To Transform is To...
Now, This is Twisted
1 full week of school, missed!
Soo Yuri crumpled up the notice she had received early in the morning that day and bit her lip. She was still practically poverty-struck, living with an apartment with her Uncle, occupying a small crowded bedroom (that was so crammed with moth-balled clothes and towers of boxes, it looked like it had previously belonged to a hoarder) but if she misses another day, of school, police may come rapping on her door. After all, skipping school was illegal.
After several days of contemplation, Yuri had finally decided to go to school the following Monday. Her Uncle was a bit disappointed, for now, he had lost a huge hand to help his booming business.
“Ah, you’re going to back school?!”
“Ne, Soochum. I’m leaving for it tomorrow.”
“But—but don’t you want the money?”
“I have made enough to last me some time. I appreciate your help, but I need my education.”
“I see.” His face calmed down and he his tiny black chin hairs. “Well, in that case, if you don’t want that pocket-money of yours to finish, I guess you will have to continue working here on weekdays under night shifts.”
“Nightshifts?! On school days? Uncle, I’ll be tired. I’ll have homework--”
“SooYuri, if you want to spend with your own money, you will have to work with your own time.
She sighed in defeat. “Aigoo.”
As temperamental as Yuri was with her greedy uncle, she was actually calm and collected when speaking with him. Her uncle claimed to feel guilty whenever the thought of his niece skipping school in order to earn her own money slipped into thought, but several times he had given sneaky gestures happy that she, a naturally talented cook, was booming his business. He overworked her and forced her to do night shifts when the restaurant, Gyo Chi Cow didn’t receive many customers that day, and still, Yuri cooled her temper. Although, her uncle sometimes treated her like a slave, she looked onto how life would be like re-attending school, disregarding the thoughts of adversity and retaliation she had developed while working behind the counter.
After a restless day of flipping burgers, she trudged on over to her bedroom and dived into her small bed still wearing her plastic hair cap. Before she could sigh, she was already fast asleep. 12:53 AM.
She had arrived at school the next day wearing nothing but a pair of cheap bellbottom slacks with a blue buttoned blouse and Payless black winter heels. Her once decorative artificial face was now washed, no make-up to cover the genuine circles under her eyes or to cover her , pink, dry lips. Her ears were bare with no rings, and no extra color was added to her pale cheeks. She was indeed rags.
The first thing she did was navigate to the attendance office to hand in the long excuse note she had forged. She pushed on the heavy weighted door, glanced at the line from the front desk, and sat down in a comfy but tacky red love seat, waiting to be assisted. Her eyes wandered around the room as she nonchalantly felt for something near her hip. She reddened when she noticed she was groping nothing but air.
“Ah, I forgot,” she muttered quietly to herself, “no money, so no Louis Vuitton. Aw.”
Her hand dug inside a small pocket. Out came her new flip phone, a black…a black…Hmmm…it appeared the phone didn’t quite have a familiar name…
Her eyes fixed upon the device and her face wrinkled as she examined the bulky, thick sillouhette. Just glancing at it made her spine shiver.
EWWWW!
She hesitantly flipped it open, the corners of sinking.
“Choi Minho, please report to the Attendance Office. Choi Minho, please report to the Attendance Office.
“Uhh, I think that’s you!”
“Yeah, I guess it is. So see you girls around?”
“Sure. BYE.”
“Bye Minho.”
“BYE MINHO!”
“BYEEEEEEEEE MINHO!!!”
He left the parcel of girls practically swooning over him with a wave of his hand.
Walking down the Attendance Hallway, he had seen familiar faces stop and stare, some having the potency to utter sound.
“Woah…you’re Choi Minho?”,“Wow.” “Hey, I remember you from decades ago. WHAT HAPPENED?”, “Minho…is that you?”, and several of “Are you the new kid? I can show you around! Wanna hang out after lunch?”
Minho coolly kept in his tracks and just smiled at the compliments and shook his head at the questions. He wasn’t concerned about the new anymore; it’s been a whole week. Still, he wanted to see the face of his crush, Lee SooYuri. The seven days had passed, and not one scent of the girl’s extravagant perfume-- permeating the air with the aroma of Liquid Love-- was to be sniffed.
He had arrived at the entrance of the Attendance Office and pushed the door with ease; the long hours of training over the summer had really paid off.
Acknowledging the line from the front desk, he sat at the far end of a banana-colored long couch; at the opposite end, a girl with brown hair, was leaning over, straining—it appeared to be—her eyes to focus on a small screen of a flip phone she was gripping. A Nokia 6136. That was Minho’s previous phone. His father gave it to him for his thirteenth birthday. He had had it for about 3 years straight.
But over the summer, Minho had upgraded to the new LG Optimus GT540, which made the girl’s Nokia look like a feeble mouse and his a ferocious cat..
Coincidentally, BigBang’s “Lollipop” blared from his pocket. Neck’s craned as he reddened and swiftly clutched the phone from his tight pockets.
It was a call from his Mom.
Sorry Umma, people are watching! He thought.
Reject.
Sheepishly, he dared to look up. Attention wasn’t on him anymore. He sighed in relief as he set his phone to silent.
“I like your ringtone. Bigbang Hwaiting!”
The girl two cushions away was able to identify the song (playing for only about three seconds) from Minho’s phone and whispered a comment.
Minho thought she was taunting him, ridiculing his sappy ringtone.
But being the tolerant guy he was, he decided to reply without sarcasm in his voice.
“Thanks.” He faced her direction for eye contact, but noticed that she was still straining.
He looked at the girl up and down. Hmm, he thought. She doesn’t look much on the wealthy side. I mean, look at her clothes; she’s dressed like a teacher. Her hair is pretty though, all brown and shiny, but does she know there is no uniform? I wonder what year she’s in.
Bored with the waiting, he had decided to start up a decent conversation to quicken time.
“So……ummmm….you like Big Bang?”
She didn’t move her head. “Yeah. I love them. Them and SNSD are my fav’s.”
What a coincidence. “Really? Mine too! Hey what’s your name?”
To finish the introduction, she sat up straight, and her eyes
met
his
“CHOI MINHO?!”
“L-LEE SO YURI?!”
The entire office was staring, but Choi and Lee were too busy mirroring each other’s wide eyed, jaw dropping faces.
After seconds later of examining the transformed one in front , they had found the right words to say, and exclaimed them at each other simultaneously :
“What HAPPENED to YOU?!”
~~~
Wattup, it's Ruki here posting our 5TH chapter. Silent Readers aren't allowed so comment and/or subscribe. Constructive criticism is allowed, but not any that doesn't actually teach us how to improve. Thanks. Keep Reading~~~~
Comments