I woke up the next morning and reached for my alarm clock. As I looked on my bed-side table, I realized that my “to-do” list was gone. Knowing my mom, she must have thrown it out. This to-do list had almost all of my wishes on it. It seems pretty childish, but I really do plan on accomplishing everything on this list before I die.

“MOM! DID YOU THROW AWAY THE LIST ON MY TABLE?!” I yelled from the staircase.

“Yeah, I thought you were done with it,” she replied with an innocent smile.

“Wait...Did you read it?” I gasped. If she read that list, my life would be ruined earlier than planned. I had to find a hiding spot for it.

“Was I supposed to?” she asked.

“N-No!” I stuttered. “It’s not important! Where did you toss it?”

“It’s in the garbage can, of course. If you want it back, you better hurry. It’s garbage collection day today.” I dashed downstairs and ran out the door, not caring how ugly I looked. I searched through the garbage and finally found the paper, waving it in the air.

“Cute pyjamas. Are you looking for your breakfast in that garbage bag?” I heard a voice say. It could have only been Kikwang’s voice. “What’s with that paper?”

“It’s none of your business!” I snapped. I never had the guts to tell anyone about my list. Too many secrets would be spilled.

“Is it your Christmas list to Santa or something?” he joked.

“Go away, Kikwang,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Why are you even here?”

“My friend lives on your block, so expect to see me often,” he smirked.

“Does he not go to school either?” I asked.

“Well...kind of,” he replied. “He skips school a lot. But he’s usually at home when I come over.”

“Is he like your only friend or something?” I smirked. I then realized that I had to act nice towards him – but my boss won’t see us outside of work, right?

“Hah, that’s funny,” he said sarcastically. “Judging by your appearance, you don’t necessarily look like the welcoming type. I’m pretty sure it would be hard to find friends looking like that.” I felt around my head to guess how messy it was, and boy, did I find out. As I roamed my hands through my hair, one of my hands didn’t seem to want to move.

“Is your hand stuck in your hair?” He poked my head and burst into laughter as I wiggled my hand around my hair.

“NO!” I yelled, trying to get my hand out of my jungle-like bed-head.

“Do you want me to help you?” he said, with a hint of satisfaction in his voice. I knew he didn’t really intend on helping me.

“You’d like that wouldn’t you,” I grunted.

“I just wanted to help. Isn’t that what your plan was?” He said with a mischievous grin.  “We have to be nice to each other, for the sake of your job.”

“Did you hear what I told Mr.Choi at the restaurant?” I gasped. Kikwang could completely sabotage my goal to be promoted to a chef. I needed to get along with him – or at least pretend.

“I did,” he said with a disturbing smile. He paused for a moment, then leaned in closer to my ear and whispered, “But I’ll play along – just for you.”

“Yah, what is this?” I heard another voice call. I assumed it was Kikwang’s friend that lives on my block. “Kikwang is flirting with a girl, yet he won’t even bother to help untangle her hair for her?” The boy had dark brown hair and twinkling eyes. You could say he’s attractive to most people...not that I really cared.

He looked at me with a bright smile and said, “Hey, I haven’t really seen you around on our street. My name is Lee Joon.” If this were a clichéd Korean drama, the three of us would have looked like a love triangle. Luckily, Kikwang is more of a frog than a prince, so I highly doubt that would ever happen.

“Hey, my name is Hyosung. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Do you need some help there?” he asked, reaching for my tumbleweed hair.

“Thanks, this is really embarrassing,” I said, forcing a small laugh to ease the awkwardness.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. You’re hair looks cute,” he smiled. I knew he was just saying that to make me feel better.

“Ugh, give me a barf bag, I need to throw up,” Kikwang gagged. “This is like a scene from a mushy drama.”

“Are you the ugly step-brother?” I retorted.

“Nah, I’m the bad boy whom you eventually fall in love with,” he smirked. Clearly he didn’t take his medicine this morning and wasn’t thinking straight.

“Alright, I think I got it,” Joon interrupted. “Sorry, I think I made the tangles worse.”

“No worries, at least my hand is free,” I smiled.  “Well, I have to go get ready for work. Bye Joon.”

“Yah, what about your co-worker?” Kikwang said.

“Bye,” I muttered, walking inside.

“Wait, do you want a ride to work?” Joon offered.

“She doesn’t need it,” Kikwang interjected. “She has to exercise and get rid of that muffin-top of hers.”

“Yah, shut up,” Joon snapped. “You’re going to make her be all emotional and kill herself or something.” I knew he was just joking, but in my book, that didn’t seem like a bad idea. In fact, I could use that as my excuse when the next two years pass – I need some sort of logical reason to kill myself.

“Heh, yeah...” I mumbled - as if I would laugh and confidently agree with killing myself in front of them. I waved goodbye to them one more time and went inside to find my mom waiting with an eager expression.

“Who was that?” she grinned, clasping her hands together. “I saw that cute boy talking to you.”

“Don’t even go there,” I groaned, running upstairs. I knew my mom would start bombarding me with questions once she saw me with a boy. You see, I haven’t really had my first boyfriend yet, let alone my first kiss. I still remember in my freshman year when I was supposed to have a kiss scene in the school play, but my partner refused to kiss someone who was so negative about everything.

“Aw, Hyosung, just tell me who it was!” my mom pleaded.

“I don’t even know,” I sighed. “He lives on our street, apparently.”

“Oh, I’m not talking about Lee Joon,” she replied. “I’m talking about the dashing boy with a gorgeous eye-smile.”

“Wait a second,” I interrupted. “You know Lee Joon? How?”

“I’m good friends with his mom,” she smiled. “He’s a very nice boy.”

“How come you never introduced me to him?” I said. I think I heard a hint of sadness in my voice; it just came out randomly...

“I guess I never thought about it much. Last time I checked, he had a girlfriend anyways,” she shrugged.

“Yah, I don’t have to date every guy I meet,” I frowned. “We could have been friends or something.”

“Well, you seemed to get along pretty well just a minute ago. You don’t really need my help anymore,” she said with a cheeky smile. My mom can be so frustrating. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in her head and how she comes to all of these decisions.  It’s not like I really cared about being close friends with Joon, but it would be good to have someone to hang out with while my friends are at school.

“By the way, you should hurry before you’re late for work,” my mom added.

“Crap!” I yelled, rushing to my room. “I can’t let Kikwang make fun of me on my first day of work!”

“So that’s his name?” my mom asked, poking her head through my bedroom door.

“YAH!” I shrieked. “Stop eavesdropping!” I finished getting dressed and ran out the door before my mom showered me with more of her annoying questions and comments. I don’t know how it happened, but I managed to somehow crash into Kikwang for the second time this week.

“Wow, do we really need to go through this again?” Kikwang muttered, wiping the grass off his pants.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at your friend’s house? What’s his name...Joon?” I asked, trying not to seem too interested in actually getting to know this guy.

“Don’t act like you don’t remember his name,” Kikwang said, rolling his eyes. “Anyways, I’m here to give you a ride to work.”

“I thought I was too fat and needed the exercise,” I retorted.

“Well...today I’ll let it slide since you might be late,” he said. His voice sounded a bit uneasy, like he couldn’t think of a better excuse.  I was about to ask him where his car was, but then I noticed the giant motorcycle hiding behind a tree. My jaw nearly dropped.

“I-Is that your motorcycle?” I managed to say. “I thought your friend always gives you a ride. Where did it come from?”

“It’s not mine,” he replied. “I just borrowed it from Joon.”

“Does he mind?”

“That’s not the point,” he said abruptly. “Grab a helmet and hop on.”

“You expect me to get a ride with you?” I scoffed.

“Well I figured it would be better to be on time for your first day on the job,” he shrugged. “If you don’t want the ride, then-“

“No, no, no,” I interrupted, “I’m coming.” He shot me a smile and tossed one of the helmets at me. We both got on the motorcycle, and I heard the engine rev.

“Well?” he said.

“Well...what?” I asked.

“Are you going to hold on to me or not?”

I sighed and wrapped my arms around his waist. If my mom saw me right now, she sure would be proud. But it felt kind of nice – it was the closest thing I’ve experienced that was close to a hug in a long time. I don’t know if it was from the heat of the sun, but his jacket was really warm and comfortable.

“Are you nervous or something?” he asked.

“No, why?” I replied.

“You’re blushing.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

asdfghjkl I'm not too crazy about this chapter :\ but i needed it in order to lead it into other stuff later on, so yeah... xD

I can't believe I'm actually getting readers on this LOL