“Yaa, Lee SungJong!” a boyish looking girl called out to a girlish looking boy. “You cut your hair! Gahahahah!”

“Yaa, Yoo Iseul!” the boy shouted back, throwing a plastic bag right in the girl's face. “What's wrong with a boy having short hair, huh??”

“Gahahahah,” Iseul chuckled despite getting hit in the face with a cold plastic bag. “You just look weird, that's all. I never thought you were a real guy~”

“Oh yeah?” SungJong challenged, staring at his best friend straight in the eyes. “What if I kiss you right here and now? Would you say that you were kissed by a girl or a guy??”

Iseul's face turned red instantly at the thought of having her first kiss. But then she couldn't help but sneak a look at the pair of lips that was right in front of her. SungJong sure had pretty lips...a bit too pretty for a guy. Then she had to force herself to look away just to avoid giving herself an awkward feeling whenever she stared at SungJong for too long. “Yaa, I was just joking...no need to get so sensitive about it...”

“Let me ask you something then,” he started, as Iseul stole a glance at his face before looking away again and then nodding. “Have you never seen me as a guy? What am I to you anyway?”

“Yaa, you said you were going to ask something...not somethings,” she blushed harder at the unexpected questions. She never knew that side of SungJong before, he was always so weak and soft. But just then he was so strong and firm. She knew things were getting more awkward if she didn't do something to prevent it. “Now get out of my face, you ert!”

SungJong immediately backed away with his hands in the air. “You asked for it, so you're the ert!”

“Shut up!” Iseul shouted before bursting into a fit of laughter. She had successfully avoided an awkward situation. Safe! Then the two best friends enjoyed the ice cream that was in the plastic bag and talked as if nothing had happened.

But soon Iseul found herself unable to be quite like her usual self around SungJong anymore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Yaa, Yoo Iseul...” SungJong gaped at the girl that was standing right in front of him. “You put on makeup??”

“Ya- I mean, what's wrong with a girl putting on makeup for school?” Iseul said in a slow voice, hooking some of her long hair behind an ear. “All the other girls do it too.”

“I guess so...” he responded, a blush slightly burning his cheeks. “It's just that you...look weird.”

She saw the change in the color of his face and smiled. “Well, you'll get used to it soon. I just thought a little change won't hurt, you know?”

“Change, huh?”

“Wow, is that you, Yoo Iseul??” a guy suddenly cut in and looked at Iseul from head to toe. “You look hot! What did the summer break do to you?”

“Yeah,” another guy chimed in. “I never knew Yoo Iseul was this pretty before!”

“Hey, you guys are right!” one of the girls took a look at Iseul as well. “You did a really nice job with you eyes, too!”

Soon a lot of people began noticing the 'new' Iseul and all SungJong could do was pretend to read the book in front of him.

The first day of school went by quickly and the last bell finally rang to signal the end of classes. Iseul started packing her stuff up when SungJong came up next to her.

“You need help?” he offered.

“Ani, I'm almost done,” she answered as she shoved the last of her books into her bag. The way she did it made SungJong smile for a while until three girls came around.

“You ready to go, Iseul?” one of the girls asked, side eyeing SungJong before giving Iseul a smile.

“Ready to go where?” SungJong asked before Iseul could answer. “I thought we were going to watch the soccer match at the school field together today?”

“Oh, yeah,” Iseul turned to SungJong and gave him an apologetic look. “Mian, SungJong-ah, I kind of promised the girls that we would go shopping after school.”

“But we promised to watch the match during the summer break, remember?”

“Ara, I know,” she sighed and then pulled him to the side so as to get out of the girls' earshot. “We can still catch the next match together. There are a lot more matches to go right? But I don't always get invited by the girls to go shopping together.”

SungJong wanted to argue with her. “We promised this before you promised them!” But he didn't say it out loud. He could see how much she wanted to go out with the girls. Besides, she had always been hanging out with him. It wasn't like he was losing her to those girls. He convinced himself that it was a one time thing only and said, “Ne, promise me we'll catch the next match together, eo?”

Iseul smiled so widely SungJong thought his eyes would go blind. “I knew you would understand! Gomawo, chingu!”

Then with that, she left with the girls and SungJong was left alone after school for the first time in his high school life. “Chingu...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“SungJong-ah~ what are you doing?”

SungJong raised his head to look at his best friend only to find some stranger staring back at him. “Nu-nuguseyo? Wh-who are you?”

“Ya- I mean, are you calling me ugly or something!” Iseul pouted her lipglossed lips and straightened the ribbon on her head.

“A-ani...”SungJong stuttered as he tried to find a good word to describe how she looked to him. “You just don't look like your usual self anymore. I barely recognized you.”

“That's a good thing isn't it?” she giggled and spun around awkwardly trying to look graceful.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing, there were no shorts...but then he couldn't believe what he just heard. The Iseul he knew would never giggle like a girl. She always laughed whole heartedly with wide open. Not giggle and cover with one hand.

“What have you done with my Yoo Iseul??”

Unknowingly, SungJong had stood up and slammed the table with his hands which were then throbbing in pain.

“Lee SungJong...” Iseul gasped, and then looked around and saw that everyone in class were staring at them. “SungJong-ah...”

Before any of them could say another word, the teacher came into the class so they had to be seated for the lesson to start. But even after classes and during break time, Iseul never found the opportunity to talk to SungJong alone. There was always someone in the way whenever she thought she would use that chance to talk to SungJong. By the end of the school time, she knew it was her last chance.

“SungJ-”

“Iseulie! Let's go, the happy hour is gonna start in just fifteen more minutes! We need to get there fast!”

“But I need to talk to...” Iseul glanced over at SungJong's seat but he was no longer there.

“Mwo?” the girl said and shrugged when her girl friends asked them to hurry.

“Never mind...” she sighed and reluctantly followed the girls out of the school building.

As Iseul absent-mindedly walked along with the girls chattering nonstop beside her, she suddenly got pulled to the side with clamped shut. She wanted to scream out to the girls, who weren't even aware of her disappearance, but decided against it when she inhaled a familiar scent from her captor's hand. After the girls were out of sight, the hand loosened and Iseul met eyes with her best friend.

“Yaa, Lee SungJong!” she hissed, hitting him on the arm. “What was that for? You scared me to death!”

“Please always be like this...” was all SungJong said, his face sad yet he never broke contact with Iseul's gaze.

“Yaa...” she started to say but felt a blush creeping up her cheeks that she had to look away from his sorrowful eyes. “What are you saying...”

SungJong then put both his hands on the sides of her face and made her look at him again. “Please don't look away. Please keep saying 'yaa, Lee SungJong'. Please keep hitting me whenever I do something stupid. Please laugh with all your heart. Please come with me to the soccer match. Please talk to me more. Please pull your hair up in a bun. Please come to school bare faced. Please wear shorts under your skirt again. Please be my Yoo Iseul again. Please...don't change...”

The whole time SungJong was telling her these, tears accumulated in her eyes and she could feel them wanting to fall. But she didn't let them. Because crying was something the real Yoo Iseul wouldn't do. So she blinked them back, took a deep breath and...

“Gahahahahah!” laughed in SungJong's face. “Yaa, Lee SungJong! Why are you being sooooo cheesy? It's giving me chicken skin! And what is this supposed to be anyway? A confession? Gahahahah of all people Lee SungJong, why did you choose to fall in love with a tomboy like me...”

“Because that's exactly what I have always loved about you, Yoo Iseul,” he smiled and gave her a shy peck on the lips. “I love that about you, so you don't have to be girly. And you don't need makeup to be beautiful because I love the bear faced you. Besides, I don't like how the other guys were looking at you and how you were spending too much time with those girly girls.”

“So you were jealous this whole time?” she blushed furiously at the kiss and confession.

“Eo,” he nodded shyly and laughed.

“Mian,” Iseul smiled and held both his hands that were still on the sides of her face. “I didn't know that I didn't have to do anything for you to love me. Because I love you too, Lee SungJong.”

“Ara, my babo Iseul,” he chuckled and let their hands fall in front of them. “Would you like to watch the soccer match with me?”

“I wouldn't want to miss another match!” she held their intertwined hands in the air and laughed wholeheartedly at how stupid she had been for the past few days.

Then they walked hand in hand to the school field discussing the last match as if they had watched it together. As if nothing had ever changed between them.

“Wait, when you said 'please wear shorts under your skirt again'...”

“I didn't really take a peek! You showed it to me when you were being all girly and your skirt just happened to lift up a bit~”
 

“Yaa, Lee SungJong! You ert!”

“That's my Yoo Iseul~”