She looked at her phone, her finger lingered on the app that she was about to install, did she really need it? Damned it, yes! Her fingers lightly touched the install button and the app slowly downloaded and installed on her phone. Bravely, she made up a username and uploaded a profile pic, selecting something from the cartoons. Then she waited.

Phone friends, she bet none of the people who knew her thought she would need one, she was one of the most popular girls in schools. There was no lack of boys or girls trying to be her friends, but something was amiss. She had to act like those popular people in school, shallow, conceit, inconsiderate, things that were not her, but in order to fit in, she had to be. The popular people talked about popular topics, in reality, none of them she was interested in. She had enough, she needed reality, a strong dose of it, one cannot walk with head in the cloud forever.

She looked through the list of contacts on her phone, praying someone normal would make contact soon. “Seong-Im,” a unique male voice called her, she can recognise it anywhere, she turned round.

“Hello, Jong Kook Oppa” she answered, forcing a fake smile from her face. He must be the most popular guy in school, good looks, amazing smile, muscular body and a brain to match, all the girls would want him to be their boy friend, well...maybe except her.

“AAhhhh, not happy to see me, i know that but still i need your help.” he smiled, radiating positive energy. “Attend the school ball with me.” he asked, his face showing how serious he was. “That way, I won’t mislead a girl and you wont mislead a guy. 2 birds 1 stone.”

She hated the idea, but he was right! The ball would happen at the end of the school term and announcing that they will attend the ball together would be perfect, she would not get any harassment, and yet appeared totally “in”. “You are right, it for the best.” she extended up her hand, and they shook on it.

“Till then” he said, while he walked away carefreely. She sighed, he was right as always, been the one of the school brainiest, only him can figure something like this. Her phone gave a beep, she excited looked at her phone, someone wanted to be her friend! She happily tried to make friends, forgetting about her deal with Jong Kook.

After a week, she was depressed, she had met with all sort of people, except for the normal ones. Some wanted , others had strange ideas, one even asked her to commit suicide with him, in the end, she had to talk it out of him. She sighed, where is all the normal people in the world, why are they all avoiding her, did she had a plague or something, did she hang a sign that ask them to avoid her.  She wanted to scream in frustration. But alas she was in school..

She turned around and her eyes caught 2 person, Jong Kook and a girl, one year younger that she was, they appeared to be discussing something, Jong Kook, the top most person she wanted to avoid, she quickly get up, ready to go when she heard “Seong-Im, there you are! We have been looking for you” she sighed inwardly and turned around, giving him her force smile.

“Hello, Oppa” she greeted the smiling boy. “Hi there” she greeted the girl beside him.

“I been telling her you are my date for the ball,” he glanced into her eyes, daring her to say otherwise. Her eyes met his glance, then she switch to the girl, “Yeah, I am going with Oppa here.” she gave the girl a warm smile, she hoped. The girl’s eyes welled up with tears, and she quickly run away from the both of them.

She frowned, “You happy now?” she asked Jong Kook. “Hurting a innocent young thing?”

“Hi, she asked. I told her i already had a partner but she didnt believe me, I told her it’s you and still she doubted till she heard it from your mouth. What can I do!” he was equally vexed, from the tone of his voice.

“I don’t know what to say, but I bet the school does.” she felt hopeless and Jong Kook nod in agreement. Sure enough, in two hours, she saw her name and Jong Kook’s appear on the school forum, everyone was discussing about their date to the ball and how they would win the king and queen of the ball. Can’t these people just left her alone? She asked herself.

Nothing was right, the school forum, the phone friend chat, she needed her sanity check and it  cannot be she speaking to herself. She looked at her phone, scrolling down the list of nicknames and the icons. She stopped at an interesting nickname, or maybe it his real name, Lee Kwang Soo, he had a picture of giraffe as his icon, he seem interesting, she decided to message him, hoping he was a normal person.

“Hi, there” she messaged him. He didn’t reply, maybe he busy.

“Seong-Im” her friend called her, she then remembered she had a cheerleading practise, she immediately kept her phone and went to practise. When she was back, she saw a single message from the app, it was a “Hi” from the person.

She opened, wondering what to say, “This is my first time messaging someone, i really dont know how to continue the conversation,” she typed in.

He replied immediately, “This is the first time I received a message too. :.). I am pretty nervous too”

“Maybe I should introduce myself?” she asked.

“It is ok, i  don’t think it is necessary. We are already friends.” came the reply.

“Really, :)” she replied, she really felt he was a warmth person and they could be friends.

“Yeah. feel free to talk to me. You seem like a nice person too.”  she smiled at his message.

“Thank you. I am a nice person.” she answered. That was the start of their conversation.

The next day, she saw Jong Kook, he waved at her and the persons around hooted. Her face turned red and and she quickly turned and walked away. How can he be so insensitive, didnt he know their news were all over the school forum.

She was vexed, so she took out her phone and just typed a random message, hoping she could start a conversation and maybe release her pent up tension by talking to someone else. She saw her new friend name and decided to message him, “Hello, today is really warm.”

Her new friend seem to be online, “Yeah, I was sweating in the fields.”

“Really, i just walked past the fields and now i drenching in sweat.’ she said, her hands wiped away the sweat from her forehead. “I now in the library, looking for a book from my favourite author.” she typed as she browse the shelves.

“Oh who was that?” he asked.

“Mitch Albom” she replied, her hand holding the book she wanted.

“I like him too! I had read his “Tuesday with Morrie” and now starting on his “Five person you met in heaven”!” he replied.

“Really!! Me too! I just found ‘Five person you met in heaven.”’ she typed excitedly. “Which chapter you had finished reading?”

“I now at chapter 3.” he wrote.

“I will catch up with you. Ttyl.” she found a seat and sat down. Engrossed in the story, she quickly read chapter 1-3. When she looked up, it was already six and the library was about to close, she quickly packed up and left for home.

“I totally love this book, I am so going to finish the book tonight.” she told him.

He was silent, maybe he was not available. When he replied, it was already the next morning, “You finished the book? I finished mine.” he said.

“Me too! Wah, if there are five person you meet in heaven, who do you want to meet?” she asked.

“That’s a tough one.” he replied. “Let me think about it, who are the five most person i want to meet? Who are the five most person you want to meet?” he asked her back.

“How about we discuss after class? I am running late.” she said.

“Ok, me too actually. Ttyl.” came the replied, she smiled as she rushed to the class.

He kept his promise and messaged her after his class, they started an in depth discussion of the book, followed by “Tuesday with Morrie” that day. She had fun discussing the books with him, she had never done it before with anyone, and she didn’t expect it to be fun. They had even discussed who they wanted to meet when they died. That night, they discussed till the wee hours, she fell asleep dreaming of the two books.

He was a fun person, sometimes his replies took a while, sometimes his replies was instantaneous. From their conversation, she got to know him more and more, she liked the person who was sensitive and yet funny, who was blunt and yet never insult, who was happy and yet sometimes melancholy.

He seemed more real than the Kim Jong Kook. Kim Jong Kook keep appearing in her life, sometimes he would say Hi. Sometimes he would stop and try to develop into a conversation, she would try to talk to him, but it was difficult with all the eyes on them and so she would find an excuse and end the conversation. Sometimes, he would just totally avoid her as if he knew the issue.

She could not say she was not curious about “Lee Kwang Soo” and how he looked like.but she did not ask him, he would show her if he wanted to, she felt it was the kind of respect they had developed.

The prom date grew nearer and she was getting more restless, the date with Kim Jong Kook was making her nervous, she was thinking of not to attend and yet she could not find  good enough excuse. She sighed, maybe it time she  asked her friend about it.