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GONG MINJI

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...continued

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I protested stubbornly. Kris wasn’t my boyfriend and as far as I was concerned he never would be. I didn’t want them making that a regular nickname for him because my friends were the types to joke about something like that forever.      

“True, but does he know that?” Bom now joked before she and Dara started giggling.

He should, I thought to myself. After all, I’ve been avoiding him all week.

“I’m not really interested in him anymore,” I said, giving a nonchalant shrug as if it were no big deal but the shocked looks that suddenly appeared on all three of my friends faces told me that it was.

“Since when?” Bom asked, staring at me like I was crazy.

I shrugged once again before answering in a tiny voice that was barely audible. “Since I found out about the stupid prank the boys’ have been planning since the start of the school year.” I felt a little embarrassed saying it out loud because of the slight guilt I felt for my behavior all during last week up until now. I knew I had every right to be mad at all the guys, which included Kris, but I didn’t think it was an okay reason to ignore him when I knew that he liked me.   

“Is that the reason why you’ve been avoiding Kris like he’s the Bubonic plague?” Chaerin suddenly piped in after having been questionably silent for a while.

“How do you know that?” I asked, surprised. Today was the first time I had admitted to my friends that I wasn’t interested in Kris since I was turned off when I found out that he had helped out with the prank. I hadn’t told any of them about how I’d been avoiding him though, so I didn’t think she’d figure that little part out.

“He’s been moping over you all week,” Chaerin informed me, her facial expression unreadable. “He says you’ve been giving him the cold shoulder but he doesn’t know why and he thinks you’re mad at him.”             

My head immediately hung down in shame. I now definitely felt bad for flat out ignoring the boy, especially for leaving him virtually clueless as to the reason why.

“He told you all that?”

“He and I have classes together too, you know,” Chaerin admitted, softly. “We talk.”

There was something in Chaerin’s tone of voice that troubled me on the inside, and at first, I didn’t know why, but once I removed me gaze from the ground and moved it up to her face, realization struck me like a lightning bolt. She was already gazing at Kris from across the field; her eyes glistening under the light of the sun which to me looked like they were illuminating with wistful longing.

Oh my gosh! I inwardly marveled at the sight. She is completely smitten with Kris.

I knew she liked him because she told me, but if you could see the look in her eyes right now you’d know that her feelings for him had exceeded way beyond what you would call a crush.

I already knew they both shared a lot of the same classes (so many that their schedules were practically identical except for their electives) whereas he and I only shared two, so I was sure they had had plenty of conversation time between all of those hours of being together. The fact that Kris felt comfortable enough to confide in her about what he’d been feeling since I started ignoring him told me just how close they must have grown since the start of the school year. It made me think they’d probably had all kinds of conversations about things that even I didn’t know. After all, the only thing we’d ever really done together was study in the library. Sure, at one point it had started to get a little more romantic especially with the increasing study dates, but it was quickly ruined once Kai had started bombarding in on them and it was further ruined once I found out about the boys’ pranks.

Every time I even thought about the prank they were secretly planning I instantly began to inflame with a burning desire for revenge. Every day I had to look at the guys of my senior class and know that they were all capable of plotting something so awful and yet felt totally at ease to smile in my face like they were little angels. How could any of them sleep at night? And it just bothered me to no end that Kris could be a part of it. So I avoided him as well as Kai and all the rest of the guys as well. I made a vow that I wouldn’t speak to him or any of the guys until the girls and I had succeeded in our revenge prank against them. After us girls evened the score again, then we could talk but until then, to me every senior boy on campus was an enemy.

However, in that very moment that I witnessed just how much Chaerin seemed to really like Kris, I decided it was probably time for me to step aside so that she could get closer to him; if that’s what she really wanted.

By the time we made it over to Yoona, she was already storming towards the four of us with a serious expression on her face that looked so deadly I was just certain that she was going to maim one of us.

“Finally, you’re all here!” she bellowed as she heatedly marched up to us. “I was beginning to think that you all flaked out on me!”

“We’re here now,” I quickly countered to avoid any further attacks from her wrath. Yoona may have had the face of an angel but she could be downright scary when she was angry enough. “And we’re all ready to help, so just tell us what you need done and we’ll do it.”

“Okay,” she said, looking down for a moment like she was stopping to think something over before she looked back up. She turned to Bom and Dara. “Alright, Bom and Dara, I need you two to take the flyers out of the boxes over there,” she pointed over to a plain white box, “and then hand them out around campus. I need you to make sure that every senior boy on campus receives a flyer about the kissing booth. Then whatever is left over, you can just hand out to everybody else.”

“Aye, aye, captain!” Bom cheerfully said, saluting like a cadet before grabbing Dara’s hand and they ran off.

Then Yoona turned to Chaerin and I. “And you two, I still need someone to load all the boxes with the homemade chocolates and then to sort out the golden tickets into them.”

She led us over to the booth and handed over a sheet of shiny golden paper. The paper was already divided into individual rectangles for each golden ticket, but they still needed to be cut out.

“All you have to do is cut out the tickets and then place one in each box of chocolate,” Yoona explained to us. “Remember, there are only twelve tickets and the rest of them will be left without tickets. Each box gets nine pieces of chocolate, so you kind of have to work fast if you’re going to get finished in time.”

With that said, Chaerin and I quickly got to work. There were more than a hundred boxes to fill and we only had a little over an hour to do it, so we had to get busy. But it was a little hard to concentrate especially when I could see Kris trying to make eye contact with me the entire time he was helping out with Yoona’s booth as well.

Where he was at, he was directly in my line of sight so I couldn’t help but catch his stare every now and again whenever I looked up. He smiled at me and waved, but I didn’t wave back; instead I just opted for giving him a small smile right back and then forced my attention to stay on the boxes I was supposed to be filling with chocolate.           

Eventually after an a few minutes of playing “eye tag” Kris finally got up and walked over to Chaerin and I.

Chaerin’s face instantly brightened the moment he stopped in front of us and our little working station.

“What’s up ladies?” he greeted the both of us with his perfect white smile. Well, at first he smiled at Chaerin, but when his eyes landed on me, they flickered with uncertainty and his smile began to turn wane.

I immediately looked down while Chaerin greeted him back.

“Hey Kris!” she chirped. “How come you’re helping Yoona set up her booth? I didn’t even know you two knew each other.”

“I actually don’t know her all that well,” Kris confirmed. “But she had begged for my help when she needed someone to help set up her banner. Since I’m the tallest guy in our class she said that I was the only one who could reach high enough to place it just how she wanted it. Plus, she promised that if I helped her set it up then I’d get a free box of chocolate.”  

“Oh,” was all Chaerin could reply with before Yoona came stalking by. Clearly she had heard the last part of their conversation because as Yoona passed by she said, “Yeah, that’s right. I told him he could have a free box of chocolate for helping, so make sure to give him one.”

“Oh. Well, then here you go,” Chaerin said, handing him over a random box we had already filled.

“Thanks,” he said, smiling down at the little lip-shaped box of chocolates. Finally, he looked back up again looking like there was something else he wanted to say. “Hey, how come you two are going to be kissers for Yoona’s kissing booth? I didn’t even know you all hung out.”

“Well, I didn’t really have a choice in the matter,” Chaerin said, her tongue dripping with sarcasm. She then turned to me. “Isn’t that right, Minji-ah?”        

I scowled as I hung my head lower to avoid the both of their gazes.

“Well I’m glad that the both of you are because you both look really cute in those uniforms,” he complimented, before giving the both of us a cheeky smile.

Chaerin’s mouth fell open. “You little ert!” she suddenly erupted into a fit of giggles which in turn made Kris laugh as well. 

After calming down, Chaerin went back to talking to Kris and they joked and laughed while I just pretended to be invisible. I really wanted him to go away, but he and Chaerin were having such a great time talking. The conversation between them just seemed to flow effortlessly like they’d know each other their entire lives and I got a glimpse at what they must have been like whenever they were in their classes together.

Kris suddenly opened his box of chocolate and took a peek inside it, right in front of us, but he immediately frowned afterward. “So, what are these little golden tickets for? And what does the number on them mean?”

Chaerin’s eyes widened as she glanced at the box he was holding. “You got one with a golden ticket?”

He looked up at her innocently and nodded.

“The number on each ticket matches the numbers on backs of our jackets,” she explained to him before standing up and turning around to show him the number sowed on the back of her blazer. “If you got a ticket with a number then it tells you the person you will get to kiss on the lips once we start giving out the real kisses.”

Kris’ dark eyes widened until all the whites in them were showing. He then glanced back down at his golden ticket before taking a second to steal a glance at me, but he quickly looked away once we locked eyes and bit his lip.

“So, what number did you get?” Chaerin eagerly asked. She was probably hoping it was her number but there was only a 1 in a 12 shot that he got hers. She probably shouldn’t get her hopes up.

“Hey Kris!” the sound of Yoona’s voice suddenly disrupted their little conversation. Kris spun around and turned his attention to her. “Can you come here and help me with this other banner?”

 He nodded before turning back to us. “I have to go, but I’ll see you both later.”  He said bye to Chaerin first before his eyes landed on me last and he told me the same, but the gloom in his voice when he said it made me keep my head down.

With that, he turned to leave, but ended up stopping midway and he spun back around to face us. He leaned a little bit over the table Chaerin and I was working at and neared me while I silently glanced up at him with questioning eyes.

“Minji, do you think we could talk later?” he suddenly asked me. I wanted to speak, but all that came out when I opened my mouth was my shallow breaths and I instead just stared at him.

“Kris! I need your help now!” Yoona’s voice called once again and Kris rolled his eyes.

“Fine, I’m coming!” he yelled and finally took off for real, but not before casting one last glance back in our direction.

Chaerin snapped her tongue and shook her head dismissively as she watched him run off.

“That sly fox,” she muttered under her breath. “He got away without even saying whose number he got on his golden ticket.”      

For the next couple of minutes we both worked in comfortable silence until she finally decided to speak up again. “Minji, are you seriously just going to ignore him for the rest of the year?”

I shrugged unenthusiastically. “Not for the whole year. I just don’t want to speak to him right now.”

“Suit yourself,” she said, sighing like she wasn’t fully convinced. “But Kris looks like a lost puppy every time he looks at you. I don’t know how you can look at that innocent face of his and say ‘no’.”

“The same way I have to look at all of their innocent faces and say ‘no’,” I explained to her but Chaerin’s brows rose up high as she stared at me with questioning eyes; she still didn’t get it.

“I mean, look at them!” I pointed out to some random clique of guys walking around on campus. They were goofing around with one another looking absolutely carefree like they had no problems in the world. “Look at all of them,” I continued, gesturing to more guys on campus, all of them just doing their own things, minding their own businesses. 

“All of the guys are just like that,” I told her. “Sure, they all look innocent, but who knew that all this time they’ve been secretly planning this awful prank on us. They have some nerve to prank us by giving all the girls of our senior class diarrhea, then they turn around and film us in the bathrooms, and then now they want to post it on the internet, on the front of the school’s website page! That’s not a prank, that’s just evil! But now look at them. They’re all smiles, and laughter, and joking around like it’s nothing to them. They all deserve exactly what’s coming to them.”

I hadn’t realize how heated I had gotten when I went off on my little tirade. By the time I was finished, I barely had any breath left. Chaerin had stayed silent even after I was finished with my outburst and continued to let her eyes flutter across the students walking around on campus.    

“I agree,” she finally said, quickly grabbing my attention, but as she spoke, she kept her eyes focused on something in the distance. “The guys do deserve what we’re going to do to them and I want revenge just as much as you do…but…”

I was waiting for her to finish, but she just kept staring at whatever had her undivided attention. After a few more moments of inexplicable silence, I rolled my eyes.

“But what?”

“But Minji, Kris is fine!” she suddenly exploded.

My mouth fell open as I sat there, gaping at her in shock from what she just said to me. “What?! What does how fine he is have to do with anything?”

“It has to do with everything!” she proclaimed, her hands waving in the air as if it was going to further prove her point. “I mean, just look at him. He’s just so…ugh…”

At the little sound Chaerin just made, one of my eyebrows quirked upward; the fact that she actually moaned amused me to no end. 

 “So what are you saying?” I asked, totally appalled by what she was implying. “That Kris should be let off the hook just because of how hot he is.”  

“No,” she shook her head, her long black hair gently flapping around her face with every shake. “I’m just saying that I don’t know why you want to avoid a boy who’s that fine just because you want to focus on your revenge. I mean you could still talk to him at least…because, he likes you, you know.”

At the last words Chaerin spoke, that same concerned feeling I had felt when she spoke about Kris earlier, came back again.

“He likes you too, you know,” I suddenly blurted before I could even think about what I was actually saying.

Immediately, Chaerin’s head snapped in my direction and she stared at me in shock. “What makes you say that?”

“I don’t think he realizes it,” I answered. “But I still think he likes you. You two have got…um…chemistry. I can tell by the way you two talk to each other.”

“Yeah, Kris is pretty cool,” she admitted, smiling to herself, and that little smile made me realize that I just had to do something.

“You should ask him out,” I suggested, trying to sound as casual as possible, as if I was just stating the time or something, but Chaerin gawked at me like I had just told her to do something outrageous.

“No way! I can’t do that!” she protested, looking slightly embarrassed.      

“Yes you can,” I encouraged. “Either you do it, or I’ll do it for you. You know I can make one heck of a wing-woman.”  

Chaerin looked up to the sky like she was thinking my suggestion over. “Maybe one day I will…but only as friends.” She then paused for a moment before suddenly asking, “So you’re really over him?”

“I’m no longer interested in any of these guys.”

“Not even your co-president?”

Instantly I released the most unladylike snort; just the mention of his name put me in a bad mood.

“Hell no!”         

The tone of my voice had come out menacingly low, and Chaerin’s hands instantly flew up in the air in the “I’m innocent, please don’t hurt me” position.

For the rest of that morning, Chaerin and I worked on filling the hundreds of lip-shaped boxes with chocolates. We didn’t know which boxes had golden tickets in them since we had mixed them in with all the other regular boxes, but we knew that there were only eleven of them left since apparently the one Chaerin gave to Kris earlier had had a ticket in it.                      

By the time we had finished, Yoona’s kissing booth was all set up and ready to open. All the fliers she’d given Bom and Dara were all passed out to every boy on campus, and it showed because the line that developed around the booth was monstrous! About 15 minutes after the kissing booth had opened, it wasn’t even a line anymore and instead turned into a stampede of boys rushing to get to the front.

It was quite amusing and I felt good to see the guys begging for our attention especially after all the little stunts they’d pulled on us before. Now it was our turn to get them back!

I had lost count of how many boys’ cheeks, foreheads, ears, necks and other places I had kissed during the time I was in that booth. Some guys would request where they wanted their kiss instead of just taking a kiss on the cheek and Yoona let it slide because she wanted their votes, so it was up to us, her kissers, to deliver, just as long as they didn’t request for one on the lips. 

Eventually (just like I knew he would) my co-president had heard about the kissing booth, and was extremely surprised (again, like I knew he would be) once he found out that I was a part of it. He tried to play it cool, but he didn’t fool me with the way he was ogling me when he first saw me. You would’ve sworn I was out there in only my underwear with the way he was gawking at me with each and every move I made. I was actually enjoying it, and I wanted to revel at the sight of seeing him be flustered for a little bit longer, but then Yoona had to come over and ruin it.

She actually invited him inside of the kissing booth, and after that, the overly confident, and conceded Kai came back full force. Once inside the booth, all of Yoona’s friends had attached themselves to him, hanging on him like ornaments on a Christmas tree. And of course, Kai just soaked up all the attention like being in the middle of a sea of ladies was his natural habitat or something. The rest of the time he was in the booth, he had all their attention especially Hyoyeon’s who had apparently been crushing on him for a while now. She stole at least five kisses from him during the time he was in there.

Feeling forgotten and fed up, I had ended up munching on the left over chocolates that never got put into boxes. I was hungry and hadn’t gotten to eat anything all morning, so I just continued to bitterly scowl at Kai from the other end of the booth while I kept munching on chocolate until Dara had come over to stop me.

“Minji-ah!” she had cried, looking at me with worried eyes. “What are you doing?”

“Eating,” I had replied, dumbly, not getting why she was looking so worried.

“I can see that,” she had said, rolling her eyes. “But why are you eating those chocolates? Remember, we made those out of the laxative chocolate!”

I had spit out the chocolate the moment she had said that. I had been so upset at having to see Kai flirt with the others that I had completely forgotten that the chocolate I was chomping away at was the same chocolate we were using to give the guys diarrhea.

Because I was still hungry--and because Yoona as well as her friends were all busy occupied with Kai--Chaerin, Bom, Dara and I had all decided to sneak outside of the booth for a little while to go grab some real food. We didn’t think she’d notice, but boy were we wrong once we got back.

After that, Yoona had watched us like a hawk watches its prey making sure we stayed inside the booth, and that we kissed all the guys that promised to vote for her. My lips were probably going to be sore the next day from having to be in the puckered position for so long.

Finally, after about a million kisses later, we’d given out all the boxes of chocolates which meant that twelve lucky boys out there now had tickets with each of our numbers on them. That only meant one thing: the actual kissing was about to begin. 

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Anachay's note: Alright, that's it for now, but there's still one last part to this chapter I have to put up.