Youngjae

* * *

            Great. Isn’t this just great?

            I thought to myself sarcastically whilst making my way to my classroom as soon as lunch was over. I tried to think of a strategy to win Eun Bi’s heart (why procrastinate, when you can jump right into it?), but gave up after absentmindedly bumping into another innocent student for about the third time in the time span of barely five minutes.

            This was harder than I thought.

            My gaze met with Eun Bi’s piercing stare as soon as I walked into the room and I cringed.  I had to make that my girlfriend? For two months? Now, don’t get me wrong. Yoo Youngjae wasn’t, isn’t and never will be one who judges a girl just by her appearance.

            But Eun Bi.

            Appearance wise, she was messy looking. Her hair was always braided into two plaits on each side of her head, ends of her uneven hair sticking out here and there. She also wore this pair of round-lens, wire-rimmed glasses that made her eyes look as large as tennis balls! Her uniform sagged and was far too loose for her; almost as if she couldn’t even be bothered to try it on and bought the first size she saw.

            But that wasn’t what had ticked me off. It was the way she acted that bothered me, actually. She was competitive. Very, very competitive. She studied, took notes, read through every textbook like her life depended on it. And since I was the top of our year and not to mention a shoe-in for next year’s valedictorian, she hated my guts.

            “Had a great lunch, Youngjae-ssi?” she asked mockingly as I made my way to my seat, using formalities on purpose and spitting my name out as though it was acid. I merely shrugged in response and decided to keep my cool, not wanting to cause any unnecessary commotion.

            As soon as I propped my worn out, sky blue canvas bag onto the ground, Mr. Seung, our math teacher strode into the room. He was known for his impossible-to-keep-up lessons and even he himself recommended the weaker students to sign up for extra classes. Strange man. He was tall and big built, and definitely very intimidating. From what I heard from the seniors, he would get so caught up with teaching, he wouldn’t even notice if he took up the other teacher’s period by accident.

            After being told to settle down, Mr. Seung announced that he was going to systematically rearrange the class’ seating according to last year’s rankings – placing the weaker ones to the front and the smarter ones to the back.

            Which, of course meant Eun Bi and I had to be seatmates. For the whole year.

            As soon as class began, she hurriedly dug into her large, over-stuffed pencil case in search for a pen in order to keep up with Mr. Seung. I looked at her calmly and then placed one of my pens onto her desk right in front of her. “Here, you can use mine first,” I offered, wanting to be nice to her so she could at least stop hating me so much.

            “I don’t want it,” she whispered harshly and slammed my pen back onto my table. “I have my own.”

            “But you can’t find it,” I reasoned.

            “Well if you stop talking to me, I will find it.”

            “Just take the pen already,” I shot her a look, not wanting to argue over such a childish and easily resolved matter.

            “No!” she exploded in expiration, causing the entire class to turn to our direction. Murmurs of ‘how much of a disruption’ or ‘how cocky’ and even ‘how annoying’ Eun Bi was floated around the room. Mainly because she was all those things.

            But no one had even considered the fact that maybe, just maybe, it was my fault. Not that it was.

            “Ms Song,” Mr. Seung spun around from the blackboard and faced the class, referring to Eun Bi. “I’ve heard rumors and complaints from the other teachers about you and your habit of interrupting the class but this is just ridiculous.”

             Eun Bi’s face flushed in embarrassment and her head fell. “I-I’m sorry.”

            I turned to her and saw how apologetic she looked. Letting out a sigh, I did something I knew I was going to regret. “It’s my fault too, sir,” I stood up and admitted. Hushed remarks and comments were shared but quieted down as soon as I opened my mouth to speak again.

            The perks of being popular.  

            “I was the one who kept on pestering Eun Bi-ssi and that caused her to snap at me. Please forgive me, sir,” I arched my back to a ninety-degree bow and continued, even though I didn’t mean what I said.

            “Well,” the teacher straightened himself a bit, “I expected better from the two students who are at the top of their grade.”

            “We’re sorry, sir,” Eun Bi and I said in unison. And then, class went on as per usual.

            During the rest of Math class, Eun Bi kept shooting me her death glares from the corners of her magnified (thanks to those glasses of hers) eyes. Me on the other hand, simply shrugged them off and idly took down what the teacher had said. The lesson was a breeze for me because I spent most of my break reading through my new textbooks and trying to get a clear idea of what I was going to learn in the following year.

            The rest of the day was just as eventful.

            While rummaging her messy, scrap paper stuffed bag, Eun Bi had managed to spill all the contents in it – which were a lot – onto the floor. Her books sprawled all over the place and her worksheets, notes and other irrelevant papers flew everywhere, being swept away by the strong wind produced by the class’ air conditioner.

            Geez.

            Who knew the braniac could be so clumsy.

            Thankfully for her, our Korean History teacher was late and hadn’t arrived yet. So all the ruckus caused by her clumsiness was somewhat less humiliating. Somewhat.

            “Here, let me help you,” I pushed my chair backwards and got up. I bent down forward and retrieved one of her notebooks in a swift motion. “Tadah!” I singsonged, handing her the book with a smile of innocence on my face. My cheekbones showed and a few barely audible girly squeals erupted from the students who had turned around to the back of the class to see what was going on.

            “I don’t need your help,” Eun Bi scoffed and hastily snatched her book away from my grip. “I can do it myself,”

            “But-”

            “I said I don’t need your help! What part of that sentence don’t you understand?” she exploded, cutting me in midsentence.

            I dropped my head low and forged a sad puppy look, knowing it would buy over the sympathy of my class.

            Another perk of being a kingka.

            “I-I’m sorry Eun Bi-sii, I was just trying to help,” I mumbled as my pity act was still going on. “I just wanted to help you out and do something nice for you,” I trailed on and pretended to shuffle my feet against the floor, my head still hung low.

            “Yah, Song Eun Bi,” Ye Won, a pretty classmate of mine and Eun Bi’s, called out with a scowl on her face. “Youngjae oppa was just trying to be nice so I strongly suggest you stop being a stubborn brat for just one second and learn a thing or two from him.”

            “How dare y-” Eun Bi started but was cut off by another student.

            “Oh don’t act all high and mighty, we all know you’re nothing but a loser,” a petite looking girl with a cute bob cut rolled her eyes.

            “You’ve been nothing but a disruption in class the entire day,” Tae Won said as he threw a crumpled up paper ball that hit Eun Bi right on her head with a soft thud.

            I faked a gasp, still putting on my nice-guy act. “Are you okay Eun Bi-sii?” I asked as I checked her head for any injuries, my voice oozing with forced innocence.

            “I’m fine!” she snarled and swatted my hand away roughly. It took all the strength I had in me not to smirk at her growing rage. “Why are you being so nice to me?” she demanded, her head held high, her confidence didn’t falter at all.

            Impressive.

            “What do you mean?”

            “I mean,” she begin, tilting her chin even higher, “ever since I’ve met you, we have done nothing but compete against each other academically. You’ve always snickered and mocked me whenever I lost to you which was all the time. So why now? Why are you being so nice to me now all of a sudden?”

            I gulped silently. I was caught. I had no clue how I was going to get out of this situation, not even with the help of my classmate’s sympathy. But all of a sudden, an idea popped into that genius head of mine.

            It’s risky, but it’s now or never.

            I thought to myself.

            “I did it because I’m in love with you!” I exclaimed dramatically and at that moment I swore every single one of the students in my class had their jaws on the ground in shock.

            “You’re lying,” Eun Bi’s face flushed a bit.

            “No I’m not!” I frowned

            Yes I was.

            “Why do you think I’ve been so competitive? All this time I was just a love sick boy wanting to get your attention.”

            Lies. Lies. Lies.

            “I-I don’t believe you,” she stammered, her face growing hot.

            “But I really do like you,” I trailed off. “Please accept my feelings,” I said in a soft whisper. I was lying through my teeth.

            Eun Bi sat down on her seat grumpily and crossed her arms to her chest. “I refuse to believe it.”

            Oh, but the look on your face says otherwise.

            “I understand,” I dropped my face in disappointment and sat down too. “I will make you mine, though,” I whispered playfully to her, causing a few loose strands of her hair to tickle her ear.

            Well then, I guess I’ve got a head start on B.A.P’s bet.