A/N: I'm typing this chapter while listening to Park Bom's new single. It's really good! keke. Anyways, about this chapter, it's a superrrrr long chapter and the charity event is finally here. I hope you guys won't find it boring. Enjoy :-) A surprise is in town. keke.
 

Chapter 28: Boys Before Flowers

“DaeSung.”
“Who?”
“DAESUNG!!!”

[Silence]

“Bwahahahahaha,” YeJin started laughing like crazy. I was kind of annoyed by her extreme glee over my confession. “Did it really come?” she asked between giggles.
I frowned. Was it her mission in life nowadays to make me confused? “What really came?” I asked.
“The rain of rocks!!! Did it really come? Did a rock hit your head today? Is it the reason why all of a sudden you’ve came up with this conclusion that you love Dae?” she was still giggling like mad.

If she wasn’t my best friend, I swear I’d pick a huge rock and hit her head instead. “Yah!!!” I yelled in frustration, “Are you really thinking of that? I’m beyond confused now and you’re certainly NOT helping!”

YeJin stopped laughing almost immediately. “Sorry, sorry. It’s my bad. I shouldn’t have laughed,” she paused to clear , “So uh, tell me, how did you find out that you love Dae?”

I started telling her about the quiz in the Teenies magazine. YeJin remained silent even after I had finished. “Hello? YeJin, are you still there? Don’t you dare sleep on me!”

“Aish, I’m not sleeping! I’m thinking!” she replied, “Can you bring the magazine tomorrow? I wanna see it.”
“What for?” I asked in confusion. Don’t tell me YeJin wants to do the stupid quiz too!
“Aish, don’t ask too many questions! People in love shouldn’t be talking too much,” she said teasingly and I felt my cheeks getting warm. “Remember, tomorrow you’re going to see your love.”
“F.ck it, YeJin! This is so not funny!” I snapped angrily.
“But it’s funny to me!” she giggled.
“Yah!” I yelled angrily, “You’re so not helping! I hate you!!”
“I love you too, my bestie,” she sang, “Just go to sleep. Don’t be angry. We’ll talk more tomorrow, okay? It’s hard to talk over the phone over this kind of thing.”

I nodded solemnly as if YeJin could see me. “Okay,” I replied quietly. We said our goodbyes and hung up.

I thought talking to YeJin would give me some comfort. I was so confused over my own feelings about DaeSung. So many thoughts were lingering in my mind and I think my head was about to explode thinking about it.

Do I really love DaeSung?
Can I really trust a quiz to tell me about my feelings?
How am I supposed to meet him tomorrow?
Oh, God! Am I really in love?
What is love actually?

And…

Why the hell is my damn heart beating this fast?

***

I saw it; the thing that will save me from meeting with DaeSung on the bus. I had done some thinking the night before and I think I had to avoid seeing or talking to DaeSung until I had sorted out my feelings; until YeJin helped me sort out my feelings. It wasn’t like DaeSung really talked to me on the bus these few days; he didn’t even look at my direction. In a way, it was good that he was avoiding me because I think I needed to avoid him too.

Yeah, Lee ChaeRin’s life is f.cking complicated right now!

I looked to my left.
I looked to my right.
The old bicycle was like calling out to me. ‘ChaeRin-ah, ride me, ChaeRin-ah!’

Well, how can you turn down an old bicycle’s request right?
It’d be totally rude if you do.

So, I approached the bicycle with small baby steps, holding my breath at the same time. Like I had said before, this bicycle is like Appa’s second wife. He had ridden it ever since he was in college so that was why it was kinda sentimental for him to throw it out. I swear he took care of it more than he took care of Umma. Not like Hitler needs any taking care of, by the ways.

Moving right on; my Appa still hadn’t forgiven me for riding on his beloved old bike like I did last week that he would shoot me curious glances each time I was leaving for school, for fear that I’d secretly ride it again. That is why I needed to be extra careful that day.

I looked again to my left.
Right.
Left.

CLEAR!

I quickly rode on the rusty old bicycle and pedaled as fast as I could. I caught a glimpse of Appa’s (crazy) angry face when I was pedaling.

“Yah! Lee ChaeRin!! Come back here!!”

It was cue for me to pedal even faster. By the time that I got to school, I was already sweating a bucket. The other students looked at me funny, and I gave them my most evil look. Most of them turned away in an instance, most probably in fear. 

Yes, I had that kind of effect on people.
Well, on almost all people, except for those two idiots in front of me now.

YeJin and MinHo were laughing like crazy when they saw me.
“ChaeRin-ah! Why in the world are you riding that old rusty thing?” she said between giggles.
“Based on its appearance and the rust on its metal, I estimated this bike to be around 20 years old, am I correct?” MinHo said, scratching his chin as he gave the old bike a once over.

I wiped the sweat on my forehead. “You, stop laughing!” I said to YeJin and then turned to MinHo to say, “And you, stop being so smart-a.ss. It’s creepy how you even got this right.”

MinHo smiled proudly. “Like I said, Math is a valuable thing in the world. Haven’t you watched the drama series Numb3rs?”
YeJin groaned. “Who would’ve liked that kind of genre? Haven’t you watched Gossip Girl, d’uh?”

I watched as the two went into a heated debate about which drama series was better. I personally preferred neither so I think it was best that I stayed quiet like I did. After a few minutes, I got bored and decided to go to the place where the students kept their bikes. I don’t think they even realized that I wasn’t already there with them. Those two, whenever they get into a debate, nothing else mattered.

When I got to class, I peeked through the windows and saw DaeSung sitting at his seat. MinHo and YeJin were still not there. I had to pass by DaeSung to get to my seat so I decided to wait until those two came back to go to my seat.

“What are you peeking at?” HyeYeon’s voice, out of nowhere, startled me. 

I turned back to look that the b.tches were behind me, looking at me weirdly. Not like they ever looked at me kindly. It was basically how they had been looking at me ever since the first year we met.

“None of your business,” I quipped angrily. Then, looking at HyeYeon’s witchy smile, I was suddenly reminded by one thing. “You, come with me. I need to talk to you!”

I grabbed her by the arm and led her to the girls’ bathroom without waiting for her response. The other two girls tried to follow but when I gave them my fiercest glare, they stopped at their tracks.

Like I said, I had that kind of effect. Heh heh.

“What do you want from me?!” HyeYeon said angrily as she freed her hands from within my grasp. I could tell that she was actually scared being left alone with me. The b.tch had no balls when she didn’t have her airheads’ supports.

“Why did you tell SeungHyun about the thing that you saw at Lotte World” I said, trying to sound as calm as I could. In actuality, I was actually contemplating to grab a handful of her perfect hair.

HyeYeon smirked cunningly at me. “The words just slipped out,” she said, nowhere sounding sincere.

“Don’t lie!”
“I’m not! Besides, why are you so angry? I wasn’t lying about you kissing him.”
“We didn’t kiss!”
“You can’t fool me! I saw it, ChaeRin. Oppa needs to know that you’re playing him.”

Aish, my head hurts!
I really wanted to slap the life out of her.
I’m playing SeungHyun? 
If I wasn’t that irritated at HyeYeon, I would have been laughing my a.ss off. It sounded so ridiculous.

“Why are you doing this, HyeYeon? I’ve never done anything wrong to you! Just stay out of my business,” I said. I hated for this to continue, for her to be doing this kind of live news report to SeungHyun about things regarding me.

HyeYeon looked to the floor, her face darkened. “I like him, ChaeRin. I like Oppa.”

First it was ChaeKyoung and now HyeYeon.
What the hell is wrong with the girls at my school? If they liked SeungHyun, go ahead. It wasn’t really my business. But no, they just had to make my life miserable, like I had anything to do with SeungHyun. Why do they feel the need to confess about their love for him to me?

Do I look like some f.cking love priest to them?
And why in the world are they calling him Oppa?
He was our age, for God’s sake!

“Then? Go ahead and like him! It doesn’t have anything to do with me!” I said exasperatedly. I was fighting the temptation to slap her across the face.

HyeYeon opened and closed a few times but no voice came out of . She blinked at me; her expression was something that I couldn’t read. It was a mixture of confusion, sadness, anger and maybe, guilt?

“Leave her alone, HyeYeon,” came another voice and I turned to look.
It was ChaeKyoung. I didn’t even know that she had returned to school.

Great! 
Now the two SeungHyun lovers are going to gang up on me.

But to my surprise, ChaeKyoung came to stand beside me. “Just let her live in peace,” she said.

HyeYeon’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out. “This coming from the girl who actually threw rotten eggs at her,” she scoffed with a mocking smile.

ChaeKyoung blushed. “It was in the past. I’ve already apologized.”
“Whatever, ChaeKyoung! Just do what you think is right but there is no way I’m going to let go of Oppa!” she said, “ChaeRin, I’ll keep making trouble for you until you leave Oppa alone.” She gave me one long lingering look and flipped her hair with an air of confidence before she left the bathroom.

“Wow, she’s even crazier than me,” ChaeKyoung remarked dryly and I laughed.
“How are you?” I asked her. She looked healthy; definitely not the mess that I saw a few days ago.
“I’m better. Thank you, ChaeRin,” she smiled sweetly. I just noticed how pretty her smile was.
“You look great,” I complimented and she blushed, “I’m so glad you’ve decided to return to school.”
“I’m glad too,” she said, still smiling, “I didn’t know if I can face everyone at school but someone gave me the courage.”

Someone? 

“SeungHyun?” I asked. The baboon actually encouraged her to come to school? He must be nicer than I thought!

ChaeKyoung just smiled without answering my question. “If only you know how lucky you actually are, ChaeRin,” she said, “Come, let’s go to class.” 

She walked out of the bathroom and I followed her, still thinking about what she had said.
Lucky?Me? 
What did she mean by that?

When we arrived at class, I was relieved to see that MinHo and YeJin were already there. My heart was beating so fast when I passed by DaeSung to get to my own seat. I tried to look elsewhere but couldn’t resist looking at him and he gave me a smile.

It felt like my heart had stopped.

F.ck! 
I really need to avoid him at all cost. I feel like I’m going to faint each time I saw his face. I think my face would have turned to ripe tomatoes by then.

“Where did you go?” YeJin asked when I sat on my seat.
I began to take out my stationeries and textbooks from my bag as I told her what had happened in the bathroom. YeJin scoffed angrily as she glowered at HyeYeon and her crew.

“So, who won the debate? Numb3rs or Gossip Girl is better?” I asked.
YeJin blushed. “Turns out, we both love The Big Bang Theory so no one actually won,” she said.

I shook my head.
YeJin and MinHo are definitely weirdos.

“I want to tell you that I’m going out with EunHyuk today. Like I said, I’m going to give him a chance,” she said.

I blinked rapidly and my eyes nearly popped out. I was hearing things, wasn’t I? I thought YeJin was joking when she said she was going to accept EunHyuk but this was beyond my expectation. It was typical of YeJin to be passionate about one thing and forgetting about it the next day. I thought she was going to forget the whole giving-EunHyuk-a-chance thing.

She’s going out with him today?
What was she thinking??!!

“What?!!!” I said exasperatedly. “You’re not being serious, are you?”
“I am,” she said and nodded to show how serious she was about it. “Besides, it’s not like I’m in love or anything,” she snickered teasingly.

Well, that got me to shut up. YeJin had KO’ed me with that statement.

“You’re trying to avoid him, aren’t you? That’s why you rode your Appa’s second wife here.”
“I hate it when you’re being a miss know-it-all. You sound like MinHo!”
“Bleh! Hey, do you bring that magazine?”

I nodded and took out the magazine from the bag and opened it to page 65 before shoving it to her face. I was kinda irritated at her at that time.

YeJin scanned through the pages with her eagle-like eyes and when she put down the magazine on my desk, she began to giggle hysterically. “I really want to meet his Halmoni. I can’t wait to meet her. She’s a genius.”

I scratched my head. “What do you mean?”
YeJin just smiled without answering my question. I hate it when people just ignored my need for an answer, especially when I really wanted to know, like right now.

I glanced at DaeSung who was chatting animatedly with MinHo and felt a slight pang in my heart. I wanted to talk to him like that but in the same time, I wanted to avoid him too. I think I really missed hanging out with him.

Argh, I am so confused!
Looking at the giggling pig beside me who kept muttering ‘Cool Halmoni’, I really wanted to shout out my frustrations.

ChaeKyoung might be a genius but she was definitely wrong!
I wasn’t lucky, not even close.

***

During lunch, when they walked to the lunch spot, I decided to hide behind one of the trees to avoid bumping into DaeSung. I was happily making friends with the tree when YeJin came.

“What are you doing? Come, let’s have lunch,” she nudged me.
“I’m checking to see if this tree is okay, he he he,” I laughed awkwardly.
YeJin just looked at me with that skeptical look of hers. “You want to avoid him isn’t it? Your love.”

“Yah!!!!” I yelled, shutting with my hand, “Don’t say it out loud!”
YeJin slapped away my hand and giggled. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, “But you know, it’s just stupid to avoid him. You’re going to meet him every day in class anyways. It’ll be awkward. You should just tell him about your feelings. Dae is a nice guy.”
“Not now,” I said firmly. 

How could I tell YeJin that I knew that DaeSung had someone that he loved already; that it wasn’t me. From the way he said it during the Truth or Dare game, it was definitely GwiSoon. My heart hurts so bad each time that I think about it. 

DaeSung only saw me as a friend and I was okay with that until Halmoni gave me that stupid love quiz.

I hate you, Halmoni!

***

In the end, I managed to avoid DaeSung for the remaining day but then YeJin just had to remind me that the baboon’s charity event would be happening on Friday, which was only 2 days away. DaeSung would be there and from what I heard from YeJin, he’s bringing EunHyuk and GwiSoon too.

Great! 
Now I will get to see the two of them acting lovey-dovey right in front of my eyes. I think I needed to plan my early escape earlier that night. I don’t think I could stand seeing DaeSung with her. My heart would break if I did.

When I rode Appa’s second wife home, I was getting all kind of mocking from the people along the way. Apparently, my fierce glowering effect that I had on students at my school didn’t apply outside of school. They didn’t even care that I was glowering at them. 

Later that evening, SeungHyun texted me to come down to a Halloween-themed shop in the town. When I refused, as usual, he was bringing up about the whole slavery thing and because I was already in a bad mood thinking about DaeSung, I decided to go anyways. At least, quarrelling with the baboon will get my mind off things.

When I arrived at the shop, SeungHyun was already there, trying on a ridiculous witch hat. I laughed out loud, seeing how horrendous he looked. He reminded me of the witch in Hansel and Gretel.

“Aish, stop laughing! It’s not that funny,” he grumbled, “Why are you late?”
“I took the bus. It’s not like I can control the bus driver to drive faster!” I replied, still snickering.

SeungHyun took off the hat, tidied his hair and glared at me. “It’s not funny!” he said.
I made a mocking face and he glowered at me.

“Why do you need me here, anyways? Don’t tell me that you actually want me to dress up as the witch!” I said.
SeungHyun rolled his eyes. “What’s the need for that? It’s not like you’re going to be one of the ghosts. And besides,” he paused to give me a devilish smirk, “you already look like a witch just as you are.”

Why this stupid flashy underwear baboon! 
I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Especially when you look like that,” he said, pointing at my face.
I bit my lip. My patience was running thin and the only thing holding me back from strangling him was because the salesgirl was there, watching us. I bet she was actually drooling over SeungHyun.

Girls nowadays are so superficial.

“I’m going home,” I declared loudly, already making my way towards the exit. I knew meeting up with this baboon would only be a complete waste of time.

“Yah!” SeungHyun yelled as he grabbed me by the arm to stop me from going. “Stay,’ he commanded, his eyes darkened, “I’m telling you to say. The guys are here too.”
“What guys?” I frowned.

As if on cue, the dressing room’s door opened to reveal a pretty nun, a scary looking female ghost, a short Freddy Krueger and err, Casper.

Although it was still in broad daylight, I was still slightly intimidated by the ‘ghosts’ and subconsciously, I took a step backward to partially hide myself behind SeungHyun’s back.

“She’s here?” the female ghost said, pointing at me. It actually sounded like a male and he sounded like someone familiar. He was looking at me through his messy long hair with those big scary eyes. “Yah, Lee ChaeRin! What do you think? Do I look scary enough for the scary house?”

The ‘ghost’ knew my name? 
I came out of hiding from behind SeungHyun’s back and took a closer look at the ‘ghosts’.

“Hi, ChaeRin,” ‘Casper’ waved at me.
It was Micky. I guess being the friendly ghost really fits him.

“So?” the ‘female ghost’ inquired. Suddenly, he looked very familiar.
“HeeChul? Is that you?” I asked.
“No, I’m a dead girl who had just woken up from death to eat you,” he replied sarcastically, pushing the long wig out of his face. It was HeeChul alright. There was no denying the sarcastic voice.

I looked at the other two ghosts. The short Freddy Krueger glared at me.
“TaeYang?” I said.
“Yup,” he said and took off the Freddy Krueger mask.

So the only one left was JiYong. I turned to stare at the pretty nun.
“What?” he sounded offended.
“JiYong?” I said in disbelief, “You look really pretty.”
“That’s what they say,” he said in an irritated voice. I bet he was still pissed that he had to be the nun ghost.

Truth be said, I think he looked even prettier than me.

“Whatcha think, TOP