Shin Hye’s P.O.V.

As soon as we stepped into the snack bar, a large ajusshi who seemed to be the owner jumped at us and menacingly muttered from his gritted teeth: “YOU. ARE. LATE!” then he shot us a glare that could make a fully grown man cry. We quickly apologized and rushed up the stage.

My ear drums almost burst as we went on stage -- “Oppas! You are finally here!!!!!” “I miss you, Oppas!!!!!” “Yong Hwa Oppa Saranghe-yo!!!!” “I love you Jong Hyun Oppa!!!” (Yeah right! Wait until you see what he’s really like!) Although they kind of made me feel supported it felt kinda creepy to hear girls fan girlingover me. They also put me under enormous pressure – mucking up on this concert would probably give them a big blow! Anyway, Hwaiting!!!!!

After everyone had quietened down, Min Hyuk Oppa made three crisp knocks with his drum sticks, which was followed by Yong Hwa Oppa and Jung Shin Oppa’s upbeat guitar/bass. Meanwhile, I shook the ganzá with the beat. (check this link to see how a ganzá look like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganz%C3%A1 ) I must say, I quite like the rattling sound of this only percussion instrument that “the new me” doesn’t look too silly holding. (Can’t play the keyboard yet since the new parts of the songs that include keyboard are not yet written :( )

However, the pleasant rattle sound didn’t help with my stage fright much. My breath became ragged, and my legs wobbled as I scanned the cheering audiences. The goo goo eyes from some girls really freaked me out and made me even more nervous! Please, girls, stop staring at me like that! The Oppas are much better looking, don’t you think?! My stage fright got even worse when I seemed to feel a sinister force looming me. Strangely, I turned to Yong Hwa Oppa, and saw him mouthing me: “The bridge!” Oops! I think I have forgotten the lyrics! I anxiously mouthed him back: “How did it go?!” “Huh?!” Yong Hwa Oppa mouthed in reply, his eyes as big as saucers, his mouth wide enough to fit in a base ball.

Did he not get me or was he just shocked?! Before I could mouth another word, I heard Yong Hwa Oppa’s singing the bridge. I quickly registered the lyrics and melody, and started to tell myself to focus on the songs instead of my stage fright. I told myself to look at the posters on the wall instead of the audiences. Slowly, I became more comfortable with the stage and started to enjoy myself. The atmosphere of tonight’s concert was extremely good!

After the concert, a lot of audiences hovered over us and told us how much they have enjoyed the music. I felt so glad to hear that although I didn’t do much. Then this girl rested her elbow on my shoulder and pouted at me: “Oppa! How come you are not playing the guitar anymore?” I smiled at her awkwardly: “Sorry… I’m thinking of switching into keyboard…”

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” the girl squealed, “that’s gonna be so cool! I’m sooooo looking forward to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Hey, Hyung… Thank you so much for covering for me.” I thanked Yong Hwa Oppa on our way back.

“No worries man! But I won’t be covering for you next time you muck up!” said Yong Hwa Oppa mischievously.

Jong Hyun’s P.O.V.

I checked Shin Hye’s schedule – I’m supposed to volunteer at the community library after school today. I’m kinda happy that Shin Hye found a place that suits her just fine, but to me, this is going to be a boring labour camp! The worst of all, I have to go because Shin Hye and I made a deal that we would join each other’s extracurricular activities, and I learnt that Shin Hye did perform at the concert.

When I arrived at the library, an ajumma greeted me with a big grin: “Hello, Shin Hye! You came just in time! The kids are waiting for you!” Huh? What did she mean kids? I thought this is a library, not a kindie!

“Okay,” I replied awkwardly, “where are they?”

“In the children’s section of course!” said the ajumma, looking rather amused.

I thanked her and started to look for the children’s section myself. I’d better not ask her where it is, or she would crack up, horrified or the worst of all, drag me to the mental hospital! I walked around the library as if I was walking in a maze, but the sight of books made it much less of an adventure. As I ventured on, I heard the noises of children and toys. *I’m probably not too far away* I thought as I followed the noises, and I finally got to the children’s section.

There I saw a teacher trying hard to keep a dozen of kids from going wild, which was kind of entertaining to watch. Then one of the kids had probably seen me as she pointed at me and screamed in excitement: “Unnie’s here!!!” Suddenly all the kids swarmed over me with open arms! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I retreated in horror, but it was too late! Within a few seconds I was surrounded by all the kids! I looked up to the teacher and eyed her helplessly for rescue. She was pretty shocked at my reaction, but she did help me out and asked the kids to sit still. Once the kids sat in a semicircle, they all stared me in some sort of anticipation.

Okay, what now? I looked around the room for a clue, then I fixed my eye on the teacher – she probably knows what I’m supposed to do. I was right! The teacher looked at me in confusion and repeatedly tilted her chin to one side. I followed the direction of her chin, and saw a pile of children’s book. Okay, am I supposed to read for the kids? I grabbed a book and the kids started to cheer. “Yay! Sto’wy time!” “ ’Wead us a sto’wy, noona!” Eerrr!

I looked at the book title: Ollie’s Jar. Yay… Fun… I opened the book: “Ollie is an eel. He likes his home in a jar.”  (Okay…) I read it out of boredom. That’s it for page 1. Then I turned a page: “When he comes out he swims over his jar…” Flip. Some kids started to whine. “He swims under his jar…” (Okay, good.. Now we’ve got over and under…) Flip, and more whine. “He swims through his jar…” “Change the sto’wy!” “Change the sto’wy!” “I don’t like this sto’wy!” Thanks kiddos! I don’t like it either! The chaos continued until the teacher took over.

“Okay kids!” said the teacher as she shook a tambourine. After the kids had quietened down, she started to lead the singing: “Little bear’s family lived in the forest; there’s father bear, mother bear and the little bear…” I never like anything to do with kids, and their singing annoyed me so much that I wanted to tackle them! Of course, I couldn’t do that with the Child Protection Law in place, beside, the teacher was there!

After they had sang a few songs, the teacher picked up another book and read it to the kids animatedly, while the kids listened attentively and occasionally squealed at the up and down of the story. Well, I guess kids aren’t always annoying, as long as you relate to them well. Although I’m the last person who would play with kids, let alone reading to them like that, I should probably try to loosen up around the kids and be more like them. That would make life easier entertaining them!

After the children had left, a librarian ajumma gave me a trolley of books to re-shelve. I tried to pick out the books from the trolley that goes on the bookshelf behind me. Then I had to control my urge to push the whole bookshelf over and tried to stuff the books back according to the alphabetical order of their call numbers. Once I finished the mind-exhausting re-shelving of this bookshelf, I wheeled along to the next bookshelf the way an old grandma would have pushed her heavy trolley of grocery. I repeated the same robotic procedure when I arrived at the next bookshelf. As I was doing so, the picture of a grave came to my mind, with the grave stone saying: “Lee Jong Hyun, 17, Died From Boredom.” I don’t want to die this way!!!

Source of the story Ollie’s Jar:

http://www.magickeys.com/books/ollie/index.html

Author’s Note: No offense to the author of Ollie’s Jar!