The Girl

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“Tofu!” the voice calls out, loud and clear among the crowd of customers inside the family restaurant. A petite girl sitting at the last table near the window flinches and she turns her face away from the front door as another girl with long black hair and a pretty smile waving excitedly at her.

“Lee Tofu!” the long black haired girl calls out again, this time standing just five feet away from the table; her bangles are clinging as they clash against each other. Tofu girl sighs and covers her face out of embarrassment. The long black haired girl is now pulling the chair across her, sitting down almost instantly and grins, her decorative glasses rises together with her cheekbones as she smiles.

“Hey, knock it out! I’ve got something to tell you!” she then says, aggravating her effort with a noisy sigh as she pulls the Tofu girl’s hands away from her face. She receives a slap on her hands instead.

“Stop calling me that, woman!” the midget girl finally speaks, nose crinkles and face crimsoning from the embarrassment as she catches a few groups of teenagers and families are taking turns glancing at their table and snickering. She really hates unnecessary attentions like that.

“Oh, sorry. Are you hurt, Hae Ryung-ssi? Do you not like the name? But you do look like soft tofu, though…” the girl with the black hair speaks mockingly as if Hae Ryung is a baby in front of her, and then reaches out her fingers to touch Hae Ryung’s cheeks, dipping both her index fingers in them and letting them sink into the soft velvety flesh. Hae Ryung frowns and grabs her friend’s wrists, halting her from doing so.

“Enough, Na Bin.” Her voice low, but strong. Na Bin stops and let her hands fall onto the table. She smirks as Hae Ryung pushes her bangs away from her face and on her ice lemon tea.

“Geez, you don’t have to be so scary, Hae Ryung. This –” she puts up her left hand and points at her friend’s forehead, indicating the small waves of dissatisfaction between her brows, “—this is why the boys are all scared of you. That’s why even Joong Ki oppa stays away from you, too.”

Hae Ryung grimaces at the name. Song Joong Ki? The so-called playboy with pretty face who never says no to any girl? Hae Ryung thinks having him away from her is a good thing, though.

“I have no interest in a pretty face without brain. And I thought he’s gay?”

Na Bin almost spurts out her drinks as she lifts her head and look at Hae Ryung’s relaxed expression.

“Yah, Lee Hae Ryung! Don’t ever say that about Joong Ki oppa!”

Hae Ryung waves her hand, dismissing the threat from Na Bin matter-of-factly. “What’s so big about being a pretty gay boy who’s nice to everyone? You girls are so obsessive over some simple minded guy, I feel so lame even while trying to sympathise, as woman-to-woman.”

“Yah, Lee Tofu! I’m warning you—”

“Stop calling me that, you !” a pair of small hands slap her ears left and  right at the same time, Na Bin hears the buzzing almost instantly. Hae Ryung smiles, almost shiningly, and bows towards the person standing behind Na Bin right now.

“Seriously, you two…” the person sighs as Hae Ryung thanks her for the assault towards Na Bin earlier. Na Bin grunts while rubbing his ears softly; there are still a few buzzing left inside her eardrums.

“For all you know I might be deaf by tomorrow. Be prepared for a lawsuit in a few days, Han Soojung,” she threatens the girl who is now sitting next to Hae Ryung, pulling out her laptop from her pink bag pack and opens it up instantly. Shaking her head, she fishes for her glasses case and takes out thick-rimmed heavily prescribed glasses out from the said case. Her hair bang is in the way, so Hae Ryung helps her to pull it away from her forehead and ties it up with one of the elastic band she always wears around her small wrists. Soojung says thanks and pinches her cheek. Hae Ryung sways at her spot like a sunflower bathed in sunlight.

“Wow, such a biased reaction for Soojung. You’re pure evil, Lee Hae Ryung.”

“I’m not speaking to someone who can’t even get my name right, so you can speak to this,” she lifts up her right palm and shoves it in front of Na Bin’s face. Soojung shakes her head again and pulls Hae Ryung’s hand away, disagreeing with her attitudes towards Na Bin. In that instant, both Hae Ryung and Na Bin can see why Soojung has always look so matured and composed. She never loses her temper.

“You’re my idol, Soojung-ah. I’m going to worship you until I die,” Hae Ryung tells her in awe, and Na Bin nods agreeing.

“Please don’t. Now, can we just focus on this slide for tomorrow? Hae Ryung-ah, I think this part about political differences between the Southern Asia countries is your specialty. You’ve read about it, right?” Soojung passes her laptop to Hae Ryung who has changed into her serious mode in less than a second. Hae Ryung nods and explains everything that she knows to the two girls in front of her, with Na Bin being the least interested. Hae Ryung can see that, and she doesn’t really appreciate it when someone decided that her explanation isn’t worth their attention.

“If you even ing stutter tomorrow, Eun Na Bin, I’m going to kill you.”

“I won’t, trust me.”

“And I’m not kidding, believe me,” she replies, and somehow her words send shivers down Na Bin’s spine.

“Okay if you girls are done with the staring contest, can someone get me a lunch set B because I’m ing starving,” Soojung orders from behind her laptop screen, and almost immediately Hae Ryung snaps away from looking at Na Bin’s uneasy face towards Soojung who is already handing out a few notes for her order. Hae Ryung receives them willingly and jogs towards the counter, ignoring Na Bin’s order for a cup of Leecolate ice-cream.

“You dwarf !” Na Bin yells and Soojung throws a couple of fries from Hae Ryung’s tray to her face. To her own surprise, Na Bin catches a piece in , and Soojung applauses in awe. Na Bin hums in satisfaction while munching the fries, proud of her little insignificant achievement.

“I thought you said you’ve got something to tell that kid just now?” Soojung finally reminds her after a few minutes, and Na Bin palms , thinking how awesome Soojung’s hearing and memory is to be able to hear something that she thought was only heard between her and Hae Ryung.

“OH MY GOD! I’ve totally forgot about that! Yah, Lee Hae Ryung, you know, today there’s gonna be a—” she stands up abruptly and makes her run towards her friend who is still waiting in line for her order, when she hears Hae Ryung curses someone loudly from where she is standing. In front of her, a rather big guy in a black t-shirt paired with a brown baggy pant is crossing his arms; his face looks as if he could fry a ing egg if he wants to.

“I don’t ing care! The rule is still ‘first come first served’, no matter how ing big your ing idol ing is, ahjussi!”

“Look, you little . This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a fan who acts like they don’t care but actually do just so they can attract attentions and meet their idols—” Hae Ryung laughs sarcastically, and lifts both her middle fingers in his face.

“Fan? Idols? Do you ing think that every girl in Korea would be stargazing at every ing idol this country produces? Sorry, ahjussi, but I’m not as free as you think I am. I’d rather do a debate on how bad the mannerism is within the hierarchy of age especially with you as the perfect example,  than chasing your stupid idols—” Hae Ryung stops yelling when the big guy raises his hand, ready to silent her with a slap. Both her hands are already covering her face and she can hear Na Bin calling her name worriedly while running towards her. She hopes Na Bin would stay away, though, or she’ll be the one who will receive the oncoming hit.

She shuts her eyes, and waits. But the pain she expected doesn’t come; instead, her ears are greeted with a silent cheering from the spectators around her. She squints; fixing her gaze back onto the angry ahjussi, and is surprised to see his hand is still hovering above her head, but not moving. A young man in blue striped shirt and black jeans is smiling while whispering something into the ahjussi’s ear and that makes the big guy lowers his hand.

“We’re very sorry for the uncomfortable situation earlier. Please don’t be alarmed; it’s something that tends to happen sometimes, so I hope you’ll forgive us...” an older man, wearing an expensive black suit and crooked necktie zigzags through the crowd while endlessly bowing. He then proceed to pats the young man in blue striped shirt on the back, telling him that he did a good job in avoiding the worst case scenario from happening in front of everyone.

“Thanks, boy. That’s really helpful,” he says, before he turns around to find the big guy earlier staring at his feet.

“And you; I’m going to see you after the filming ends,” he reprimands, and the big guy solemnly nods. He then stares at Hae Ryung with a pair of angry eyes, but she disses it off while rolling her eyes and stands back in line again. Maybe the other customers doesn’t want to find any problems with her like that big guy did, so they let her to be the first to get her order.

 Walking to the front, Hae Ryung realise that some of the school girls around them are trying hard to contain their excitement as the young man finally walks away when the shutter sound of cameras are starting to fill in the space.

Who the hell is he?

“Oh my god, Lee Hae Ryung. Do you even know who the one that just saved you is?” Na Bin appears out of nowhere and clings on her back, and Hae Ryung would really appreciate it if she stops doing that. She’s not, frankly speaking, lightweight.

“I hope he’s not the head of a mafia or anything. I would hate it to know I’d have to sell my soul to pay him back.”