The school ended, the bell rang. All the students got up almost immediately and rushed out. However, Minsun stayed still at her desk, slowly taking her time to pack her things. She looked up to see Munhwa too leaving her desk, and the two girls exchanged smiles and waved to each other. Usually, they would go straight to the gym together, but today, Munhwa too knew that Minsun had something more important to do. When the class was finally void of other people, Minsun looked at one direction. At one desk which had been empty since the morning. Which was totally predictable.

“Hey, Minsun!”

Minsun averted her gaze towards the door, and there stood a boy a year older than her. It was Junsu, the only third year student from the Mathemathic Club, aside from Gohee.

“Oh, you’re here?” Minsun smiled and got up from her desk.

“C’mon, let’s go,” he said while smiling widely, almost a little excited.




“Psst… Wooyoung is not here today,” Junho whispered to Chansung while doing their stretching routines before the real practice started.

“Are you kidding me?” Chansung looked around, and saw Jaebum and Taecyeon stretching together quite a distance away from them. Chansung leaned closer to Junho and whispered softer so that nobody could hear them.

“After yesterday, how can you even stand up. I heard from Munhwa he didn’t even come to class this morning,”

“But hey,” Junho replied, “Isn’t it weird that Minsun is not here too?”

“Really?” Chansung looked at the spot that Minsun usually occupied and quietly did her studying in. 

“Hey, you’re right, she’s not here.”

Taecyeon didn’t really hear what the two juniors were whispering about, but he could guess. Taecyeon quickly finished his stretching, and then clapped his hands hard to garner attention from the whole team.

“Guys, gather around. I have an announcement to make.”

He stood there, crossed arms while waiting for everyone. It wasn’t long before they gathered together. Jaebum and Munhwa who seemed like they already knew about his announcement waited quietly behind him.

“From today onwards, until the summer break, Wooyoung will not be joining us.”

“W-what?” Chansung blurted.






“Yes. He didn’t tell you?” Minsun took off her bagpack and put it by her side as she sat down on the floor, along with Junsu. In front of them was Wooyoung, looking pale and weak, sitting on his futon mattress, half of his body still covered by a thick blanket, indicating that he was still resting before they came for visiting.

“No. Not a word.” Wooyoung looking confused at Minsun’s explanation. Minsun took a brief glance at Junsu before he took turn to reply.

“Taecyeon doesn’t want you to come to practice anymore. He had asked me and Minsun to be your personal tutor until your reseat exam.”

Wooyoung held his head low and sighed. “What if I fail again? I mean, I’ve been missing out a lot and-”

“I can make you pass all those subjects.”

Both Wooyoung and Junsu looked at her with wide eyes. How can she said that with such confidence? Like she was so sure that that would happen?

“Minsun, I think that would be a little difficult. How about we choose easier subjects for him to pass, I think the principal-”

“I’m sure of that.” Minsun quickly cut off Junsu’s rambling. “As long as you give me your co-operation and followed whatever I asked you to do. For instance-” Minsun pulled out a yellow, translucent plastic folder with notes in them. She handed it to Wooyoung, who received the folder despite still wondering what she was planning.

“What’s that?” Junsu asked.

“They’re notes,” Minsun explained, and Wooyoung took a brief look at each piece of paper. They were all handwritten, and were very neat. As expected from Minsun. So this was how those star students study, Wooyoung secretly noted to himself.

“I made those notes especially for you, since you’re a special case. Regular studying won’t help you.”

“Wow, you already prepared notes for him? I thought we will only start the tutoring in another couple of days? On this coming Saturday, right?” Junsu asked again.

“That’s right. But he has to study those notes first. They are really simple and consist of only popular topics which appear in exams, including last mid sem exam.” Minsun turned her attention to Wooyoung. 

“Please memorize them. This Saturday I’ll be doing a small quiz to check on your level as well as willingness to do this.

“These? All these?” Wooyoung hung the folder in front of her and flipped through all the notes in it.

“Yes. If you can run 50 laps at the track field non-stop, why can’t you do this?”

Wooyoung fell onto his back and closed his eyes. “God, somebody please, just kill me!”

“Well, if you’re done with your complaints and questions, I’ll be leaving first. Don’t forget to study those notes,” Minsun reached for her bag, ready to leave.

“Hey, I’m sick here,” Wooyoung got up again and narrowed his eyes at her.

“So?”

Wooyoung sighed. “How can I memorize all these?”

“Your brain isn’t sick, isn’t it?”

“GAH!” and he fell onto his back again.




“Let’s take five, boys.” The coach of the basketball team, Mr. Cho blew on his whistle before he announced, and all the boys rushed to the benches. They reached for their towels and bottles to quench their thirst after sweating so much.

“Taecyeon sunbae, here you go,” Munhwa passed Taecyeon who was sitting on a bench alone a water bottle because he seemed lost in his thoughts. 

“Thanks,” he smiled. Munhwa took a seat by his side and pulled out her clip chart. She had been keeping records on each of the boys on how many shots went into the net, how many successful passes they made and such. She was about to report about them to Taecyeon but he spoke first.

“Munhwa,”

“Yes?”

“Are you free this Saturday?”

“Yes, of course. Do you want to have practice session? I’ll tell the other boys,”

“No, not that,” Taecyeon shook his head gently and smiled a bitter smile. “I want you to go out with me,”

“WHAT?!” 

Munhwa dropped her clip board, which she scrambled to pick it up again.




Saturday, 9.00 a.m.
Jang Residence

Minsun put down the thin stack of papers in her hand onto the low table again. She stared in disbelief at Wooyoung who didn’t seem to think that it was a big deal that he scored less than 30% in the quiz that Minsun prepared from him even though she already gave him time to study the notes beforehand.

“W-What? At least I scored higher than my mid-term exam!”

“And are you proud of it?” Minsun shot back at him like a cold piece of sharp ice piercing straight into his chest.

“Calm down, Minsun,” Gohee who was also there with Junsu tried not to let emotions took over Minsun. She knew well how impatient Minsun could get to people who refuse to put an effort into studying. To Minsun, studying was the easiest thing in the world and she couldn’t understand people who are bad at it.

Gohee turned to Wooyoung now, “But you did really badly, Wooyoung. Even worse than what I expected. Please think of your team and put more effort into studying. We are always ready to assist you, okay?” Gohee said gently. Her attitude and speech reminded Wooyoung a lot of his counselor teacher back at elementary school when he asked about his problem with studying. And that caused him to have four flat tires at the end of the school. However, now that Wooyoung had matured a bit more than an elemenatry student, he felt a little sorry for the teacher trying to help him so much. Studying was still a big problem for him, though.

Wooyoung could only hold his head low in shame. He sighed and scratched his head.

Suddenly, they heard a couple of door knocks before the door creaked open a bit. Mrs. Jang came in with a tray of mango puddings in her hands.

“I’m sorry for interrupting, but thank you so much for helping Wooyoung to study. Have some of these for a break. Fighting!” The warm ahjumma left quickly after. Wooyoung’s small eyes widened and sparkled at the sight of the mango pudding. It was one of his favorite snacks. Wooyong reached for a plate and was about to take a scoop of the pudding when Minsun smacked his hand with a folder. Wooyoung looked up and opened his mouth to complain but this time Minsun took away the plate and placed it back at the tray.

“What are you doing?!” Wooyoung complained.

“You just had breakfast an hour ago. I’m not going to let you have this pudding until you memorize topic 1 to topic 3 from this notes.” Minsun put the folder she used to smack him just now in front of him.

“What the-”

“I give you an hour. I’ll give you another quiz by then. Junsu sunbae, can you put the pudding somewhere else for the time being? And feel free to have them if you want to, I’ll just keep my eyes on Wooyoung.”

“NO! I’M NOT STUDYING WITH A TYRANT!” Wooyoung shouted childishly and threw a tantrum by stretching and stomping his legs up and down on the floor.

“You know what? If this is not working either, I’ll change to a more strict schedule I have been planning at the back of my mind,”
Gulped. Wooyoung was taken aback at how serious Minsun could get when it came to studying. He was just playing around just now, but the way Minsun stared at him felt like she was eating his flesh alive. It gave him chills. He shouldn’t underestimate of Minsun’s capabilities of showing her emotions, such as murderous intent.

“Wooyoung, let’s try this first, okay? You can do it. All the members from the basketball team are putting their faith in you,” Gohee added gently.

Wooyoung realized from that moment he had no other way to escape from this hell. He swore that once everything was over, that principal would burst into tears when he saw his car.






3.00 p.m.

When Munhwa came out, Taecyeon was already waiting outside of her house, smiling and waving gently at her when he saw her. They both walked together towards the bus stop about a block away and caught the bus heading towards the nearest shopping mall.

Munhwa was very surprised when he asked her out a couple of days ago. She really thought he was asking her out on a date, but apparently he was asking some sort of a favor from her. He wouldn’t explain further what kind of favor it was last time, so when they arrived at the mall, Munhwa finally asked.

“What kind of favor you were asking, sunbae?” Munhwa asked as they both strolled past the retail outlets there.

“Urm… I’m looking for a gift.”

“A gift?”

“For a girl. You know I’m bad at these things…”

“Ah!” Munhwa chuckled softly. “Who is it for? You looked so serious I was wondering what it was… Who is she? Your mother? Or sister?”

“Actually… it’s… for Minsun.”

“M-Minsun? Does that mean you guys are…”

“No! No! No!” Taecyeon’s face reddened. “It’s not like that. We’re not going out for real, just… Just that I want to thank her for helping me with Wooyoung. Agh!” Taecyeon scratched his head. “I don’t want people to misunderstand, that’s why I refused to explain last time,”

“Oh, okay then,” Munhwa’s smile seemed to falter a bit. “Let’s have a look around first, shall we?”

Taecyeon cleared his thoat. “Yeah, let’s go,” 

The both of them started checking out one shop to the other. They considered scarves, clothes, but Munhwa wasn’t sure of Minsun’s preferences when it came to to her clothing style, so they left the store. When they were deciding which shop to go next, a small accessory booth caught Taecyeon’s attention. They both checked out the stuffs there, and they had very nice handmade designs.

“How about hair clip? Since she never put her hair up in any other style than a bun.”

“I think that’s a good idea! She might want to try something different if you give her one of these,”

Taecyeon smiled happily at Munhwa’s encouragemnet. “Which one should I pick? How about something not too fancy so she could wear it any day?”

“Then,” Munhwa ran her fingers on the rows of fancy hair clips. “How about this? I think it suits her,” 

Munhwa picked up a rather simple clip with white satin ribbon on it. She wasn’t that close to Minsun before, but she was sure that Minsun was not the type who likes something too fancy or girly and obviously nothing stand out since she rather kept herself under the radar most of the time.

Taecyeon took the hairclip from her hand and looked at it in detail.

“I think so too. Then I’ll have this one,” Taecyeon handed the hair clip to the seller. Then, he looked at Munhwa and smiled.

“What?” Munhwa asked.

“You pick something too. Anything you like,”

“C-can I?” Munhwa didn’t seem convinced.

“Go ahead. It’s for helping me today,”

Munhwa felt a little shy at the fact that a boy was buying her a gift, but was happy that she was at least appreciated. Munhwa didn’t take much time so that he didn’t have to wait for her and thus quickly reached for a rather simple, wide pink polka dot headband.

Taecyeon paid for both accessories, and while waiting for the seller to put the clip he bought for Minsun into a nice gift box, Taecyeon spoke to Munhwa.

“Munhwa, I’m sorry for this but, can I ask you another favor?”

Munhwa looked up at him, but he wasn’t looking at her. She followed his eyes and found a flower shop. She thought she knew what favor it was this time.




Munhwa knew her guess was spot on as they both walked through rows of tombs. All the tombs there were big and expensive, an indication that only rich people were placed there. They finally stopped at one end of the rows, in the middle of the wide cemetery land, under a big, blossoming cherry blossom tree. The tomb there wasn’t any less bigger than the rest of the tombs there, but the picture on it showed a young girl. If she was still alive, she would be the same age as Munhwa. Today, it had been exactly 3 years since she left the world. And her name was-

“Subin ah,” Munhwa spoke gently, as if waking her up from a long sleep. Her best friend who suffered of leukemia for years before she finally rest in peace.

“Kim Subin,” Taecyeon stared at thetomb sadly. He was holding a bunch of Calla Lily, but there was another two bouquets of Calla Lily at the feet of the tomb already. They looked a bit dry, but still new nonetheless. Somebody probably put it there this morning. One of them most probably from her family’s driver who got paid for it since her parents were too busy to do so. But the other one…

“Could it be… Nichkhun sunbae?” Munhwa asked Taecyeon. 

Taecyeon bent a bit and put down his bouquet. He smiled a weak, bitter smile as he gently caressing the picture on the tomb with his thumb. There was affection in his eyes, as well as sadness.

“Sunbae… did you purposely come late so that Nichkhun sunbae wouldn’t know? That you still…”

“Isnt it better that way?”

“But Khun sunbae might think badly of you forever. Aren’t you guys best friends? Tell him it wasn’t your fault,” for some reason, Munhwa felt a stabbing pain in her chest whenever she saw Taecyeon punishing himself like that.

“Were.” Taecyeon corrected the status of his relation with Nichkhun. “But I’m not a good friend. To him, and to Subin. I think it’s time for me to move on, but I couldn’t face her alone, that’s why I want you to come along.” Taecyeon chuckled bitterly, “Can you tell Subin that I want to forget all the pain I’ve caused her?”

Munhwa shook her head softly. Tears started to well in her eyes.

“Sunbae, Subin never thought of you that way. You don’t even have a reason to apologize to her,”

Taecyeon looked at Munhwa by his side. He realized that he had just reminded her of bitter meories and made her feel bad.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have dragged you into this,” Taecyeon felt guilty for making Munhwa cry.

“But you really didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Thank you Munhwa. For always be there for me,” Taecyeon smiled and pat her head gently.
But Munhwa didn’t feel better at all. Not when he kept blaming himself like that. Not when he didn’t listen to her. Not when he didn’t see her as a girl, but always as a little sister.