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GONG MINJI

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Part II

The truth is, I do like you Minji-ah. So what do you say to that?

So just what exactly did I say to that? You probably think that I admitted my physical attraction to him as well and then told him that I liked him too. I mean it makes sense for me to like him, after all, the guy is otherworldly gorgeous and most girls would be stoked to have a guy of Kris' stature breathe the same air as them, let alone, admit that he liked them. But I did none of those things- no siree- not I. 

Don't get me wrong, I appreciated Kris' confession, but I couldn't help that there was something nagging in the back of my mind that kept me from taking it seriously. Now, I didn't exactly reject him, but because of my concerns (and my slight tendency to think out loud) I, instead, blurted out this:

"Well I find that a little hard to believe."

The second Kris' brows slanted on his forehead in confusion, I automatically wished I could take back what I said.

"What don't you believe?" His eyes stared back at me all glossy and confused. "About me liking you?"

"Well, it's just, we barely know each other, Kris," I explained to him so he would understand where I was coming from. I explained to him all the reasons I was a little skeptic by his confession including the fact that we'd barely met just a little over a week ago. It just seemed a little bit early to already be claiming to be liking me. Plus we'd only had a few proper conversations and we were still just getting to know each other. How could you really like someone that you didn't know? 

"So are you sure that you really like me Kris?" I asked him after spewing all of my thoughts and concerns all over him, who'd remained completely silent while I talked- something I really appreciated since Kai could never seem to go longer than five seconds without interrupting me. "Or do you think you like me just because you think I'm hot or something?"

Once I was finished speaking, Kris stared blankly at me for a moment without saying a word. I'm guessing he'd never had to wait for a girl's acceptance before (they probably just usually threw themselves at him). I really didn't mean to ramble so much when I explained to him why I was hesitant to accept his confession, but I just had to get my point across. Everybody knows that most guys pay attention to looks first and everything else last, that's why I asked Kris if he was only interested in my looks. It's the only logical explanation I could think of for why he would like me so quickly. I mean, he's nice and all, but he is still a guy. 

Now, most boys would either be too tongue tied by my last question or would lie their way past it, but that wasn't what I got from Kris. No, Kris wasn't the type to tell lies or give "b.s." answers. Instead, Kris was a "no muss, no fuss" type of guy- he told no excuses, no lies, no beating around the bush- he got straight to the point. In fact, he kind of reminded me of Chaerin in that aspect. 

And getting "straight to the point" was exactly what he did when he answered all of my questions. If my heart had been in the center of a dart-board- clichè as it sounds- everything he said from then on aimed closer and closer to the bulls-eye. Everything he confessed to me got him major points in my book.

"Minji, I know what I like and it's you. I don't have to think about it." 10 points.

"And you're right. We've only known each other a short time, but in that time, I have learned that you're intelligent, hard-working, caring, funny and yes, you're hot too, plus, so much more." 20 points.

"And if you give me the chance to, I'd like to get to know you more if we hung out more. That way you can get to know me better as well." 25 points.

"So I was thinking, what do you say to a study date? I know you have Moon sunsaengnim for Ecology too and he's already giving us a test next week. If you like, we can multitask: we can study, have a little casual conversation over a nice candle-lit dinner. How does that sound?"

Bullseye! 50 points. Ladies and Gentlemen. Ding, Ding, Ding! We have a winner! 

By then I'd lost all ability to make sounds with my vocal chords to form actual words, and all I could do was nod in agreement. We'd planned to meet up a few times this week to study for the test. He was so sincere when he'd confessed to me, that I couldn't do anything else but accept it. I would've had to have been brain dead to let the opportunity with such a gorgeous and thoughtful guy go by. I would never admit it out loud, but I was actually kind of excited.  It's funny how nervous I was just a week ago when the boys first arrived, and now I'm going to be going on a study-date with one as well. And here I was thinking all the boys were going to be a nuisance...

"Miss, excuse me miss," a ladies' voice suddenly brought me out of my thoughts.  Looking around me, I realized I was holding up the long line waiting to receive their tickets to take their pictures and walked forward to the her.

"Name please?" she asked me.

"Gong Minji."

I watched as she flipped through the ticket stubs until she found mine and handed it over to me. "You chose pose C, so your station is over there." She pointed to a photo set setup, where a sign stood next to it with the letter "C" in bold on it. I noticed Bom in the line over in the same station and figured she must have chosen the same pose as me. Nodding, I made my way over to her.

"Hey," I snook up behind her, smiling at the fact that she jumped a little before whipping around to give me a playful scowl. "So you chose pose C as well, huh?"

"Yeah, it beats pose A where they want you to sit on the floor and have your legs all spread open so the world can see your crotch all exposed," she replied, grimacing at the thought.

True. The pose definitely wasn't flattering for  any of us girls who wore the school's uniform skirts or dresses.             

I looked over at the station across the gymnasium to see a girl crouching onto the floor, getting into the position for pose "A". Even though she had the uniform pants on instead of a skirt or dress, it was still seemed like an awkward position to be sitting in, especially for a female. She looked pretty uncomfortable herself; poor girl.

My pose was easy: the background photo was a picture of a big oak tree and all I had to do was place my elbow on the pillar, tilt my head and lay it on the palm of my hand then smile. Bom watched me from behind the photographer once it was my turn to take my picture. She tried to get me to mess up by making me laugh as she kept making silly faces and poses whenever the photographer got ready to snap the photo.

It took about three tries before I could keep a still face and I scowled at her once I was finished, but she didn't notice it because her attention was no longer on me, instead she was faced in the other direction staring intently at something across the gym.

"What is is Bommie?" I asked, coming up to her and trying to follow in the direction she was looking for anything that stood out.

"Isn't that Mrs. Kim?" Bom pointed over to a pretty woman standing near the entrance of the auditorium with Mrs. Jung, our Headmistress. I took a few steps forward and squinted to get a better look at the woman. My eyes widened as realization dawned on me; yep, that was Mrs. Kim. I remember her as the only staff member to wear such flashy, designer clothes to the academy. She definitely took pride in her appearance.

"What's she doing here?" Bom continued. "And with our headmistress at that. Wasn't she fired last year?"

It was just the previous school year that Mrs. Kim, ex vice-principle of our once all-girls school, resigned from her position. Her main job was to be the disciplinarian of the school, so when any of the students got a little out of hand, they were sent to her. I'd never once got into trouble where I had to be sent to the her office, and I definitely didn't want to get caught doing anything, not because I was scared of her but because as president, my reputation couldn't afford to be tarnished. 

Last year, a student had complained to the board that she'd been both verbally and physically "abused" by Mrs. Kim and that she had the bruises on her arms to prove it. The student was Ahn Seoyeon who everyone knew was one of the "out" lesbians in our all-girls school. No one really knows what happened- there's been way too many rumors and bending of the actual truth- but apparently Mrs. Kim had found Seoyeon and another student doing Lord only knows what in the girls' restroom during class hours. Seoyeon said that when she refused to go to Mrs. Kim's office so that she could call her parents, Mrs. Kim "forced" Seoyeon to her office and that she also spat some derogatory comments at Seoyeon as well regarding her uality.

It all turned out to be lies. Seoyeon apparently had made the bruises on her arms herself. Plus, the security cameras on campus didn't show any of the claims that Seoyeon made about Mrs. Kim getting physical with her. However, Mrs. Kim was shown to be dragging Seoyeon to her office, and she ended up getting into a bit of trouble for that. Originally, right after Seoyeon's claims were taken to the board, Mrs. Jung had immediately fired Mrs. Kim, but then later tried to reinstate her to her position after the real truth was out. Mrs. Kim was too livid by then, and she refused to take her job back. She'd also said some pretty nasty things about our Headmistress when she left, so it was a little weird to see Mrs. Kim and Mrs. Jung talking together right now.

"Maybe she got her job back," I guessed, watching the two women across the room converse like old friends.

"I thought that was the part of the point of having two headmasters," Bom said. "Both are supposed to take care of disciplining students, so why would they need her now?"

I shrugged. I didn't know. Whatever Mrs. Kim was doing here was between her and the headmasters, but it was still a little weird seeing her here since based off what had happened last year, we were all pretty convinced that she would never come back.

I felt my shoulder jerk forward by Bom nudging me. She nodded for me to look back in the direction of the two women.  "Hey, they're pointing in this direction."

Oh my gosh, they were! Our headmistress had her palm pointed out in our direction of the room and Mrs. Kim nodded. She left our headmistress alone and came stalking off across the gym, her eyes focused on someone, but I wasn't sure if it was me or Bom or some other kid. I actually took a few steps forward in case she was going to come over to us, but when she headed for the boys in line at the station for pose "B" I stopped.

"Jongin, how dare you leave your mother all alone on campus?" she said walking up to Kai and placed her hands on her hips. Wait a minute! Did she just say she was his mother? "I told you that I wanted to be here when you took your pictures."

Kai looked mortified at first when his mother first called his name, but now he was rolling his eyes like he was annoyed by her presence. His friends around him started laughing and joking when she showed up and started primping his hair.  

"I told you that I didn't need you to be here when I took them," he shot back at her, swiping her hand away from his hair. She then moved on to his suit but stopped once he very sternly scolded his mother. "Mom! Seriously, stop."

"Wow, how embarrassing," Bom commented underneath her breath. "I can't believe Mrs. Kim is Jongin's mom. Did you know this?"

I shook my head. Even though they had the same surname, I never put two-and-two together. But then again, there are lots of Kim's in Korea, how could have I guessed that they were mother and son.

"Oh Jongin, relax," Mrs. Kim stepped back to get a good look at her son. "I just want to see you during your pictures so that I can make sure they come out nice. I'm planning on sending these pictures to the rest of the family and I don't want a repeat of last year where you didn't even smile for the camera. When I sent those to the family, everyone thought you were sick or something."

Kai rolled his eyes once again, before he turned in our direction and a look of realization dawned on his face once he noticed me standing there. A little smirk appeared on his face as he gestured over to me. 

"Hey mom, you said you wanted to meet Minji, didn't you?" he asked her and she turned around, now looking over at me. "Well, there she is. You should talk to her." 

He slightly pushed his mother in my direction and I stood there smiling, not knowing what to do next. 

"Oh, hi Minji," Mrs. Kim greeted me, coming over and giving me a hug. She looked over at Bom, and her whole demeanor became much stiffer when she addressed her. "Bom."

Bom nodded and crossed her arms before replying just as stiffly, "Mrs. Kim."

Although I had never gotten into trouble when Mrs. Kim was our disciplinarian, Bom had definitely had her fair amount of trouble with Mrs. Kim. Those two were never on the same page and apparently the tension was still there.

Mrs. Kim looked back over at me. "Well Miss Gong, it's nice seeing you again. Kai has been telling me so much about you-"

"He has?" I interrupted, surprised he would be talking about me. I couldn't imagine what he'd say about me; hopefully good things. But it didn't matter because she ignored my question and continued to talk about her son. 

"You two have been working well together right?" she asked with hopefull eyes. I glanced over at Kai who was now getting set up to have his picture taken.

"Uh...sure."

"Good," she seemed to buy it. "I know that my son can be kind of a pain sometimes." I smirked. She could definitely say that again.

"Well it was nice seeing you again Minji," she told me, patting my shoulder. I just smiled and nodded like a good little student even though I thought this whole situation was still weird. When she turned back around, Kai was already about to have his photo taken.

"Jongin, smile for your picture honey," she said loud enough for everyone in the gym to hear, walking back over to the station.

"Mom!" Jongin warned. 

"What? You have a great smile," she said, like no one else was around. "Stop trying to act cool and smile for your picture so I can send some nice photos to grandma."

Kai looked like he wanted to strangle his mother right there in the center of the gym. All of the students in line were laughing, including Kris and Chanyeol.

Probably to shut his mother up from further embarrassing him, he went ahead and smiled for his picture.

"Great, now was that so bad," she said as he stepped down from the chair the photogrpaher had him on. He was shooting daggers at his mother as he walked back to her. "Oh honey, don't look at me like that. It doesn't do your precious face any justice." She patted his head even though he was still glowering at her.

I turned to Bom. "Wow, that is embarrassing."

"So that's where Kai gets his good looks from," Bom said. "I mean, he's handsome like his dad, but he's got his mom's features too like her eyes and her lips."

I looked back over at the two. I guess they really did look alike, Kai just looked like the male version of his mother. In fact, if you put a long black wig on Kai and gave him a more womanly figure, they'd probably look like twins. 

After a bit more primping, Kai's mom finally backed off him and made her way back over to Mrs. Jung. When the two left the mulitipurpose room, Kai's head shifted in my direction and his eyes instantly zeroed in on me. With a few long strides, Kai made his way over to Bommie and I, but not for long because Bom excused herself right when he stopped in front of us.

"I see Chaerin, and Dara over there," Bom poinited across the room. "I'll talk to you later." She patted my shoulder and walked off while Kai was standing cooly, still staring at me with his hands hidden within the pockets of his black slacks.

"I didn't know that Mrs. Kim was your mother," I started, trying to ignore his stare. "You never mentioned her before."

"And after witnessing just how embarrassing she was a minute ago, then you should be able to understand why I never mentioned her," he replied, then added sarcastically, "Oh, by the way, thanks for helping keep her distracted for me while I took my picture. Really, you were a great help."

"I didn't know that you wanted me to keep your mother distracted?"

"Why do you think that I called you over in the first place? Didn't you notice the signals?"

"There were signals?"

Kai looked up at the ceiling and huffed.

"Well she is your mother, Kai," I reasoned. "That's what they're supposed to do. Besides, she doesn't seem that bad; she seems sweet."

Kai suddenly busted out laughing; he was litterally cracking up at my compliment about his mother.

"Shows how much you know her," he said between laughs. "My mother isn't sweet, she's a cow!"

Well, that's a pretty messed up thing to say about the woman who gave birth to you, I thought.

"Well she's alway been nice to me," I said. Someone had to defend her if even her own son wouldn't. Then again, I'm sure Kai new his mother from a different perspective than I did, considering she is his family. I on the other hand had only ever seen her good side, especially because I'd never gotten into any trouble with her before back when she was vice principal.

"If you say so." He was less amused now as he looked away from me, his brows forming into a frown. It made me wonder exactly what kind of relationship Kai had with his parents. As a third party, or an outsider, I could only go based off what I'd seen- which isn't much since I'd only just met the entire Kim family- but apparently whatever relationship he did have with them, it was less than satisfactory according to him.

"Kai we actually still need to go over the procedures and things we're going to say for Friday." I decided to change the topic of discussion so that it wouldn't get any weirder between us.

"Friday?" he questioned like he'd never heard the word before.

"Yeah, you know the superintendent is coming to the academy this Friday and we're supposed to show him around the senior classes."

"Oh right." He nodded. "Sure we can talk about it later."

Later? No, no, no. "Actually, I was hoping we could do it now."

"Minji we have time to talk about it later, we don't have to do it right now."

"Later" could mean the "very last minute" to Kai. The last time we waited utnil "later" to discuss things over, was when we had to create our speech to say to the senior class at the first "welcoming" assembly and we all saw how that went. There was no way I was going to have a remake of what happened at that assembly we had last week when Kai told the senior class that we were going to "party" the entire school year.

I sighed. "Kai-"

"Hold that thought," he cut me off, patting my shoulder and then held up his hand, signaling to someone across the room. "I see a friend trying to get my attention. We'll talk more about whatever's happening next Friday, later okay."

"No, not next Friday, this Friday," I yelled after him, but my efforts were in vain as he was already headed over to his buds.

Damn this kid! I was going to make sure we were prepared for the superintendent's arrival on Friday. Our headmasters had explained to us that they were expecting the both of us to be there to help show him around once they got to the senior classes. I wasn't going to let Kai mess anything up. And if I had to, I would literally drag him there with me, kicking and screaming.

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