“For the last time, I don’t know who Ahn Jae Hyun is! You must have gotten the wrong house!”

The swaggy-looking guy raised his brow. “No, I’m pretty sure I have the right house, and the receipt here says ‘Unit 3, Apartment 13B’.”

Dear God, can I just please murder this boy already?

I had gotten home from the park and had some kimbap rolls for dinner at the convenience store when I had gotten a text from my mother, saying;

Don’t forget that you sent your school uniform to the dry cleaner. It should arrive at your place by tonight.

I replied to her with;

Good call, I almost slumped myself off to sleep. Thanks for reminding me, Mom!

She could only say;

Anytime, daughter. I’m not going to send you anymore money, by the way.

When I did not reply to her as quickly as she wanted me to, she started to flood my phone with texts.

I’m serious, I just got back from the bank. That’s the last cash I’ll ever transfer to you.

Well, the last I’ll transfer to you for the rest of your high school years, so… you have two years to survive on your own.

Are you seriously okay with it? I’m not going to see you running back home with sunken eyes and pale skin, begging for food and money like the poor people of France in that Les Miserablés movie, aren’t I?

Wait, that’s not going to cut it. You’re not going to come back home looking like Gollum, are you?!

Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration on my part. I, for one, cannot imagine how you’d look like if you’ve drastically lost weight and looked like Gollum. It would be better if you lose a bit of weight, though.

I’m not saying you have to have a hot body like your 2NE1 idols. That would just be way too hard for you to achieve, honestly speaking. Maybe you should lose around 10 kilos? Just join any sports club in school, okay?

Unless you want to continue your martial arts club there? Make sure you join the ones that make you sweat a lot, like capoeira or maybe boxing!

I had had enough. I rung her up, “Mom! Stop that!”

“Oh, you’re still alive?” I heard her voice getting more distant from the phone, “Honey, she’s still alive!” Then, she put the phone closer, “I was just checking if you’d died of boredom or not.”

“Mom…”

“Aigoo… Arasso, arasso! Don’t forget your laundry! Good night!” she quickly said before hanging up on me.

Following that, I took a shower and made myself a hot cup of instant cappuccino to drink while waiting for the laundry boy. I tried to recall the exact colour of Lee Soo Hyuk’s blazer. It was dark, but it did not mean that it could only be black. It could be navy blue, dark green or a deep shade of charcoal!

That was when I heard the knock on my front door. When I went to answer it, I had to admit; the swaggy kid was hot.

Even though he wore a black hoodie over blue sweatpants and a snapback to top it all off, I could tell that he had wide shoulders and was quite muscular. He was of average-height, but still taller than I was by a few inches. He had these thick and arrogant eyebrows arched over a couple of bold, black eyes. He also had surprisingly flawless skin for a boy.

However, after dealing with him for God-knows-how-long, all sorts of friendly feelings I had for him vanished. He was stubborn and rude, and the look on his face looked like he thought I was trying to get away without paying for the laundry services. Well, excuse me (!) for having a big-assed pride that will never let me do something so petty…!

“Look, I’m very sure you are just trying to do your job, but I really don’t know who this person is,” before he could protest, I quickly added, “I mean, I AM waiting to pick up some laundry of my own, but I really think you’ve got the wrong place.”

The swaggy kid arched his eyebrow. The slight twitch on one end of his lips indicated that he was ready to launch into another (verbal) war with me. No, don’t do it. Don’t talk anymore. You’re good-looking but if you start retaliating one more time –

He let out a big sigh. “See here, you think I haven’t seen customers like you before? You’re just trying to weasel your way out of paying for this, right? Customer-shii, you should not live that kind of life.”

I could feel my facial muscles freeze. I tried not to show my fists that were shaking from trying to not punch him for being presumptuous. It is on, kid.

I just finished my phone call with the lady at the launderette. The boy at my doorstep started shifting uncomfortably from one foot to another. He looked apologetic.

“I’m very sorry, hyung-nim,” he started, “We must have switched your orders because our new cashier girl got confused.”

I waved it off. “It’s okay. I didn’t know the third unit at the building next door finally had a tenant, either.”

He looked flustered. “But still, hyung–“

I patted his shoulder. “Deukie-ah, it’s no problem. We just gotta switch it back. Who sent the order to the building next door?”

Young Deuk flashed a grin. “It’s Dony. Mom finally nagged at him bad enough after dinner that he took off with the receipt.”

I slid on my sweater. “He actually skipped his daily dance practices to actually do his chores? Kwon Young Don? This I gotta see for myself,” I laughed a bit as we made our way to the building next door.

As we climbed up the stairwell, I could hear some bickering as we neared the rooftop floor. A distressed female was arguing with a male.

“Why the hell would you think I would pay for something that’s not mine?!” shouted the female.

The male retaliated with, “Because the receipt says so, that’s why!!!”

“I keep telling you, that uniform’s not mine! I’m a girl, for God’s sake! That uniform comes with pants!”

“How should I know what you sent to the dry cleaner’s?! It could be yours, your brother’s or your boyfriend’s, I wouldn’t know!!!”

“Yah! Are you really such a thick-headed jackass that you just assume whatever you see?! Is that the kind of life you want to lead?!”

“You’re the one throwing back the same remarks about life I just did moments ago! You’re even worse, you cheapskate !!!”

“What did you just call me?!”

By then, Young Deuk and I had reached the top of the stairwell and had a clear view of the argument. As Young Deuk had said, there was Young Don – Dony was just his nickname – looking heatedly angered at a female, who was equally upset. They were really going at it; both their faces were red and I could see some hand movements; the girl was pointing her forefinger at Dony accusingly, and Dony had one hand ruffling through his hair and another gripping his cap.

“I just called you cheapskate, you !!!”

“Jackass!!!”

“Fuc–”

Young Deuk intervened. “KWON YOUNG DON! Stop that!”

The two ruffled teenagers turned towards the interruption. From their faces, none welcomed Deukie’s timing, with Dony looking royally pissed off and the girl marvelously and incredulously confused.