March 2008

“Kim Dahyun, I swear if you don’t get up from your bed, I will beat the hell out of you!”

Her mother’s scream made Dahyun drop from her bed. She whined as she massaged her bottoms which was pained from the impact of the fall. Dahyun looked at the clock and it was seven in the morning. Her body wanted five more minutes of sleep but she knew that if she doesn’t start preparing, she might miss the first period of class.

“Kim Dahyun!”

“I’m coming down!” she replied to her mother.

I shouldn’t have slept at four in the morning. This is Chaeyoung’s fault for informing me that YG would debut a girlgroup.

They were up all-night investigating in different chat forums who the members would be, and how close they were with the Big Bang members.

Honestly, I don’t care about the others, as long as no one would touch GDragon.

Kwon Jiyong is mine.

“Ah!” a slap on the head woke her up from her daze.

“Honey, don’t hit Dahyun too hard,” her father spoke, and Dahyun almost beamed at him before he added, “Her head is almost empty, you might knock off the little information stored in her brain.”

Wow. I thought my dad was about to save me.

“All that is inside her brain are those gay-looking males displayed in her room – “

“Mom, you can belittle me all you want but not Bigbang!” Dahyun complained with a cry, “Do you even know the hardships they went – “

Her defense came up muffled with the bread that her mother stuffed in . Her mother then told her, “Chew that bread while you walk to Jimin’s. You’re almost late. He might be waiting for you.”

She stared at them in disbelief before proceeding as told. With a mouth still full of bread, she screamed, “I’m going!”

Jimin’s house was three blocks away from Dahyun’s own. It was her second home.

Growing up in a neighborhood where they were the only ones in the same age, they naturally became closer together. Dahyun couldn’t remember a time where the two of them were away for more than a month. They families even invite each other in “family trips.” Some people even mistake them as siblings.

Even if Dahyun didn’t belong in any circle in school, Jimin was always there and that, for her, has always been enough.

“Oh, Dahyun. You’re here,” Jimin’s mom greeted her while she held Jimin’s younger brother Hyunjin.

“Good morning, Auntie,” Dahyun beamed before turning to the little boy, “How’s school Hyunjin?”

“It’s hell,” he deadpanned, “Does it get better when you’re older?”

Dahyun awkwardly laughed before diverting the conversation, “Is Jimin ready?”

“He already went five minutes ago,” Mrs. Park confusedly replied, “I thought he went with you.”

Oh. He left me again.

“That’s okay, Auntie. I might have told him that I would not go with him today,” Dahyun tried to cover for Jimin’s fault. She put on a smile, “I’ll get going then.”

But even before she could go, she turned to Hyunjin and said, “Just find some friends and you’d be fine.”

Dahyun used to ride Jimin’s bicycle to school, and that made her survive morning rush hours last school year. But without Jimin around, she has to endure being packed like sardines with the rest of the student population in an ordinary bus. She hugged her bag tight to her chest as she tried to stand firm inside the bus. She looked around, trying to find a sight of Jungkook who might save her again from the misery, but he was nowhere to be found.

Maybe I was just lucky yesterday to be in the same bus as him.

She gritted her teeth as she encountered the same problem again. Someone was clearly rubbing his body against her.

I don’t know how much of the male population is just too uncontrolled.

Dahyun turned around to pick a fight, but the bus came into a sudden halt, causing her to lose her balance, and as a result, she fell in someone’s lap. She widened her eyes and turned to the old man who she just accidently sat into.

He grinned with his yellowish teeth and stinky breath before telling her, “Hey. You’re exactly her type. Want to skip school with me?”

With horror rising above her chest, Dahyun quickly pressed the button and screamed that she was getting off the bus.

She breathed a large amount of fresh air once she got off that devilish ride. But upon realizing that she was at least one station away from school, she frowned. It was going to be a long walk. She checked the clock in her flip phone and it was fifteen minutes before school starts.

If I didn’t get off the bus, I would be on time but since I was walking, I would now surely miss the first period.

If I knew that I was going to be late anyway, I should have spent more time in bed.

By the time she arrived in school, she was scolded by her class adviser as expected, and she even got a detention slip. Her adviser told her that she has to spend one hour on detention.

That was not fair. I was only thirty minutes late. Now, they’re going to take double of that time. I could spend that time sleeping or browsing through videos.

She had a sulky expression the whole day. She wanted to go to Jimin and blame it all on him, and she decided to do that in lunchtime – the only time she can interact with him in school hours. She spotted him in the cafeteria, wearing a bright smile as he talked with Seulgi.

Dahyun’s blood boiled seeing him all happy, not even knowing that he inconvenienced her big time that day. She marched towards his table, only to be stopped a few steps before she could call his attention. Dahyun looked at the two figures that blocked me and gulped.  She was starting at queens.

“Are you heading to our table?” Irene asked.

“I-I just want to have a word with J-Jimin,” Dahyun hated the way she stuttered.

Irene smirked before looking at Dahyun from head to toe then she said, “Why don’t you fix your eyebrows first? Maybe after that, I’d reconsider letting you sit with us.”

“More on fix her whole face,” Jennie snickered, “Don’t even dream of joining us.”

“Bye Jimin’s shadow,” Irene waved her fingers in front of Dahyun.

Dahyun stood frozen and watched them join the table where Seulgi, Jimin and the rest of their friends were.

Why are the popular kids always so mean?

“Jimin is darker than me. If anything, he should be my shadow,” Dahyun whispered beneath her breath.

Jimin seemed to notice her and waved at her direction, motioning for her to come. They all cocked their heads to look at Dahyun, and suddenly, she felt so inferior.

With a glare that she sent to Jimin, Dahyun her heels and walked away from them.

Dahyun opened the rooftop door with a noisy thud.

“You’re too loud,” Jungkook complained.

She paced back and forth, before she began ranting, “It’s so unfair! He’s having the best time of his life with those popular kids while I am miserable here! We’re supposed to be together!”

“Who?” Jungkook asked, “Your circle?”

Dahyun huffed before sliding down on the floor to sit near Jungkook. Then, she said, “I always had Jimin and I was happy even if it was just the two of us. Now, everything is just miserable.”

“Because he found other friends besides you?” Jungkook questioned, and she disliked the way his prompt redirected the blame to back to her.

“He is neglecting me just because he has other friends,” Dahyun corrected.

“You sound like an only child who found out that she’s going to have a sibling,” he exclaimed.

“Well, I am an only child,” Dahyun replied, “But can you rephrase that? Don’t sound too smart. You should talk at her level of intelligence.”

He shook his head, and Dahyun think she saw a glimpse of his smile.

“You’re just complaining because you are not the center of his attention anymore,” he clarified, “If you really value him as a friend, you should let his world expand.”

As seconds pass by, the weight of Jungkook’s words seemed to resonate in the silence between them. Seeing her contemplate on his words, Jungkook laid down on the ground.

“What are you doing?” Dahyun asked.

“Sleeping,” he answered.

“What about lunch?”

“I finished mine already.”

She looked at the skies above before asking, “Are you sleeping?”

“Yes.”

“Tss,” she hissed.

Dahyun found the movement of the clouds was calming.

No wonder why Jungkook would choose to eat lunch in this place instead of the chaotic cafeteria.

“Jungkook,” she called.

“Hmm,” he hummed.

“Why were you not in the same bus with me?”

“I took an earlier one.”

“To ditch me?” Dahyun kidded as she looked back at him.

“Maybe,” he replied but she saw the slight lift at the corner of his lips.

“What should I do?” Dahyun whispered, but it was more of a question she posed for herself.

To her surprise, Jungkook still answered, “Maybe you should expand your world too.”

“Build a circle of my own?” Dahyun tried to clarify before asking him, “Want to be in it?”

“No,” he quickly answered.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you’re disturbing her sleep.”

Dahyun scoffed. Jungkook talks too smart sometimes, but these petty moments remind her that he was still a kid.

By the end of the class, Dahyun received a text from Chaeyoung, informing her that she should be home early to watch Bigbang’s performance. Dahyun checked her pocket where she kept her detention slip.

I would just pay for the one hour of detention the next day.

I just can’t miss a performance.

However, as she was about to exit to the school grounds, Jimin greeted her.

“Hey! Let’s go home,” he said.

Ignoring him, Dahyun continued walking.

“You glared at me during lunchtime,” Jimin stated before following her as he dragged his bicycle.

“You didn’t wait for me yesterday before going to school,” Dahyun explained, “And you didn’t wait for me today too.”

“That. Seulgi said she wanted to go to school with me, so I started fetching her with my bike,” Jimin answered.

“Then why don’t you go home with her too?” Dahyun turned to him with a sharp glare.

“I agreed with her on the condition that I go home with you,” Jimin retorted.

Dahyun doesn’t know if she should be mad that she lost mornings with Jimin or glad that he insisted to be still with her on the afternoons.

Seeing that Dahyun was somehow touched by his actions, Jimin beamed in victory.

“What?” she blurted.

“Come on, let’s go home,” he said again before pointing to his bike.

Dahyun rolled her eyes before proceeding on walking without him but then he cycled all the way before successfully blocking her path.

“Hey!” Dahyun widened her eyes on him.

“Come on. I’m sorry,” he tilted his head cutely before bribing me, “Ice cream?”

“I’m not a kid who you could bribe with ice cream all the time,” she whined.

Dahyun started walking again but halted a few tracks after. She looked back at him, and added, “Unless its two cups of ice cream.”

He chuckled before cycling nearer her again. She rode his bike, putting her hands on his shoulder.

“Two cups? No wonder you keep gaining weight,” he teased.

Dahyun pinched Jimin’s ears in turn and he cried in pain, “Hey! Stop it! We might crash!”

She laughed in reply and in the way Jimin’s shoulders shook, she knew he was chortling with her.

And with just one moment with him, all the bad vibes of her day were gone in an instant.

Dahyun was smiling again from ear to ear.

That has always been Jimin’s effect on her.