My name is Ahn Eunjung.

I wasn’t always mean. I was actually kind of nice. But things happen when boys get involved. I dunno, I went kinda nuts. Let’s start with my last year of junior high. That’s when I met him. Jonghyun. I had seen him a few times on campus. He was a short one, but then he had a sort of growth spurt over the summer I guess because now he was maybe an inch taller than me. He was really cute and really friendly. Fate did something and stuck us in the same class. But never close enough to socialize, actually it was on opposite corners of the room, me in the front corner near the window, and him in the back corner near the door. Usually my friends would surround me. That was the year people started taking notice of me, and it was really strange and flattering at the same time. They called me things like pretty and graceful and cool. The attention was something I was unused to, but with time, I grew to like it almost. Jonghyun never approached me until one day we had a project assigned to us- a group project. And I was paired with none other than Kim Jonghyun.

“Jonghyun-imnida!” he said with a bow and a smile.

“Eunjung-imnida; nice to meet you,” I said, shyly.

“I know who you are,” he said with a small chuckle. I gave him a confused look, especially cuz I honestly thought he didn’t have a clue as to who I was. He saw me looking at him questioningly, and instantly he cleared his throat in an awkward fashion.

“My, uh..my friends talk about you a lot. Not in a bad way! I hear good things about you! I, uh, I’m glad we can finally meet,” he said, and then he awkwardly cleared his throat again. It was really cute, the way he seemed a little flustered when explaining things to me. I could only chuckle and laugh and his face lit up, relieved that he didn’t look like a complete idiot.

“Ne, so for the project, we should get together and get started over the weekend,’ I said, “are you free?”

“Sounds like a good idea. I’m free on Saturday,” he replied.

“Ok. I’ll meet you at the train station at 10 AM, ok?” I told him. He nodded and I looked over the assignment sheet. The assignment was pretty simple- we just had to create a survey and have people take it and we just had to analyze the results.

Jonghyun was already at the train station when I got there. He stood up as I approached him.

“Anyeong,” he smiled. You know, that smile could stop a stampede. At the time though, I really wasn’t thinking about it. We walked to a coffee shop that was nearby and began discussing the project. By the end of the day, and 10 cups of hot chocolate later, we had a survey written and it was ready to be typed.

“I’ll type it and make copies,” I told him.

“I’ll bring pens than,” he said. We sat across from each other, mentally exhausted, but relieved to be done for the day.

Back at the train station, we were ready to part ways.

“I’ll see you at school,” he said with a wave. I nodded and waved back before turning around to leave.

The next week, Jonghyun and I had to decide on where we had to pass out the surveys.

“Let’s go to the Han River! Lots of people go there!” I beamed. Well, that weekend, I showed up with the surveys and Jonghyun with pens. No one else showed up though. Why? It was pouring rain. It was just horrible. We didn’t have umbrellas and got soaked attempting to hand out a survey to the smart people who walked by with umbrellas.

“Let’s just go take shelter at the park over there. C’mon!,” he shouted, trying to be heard over the loud thundering rain. We ran over and took refuge under a covered area inside the jungle gym.  I shivered and held out the soggy papers in disappointment. He took the papers from me and put his jacket over my shoulders.

“We’ll just make more copies and try again next weekend.  His white shirt was drenched almost completely and I had to turn my head to keep the situation from becoming potentially awkward.

“T-take your jacket. You’ll get sick,” I told him, trying to take off the jacket.

“No, it’s ok. Keep it. I have a tough immune system,” he said, holding up his bicep. I giggled and rolled my eyes.

“Whatever you say,” I said. It wouldn’t stop raining. I noticed Jonghyun shivering, as it got colder. I scooted close to him, hoping he would warm up a little. It wasn’t working, so I took off the jacket and draped it around the both of us. He looked at me with a questioning look.

“You’re too stubborn to take the jacket back, so why don’t we just share,” I said, avoiding eye contact. Our combined body heat was warm to say the least, and my eyes began to grow a little heavy. I dozed off.

When I woke up again, the sky was clear and the sun was ready to dip down below the city line. Jonghyun’s arm was around my shoulder and he had passed out as well. I nudged him and he groaned in protest.

“Five more minutes,” he mumbled.

“Jonghyun, wake up.” When he heared my voice, his eyes shot open and he looked at me, then at his hand that was wrapped around my shoulder, then back at me before he let go and jumped up. That is to say, he tried to jump up, but instead hit his head on the top of the small “shelter” if you can even call it that. I giggled at him as he rubbed his head where he hit it.

We walked back to the train station, and when we got there, I took off his jacket and held it out. He took it and smiled before we parted ways.

The next weekend we chose a more conventional place. At night, Namsam Tower is packed with people, so there we went. While people waited in line, we gave them a survey to fill out and we collected them. Soon enough, all the surveys were complete and Jonghyun and I sat down at the ramen shop downstairs. We ate, reading over what people wrote. Finally I put them away in my purse. I looked at my watch- it was almost 9:30 PM.

“While we’re here, you wanna go up to the tower?” he proposed. I thought about it for a second.

“Sure, why not.” We rode the elevator to the halfway point and waited in line to go to the top. The wait was surprisingly short, and before long, we were looking out at the view on top. I sat down on a bench and looked at the beautiful night scene of Seoul. Out of nowhere, a can appeared in front of me. Jonghyun was holding out a can of soda for me to drink, one for him self in his other hand. I took the drink and Jonghyun took a seat next to me.

“Good job, partner,” he said, holding up his drink for a toast.

“You too,” I smiled and we toasted. We sat there in comfortable silence, looking down on Seoul, still innocent and friendly, not knowing what would become of us later.