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GONG MINJI

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Part I

“What do you think about this one?” I asked Bom, holding up an outfit to my body.

“Yawn,” was her deadpanned reply. To equate her response she covered with her hand and released an exaggerated "bored" sigh.

Ignoring her insensitiveness, I switched to another outfit. “Well, what about this one?”

“Who was the last person to where that outfit? Cleopatra?” Bom mocked. “No wait, I’m not giving Cleopatra enough credit; she was way ahead of her time. She would’ve had better sense than to wear that.”

I narrowed my eyes before rolling them and then changed outfits for the third time. “Okay, what about this outfit?”

Bom smirked and tilted her head as she examined my outfit. “Have you been taking fashion advice from my grandmother?”

“Bom!” I scolded her, finally fed up. “You’re not helping me! You just keep making fun of all of my outfits.”

“Well you told me to be honest!” Bom defended herself. “If you expect that co-president of yours to notice you, you aren’t going to do it with clothes from the seventeenth century.”

I bit my lip, slightly hurt by her statement. That was a bit far-fetched. Just because I had a few long skirts that reached my ankles and generally kept myself pretty covered up didn’t mean I was living in the sixteen hundreds.

“Getting his attention is hardly an issue,” I responded, bitterly. “Especially with the way he and his friend, Kris, were eyeing me earlier.”

Bom’s head snapped in my direction. “What? When was this happening and why didn’t I know about it?”

“Probably because you were too busy drooling over them,” I said matter-of-factly.

“I don‘t drool!” Bom protested.

“But admit it, you did salivate a little,” I teased, a cheeky grin on my face now.

“Well they are man candy,” she admitted, looking up at the ceiling, probably thinking about hot boys, but she quickly shook her head and focused back on me. “But we aren‘t talking about me, we are talking about you and your seventeenth century, Puritan clothing choices.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked looking at the outfits now sprawled across my bed. The outfits were modest, not “old” like Bom had said. I thought my clothes were just fine. Besides, the puritans would have never gotten away with wearing such bold colors and styling’s as the outfits I‘d chosen.

At the moment, Bom and I were both currently in our shared dorm room and I was trying to put together a respectable outfit for a meeting tomorrow.

A couple hours earlier, I’d been instant chatting with my older sister since she wanted to know every detail about the boys entering the school. See, she’d attended and graduated the academy too back when it was all-girls and when I was younger, I remember she used to send messages home all the time expressing about how awesome the academy was. It was part of the reason I practically begged my parents to let me go once I was old enough.

Once I told her that the school was going co-ed, she expressed that she was a little jealous. Although she loved her high school experience, she’d always been just a little boy crazy, and since the school only went co-ed after she was gone, she felt that she’d been sort of gypped. She’d told me that she wanted every detail of the new co-ed school, and so I’d spent my entire afternoon explaining to her, in full detail, all that had happened my first day back.

It was during our chat that I’d received a phone call from the head office, explaining that I was to “attend an important meeting with the school’s headmasters along with my fellow co-president Mr. Kim Jongin”. I had no idea what the meeting was supposed to be for, but I’d figured that since both Jongin and I were to attend it, the meeting probably had something to do with our senior class and our jobs as presidents.

I thought this meeting was a perfect idea since there were some things I wanted to discuss with the headmasters as well as Jongin, himself, anyway. I’d been slightly offended with the way he and his friends looked at me with their mouths hung wide open once they found out that I was a president too. It was like none of them had never even heard the words “female” and “president” together before. I mean come on, is it really that hard to fathom? We have a female president running our entire country!

Anyway, I decided that I needed to come up with a respectable, formal - but not too formal - outfit for the meeting. I wanted to represent myself well especially since this would be the first time I was going to meet the man who was not only Jongin’s dad, but the same man who’d been the headmaster of Busan Academy.

Good first impressions are everything, so I‘d entrusted Bom to help me put together the perfect outfit, but so far, it wasn‘t going well. I should’ve known better. Bom and I had extremely different ideas of style. Bom was very confident in her legs, and boy did she know how to show them off. Whether it is miniskirts, mini shorts, or mini-dresses, she showed every other female that her legs were what nice legs were supposed to look like.

I on the other hand was just a little bit more conservative. I did like skirts and shorts as well as dresses, but I’d usually go for a nice pencil skirt rather than a mini, or a long flowy dress or mid-thigh shorts. Of course to Bom, these all meant “old granny” clothes.

 “What do I mean?” Bom asked incredulously as she stood up and walked to my closet and started rummaging through it. “I mean why on earth do you choose to cover up so much? You have smooth, toned legs that could benefit from some shorts that don’t look like boy's swim trunks.”

She pulled out some of my favorite shorts to show me which ones were “unsuitable” for my body. She then threw them on my bed without a care.

“Hey! I like those shorts,” I said meekly. I fixed them and folded them back up.

 “Plus you have an to die for, and such a tiny waist you could be showing off,” she continued to rant. She carelessly threw out more of my clothes including sweatshirts, jeans, and other “shapeless” clothes.

“What are you looking for?” I huffed and started folding everything back to desired neatness. I was getting a little angry that she was throwing my stuff all over the place. Bom didn’t mind living in a pig sty, but I did.

“Where are the outfits I bought you for your birthday?” she asked, but before I could answer, she let out a surprised gasp. She pulled out the bag that had the clothes she’d bought me. Turning to me, she glared on with accusing eyes and spoke to me with an equally accusing tone. “You mean you haven’t even taken them out of the bag yet?”

“I did, you saw me open them,” I hurriedly answered, trying to explain why the clothes were still in the bag. “I just haven’t taken them out because I haven’t had the opportunity to wear them yet.”

Bom sat the bag down on my bed and started pulling out the clothes. My eyes widened at the things she’d bought me. Everything was mini-sized and/or extremely revealing. She picked up this black spaghetti strapped mini dress and smiled at me, handing it over.

“Now this is an outfit,” she said, nodding like a proud mama.

I held the dress up, examining it. It was suitable if I was trying to get picked up at a nightclub or something. I thought it could even pass for lingerie, but it was hardly the professional outfit I’d wear for a meeting with some of the most important people who head the school.

“Nice try,” I handed Bom the dress back. She sighed and her shoulders slumped. “But I need something modest and pro-fes-sion-al.” I accentuated “professional” into four syllables so that she’d understand.

Bom stared at me through hooded but amused eyes. “You old granny.”

* * *

It took a few more tries before we could both agree on an outfit. Bom suggested I wear this cashmere cream white top she’d bought me and I chose my corduroy black skinny pants and my black heeled boots. It’s not like I actually needed her approval for an outfit, but I was nervous about the meeting and I just needed to be reassured that my outfit was okay. As much as I was going to have to worry about meeting the headmasters, the last thing I wanted on my mind was my outfit.

“What time is the meeting?” she asked.

“Around eleven o’ clock,” I answered, putting my other clothes away.

“Good,” she said, flopping on her bed that was across the room. “I can help with your hair then, since the meeting isn’t too early. I hate waking up early.”

“Don’t I know it,” I commented underneath my breath as Bom almost immediately drifted to sleep.

* * *

“Excuse me, Ms. Lee,” I called the office lady’s name to get her attention.

The middle-aged woman looked up at me through her glasses and smiled. “Oh hi Minji, you’re here. Go down the hall and make a left. Your headmasters have already started the meeting and are expecting you.”

I frowned at what she said. 

They’d already started the meeting? I thought, curiously. Without me? I looked at my watch. I wasn’t even late, in fact, I was ten minutes early.

I made my way down the hall, made the left and continued to the very last door where a plaque hung on the wall next to the door that read “Kim Jong Jin” and underneath it read “Headmaster”. The door was already open so I didn’t have to knock and I just walked in.

Entering the rather large office, I instantly began bowing to the three other people in the room. My headmaster, Mrs. Jung, my co-president, Jongin, and the man I assumed was his father were all seated around a large glass table. Mrs. Jung was getting out of her chair and walking over to me.

“Minji, welcome. It’s nice to see you,” she greeted me. “Do you know Mr. Kim?”

She gestured over to the tall man who was now standing as well; I was a bit shocked at first glance. I didn’t know what to expect for when I’d see my co-president’s father for the first time, but I wasn’t expecting such a mirror image of Kim Jongin himself. I could definitely see where Jongin got his handsome looks from.

I shook my head “no” and Mr. Kim beckoned me over with his hand. I moved over to the table that both he and Jongin currently sat at.

“So this is Miss Minji,” he said, as he grabbed my hand and shook it, smiling at me. I found myself lost in his white smile as I nodded even though it was unnecessary. “Hello Miss Minji, I’ve been told that you and my son have already met?”

I looked over at Kim Jongin who was still seated comfortably in his chair, his lips holding that same smirk that never seemed to leave his face. I smiled politely and nodded.

“Yes, we met earlier yesterday,” I said.

“Good! And you already know headmaster Jung, so let me introduce myself,” Mr. Kim told me. “I’m Mr. Kim Jong Jin, but you may just refer to me as headmaster Kim or Mr. Kim.”

“Nice to meet you Mr. Kim,” I replied, bowing.

“Let’s all sit shall we,” he said before sitting down. “You do know what this meeting is for, right Minji?”

“I assume to talk about us as senior presidents,” I gestured between Jongin and me.

“Mr. Kim really wanted to meet you Minji-” Mrs. Jung had started.

“Yes, I did,” Mr. Kim cut her off. “I wanted to see this fine young lady in person that is going to be senior co-president with my son, Jongin.”

“But first let me say what a great honor it is to be with two of Cheonan’s top finest students. I believe you two are the best students to do the job of representing our new school. You are both honor roll students, you keep clean records, and are both leadership material. These are the kind of presidents that Cheonan Academy needs.”

I was pleased that Mr. Kim was impressed, but I somehow got the feeling that he was trying to butter me up with compliments. It made me wonder what the real reason was for calling this meeting. Was there something they knew was going on that I didn‘t know about?

I wasn’t going to ask, and even if I wanted to it wouldn’t have mattered. From then on, neither Jongin nor I were able to get a word in. Mr. Kim's and Mrs. Jung's mouths stayed busy talking as they kept switching off to tell us what they expected of us for this year as presidents.

“I hope you two know how important it is for Cheonan Academy to have good students to represent it,” Mr. Kim said, looking me directly in the eyes as he said it. “You two will be some of the academy’s most important factors in how well it runs. After all, you will have lots of responsibility from regulating school clubs and events to dealing with student issues and more.”

“This is why I was telling you two that it is very important you two work together,” Mrs. Jung now spoke. “A lot of the responsibility falls on your shoulders and we need presidents that can handle the pressures this year will hold.”

“I don’t have to tell you that there are some people out there who are not too happy about Cheonan being a co-ed school. There are a lot of parents as well as some people on the school board who are against the co-ed school and would like to close Cheonan down. Still, there are a good amount that support us which is why we were able to keep the Cheonan open.”

“Now, the academy will be getting frequent weekly visits from the superintendent and possibly from other members of the school board as well,” Mr. Kim explained. “They will be checking the progress of the academy and making sure that everything is running smoothly. These people are the most important because they can decide what changes the school needs and more importantly whether to keep the school open or close it down.

“We will be notifying you two in advance of when the superintendent will be here, in fact we will notify the entire school, just to make sure everyone is on their best behavior. Still, sometimes, we might ask you two to introduce yourselves to the superintendent and give them insight on what’s going on with your senior class.”

As the headmasters continued to explain what was going to happen this school year, I realized that we had way more responsibility than I originally thought. Mrs. Jung described Kim Jongin and I as the “voice” of the entire senior class. For example, the class would usually vote for the student council, but instead Jongin and I were supposed to choose the members that we deemed fit to be on the school’s student council. This would be our first most important job as presidents.

“You both know of the welcoming assembly on Monday, right?” Mr. Kim asked.

Jongin and I nodded.

“Well, we would like it if you two made a speech at the assembly. It doesn‘t have to be long, but just long enough to introduce yourselves to the class especially since this will be the first time for the girls to meet Kim Jongin as president as well as the boy’s first time to meet you Gong Minji.”

They went on to describe to us the kind of events the assembly was going to hold and what they expected from us. They thought that if Jongin and I spoke at the assembly, and we showed how well we were getting along, then it would somehow reflect on our senior class and help the boys and girls get along as well.

“Do you two understand everything expected of you? Or do you have any questions about anything?”

My head was still interpreting all the information I‘d just been given, but I think I understood the gist of the meeting. Basically, this entire meeting was to tell us how important it was for us not to screw anything up.

I nodded. “Yes, I understand perfectly. I’m ready and willing to do whatever it takes to make this school year the best it can be as well as making sure our senior year runs smoothly.”

“That’s the kind of ‘can-do’ spirit I like,” Mr. Kim said with a bright smile. “Mrs. Jung, this girl has got spunk!”

“She’s the best for the job,” Mrs. Jung agreed.

“I know you are ready to take on the responsibility as well,” Mr. Kim said now looking over at his son. “You and I already talked earlier, but we are going to have another talk later.”

Jongin nodded, only looking at Mr. Kim. I watched on slightly confused as the two seemed to be sharing some secret message between each other.

“Well, that’s it for now,” Mr. Kim said clasping his hands together. “You know where to find us if you two have any further questions. Thank you for showing up to the meeting and I look forward to seeing how well you two work together this year.”

“Thank you Mr. Kim and Mrs. Jung,” I stood up bowing to each of them. Jongin bowed as well and turned to leave. I thought he went on without me, but was surprised to find him holding the door open for me. And with that, we both then exited the room.

* * *

Well this is awkward, I thought, looking up at the blue sky. Or at least I felt awkward. To Kim Jongin; however, I assumed didn’t feel as uncomfortable as I did, probably because he was too preoccupied with his cell phone to notice.

The both of us were currently walking side-by-side, not particularly headed toward anywhere specific, but just kind of walking aimlessly. I actually liked taking walks around the large campus, but the fact that he and I hadn’t spoken a single word to one another since we left the office was making it seem like time was going extremely slow and that we'd been walking forever when truth be told, only a couple of minutes have gone by.

I didn’t think he would walk with me. I thought we would leave the office and then go our separate ways, but Jongin surprised me when he held the door open for me to exit first before joining me on this rather awkward stroll and well, that's how we ended up here.

I decided to release an exaggerated sigh hoping it would grab his attention, but he was too busy typing away on his phone.

“Hey,” I called, trying again for his attention. It still didn’t work. All I got was a halfhearted “hey” right back. Jerk. He didn’t even look up from his phone when he said it.

Suddenly, I decided to stop in my tracks, just to see if he would notice, but the guy just kept on walking. It was like I wasn’t even there!

Turning around, I spotted a bench nearby that was shaded by a large tree. It looked rather cozy so I walked over to it and made myself comfortable. Sitting down, I watched as Kim Jongin kept walking without even noticing that I wasn't beside him anymore.

And then it was like he heard my thoughts, because his head suddenly lifted up and he started turning in all directions, looking for me. He finally caught me sitting alone on the bench, and I smiled, lifting a hand to wave at him as I watched him walk my way.

“Why’d you stop?” he asked, once he was in front of me, his expression displeased. His groomed eyebrows were furrowed, looking totally confused as to why I left him by himself.

“Hm?” I asked, playing innocent like I had no idea what he was talking about.

“We were walking and you just stopped.”

“Oh, so you actually noticed,” I said sarcastically, and leaned back on the bench. “I stopped because there was no point in walking with you when we weren’t talking to each other or really going anywhere.”

“Oh,” he said putting his phone in his pocket and sat down next to me. “Well, I had some important messages to respond to.”

I nodded. Whatever.

“So, was there something you wanted to talk about?” he asked, making direct eye contact with me. There was this small glimmer in both his dark eyes, this playful spark, that unknowingly, had me a little captivated; it seemed this was the first time I noticed just how pretty his eyes were.

“Oh yeah,” I quickly broke eye contact with him, looking off into the distance as I tried to remember why I wanted to talk to him in the first place. “Um...when do you want to work on the speech we are supposed to give at the assembly?”

Now it was his turn to look away from me. The questionable look on his face gave me reason to believe that he hadn’t even considered the possibility of working on a speech, which actually turned out to be true. 

“Is it necessary to work on a speech?" asked Jongin, staring back at me now. "I mean, it doesn‘t have to be long. We‘re just introducing ourselves right?”

I stared at him with wide eyes, shocked by what I just heard. 

Of course it’s necessary! This would be our first time introducing ourselves to our entire senior class and I wanted to make a good first impression. Plus, I wanted to make sure that the senior guys knew I was the “real deal” as a senior president. I didn’t want them thinking they could "one-up me" just because I was female.

Taking notice of my shocked expression, he seemed to know that what he said was the wrong because he suddenly changed his mind about the writing a speech together.

“Oh, never mind, apparently it is important,” he said tentatively, probably trying not to upset me further.

“It is important!” I repeated curtly. “Everything we do this year is important. Didn’t you hear anything the headmasters told us? Or was I the only one listening in there? You did hardly seem to be paying attention during the meeting anyway.”

His eyes narrowed at me, the playful glint they previously held now dimming. I looked him up and down and raised a brow, challenging him to say something back.

Great, we're already having our first disagreement.

“Fine,” he replied, expressionless. “We can write a short speech if it’ll make you feel better.”

I smiled in triumph. “Yes, it will make me feel much better. So, when do you want to work on it?" I then glanced at my watch before adding, "I do have some free time right now...”

“No,” Jongin quickly cut me off, causing me to frown, a little offended by the curtness. He then added, “I mean, I actually have something important to attend to right now.”

“Is it in regards to the important messages you were receiving?”

He stared at me with wide eyes as if he wasn’t expecting me to ask that. I guess he didn’t think I would put the two-and-two together. He quickly shook his head and returned back to his cool composure.

“Er… yeah,” he replied, pulling out his phone to check something on it. He then looked at me again. “Tell you what, you write a little speech about the things you want to address and I’ll write down a few things myself. Then Sunday, we can meet up, put our speeches together, do a little editing and then we’ll have our speech ready for Monday.”

I nodded agreeing. I was a little surprised that he suddenly agreed with me so easily. Maybe working with him wouldn’t be as difficult as I thought.

“Okay, sounds good.”

“Good,” he nodded. “Is that all you wanted to talk about Minji-sshi?”

Minji-sshi? I frowned at his formal addressing of my name.  

I suddenly realized that this was our first real conversation. I'd hardly spoke at all when we first met, so although my friends seemed to take quite a liking to him, he and I weren't exactly on friendly terms. It definitely showed because we still spoke and addressed each other formally.

“Actually yes, there is,” I started. “Don’t you think we should speak to each other more comfortably since we are going to be working together all year? I mean, we might as well get comfortable with one another.” 

He smirked and nodded. “Sure, you can call me Kai.”

“What does ‘Kai’ mean?”

“It has a few different meanings but it’s just an old nickname.”

“Cool, Kai it is then,” I replied cooly. “You can call me Minzy.”

He suddenly looked up at the sky like he was mulling the name over; he repeated my nickname a few times, before finally saying, "That's cute".

What? 

“It is?” I asked, stunned. 

“Alright Minzy,” he said standing up, ignoring me like I hadn't anything at all. “We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

“Oh, wait,” I said, stopping him by placing a hand on his arm. He paused, and stared at my hand, his expression unreadable before looking at me. “Where are we going to meet up?”

His eyes wandered away from mine for a brief moment until they landed back on me. "How about right here?" He gestured to the bench.

I glanced at the bench and smiled. “Okay then. See you Sunday.”

* * *