It was the year 2004.

It was the night before the field trip when Donghae's best friend called him through the telephone to have their usual chat. They couldn't talk longer because the longer the conversation, the larger the telephone bill. They had to be precise with their intentions so they wouldn't waste the load of their telephones' cards and get scolded by their parents.

Hence, Hyukjae directly asked "Are you going to your school's field trip?" 

Donghae replied, "I should but I wouldn't. Don't tell my parents." 

"Why aren't you going? Those are once in a lifetime moments."  

"Aren't students from HwahSoh High School coming?" 

"We're not included. Maybe we'll be paired with other schools." 

"That's sad. I could be persuaded to join if you're going." 

"We see each other every week at SM. We practice together all the time! So clingy." ,he joked. 

"No, but really. It's boring anyway so I don't want to go." 

"Field trips are not boring. You're just shy around people you're not close with so you don't want to join."

"That's true. I'm not really comfortable with the attention I receive just because I'm a trainee under SM." 

"I get where you're coming from. But unlike you, I like the attention." ,he said then laughed. 

Out of the blue, Hyukjae heard Donghae's mom yelling in the background, "Kid, you must sleep now! You still have to wake up early tomorrow for your school trip! And quit using the telephone too much!" 

Donghae answered, "Yes mom!" 

Hyukjae reacted, "What? You didn't tell them you're not going?" 

"They'll just interrogate me when I do. Why this, why that." 

"So you'll just pretend to go?" 

"Sounds like it." 

"Fine. Hey, let's just talk next time. My mom might scold me next." 

"Alright. Bye!" 

Then they hung up the call. Donghae went to his room, jumped on his bed and slept early as instructed. He woke up early the next day too. 
He awoke to the sight of his ironed school jacket and pants hanging from his cabinet. He ate, took a bath and wore his uniform before he bid his goodbye to his parents. 
His parents were enthusiastic and they looked more excited for him to go on the trip than him. He felt guilty so he had to rush his way out of their house, sporting long, straight, black hair, parted on one side, like the hairstyle of the characters you see on romantic comic books. He was wearing a messenger bag, its strap wrapped across his chest. 

He rode a bus to Itaewon and arrived at his destination safely. He slowly walked his way to the waiting area where the school buses heading to the field trip were temporarily parked as the students boarded. He went a different way as soon as he had the sight of the buses. He hid from the people straight away so they wouldn't pull him in when he's seen.

He let out a sigh and said "Guess I have to wait for them to leave." while listening to the teachers call out students to board faster because they must leave or they would be late. 

10 minutes have already passed. He was idle in his position, very calm amidst the chaos going on in the buses as they bound to leave. 
He was just silently hiding behind a wall when he saw a girl from faraway running towards the bus with an exasperated face. She was wearing a different uniform which made him conclude that she was from another school. She looked like she was going after one of the school buses that was already taking off.  

He didn't want to stop the bus for her because it'll defeat the purpose of him hiding. To avoid being at fault as a witness, he looked somewhere else and pretended that he didn't see her coming. The bus was already on the highway when she passed near the area where he's at. 

She had half of her hair let down and the other bunned on top of her head. He thought she was cute and pretty so he couldn't keep his eyes away from her when she's just meters away from him. The man in him forced him to look and observe her.
Her backpack behind her was bouncing and it looked like it was giving her a hard time while she ran so she removed it from her back and carried it instead. 
But her mistake was that she carried it way too low while running that she accidentally stepped on the strap of her bag. 
She fell on the ground, right in front of Donghae. 
Thankfully, she wasn't wounded because she knelt on her bag, which produced the sound of chips breaking. 

(Background Music: Funny Background Music | Awkward & Funny Instrumental Music || https://youtu.be/UKoHOV6AjZw)

(You can play it on loop.)

He tried his best not to laugh at what he just saw but he couldn't. He laughed loudly which made her turn her head to him. She stood up and bluntly said "Are you laughing at me?" 

He went to her and said "Are you okay?" while still wearing a smile, as if he wanted to laugh more. 

"I'm okay but I'm not okay missing the school bus! I knew you saw me! Why didn't you stop the bus?!"  

"Ahh. You saw that?" He chuckled like it's funny. "I should be in one of the buses too actually. I just didn't want to go." 

"Well, I wanted to go! Thanks a lot!" ,she sarcastically said while dusting off her bag. 

His laugh had finally faded but he still couldn't wipe his smile off his face upon encountering someone who was really excited about field trips. He said "You badly wanted to go to that?" 

She just gave a sullen glance at him. She thought about how he could make fun of other people's enjoyment and how he could stand seeing people having a hard time. She gave him the look because she was still mad at him for not stopping the bus.

Not a word was said to him. She just turned around to walk back home, disappointed that she wasn't able to experience the field trip this time. She blamed herself for not waking up early enough to catch the bus and join the trip. But mostly, she wanted to blame the guy, who had no concern, for not helping her. She could've been inside the bus with her classmates only if it wasn't because of his selfishness. 

While walking away with her head low on the busy street, cooling her head off, she heard him yell, "Girl in uniform!" 

She looked around her to see if there were students around but she noticed she was the only one in uniform. Annoyed, she turned around. 
He was already walking towards her. She had no idea why he was approaching her. Is he going to apologize? Did he finally feel sorry for her? 

These thoughts bursted out like a bubble when he whispered in her ear.  

"You have a blood stain behind you." 

"Blood stain?" ,she said in her mind. 

The first thing that popped from her mind was 'that' blood stain. So she checked to see her if it was true and it was. She blushed and immediately folded her skirt from the back to hide it. Panicking, she quickly went to the side of the street with her back facing the wall to hide it from people. 

He saw her acting stressed. He thought it would be too much if he made fun of her again because he discerned that she got mad at him earlier. It was written on her face until now. 
He didn't know how to help a girl with that trouble so he just said "Shouldn't you buy a pad first?" 

He was trying to be compassionate but it came out wrong on her part. To her, it was arrogant. She murmured "This guy's getting on my nerves." 
Then she finally spoke out loud as a response, "Like I can right now!" 

He murmured too, "No wonder why she's cranky. I understand now." 

She furiously asked, "What did you say?!" 

"Nothing!" 

She paused to think what she could do and spoke again when she finally thought of something. "Ya! Give me your school blazer!" 

He replied "My blazer?" 

"Yes! Give me that!" 

Because they were a bit far away from each other and they were almost shouting at each other, he noticed that some of the people walking by were looking at them already. He didn't like attention so he walked to her and just followed what she said. 

He said while wearing his blazer off, "How could you talk to your seniors like that?" He was in disbelief to meet someone younger who talks so informally towards someone older. 

She asked "How old are you?" 

"I'm 17." 

"I'm older. Are we fair now?" ,she said nonchalantly as she waited for him to fully wear off his blazer. 
  
"You're a noona?! No way." 

"Just pass me the blazer." 

He gave it to her and continued talking "You're lying. You're just saying that to get away with the disrespe—" He stopped when he saw her put the sleeves of his blazer around her waist and tied it to cover her behind.

He instantly reacted, "What are you doing?! My mom ironed that for me. This is too much!" 

"I'll give this back to you. I just need it with me until I find a restroom to wash it." 

"And why my blazer?" 

"Because you've been a jerk." 

He scoffed and said "I can't believe this is happening." 

"I'll go find a convenience store to buy a pad and a restroom to wash my skirt. Bye." 

After she said those words, she got lost in the moment. She was too frantic because she can feel more coming through from down there and she had to immediately buy an underwear as well along with a pad. The situation put her to an extreme distress that she was mindlessly walking around, hurriedly looking for a store to buy what she needed.  

It took her a while before she was finally able to get to a restroom to do her business. After changing what she needed to change, she turned her skirt the other way around so she could wash it in her front. She only used the hand soap to wash it so it took her about 20 minutes before it was gone.   
But her skirt was still wet. She had to dry it from the hand dryer. There were a few girls going in and out of the restroom and she thought that they were probably thinking that she was crazy. But she didn't let it stop her until her skirt finally dried. 

She cheerfully said after her successful mission, "And just like that! Zero evidence!" like she just cleared evidence from a crime scene.

Then she dolled up a bit because she felt that all the fast walk she had done earlier worn her out. When she restored her original look before she went inside, she finally exited.

She went out of the public restroom and sighed in relief after finally removing it. Her struggle was over. She started walking her way back to the bus station to just go home because there's nothing left for her to do anyway.  

While she was walking, she heard another person's footsteps along with her. She was not yet near the road side and she was in an empty street because her journey to finding a restroom led her there, therefore she thought it was odd to have someone walk behind her as it was not a normal place with people passing by.
She looked back once to check who it was and to her surprise, it was the guy she met earlier. 

She thought "What the heck?! Did he follow me to the restroom? He went that far?"

She ignored it at first because it might just be a coincidence and he must be headed the same way she was headed but it became more strange for her because after minutes of walking, he's still there. He could've turned elsewhere when she passed by other alleys but he didn't.
She kept glancing over her shoulder, watching him follow where she's going. She tried to walk fast but he just mirrored her pace. She also turned to different directions to see if he'll still be behind her and he still was. 

She thought "Is he a creep?"  

When she had enough, she clicked his tongue and abruptly turned around to confront him.

"You!" ,she said as she pointed her finger directly at him with her arm stretched straight. She continued, "Are you stalking me?"

He was flabbergasted as to how she approached him. He held a laugh, making fun of her assumption, and said "My blazer." 

Then she realized that she had his blazer tied on her waist. She forgot that she had the guy's property which explained why he was chasing her. She felt ashamed for her thoughts but she didn't want to be humiliated more. So then she chose to maintain her peevish mood and kept her brows furrowed and her angry attitude.
It would be embarrassing to return it to him now because it was unsanitary. She then just said "I'll wash it first. Go home now." 

"Not without my blazer." 

She grunted and exhaled loudly, trying to control her temper, then replied, "I'll return it to you when it's washed." 

"Return it to me tomorrow in my school." 

"I don't even know what school you're in." 

"I know yours. You can just look at my blazer to see my school and return it to me tomorrow." 

"How do you know what school I go to?" 

"Yongsan, right? I can tell by your uniform which is apparently stained at the moment." ,he said followed by a laugh.

Irritably, she blurted out, "I already washed it!" 

"I'm kidding. I knew it because Yongsan is the only school we'll be meshed with in our field trip. I'll get going now. Return that to me, okay?" He turned around and began walking away.

She looked at his blazer and saw the name of his school embroidered on his chest pocket. She read "Seoul Digitech High School? Where the heck is that?" 
She immediately looked back at Donghae to ask but she was surprised to see him running away. She shouted "Ya!!! Where is this?"  

"It's near yours. Don't worry too much!"  

Just when he had gotten too far from her by running, she wondered what's going on inside his head to run away so randomly. Little did she know, he was smiling while sprinting. He was thinking "Then I'll see her tomorrow again!" and flattered himself for his wise move. 

She muttered while watching him, "Really weird."  

She walked back to the bus stop while remembering what just happened a while ago. She was trying to justify that her decision to not give him back his jacket was the right thing to do because now it finally got to her that she had to go to his school to return it. It was bothersome and she didn't want to go to another person's school, especially for a boy. But going back to what happened, she realized that he saved her from further embarrassment today and she owed him for that.  
Giving back his blazer was just her trying to return the favor so she brought it home and washed it thoroughly, made sure it was neat and it smelled nice. 

On the other hand, Donghae wandered around in Seoul before he went home at night and acted like he just came home from a field trip.  

His mom noticed something missing from him just when he entered the door. She asked "Where's your blazer?" 

He smiled and said "I left it at school." 

"Did you lose it? You can't lose that. We have to buy another one if so." 

"No. I'll get it back tomorrow." 

"And why do you look so happy? Are you happy that you left it?" 

"No. The field trip is fun. I'll go to my room now." He kissed his mom on the cheek then rushed his way to his room. 
He lay down on his bed, with his arms crossed under his head and stared at the ceiling with sparks in his eyes. 

He giggled then said "So she's a noona..." like their acquaintance was the only thing that got stuck in his head despite the whole day of walking around Seoul.

He was supposed to tell his experience to his best friend but he wanted to keep it to himself first. He liked to see how things would turn out between them before he even shared it with anyone. They still don't have each other's contact and he didn't know how to reach her but the thought that he'd see her the next day was enough to cheer him up. 

He ate dinner and made up stories to his parents and his older brother about the field trip to make them believe that he really attended. He could tell that they were convinced because they didn't ask follow-up questions.
To dodge a longer conversation about the trip, he took a bath and entered his room to sleep. 

It was then when he realized