Ah, school. Facing the first day of the week to wake up early and go to school is the worst thing ever. Oh, let me give you a quiz. How far is it to fly from South Korea to US? The answer is 10.531 km. And how about from US back to Korea? Still 10.531 km. Another question. How long it takes to go from Monday to Sunday? Yup, 7 days. But how about Sunday to Monday? It’s just ONE DAY!!! It’s the biggest mystery that’s never gonna be solved, right?

Screw it. No matter what happens, I can’t change the miserably fact. And by the way, school is not really that bad. I can make friends, I can talk about things with them that keeps me being updated, and I can meet the girls.

Oh, yeah. Girls (re: underlined). One of our favorite topics ever, sir. Actually it’s uneccessary for me to chase them. I just need to walk casually at the hallway like what I’m doing right now, and I can get their attention instantly.

Let’s count in 3... 2... 1...

“Omo, that’s Kwon Jiyong!”

“Gosh, can you see it? He’s getting hotter everyday.”

“He’s looking at us! Kyaaaaaaahh!!!”

“Hi, Jiyong~...”

“How’s your weekend?”

See? This is my daily morning life at school, filled by girls’ squealings and I’m just getting used to it. I just have to pick one of them if I already find the best for me, then I’ll ask them out.

Even sometimes I don’t have to pick them by myself. One of them will come approaching me, and...

“Hi, Jiyong-ah!”

I smirked a little. Huh, just like what I’ve told you before. I don’t need to chase the girls, they will come to me by themselves. But I managed to set my cool face and turned around, “Hi, Tiffany.”

“Do you have time on Friday? I’m inviting you to my birthday. Come on, it will be the best sweet 17th birthday party ever. We hope you'd like to come.”

Tiffany is one of popular girls—or we sometimes call them queenkas—at school. The “we” that she mentioned prefers to her clique. The clique consists of stylish, up-to-date, fashionable, rich, elite and high-class girls from school and, have I mentioned that she’s the leader? I actually wanted to burst into laugh when hearing the way Tiffany spelled that best-birthday-party-whatever.

“So, what do you think? Believe me, you won’t regret it,”

“Thanks for the invitation, but, no.” I smiled, trying to be polite. “I already have an appointment with my friend that day.”

I could see Tiffany’s expression changed fast.

“Too bad, Jiyong. But you can tell me if you change your mind.” and before she slowly left the place, she whispered, “and I hope you will.”

So, she really expects me to come to her birthday? Wow.

I walked into my classroom and threw my backpack on the chair, next to Park Sandara’s chair. She’s the only one girl that maybe can do anything she wants to me with no hard feelings. And another fact is, she’s the closest person in my life. Yup, my friend since a very very very long time ago. Uh, no, actually since 6 years ago, when we were in elementary school. Oh, wait... or since early middle high? I don’t really remember well.

Dara sat next to me and her eyes still focused into a girl magazine. I’m not sure if she notices me or not.

“What’s that?” I tried to catch her attention by grabbing the magazine that she read. “You still read horoscopes? Girls nowadays.”

She pouted, “I don’t see it as a wrong thing.”

“These things are not real, Dara. Horoscopes are just utter bulls. How can you believe in something other than God’s destiny? It’s funny.”

“Shut up. I hate it when you’re being too conservative, Ji.” she took the magazine back and started to read again.

I smiled a little. Whoa, watch out, there’s a PMS-ing girl here. When she started to ignore me—or everyone, be grumpy, and pout, I know she’s not in a good mood. Dara usually smiles and very talkative, but I don’t see her talking with her friends a lot today.

So, I really know very well the ‘trick’ to enlighten her mood up. I took a box of Pocky from my backpack. After I opened the box, I handed it to her. Just like what I expected—she’s really expectable. Her face became brighter after she ate one.

Oh, fyi, both of us love eating snacks, but miraculously we never gets fat from it.

“Ji,”

I think someone’s calling my name.

“Jiyooong...”

Must be my imagination.

“Jiyong-ah!”

Suddenly, one of my earphones got pulled by someone. Of course it was Dara. “What?”

“I can’t go home with you today,” she casually said.

I raised my eyebrows. “What? Again?”

“Bommie and I wanna find dresses for Tiffany’s birthday, so we’ll go to downtown,” and she explained with a flat tone, like it’s not a big deal for me.

“Huh?” not just raising my eyebrows, now I’m gazing her face directly. “You’ll go?”

“Where?”

“Tiffany’s birthday, duh.”

“Well, she invites me.” she gave a little smile.

“But...” I protested, “Tiffany’s birthday is on Friday, right? I thought that we’re gonna visit a place...?”

“No, Ji. We can do that thing later. And, Tiffany has invited me, I can’t refuse her. Okay? So, this conversation is over.” she finished her sentence right before the school bell rang. She got up, took her backpack and left the classroom immediately.

Ah, Jiyong, Jiyong. You’ve already been knowing Dara for a long time. How can you forget that she’s a super-stubborn girl? And, she’s PMS-ing now. Arguing with her is such a waste if she got a roller-coaster mood.

But I still can’t believe it! She’s canceling our meeting and prefering Tiffany’s birthday party? I swear Dara always tell me she hates that girl. She even explains the goddamn reasons why Tiffany really annoys her. You’ll find out the reasons later, maybe.

And, honestly, I have this thought that... it seems like Dara has changed. I don’t know the exact reason is, but seeing her hanging out with the other girls just irritates me. She started to try new things, such as wearing make-up, buying fancy outfits, visiting shopping-mall, and whatsoever, everything girls do. I mean, the ‘real girls’ do. Wait, I don’t mean that Dara’s not a girl, but she never did that before. The usual Dara always had her time to spend with me, but now she doesn’t even want to go home with me—and canceled our meeting! She started to not telling things, for example, when Tiffany invites to her birthday. And guess what? I find out that she became more emotional, overracting, and annoying.

The point is... I dislike the new Dara.

“Hey,” someone tapped my shoulder. “Where’s Dara?”

“Youngbae,” I turned around. “She went out with Bom.” I didn’t know why, but that fact seemed pathetic for me. It means that I have to go home alone today. I usually go home together with Dara.

“Huh? That doesn’t sound like both of you. I mean, you guys are always together.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you guys fight?”

“Nope. She just has a business with Bom.”

“To find dresses for Tiffany’s birthday?”

“How do you know?”

Youngbae shrugged, “Every girls here are talking about the party.”

I sighed. Is that so? But Dara never has any interest about Tiffany, and now she’s willing to come to her party? Why, Dara!? Even you canceled our meeting! Is the party really more important for you? Is Tiffany way more important than... me?

“You don’t look good.” Youngbae was like reading my mind.

“I am?”

“Is it about Dara?”

“Aish, she makes me crazy,” then I began to tell almost everything about what I felt. How I am really pissed with Dara’s decision and her changing attitude. In the end, Youngbae gave his comment.

“Maybe she just want to try new things,” he added. “She’s kinda bored, so she started to hang out with girls and do things that girls usually do. The things that she never did with you before, and she thinks she can’t do it with you, I mean, boys.”

I remained speechless.

“You just need to relax. Let Dara enjoy her time. She’s an adolescent. Being curious to try new things. Just like you.”

“Me?” I scowled.

“Yup. Playing girls.”

“Hahaha you’re funny. By the way, thanks for listening.” I gave high-five to Youngbae, then I made my way back home.

During my way, I couldn’t stop thinking about Youngbae’s words. Actually, when he told me those things, I was like I want to argue more, but I deeply think about it more. Um... It doesn’t mean that everything Youngbae said was wrong, but I kinda don’t want to agree it. In other words, I just still can’t accept the fact that Dara changed.

So... Dara still doesn’t feel comfortable being with me? Is she bored? But I thought Dara’s always happy when she gets along with me. She never practically shows signs that she’s bored. I mean, we’re best friends! For maybe 5-6 years, I guess. She never told me that she’s tired with me, unless if she...

Oh. Is it possible that she’s hiding something from me?

No, Dara never did. She always tells me everything, I swear. She trusts me to keep her secrets, so do I. Well, I even know every little things about her. Just ask me anything about Sandara Park, and I’ll tell you what you want to know.

This is frustrating.

I need to find out the reason why I come to this highest point of madness and seek for something inside Dara, though I don’t know what to find.

Something that makes her changed.