Before You, Again:

It was Eunji's fourteenth birthday today, so why was Yoojung spending her precious day with Hak Chan instead?

She did understand that Yoojung had just started dating Hak Chan and thus wanted to spend every waking moment with her new boyfriend, but it was Eunji's birthday and she had just wanted to spend a few precious hours alone with her best friend. With their arms linked together, she wanted to walk around with Yoojung and just laugh stupidly at every topic together just like they used to in the past.

Well, before she had to share Yoojung with Hak Chan.

It wasn't like elementary school anymore. Eunji couldn't be with Yoojung all the time anymore. She couldn't simply declare that she wanted to spend more time with her best friend without sounding like a jealous, lonely person.

But the truth was, Eunji didn't have any other friends. She did meet new people in high school but she never really wanted to say more than a few sentences to them. She would politely greet them, laugh politely at their jokes, and talk to them for a bit, but to her, it was always supposed to be Yoojung by her side when she suffered through high school.

So when Yoojung told her that she was going to go to the mall with Hak Chan instead of being with her for one day, Eunji finally lost her patience. Huffing and with an exaggerated roll of her eyes, the words left before she could stop them. "It's my birthday. But you can't be bothered to spend one day with me? I know Hak Chan is your boyfriend, but I thought we were friends."

The mixture of shock and guilt that appeared on Yoojung's face almost made Eunji feel ashamed and guilty, but almost.

Not quite.

"I'm so sorry! How about we all spend the day together? We can all go shopping together, and we'll both buy you two gifts. Is that okay? I'll even tell Hak Chan to bring his friend along so those two can talk to each other and I'll be with you. They'll just come along to get you a gift, okay?"

Looking back at it now, Eunji should have probably realized earlier that Yoojung's offer was kind of stupid. She should have insisted on spending the day together, just the two of them. Why would Hak Chan and his friend need to tag along?

But unfortunately, that was how she met Seo In Guk.

She should have expected this.

Yoojung just could not stay away from her boyfriend for more than two minutes. She would turn around, talk to Eunji for a few minutes, and then return to Hak Chan to flirt with him. They held hands, they fed each other, they sat at another table and left her alone.

Seo In Guk was surprisingly taller than her. She was already tall for her age and was used to boys being shorter than her, but when he stood up and introduced himself to her, she was taken back from his height. He seemed to be shy and a bit awkward, but she smiled at him and started talking to him.

It was easy to talk to him. She didn't talk much in the beginning as she was wary of talking to new people, but he continued to bring up new topics until they were comfortably chatting in the corner of the coffee shop. Eventually, she forgot about the couple on the other side of the shop and focused only on the boy in front of her.

Strangely enough, it was comfortable to sit with him.

Later, when she looked out the window and saw how dark it was, he said to her that his father had just gotten off work and was on his way to pick him up. He asked her if she needed a ride as she stared at the dimly lit lamps around the streets, and she gratefully accepted his offer.

"He said he was embarrassed because his dad wouldn't stop asking you questions in the car," Yoojung said to her the next day in class. With a sly smile on her face, she playfully elbowed Eunji in the stomach. "What do you think about him, anyway?"

"He's a very nice person," Eunji answered truthfully. Aside from feeling comfortable around him and enjoying her conversations with him, she didn't have much of an opinion on him.

But based on Yoojung's smile, it seemed as if she was expecting an entirely different answer as she casually took out her notebook from her backpack and slammed it onto the desk.

Art class was always a pleasure to be in. Eunji couldn't exactly complain about a class that allowed her to eat and chat freely with her classmates, after all. She was lining up for the paint supplies in the front of the room when she heard a familiar voice.

"Eunji?!"

Turning around with a quizzical expression, she smiled a little when she saw him. "Oh, In Guk?"

He looked as surprised as she felt. It was already the second month of freshman year and they had never seen each other before as they sat on opposite sides of the class. They normally didn't move from their assigned seats, anyway. "We're in the same art class?"

"I suppose so," she said, feeling slightly uncomfortable seeing how happy he looked. Her classmates at her table were elbowing each other, undoubtedly talking about how a boy was finally paying attention to Eunji, with her black-rimmed glasses and forgettable face. All the girls at her school seemed to be genetically blessed and she was just...plain.

A strange expression appeared on his face and it made her look at the ground. She wasn't sure what was going on considering no one aside from Yoojung ever paid attention to her for more than five seconds. "Hey...it was your birthday yesterday, right? I didn't get you a gift. Do you want to get lunch with me tomorrow?"

He looked so shy and small with his hand placed awkwardly on the side of his neck, and she couldn't help but feel embarrassed in his place. There were so many pretty girls at school; why wasn't he asking any of them instead?

She ended up agreeing, not wanting to say no in front of so many people.

And if she was honest with herself, she didn't want to say no for herself either.

After school, she liked to walk to the public library that was merely a few blocks away from school and read in there. She would procrastinate on her homework and simply read for hours, not wanting to take the school bus home.

Too many students rushed onto that bus and it was always stuck in traffic, so before she knew it, she had developed a habit of rushing to the library once the bell rang.

Unfortunately, her other classmates knew where to find her after class, and she would often be found in the corner of the library by them. And when Yoojung appeared that day with Hak Chan and In Guk, she knew it wasn't because Yoojung wanted to see her.

"It's raining. Do you need my jacket?" He had already started to shrug off his jacket for her as they walked away from the library and towards the coffee shop, but she laughed and shook her head.

"I'm fine," she laughed as they walked into the shop. "We're already here."

The next day, she did not have lunch with him.

For reasons she could not explain, she did not have lunch with him despite him telling everyone that he was excited to eat with her. She was already planning to have lunch with him, she did not know why she did not have lunch with him, but when he came up to her after their art class and asked her where she wanted to go eat, she apologized and said that her friends wanted to have lunch with her, so she could not go with him.

In Guk smiled painfully and walked away, and later, Yoojung saw her at the bus stop and hit her, yelling that In Guk was in the coffee shop and telling Hak Chan how he was rejected and how he ate cup ramen for an entire week so he could save up enough money to take her to lunch.

"He even bought new clothes for your date," she spat out angrily and stomped back into the shop where he was.

When Eunji boarded the bus, she sat in the back corner next to the window and cried.

Why was so she scared of being with him?

After that day, he never talked to her again. She tried to talk to him, said hi to him during passing periods, and tried to start up a conversation with him from time to time, but all he would do was politely smile at her and walk away.

And so freshman year passed by in a blur.

In sophomore year, he had grown slightly taller and started to wear nicer clothes. She heard girls talk about how handsome he was.

She felt alone without anyone in the world to talk to. Yoojung had grown distant from her and spent most of her time with Hak Chan.

By junior year, he was asked to prom by one of the prettiest girls in school.

Eunji had lost all of her friends and didn't talk to anyone. Her voice grew raspy and hoarse from the lack of speaking as she only spoke whenever she was asked a question in class. She was struggling with her emotions and found solace in talking to her online friends, but she eventually stopped logging into her accounts.

She had trouble falling asleep and would wake up to her tear-stained pillow.

She read books about characters who always had one best friend; why couldn't she just have one friend?

High school was the worst part of her life.

By senior year, he had a girlfriend.

Eunji was walking to the school library and saw him hold flowers in his arms as he asked her to prom.

Pink and yellow flowers, her favorite colors.

The girl said yes, their friends took pictures, and the entire school was happy for them.

And that was her last memory of him in high school.