTER ICE CREAMS

The three of them somehow managed to survive junior high school together and was preparing for the upcoming entrance exams, particularly one of the most prestigious high school in town. Irene’s father had insisted, in order to make sure his daughter is well educated and raised in a high class society. Being one of the prodigy in her class, Irene didn’t really find any difficulty to keep up with their standard, practicing and practicing just so she could secure her spot. Even if it meant restless weeks of study.

But it didn’t work that way for her two buddies who were struggling with their academic record, especially Jinwoo who seemed to fail at everything he do.

“Guys, you really don’t have to do this.” Irene expressed her concerns during their scheduled study group, this time they chose to stay at Chorong’s place.

Chorong looked up with her tired eyes and now apparent dark circles under it, “What do you mean we don’t have to do this? Of course we do if we want to stay together with you.”

“Yeah… study… hard… no problem…” Jinwoo managed to utter his words in between his naps.

“If only this idiotic dumb working his off even more I’m sure you won’t need to worry about us, Irene.” Chorong sighed and nudged Jinwoo’s head with her pen. “Hey dumbo, wake up! We need to finish this equation first!”

Their study group was interrupted when Irene’s phone rang. Her mother was calling.

But it was not the kind of news she wanted to hear from her mother at a time like this. Definitely not this time when her friends were around, and definitely when she didn’t need any distraction from her entrance exam.

Police were already surrounding their house. Her father was accused for bribery and corruption.

At the age of fifteen Irene saw her perfect life crumbling in front of her eyes.

And it was done with only one phone call from her mother.

They didn’t continue their study, and Irene chose not to go back to her home. Instead she was crying on Chorong’s shoulder while Jinwoo was whispering soft comforting words to her ears. The three of them stayed together that night.

Weeks after, Irene already moved from her previous luxurious house to a smaller apartment not far from Chorong and Jinwoo’s neighborhood, this time only her and her mother. Her father’s trial ended and he was officially convicted of his faults.

Those times were her hardest struggle in her life but she managed to pass through it. Sometimes, when people were talking behind her back, her friends would always be there for her with their own ways. The free-spoken Chorong always told those people to shut it off right in front of their face, especially those girls who was gossipping and spreading rumours about Irene and her family. Nobody dared to talk back to the proud owner of third degree black belt of course. While the much calmer Jinwoo would share his earphones to her and play his favorite soft and comforting songs from his ipod, it was all to ‘block the negative and evil aura’ he said.

However, Irene knew she could not depend on them for too long and that she wanted to be strong for herself. And for that, she mastered the art of smiling as her weapon. Whenever people started to talk about bad things behind her, she would give them her most blinding smile just to show them that she would not back away. In no time, everyone stopped talking and the rumours faded away.

It was all because of Chorong and Jinwoo that she was able to become stronger. For herself, and for her mother.

Months passed, winter came, and the year changed. The day of the entrance exam finally came. It was the prestigious high school her father wanted Irene to enter, and the three of them were standing in front of the school’s gate holding their exam cards.

“It’s okay Irene, you can make it, you are the brightest person i have ever known after all. Even if Chorong and i are too dumb to pass the entrance exam, at least we will try our best today… Well, i hope.” said Jinwoo in what seemed to be an attempt to assure her.

Chorong nodded eagerly, “Even if the two us don’t make it in the end, the public school is just around the corner so really it’s not that far from here. But if it’s you, i’m sure you will pass.”

Irene stared at her exam cards in complete silence. It seemed like her friends were under this impression that what troubled her most today was because she was nervous from all the pressure. But it was not it. She had been thinking about a complete different matter.

In the end, Irene raised her card so that it was on the same level with her eyes. She had been thinking about everything that happened the whole year, and how she finally became what she was today. What was the point of doing this entrance exam? Who was it that she want to impress anyway? Her father? The society? The people who talked behind her back?

Her mother? No, her mother didn’t want this. Her mother would be proud of her regardless of everything.

And so she tore the paper into two. She was finally free.

But first, she needed to deal with her other two friends who were freaking out now.

“What the hell are you doing?!!”

“Wh-wh-wha-wha-what-why what about the entrance examination Irene???”

She only smiled at them and grabbed their hands, “I don’t feel like doing it. Let’s just go get some ice creams.”

It was only Jinwoo who protested, “But it is freaking winter right now!”

IV. CHERRY BLOSSOMS

They entered the same public high school without any meaningful problem. But it took Chorong and Irene less than a month before they realized something that would change their dynamics for the most part of their high school life.

That Jinwoo was actually a boy.

Not that they didn’t know he was a boy. They knew it perfectly. It was just that puberty hit Jinwoo like a truck and everybody else other than Chorong and Irene noticed it. And it became worse. Every single day.

Somehow, the way Jinwoo matured into a grown up high school boy gained him a hoard of fangirls.

The three of them actually managed to become the talk right after the school’s opening ceremony. Irene had always been the center of people’s attention since the first time they met her so it was almost obligatory actually, Chorong was the petite baby-faced fighter (and sometimes with a foul mouth to put the cherry on top) who easily stood out wherever she was, while Jinwoo… well, apparently the girls found him to be very very attractive.

Like, super attractive.

Apparently there was something about Jinwoo’s soft feature and puppy eyes that attracted almost all of the girls in their year (and some seniors).

During their junior high school days, it was Irene who’s popular enough to get confessions once or twice. But it was nothing much really, none of them was serious. While Jinwoo’s exploding popularity in high school was up to the point where he would find love letters in his shoe’s box, every single day. And the sight of him being called to the rooftop for a girl’s confession was becoming frequent, every single week.

And they were getting fed up of it.

“Stop asking me questions!!” Chorong screamed on top of her lungs, they were in the middle of warming-ups and yet her club mates (the girls, of course) were bombarding Chorong questions about her best friend. “Like hell i know what did he eat for dinner, who do you think i am?? His mom??”

The other girls left dejected, and Chorong moved to the corner to practice with the other black belts. She felt at ease when they were grouped like this, it was because she was the only first-year girl with black belt in the Hapkido-Taekwondo club. The club was called like that because it used to be in shortage of member, so the two clubs merged into one and since then they have been practicing together.

“What was that loud scream for?” A voice  from her left turned Chorong’s attention to him.

Another first-year with black belt from the Taekwondo department, Lee Howon. He was Chorong’s sparring partner most of the time (just because he was also a third degree black belt like her, she could have sparred with the other first-years but there would be no fun in it since all of them are below her except for Howon).

“Fangirls” Chorong spit the words like it was poison to .

Howon, always the stoic, almost never let out a reply with more than two sentences. So the boy only nodded because he understood the situation, after all it was all Chorong could talk about whenever they were practicing together.

But then Howon said something else that would bother her for days, “Why are you so agitated anyway.”

Chorong looked at him with a scrunched face, “Why of course because they are annoying!”

“Why?”

“Huh?”

“Was it because you truly feel that way or because you just feel like they are threatening you?”

Chorong was left confused for the rest of the day. Not once did she truly get what Howon could possibly meant by that.

And then she tried to ask about it to her other best friend, “Hey Irene, do you feel annoyed by the girls around Jinwoo?”

Irene looked up from her book she was reading, another novel from a foreign author called Jane Austen, then she just stared at Chorong for quite a long time. “Why do you ask?”

“Today Howon asked me a rather strange question. When i said that i was annoyed by the girls, he asked me if i truly feel it or because i was being threatened.”

“What was your answer?”

“I don’t understand what did he mean by that so i ignored him.” Chorong started to play with Irene’s long hair out of boredom, “If it were you, what’s your answer?”

There was a long pause and Chorong’s mind was lost for a while in her mission to braid Irene’s long hair, when the girl finally answered with a short and quick “Both.”

She resumed to buried her nose deep on her novel while Chorong blinked her eyes twice. Well at least she got Irene’s answer. And so Chorong continued to braid Irene’s long locks inspired by the Rapunzel movie she just watched last night.

V. TAROTS & GLITTERS

Jinwoo hated after school hours the most. It was because his other friends were busy with other things that he always ended up alone. Chorong joined the Hapkido-Taekwondo club (she always reminded him to perfectly pronounce it like that) immediately after they were enrolled. Irene was the representative of her class so from time to time she had to attend the student council meeting. Which finally left Jinwoo alone to do nothing. It wasn’t like he doesn’t have any other friends to hang out with other than the two. After all he was a boy and he needed his own kind to discuss… well, boys’ things. Among them, there were Changsub, and Sungyeol, and Jaejin, and Jungshin, and few of them that he usually hang out with in the game arcade.

In which all of them happened to be either in the soccer club or the basketball club.

And he was left alone all over again.

To say that he was always alone was pretty much technically incorrect, since his fangirls would invite him to go to the karaoke or to the newly opened cafes, but he wouldn’t even call that an option.

And that’s what brought him to here, in front of the school’s announcement board, looking for a club to join. Anything that could spend his time with things to do. Jinwoo carefully observed all the colorful posters. Sports clubs certainly out of his possible list, as well as mathematics, astronomy, geography, history, and the literature clubs because those subjects are his worst enemies. He wouldn’t mind the tea ceremony club but he was afraid they would kick him out immediately because Jinwoo was a chronic ditz and he could hear the sound of glasses breaking already inside his mind. So probably not a very wise choice.

His eyes finally landed on a deep purple poster with a seemingly mysterious aura. And it had glitters on it. A club poster with sprinkles of glitters. Nice. Jinwoo read the big glittering words on it. The Fortune-telling Club.

It sounded shady but Jinwoo actually (kind of) liked shady things (he never told Chorong and Irene though).

And so Jinwoo brought himself to the fortune-telling club’s room, in the south building 3rd floor just beside the equipment room, right in the corner of the building. He knocked the door in a full anticipation. His thoughts suddenly drifted to his two best friends and he wondered about what will their reaction be. Chorong would surely laugh and humiliate him but at least he had the always-so-supportive Irene to neutralize Chorong’s insults.

There was a faint “Come in” from behind the door, and Jinwoo let himself to go in.

Just right after he opened the door, there was a loud deafening sound from party poppers and soon Jinwoo found himself to be showered with confettis. And glitters. He was so sure there were glitters involved.

“WELCOME, THE FATED CHOSEN ONE!”

“TO THE FORTUNE-TELLING CLUB!!”

Two seniors, standing on their chairs, were happily throwing confettis to the dumbfounded Jinwoo.

“My name is Seo Eunkwang! The Vice-Chairman!”

“And you can call me Seungri! Your beloved Chairman!”

“Together, we form the Fortune-telling rangers!”

The two of them actually ended their pose by imitating the fusion dance from DragonBall.

Jinwoo began to reevaluate his choice immediately.

His seniors finally jumped down from their chairs and prepared another chair for Jinwoo to sit. From the look of it, there was no other member aside from the two seniors. Jinwoo paid a close attention on his surrounding and the club room’s wall was filled with posters of girlgroups that Jinwoo started to doubt the real purpose of this club. He might have had crashed into the wrong place.

“Oh?” The one called Seungri exclaimed in realization.

“What is it, Seungri?”

Seungri pointed his finger directly to Jinwoo’s face with a big O on his mouth. “I know you! You’re the first year everyone’s been talking about!”

This time, it was Eunkwang who clapped both of his hands together, “Aaaah! You’re that Kim Jinwoo!”

Jinwoo creased his eyebrows together in an uncomfortable manner. To think that he would even catch the attention from the upper classmen. His popularity became to grow into something that is unnecessary and overwhelming.

“Hey, hey, hey, isn’t he the same guy who’s always surrounded by those pretty girls?”

“You’re right! You’re right!”

He squirmed in his seat even more. It wasn’t like he enjoyed the way his fangirls swarmed around him anyway.

The two seniors raised their voice together in excitement, “Chorong and Irene!”

A pause. Silence.

Jinwoo was dumbfounded again for the nth time. “Huh?” They weren’t talking about his fangirls?

“Uwaaaah you lucky boy!” Seungri bumped his shoulder and then his laughter followed shortly. “To think that you have two beauties on each of your arms!”

Eunkwang elbowed Jinwoo and snickered, “Which one’s your type?”

“Huh?”

Seungri let out a big sigh and crossed his two arms in deep thoughts, “It’s a hard choice right? Although i prefer a classic feminine beauty like Irene…”

“Nah… a tsundere like Chorong always makes your heart fluttering with her hard-to-get charms though… But i agree, it’s still very hard to pick one…” Eunkwang nodded, mirroring his friends’ pose.

The rusty chair made a noise when Jinwoo abruptly stood from his seat. He bowed to both of the seniors who were equally confused, and stormed out of the club’s room without even saying anything. In the end he just left and ignored their desperate calls to come back.

That night, Jinwoo left a message on his group chat with Chorong and Irene.

From: Kim Jinwoo

“Remind me not to join any club again please.”

Author’s Note:
Try to google ‘dragonball fusion’ to know what exactly it looked like. I had fun writing this! And i hope you enjoyed it too! Although, i’m not sure if i will ever continue it (i certainly hope so but knowing me i can’t promise you anything).