2 years before...

 

 

YUN BAEK KI

Summer is coming. The undeniable high temperature these past few days, with my armpits, soaked wet from the morning, were a clear sign of its imminent arrival, yet despite their surroundings, the teachers continued to give their unwanted lessons, like they didn’t give a damn sh*t about our needs or be at least concerned about the fact that there were 30 damn degrees inside the classroom. I’m gonna lose it one day or another. They’ll see.

May has just started off, but we were all anticipating already the summer holidays. Even the nerd of the class was thrilled at the thought of it. On the inside obviously, because externally it was the usual show-off, know it all, teacher's pet. Ugh. Be forcefully stuck in a class with still two hours of math ahead, while the sun was calling for us, felt incredibly unfair to me.

"Baek-Ha."

The light breeze around the trees, the sparkling fountain across the street, spraying water around and the exquisite scent of topokki on the food stand right 20 meters behind the School's Gates.

"Baek-Ha."

I mean, come on man! Lock me in this claustrophobic room with the goddamn curtains almost blocking sight of the outside, stress-free world, isn’t absolutely the right way to make me like school.

"YAH!" Pierced through my eardrums like my mom’s voice calling for me in the morning to go to school, without warning. I snapped my head in direction of the voice super pissed off.

"The you’re shouting?" I was about to reply but I shut my mouth in time as I met eyes with the teacher.  "Yes, dearest teacher?" I blurted out cheesy.

"Enough with the flattering kiddo." He replied unfazed the tone of my voice. "Follow the lesson and stop daydreaming already!" He ordered.

"DE!" I purposely replied out loud, with a fake warm smile. He glared at me one last time and turned his back and started to scribble, I mean write, on the dashboard again.

The familiar giggle of my classmate and best friend Eun Ji A reached my ears and I just smiled along without thinking. I looked at her, just 20cm across from my desk. Same medium short black hair, same height, same weight, same sneaky grin.  She was my exact replica except for the face and the glasses she had, we were practically twins. She made a face like she was telling me "Can you believe him?"

I made the same face while rolling up my eyes. " I know right." I didn't know if he could hear our mental blabbing, but it was enough for him to cast his terrible eyes on us. We stared back at him faking the genuine innocence of our age. 14.

He felt for it..but he did not turn yet again towards the blackboard and finish to write whatever he was writing, he walked in the nerd’s direction instead, holding a pack of paper in his left arm. I glanced at Eun Ji at the same moment she turned her head to me. We communicated mentally. I think my face was easy to read because she replied whispering. “The results of the test.” She answered to my mental question.

“What test?”

“Last Saturday's test.” She said.

Ah. “What was that about again?” I asked still lost. She stared in the distance as to grasp a memory too far away, she then fixed her eyes on me once more and gave me a very unnatural robotic answer.

“Err...Error. Memory Not Found.” What the..? She theatrically opened her head to check if she could find any answer but “Eh...Error. Nothing found.” She giggles at her own actions.

I couldn’t hold back mine either. “And I thought you were the smart one of us.” Although she was and still is, indeed the smarter one of us and had better grades than me, she was fun to be around with. Not like that obsessed teacher’s pet in the front row. Always ready to kiss to any teacher nearby her desk. I’m gonna ask her how their taste one day or another. Looking at her fake reaction to her A+ wasn’t the most irritable thing, no, the way she glanced at me and the entire class like freaking Marie Antoinette at the poor in Paris, was were she always crossed the line. So it was enough a simple nod from every person in the classroom for us to launch paper balls at her as soon as the teacher turned his back at us. Someone even throws a paper airplane at her with a rather ugly portrait of her face on it.

It got stuck in her hair like some of the balls we threw. Her head looks like a bird's nest with bird poop all over her hair. Well not real poop but it was close. Idiot serves you right. She groaned in anger at the same time we chuckled, unfortunately the teacher got that and ordered Eun Ji and me to go stand in the back with our hands up. I didn’t have to deny a thing because I was used punishment, but Eun Ji looked quite not unbothered about it, today. I didn’t get it. What was different today of the past days? I checked her up when we both reached the wall, she didn’t look at me.

“What’s up?” I asked straight.

“Nothing.” She automatically whispered back. “Just the thought of my mom scolding me again.”

“Ah.” I narrowed my eyes relieved. It was just that. “Shouldn’t she give in already?”

“You know her.” She sighed tiredly. “She won’t give in until I become president for all we know.”

I almost lost my composure at the “president”. Someone needs to Netflix and chill, Jesus. “President? What the? I thought she wanted you to become a lawyer?”

“Me too, but now her dreams are getting bigger.” The smile she had when she said that did not reach her eyes though. She must be for real. Her flexed jaw was a clear sign.

My head shook in exasperation without even knowing. How in the world a mother could put this gigantic weight on her 14 daughter shoulders is beyond me. “How you put up with her sh*t every day is admirable, and ridiculous.” I couldn’t help but express. “You should definitely stop hanging out with me Mr. future president.” I added half joking half being serious.

She then looked at me, finally. “If I stop hanging out with you, I’ll lose my sh*t.” She declared unwavering. “And don’t freaking call me Mr. President.”

My mouth moved upwards on its own. “Sorry.” I wasn’t the best and ideal friend she needed this moment, but I would always stay when she’d call for me. “I’ll try my best the next time.”

“Yeah, like always.” She didn’t fall for it. “Half and half.”

I looked ahead knowing that if one of us has ever decided to stop seeing the other, it would have been because of her possessive mother and no one else. So I should have enjoyed these not so bad yet not so good moments in her company. And maybe try to not up the only source of happiness I had in this cold and capitalistic world when my family was trying to take it away from me. Enjoy your break to the fullest because you know what’s waiting after school. 8 hours of ruthless manual work. Remind me of a familiar voice in my head.

“You know me, always on the edge.” I smile a bittersweet smile. “That’s my thing.”