That night, as I was thinking about my five-hours-friendship with the old man, the grandson kept appearing in my mind. I find myself thinking how handsome he was. His beautiful eyes, his amazing features, and his blonde-white hair. I had to slap myself into reality.

The next day I went through the day as usual; going to class, dealing with people I didn’t want to deal with, and having a miserable time. After class, I decided to go for a jog to get rid of the unwanted excess in my body, aka fat. As I was jogging, I ran into the people that made my life miserable, the girls from my school. I can see that they were laughing at me as they came toward me. I tried to play it out like I didn’t see them but the called me.

“Wait up Jiyeon,” one of the yelled. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath because I already knew what was going to happen. Before I knew it, they were already in front of me.

“Where you’re going?” they asked.

“I was just heading back home,” I answered as I was about to leave.

“No you’re not,” one of them took me by the arm tightly. I tried to take my arm out of her grip but I couldn’t. “You’re really pathetic,” said one of them. “How could you tell the professor that I cheated?” she pushed me in the head. “Now I’m getting kicked out because of you.”

“I didn’t tell the professor anything. It’s not even my business so why would I tell on you?” I asked as I was in pain from her grip.

“Because you’re a pig.” She pushed me down to the floor.

“We’re not in high school anymore so quit acting like a kid,” I talked back to her for the first time. I could see that she was furious. My heart was shaking in fear. “This is the day I die,” I thought to myself. I closed my eyes because I knew I was about to get beaten. Suddenly I heard someone whistled. I opened my eyes and I saw him. He was coming toward me. He was like my knight in shiny armor except he was wearing a white v-neck, shorts, and he was sweaty from exercising. I don’t know if I was losing my mind because of the situation I was in but he looked very attractive. The other girls turned around to see who it was and as soon as they saw him, they turned into angels.

“Oh my goodness, are you all right?” they asked me. I rolled my eyes all the way to the back of my skull. “You’re so clumsy. You need to be more careful,” they said as they tried to help me up.

“Are you hurt?” he asked me. I shook my head.

“She can be so clumsy sometimes,” one of them said.

“I bet,” he said sarcastically. He stood next to me and I felt safe. “Hey, let’s go,” he whispered to me as he put his hand behind my back. As we were walking away from them he said out loud, “Man, they really need animal control around these areas. Hyenas are running around, running over people everywhere.” I looked back at those girls and I could see that they were insulted. I couldn’t help but laughed out loud.

We sat down on the park bench and scanned me. “Are you all right?” he asked me.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You’re a strong girl,” he laughed and took a sip of his water. I couldn’t stop starring at him. His sweat was dripping down his neck and I wanted to wipe it for him but at the same time I didn’t want to.

“Thank you for helping me,” I said.

“Of course. I always help out my grandfather’s sugar babies,” he joked. Why did I even bother thanking him.

“Ha! You’re funny,” I said sarcastically.

“I know,” he winked. “What can I say? Not only am I handsome and look extremely handsome while drinking water, but I am funny too.” My face turned red. Did he notice that I was checking him out while he was drinking water? “I notice you were checking me out,” he smiled. It’s like he was reading my mind. I was shocked. “I can’t blame you. My mom says I’m pretty handsome.” There was a pause in our short conversation. He suddenly looked serious. “Why don’t you stand up for yourself when they were hurting you?” he asked.

“Because,” I said, “It’ll only make things worse for me.”

“So what they’re doing right now is not the worse?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I just don’t feel like fighting back, I guess.” He looked at me with pity in his eyes. “Don’t feel sorry.”

“I can’t help it,” he said. “You’re really special.”

“Really?” I blushed.

He nodded, “yeah, special ed.” I closed my eyes trying to gather myself so that I will not explode. Why do I keep falling for this?

“Anyways, are you following me?” I asked him. “It couldn’t be a coincidence that we came to the same place and the same time again. And not to mention you came at such a perfect time.”

“Um hm,” he agreed. “I’ve been stalking you. I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

“I’m being serious.”

“This is a really small town. Of course we’re going to run into each other. You know, this is not the second time I’ve seen you. I kept seeing you in the stores and a lot of other places too but I didn’t want to say anything to you because I knew you were going to say something like this.” After he said that, it hit me that the town was very small and that it would only be natural to see other people more than once. I let out a small cough to avoid the embarrassment.

“Anyways, thank you again for helping me. I have to go now. It’s getting dark,” I told him.

“Can I have your number?” he asked. I wasn’t sure if I was hearing things or if he was messing with me again.

“What?” I asked for clarification.

“Your number,” he said it louder. “So next time you want to go for a jog, you won’t have to go alone.”