The kindergarten classroom was painted a sickening shade of green that probably hadn’t been refreshed since sometime in the 1990’s. The room was hardly big enough to contain the eighteen five and six year olds scattered around on the hardwood floors and in the child-sized plastic chairs.

It was stiflingly hot in the small room, the windows were closed against the humidity but it didn’t help. Bust most of the kids didn’t seem to notice. They were too engrossed in what they were playing with. This was the one part of the day that they actually got to play. The rest of the day was spent with languages, reading lessons, and naptime.

 

Jung Eunji hated every single part of the day except for this one. Even at five she already had a pretty good handle on the idea that school was dumb. She was content to spend most of the day sitting in that puke colored room coloring.

 

School had only started three weeks before, and she didn’t really know anyone. Really she knew everyone in her class, but it wasn’t like she was really friends with them. She lived in a big dorm room with six other girls, and she had barely talked to any of them. Mostly she just talked to whatever adult was hanging around, intent on bothering them until they let her go back home.

 

She missed her mother, and their house that overlooked the bay. She didn’t like this place, or the tall woman with the blonde hair who ran it.

The girl who was sitting across from her was nice enough though. She was drawing a picture of a flower, carefully picking out crayons from the box in front of her. She was intent on it, strands of red hair falling into her face. She didn’t seem to notice though. Eunji looked down at her own drawing. She wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be, but it certainly wasn’t a flower. And she certainly didn’t care about it as much as the girl with her did.

 

Hayoung she thought her name was. She was also pretty sure she lived with her. But she’d been having a hard time keeping track of all those girls and wishing she could go home at the same time.

 

It was kind of a stupid name.

“That’s really pretty.” Eunji heard herself say. She wasn’t sure exactly why she was talking. She almost felt bad for breaking Hayoung’s concentration.

She looked up, shoving hair out her face. She clutched a light blue crayon in her left hand.

“Thanks, it’s a lupine.”

“A what?”

 

The redhead bit down on her lip. “It’s a flower.”

Eunji noticed the way the redhead didn’t pronounce the r at the end of the word. People from Maine didn’t talk like that. She wondered where she was from.

 

She opened to ask another question, but the box of crayons disappeared from the table. A small, pale hand reaching out to grab them. Eunji lived with Oh Bomi, and in the two weeks they’d been at school she was already pretty sure she didn’t like her. She was headmistresses daughter and felt like everything belonged to her, even apparently the crayons on Eunji and Hayoung’s table.

 

Eunji thought about letting her take them. She was sure she’d get in trouble if she went to take them back. But Hayoung looked like she was going to cry, staring down at her unfinished picture.

Eunji shoved away from the table and walked over to where  Bomi was sitting on the floor, her blonde hair pulled up into pigtails. Eunji closed her hand around the crayon box that Bomi was still holding. She wrenched it from her grasp. Bomi pouted like someone had taken away her favorite toy. But instead of falling for it Eunji just clocked her on the side of the head with the box.

 

“Get your own damn crayons.”

 

She set the crayons back on the desk for Hayoung and waited for punishment to come, because Bomi was sobbing and pointing towards her blue eyes scrunched up in anger.

 

“Thanks. I’m Hayoung. My bedroom is next to yours.”

Eunji frowned, she felt like that was something she should have noticed. “I’m Eunji.”

“That was brave.”

“She’s not scary. She’s just stupid.”

Hayoung laughed. She waved at Eunji as the teacher led her out of the room and down the hall to the headmistresses office.

 

 

By fourth grade Eunji had already tried to break out of Naeun’s once. It was a miserable attempt. She’d been stopped long before she got to the front gate. But she had tried, and that was what mattered.

She hated Naeun’s. She hated nearly everyone who went there. She hated  Oh Naeun. She hated math, and learning, and filling her days with sports and questions. The only thing she didn’t hate was Oh Hayoung, and Doojoon, she guessed. But that was because Doojoon was always nice to them. Even when other people weren’t.

 

Hayoung was her roommate, and probably her only friend, besides Doojoon, and she was fine with that. Because as long as she had Hayoung she didn’t need anyone else.

The first time she broke someones’ nose, it was in fourth grade, and really it was because of Hayoung. Eunji didn’t care what you called her. But no one made fun of Hayoung  while she was watching. Doojoon had tried to be the voice of reason, but even at age nine Eunjiwas far past reason. There were three things that mattered in the world, Loyalty; Strength; and Friendship. You had to defend those things with everything you had, reason be damned.

 

It took three swift punches to  ’s face before he was screaming and there was blood coating Eunji’s knuckles. It was Doojoon who finally dragged her lithe frame away from the other nine-year-old.

 

“Call her a ginger again and I’ll kill you!” She was straining against Doojoon. Hayoung looked on from the sidelines, looking a little vindicated and a lot horrified.

It was that night that they had their first, real fight.

“You hurt him!”

“He was being mean to you!”

 

“You didn’t have to punch him.” Hayoung put her hands on her hips, looking older than her nine-years. Eunji dropped onto her bed and covered her head with her pillow. Hayoung’s stance reminded her too much of her older sister who was somewhere in the middle school right then, probably standing the exact same way.

 

“Yes I did. Otherwise he’d just keep doing it! It was mean. People aren’t allowed to be mean to you.”

“You don’t have to protect me, Jung.” It was the first time Hayoung had ever called Eunji by her last name ,she spat it like it tasted bad. They had two very different ideas of justice, but Eunji wasn’t going to let that change her mind. Her fist ached, but she felt good about what she’d done. She’d felt like it was the right thing to do. Even though she was on probation for the next month. She didn’t care how mad Hayoung got at her, she knew that they’d still be friends, and even if they weren’t that she’d do it again if she had to.

 

Part of her wished she had hurt him worse.

In sixth grade Hayoung and Eunji learned how to make friendship bracelets. Meaning, Hayoung learned how to make friendship bracelets and tried to teach Eunji. Eunji made a couple that she decided weren’t good enough. Hayoung spent four months making them in her free time until she had a box full of them that she kept on her dresser. She let Eunji pick out her favorite one. A year later when it broke, Hayoung gave her another one. The trend continued. Eunji didn’t like jewelry much. But she always had room on her wrist for one of Hayoung’s bracelets.

 

 

“Isn’t he beautiful?” Hayoung sighed, and her braid, she turned her eyes to Eunji who only scoffed.

“His hair is stupid.”

“It’s not stupid, it’s adorable. He’s like a puppy.”

“Only you would want to date a puppy, .”

“He’s Doojoon’ best friend. He can’t be that bad. Maybe you and Doojoon should go out!”

The very idea made Eunji’s skin crawl. Doojoon was cute. But Doojoon was also as close to a brother as she had. So that made the image of kissing him pretty gross.

 

“He was definitely not this attractive last year.” Hayoung was still staring, blatantly, at Son Dongwoon who was playing Frisbee, shirtless, with Doojoon. Dongwoon was nice. Eunji had some classes with him. They’d hung out with him a few times because of Doojoon. But he did look a little like a puppy. Eunji liked boys just as much as Hayoung did. She’d done her fair share of kissing them too. The first when she was thirteen had been sloppy and full of teeth and had nearly turned her off of boys forever. But the two years since then had been better, the boys had started to improve. But It wasn’t like Eunji wanted to date any of them. They were immature, and they were afraid of her.

 

“Hey, do you think if I break out during the Halloween party anyone will notice?”

“Someone will notice, don’t bother.”

“It here. “

“Do you want to be a Protector or not?”

“Not happening.”

Hayoung rolled her eyes. “Do whatever you want, Jung. I’m going to go talk to Kilburn.”

 

They did catch her on Halloween when she tried to leave. Hayoung had just clicked her tongue. “I have a boyfriend now.” She announced as Eunji crawled into her own bed.

 

“Good for you.”

“Go for Doojoon.”

“I don’t want to go for Doojoon.”

“Your loss.”

 

She lost count of how many people she punched because of Hayoung. Not that Hayoung ever started any fights. Other people did, and Eunji finished them. She’d fielded Lesbian rumors (because no way should any girl be so fiercely protective over someone who was just her friend), and put a stop to Hayoung being called a ginger. She’d even threatened Dongwoon when four months into their relationship Hayoung had come home crying. She hadn’t punched him for Hayoung’s sake, but god, she had wanted to.

 

Other people weren’t the problem. Hayoung was. She was a force to be reckoned with. She was something Eunji couldn’t combat. Even in the most embarrassing situations.

 

“I do not need birth control, Hayoung.”

“Yeah, but I do, and you’re my moral support.”

“You don’t need moral support. And you haven’t even had yet. You do not need birth control.”

“But I will, soon.”

 

Hayoung was the kind of girl who planned out losing her ity. RIght down to the date. It was a little disturbing, if Eunji was being honest, and she usually was.

 

“Well I don’t need it.”

“You’ll be glad you did this someday.”

“I am sixteen, completely single, and every boy here is terrified of me. Not likely.”Hayoung rolled her eyes. “Please.”

“You owe me.”

“You’ll be thanking me someday!” Hayoung sing-songed as she pushed open the door to the infirmary.

“Next time I’m kicking someone’s for you you’d better remember all the things I put myself through keep you happy, .”

“I don’t ever ask you to do that, You just do it. I’d kind of rather you didn’t. I’m pretty sure your record is longer than Crime and Punishment.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“Only a little bit, that’s the sad part.”

“Can we just do this?”

 

Hayoung grinned and approached the nurses station. “Two birth controls please.”

 

 

“Ok. What is going on with you?” Hayoung looked over her shoulder and across the room to where Eunji was sitting at her desk.

“What?

“You’re not ing about your ribs or doing your homework, so spill, now.”

“Chen.”

“What about Chen? He’s hot, hell yes. But why are you day-dreaming about him. You just spent like 60% of the day with him.”

Eunji chewed on the tip of her pen. “I kissed him.”

“Woah, woah, stop the train, what? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“ Park Chorong is dead. That kind of overshadowed it.”

“Details. Immediately.” She slammed her laptop shut and stood up. “Couch, now.”

 

Eunji stood slowly, pressing a hand against her ribs as she did. She followed Hayoung to the couch a little reluctantly. She felt ty, her ribs hurt, Chen was weird ,and she was embarrassed and confused.

 

“He came back from here, and I don’t know, I was loopy from the painkillers and I just kissed him.” She groaned. “I’m an idiot.”

“Did he kiss you back?” Eunji couldn’t tell if Hayoung was asking from a romantics perspective or out of curiosity, she couldn’t wet enough to say yes. So she just nodded.

 

“I knew it!”

“Then he backed off and told me it was a mistake.”

Hayoung rolled her eyes. “He’s an idiot. How was it?”

“How do you think it was?”

“Amazing.”

 

“Nothing short of incredible. And I still have to see him every day, and now it’s weird. He’s pretending it didn’t happen. But it definitely happened. And I can’t pretend I’m not crushing on him. Damn, why can’t I just fall for normal guys for once?” She groaned.

 

“Because normal isn’t your style. He kissed you back. He’ll figure it out.” Hayoung sounded so sure. Eunji still felt like an idiot, so she didn’t say anything. “Seriously. He’s got it bad for you. I can tell.”

“You’re looking for things that aren’t there.”

Hayoung rolled her eyes. “I’m a cultural relations specialist. You think I can’t read people? Chen is an open book?”

“Really, I’m glad someone thinks so. Want to give me a couple clues?”

 

Hayoung frowned. “I just did. He likes you too. He wouldn’t have kissed you back. He probably feels creepy about it, because, well, it’s kind of creepy. But regardless, it’s about time you fell for someone decent.”

 

“Decent? He’s twenty-five, a prick and I’m starting to think he is actually insane.”

“Yeah but he’s also damn y, and he kissed you back. That negates everything. Don’t worry, he’ll break eventually.”

 

 

“You’ll be my maid of honor right?”

“Do I have to make a dumb speech or something?”

She shook her head blond strands of hair falling into her face. “No, I just. I need you to be there.”

“You’ve got Dongwoon, why do you need me?” Eunji ran her knife through the raw chicken on the cutting board. She heard Hayoung sigh.

 

“You’re my best friend. You’ve been there for me for literally forever. You have to be there.”

“Hayoung, you’re an idiot if you think I’d miss you getting married. I’ll be there. Don’t worry. I’ll stand next to you and pretend to be totally into it. I promise. Jesus, you’d think you were marrying me or something.”

 

“You’re the most important person in my life, I mean Dongwoon’s important too, but it’s a different kind of important. For as long as I can remember I’ve been able to count on you.”

“Getting a little sappy here, .”

 

She looked at Eunji across the kitchen, and sighed. “It’s true. You know you could stop being an emotional rock for two seconds and have this conversation with me.”

 

“We don't have to have a conversation about how great of friends we are, Hayoung. I know we’ve always been there for each other. I was there. And that’s not going to stop. I promise. You want to watch where you’re cutting before you take a finger off?”

 

Hayoung sighed and then looked back at the carrots in front of her.

“What is your deal, Hayoung?”

 

“Everything is changing, and I’m scared. I know you aren’t on board with this whole marriage thing, and I don’t know. I’m worried that we’re going to drift apart or die or something. Isn’t that what happens when you get married.”

 

Eunji sighed and put her knife down. She crossed the kitchen and dragged Hayoung into a hug. Eunji didn’t hug, she hated it. But she always made exceptions for Hayoung because Hayoung was definitely a hugger, and that’s what you do for your friends.

 

“Hayoung, you’re marrying Dongwoon. Nothing is going to be different except for a ring on your finger. And I’m not going anywhere. We’ve been in this together until now, and we still are, ok?”

“Promise?” Hayoung sounded like she was about to start crying. Eunji rolled her eyes, because she knew Hayoung couldn’t see and she knew she didn’t need to promise anything. They were best friends, and they’d been through worse.

 

“Promise.”