Let me tell you a bittersweet story.

When we were ten, YeJin decided that she wanted to become a professional ice-skater and enter our district junior ice skating championship. I, in my role as supportive best friend, was forced to agree when she decided it was better to skate on the surface of the frozen pond near her house. It wasn’t like there was anything wrong with the skating rink that we usually frequented but she decided that there might be spies of her rivals watching her every moves to sabotage her chance of winning. 

Like I said, we were ten.

I watched from the sideline as she glided like a swan on the frozen surface and asked me every few seconds if she was doing well. It was winter and I was freezing to death but I never once took my eyes off of her.

If you ask me, I thought that she could skate pretty well but I didn’t know if it was enough to win her a medal. I mean, I’ve seen how the other kids - some younger than us - skated at the rink. I swear there was even one little boy who could perfectly twirl for nearly a minute.

I yelled my words of encouragement each time she failed to do the triple loop.

Then, the horrifying thing happened.

As we were only ten, we assumed that any frozen surface would be safe to skate on. We didn’t know that it could crack to reveal the freezing cold water underneath.

I watched in horror as YeJin leaped and fell into the cracks. Her arms were flailing as she struggled to get out of the icy water.

“Help!! Heeeeelllllpppp~~!!!” she screamed frantically.

I quickly went near the edge of the crack and held out my hand as far as I could but she was beyond my reach. I panicked. YeJin’s energy had seemed to decline and I simply couldn’t let her drown in front of my eyes; I wouldn't be able to live if she did.

I looked around for help but there was no one around. “Help! Somebody help us!” I screamed at the top of my lungs but no one had responded. Tears had started to fall down and I prayed to God for a miracle.

Then, just then, I saw it. The miracle. It was in the form of a broken tree branch that I must have missed due to panic.

I frantically ran to YeJin with the branch and when she grabbed it, I pulled with every ounce of energy that I had in me.

And that was how Park YeJin escaped death.

She was soaking wet and shivering. Her skin looked pale and her lips were blue. I hugged her to offer some warmth.

“Are you okay?”
“Grrr….grr… grr…”
“Come, let me carry you.”

I carried her on my back and quickly ran to her house. I don’t know whether it was due to exhaustion or shock of what had happened that had caused me to faint the moment that YeJin’s mother had opened the door to the house.

When I woke up nearly an hour later, I was on YeJin’s bed with her lying beside me. We were wrapped with three layers of blanket.

“You awake?” she asked.
“Yes. How are you feeling?” I asked back.

YeJin didn’t answer my question. Instead, she was staring at the ceiling, a faraway look in her eyes. “You know what I just learned?” she asked.

“That you’re a terrible skater?”
“No, guess again.”
“That we should stick to skating at the rink?”
“No.”
“That you’re a huge pain in the ?”

“Yah, Lee ChaeRin!” she yelled.
I giggled. “Oh, just tell me already!”

YeJin turned to look at me and smiled her sweet smile. She was still pale and shivering but she looked better than before.

“I’m so glad we’re friends,” she had said.

*******

I’m so glad we’re friends.

DaeSung had texted me the same exact words. The sentence was short and sweet but it made a whole lot of difference.

It hadn’t even been 24 hours since I befriended Kang DaeSung but he had twice managed to make my insides feel warm and fuzzy. Yes, I know that before that I thought he was the biggest loser on Earth but turns out he wasn’t too bad. Like they said, don’t judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, a man by his big nose. ^_^

I didn’t even know how to reply to that simple text.

Me too – Too lame and just-kill-me-now corny.
Thank you – Too I’m-going-shopping-with-my-grandmother’s-friends plain.
Really? – Too please-be-my-friend desperate and uncool.
I know – Too proud.

So I decided not to reply to make life easier for me. 
I was sure DaeSung wasn’t expecting a reply anyways.
 

**********

The next morning, I woke up with a jolt to Umma’s thunderous scream. I swear, my heart stops each time I hear her scream with that loud voice of hers. One of these days, I'm going to die of a heart attack because of her.

YeJin once joked that whenever she hears thunder, she’d laugh thinking how similar it was to Umma’s voice. That’s how loud my dear mother’s voice was. I bet if Kang DaeSung would ever meet my Umma, he’d sure pee in his pants knowing how timid he was.

When I rode the bus, I could have sworn I saw his face in front of me, grinning foolishly. I blinked hard. Then the image was waving at me. I blinked again trying to put the image away from my mind. That was when that annoying voice shouted, “ChaeRin-ah!!”

It was really him; Kang DaeSung.

Suddenly, the whole bus turned quiet. Everyone was looking at me; I swear even the driver ajusshi was stealing a glance at me through his rear-view mirror. I was beyond embarrassed.

“Excuse me, make way please. Excuu~~se me,” DaeSung practically shoved everyone else and ignored the angry glares to make his way to the spot I was standing, “Good morning! Had a good sleep last night?” he asked loudly and smiled.

That was him, always smiling.

I groaned. “No,” I answered curtly, trying to imply that I wasn’t up for a chit-chat. I was never a morning person, especially after my Umma woke me up with her thunder-like voice

Too bad, DaeSung missed the sign.

“No? Oh, I had a great sleep. I had too much to eat. My Umma’s spaghetti is the best in the world so I had 5 servings,” he patted his stomach, “I think I’d be full till tomorrow, no kidding. Then this morning when I wake up, I saw a large drool spot on my pillow. No wonder I was dreaming about being on a yacht!”

Apparently, the passengers near us couldn’t help overhearing as I could hear some of them snickered at DaeSung’s words.

I was embarrassed but DaeSung didn’t seem to notice. 

“Lower your voice,” I hissed, “People are listening.”
DaeSung looked confused. “Who?” he asked. When he looked around to find people smirking at him, his face turned into a deep shade of crimson. 

“Was I that loud?” he whispered softly.

I nodded.

“You weren’t that loud,” a lady in front of us said.

Both DaeSung and I looked at her in shock.

“Bbb-but, Ahjumma you still can hear me!” DaeSung pointed out. 

The lady just smiled. “Young love,” she exclaimed, “full of happiness and joy.” Obviously she was talking about us since she was smiling at us in a very weird, creepy way.

I choked on my saliva. 
DaeSung gasped.

“Ahjumma!! We’re not like that! We’re friends! Friends!!” he tried to explain but his voice was loud enough for the whole bus to hear. Again, we were the center of attention.

“Friends?” the lady chuckled mockingly, “Every love started with being friends, my dear child.”
“Ew, Ahjumma! GROSS!!!” I said. I had to use all of the energy that I had in my body not to barf at her words.
“Yeah, Ahjumma. We’re not lovers,” DaeSung tried to help.

She just smirked irritatingly. “You can’t fool me. I was young once,” she said.

I slapped my head in frustration and DaeSung groaned loudly.

Lucky for us, our stop came. I was never happier to see school. I just couldn’t handle the way that lady was looking at both DaeSung and me. She even wished us good luck- I assume for our ‘love’- before we got off the bus.

“Talk about creepy.”
“She was gross.”
“Definitely gross.”
“And the way she was looking at us.”
“I know! Yuck! She said she wasn’t listening but obviously she did!”
“I wish we’ll never see her again.”

We saw YeJin waiting for us near the gate and waved at her. She beamed when she saw us walking together, obviously happy that we could become friends.

DaeSung told YeJin about the lady in the bus and she responded by laughing her heads off. 

“You two together?” she said between laugh, “Even a blind man would know! Hahaha,” she was laughing again till her tears came out.

“I know, right? That Ahjumma was all ‘I was young once’ crap! If only I could shove her out of the bus,” I said with disgust.

We walked towards our class. YeJin suddenly nudged me, pointing at a boy in front of us and my heart immediately skipped a beat. 

MinHo, my God of Coolness, was walking (and yawning) coolly, oblivious to the amount of glassy-eyed stares that he had gotten from the girls along the way.

“Oooh, ChaeRin, do you like hhhh--- hmmmmm…” I covered DaeSung’s mouth with my hand before he even managed to finish his sentence. His voice was loud enough for the whole school to hear and I didn’t want other people to know about my secret little crush.

“Do not, I repeat, do not say a word. Understand?” I warned.

DaeSung nodded, his arms raised in surrender. I quickly let go of my hand and continued staring at the handsome back of his royal gorgeousness.