The Holiday Assignment
The Invasion Plan Of Planet B124AP224
Six aliens, the puff, and my sister watched in horror and awe as I gobbled down two pieces of deep fried tofu in one go, gulped down Eun Chae's ginseng tea and stole a piece of cabbage from Zelo's kimchi platter; all in one minute and bolted to the door all the while pulling up my jeans over Grey Calvin Klein shorts. I slipped over my own foot once, staggered to my feet, reached for my shoes, and pulled them on, shoelaces untied. Then, I half ran, half staggered towards the doorway in a desperate fish-like motion and collasped on the porch where I lost my footing again. Cursing, I folded the ends of my jeans sloppily and ran onto the pathway.
"Oppa! Your bag!" Eun Chae shrieked and when I turned, it whacked me on the face. I lowered the bag and saw Daehyun staring at me in mute shock and fear at his own accuracy. I decided to dismiss it and ran as fast as I could to campus.
I was half-an-hour late.
When I slid open the door to the lecture hall, everyone was in the midst of some kind of paper. At the corner of my eye, I saw Hyun Woo and Zin seated at the west-side of the hall, rolling their eyes. Professor Jung looked up from her clipboard and raised an eyebrow at me.
"Very punctual of you, Mr. Kim." she commented and everyone snickered. I grinned tiredly.
"Overslept, sansaengnim."
She tsk-tsked, "really, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were up late playing video games all night last night." and I managed another weary smile.
I hadn't been sleeping at all for the past few days, working up late for her assignment on the best method for casting of steel for hardcore mechanical engines. Now all I wanted to do was down a whole pint of Guiness stout and have a hangover for a week, despite the fact that I hated the smell of alcohol.
Day-dreaming again, I thought to myself, I'm going mental.
I slouched lazily to an empty seat and slumped into it next to a couple of dudes I knew, right in front of Hyun Woo and Zin. I felt Zin poke my back with a pen, but I ignored her. I was too tired to care.
"As we were saying before Mr. Kim made his dramatic entrance," well, I did bang against the door before sliding it open, but I was running; what did she expect?, "your semester vacation is approaching rapidly and..." she smiled at us menacingly as we held our breaths.
"...so are your vacation homework. However, this time, it'll be a tad bit more enjoyable, because..." she turned to look at me, "you'll be doing a video with the theme of your choice, provided it's connected to how you spend your holidays."
I froze.
So that's she's staring at me.
How evil - she knew I was an idiot when it came to using the camcorder.
"The form that you're filling is the registration for the Annual Creativity Competition, hence, your videos will be sent into to the event. The winners will get their videos broadcasted on reality TV and win a three-day-two-night trip to Singapore."
The bell rang and everyone scruffled to their feet.
"Remember, the deadline's the Monday after the hols," she reminded everyone over the noise of screeching chairs and footsteps.
I sighed.
"Bad day?" Kwag SooJin AKA Zin, my workshop partner asked me as soon as she reached my table.
"What do you want, Zin?" I said grumpily, and she whacked me on the shoulder.
"Two weeks I've been gone for practice camp after debut and you're already pouting?" she demanded.
"You left without telling me, and I was stuck with that defective robot for fourteen periods! What kind of a workshop partner are you?" I argued and she made to whack me again.
"Kim JunYu, you were the one who didn't check your cell! I texted you for at least sixteen thousand times, my manager thought I was dating!"
"I don't read texts, you dumb cow! When did you meet me, yesterday?"
"YAH..."
"Shut up, both of you!" Lee Hyun Woo, my best friend since I graduated from high school yelled, as he thumped us both on the back. Both my cap and Zin's oversized sunglasses fell off our head and nose.
"YAH!"
"That was vintage, you punk!"
"Jeez, will you two idiots quit bickering for a second? I'm having a migraine here." Hyun Woo complained, scratching his styled pointy hair.
"Two weeks," I slammed my books down, glowering at them, "two weeks I was left alone in complete boredom and solitude, whilst you two windbags go off to Lawd-knows-where for Lawd-knows-what."
"Practice camp, "Zin parroted.
"Photoshoot for Nylon." Hyun Woo said, still scratching his head.
"Why are all my friends celebrities?" I mused with an incoming headache.
"Because you're fortunate," Hyun Woo said, scratching his hair again.
"Stop that, man. You look like a monkey."
"I debuted last month, remember? Things were bound to get busy!" Zin argued.
"I was at the photoshoot at France!"
"The heck do I care? You could have called and told me, you traitors!"
"YAH!" Both of them yelled and I almost cowered, "know your place, you're the maknae here!"
True, they were both nineteen, and I was eighteen.
"Bullies," I muttered, and they grinned.
"He hasn't changed at all," Zin smiled and ruffled up my hair. I hastily crammed my cap back over it.
"Man, JunYu, do you even remember what group I debuted under; the amount of disregard you show me, you don't even call me noona!" she complained.
"Sure, D-Unit, under D-Business Entertainment and with 'I'm Missing You', along with Boram's sister - Woo Ram and Eugene. I still think you're pulling off the CL look." I said lazily, and she looked murderous.
"AM NOT!"
"You think I'm blind or something? The glasses, hair, jeans, jacket..."
"AM NOT PULLING OFF CL'S LOOK!"
"Why didn't you debut under YG if you wanted to be like her so much?"
"I SAID..."
"Now that you mention it," Hyun Woo perked his head to one side, "she does have that resemblance to 2NE1's CL, if you..." he was cut off as she cast him an acidic glance.
"One more accusation about how much I try to look like CL, and I'll severe the guy's tongue." she said, her eyes emitting killer-rays. We both shut up.
"So, what do you guys think about the assignment?" Hyun Woo asked as we walked together to the lunchroom down the hall from our lecture hall. The grounds were full of activity and noise. There were students littered over the campus like ants at a picnic, walking around with heavy holiday assignments.
"I don't know, I'll probably hand up one of my videos from camp." Zin said and peeled off her sunglasses as we entered the cafeteria. It was also jam-packed with students not eating, but doing their homework at the tables.
"What about you?" Hyun Woo asked, turning to me.
"Huh, I'll probably ditch it." and they both spun round to stare at me.
"But you can't ditch this one too, you'll hurt your average grade point!" Hyun Woo reprimanded me.
"I'm photophobic, okay? I loathe taking pictures, much less videos."
"Just take a video of you programming something, they'll love it." Zin said and we both turned, this time to stare at her.
"Pardon, but what's to love about programming?" I asked her incredulously.
"I never said they'll love your video, the only thing they'll probably give a dang about is your guts." she said and ordered a soy milk as we waited with her at the counter.
"I don't wanna know whether that makes sense even in alien language." I said and turned away. The heat in the cafeteria was making me dizzy, despite the fact that it was pretty ventilated.
"JunYu? You alright?" Zin asked as she caught sight of me. I opened my mouth to reply but then I suddenly felt my knees go weak. The last thing I saw before crashing to my knees was the horrified faces of Zin and Hyun Woo grabbing me by my hands and shoulders, as though in attempt of trying to stop me from falling...
Then, I was enveloped in total darkness, darker than a pit of death.
Comments