poster CREDIT TO [CHAGIMADU] [CHAGIMADU’S CHAGOOS]

CL-roo was already waiting for me by my locker. Among the three of us, she was the only one who had miraculously found a way to make it through the crowds without getting trampled.

But then she usually found a way to do most things because she is so brainy. If there was a genius devil incarnate that would be HER. CL-roo is officially designated as a “gifted child” slash “hell girl”. She could kill you without you knowing, seriously. She went straight to trigonometry class when the rest of us are struggling through algebra. Her essays were all book length while the rest of us manage only few pages. She’s incredibly quick in everything she does, from eating to dressing. BUT… she’s also incredibly quick tempered sometimes, no scratch that, MOST OF THE TIME! She could be barbaric, I tell you. Her tempers were way off the gauge. That earned her the title of ‘the devil incarnate’.

But we’re soo used to it.

“Oh, there you are, wench,” she said a bit impatiently. “I wondered what had happen to you.”

“It just took me a century to get from one place to another without getting mowed down by the students,” I groaned. “I can’t believe it’s already lunchtime.”

I flung my books into my locker and took out my home-made lunch. One of the survival things I have learned during freshman year was the several issues in the school cafeteria.

Most of the student population spent hours inside. Buying lunch in the cafeteria would take you million years before you get served. It is most likely that the students would cause commotion during the line. So my friends and I decided to just bring food from home. Besides, I love Minki’s mom’s cooking. She always had the most terrific lunches in grade school. Minki-ah always had lots of exciting things that she was willing to share.

CL-roo then started walking ahead of me. Just at that moment Minki came toward us, panting. She was struggling through her things, walking across to us, her hair disheveled, blown in thousand directions with her blouse half-tucked. If CL-roo was the ‘devil incarnate’, well, Minki is just the total opposite. She’s the kindest human creature to ever land her feet on earth. An angel with a very long patience. She donates blood, gives out things to charity and sort of other related things.

So as far as personality goes, I somewhat came in between them. A half-devil and a half-angel. I could be the gentlest friend you would ever meet. But you cross me and my friends; I could be just the right to mess with. I’ll leave you to rot in hell.

Opposite truly attracts. CL-roo and Minki-ah have been friends since kindergarten and really didn’t want me to hang around with them. But finally, by junior high, they got used to me, and we three have been closed trio ever since.

As we pushed the door open to go outside, a blast of warm air met us.

“Wow, it’s hot,” Minki-ah remarked, brushing back her flyaway hair.

“I bet all the shady spots are taken by now.” CL-roo said.

“I think it’s really unfair making us to go to school in weather like this,” I said as our feet scrunched over the dry, brown grass. “They should make a law - no effing school on good beach weather.”

“That’d fcking awesome.” CL-roo agreed.

We had reached a large oak tree that grew beside the fence. Minki immediately flopped down in its dark pool of shade.

“Well, I’ve decided to quit right now,” she said.

“Quit what ?” CL-roo asked.

“High school,” Minki-ah replied, sighing as she leaned her back against the tree. “I’ve realized I’m not good at it. Who needs a high school education anyway? I’ll be a bum for the rest of my life.”

“It’s all right for you,” CL-roo said, sinking down beside her and opening her lunch all in one movement. “You can support yourself by making cupcakes or cookies and selling them on your family’s bakery, . But I can’t just get a book called Teach Yourself Nuclear Science out of the library and award myself a doctor degree!”

“I don’t know why anyone would want to read nuclear science,” Minki-ah said. “Here, have some strawberry cake.”

“Ooh, I want some too!” I grinned.

“It’s wench Dara’s favorite.” CL-roo noted.

“What made you suddenly decide to quit high school, Minki-ah?” I asked.

“I wasn’t enthusiastic about it last year, if you remember,” Minki-ah replied, pushing her hair out of her bibimbap. “But I stuck it out since I’m expecting to meet boys.”

“Oh, c’mon ,” CL-roo said with a little laugh.

“No, truly,” Minki insisted. “Isn’t that the main reason to go to high school?”

“Well, I wanna be a fcking scientist ‘coz it’s cool. A definite reason to stay,” CL-roo stated firmly.

“Yes, but you have to admit you’re a bit different,” Minki-ah said. “Normal people like Dara and me only stick around in hope to meet gorgeous guys, don’t we, Dee?”

I giggled. “So why have you suddenly decided to quit?”

“I’ve decided it’s hopeless,” she said. “I’m never going to meet any cute guy, and this year I have the most terrible classes. Biology today was the last straw! Do you know that we’re going to analyze our own blood! You have to stick this pricking thing into your thumb and smear blood all over a glass slide! I know I’ll faint dead away! I can’t stand the sight of blood!”

“I don’t mind the blood part,” I said. “But I know I could never cut up a poor little frog.”

CL-roo looked at me then shook her head. “You and your animals. Wench, if I have to choose between slashing my fcking vein and cutting up a frog, the fcking frog will be the first to go.”

“Here,” Minki-ah said, pushing a foil-wrapped package for us. “You want chocolate chips? They turned out to be really good crunchy cookies.”

For a while there was silence, except for the sound of munching and contented sighing, I lay my back and watched the pattern of the blue sky through the leaves. I could hear the traffic on the freeway a few blocks away and someone pushing an old-fashioned lawn mower, but apart from that, total serenity.

We might have been at the edge of the world instead of in the yard of a big high school in the center of Seoul. I felt calm and relaxed - until I remembered that English assignment.

I sat up abruptly. “You think sticking a pin in your thumb is hard,” I said. “You should hear what I have to do for an English assignment!”

“Spill it out wench.” CL-roo muttered through a mouthful of crumbs.

“A freaking long term paper! We have to learn a new skill that will help us grow and mature as people then write an essay on how we did it! To be submitted after two months!”

“So what skill are you going to pick?” asked CL-roo.

“I’ve got no idea,” I replied gloomily. “I… I can’t think of anything I want to learn right now.”

“Learn violin?” Minki-ah suggested.

“I’m not a music enthusiast, Minki-ah.”

“Well, what do you need to help you grow and mature as a person, wench?” CL-roo went on.

“Popeye’s spinach?” I answered with a shrug. “Honestly, I don’t have a clue CL-roo.”

“It seems to me,” CL-roo said slowly, “that the only skill you really need to learn right now – to help you grow as a mature person, that is – is how to meet a boy who is not a wimp, a creep or a nerd, wench!”

Minki and I giggled.

“Don’t laugh es,” CL-roo said. “It is the major problem of our fcking lives at the moment.”

“Yes, but I can hardly write a report on it, right?” I asked.

“I don’t see why not,” CL-roo answered calmly. “How to meet boys is the fcking skill we lack. I bet es all over the world are going through the same thing as we are.”

“I don’t know what Yang-seseungnim would say if I pass an essay like that,” I mumbled hesitantly.

“I bet he’d love it, wench,” CL-roo replied. “It would make a nice change from reading about developing good study habits and learning to be an effective public speaker. Let’s think what you can call it. I know – ‘A Fcking Analysis of Awakening Male-Female Attraction and How It Is Manifested at the High School Level among Korean Teens.’”

“Be serious CL-roo. Dee doesn’t use all those words like you.” Minki said.

“Alright , then perhaps, ‘Ways to Pick up Boys in 49 days’ will do?” CL-roo amended.

“Why in 49 days?” Minki intervened.

“Duh. Because wench Dara here needs to turn in the fcking paper after two months! It’ll only give her 49 days to finish the study. The remaining days are intended on her revisions and proof-reading.” CL-roo explained. “But it sounds too crude. This is not designed to be a best-seller; it is an in-depth scholarly study. We’ll have to do some serious work on the title.”

“You guys can write about the whole thing for me if you like,” I said, laughing. “But you’re wasting your time. There’s no way I’d ever do a freaking report like that.”

Minki gasped dramatically. “Omo. I wanna try it then.”

“Me too, .” CL-roo agreed, grinning.

“Sure.”

  ~oo0oo~

Annyeong Yeorobun! Thank you very much on your comments in the previous chapter.

Till next update!

Keke. Spread the happiness! Kampai!

Kamsahamnida for reading! Saranghae yeorobun!

Sincere love,

~Crazy Appler Choi Yonggie^^~