part one

high school

***

Park Bogum was every parents’ dream guy for their offspring. He was a gentleman, respectful towards everybody, mindful of where his hands belonged on unnie and he played along with our sense of humor which is very essential to me as my best friend’s boyfriend. It wasn’t because it was my opinion regarding unnie’s relationship that mattered, but unnie was happy her best friends had a stable relationship with him. He was the holy grail of boyfriends so to speak.

Other guys paled in comparison. No offense to them, wherever they are. They did concede to the fact they couldn’t top Bogum’s winning qualities. He just raised the bar higher for the competition, unreachable for them to surpass his standards. Those former fanboys of unnie were most likely conscious of how suitable Bogum was for her, personality-wise and well, appearance-wise. They walked together around school as if they had stepped down from a billboard or a fashion catalogue.

I liked him. Wendy liked him. Their pairing was a no-brainer. You have the most beautiful girl and the most handsome guy in school. They were a visual overload. Superficiality aside, Bogum had the brains to back up his looks too.

Irene-unnie undoubtedly has the hots for charming and smiley brainiacs. Her future dating pattern in college would check out—oh, shoot. Am I revealing too much? I’ll stop here for now then.

“Guess what I got.”

“It’s not a dead body, is it?”

“Dude, why would I—just guess again.”

“Give me a hint.”

“Ice.”

“Bingsu?”

“No.”

“Milkshakes?”

“No.”

“Ice cream cake?”

“Why are all your guesses food? I’ve got us four free tickets to the skating rink!”

“This is awesome! Who’s the fourth person?”

“Hey, Bogum!”

“Hey, Wen. Seul.”

“I’ve got an extra ticket to the skating rink. Join us this weekend. Unnie would love for you to be there with us.”

“Thanks, yeah, I’ll be there. Has Irene been told of the plan yet?”

“Right. Unnie isn’t fond of the cold.”

“No, I was sorta hoping you’d cajole her to be on board with it. Tell her it’ll be fun!”

“Say no more. I’ll convince her.”

“You’re the best!”

“Gotta go meet the guys at the basketball court. I’ll text you how it goes. Bye!”

“Bye, Bogum!”

“Thanks again!”

“He’s a great guy.”

“Yup, he is.”

_

Wendy carried her academic prowess onto a higher tier, applying to become a student-tutor. She’s gifted like that. Smart and has a bottomless amount of patience for people. I can be patient, though staying on a singular topic is a hurdle I can’t leap over. You know how I am. I can babble into a tagent about a variety of topics at a time, never settling on a particular one. Jennie says Lisa and I are kindred spirits because we have the attention span of a loaf of bread. You could only imagine the—sorry, I’m doing it again. I’m working on my focus.

So, going back to Wendy. She’s greasy. Like the fryers of a fast food chain. She would ooze out cheesiness like it’s a second nature to her. When a person retaliates, however, she morphs into this awkward stunned Chihuahua, shaking and jittery with her eyes bugged out, and Park Sooyoung would revel in her panicked reactions since Wendy couldn’t seem to function humanly. I’ll tell you more about Park Sooyoung shortly. What I’m saying is that, Wendy in replying to flirtatious advances.

Some definitely had hidden agendas in becoming her tutee. We’re discussing about Son Seungwan who has charmed hundreds in her lifetime. But she was strict with her principles. This was before she began to use her charms for, uh, less innocent purposes so she had maintained her relationships with her tutees on a professional level.

For that brief period.

“Is the person you’re tutoring really coming? ‘Cause it’s been twenty minutes and the theater’s air conditioning is busted.”

“No idea but I can’t abandon her. She needs this. And I can’t tutor her at the library because I tend to lose myself in a speech when I’m explaining concepts.”

“Mother Wenresa.”

“She’s my understudy for the play and she can’t be given better roles if she’s flunking.”

“You are a living saint, Wannie.”

“Eh.”

“Thoughts on Bogum?”

“That’s random. Why?”

“Asking. They’ve been going for, what, three months so…just asking.”

“He’s a great guy. I’ve said this then. Model student. Treats Irene the way she deserves to be treated. I have no complaints.”

“You’re really cool with him?”

“I am. I did some reflecting before talking to Hyun after the fight we had before.”

“How did was that for you?”

“Those five minutes of me running up the building got me praying that she just takes me back as her best friend. It was a spiritual journey of dry heaving, Seul.”

“Wan! Your hoobae is here.”

“Wendy! Wendy! I’m not late!”

“It’s Wendy-unnie, Rosie. I’m your senior.”

“Yeah but with a junior height.”

“…”

“Oh gosh, I’m loving this kid!”

“How are the people younger than us so tall? Was there something our parents forgot to feed us?”

“I thought Park Sooyoung was freakishly large but then this behemoth comes up.”

“Orrr, you’re all just freakishly tiny itty-bitty hamsters. Not them. Just you, Wendy. Boop.”

“Don’t boop my nose. I’m not a hamster!”

“Her makes up for it, anyway.”

“You don’t say? Lemme see.”

“Rosie, go aw—"

“Oh, daaamn. Nice .”

“Goddamnit, Irene.”

“Crap. Bogum just texted me the soccer team’s in chaos at practice since their captain isn’t there. Someone has challenged Jennie to do a penalty kick on a water bottle balanced on this person’s head.”

“Fifty thousand won says that person is Lisa.”

“I have to go check on her.”

“Jisoo can handle that. She’s the co-captain.”

“He said she’s filming a video of it.”

“That’s…yeah. She would do that.”

“Fascinating. Have fun watching Jennie rearrange someone’s face!”

“God, this girl, I swear. Why is she so competitive?”

“Look who’s talking.”

“So it’s in our genes. Sue me. I’ll catch you later, guys!”

“…”

“What is it, Rosie?”

“You and Irene would’ve been cute together.”

“Uh, she’s my best friend and she has a boyfriend.”

“You guys have this…tension.”

“Wha—”

“Seulgi!”

“Ew, come on, Seul! You spat on me.”

“I—I choked on my drink.”

“You alright?”

“Mhmm. You can resume talking about this tension.”

“The only tension we’ll be talking about is the surface tension in her chemistry notes. This is what you get for taking advanced classes so crack those books open, Rosie!”

“No fun.”

_

Helpfulness is a value the school has been ingraining into our practices. You’re accustomed to this. We would have those fundraising activities such as the school’s summer festival and the community bake sale to help our chosen cause for the year. Our class had won a free pass from any booth responsibility after we were awarded for having the best dance interpretation for World History. I’ll be tooting my own horn for our win. I’m proud to say that I choreographed the heck out of Roman soldiers getting their kicked by the Ottoman Empire. It does sound bizarre. Not sure how our teacher came up with that.

I was engrossed with thinking that yay we get a free pass, and there wouldn’t be a shift to be heedful of as our class wouldn’t be having a booth to supervise. Wan and I were going to enjoy every millisecond we had to goof off, scour for treats and maybe visit Irene-unnie’s booth. Those were what I had in mind. What I didn’t have in mind was to be at the Home Economics room in the middle of bingsu preparations and baking cookies, lending a hand to the Student Council.

You see, Wendy has a big hear to match the “girl with a heart that’s bigger than her body” whose identity flew above my head. She suddenly dragged me, grilled pork skewers in my grip, to the Home Economics room saying, “Yong needs our help” without further elaboration. You must have recalled me mentioning Yong’s name a while ago. She’s important. I’ll be getting to her.

About the help, I didn’t protest. The Student Council must be in desperation if their Vice President sought for our help. Then Yong went in the Home Economics room, thanking us for our assistance to the council’