New Friends
Without a Trace
When Saejin reached her house, she helped her parents clean again. They finished putting the furniture up while she was gone at school for the past week, and were now moving on to sweeping the floors and putting up pictures and vases in places now.
"Saejin, how's school going?" Her mother asked, wiping the windows.
"It's good. My classes aren't all that hard." She answered.
"What about the students? Have you made any friends yet?"
Saejin gulped. She didn't dare tell her dad that the only person whose ever talked to her this year was a boy. That would send him over the cliff. "Umma, it's still the first week. I'm sure people will warm up to me one day or another."
"Have any guys tried to pick you up yet?" Her dad rushed in with a box of books in his hands. "Have you used the self defense yet? When you do, I want to be there! Teach them a lesson!"
Saejin rolled her eyes playfully. "No. There are no guys. Yet." She added as a joke. But Mrs. Song saw the box her husband was holding start to shake.
"You saying they're looking? Huh? Is that it?"
"Aish! Appa!" Saejin blushed and went back to hanging pictures. Just because a couple of guys had went to their house back home to confess to her when her dad opened the door, he became paranoid about the guys in her life.
"Hush up and clean, you." Mrs. Song took the duster on the table and started whacking her husband with it.
"Yes, ma'am!" He flinched away.
Saejin laughed. They were seriously kids at times.
The next day at school, Saejin arrived at her third class of the day which was history. In all of her classes, she would sit in the front row, because she didn't really know anybody and would feel bad if she just barged in on someone else's conversation. But in this class, she wasn't the only one who sat in the front row since there were so many people.
The teacher went up to the front of the room and lectured a bit and gave out notes that barely anyone bothered to write down. After a good half hour, he finally stopped. "I want you to get into partners and talk over this chapter and discuss what the economy was like. Mainly, just fill in the worksheet. You have fifteen minutes.." He checked his watch. "Go!"
At once, students were tearing and jumping over everything to get the partners they wanted. Most were in groups of three or so. Very social people, these are.
Saejin looked around for someone who was also alone and found one. Sitting two seats down from her also in the front row, was a girl who was checking on the worksheet questions.
People in the back looked at her funny. It was like this girl was the official 'nerd' of the school or something who got picked on for whatever she did. She wore glasses and had her black hair tied up in a bun. Come to think of it, Saejin noticed she did that everyday.
"Hey!" Saejin whispered over. The girl tilted her head. "Wanna be partners?" The girl blinked, surprised, but nodded. Saejin moved down a chair so she was sitting next to her.
She held out her hand. "I'm Song Saejin." She smiled with closed.
The fragile girl took it. "Park Johye."
"Ah, that's a pretty name."
Johye bowed her head. "Thanks Saejin-ssi."
People in the back were already gasping at Saejin's actions and wondered if she had an ulterior motive like embarrassing her somehow. Johye was suspicious too. No one ever really talked to her before. This was a first.
Saejin shrugged the stares off and opened the history book. "Let's get started, shall we?"
"N-ne." Johye softly said.
They finished the work in no time at all. They still had at least five minutes left. There was an awkward aura around coming from Johye. Saejin went through her mind on things they could talk about. It was then she noticed a small silver chain around Johye's neck.
"That's a very pretty necklace." Saejin pointed out.
Johye looked down at it. "Th-thanks. My mom gave it to me."
"She must have good taste. I wish my mom did." She said. "For Christmas once, she gave me a workout DVD. I'm pretty sure I was only 8 then." She leaned in to whisper. "She said she forgot all about it and just picked out something from the dollar rack. She also gave me chocolates to 'make up for it'."
To Saejin's satisfaction, Johye chuckled. Saejin leaned back and smiled. "So, do you sit by anyone at lunch?"
"Uh.. No." Johye looked down and nervously clutched the bottom of her shirt from the sudden question, losing the rare smile no one ever saw.
Their classmates leaned in to listen to this new chick own Johye like everyone else did. They were already planning to congratulate her and invite her to parties when she did. But what actually happened surprised everyone.
"Then can I sit by you? I haven't made any friends yet." Saejin confessed, leaving everyone's mouths hanging open.
Johye whipped her head up and widened her eyes. "O-Of course!"
The bell rang and everyone packed up their stuff. Saejin turned back to Johye. "Great! I'll see you at lunch then!" She waved and left for her next class, leaving her new friend standing there confused and shocked.
But just like she said, Saejin walked around the whole campus during lunch to look for Johye. She saw her bun and glasses, but she was surprised to find that the person she was looking for had people talking to her already.
"Yah! Johye-ah!" Saejin held up a hand and went over. Johye looked timidly over her shoulder, turning her head away from the group of boys talking to her. She smiled. "You liar! I thought you said you didn't sit by anyone at lunch!" She nudged Johye's arm.
One of the boys nodded. "Yeah, that's right. This little girl here wasn't accepting our offer."
"It really ." Another pouted. "We've been asking her since we came here, and she hasn't even given us the time of day."
The last kid grabbed Johye's arm and gripped it firmly, to Saejin's observation. And she also noticed Johye didn't like it one bit. "But this chick is a stubborn one, isn't she?"
Saejin lifted her chin. "Then I expect you boys to leave. Us girls need our girl talks, don't we? Unless, you guys are girls yourselves?" She raised an eyebrow. By now, everyone in the room was watching this little scene.
The boy let go of Johye's arm, which she started to rub. "And what do you want? Get out of here!"
"We can do what we want." The other said.
"Hmm, I don't think you can." Saejin shook her head. "For one, to me, it looks like you're being a hindrance to her, and second of all, it looks like you're assaulting her, which is a criminal offense." She laughed to herself. 'I should know'.
They narrowed their eyes. "What did you say?"
"Come on, they're not worth it." The leader pulled the other two back from starting a fight with a girl and brought them with him to the other side of the lunch room. Yet, they still held glares at the girls the whole way.
Saejin turned back to Johye. "Are you okay? Do you need ice or anything?"
Johye shook her head. "I'm fine." She mumbled. "Thank you, Saejin-ssi."
"Let's go eat. I'm starving!" Saejin grabbed Johye's hand with a smile and led her outside.
"Well that was interesting." Chunji noted to Byunghun. "First time I've seen anyone do that." The two were walking to lunch when they saw the whole scene between Saejin and those three boys. "She looked like she could take care of herself. I like it." He raised his eyebrows at his cousin, who only pushed his forehead.
"Be lucky we didn't have to do anything about it this time." He said. "Those guys are gonna get in huge trouble one day."
Those three were the worst guys you would want to get in a fight with, mentally or physically. But he didn't think about the guys. Byunghun was thinking about Saejin. Park Johye was just a shadow at school. It was a miracle for Saejin, or anyone else in that matter, to talk to someone so, well, someone who looked like that, no offense to Johye.
Meanwhile, outside, Saejin and Johye sat on a small bench to eat their lunch. Everything they did was analyzed by the students around them.
"You know." Saejin spoke up. "I haven't seen you around here much. Are you only in my history class?"
Johye looked down. "I-I don't know. I don't really pay attention."
"Don't worry, I don't either." Saejin kicked her legs back and forth in front of her. After that, Saejin kept talking most of the time, occasionally eating her lunch. Johye just answered 'yes' or 'no'.
Johye gulped and looked at the girl sitting next to her. "S-Saejin-ssi.."
"Yeah?" She answered, looking at the sandwich she just took a bite out of.
"People are looking." Johye answered like it should be obvious.
"And?"
"Why are you doing this?" Johye hesitantly asked. She looked down at her hands and stared at her feet, anything not to look at Saejin directly.
Saejin furrowed her eyebrows. "Doing what?"
"You know, ta-talking to me." She looked farther down.
"What's wrong with talking to you? You got some sort of disease or something?"
"Might as well." Johye bit her lip.
Saejin situated herself so she was facing Johye full on. She saw Johye's face hold a pained look like she wasn't happy at all. Saejin sighed. "Why in the world would you say that?"
"Because I'm nothing. You might want to stay away from me. People will just give you trouble."
"Let them. I can take em." Saejin waved it away. "Besides you shouldn't care what people think of you. I know we haven't known each other much, but you should never ever, ever!..." She emphasized. "Say that you might as well have a disease."
Johye started to feel tears forming on the corners of her eyes. She sniffed and coughed a bit.
"Yah.." Saejin said softly. "Don't be sad. I didn't mean it that way.."
"It's fine." Johye shook her head. "I know you didn't mean anything mean by it. That's why I'm this way."
"So, Park Johye, what do you say? Friends?" Saejin shyly smiled and held out her hand.
Johye glanced looks between Saejin and her hand a couple of times before finally grabbing it weakly. Saejin shook it once and sat herself facing forward again, content. The girls finished their lunches and said goodbye to each other to go throughout the rest of the day.
And Saejin did notice that in fact, she was getting more looks and attention from the people around her. But honestly, she didn't care one bit and reread over her homework before handing it in.
When the day was over, she went to her locker and left for the outside when she remembered that that was the day she agreed with Byunghun to meet up at the library.
But when she opened the door to the outside, Byunghun was leaning on the wall. Once he looked over at her he raised a hand a bit cockily. "Ready to go?"
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