Cheesy Dork

I looked up from my homework to the person who’s ruining my concentration, my neighbor and best friend, Tiffany Hwang. She was repeatedly calling my name in aegyo tone whilst rolling on my bed back and forth. I knew she wouldn’t stop doing that until I gave her the reaction she wanted. 

I sighed. She’s such a kid sometimes...

“Fany, if you wanted to go out so badly then why didn’t you just ask the others since you don’t want to go alone?”

“Because I wanted to go with you, silly! Besides...” she got up, leaned her body on my desk then pushed my forehead lightly, “Taetae, you need to stop being a nerd.”

I frowned. “I am not a nerd.”

“Really? Then why are you doing your homework on Sunday when non-nerdy people spend their time going out and have fun instead?”

I rolled my eyes and closed my book. There was no need for further useless argument when I knew she would win in the end. “Fine, you non-nerdy people, let’s go out.”

There goes her eye-smile.

“Yay! Let’s go!” She squealed.

How did we end up like this anyway? Wasn’t I the one who used to drag her around to play when we’re kids? So how come she’s pulling my arm impatiently now?

I let my parents knew we’re going out, not forgetting to pick up my jacket on our way to the door. Tiffany raised one of her eyebrows when I put it on outside, and I simply smiled in response. She once told me she didn’t understand my obsession with jackets; why did I always had one with me even when it’s not cold.

What she didn’t know was that there’s more to the ‘I like it’ and shrug I gave her as the answer. It’s not that I’m obsessed with it, but jackets reminded me of the time when we first met.

My hand reached out to the hood of my jacket that rest on the back of my neck where the supposed bear ears were attached and grimaced when I touched it. Umma bought this stupid looking jacket for me and thought it was cute if I wear it. She even threatened me that I couldn’t go out and play at our apartment playground if I didn’t wear it today. 

‘Ugh, I’m too old to wear this kind of thing!’

I sat at one of the swings, huffed, and kicked the sand below....when I heard a sniffle. I looked around and spotted another kid on a nearby bench, sobbing.

Being a curious kid, I approached her. “Hey, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

She shook her head and looked down to hide her tears.

I scratched my head and tried to think of something that could cheer her up. ‘Wait, I know!’

Covering my head completely with the bear jacket hood, I rummaged my pocket then crouched in front of her and stretchered out my closed hand. “If you stop crying, Tae-bear promises to give you something good!”

I guess that got her attention since she stopped and looked at me funny for a moment then nodded. She wiped the remaining of her tears away.

I twisted my clenched fist upwards and opened my palm to reveal the few candies I managed to sneak out. “Take all you want,” I urged.

She timidly reached out for one strawberry flavored candy wrapped in pink. “Thank you,” she whispered.

The first time I heard her voice, I thought the way she said her words were kind of weird.

“Kim Taeyeon, the Tae-bear.” Not moving from the crouching position, I offered my other hand for a handshake and grinned goofily.

She glanced at my face then back to my hand before taking it. “Ti-Tiffany...Hwang.”

Wow! Her eyes completely disappeared when she smiled.

Later I found out that she just moved from America and she was homesick. 

And what about that bear jacket you say? It was hidden safely in my closet since it no longer could fit me (thank God!). Not that I would ever wear it again and embarrassed myself, no freaking way.

Still, I needed something to keep me from forgetting about that particular memory. To keep some part of her close to me. Thus, I began collecting jacket after jacket which ended up taking half of the space in my closet.

So yeah, that’s the story behind my so-called jacket obsession.

~~~

Fany insisted to feed me during our usual lunch at the cafeteria with the SooSun couple. I’m not complaining, but it seemed that other people were starting to.

"I don’t understand. You guys are so mushy with each other,” Sunny started.

“And funny thing is that you two aren’t even a couple like us.” Sooyoung finished, pointing her fork at Tiffany and me.

I just shrugged while Tiffany stuck her tongue out and said, “You guys are just jealous because you two are dubbed as the violent couple.”

Now that’s what I didn’t understand. How could Sunny and Sooyoung become a couple? You know, given how violent they could be with each other sometimes. But I guess that’s just how their love works.

As for Tiffany and I...well, I didn’t know why the school dubbed us as the gag-inducing ‘unofficial’ couple. Were we really that mushy?

“Taetae, here, try this.” Fany offered while holding a spoon in front of my mouth waiting for me to react. I of course complied with her demand. What? She gave me this super cute look!

Okay, so maybe we were mushy.

~~~

“Tiffany, concentrate please...”

She rested her head on the table dejectedly and pouted at me. “How can you stand this? You nerd.”

“How rude, here I am trying to teach you and yet you insult me,” I chided playfully.

She smiled and poked my cheek with the back of her mechanical pencil. “Nerd.”

“Stop calling me a nerd.” Who am I kidding? Obviously she wouldn’t.

A small smile appeared on my face. Everyone was surprised when I grew up to be a nerd. Who wouldn’t? Kim Taeyeon loved to play not study. Until I met the one and only Tiffany Hwang, that was.

She’s the reason why I developed this nerdy side of me. At first I just wanted to know her better by studying English and also to help improve her Korean. Apparently it didn’t stop there from one subject to another.

In this case, Math.

“Say Fany, if you passed midterms then I’ll agree to go watch that vampire movie you want to see.”

She sat up quickly. “You will??”

I nodded.

“Then what are you waiting for! Let’s study!” She said excitedly.

I shook my head and sighed. If only I could think of another way to coax her to study....

~~~

The SooSun couple was staring at us weirdly because Fany was hogging my arm and half-dragging me on our way to the cinema. We decided it would be more fun if they tagged along to watch the movie I promised Tiffany with. Or in my case I could use Sooyoung's support and we could cringe together.

What else could I do? Tiffany passed the midterms better than I expected, she must have been real desperate to watch the movie.

“You’re awfully clingy with Taeng today, Tiffany.” Sunny questioned.

“Doesn’t she always?” Sooyoung added.

“Fany is just afraid I would run away if she let go of my arm,” I reasoned.

Tiffany looked at me suspiciously. “Would you?”

‘Hell yes! But darn, I promised her.’ I scratched my head nervously. “Uh...no?”

Tiffany kept looking at me as if she didn’t trust my words; the other two just ignored us and making their way to the ticket booth.

When the tickets were purchased, there’s nothing more I could do than resigning myself for what would come once we’re inside. I threw a look at Sooyoung and she caught my meaning. We’re in for lots of girls’ squeals and drools.

I’m so not looking forward to it, I’m telling you.

~~~

I stared at my locker unblinking. What the heck was this thing doing in my locker? I didn’t expect things like this would really happen to me.

“Someone put a bomb in your locker, Taeng? Why aren’t you moving?” Sooyoung peered from behind my shoulder to see what’s so interesting in my locker. “Nice! Fany's gonna freak out once she finds out you got a love letter.”

Oh, man...she’s probably right.

“The short nerd got an admirer,” Sooyoung elbowed me teasingly.

I glared at her. So not helping, Sooyoung.

Sooyoung put her hands up in surrender. “Seriously though, I’ve been wondering why haven’t you asked Fany out? Everyone knows that you two are practically like an old married couple or something...you do know that, right?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled.

“Then what’s keeping you?”

"I don’t know. Maybe it’s because we just share some kind of understanding about it that I don’t think it’s necessary to voice it out loud?”

Sooyoung squeezed my shoulder, her face became serious. "Is that so? Taeng, don’t take it for granted. You guys might not need to define your relationship with each other, but other people do. All they know is there’s a chance to be with either one of you. That ‘unofficial’ couple title is the problem if you ask me.” Her gaze shifted to the letter then at me. “This time it’s you who get the love letter, next time it might be Tiffany. What would happen if someday someone does snatch her away from you?”

“I...I...” I realized that was a question I didn’t have an answer for—no, it’s a question I’m not ready to give an answer to.

“Just think about it, yeah? Plus, I think you’ve left the poor girl waiting long enough.” She smiled.

I nodded. “Okay. Thanks, buddy.”

She patted my arm. “No problem, just don’t wanna see you regret it later. And gotta go before Sunny killed me for being late, see you!”

I looked at the letter in my locker again then quickly took it out and closed my locker. I ripped it open carefully. I have to find out who wrote this letter.

~~~

“Hey, Tae...”

“Hmm?”

Fany turned to me and asked, “I remember you used to be a cheesy dork, why are you now more quiet and plain nerdy?”

Oh, she just loved to bring up the ‘nerdy’ word every time didn’t she?

“And this nerd helped you passed the midterms, no?” I teased. “I also remember you used to be quiet and shy, now you’re noi—” at her glare I quickly corrected myself, “I mean bubbly and cute.”

The moment I found out that my feelings weren’t a mere friendship towards Fany, I stopped being the outright cheesy dork that I am. People kept telling me what I did was called flirting, some even corrected me by telling me it’s wrong or giving me disapproving stares. Although it didn’t go worse than that, it kind of dampened my youthful self’s confidence. Funny, not long after that she started going all clingy on me.

“You didn’t answer my question, Tae.”

“I just grew up, I guess?” I leaned my head back to the couch and closed my eyes. I didn’t want people to see her in a bad way because of my action. I didn’t want her to experience the same treatment. “Why? Do you like me as the cheesy dork more?”

She was silent for a while.

“No, I like Taetae as Taetae,” she said.

I wondered what brought this up. I knew there was something else she wasn’t telling me. “But...?”

“But,” she rested her head on my shoulder and played with my fingers. “I don’t know...maybe I just missed that Tae.”

That’s understandable. There were times when I, too, missed the old Fany...though it was more of a nostalgic matter than anything.

With whisper-like voice, she called out, “Taetae?”

“Yeah?” I opened my eyes and turned to look at her when I felt her hand paused from the previous activity.

“What happened to that letter?” she asked me tentatively, not meeting my gaze.

I see, this was about the love letter found in my locker after all, eh? And here I thought she would freak out. I have yet told her that she has nothing to worry about. “I gave it back to the sender. I told them I’m grateful but couldn’t return their feelings and apologized.”

“Oh...” she sounded relieved.

I think you’ve left the poor girl waiting long enough. Sooyoung words hadn’t left my mind since that day.

‘I stopped myself from flirting with her with the excuse of trying to protect her from people who would oppose our relationship, yet doing nothing to stop us from being mushy with each other. What am I doing, really? And aren’t people in school pretty much okay with SooSun? Stupid Taeyeon, you worry too much.’

I squeezed her hand. “Hey,” I made sure her eyes were on me before carrying on, “I like Fany as Fany too.” I smiled reassuringly.

She snuggled closer to me and hugged my waist after returning my smile.

What would happen if someday someone does snatch her away from you?

What’s left was to make sure there would be no chance of that happening.

~~~

Currently my target was staring at the note intently then shook their head. Ah, that’s it! That’s the smile I’ve been waiting for, Kim Taeyeon you’ve done it!

What am I doing? Wasn’t it obvious? I was spying, duh. Now if you’d excuse me...

I pushed the speed dial number 1 on my phone and waited for the person to pick it up. I grinned, remembering exactly what I had written in that pink note:

Be my wife?
-your cheesy dork-

“Hey,” she greeted softly.

“Hey, I take it you’ve seen what’s inside your locker?”

“Seriously, Taetae? What kind of person asks someone directly to be their wife? Aren’t you supposed to ask them to be your girlfriend first?” She was glancing from left to right in search of me; she must have known I was close. Time to come out of my hiding place it seemed.

I waved at her as soon as she has spotted me.

I slid my phone shut and proceed to her direction. “Well, my kind of person? Aren’t we girlfriends already? So why wait when I already found the perfect one?” I winked at her.

Her blush was the encouragement I needed for what I’m about to do next. “But first...”

She waited for me to continue as I took out the ring inside my skirt pocket. “Well, someone can’t ask a person to be their wife without a ring, right?” I saw her eyes getting wide and mouth agape. “I know the ring is just a plain silver ring, nothing fancy nor expensive. But will you be my wife?” Don’t worry, I didn’t forget to kneel. She asked for the cheesy dork, the cheesy dork Fany Fany Tiffany would get.

After a moment of silence, she exclaimed, “What the...Kim Taeyeon, you cheesy dork!” She playfully smacked my head.

“And you said you missed that Tae!” I rubbed my head and pouted. “So...do I get a yes, Tiffany Hwang?” I asked for the second time.

She extended her hand towards me. I took it as a yes and quickly put the ring on her finger. I was given the brightest eye-smile ever before she bent down to hug me. “Took you long enough, Taetae.” She told me affectionately.

I wrapped my hands around her, enjoying the moment. “It would take me longer if Sooyoung didn’t knock some sense into me and made me realize that I have made you wait all this time,” I chuckled.

“Then that shikshin deserves a thank you.” She pulled away, but took a hold of my hand.

I wasted no time to stand up. If the kneeling went any longer, my knee would go numb! “I couldn’t agree more.”

~~~

“Um, guys...” Sooyoung waved, trying to attract our attention from the table across us.

“Yeah?” Tiffany and me answered at the same time but didn’t avert our gazes from each other.

“Look, I appreciate that you both giving me this...” Sooyoung pulled up the big lunch box we made this morning—I cooked while Fany supplied the idea and helped me with the groceries shopping—as a thank you gift. Sooyoung then groaned. “But would you two please stop giving each other that lovestruck look?! You’re making me lose my appetite here!”

“Nope.” We answered simultaneously and extended it with calling our names to one another in an overly sweet voice that made Sooyoung eyebrow twitched a few times. Sunny just looked at us weirdly, as usual. Or was that an amused look?

“You guys are officially a hundred times worse now! C’mon, bunny, let’s eat somewhere else. I can feel a nausea coming.” Sooyoung sighed and took hold of Sunny’s hand, leading themselves and the gift lunch out of our visual range in a hurry.

“All thanks to you, buddy!” I shouted at Sooyoung’s back. Then I looked back at my wife with a grin. ‘Wife...I love the sound of it. Perfect.’

“It’s nice to once in a while,” I giggled.

She joined giggling. “Yeah, but I feel kinda bad that she has to move.” She stopped for a while and said, “Taetae, you owe me something.”

“And what would that be?”

“My good morning kiss.” Her eyes glinted mischievously.

I raised my eyebrow playfully. “Really?”

“This morning we’re too busy with making food for that shikshin and forgot about it. So you owe me one now, you dork.” She leaned forward, not even hesitating for a moment.

I smiled. My wife was plain adorable.

“Sure do, wifey.” Before I closed my eyes and sealed the gap between our lips, I caught another glimpse of her eye-smile when the word ‘wifey’ left my mouth. 

 

The end