Drip, drip, drip .

               The tears steadily fell, and no matter how much Song SuJin tried to sniff and wipe at her tears, nothing good came of it. Her nose continued to stay runny and her eyes continued to shed tears at a rapid pace.

               She couldn’t get his voice out of her head; soft and gentle, like he always was, but that voice filled her with so much sadness.

               “I’m sorry SuJin-yah, but I’ve never seen you in that before. You’re...you’re like one of the guys; I can talk with you about anything and everything. But go out with you? Be your boyfriend? That would be too weird for me. I’m sorry, but I can’t accept your feelings, nor can I return them. Mianhae.”

               It was always the same thing every guy – even girls – told her.

               She was just like a guy – a tomboy. She was “one of the boys,” “one of the guys,” “never really seemed to radiate that girliness that other girls radiated.” How did that make sense, anyway? That made absolutely no sense, yet it was so true.

               How long? Joanne wondered then. How long before I don’t seem like a guy anymore? How long until people start seeing me as who I truly am – a girl? I enjoy befriending guys easily without girls seriously being jealous and all, but it hurts. Why don’t they see me as competition like they do with other girls? Simply because I dress up in baggy clothes, because I don’t wear make-up, don’t like things that normal girls do ?

               But that makes me different, unique! Appa and omma always said that I was special like that, being the way I was! Does...does no one see that anymore, and instead see a girly-looking guy every time their eyes rest on me? That’s not what I want, though! I want to be seen as who I am – a girl!

               I...I have to do something , Joanne decided right then and there, wiping her tears away once more. There has to be a way to get people to realize that I’m a girl, not a boy!

               And she vowed to find that way.