When I was 13, I met them for the first time. 

It was the first day of high school where everyone was excited to meet new friends and leave their childhood behind. This is where teenage life begins, or so I thought. I was greeted by my homeroom teacher when I entered the classroom at the end of the hallway. It was a chilly morning as I took an empty seat by the window for I enjoy watching things that is happening outside. 

When the seats were filled, she started the roll-call and everyone have to raise their hand and introduced themselves to the whole class. That’s when I noticed Hong Joochan.

He had a slick black hair with burns on the side, a hairstyle like any other cool boys his age would want to have. 

“Hi, I’m Hong Joochan. Nice to meet you,” he said when the entire class turned around to look at him.

“Anything interesting you’d like to share about yourself, Joochan?” Mrs Kim, the teacher, asked. We all looked at him with anticipation, waiting for him to say something more than just his name. 

Joochan scratched his head, “I like football.”

“Well, that’s a start,” Mrs Kim commented before moving on to the next person. For someone who has a cool hairstyle like him, it’s quite ironic to say such little words for an introduction. Everyone else was trying to say interesting about themselves. But when I was my turn, it was like karma hit on me. 

“I like music,” was all I said for the ‘interesting’ part. 

•

“Son Youngtaek, you’ll sit beside Hwang Rihyun from now on,” Mrs Kim announced. It was a month into high school when she decided to mix up the class seating arrangement. Before that, the girls were clustered on one side and the boys on the other. The teacher thinks we need to mix up a little more. 

“Supp,” Youngtaek said as he plopped down on my left. I gave him a smile and a nod. 

“You don’t talk much, do you?” He asked, but it was more like a statement, not a question. 

“I like to be at peace,” I replied. 

Youngtaek snickered, “no wonder you chose this seat.”

For the rest of my life being Youngtaek’s seatmate, I have never heard silence. He’s always either saying something to me, talking to Lee Jang Jun sitting in front of us, kicking Jang Jun’s chair (Jang Jun would pretend to hit him after that), throwing paper balls at Kim Dong Hyun’s table across the room (it always comes flying back), flirting with Choi Soojeong and Kang Minji who are sitting behind us (they mostly would giggle but ignore him when he winked at them) and many many more. 

But what’s annoying is that he has never not used the word “” in almost every sentence.

In my primary school days, swear words could never roll off from my tongue. I do not use it, I do not read it and I certainly do not have friends who say it. It all change because of Youngtaek.

“ this question,” he’d say after not being able to solve a mathematical problem. 

“ this ,” he’d say after losing in a mobile game.

“ you,” he often says to Jang Jun who in turn flipped him off. 

“Watch your language,” I warned him one day when I couldn’t take it anymore. 

“You’re a saint,” he pointed out. I continued to finish my practice questions as Mr Lee, our maths teacher, continue the class. 

“You never swear before?” He asked and I shook my head no. The closest thing to a swear word I use is the word “”.

“That’s not even a swear word!” He argued but I just shrugged.

Suddenly, a devilish smile crept up on Youngtaek’s lips. “I will taint your mind with my talents,” he said and I almost choked on air. Taint my mind? What is he? Some kind of mind controller?

“I will make you say ,” he said with determination. I rolled my eyes.

“Sorry in advance but you’ll not get what you want,” I said, continuing to find the value of x from the question. 

“Watch me,” Youngtaek said, “I will ing make you.”

•

It was club week where every club showcases their own activities to recruit the first years. I was walking around with Soojeong and Minji when we were approached by a senior in a band club t-shirt. 

“Do you want to join band?” He asked and my two new friends were hesitant. The senior handed us a pamphlet each containing the band activities. I looked at it and saw that the band does a concert every year and participated in a lot of big national events. 

“Are you interested?” He asked me. I looked beside me and saw that my friends were long gone. “I’ll think about it,” I said as I thanked him before joining Soojeong and Minji with the drama club booth. 

It was at that moment when I caught a glimpse of Joochan running with another boy I don’t know, in his hands carrying a bunch of sweets and snacks collected from all the clubs promotions. 

“I think I want to join,” Soojeong said as she penned her student information onto a piece of paper at the drama club booth. 

“Seems interesting so I guess I will join too,” Minji said. She nudged me when I was spewing out, “What about you, Rihyun?”

“I’m not sure yet,” I answered. 

I’ve visited every club booth, from uniformed clubs to art clubs but only one of them kept running in my mind days after the club orientation has passed. I love music and perhaps, this is my chance to reach to something that I truly enjoy. 

I took out the piece of paper that the senior gave to me and there was a phone number attached on the bottom. I started typing on my phone to send a message.

— Hi, this is Hwang Rihyun from class 1-3 and I would like to join the band club.

•

Two months passed and there is not a single day I don’t hear the swear word from Youngtaek. Not only he tries to teach me the different uses of a swear word, he also tries to annoy the hell out of me.

“Hey, can I borrow your correction tape?” He asked and before I nodded, he dipped his huge hands into my pencil case to find the object. Then he proceed to run the tape all over his paragraph on the English essay we were working on. 

I widened my eyes as I hold his right hand, stopping him from wasting more of my tape. I watched in horror at how much he used. 

“YA, SON YOUNGTAEK!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE A CORRECTION TAPE IS?” I scolded him. But I felt the entire class looking at me. I feel like I want to dig a hole and bury myself for speaking too loud. Biting my lip, I used Youngtaek’s broad shoulders to hide myself from the rest of the class.

The other method he used to annoy me is to pull the hairband from my ponytail, only to watch me tie it up all over again. I want to scream and was very close to cursing (aka saying “”) but I slapped his shoulder as hard as I can instead.

“Serve you right,” I said as he winced in pain. 

•

It was after the band club lessons, when out of nowhere, a boy in his jersey stopped me by the school gate. I was really tired and hungry that I slightly jumped when I saw him. 

“Hey,” Joochan greeted, he was wearing his soccer club jersey and I could still see the sweat dripping from the side of his head. His soccer shoes were muddy. 

“Hey,” I greeted back. It was weird and I totally have no idea why he suddenly greeted me. We have never talked to each other for the first two months in the same class together. 

“I like you and I want your number,” Joochan confessed. I widened my eyes. That is very straightforward and I was taken aback. Never in my life I received a confession like this. I gulped as I tried to process everything that has happened in the last few seconds, then I noticed my cheeks have turned warmer. 

“Are you deaf? I said I like you and I want your number,” he said as he handed his phone to me, number keypad ready to save my contact. But something is weird about him. Did he just say I’m deaf? I felt a bit angry and then I realised that this could all be a prank. I smiled and punched some random numbers onto the keypad. 

“Thanks Rihyun,” he smiled as if he has won something and gave me a lollipop before running back to the football field. I looked down at what’s on my hand and I realised it’s the lollipop that the art club has given away during club orientation week. 

As I walked to the bus stop, I passed a trash bin and threw the lollipop in it.

this is actually quite messy aksjdashdasd pls tell me how i did.

comments are greatly appreciated. pls stream golcha <3