Episode 4: Gyujin

The chime indicating the end of classes rang out. A groan of satisfaction escaped from several lips and a hum of convivial noise rose over the classroom as students turned to talk to each other or got to leave . Chairs scraped and laughter could be heard along with complaints and all kinds of conversation. It would last exactly 5 minutes before everyone ran off - home, or to club, or to cram school. Deok Soong stretched.

“Ahhh… I swear days are just getting longer and longer…” she complained, leaning backwards so that her head was nearly lying on Hye Rim’s desk.

“That’s just cuz you keep taking on more duties than you need to.” her friend chided her, playfully knocking on her forehead. “Speaking of which…” She trailed off and the darker-haired teenage girl lifted her head towards what her friend was looking at. A girl from another class stood in the doorframe, looking left and right for someone, and no smile, but a look of determination appeared on her face when she spotted Deok Soong.

“Good luck!” exclaimed Hye Rim, patting her on the shoulder, before scuttling away.

“Hey! Where are you going?! Aaahhh… traitor…” she called out but her friend was already gone, and the mystery girl was now standing next to her. She wasn’t really a mystery girl, she was Kwang Shin Hye, a member of the student council, that she’d been seeing a lot of these past few days.

“There you are,” stated the much shorter girl with straight, black hair to her shoulders, “is your male volunteer around?” she added, her head swiveling around the classroom.

‘Male volunteer?!’ she nearly choked with laughter but the girl was staring her down very seriously so she bit back her laugh and asked loudly to no one in particular, “ has anyone seen Kuhn?”

The noise level in the room didn’t change per say, but it was obvious no one answered her call as she quickly scanned the classroom. Only one boy in the back looked up when she looked his way, and smiled. It threw her off, that smile, so much that she simply stopped and stared at him for a second. He was standing at the center of a group of students, crowded around his desk. They were talking and joking, and he would answer and joke back with them, half paying attention but smiling that bright, contagious smile at them, that she guessed was the reason none of the others around him wanted to leave. But he had looked up when her eyes had fallen on him, as if he had felt her looking at him.  And then without a word he pointed towards the window.

It took her a moment to understand the correlation, but then she followed his finger and saw a familiar head of floppy brown hair, running ahead of a pack of male students around the track outside in the sports field, and sighed. Of course, Kuhn was practicing with the basketball club. What he was doing outside on the tracks though…..

“Aaah… do we need him?” she turned to the council member girl instead of complaining.

“Well… we received the materials for your class preparations… We need you to come pick them up.” answered the shorter girl, with a face that meant ‘yes’.

“That’s fine, I can get them.” Deok Soong assured her, but the younger girl was looking at her uncertainly.

“If you say so.” she answered, but then seemed to have decided she didn’t care because she promptly turned around and made for the door.

“Would you like me to help?” a voice asked and she turned to find the male student from before standing next to her, smiling again. He was really handsome, even though she had never really paid attention to him before. He had silver grey, short, asymmetrical hair and pale porcelain skin, and pretty eyes that were topped with the biggest set of eyebrows she had ever seen. Gyujin, his name was, and there were two things that were a constant about him: 1) he always seemed to be surrounded with people, and 2) he always wore his cardigan instead of the school uniform jacket. She had to admit, it looked rather good on him and really set off his pretty hair.

“Hum, no… I’m ok,” she blushed without even realizing it, slightly disgruntled by his appearance and smile, but then she turned around and saw the other girl was already gone, and exclaimed “Ahhhh!!!!” before chasing after her. Gyujin was left standing there, chuckling to himself.

*

When she came back to the classroom, nearly 20 minutes later, it was almost empty - not that she noticed. She dumped the box she was carrying on the teacher’s platform with a loud ‘thud’ and sat down on the step next to it, sighing with exhaustion. There were 2 more like that back in the council room, so she’d have to make two more trips. Just the thought of it made her wince.

A pair of feet appeared under her eyes and she looked up to find Gyujin standing in front of her, backpack slung over one shoulder as if ready to go. He said nothing but looked down at her with a half smile and his head tilted to the side.

“I’m all for women empowerment and all, but there’s two more boxes like that back there... It woulda been helpful if Kuhn hadn’t decided to go work out his muscles right now.” she complained, though she didn’t really know why she was saying that to him.

Guyjin chuckled and asked, “Where is back there?”

“Council room.” she replied and without a word, he nodded and exited the classroom. She watched him go, puzzled, but then put him out of her mind since she had a lot more to worry about. A minute later, she forced herself off the ground, telling herself that ‘those boxes aren’t gonna carry themselves!’ and made her way back downstairs.

As she entered the room, which was now empty of people but still full of boxes, she spotted Gyujin standing just a few steps in, looking around.

“Which is it?” he asked, not even looking around and Deok Soong wondered how he knew she was there.

“Those ones over there,” she pointed, “See? It says 3-C.”

He nodded, just once, and walked over to the table, before pushing back his cardigan sleeves to his elbows and picking up the biggest box. She ran after him to grab the other one and followed him out.

“You didn’t have to do this, you know…” she told him as they walked.

“I know.” he grinned, “But you really looked like you didn’t wanna do it.”

She hung her head in embarrassment, thinking at the same time that his smile was really attractive.

“And what kind of man would I be if I didn’t offer my help?” he raised a massive eyebrow at her and she put her nose into her box, blushing. He hadn’t said it was because she was a girl, he hadn’t made the comment macho and ist. He’d just said he wanted to help. That said a lot about his character, she thought.

They soon reached the classroom and dropped the boxes next to the first one.

“What’s in these anyways?” he asked, peaking at the one that wasn’t sealed at the top, but seeming to not want to overstep his rights.

“T-shirts for the festival, and the headbands… and the flag, I think.”

“Ooohhhh… can we look?” he asked, eager as a child, and the exaggerated expression on his face made her chuckle.

“Sure.”

Without preamble, He took a key from his pocket and sliced open the tape on the largest box.

“Nice!” he exclaimed a moment later, pulling out a red t-shirt and staring at it before bringing it back to put it against his chest.

“How do I look?” he asked and she just raised an eyebrow at him. Apparently that wasn’t the reaction he wanted because instead of stopping, he started to model ridiculously - strutting up and down the aisle between the desks with that shirt pressed against him and pulling ridiculous “model faces” that made her laugh.

“How about now?” he asked, pulling out one of the headbands and tying it crookedly on the side of his head before starting to “ily” pout at her.

She just laughed harder.

“Here, I can’t be the only one looking this y.” he told her, very seriously, taking another red piece of fabric out of the box and tying it around her head exactly the same way as his, while she laughed the whole time.

Deok Soong turned towards the window, where she could kind of see her reflection in the glass and exclaimed, “Oh god!”, bringing a hand to and laughing even harder.

“What are you talking about? We look so good! We’ll start a new fashion on festival day!”

She couldn’t stop laughing. She couldn’t remember when was the last time that she’d laughed this hard, but it felt good. Still chuckling, she took her headband off and dropped it into the box, adding,“I think I’ll let you have the spotlight.”

“Are you sure? I think you’d look pretty good in the spotlight.” he grinned. He’d said it not like flattery, but as if it was the most normal thing in the world, and somehow she couldn’t stand looking at him; his bright face just made her heart beat faster.

“I… uh… no.” she muttered, trying to hide her embarrassment.

He chuckled. “Suit yourself. Do you need help with anymore stuff?”

“Hum, no… not today.” she answered quickly, glancing around and secretly wishing that she did.

He shouldered his backpack again, which he’d left by the door when they’d gone for the boxes, and told her, “Well if you ever do, don’t hesitate to ask me, ok?” Again, it sounded like he meant it.

When she looked up at him: his eyes were closed, forming crescent moons in his pale face, which shone with the most genuine, brightest smile she had ever seen. In that moment she could see why he was always surrounded with people, and why those people were always smiling; he, himself, was just a beacon of light. And since she was at a loss for words, she just nodded.

“Alright then. See you tomorrow!” he waved, still smiling as he left.

“See you….”

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