Im Eun Hee

 

    “Excuse me! Sorry!”

           Four minutes.

           I pushed another random student away from my path and continued speeding down the long hallway. Shouts and curses came from around me as I ran and try to clear my way. I had to hurry. I had to run. I sure as Hell didn’t want to be late.

           My footsteps echoed in the hallways, already alerting anyone to clear out of the middle, and I could feel the air rushing past me as I run. I pushed my bangs out of my eyes, and continued through, pumping my legs faster and faster. Rows and rows of lockers lined the corners of my vision as I ran but blurred into one another as I began to pick up the pace.

           I’ve always loved the hallways in our college. Every nook and cranny, I’d already tried to memorize since I first stepped on the light blue floor of the school. The twists and turns and secret stairways were all engrained on my mind, and I know how to work them even though I never got to. It’s as if the directions were already hotwired to my whole system so I could let my feet take me there without having to think twice. I could probably close my eyes and just run.

           “Oof!”

           A stack of books fell to the floor, toppling, and obstructing the path I was going to take. Unfortunately, my foot got caught between two of them, completely throwing me off my run, and almost making me fall flat on my face. My hands shot out before I could possibly end up on the floor or in a hospital, and I sprang back up, dusting myself off.

           “I’m terribly sorry,” I muttered, arranging my skirt and not feeling sorry at all.

           “It’s okay,” a voice behind me said sincerely. The voice was soft, wind through set of small chimes.

           I checked my silver watch, and almost cursed at what the three hands showed me. Two minutes left.

           The sound of books being stacked on top of each echoed through the hallways, and I had to fight the urge to continue running to reach my destination on time. The urge was strong, but then my conscience was stronger. Hastily, I started collecting the books on the ground around my feet, stacking them in a messy pile in my arms.

           “Here,” I said, pushing all of my stacked books, a total of four, on top of the stack that the student had in her arms. “Sorry, again.”

           All I caught sight of was long, wavy, light brown hair and a small frame before I turned around and continued running. With a couple of turns down a hallway, I could already see my target. I pumped my legs faster before sliding through the opened doorway and into warm white light.

           “Aaaaand, she’s safe!”

           I raised my hands and let out a “whoop!” before going through the aisle of desks and situating myself in my chair, in the very middle, two rows from the very back of the classroom. It was my favorite seat. It was part of my Olympus. Our Olympus.

           I sighed and wiped the sweat under my bangs. “I almost thought that I was late.”

           “Define late,” Woo Young chuckled. “You always come early. How can you be late to being early?”

          

He pushed his dark black bangs away from his eyes before turning his head towards me. Papers littered his desk, but he didn’t seem to mind them at all. His hand was lazily lying on top of the papers with a red pen clutched loosely by his fingers. Curiosity nicked at my mind, but before I could even ask what was up with his red pen, Ha Rin spoke up.

           “Besides, you’re always freaking early,” yawned Ha Rin to my left. “I doubt you’ll ever be late in your entire life.”

           The little brunette to my left stretched her arms above her head and yawned once more, cracking her back and her knuckles. She shook her curls before settling her head on her open palm with her elbow propped up on her desk and closing her eyes.

           “Exactly, I don’t want to start now,” I said. “And that includes not being late when you’re trying to be early.”

           I shot a pointed look at Woo Young before turning to the front, eyes meeting a curtain of wavy chestnut brown hair.

           “What’s up, Ae Mi?” I leaned over my desk and poked the girl’s back with my index finger. Immediately, the girl turned around and focused her light brown eyes on me.

She lifted a regal eyebrow at my curious look before monotonously answering, “Extra credit work.”

           I nodded my head, a bit embarrassed that I would ask such a stupid question when her desk was also littered with papers, but this time, she had a black pen with her. She turned her head back to her desk, her brown hair swishing back to veil her back once more, before asking, “How are you, Eun Hee?”

           I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding, and reclined into my chair, squishing my backpack to my seat. “I’m good. A bit tired from answering some queries from last night, though. Nasty little buggers tried to get in multiple messages and some were pretty crazy.”

           “Ah, another normal night for the great Im Eun Hee,” Ha Rin joked.

           Slipping off my backpack, I balanced the heavy object on my lap and ped the back zipper. Rustles came from my right, in Woo Young’s direction, before papers slid onto my feet and the floor beside me.

           “You could’ve just let me help you last night! I didn’t want to do any of these anyway,” Woo Young complained, sliding his torso on his desk, hands stretched out and his face buried between his arms.  His white polo wrinkled slightly as he stayed in that position.

           Ignoring the whiny baby, I grabbed my netbook inside the bag and placed it on my desk. I shrugged to answer Woo Young, shifting in my seat a little.

           “Lazy ,” Ha Rin sneered to my right, chuckling.

           Pushing the smooth blue top of my netbook up with one hand, I tried to get my handkerchief with the other hand. The netbook screen was always filled with smudges all around, so I always have to wipe it. While gently wiping the screen and pressing the power button to start my netbook, I focused once again on my surroundings.

           The room was devoid of people, except for the four of us, and was full of bright golden light streaming from the huge windows on the far right. The four of us are always the first ones to arrive in our classroom, always forty-five minutes earlier than class.

           A paper ball whizzed pass my eyes before it hit Ha Rin, the girl yelping from shock.

           “Hey!”

           “That’ll show you who the lazy is,” the black-haired young adult muttered, blowing a raspberry at Ha Rin before jutting his lower lip out slightly and facing the front once more.

           “Now, children,” I chided right as my netbook had finished starting up. My sunset wallpaper decorated my screen and the netbook immediately connected to the wifi signal of our college.  “Woo Young, dear, please pick up the mess you’ve made.”

           Without a second thought, I opened a browser and waited for my homepage to load entirely. Royal red background, white marble Greek columns on each side, gold lettering for the text, and two white boxes (one bigger and longer than the other) in the middle were the contents of my picked homepage. A picture of a statue of a beautiful woman with long flowing hair and a big chest showing through a cloth draped over her body graced the left side of the site, right between the left column and the white boxes. A huge golden text header started to rotate in the middle of the screen before becoming smaller until it was just right and flew to the top center of the page.

           Aphrodite’s Sanctum it said.

           I checked the hit counter at the very bottom of the screen, noticing that it went up a couple hundred from the number last night. Keeping the number in my memory, I had reset the counter once more and all of the numbers turned back to zero. Checking the site one last time for anything out of the ordinary, I nodded my head before opening another tab in the browser.

           Suddenly, white things whizzed past my head and distracted me from my morning routine. Before I could even blink, Woo Young screamed and pointed an accusing finger at the smug person sitting to my left.

           “What the hell was that about?” he asked.

           Rather than being livid, the dark-haired male shook his head and showed a face full of astonishment. I held back a snicker and ended up snorting. Ha Rin looked so triumphant in her seat, arms folded at her chest and her face more awake than I’ve ever seen before.

           “If you’re going to do something, like throw a paper ball,” she said, “don’t be half-assed and lazy, and make only one.”

           “Words of wisdom from our Goddess of War,” I bellowed, slow clapping.

           Ae Mi sighed, her shoulders sagging. “Will you guys keep it down?”

           Ae Mi’s words were a splash of cold water. Woo Young backed down, facing the whiteboard in front and folding his arms in front of his chest. I shot a quick apology to the brunette at front and Woo Young also mumbled a small apology. Ha Rin didn’t bother and went back to sleeping on her desk.

           Going back to the task at hand, I typed in the URL for my e-mail and logged in to the proper account—the website’s official e-mail to be exact. My eyes were met with a grayish-blue bokeh background and an overflowing inbox.  I sighed and cracked my fingers, readying myself for another round of answering e-mails.

           I started with the e-mails right after the ones that I’ve already read and answered last night. My ears were filled with the sounds of the clicks of the keyboard as I absorbed myself in answering as many letters as I could. They ranged from the normal “I like this boy but…” to the trolls that send “I love an alien but I’m a cow…”.

           My eye twitched as I continued to read one of the submissions about this whole confusing love triangle or whatever between coriander, basil leaves, and star anise (who is the apparently the writer of the letter) and there were other herbs and spices complicating everything. Damn trolls.

           “That’s pretty messed up.”

           I almost jumped in my seat when a deep voice whispered and hot breath fanned over my ears. My heart started freaking out in my chest and I squirmed again my seat. From the corner of my eye, I could see Woo Young’s side profile reading the rest of the letter with great interest. The light from the huge windows gave him a golden outer glow, defining his strong features and illuminating his angel face. It was easy to see why everyone calls him Adonis.

           I brought my attention back to my screen and coughed, “Woo Young, there’s thing that people call ‘personal space,’ and I think you’re violating mine.”

           He chuckled but nonetheless moved away and continued picking up the papers littered around my feet. It was then that I noticed there were two more students in the classroom, girls who were stealing glances at the boy beside me.

           I sighed and whispered, “I don’t know whether to reply to this and actually give advice on this kind of problem or just ignore it.”

           “Well,” he started but was cut off by Ha Rin.

           “You should just send a couple of insults and swear words to those trolls,” she chimed, lifting her head from her arms and looking directly at my netbook. “I heard that ‘ you’ is a very uplifting word choice for these kinds of situations.”

           I shook my head at her comment, but a smile had already formed on my lips. Woo Young started laughing, one of his hands on his face as if he was trying to cover it, but he was still down on one knee and holding a stack of papers. Even Ae Mi was laughing, or I assumed that she was even though there was no sound since her shoulders were shaking.

           My hands still poised on top of the keys, I asked, “Don’t you have something more subtle?”

           “Yeah, ‘you ’, but I don’t think that would get the message across,” Ha Rin replied with a scoff. Her usual Cheshire smile formed on her lips, and she raised an eyebrow at the now four girls in the room shooting glances at our spot.

           The four girls immediately snapped their heads to the front, some trying to make it seem like they were never looking at us at all.

           I tapped the keys on my keyboard, still debating on the matter at hand. “I’ll skip this then and maybe answer it later.”

           “You’re really going to answer that silly entry?” Woo Young gave me an incredulous look while slowly sitting down on his chair. “About basil and star anise?”

            I shrugged and answered, “I don’t want them to think that they could just send whatever they want. Also, I don’t want them to think that this is just a hoax.”

           “Ah, give people something to believe in, yeah?”

           “I guess,” I said, tilting my head to the side a bit.

           My fingers were already starting to get sore after a while so I started to crack the joints in my fingers one by one. There were still around fifty or so left and I felt that I could finish around twenty for the remaining time that I have before class starts.

           “Do you want me to help you with that?”

           I looked over to Woo Young as he spoke, both of my eyebrows rising. He had a red pen poised on top of his stack of papers and the paper at the very top already had half a page filled with red marks.

           “Are you trying to escape whatever it is you’re doing?” I looked at him square in the eye and pointed at his of papers.

           He laughed, “Yes, so hand it over.”

           “No way. I have to finish all of these before our professor comes in and so do you with,” I tried to get a closer look at the mass of papers that he had, but he quickly shielded them from my sight with his arms, “whatever that is. What are you doing?”

           “I could always finish these at my lunch break,” he defended, still keeping his arms over the papers. “Besides, I know you’re tired already.”

           He didn’t answer my question about his papers, but right now I couldn’t care less.

           “I’m not,” I huffed, turning back to the netbook to take up more e-mails.

           “Nice try. Hand it over,” he demanded with his arm extended towards the device on my desk.

           I slid my netbook a little far out of his reach before strongly saying, “I only need to finish around twenty to thirty submissions. I can handle this!”

           “Come on. You need to rest your fingers. Nobody would like it if the replies from their favorite little goddess, Aphro—“

           I cut him off with a hand on his mouth and my eyes narrowed. He mumbled a sorry behind my palm.

           “Watch it,” I hissed, lowering my hand after feeling a small twitch in my gut. Luckily, the other students in the classroom, now somewhere around ten, were oblivious to the secret that their precious Adonis almost spilled.

           I sighed in defeat and pushed the netbook towards him. He gleefully took the gadget and placed it on his lap then gathered all of his papers and stuffed them into his messenger bag.

           I rubbed my palm on my knees and focused on the light wood of my desk. “Are you sure you can do it?”

           “Of course! I’m Kwon Woo Young! Besides, I wrote new poems and songs last night to use.”

           Sliding my eyes towards him, I saw Woo Young using the screen for a mirror and tugging on the top part of his bangs, oblivious to my gaze. There were giggles throughout the room as the rising number of girls tried to sneak glances at the vain prince. Hearing those giggles, he looked up and shot them a flirty wink which earned squeals from the giggly girls.

Yup, it was really easy to see why everyone calls him Adonis.

       “Okay, spend any more time fixing your face using my screen and I’ll really give you a reason to fix it,” I threatened, smacking his arm. “Oh, and don’t forget to list all of the e-mail addresses on my spreadsheet.”

He snickered, not even a bit offended or scared. “Alright, I got it.”

      Woo Young finally placed the netbook on his desk and gathered a new set of papers from his bag, this time without those mysterious red marks and fewer in number. Must be those new poems that he mentioned.

He really did start on the submissions, getting very focused on answering e-mails and entries. Time passed by and before I knew it, the classroom filled up with students, he’s finished with twenty-five submissions and pushing the netbook into my arms, and our professor comes in to start the class.

 

---

 

           Ha Rin stretched her arms above her head and let out a big yawn. People from all directions looked as we strode towards the cafeteria. I would probably look too if I was in the crowd. We must have looked like F4 or a pride of lions walking through their kingdom. In some ways, we are kind of like the things that I’ve mentioned. We are the F4 of our college, and we are sort of like the pride of lions in this kingdom—whether it is from the attention that we command or the way that we walk like we own the place.

           Ha Rin was at the very head of our pack, glaring and shoving people that were in our path. Ae Mi was behind Ha Rin, right in the middle, walking coolly and staring ahead blankly. And at the very back of our group were Woo Young and I, walking side by side. No one dared to break our tight group. No one even dared to stay even two feet within our proximity.

           Entering the cafeteria, everyone’s eyes were immediately glued to our incoming group. Whispers started going around and a lot of names were thrown as Ha Rin led us to our regular table at the far corner, near the glass walls that show the campus’ garden.

           “Adonis looks so cool every day, doesn’t he?”

           “Do you think Ares got into a fight again? She’s looking a bit pissed off right now.”

           “Why is Athena always near Adonis?”

           “Do you think I should try asking Artemis out?”

           “I don’t think anyone has a shot at joining Olympus.”

           Yes, names were thrown around, but those weren’t our real names, just the identities that the college has come to know us by. Frankly speaking, it was all a pain, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think the others tolerated it too since they’ve never complained about it. Woo Young is our school’s Adonis, Ae Mi is more known as the cold huntress Artemis, Ha Rin is feared as Ares, and they all know me as Athena.

           “Theater ,” Ha Rin declared, plopping down on a white plastic chair and reclining on it.

           Ae Mi sat gently next to Ha Rin while Woo Young sat across from Ae Mi. I took the seat next to Woo Young, sliding off my backpack before placing it gently on the smooth top of the round white table.

           “You should try Lit 1o4,” Woo Young said, taking out another stack of papers and his red pen from his bag. “I swear, the professor there must be crazy or something. He could also use a little shave.”

           “Prof. Jung is a great professor,” Ae Mi defended while looking for something in her handbag. “He’s a bit crazy in the head but that eccentricity of his in his work is genius.”

           I nodded and ped my backpack to get my purple lunchbox. Ae Mi was already out of her seat and making a beeline for the cafeteria food as soon as I had my lunch out and ready to devour.

           “No, like, our professor creates these weird scenes for us to recreate,” Ha Rin argued, creating gestures with her hands. “I had to be a rock that poops gold and sings in falsetto. I kid you not! What kind of play would have that kind of character?”

I laughed and popped open the container for rice. “I’ll write one for you.”

       

    “No,” she yelled, twitching with an attempt not to laugh. “This is not funny! It’s disgusting!”

           

    Woo Young had joined in on the laughter, his hand on his face once more. His laughter really was like the rush of applause when wind flows through the leaves of trees. Ha Rin starts laughing too and holding her sides.

       

    A small ‘thunk!’ came up when Ae Mi placed her silver food tray on the table. She grabbed a couple of napkins from the dispenser centerpiece and started scrubbing her utensils religiously.

           

She quirked an eyebrow at us and asked, “What’s funny?”

           

Ha Rin scoffed, “Don’t even ask. You’re not gonna laugh anyway.”

           

Ae Mi shrugged in response. “You’re right.”

           

I ate a spoonful of fried rice and some seasoned chicken strips that my sister made for me. The chicken was spicy but not too overwhelming, and somehow sweet, which is how my sister likes to make her food. It’s either weirdly sweet or just sickly sweet. I ate a little kimchi that came with the little lunch that my sister prepares, and once again I find them a bit sweet.

           

“You’re not going to eat?”

           

I looked up from my food to find that Ha Rin was already standing, or rather breezing through, in line for food and Ae Mi staring at Woo Young. The school’s Adonis was staring back at Ae Mi, red pen still poised on top of a paper that was mostly covered in red writing. I ate another spoonful awkwardly, the contents settling nastily in my stomach.

           “No,” he answered after a while, snapping his head back towards his work and scribbling once more on a piece of paper. “I’m not hungry.”

           Ae Mi gave an aggravated sigh, one that made my eyebrows shot up. Ae Mi? Our little Artemis is aggravated? That wasn’t something that happened often. Actually, that wasn’t something that happens, PERIOD.

           “Like Hell I would!” Ha Rin bellowed behind her angrily before marching up to our table and setting her own silver tray on our table. She stuck her middle finger up at a few upperclassmen and sat down grumpily at her seat. Now this was something that does happen often.

           

I looked back at Ae Mi and was surprised to see her still staring at a furiously scribbling Woo Young. Suddenly, she took her bowl of ox bone soup into her hands and set it before Woo Young—like an offering of some sort. A painful silence came at our table…brought by an ox bone soup.

           “Check the ice caps,” Ha Rin exclaims and slams her fist on the table, breaking the silence. “I think the Ice Queen’s melting.”

           Ae Mi rolls her eyes and lets out a sarcastic laugh. Woo Young still wouldn’t stop staring at the bowl of soup in front of him which got me worried. I’m pretty sure that he would be hungry by now since his classes were in succession and he didn’t have any breaks before.

           He pushed the soup away and said, “I don’t want it.”

           “Woo Young,” I started, placing my hand on his upper arm.

           Ae Mi’s eyes turned into slits. “It’s not about wanting it. You need it.”

           “No, really,” he insisted, a smile stretching on his face. “I don’t want or need it.”

           “Besides, I’m trying to watch my figure,” he joked in a girly voice, waving a hand over his body.

           Ae Mi scoffed, and Ha Rin snickered in reply. I didn’t know what to say, so I patted him in the back. He shot a strained smile at me before going back to his paperwork. As fast as the potential war started, it had broken and completely buried under quickly. This is why I really like our little group.

           I took ate another spoonful of food and took Ae Mi’s soup that was left untouched at the middle of the table. Nobody complained, though Ha Rin did make a noise of disappointment, probably because she didn’t think about taking the soup first.

           The soup tasted a little bland, but it washed down the sweetness of my sister’s cooking. Conversations still carried on our table, though Ae Mi had resorted back to her silence and only answered when the conversation was directed at her. As usual, Ha Rin was the first one to leave the table after quickly finishing her food and giving back the tray. She left in such a rush, running backwards at one time to wave at us. Ha Rin never tells us where she goes after lunch since I’m pretty sure that her classes have ended just like mine.

           The second to leave was Ae Mi, gracefully standing up and taking back the empty bowl that I used. I shot a quick “thanks!” for the soup, and she nodded in response. Woo Young didn’t notice it, but I swear I saw Ae Mi look once more at Woo Young before leaving. I could only think of one place that she would go: the library. She still has two classes for the day.

           I packed my empty lunchbox into my bag and checked my watch for the time. It was almost 1 P.M and the cafeteria was slowly emptying out. I poked Woo Young’s arm.

           “Your class is going to start in ten minutes,” I pointed out. “I think you should go.”

           He checked his own watch too and nodded, gathering all of his papers.

           “What about you? Don’t you have any classes left?”

           I shook my head and raised my hands “Nope, all done.”

           Woo Young stood up, towering over my figure, and slung his leather messenger bag on his shoulder. The lights in the cafeteria gave him another kind of glow as he placed his eyes on me. The outer glow this time was a bright white while his face became shadowed. Somehow, the only thing that popped into my head was how he is right now is how he really is.

           “I’ll see you later then,” he said, smiled, and left me all by myself, breathless on our table.

 

---

 

           I slowly took off my shoes, my hand on the wall beside me to keep me balanced, while surveying the room. The living room looked clean and the floors were newly polished. This could only mean one thing: Hee Sul Unnie’s home. After sliding my feet into my slippers, I went to the kitchen to get a drink and grabbed an apple from our glass fruit bowl.

           “Eun Hee-ah,” a voice echoed through the house, “is that you?”

           “Yes,” I shouted and marched up the stairs.

           Our house is basically a pretty big for only three people. It is a two-story building with five rooms on the second floor and one bathroom on each floor. The bottom floor is complete with a living room, kitchen, dining room, and a small reading corner. The walls everywhere, except our own rooms, were two-thirds white and one-third green right at the lower part. It was Mom’s decision to have the walls that way and the rest of our stuff would be colorful.

           I knocked on my sister’s light wood door. “Hey, can I come in?”

           “Sure,” came the muffled response inside.

           I twisted the door knob and entered her baby blue room. I found my beautiful sister on the floor beside her bed, neon pink highlighter in hand and books scattered around her floor. A monotonous drone came from her portable DVD player placed in front of her and the screen showed what looks to be a snake opening wide with a person’s hand on its neck.

           My face scrunched up in disgust as the person droned on, and the camera starts zooming in slowly on the open mouth of the snake. “Eew.”

           “What? That’s nature!” Hee Sul commented, enthusiastically continuing to watch the documentary. “So, what do you need?”

           Sitting down next to her, I placed my head on the crook of her shoulder and dropped the apple to my right. She smelled just like strawberries and something really sweet.

           “I want to ask a question,” I answered slowly, tugging on one of her light brown curls.

           My own hair looks so dull in comparison to hers.

           “What is it?”

           I lifted my head from her shoulder and arranged my legs so I was sitting pretzel style, almost knocking my apple over. She looked at me with her big brown eyes and lifted a perfect brow. Looking at her now, I couldn’t help but feel so small and insecure that I had to look away.

           “Is Dad coming home for dinner later?”

           From the corner of my eye, I could see her giving me a weird look before running a hand through her silky hair. She bites her lip.

           “He’s coming home late again, Eunnie,” she replied, saying it slowly as if she’s tasting it on her tongue.

           I nodded in understanding and placed my head on the palm of my hand which was propped up on my leg. A thought makes its way into my head.

           “Oh yeah, there’s a submission where the person who wrote it is absolutely in love with this guy who has a psychotic girlfriend who apparently is bipolar and overly clingy to her boyfriend,” I gasped for more air and continued, “and the guy likes both his girlfriend and the writer too but his girlfriend threatened him that she’ll kill herself if she loses him. What should she do?”

           Hee Sul Unnie paused her player with a push of her slender finger and placed a hand under her chin in thought. Tapping the end of her highlighter on one of her books, she closed her eyes and hummed.

           She opened one eye to look at me, “What do you think about the situation?”

           I clicked my tongue and picked up one of her books. “I think the girlfriend is sick in the head.”

           Hee Sul let out a laugh, throwing her head back and hitting my knees. How could someone laughing like a demented seal still look beautiful and graceful? If I did that, I would look like I’m dying or choking.

           “I agree,” she brushed a tear from her eyes. “Hmm, I guess it really depends on if she thinks that the guy’s worth it, if she really wants to go after him and face the wrath of the evil girlfriend. But, it doesn’t always have to come from her. She should talk with the guy properly. Relationships aren’t about one person doing all of the effort. It’s all about meeting in the middle. Both of them have to put in effort for each other. That’s how you know that the relationship is worth keeping, developing, and cherishing. If the two of them work hand in hand, there would be no barriers to stop them. Not even some snotty little psycho girlfriend can stop them. As long as they support and lift each other up, everything will be okay. I really think that everything can be solved with just talking it out and thinking it through, especially the whole issue with the girlfriend.”

           “So, recap,” I said with a smile, putting down the nurse’s handbook. “What should I tell her?”

           She turned towards me. “Okay, first: ask her if she really thinks that the relationship is worth pursuing. It shouldn’t be just some quick decision, but a well-thought one. If she really loves him and is ready to face whatever monster they have to go through, then, second, she should talk with the guy. If the guy is really dedicated to her and will be there for her, then nothing can stop them. Third: have them talk to the girlfriend. It wouldn’t be nice to elope or whatever. However “psychotic” she is, she’s still a human with feelings and a say in the situation. Things might get out of hand so I suggest that they should talk it over with friends and people around.”

           My eyes met with her white ceiling as I tried to remember her pointers.

           “Hey, what if she decides that it isn’t worth it? What if she realizes that pushing through all of it wouldn’t benefit her at all?” I became surprised with what I had mumbled unconsciously and felt heat creep up my face.

           This is why she’s better at this than I ever will be.

           She tapped her chin in thought and finally shrugged after a while. “She’ll have two options then. She could either remain friends with the boy and stick with him no matter what, or she could walk away from it all. Both would be very painful to do since it really involves getting rid of her feelings for him.”

           She patted my head and played her documentary once more, the camera continuing to zoom inside the mouth of the snake. I cringed at the sight and made a gagging noise near her ear to irritate her. Hee Sul pushes my face away from her ear and reaches for a pillow on her bed. But, I was already on my feet and rushing to the door with the apple in hand before she could hit me.

           “Have fun studying, nerd!” I shouted before twisting the doorknob and launching myself outside of her room. I closed the door before a loud ‘thunk!’ came from the door. I snickered and went straight to my room at the end of the hallway.

           Unlike my sister’s room, mine had lavender walls and there weren’t any nerdy science posters or notes on my walls. Instead of books on medicine and science, my shelves were filled with romance novels and fiction books. My room is also a lot cleaner than hers—a fact that I’m very proud of.

           I gently placed my gray backpack and apple on my wooden desk and sat on my green leather computer chair. Sighing, I closed my eyes for a bit and just tried to melt into my chair. My body felt very heavy after the long day and the soft leather chair felt like heaven. After lunch, I went straight to the library to finish some papers and stayed there for three hours before going to my favorite small bookstore near my house.

           I let out a big breathe and shook my hands to get myself pumped up. There was no time to waste. I had to start right now.

           Grabbing my backpack, I ped the back zipper and pulled out my blue netbook. I situated it on my desk and threw my backpack on my white bed with ease.

           Muttering my sister’s points under my breath so I wouldn’t forget, I turned my netbook on and quickly did my routine. The numbers have gone up once more but I didn’t reset the counter since I only do it in the morning. Opening the site’s e-mail, my eyes were met with a pretty big number for new e-mails. I gave a sigh and started cracking my knuckles. I opened my special spreadsheet that keeps track of the e-mails that submit entries and created a new column to for the entries that I’m going to answer now.

           It was already 5: 24 P.M. on my watch. Time to start working.

            I clicked on a fresh submission, my eyes immediately skimming to the signature of the letter. “Right, ask, talk to guy, talk to gi—Crap. No way.”