MinKi

I repeat the usual cycle of everyday. I get up, get ready and meet up with Linh to go to school together.

“How’s BaekHo doing?” She asks, while we’re in the bus.

“I don’t really know yet. I’m visiting him after school today” I answer, looking out the window. I was still trying to figure out who did that to BaekHo. My mind kept on coming back to JR. He’s the only person in the whole entire world who hates me and would hurt someone close to me. When we got off the bus, I made up my mind. JR was the culprit. I’m very sure that he alone acted upon attacking BaekHo. Linh and I go our separate ways once we enter the school. I go to my 1^st hour class as usual and sit in my assigned seat. Everyone comes in with JR coming in late. Same old routine as always. He makes us partner up with whoever we want because we’re going to be playing a game. I choose Duck-Won as my partner and we pick a seat to sit at. JR and his partner, Mi Young sit right in front of us. Mi Young is Angie’s closet friends, so wonder JR picked her as his partner. Mr. Ki tells us that we’ll be playing the game ‘2 truths and 1 lie’. He told us that it was a new game that he was trying out and that his friend had told him. We begin the game by writing down our 2 truths and 1 lie on a piece of paper. We hand it to him and he puts them in a clear jar.

“Yah! MinKi” Duck-Won calls me, notching my elbow.

“Yeah” I answer, looking at him.

“What happened to that guy yesterday?” He asks.

“BaekHo?” I ask.

“Oh that’s his name. Yeah BaekHo, so how bad are his injuries?”

“Well, his wrist is broken and 3 of his ribs are fractured so he won’t be coming to school for a good 4 weeks” I answer.

“Oh that ”

“I’m going to be tutoring him for the next 4 weeks in Korean History, Math and Science”

“Okay”

“I’ll be going to his house after school, you want to come?” I ask him, trying to avoid being called on.

“Yeah sure” He says. I look up to see Mi Young and JR staring at us. I decide to continue talking to Duck-Won, trying to ignore their stare. I continue my conversation with Duck-Won, not telling him about who I think beat up BaekHo.

Class ends with no homework, but Mr.Ki promises to give us homework tomorrow. I go to English with no one to sit with. I sit by myself. I daydream throughout the whole entire lesson but remember to write down the homework. A one page paper on who inspires you? That should be easy.

I wiz through the rest of the day, sitting with Duck-Won to eat lunch. We decide to meet in front of the gym. Math class goes by with me learning nothing. We’ve begin trigonometry and I basically know everything so I wonder why he’s re-teaching us. Gym comes and I change and go to the gym and wait. I get a surprise when I go to gym. JR’s girlfriend, Angie Joo is now going to be in my gym class. She runs to JR as soon as he enters the classroom. I sit there, watching JR smiling at his girlfriend. How could he just pretend like nothing ever happened? The teacher says that we’ll be playing kickball and divides us into 2 teams. Minhyun and Angie end up being on my team, the kids in the outfield and JR ends up being on the other team, the kickers. We play a fair game with me catching 4 balls. We have a tie breaker in which my team wins. I go to the water fountains to clean the dirt away from my face. As I am washing, I hear voices approaching me. I look up to see JR, Angie, Minhyun and a couple of our classmates.

“JR, what’s it doing here? He’s polluting the air just with his presence” Angie says, scrunching her face. I decide it would be best to just ignore them. I continue washing my face.

“I don’t know” JR says. As I am washing my face, I feel a splash of water hit my chest area. I look up to see Angie holding one of the water pipes directed at me.

“Oopsies, sorry about that” She says, laughing. I stand there for a while, shocked by what she has just done.

“Woah! He has s” One of the girls says. Today is a bad day to wear a lavender pink lace bra.

“And they’re big too” A guy in the back says. Angie stands there, dumbfounded. I try covering my chest with my arms and make a break for it.

I run towards the school without stopping, until I see the locker room. I open the door and go to one of the stalls. I lock the door and sit on the toilet in a fetal position. I rock myself back and forth, trying to calm myself down. *She did not just do that?* I say, trying to calm down. As I am trying to calm down, I hear voices and footsteps.

“Where the hell did he go?” I recognize that voice as being Angie’s

“I don’t know” One of the girls say.

“Well where ever he went, I’m glad I don’t have to see his face” She says, walking away.  I decide to just it up and go out there and change with the rest of them. I can’t keep letting other kids run over me every time they try to put me down. I get off the toilet and open the door. I walk towards my locker with my head held up high, totally ignoring the stares and whispers that are coming from them.

“ alert, my gay lard is rating off the charts. The has finally arrived” I hear Angie say, while laughing. The girls around her start laughing, some almost crying. I feel my eyes stinging from the tears that threaten to come out. I keep walking until I finally reach my locker. I open my locker and get my stuff out about to go to the bathroom stalls but someone blocks my path. It’s Angie and a couple of the girls in our gym class.

“Why can’t you change here, huh?” She asks, snatching my clothes.

“Because I don’t want to” I answer, trying to avoid eye contact.

“Well strip down, we don’t have all day” She says, throwing my shirt and blazer at my feet. I slowly bend down and grab my shirt. I put the shirt in between my legs to hold it there. I take the hems of the shirt I’m wearing and slowly bring it up, exposing skin.  I hear some of the girls whispering.

“Omo, his skin color is so creamy and pearly white” One of them say while the other says, “His stomach is so toned, I’m so jealous” She says, touching her stomach. I ignore what they’re saying and slip on my dress shirt and blazer.

“Take off the pants” Angie says. As I am about to undo my pants, I hear a big thud against the lockers. We all lock up to see a beautiful girl with red and pink hair, standing there with a baseball bat. She was wearing our school uniform and she gave off a strong aura.

“YAH!!! Get the hell away from her!” She yelled, raising her bat.

“Wh… what are you going to do if we don’t?” I hear Angie stutter while asking.

“I’m going to crush your puny pea sized brain” She says, banging the baseball bat against the lockers. I see Angie and a few of the girls jump but I just stand there, terrified.

“Whatever, it’s not like we were actually going to make him strip” Angie says, dropping my clothes on the floor. I rush forward and quickly pick them up.

“Thank you” I say, bowing.

“Hmmmm” She says, walking away dragging her bat. I quickly change and get out of there. I get out of the locker room and make my way towards the gym where Duck-Won is standing.

“Hey, sorry I’m late” I apologize.

“No, it’s okay” He says, as we begin walking. We walk in silence, towards BaekHo’s house.

“Hey Duck-Won, have you ever seen a very pretty girl with red and pink hair walking around our school?” I ask him.

“Nope, I’ve never seen that person before” He says, looking up at the sky. I too look up at the sky to look at what he’s looking at. There’s nothing really to see except for some birds flying in a V. We keep on walking until we reach BaekHo’s house.

“Is this where he lives?” Duck-Won asks, as I ring the door bell.

“Yep”

“Oh this is such a nice house” He says as the door opens. SaeRyun stands in the doorway all dressed up in a black suit and tie.

“Hey, MinKi. I’m so sorry I’ve got to go. Yuki is playing her piano and BaekHo is in his bedroom, resting” He says, as he walks out.

“Who’s that?” Duck-Won asks as we go inside the house. I take off my shoes before answering.

“That SaeRyun, he’s BaekHo’s older brother” I answer, putting on the house slippers by the door.

“Oh okay” He says, also slipping on the house slippers. We go to the kitchen and place our bags on the counter.

“Let’s go look for Yuki” I say, walking off with Duck-Won behind me. We go around looking for the room I last saw Yuki. We manage to find it without wasting that much time.

“Yuki” I say, standing at the door way behind her.

“Unni” She calls out, getting off the piano. She runs into my arms, hugging me.

“Unni, Uncle Poodle is hurt and you didn’t come and visit me” She says, on the verge of tears.

“Unni’s here and I brought with me a friend” I say, pulling Duck-Won’s arm. He comes forward with a smile on his face.

“Hello Yuki” He says, waving at her.

“Unni he looks like Daesung Oppa” Yuki says, pulling my arms to release her. I let her go and she walks up to Duck-Won.

“Nice to meet you Oppa, My name is Yuki” She says, bowing.

“Hello Yuki, I’m Duck-Won” He says, shaking her hand.

“Yuki, where’s your uncle?” I ask her.

“He’s upstairs. Here let’s go” She says, pulling forwards Duck-Won. We follow her upstairs towards a white door. She opens the door to BaekHo’s room. Everything in there is white except for the desk. BaekHo lies in the bed with his head probed up on 2 pillows.

“Uncle, your friends are here” Yuki announces, holding the door opened while she goes and joins her uncle in bed.

BaekHo opens his eyes, squinting at Duck-Won and I.

“Hi” He says his voice breaking.

“Uncle isn’t feeling very well. He’s been so sick that he’s only been able to eat once” Yuki says, touching BaekHo’s forehead.

“Yuki, why don’t you go play” BaekHo tells Yuki. She bounces off the bed and runs out of the room.

“Hey MinKi. I don’t think I know you” He says, pointing to Duck-Won.

“This is Duck-Won. He’s the one who brought you to my house yesterday” I say, introducing Duck-Won. BaekHo beckons Duck-Won to come closer.

“Nice to meet you, Duck-Won. I’m BaekHo” BaekHo says, shaking Duck-Won’s hand.

“Has anyone told you that you look like Daesung of Bigbang? You guys can almost be passed as twins” He says, letting out a grin.

“Oh thanks”

“So did you bring any homework?” BaekHo asks, trying to sit up.

“I only brought English. We’ have to write a one page paper on who inspires us” I answer.

“Oh I’m so bad in English” He says.

“I can help you write it if you want?” Duck-Won says.

“Okay, cool then let’s get started” BaekHo says. Duck-Won writes for BaekHo, while I write my own. I write about T.O.P of Bigbang how he used to have no friends and how he’s now made a name for himself. After we’re done writing I put the finished assignments on his desk.

“Was JR at school today?” BaekHo asks.

“Who’s JR?” Duck-Won asks, playing with his curls.

“The guy I sit next to in History” I reply, taking a seat on BaekHo’s bed so that Duck-Woon will be able to have the chair.

“Oh… “He says.

“How can he show up to school after doing this to you? He’s a conceited jerk” I say, looking at BaekHo.

“Please don’t say that about him. He’s my friend” He says.

“What type of friend will do this?” Duck-Won asks.

“I don’t know… I probably deserved it. I was hanging out with somebody that I wasn’t supposed to be hanging out with” He says, looking to the side.

“Who were you hanging out with?” Duck-Won asks.

“Me, he was hanging out with me” I answer his question.

“What’s wrong with hanging out with MinKi?” He asks.

“Should we tell him?” I ask BaekHo. He nods his head meaning yes.

“Well, I’m a boy” I say, looking at my lap.

“Huh? You’re clearly a girl” Duck-Won says, smiling at me.

“No I’m a girl…. It’s just that I was born into a guy’s body” I tell him, my head sinking down more.

“What????” He says, getting up.

“I have to go” He says, walking out of the room.

“My life ” I say, getting up.

“Where are you going?” He asks.

“I’m going to go get dinner” I answer, taking out my phone. I place it on bed and walk out. I make my way to the kitchen and open the fridge. There’s already food in the fridge. I take out the Kimchi fried rice and warm it in the microwave. I fetch Yuki and we go upstairs to BaekHo’s room to eat our dinner.

“Where did Duck-Won Oppa go?” She asks, opening the door for me.

“He had to go home” BaekHo answers.

“Oh okay, I hope to see him tomorrow” Yuki says, sitting on BaekHo’s bed. I feed BaekHo since he isn’t really able to do anything. I leave BaekHo once he’s fallen asleep and descend down the stairs with Yuki. We do the dishes together and she gives me a private piano lesson. Every time I’ll hit the wrong key, she’ll scold me for doing it wrong.

We keep on playing until I hear the front door open. We go to the door to see who it is and it’s SaeRyun.

“Daddy!” Yuki screams, running to her father.

“BaekHo’s asleep” I say, bowing, 

“I’ll go get my stuff” I say, running upstairs. I grab my phone and our homework and run back downstairs. I remember to grab my schoolbag.

“Do you want me to drop you off?”

“No, it’s okay”

I say goodbye before leaving the house. I make it in time to catch the 9:00pm bus. I sit there looking out the window almost missing my stop. I run to the complex and open the door.

“Welcome home, Rennie” Mom says, sitting on the living room floor with some fruits. I quickly say goodnight and crawl into bed.