A/n: About this chapter, things might get a little bit crazier. keke. Have fun reading :-)



DaeSung

“Please help me, ChaeRin!” he pleaded desperately.

I blinked rapidly. Did I just hear correctly?
EunHyuk wanted my help?
Well, what the hell did this douche want?
I excused myself from YeJin and went towards the middle of the field for some privacy.

“Are you sure you want to talk to me?” I asked, “What could I possibly help you with?”
“You know about what,” EunHyuk said, as if I understood what he meant.
“No, really! What?!!” I said exasperatedly.

EunHyuk inhaled deeply before saying, “YeJin. I want YeJin.”

I rolled my eyes.

Well, to be honest, I wasn’t really surprised. The way he kept pestering me about YeJin yesterday gave enough clues for me to know what was on his mind. “Then? What do you want my help for? Go pursue her, then!” I said.
“She’s your best friend. You have to help me. From what I can tell, she’s not really fond of me now. Some good words from you will definitely help me. It’s a girl’s thing,” EunHyuk explained his bizarre plan.

Well, his plan did actually sound legit but there was just one tiny problem. What good words could I possibly say about EunHyuk?! The first thing that came to my mind when I think about EunHyuk would be ‘erted’.

“Sorry, I can’t help you.”
“Aw, come on now, ChaeRin. Please? I’m begging you. This might be my only chance for happiness. You don’t want to ruin that for me now, do you? I’m DaeSung’s best friend and he has done a lot to you. Think of it as doing him a favor instead of for me.”

Why this manipulative monkey!

He sure had a good way with words. I really wanted to turn him down, I do, but in a way he was right. He is DaeSung’s best friend. It would feel horrible to turn him down when it was like turning DaeSung down, even though DaeSung is acting cold towards me now.

“Okay, fine!” I said, “But after that, you’re on your own. Besides, there is someone else pursuing her and he’s a handsome genius!”
“Bleh! I can do better than him. I know so many pick up lines that would put him to shame.”

Okay, someone needs to tell him that his pick up lines real bad and that wasn’t really an advantage for him to go against the likes of MinHo.

“But he knows the love equation.”
“There is a love equation??”
“Yup, your competitor is going to make her love him using science. How are you gonna compete with that?”
“Aish, I need to do my research. I really hate nerds. Anyways, don’t forget what you have promised me, ChaeRin. My life depends on you.”

I rolled my eyes as he said his goodbye and hung up. I went towards YeJin who’s munching her kimbab with a deep frown on her forehead.
When I sat down beside her, she eyed me suspiciously.

“Who was that?”
“Hitler.”
“What does she want?”
“Nothing much. Just asking me about my laundry.”
“Oh.”

YeJin was about to look down on her lunchbox when she suddenly turned to gaze at me up and down. “There’s something different about you, ChaeRin-ah,” she looked thoughtful as she said that, “Is it your teeth? Your nose? Oh, I know it! Your lips! You’re wearing lip gloss aren’t you?”

I rolled my eyes. “No, no and no,” I said.
I had tied up my hair into a high ponytail so that was probably why she didn’t notice the change of my hair color.

Suddenly, she smiled widely. “Okay, now I really got it! You’ve changed your hair color! And you eyebrows are really neat! What makes you do that? I thought you once said that you’d rather die than go through the hell of plucking your eyebrows. Remember last year when I plucked them, you said that I was cruel and heartless for doing that to you? Gosh, you even cried calling for Hitler at the time!”

I blushed. Well, that really sounded like me and I was embarrassed to admit that. I need to keep my cool.

“I didn’t do this to myself,” I explained, “It was DaeSung’s Halmoni. She wanted to do this for me,” I said.

“DaeSung’s Halmoni, huh?” YeJin looked thoughtful for a while. “Hey, what happened yesterday? You didn’t really tell me.”

So, I began to share with YeJin regarding all that had happened yesterday at DaeSung’s house. YeJin didn’t say a thing and sometimes she would steal a quick glance towards DaeSung.

“I have apologized, but he’s still acting cold towards me YeJin-ah. What should I do? It wasn’t even my fault! It’s the baboon’s fault,” I defended myself exasperatedly.

YeJin sighed deeply. “ChaeRin-ah,” she said softly, looking at me straight in the eyes, “I’m sorry to tell you but this time, you’re wrong.”
“What?!! What did I do?!!!” I shrieked.
“Try to think hard about it. You’re always so blunt regarding the feelings of others and I don’t want to tell you first without you figuring it all out by yourself. Frankly, it was really entertaining for me for this past two weeks so that was why I didn’t want to tell you anything but now that I have understood how hurtful the matters of feelings can be, I’ve decided that enough is enough. I really wish that you can figure it out and be happy with your choice. Can you do that for me, ChaeRin? Or do I still need to wait for the rain of rocks to come and hit your head?” YeJin said.
“Eh? I don’t understand,” I said as I scratched my head.

Was YeJin talking in some cryptic language?
I honestly didn’t catch what she was trying to say. 
Or was I going to dumb?

YeJin groaned like a cow, make it a huge cow at that. “Argh, I give up!” she raised her hands in the air and shook her head as I continued to scratch my non-itchy head while watching her bizarre behavior. “You said that Halmoni asked you to do something right? Tell you what, give yourself the two days to clear up your mind from all those irrelevant thoughts and then do what she asked you to do. If your thick brain still can’t figure it out, I’m telling you, I’m gonna crack open your skull and slap your brain!”

“Err.. okay,” I said. Well, what are you supposed to answer to that kind of statement?

YeJin shook her head and exhaled deeply. I think my best friend had a problem of her own. “Yah, stupid nerd!” she called out to MinHo. MinHo turned to look at her. “Tell her about the part time job at your father’s shop.”
“She’s working there?” I heard DaeSung asked MinHo to which he just nodded.

MinHo came towards us. “YeJin, it’s not logical for a nerd to be stupid, do you know that? According to the dictionary, a nerd is a person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept. Someone is called a nerd when they like to study, thus how can someone who likes studying be stupid?”

I found myself nodding in agreement at his words. It was really a convincing argument. When I turned to look at YeJin, I saw her eyes had turned into slits as she glowered at MinHo.

YeJin groaned loudly and she left the spot to go and sit with DaeSung who was sitting a few meters from us. MinHo smiled to himself before sitting beside me. I think he was happy for being able to annoy YeJin. I wonder if that was his strategy of making YeJin fell for him.

He began telling me the details about the work at his father’s shop. Basically, I had to be there before 5 p.m. so that the guy whose shift ends at that time could show me around. I had to take care of the cashier and showed the customers the things in the shop when asked. He said the job is pretty easy and his dad paid 5000 won per hour which was quite a lot for students like me.

I could feel eyes staring at me and true enough, when I looked up, I saw YeJin and DaeSung staring. When they saw me looking, they pretended to look elsewhere and whispered something to each other. I heaved out a sigh.

In a way, the two days part time job would be a great opportunity to get my mind off things.

Let’s just hope that my Umma, the Hitler, didn’t find out about the job. I might have to lie to her about helping YeSung at his charity event.

***

Okay, this is boring as hell. If there was any award for the most boring job in the whole world, this would win hands down. I’m not exaggerating, this really .

First of all, the only customers I got were stupid school boys trying to sweet talk me into letting them buy cigarettes. It was against the law to let school boys buy cigarettes and I don’t want to be jailed. Then, DaeSung’s ex-bullies came to buy the cigarettes and I had to let them because MinHo had specifically asked me to give them the privilege. Other than that, there were some old grandmother and Ahjummas coming to buy their groceries. Unfortunately for me, unlike in the movies where all good looking boys came to the grocery store and fell in love with the girl at the cashier, I didn’t get any of that.

Sometimes, SeungHyun would send me a text message, just to annoy the hell out of me. I mean, in one of his message, he predicted that I’ll make the store go bankrupt with my bad customer service skills. Apparently, he said that I was rude and loud, which is definitely not the kind of cashier that the customers want.

Talk about insulting me to the core!
As if my short stint can cause some financial breakdown to the store.

Luckily, there was a computer beside the register and I ended up playing Sudoku to pass my time since it was the only game available in it. I bet MinHo was the one who put it there. That boy had a love affair with numbers, I’m telling you! Time passed ever so slowly and when the night shift’s guy came to take over the job, I took off the hideous blue apron and said my greetings before walking home.

It was after I had walked for about a block when I realized that the street looked much scarier than during the day. I glanced at my watch and it was already 10.12 pm. There weren’t many people at the streets at this time and most of the shops were already closed. The last bus to my house was at 9.30 pm and I didn’t really have the money to take the taxi. I decided that I would try to brave myself and walk all the way home although I was already frightened by the darkness.

Halfway along the way, I had the weird feeling of someone following me. At one point, I stopped to look behind me but there was no one there. I inhaled deeply and quickly fastened my pace but the feeling of being followed was still there. Maybe I was being paranoid since it was dark and already late at night.

“Whoaa!!” I screamed when a black dog suddenly jumped out of nowhere in front of me. I was beyond scared; it was like life had been out