Be Yourself

Hareum is going to the café after class. She asked Chaera to join but she said she couldn’t because of the club activities. Hareum is going alone as her way to go home. The friends have their own chat room and no one could join her. Each has their own club activities today. Why they have it on Monday? Hareum complains about that and she’s glad the debating club doesn’t have any club activities today. And regarding to that, she still doesn’t know where her friends club are. Dowoon might join the band club since he’s majoring in music, but Minhyun? Sungwoo? Chaera? She remembers she hasn’t asked Chaera about it and Chaera doesn’t tell her either yet. Of course she hasn’t told me… she’s not the type who’s telling everything first.

She takes a public transportation and she arrives in a place near her neighborhood. She can walk for 30 minutes from there until her home and it’s been a long time since she visited there. The first time she went to that café when Junghyun wanted to help with her homework and treated her at the same time. That day she met with Junho, Haneul’s friend, on the way. Junho oppa, how is he now?

She goes inside the café and orders a juice for this hot day and she takes a seat. She likes to wonder alone even though people might see that she’s too lonely sitting all alone without nothing to do, just doing something with her phone. But she’s the type that doesn’t care with what people say about her. She’s just being herself. But still, she can’t be herself when Junghyun is around her.

That time, someone comes into the café, orders himself a drink and when he wants to get out, he sees Hareum is sitting there alone. He carefully walks toward her, makes sure that she’s Hareum. He reaches her seat, stands there and says, “Hareum-a?”

Hareum hears a familiar voice and raises her head that she finds Junho. “Oh, oppa!” she stands up and greets him. “Have a seat!” Junho takes a seat in front of him. “Long time no see,” she says and Junho nods with a smile. Yeah, the last time she saw him when he confessed to her but she rejected him. Since that day, she hasn’t met him or even talked to him. It’s such a coincidence to meet him here. “What are you doing around here?”

“Just buying drink and I’m about to go back to the hospital but then I saw you here,” he says and Hareum nods with a smile while sipping her drink. “How’s everybody?” he asks.

“Everybody’s fine. We have boarders now in house,” she chuckles and he does the same. It’s a bit interesting seeing him now. He’s a bit different and there’s like a different aura around him, maybe because he’s working already, but it’s just different in her eyes.

“Yeah, I knew about that from Haneul,” he says with a smile and she nods. Junho looks at her who’s not changing a bit, maybe it’s just her hairstyle that it becomes more loosen up but still beautiful. That day, she rejected him clearly because she didn’t have any feeling for him, not because he’s his brother’s friend. She said that she didn’t care about that even though Haneul really concerned about it. “How about college life?” he asks then, breaking the ice. “Is it fun?”

“Well, first year is still fun, I think,” Hareum says and laughs a little. Junho still smiles and she thinks that he always shows his smile when talking to people about little things like this. “I just do what I want to do.”

“That’s great,” Junho says. “Because I merely didn’t do what I want to do in college, and don’t follow my steps, Hareum-a,” Junho tells her a bit seriously but then they laugh. “Oh yeah, how about Junghyun? Is he still hanging out in your house?”

“Ah, him,” Hareum takes a sip. She doesn’t want him to talk about Junghyun, but then that name suddenly appears. What can she say? But why he’s asking me this? Aren’t they friends? “Well, on weekend, if he’s coming back to town,” and Junho nods and sips his drink. Since his serious conversation with Junghyun, they haven’t talked with each other, just within the chat room, asking little things or responding to third people’s chat. Hareum senses like there’s something between them but she doesn’t want to ask because she doesn’t want Junho to think she’s nosy. Then, Junho looks at his watch. “Ah, you have to go, oppa?”

Junho looks at her and nods with a smile. “Sorry to leave you alone here,” Junho says and stands up. “I’m going back first, there’s a patient waiting.”

“Have a nice day,” Hareum says and Junho waves goodbye at her and she waves him back. She’s relieved that she still can talk normally to him since that day 2 years ago.

He gets out and then he stops when he suddenly meets Junghyun there. “Oh,” Junho says and Junghyun is surprised as well as he becomes silent to meet Junho there. “Hi,” Junho tries to greet him naturally.

“Oh, hi,” Junghyun greets him back naturally since he’s sure that neither both of them wants to talk about what happened two years ago. “What’s up?” he tries to ask simple things.

“I’m good,” Junho says and smiles. But then, he slightly turns his head back as he remembers that Hareum is inside. He looks at Junghyun, “You’re in town today?” he asks because he knew Junghyun is not working in Seoul.

“Yeah,” Junghyun says. “I’m taking a leave,” he smiles just like he’s happy he’s taking a day off and Junho chuckles.

“Great for you,” Junho says and Junghyun just chuckles. “Okay, I’m leaving. I have a patient,” he says and Junghyun raises his hand a bit as a goodbye. He looks to Junho and he’s relieved that Junho is still talking naturally to him. If Junho couldn’t do that, Junghyun might not be able to talk to him back like that because of what happened between them.

Then, she gets out from the café without having any knowledge whom is outside and she stops suddenly because she’s surprised. Junghyun is there. They’re surprised at each other but they don’t say anything. Hareum clears and slightly nods and walks away but Junghyun grabs her arm, stops her right there. She widens her eyes and looks at him. He looks at her seriously. “I think we need to talk,” and she has a choice whether she’s talking to him or running away from him. It’s hard to be herself right now.

…

Sungwoo and Dowoon are going to have their club activity today, but before that Sungwoo wants to check out something. He wonders if his prediction is right whether Chaera is in the basketball club or not. Today is the first day the band club has their own activity and he won’t miss it. He chats Dowoon that he won’t be long and he will join.

He looks to his watch, makes sure that he’s not going to be late to the practice and he walks fast to the gym where he’s sure that basketball team is doing a practice there.  The soccer team has their own field, also the baseball team. As he arrives to the gym, he can hear from the outside the voices of people inside and the ball dribbled. He goes upstairs to where the seats at and that way he can check.

The basketball team has its own supporter just to watch them practicing the whole day. He doesn’t expect this. The fans are mostly girls. Is there someone handsome or what? He excuses himself between people and stands with his hands on the fence and he’s looking down, searching for a familiar person he knew.

He finds Chaera within a second with a jersey on the bottom but she wears t-shirt on top. Looking at her jersey, he bets she was in basketball team in her high school days. Wow, he didn’t expect Chaera is that kind of person. He’s watching her talking with the members even there’s one from the men’s basketball team that is talking to her. From his look, Sungwoo guesses that he’s a senior. But the picture of her talking to strangers is the most interesting to see.

Later, the practice starts and Sungwoo is still there watching. He doesn’t forget about the band practice but the scene in front of him is somewhat interesting, seeing Chaera interacting with strangers. Dowoon is restless because Sungwoo isn’t around and he’s been trying to call, but Sungwoo doesn’t answer. Dowon grunts, “Where is he?!” he sighs. Until the third call, Sungwoo hears ringing tone from his bag and quickly gets it. The basketball team is doing a short briefing so the gym is quiet and Sungwoo can hear his phone clearly.

“Oh, shoot!” Sungwoo walks quickly out from the gym. “Excuse me, excuse me. Sorry,” he makes a way for himself and runs to the band practice.

“Where are you?” Dowoon raises his tone in whisper. He’s been waiting for Sungwoo in front of the room the band uses to practice. “We’re almost late!” Dowoon frowns.

“Sorry,” Sungwoo says, taps his hand to Dowoon’s shoulder as his apology. “Let’s go,” without further explanation of what happened, Sungwoo comes inside with Dowoon behind him. Sungwoo doesn’t have any intention to tell him what he did.

…

Chaera is glad that the people in basketball team are welcome, they talk to her first as her seniors and she can talk with them easily. Especially the male senior named Seunghoon, who she met at the basketball club booth. She’s impressed that guy plays as a guard, quickly moves inside the court and his leadership is well seen even though his height is not as tall as the other players.

She’s relieved also that she can play the first game very well. The shooting, defense, and offense, she’s relieved she can do all of that pretty well without small mistakes. Foul is still there, but she doesn’t care as long as it can help her team.

“Oh,” Seunghoon is impressed with Chaera’s skill after the women’s team played as he gives her a hi-five and she replies that with a smile. The freshman and seniors in the women team are sharing hi-fives and praises with her and she’s glad she can make friends with them. “I didn’t think you used your body so hard,” Chaera defended the opposite team hard even though she’s thin, but she has a power. Chaera just smiles, chuckles, and says her gratitude hearing all the praises from them. Being in basketball team is one of the way she can be herself. She can shout, she can celebrate the way she wants to.

At the band practice, Dowoon and Sungwoo showed off their skills and played a song. So the band team divided people into team, into a band. And of course, there’s no band that has two drummers so they played in a different team. After all the activity was done, Sungwoo quickly walked outside that made Dowoon asked, “Where are you going?”

In the end, Sungwoo just told him to follow him if Dowoon wanted to and now they end up in the gym, watching the basketball game. Right at that time, the women team is playing and Chaera is on the court. Dowoon notices Chaera and he’s surprised that she plays so actively there. “Is that Chaera?” he asks Sungwoo while he’s watching her play.

“Yeah,” Sungwoo is watching her also. She scores and Dowoon claps in surprise and he’s impressed and Sungwoo claps with his mouth opening, he’s impressed as well. “I didn’t think she will join here.”

“Me too,” and they’re watching until the game ended. The team has a briefing and Dowoon looks at Sungwoo whom is still looking at Chaera. Dowoon senses something in Sungwoo but he doesn’t want to take a quick guess. He clears his throat, “I think it’s best if we go so that she can’t notice you and you won’t get into any problem.”

With that fact, Sungwoo looks at him and says, “Just wait. We can go home together with her.”

“Are you crazy?” Dowoon is flabbergasted with Sungwoo’s sudden bravery. “What’s gotten into you?”

“I don’t care if she hates me, I’m just going to talk with her normally,” he tells Dowoon seriously. “Like a friend,” and he smiles widely and innocently, with that eyes blinking telling he’s really going to do that and Dowoon sighs, shakes his head. “First, let’s get rid of the thought that she’s scary,” he says. “Look,” he makes Dowoon looking at Chaera. “She’s not,” and Dowoon can see that she’s not scary. Dowoon knows very well that she’s not scary, but her personality to certain person like Sungwoo is scary and Sungwoo chooses to not be afraid of that.

Dowoon sighs once again. “I don’t know, just do whatever you want.”

And after the short briefing, Chaera settles her things and then Seunghoon talks with her again. Sungwoo looks at their interaction once again and he asks Dowoon while watching them. “Who’s he?”

Dowoon looks at Chaera who’s talking. “I don’t know,” he says. He really doesn’t know about Seunghoon, he’s just a freshman who is still new to the college world. “But seeing Chaera could talk to a senior and a man is interesting,” he expresses the same thing as Sungwoo. “Except for certain someone,” Dowoon smirks and chuckles. Sungwoo gives him no respond and still looks at them. “Oh, Chaera is coming,” the boys are standing near the gym entrance and Dowoon is nervous, afraid that if Chaera finds Sungwoo there. “C’mon, Sungwoo-ya,” Dowoon drags Sungwoo but Sungwoo is keep standing still. He takes off Dowoon’s hand. “Ya! Are you crazy?” he whispers sharply to Sungwoo.

Then Chaera stops as she finds Sungwoo there. She sighs. Looking at the situation, Dowoon raises his hand and smiles to her and she finds him. And because of Sungwoo, Dowoon knows what club she’s in. It’s not like it’s a big deal if Dowoon knows, but Sungwoo knew it first and it makes her mood falling down. The friends haven’t been telling each other what club they join, so that it will be fun if they find one another in a club that they seemed not supposed to be. It’s Hareum’s idea, but for introverted Chaera, she finds it great so that people like Sungwoo couldn’t disturb her private life.

But now, he’s there standing in front of her with a smile and Chaera sighs. How can he smile at time like this? Does he wake up already? She remembers she even told him that she hated him. She still hates him. Day by day he’s just more annoying as he can be. Chaera walks to them, just to go to Dowoon. “Oh, Dowoon-a,” she says with a smile but Dowoon knows she’s being serious right now. She’s ignoring Sungwoo who’s standing beside him. “How can you find me here?” Chaera asks with that forced kindness.

Dowoon forces a smile, “We just wanted to watch basketball so we went here and we didn’t think we’ll find you,” his voice fades out and Chaera just nods with a smile.

“I bet it’s not like that,” she says and looks at Sungwoo with an evil smile. She clenches her teeth, “Right, Sungwoo-ya?” she’s sure that Sungwoo is behind all of this and Dowoon nervously looks at Sungwoo.

Sungwoo smiles and nods. “Right, Chaera-ya. It’s because I brought him here,” Sungwoo says it honestly and Chaera clenches her fist. Dowoon widens his eyes, he’s ready to make a blocking if Chaera suddenly moves. “You know I found you going to the basketball booth.”

Chaera sighs and looks around, her teammates are still there. She’s trying to hold her emotion and walking away from them. She doesn’t want to make a scene. Sungwoo follows her right away and Dowoon quickly matches his steps with them in order to be a peacemaker. He thinks Sungwoo is crazy just to be himself in facing a girl like Chaera.

…

Junghyun grabs Hareum’s arm. Hareum widens her eyes at him and tries to let his hand go but he grabs it tightly. She sighs. “I don’t want to talk here,” she says without looking at him and he moves his hand to her hand, he holds it tightly so she cou