Dok Mi held the door to the school open for all of the early birds like herself.  She went to her locker, greeted her lower locker buddy with a smile, and went to class.  In class, she would answer an ample amount of questions and would raise a few of her own.  When it was necessary to work in a group, she would choose the quiet people in class and force them to participate.  At lunch, she would sit with her best friend Hye Ri at a table near the lunch line and they enjoyed the company of anyone who sat there.  After school, Dok Mi would follow Hye Ri to cheer practice and would make rough copies of her notes for her less studious friend.  When she was done rewriting her notes, she would say goodbye to Hye Ri and go home, help her mother cook dinner, eat, do her homework, shower, then, go to bed.  

   Dok Mi was a good girl.  

   “Can you believe that it’s our senior year already?”  Hye Ri said as they put their lunch trays on the table.  “I know it started a few weeks ago, but I’m finally starting to grasp the fact that this is it.  It’s our last year here.”  

   Dok Mi laughed and started stuffing her face with food, as usual.   “I just want to leave this place on good terms,” she mumbled through her food.  “I want it to be better when we leave than the way it was when we started.”  

   “I hear that!”  Taejoon said with a thick country accent.  His younger sister, Minah, sat between he and Hye Ri.  Minah eyed her brother and he nodded.

   “So, it’s been said that you two will only date when you both have love interests,” Minah announced.  Hye Ri looked to Dok Mi and they both nodded.  “That doesn’t make sense; what if one of you finds someone first?”  

   “They’ll have to wait.  Sisterhood is stronger,” Dok Mi said and high fived Hye Ri.  

   “Hye Ri, how do you feel about this?”  Taejoon asked.  Hye Ri lowered her head and coughed.  

   “Hey,” Dok Mi began to shout, “I just high fived you!”  

   “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I agree…  Minah has a point.  And I don’t understand why we have to wait.”

   “So we can double date and I won’t be alone with a guy,” Dok Mi sobbed.  “Remember my problem?”

   “What problem?”  Taejoon intruded. 

   “Nothing,” Hye Ri responded to him.  “I know, I know Dok Mi.  But I don’t have that problem.  So it should be okay if I get a boyfriend first, right?  That way we can double date when you finally get one,” she pouted.  Dok Mi frowned and stuffed her face with food again.  

   Taejoon found Dok Mi adorable.  He wanted to put her in the palm of his hand and take her to a toy factory or something.  He’d had his eye on her for a while, but she seemed too caught up in Hye Ri to care.  

   “Dok Mi, you’re not gay are you?”  Minah whispered.  “If you are, that’s fine.  I just think Taejoon should know.”   Taejoon hit her and Dok Mi laughed.  She knew he had a crush on her…  

   But she was afraid of emotions blending with attraction to boys.  She was afraid of being lame or heartbroken, so she turned love away.  The story with Hye Ri was just a cover up.  Amidst her thought, Hye Ri spoke up again. 

   “I know who I’m going to target first,” she laughed evilly.  “I’m a cheerleader, and I make good grades—“

   “Thanks to Dok Mi,” Taejoon added. 

   “I do things for Dok Mi, too!  I practically buy her entire wardrobe,” she hissed.  She saw Dok Mi look surprised and laughed.  “It’s because you’re so fun to dress up, Dok Mi.  Anyways, my first target shall be…  Nam Woohyun.”  

   Everyone sat in silence.  Dok Mi dropped her fork on her tray and swallowed her food as calmly as possible.   

   “But Hye Ri, he’s so…  Himself,” Minah shivered. “Even the non-judgmental side of Dok Mi agrees.”

   “No, it’s not that,” Dok Mi spoke up.  “It’s just…  He seems so common.  Every girl wants him, so I don’t know if—“

   “Are you doubting me?”  Hye Ri pouted.  “That’s it.  If my best friend doubts me, I might as well give up.”

   “Go for it,” Dok Mi sighed.  Hye Ri looked at her in astonishment.  “Maybe I have some jealousy in me that’s keeping you to myself.  But I want you to know that if you want to be with him, I won’t hold you back.  So just… Do it.”  Hye Ri hugged her best friend and shot up.  

   “I’ll do it right now!”  She quickly left the table and dashed over to where Woohyun was.  They were just close enough for Dok Mi, Minah and Taejoon to hear them.  “Erm…  Woohyun, I have something to tell you.”

   “What?” He snapped.  Dok Mi squinted.  That wasn’t necessary.  

   “Well, you know how you come to cheer practice every day and tease me and you know how we live right next to each other?  And you know how I liked you in elementary school?”

   “I tease all of the cheerleaders, but the rest is true.  What about it?”  

   “I… I want to be your girlfriend,” Hye Ri blurted.  Dok Mi lost her breath and crossed her fingers.  She watched as Woohyun looked at her, scanned her body with his eyes, and continued eating.  “Don’t you have an answer?”  

   Woohyun scratched his head and smirked.  “It’s no.  You’re ugly.”  

   Simultaneously, Hye Ri’s and Dok Mi’s hearts were both broken.  When Hye Ri came back to their lunch table, Dok Mi and Minah surrounded her with a big hug.  Taejoon simply rubbed Dok Mi’s shoulder.  

   From that moment on, Dok Mi disliked Woohyun.  She avoided him at all costs.  She stopped caring if he needed participation points in class.  She stopped volunteering to help him clean the classroom after school when it was his turn.  She stopped going to soccer games, just to avoid seeing him.  

   Eventually, the unavoidable happened.  

   “Students, I want you to work in pairs on editing each others’ essays.  After class, I’ll take them up and grade the original papers and add in your mark-ups to the score.  So, get to work!”  

   Dok Mi looked around and tried to find a partner, but, as if Hell had plotted something for her, she could only find Woohyun to work with.  She couldn’t put up a front, so she acted like her usual self while they traded papers.  Once they gave them back, Dok Mi began suggesting what he could do to improve his essay.  He grinned and added in everything she told him to add in.  When she asked him what she could do to improve her essay, he smirked.

   “Good question,” he responded.  “You don’t need my help.  You’re Lee Dok Mi, dork alert,” he said with a warm smile.  Dok Mi wouldn’t tolerate his grease and kept shut.  She read through her paper rapidly and tried to find something to fix, but class ended and she had to turn it in as it was originally.  “Good luck,” Woohyun said over his shoulder as he walked out of the classroom.  It took all of Dok Mi’s willpower to have her not huff and puff for the rest of the day.  

   A few days later, the students received their papers.  Dok Mi received a B+, while Woohyun received an A.  For the first time in her high school career, Dok Mi became incredibly upset over her grade.  She confronted the teacher about it and he ignored her pleas.  Basically, he told her that Woohyun had tried harder than usual, which gave him an A.  Dok Mi accepted her teacher’s words but she burned with anger on the inside.  She stalked down the halls and searched for Woohyun frantically.  Finally, she saw him getting a girl’s lunch because she “didn’t want it.”  Dok Mi rolled up her sleeves and marched towards him.

   “Yah!  Nam Woohyun!”  She yelled.  He backed away from the girl and her locker and stood in the middle of the hall, ignoring incoming and ongoing traffic.  People walked around him without complaining and left him an ample space to stand in.  Dok Mi saw this and became even angrier.  “What is wrong with you?!”  She shouted in his face.  He blinked a few times in surprise before responding. 

   “I don’t know what you’re so upset about…  Want a cookie?”  He asked as he pulled one from the lunch the girl had given him.  Dok Mi gently pushed his hand back and stood on her toes to reach his eye level.  

   “You let everyone bow down to you and it makes me sick.  You don’t do anything for the advancement of mankind, just yourself.  And that also makes me sick.  You need to get your head out of the clouds and come back down to Earth,” she softly but sternly commanded.  He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her down on her heels.  

   “It’s a tough world, Dok Mi,” he laughed.  “When you’ve got everyone catering to you, you don’t give it up.”  

   “That’s selfish.”

   “It’s reality.  Someone has to be on top,” he said.  He bent down and whispered in her ear.  “Maybe you need to do the growing up.  You look like a little girl, chiding me.”  Dok Mi’s eyes widened and she lost all color in her face.  She scrunched her eyebrows together and stomped on his foot, causing him to jump back and shriek in pain.  

   “I’m not a little girl!  I’m mature enough to know that we’re all people just trying to get by, but some of us are jerks!  Why are you so popular, anyway?  Because of your looks?  That makes me cringe.  What’s the last thing you ever did for anybody?  Huh?  And it had to be kind!”  She demanded.  By now, the traffic in the hallways had halted to watch her yell at him.  A few silently agreed with her.  Others were afraid that Woohyun would become even more of a jerk if people stopped treating him specially, so, they hushed Dok Mi’s supporters.  

  “What’s your point?”  Woohyun lazily asked.  “I just want to go eat some lunch.”  Dok Mi blew her hair out of her face and crossed her arms.  She took a deep breath in and tried to remain calm.  

   “My point is…  The goal in life is to be happy, but not to hurt others’ happiness.  I don’t see how you can be happy when all you do is burden people.”  She looked up to see Woohyun earnestly looking at her for the first time.  

   “You don’t think I’m happy?”  He calmly questioned.  Dok Mi shook her head.  Woohyun sighed and stepped closer to her.  “Let’s play a game.”   Dok Mi looked up at him with an eyebrow raised and he uncrossed her arms so he could grab one of her hands.  “Let’s see who’s happier by the end of the semester.  You, or me.  Shake on it?”  

  Dok Mi’s hand was limp in his, but after his offer, she proudly shook hands with him.  He winked, which made her pissed, and he walked away.  A few students came up to her and started applauding her.  She was modest and said that she had only done what was right and didn’t need special recognition for it.  

   Woohyun smiled as he walked away.  He had a feeling that this was going to be fun.