The Wrong Meeting

“Let’s go!” said a boy to a bunch of his friends after lesson. Today has been a hectic day for their faculty. Many projects are coming and they have to finish before due. A lot of brainstorming has to be done well yet quick. After a long lesson, they decided to hang out somewhere, let go of their hardships at college. It’s fun anyway.

One girl just wants to back off from the crowd. Not that she hates hanging out with her friend, reality check is she hates crowd. She hates exposure of her expression. She just wants her bestfriend and close relatives know who she really is. Being with the crowd, she has to fake herself especially in a lot of smiling acting. It’s not her thing. She’s thinking of getting out from this crowd by an excuse. A rational one. She knows what the effects are, but she plans to join them once in a while. Not too much.

One man from the far has paid an attention to those crowd and looked at the girl’s expression. One girl really stands out from them, because he knows her before. Maybe she’s not. And he knows what she wants to do right now… and what she thinks. Slowly but sure, he approaches them.

“Hey guys,” the crowd looks at the girl. She just wants to escape. “I think…I can’t join. Sorry,” she says while putting her desperate expression.

“C’mon Ella. You want to start working now? That’s crazy! Our brain needs a holiday too,” said the ‘leader’. While her bestfriend looks at her, knows what she wants but she doesn’t know what to say to defend her. Ella has been poked her bestfriend’s hand but she just remains silent.

“Really, I can’t,” Ella said with her sorry voice. While the others comment on her on ‘you really need a holiday’. Because they understand that Ella is a really smart girl. They know her work ethic but they don’t understand on how Ella’s brain works on ‘having fun’. “I can join you guys another time,” she makes sure about that.

“You always say another time, Ella,” said the ‘leader’ again and she just can give a fake grin with no sincerety at all.

And the one man that approaches the crowd has already known the situation. He knows Ella doesn’t want to join them, not by her excuse, just by looking at her. It was all too clear and he knows for sure, for he has learned it from the best sources. His steps are getting closer, and then, “Ella-ssi, right?” the man says.

Ella and other look at him,  she doesn’t know anything about him, even her bunch of friends. And wonder, who the stranger is and how he knows her name. She nods at his questions. “Why?” she asks. Her famous flat tone is out once again and her classmates even her bestfriend doesn’t feel strange about it anymore.

“I’m Lee Soo Hyuk,” he offers a hand shake. “I’m gonna be your partner on a project,” then the crowd start to wonder how she could get a partner right away and how fast she makes a progress. They shake their head in amazement, yet sigh because Ella is not joining them (again). Plus, Ella is not deciding her partner yet for the project so who is this guy in a mid