Paired Together
CreepChapter One.
"When you hear the phone,
Couldn't look you in the eye.
You're just like an angel.
Your skin makes me cry."
He always sat at the middle of the room. He was born a leader; many people admired him. He was a friend to all. Except me. We only exchanged words when we needed to.
I was loud, rowdy, and out-going. I could talk to anyone; anyone but him. I would lose my ability to speak when he was near. That's just crazy, right?
We were opposites. He was the straight A's student; I was the delinquent.
I stole a quick glance at his direction, quickly looking away in fear that he might catch me staring.
He always looked angelic. His smile was like sunshine. He was perfect.
"You float like a feather,
In a beautiful world.
I wish I was special.
You're so very special."
He was extremely charming and handsome. He sang well; he was the main singer of his band. According to the people who've gone to his gigs, he had a hoard of girls chasing after him.
He was so special.
I could only stare at him from a distance. He always seemed to avoid me. I've always wanted to approach him...but why would he want to talk to someone like me?
"Oh, cause I'm a creep.
I'm a weirdo.
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here."
The hallways were jam-packed. Second period just ended, and students were making their way to their lockers. Separated from the rest of my friends because of the number of people, I weaved through the crowd to get to my next class. All of a sudden someone deliberately stopped in front of me, causing me to almost fall backward.
"Where do you think you're going, Kim Sangwoo?"
It was Taehyun. That idiot had been picking on me since middle school. He hated me even more after I won the elections for student president. Punching him seemed like a good idea, but it wasn't worth getting suspended for. I decided to let him off.
I moved aside, but Taehyun continued to block my way.
"Yah! Leave him alone," I heard someone say.
It was Joonyoung. He gave Taehyun one deadly glare, wordlessly threatening to beat him up. Taehyun immediately moved aside to let me pass.
"You didn't need to do that," I said as I opened the door to the classroom. I knew Joonyoung was right behind me.
"Huh," he snorted. "Is that how you thank me for standing up for you?"
He brushed past me without another word. Our shoulders touched. The few seconds of contact had me electrified.
The entire class scrambled to the seats as our history teacher cleared his throat. He announced our major project for the semester: a research paper on a topic that would be assigned to us.
"You will make your research paper by pair," he continued. "Your partners for this project--" he paused.
We held our breaths, hoping he would say that he'd let us choose.
"Will be chosen by me," he finished.
We all groaned and murmured in disagreement, but we knew there was no arguing with Mr. Yeon. He snapped his fingers to catch our attention again.
"I'll be calling out the pairs, so listen carefully."
"Hong Daekwang and Lee Jihye
"Kim Taehyun and Park Taejun
"Kim Junghwan and Yoo Seungwoo," Mr. Yeon continued to read out the names.
He had mentioned almost everyone in class, excluding two other students, Joonyoung, and myself.
He wasn't going to pair us for this project, right?
"Roy Kim," he said as he looked at me. I swallowed nervously.
I had a bad feeling about this.
He then looked around the room, in search of my partner. It took him seconds to do so, which just prolonged my agony.
"Your partner will be..."
I clenched my fist. I could feel cold sweat trickling from the back of my neck.
"Jung Joonyoung."
My jaw dropped open. Color drained out of my cheeks. I glanced at Joonyoung. He had turned red, and his eyes had widened upon hearing that we'd be partners.
Mr. Yeon called out the last pair and told us the topic we'd have to research on. I was still so shocked that I missed our research assignment.
I cursed under my breath as I wondered what it was.
"Great Wall of China. That's our topic," Joonyoung said.
I almost jumped out of my seat. I hadn't noticed he had transferred beside me. How did he even know what I was thinking?
"Let's meet at the library tomorrow, after seventh period," I told him, trying to sound as casual and nonchalant as possible.
"But I have a rehearsal with my band tomorrow night," he said.
"We'll just stay till six," I told him.
"No," he protested. "We'll stay till 5."
"That only gives us one hour to work," I answered.
"Five thirty," he said. It was a compromise.
"Five forty-five," I insisted.
He sighed and finally conceded. "Fine," he muttered.
I smiled in victory.
And then I saw him smile back. The world instantly became brighter.
------------
I cautiously pushed the glass doors of the library open. It was so silent. Only the low buzz of the air conditioners could be heard. There were only a few students inside, and they were all working quietly. The carpeted floor made even my footsteps inaudible to my own ears. I continued walking until I found Roy.
He had gathered several materials on the table: almanacs, encyclopedias, and books on ancient Chinese history. He flipped through the pages, looking for something worth including in our research paper. He didn't notice that I had arrived.
I slipped into the seat beside him. I decided to give him a little scare. I went closer to him and whispered straight at his ear, "What's our thesis statement?"
Roy's reaction was priceless. His eyes turned wide, revealing almost all of its whites. And his nostrils flared.
I always thought he was quite good-looking, but at that moment, he turned absolutely ugly.
I broke into fits of soundless laughter.
"Yah!" Roy said out loud, gaining the disapproving looks of the other students. They all shushed him.
I continued to laugh, but I clasped my hand over my mouth.
The old, cranky librarian glared at us. We bowed our heads then pretended to work on our report.
"You're crazy," he told me as I opened a book.
I smiled at him mischievously. "You should've seen your face."
He kicked my shin under the table. "Get to work, Jung Joonyoung."
"What's our thesis statement?" I asked him as skimmed through the book.
"I actually haven't made a final one yet. I was waiting for you," he took out a sheet of paper with several phrases—fragments of what our thesis statement would be.
I read them, and tried to put something together then pitched some of my ideas in. I wrote it down and handed the paper back to him. "How about this?"
"You're brilliant!" Roy exclaimed as he gave me a huge smile.
That childish grin of his somehow tugged at my heart and made me smile back. "Back to work, Kim Sangwoo."
"...I want a perfect body.
I want a perfect soul."
So after several weeks of hanging out with Joonyoung, I came to realize that he was actually really smart. He could do anything as long as he put his mind into it. But I couldn't quite describe him in one sentence; he was different from everyone else, yet we were so alike in many ways.
"Roy, the school band is gonna perform at a party in Konkuk University later," he told me. We were in the library again, working on our research paper.
"You need to leave soon?" I asked.
"Yeah, and so do you," he replied.
I was engrossed in searching the net, but looked up from laptop and gave him a curious look.
"You're coming with me," he said. "You're gonna watch me perform."
"What? I never said I would."
"I know you want to," he wrapped an arm around my shoulder. I froze for a moment.
"Come on, it's Friday anyway. Pleeaase?" Joonyoung insisted.
"Okay," I gave in.
"Oh yeah!" he said happily.
He started to pile up the books he borrowed and to arrange his things.
"Let's go together," he told me. I could only nod.
-----------------------------------
As soon as we stepped out of the library, Joonyoung went back to his loud and rowdy self.
"I'm taking the student president with me," he told a random student who passed by. The student gave him a weird look. I could only hide my face in embarrassment. This guy was insane.
"You're the first one I ever personally invited and dragged to watch me sing. You should be proud," he told me.
"You want to sing to me, don't you?" I asked him jokingly.
"Who wouldn't want to sing to you?" he answered as he, once again, wrapped an arm around my shoulder.
Probably I was starting to feel comfortable around him, that I also wrapped an arm around his waist. He didn't seem to mind. We continued to walk like that till we exited the school.
Probably we looked odd.
And probably I didn't mind.
Because probably I was happy to be with him—this crazy, yet perfect guy that I was strangely attracted to.
-----------------------
"You want anything to eat? I'll get it for you," I told Roy as I let him sit at a table near the stage.
"Nope, I'm fine," he replied.
"You sure?" I asked. He nodded his head.
"I'll get myself something if I get hungry," he reassured. "I'm okay here. You should go get ready.
"Arasseo," I said. "Don't leave till I finish performing."
"Good luck," Roy said to me.
"Thanks," I placed a hand on his shoulder before I walked up to the stage.
I was quite nervous to perform. That was unusual since I rarely experienced stage fright.
But there was Roy. That made a huge difference. I wanted to impress him for some reason which I couldn't quite understand. Did I, perhaps, like him?
Impossible. I shook the thought away as I started to sing a rock ballad for the crowd.
I stared at him as I sang, and our eyes were glued to each other throughout the song.
-------------------------
"Is this where you live?" I asked Roy as I stared wide-eyed at a huge two-story house. I had offered to take him to his home since I was the one who invited him out in the first place.
"Yeah," he answered. He motioned me to follow him as he rang the doorbell. "You should come in for a while."
"No, it's fine. It's getting late. I should go ahead," I told him. "Thanks for watching me per—"
He grabbed my wrist. "Stay," Roy told me. "I insist."
The door opened all of a sudden. A bewildered middle-aged woman stood at the doorstep. She was good-looking despite her age. She looked at Roy, then at me, then at Roy's hand which was still holding my wrist. Roy quickly let go.
"Mom," Roy said with a slight bow before kissing her cheek. "I'm sorry I just got home now."
She smiled. "It's okay. I see you brought a friend along."
"Annyeonghosayo," I said, bowing politely.
"Hello there," she said. "Why don't you come in?"
And that's how I ended up eating a sumptuous dinner with the Kims. They were rich, that was a given, but they treated me really well. Roy had a wonderful family.
It kind of made me envious, actually. My dad was rarely home since he was promoted and sent to work in China.
"Joonyoung," Roy's mom said. "It's raining really hard. You can stay here for the night."
I opened my mouth to speak, but Roy cut me off before I could say anything. "He's staying," Roy told his mom. "We have to finish our research paper anyway, don't we, Joonyoung?"
"You can sleep in Sangwoo's room," his mom added.
"Yeah, he's gonna sleep with me tonight," Roy said.
I tried to ignore how wrong that sounded.
------------------------------
Claps of thunder continued to break the silence of the quiet night while huge raindrops splattered on the window pane. I sat on Roy's bed, waiting for him to come out of the bathroom.
I was now wearing clothes that I borrowed from Roy. I've even showered and washed my face already, which left me with nothing else to do but observe my surroundings.
I looked around his bedroom which was almost twice the size of my room. It was neat; everything seemed to be in place. There was a guitar standing behind his dresser.
Wait, a guitar!
"Does Roy know how to play?" I wondered out loud.
As if on cue, Roy entered the room and answered my question. "Yes, I do."
"You never told me," I said. "You can sing too, I suppose."
He didn't answer. He just picked up his guitar, sat beside me on the bed and started to strum a familiar tune. "Do you know the song 'Becoming Dust'?"
"Sort of," I replied.
"Let's sing together, then," he said.
"I want you to notice,
when I'm not around."
I had no idea where this new found courage came from. How I was able to just grab Joonyoung's wrist, introduce him to my parents, and insist that he stay for the night puzzled me.
We sang together in perfect harmony. It amazed both of us that our voices complemented each other so well.
Joonyoung gave me a warm smile after we finished the song. His smile seemed to calm the storm.
I placed my guitar beside me then laid down on the bed. Joonyoung did the same. He turned to his side so he could face me. We were lying so close that we were exchanging breaths. Joonyoung was looking at me straight in the eye. My heart was beating erratically.
"Roy," he started, "don't sing that song with anyone else. From now on it's our song. Just ours, got it?"
"Would you be jealous if I sang it with someone else?"
"I would be," he answered, coming closer. We were just inches apart. "What do you want to do with me tonight, Kim Sangwoo?"
We looked into each other's eyes. We were thinking the same thing. Neither of us wanted to say it first; both waiting for someone to say the first word.
Looks like we wouldn't be able to finish our research paper tonight.
Comments