Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day? Part 2

“YAH! YAH! Lazy-! Get up!” Pairs of hands pounded on the sleeping figure sprawled out on the bed. “Get. Up. We’re going to be late!”

The figure groaned. “Just-Just five more minutes.”

“Fine. But don’t come crying to me when you miss class!”

The sleeping figure lazily opened one eye. Then two. Then closed them again.

“I’M WARNING YOU!” The loud voice traveled all the way from the downstairs kitchen into the reluctant ears of the sleeping girl. She grumbled incoherently and sat up on her bed. She shook her messy hair and yawned, stretching her tiny body along the way. She smacked her lips together in satisfaction and lazily looked around her messy room. Clothes laid in heaps on the floor, the clean indistinguishable from the dirty. Posters of movie stars and famous singers were sloppily taped up on the peeling wallpaper. Overdue papers were strewn across the floor, mixed in with unpaid student loan fees and her yearly subscription to the Women & Health magazines.

She sniffed. A fresh scent of pancakes and strawberries wafted through the air. Her nose twitched and her stomach sent out a loud growl, an indication that it was time to eat. She her lips, imagining the hot, fluffy flour as it slid its way past her tongue, past , and ultimately meeting its end in her stomach. She could already taste the sweet and sticky syrup as she it from her hands. She shuddered at such thoughts and bounced off her bed.

She threw on whatever was lying around, namely dark, skinny jeans and her favorite shirt: a simple, black blouse complimented with her navy blue blazer. She lazily ran a comb through her shoulder-length blond hair and hurriedly tied it into a ponytail, letting her bangs hang limply from her forehead. She quickly brushed her teeth and splashed some water on her face. She checked herself out in the mirror and winked. “Not bad.”

She shuddered at her brief moment of narcissism and walked out of her room.

“PANCAKES!” She screamed at the sight of the steaming, brown pieces of flour that nestled nicely on her plate and bounced up and down on her seat, like a kid. “YAY! YAY! YAY!” She reached over and smothered the pancakes with syrup. She scooped up spoonfuls of freshly cut strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries all taken from her garden. As a finishing touch, she sprinkled powdered sugar on top of her entire meal, making her pancakes look like mountains with heavy snow gathered up on the top. As she lifted her fork to dig into her meal, she caught the stare of her roommate. “Want some?”

Her roommate shook her head in disbelief. “How in the world do I live with a kid who is also a full-time slob? How?” Her answer, however, was clear and simple. The other girl provided her with a place to stay and never charged her a single cent of rent. They had been friends since birth, and practically inseparable. Ever since her parents died, the other girl offered up her apartment. That way, they could look after one another, and, as the other girl put it, made them seem even more like sisters.

“YAH! Kim Taeyeon! How much longer are you going to take with eating those pancakes!” The taller girl was growing impatient, and was simultaneously tapping her foot on the ground while keeping an eye on her watch. 10:15. Only 20 more minutes until the first class started. And it was her economy class.

Today was test day.

“TAENG! I’m serious! Mr. Park is going to kill me if I don’t get to school on time!”

The other girl could only communicate using hand motions as her cheeks were stuffed with pancakes. Her motions told her friend to go on without her.

“Fine. But you better be at school today! I don’t want you failing out because of your lousy attendance record. See ya Taeng.” The other girl hurriedly scurried out the door.

Taeyeon was left alone in the kitchen. She rubbed her temples in frustration. She was the only heir to the largest company in all of Korea: Kim Enterprises. Although the company was not hers yet, her father had already set aside heaps of paperwork for her to sign and fill out. She stayed up every night until at least one in the morning filling out her father’s lousy paperwork. Whether or not she went to school was unimportant to her father; he owned the school. He just wanted to see his daughter successfully follow his footsteps. Nothing else.

She let out another sigh and glanced at the clock. 5 minutes till class started. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. Next thing she knew, it was lunchtime. School was half over. Still, for the sake of her friend, she dragged herself to the dreaded institution. Her afternoon classes today were math and English, both subjects she despised. Not that she wasn’t good in any of them. Her math skills excelled that of her teacher’s, and her English was…passable. Kim Taeyeon was a kid genius. She strutted into her math professor’s room without a backpack, notepad, or pens.

“Ah. Kim Taeyeon. Thank you for joining us today. We’ve missed seeing you for the past week.” Her professor was a balding man who wore Coke-bottled eye-glasses. The man was a slob; whatever was left of his hair was always greasy, his shirt always untucked, and his pants were stained with some unknown substance, not that he cared. Taeyeon blinked and yawned at his face. She coolly walked to her seat and sat down with her feet propped up on the table.

She was being disrespectful, and she knew it. She gazed out the window, at the falling snow. She wished she could be a snowflake; beautiful, free, and…

Different.

She watched with immense intrigue as the tiny flecks of iced water flew past the window and floated gently, until it met its end on the ground. Her gaze shifted from the schoolyard to what was happening outside of the school’s gates. She longed to be out there right now, sipping some warm cappuccino at the café, or…

The bell rang. “Saved by the bell,” she grumbled as she reluctantly walked to her next class. Thank goodness she had the class with her best friend.

Her friend’s eyes widened as she saw Taeyeon step into the classroom. “Taeng! You’re actually here!” She swooped up the shorter into a big hug. The other girl could only sigh. She didn’t want to be here. At all.

The lesson started. It was review on common sentences and phrases used in everyday American life. Taeyeon stifled giggles as she heard her classmates speak “English.” “Would you like a drink?” came out to be, “Would yew rike a deurinku?”

Her favorite was, “Give me another water.” It came out to be, “Gibeu me…anazer…w-w-watuh. Watuh.” She covered as her body spazzed out. This was just too funny. Her classmates glared at her and she pretended to stare out the window, as if nothing had happened.

After class, she wanted to do nothing but go home and sleep. But her friend had other plans. “Let’s go to the Noraebang!”

She shot a menacing glare at the taller girl. “No. Way. Nu-uh.”

The other girl gave her a pleading stare. “Please, unnie? I’ve invited Seohyun…”

That’s all it took for Taeyeon to say yes. She knew that Yoona, her best friend, had been dying to ask out a girl in the lower grade. The girl not only had an innocent face, but also an innocent personality. She would always shyly smile and look away whenever in a conversation. Taeyeon knew that Yoona was crazy about her.

“Fine. I’ll go.”

“YAY! I love you, unnie! I love you soooo much!”

“YAH! Stop showing me that disgusting aegyo, or I just might change my mind!”

Yoona immediately stopped. “Sorry.”

She had agreed to meet Seohyun by the school gates at three, and true to her word, Seohyun was there, waiting for the duo to make their appearance.

“Seohyun!” Yoona excitedly waved at the younger girl, who blushed and looked down. “H-Hello, Taeyeon unnie. Hello, Yoona unnie.” Yoona immediately linked arms with the younger girl, earning raised eyebrows from Taeyeon. She ignored the older girl and continued with her quest to win the heart of Seo JuHyun.