“Sun Hee ya!”

“Uh? Yeh?” I turned to see Se Kyung pouting unhappily.

“This is the third time you went into a daze while I was talking today! Did something bad happen?”

“Not really…..”

“Oh Sun Hee. Didn’t you say I’m your best friend in school? Tell me, what’s on your mind!”

So I spent the whole lunch break sharing my woes with Se Kyung – about how I got to know Oh Se Hun through a bizarre incident, how I embarrassed myself multiple times in front of him, how I think of him uncontrollably from time to time like today.

“Oh my god, Oh Sun Hee! Don’t tell me this is the first time you have a crush on someone! It’s so obvious!”

“Cr, crush? What are you saying!” I stuttered.

“He he he he he, Oh Sun Hee, luck is on your side.” Se Kyung smiled sheepishly. “I am vastly experienced in this and since you think of me as your best friend, I shall be your love mentor.”

“Cookies? We can’t have cookies for dinner? It’s not filling at all, especially for your large appetite!” Jong In replied.

“I didn’t say I want to them for dinner? I just want to learn how to make them!”

“I don’t mind teaching you…. But why the sudden enthusiasm? You never liked baking because you found it such a hassle.” Jong In widened his eyes, as if reminded of something, “Don’t tell me you are dating someone now and want to give him handmade cookies for Valentine’s?!”

Can he read minds?! That’s exactly what I planned to do.

According to my new found love mentor, I am having a crush, and I have to be the initiative one because the other party does not feel the same for me yet. Se Kyung especially emphasized on the word ‘yet’.

The first ‘attack’ will be on Valentine’s, which is approaching in 2 weeks’ time.

But how can I tell Jong In that?!

Since we were young, whenever guys tried to approach me, Jong In had 101 ways to shoo them away.

When I was 5, a little boy I met at the playground invited me to play the wooden see-saw with him. Little Jong In ran out of nowhere and pulled me off the see-saw, causing the boy to fall hard and fast on his side. He ran to his mom crying and his mom didn’t allow him to play with me again.

When I was 11, a classmate had given me a love letter. Before I could read it after class, Jong In snatched it from my hands, scanned through the letter and called him out.

He pointed out all his grammar mistakes before saying, “Here you wrote ‘I will going to protect you forever’. But how? Sun Hee is almost a head taller than you and she eats a whole bowl of rice daily. I am pretty sure she is stronger than you.”

The poor classmate kept nodding his head throughout, as if it was an informational lecture. Before he left, he looked at me begrudgingly.

When I was 14, I hung out with Jong In and his friends a lot. One of them had taken a fancy to me and confessed on one occasion in front of everyone. Before I could react, Jong In had burst out laughing, “Ya Jong Won ya, are you serious? Do you not know Sun Hee well enough? This girl is nothing but trouble. Plus, with her appetite, you’re going to go bankrupt in no time.” And he went on and on about my flaws till everyone laughed it off, like his confession was meant to be a joke from the start.

When I was 15, I thought my nightmare was finally coming to an end, because Jong In was going to leave for a high school in Gangnam – I am finally going to be free to experience pure puppy love, here in our middle school in Gangdong! Little did I expect…. Before he left, his graduation speech went from “I will be eternally grateful for the times here in Se Ran Middle School….” to ending with a smirk, “Last but not least, Oh Sun Hee of class 4-1 is very important to me. Any boys who want to try to get close to her….. come visit me in Kyunggi High and get past me.” Jong In was well known for his good grades and more importantly, his fighting skills (which was actually only exhibited because he had to settle all the troubles I got into). Therefore, after his semi-threatening speech, nobody dared to come close to me at all, and I spent my last year in middle school watching my schoolmates get together while I could only envy.

Moral of the story is: Jong In may (or may not) be the reason why I’ve never had any love story till this date. So Operation-Oh-Se-Hun must be kept a secret for as long as possible – I can’t risk it!

“NO?! I, I just… I think a girl should be all rounded in cooking and baking to become a woman. Yup. That’s the reason.”

“You come over in the evening every day, wouldn’t you know if I was dating someone!” I added to reduce his suspicion.

“Oh, I see….” He said, although I know him well enough to see that he wasn’t entirely convinced.

During dinner, he casually mentioned about the ‘well known myth of Kyunggi High’.

“You haven’t heard about it before?” He looked like he was looking at a dinosaur.

He continued after I shook my head, “This is what the seniors said… If you like a fellow schoolmate, all you have to do is get his or her name tag and put it under your pillow for a night, and he will grow to like you too.”

“Really?! Does this really work?” I asked anxiously.

“I heard it is 100% accurate! But all these have to be done before the first Valentine’s since you two met, or the opposite will happen.” He observed my reaction before showing his signature smirk, “But it won’t matter to you anyway, since you don’t like anyone now, right?”

Before the first Valentine’s? But it’s coming in 2 weeks! How am I supposed to get his name tag within 2 weeks? He has no reason to give it to me... I can’t ask for it either – what if he knows about the myth too and exposes me?

I was too absorbed in my thoughts to notice Jong In staring at me the whole time.

That night, I wasn’t the only one lost in my thoughts….