I was in love with the most quiet person in our class. Lee Sandeul.

Well, it was not because he dislike talking a lot, it was because he can't speak, not anymore. Everything he wanted to say were all trapped in his head. According to doctors, for Sandeul's case, it was a mental problem. His inability to talk wasn't caused by any failure from his body parts, it was caused by painful incidents that caused him trauma which scares him to talk again. It was pretty normal around people these days, especially people who experience intense bullying from school or serious family or personal problems. 

I met Sandeul when we entered High School. At first, I barely noticed him, obviously and it took me a month to actually recognize him and call him by his name. I wanted to befriend him, even though a lot of people already told me not to get myself involved with him, I pursued. 

"Hey." I called as I walked towards him. Sandeul always gets the right end corner seat of the classroom. Maybe it was his own way of excluding himself  from the class since he's barely seen from there.

He looked up almost immediately as soon as he heard his name, but when he saw I was already in front of him, he immediately went back to facing the window.

"Hi. I'm Sun Hye. Let's be friends." I gave him the good old smile and handed out my hand for a shake.

He moved alright, but he just got his cute duck stuff toy from under his table, placed it above his desk and buried his face on it soon after.

"See? I told you. He would just ignore you." One of my friends told me.

But instead of finally turning around and regretting what I did, I instead bursted into laughter which made everyone turn their heads on me, even him.

He looked surprised, he popped his eyes and pouted his lips like a cute little duck, wondering why on earth was I laughing that hard.

To be honest, I did not find what he did, annoying. It was pretty cute actually, I did not expect him to ignore me by burying his face on a fluffy stuff toy, I expected him to shrug me off like what any other person do when they ignore people. 

"No matter how much you ignore me, I would always talk to you, everyday." I grinned at him.

He blinked, several times, it was as if he can't believe what was going on. 

And from then on, I continued to bug him, everyday, talking to him about different things which I'm sure of he never listens to. But that was okay, as long as he knows I am persistent enough to be his friend, soon enough he's going to appreciate what I'm doing. I sit by him during Lunch, I follow him everyday when he goes to the library after school, I even walk with him halfway to his home! All of that for my goal of being his friend. I wanted to befriend him not because I was challenged to do it, I wanted to befriend him because I like him, I like his personality and I want to know more about him. He's such a mystery to me.

Everyday when I get a new response from Sandeul because of my endless chatter, even if it was just a small smile or a nod or a sigh, it felt like the world to me. That little responses from him would always make my day. It was very much alike to the feeling of contentment or satisfaction after winning something you know you've worked hard for.

After months of my persistent pursuance of Sandeul, I finally got what I wanted. Sandeul finally opened up himself to me, not through words but through actions. He spoke to me via sign language which I even studied learning just so we'd be able to conversate. It finally came to the point where he was now the one approaching me and opening conversations. He told me stories of what he did from the past day and he'd tell me some interesting stuffs about what he likes or hates. Eventually, Sandeul became my best buddy, we shared different stuffs about ourselves which other people didn't know and we did stuffs together that only the two of us know. (Get nasty thoughts out from your mind, please)

As I grew close with Sandeul, I eventually came to know him much more as a person. And he learned to trust me enough with the stories of his past and who he truly is. Sandeul told me he was an only child but his parents separated when he was only 5 and he came to live with his mother from then on. Several years after, Sandeul's mom committed suicide. The nine-year-old Sandeul, who had just started living his life as a grade schooler, came back home with a mom hanging dead from the ceiling. To be honest, the moment he revealed to me about what happened to him, I literally was out of words, it was so tragic, and considering how small Sandeul was still back then and how severe th