Chapter 3

Chung Jae saw Kim Yeeun talking with her friends during the break. She kept flipping her hair, laughing loudly and prettily, while looking at the boys from upper classes. Chung Jae didn’t know why everyone loved her, especially boys. She was just a girl. A girl amongst the others. Only thing Chung Jae loved to do was playing and having alone time with Sun Ho.

That he loved.

“Yeeun!” A boy sprang to the pretty girl.

“Yes?” The girl turned around, blinking her eyes slowly, like she was bored.

“I bought you a present.” The boy almost kneeled down to give her the packet. “My mother told me to give it to the girl I really like,”

Yeeun opened the packet and found a shimmering necklace. She looked down at the boy and scoffed, giving the piece of jewelry back to him and then turned back to her friends and continued talking. Yes, Chung Jae didn’t comprehend why boys liked her.

Sun Ho was behind his best friend, looking over the shoulder at Yeeun. His eyes were glowing, his cheeks rosy red and lips pouty. Sun Ho was one of the boys, and sometimes Chung Jae was annoyed by his best friend since he just wanted to play and not stare at her every single break. He just did not understand.

“Chung Jae ya…” Sun Ho whispered scared.

“Go to her, I am backing you up.” The older boy smiled.

Hesitation plastered all over Sun Ho’s face. He gulped down a bitter lump, gripped the fabric of Chung Jae’s shirt tighter and hid behind him more, only couple of strands peeking behind him. She was advancing them, or it looked like that in the younger boy’s infatuated eyes, when she shifted her gaze at the girls on the doorway. Sun Ho exhaled relieved.

“I like her so much,” he mumbled.

“Why?”

“Because…she is a girl…” Sun Ho sighed.

Chung Jae blinked his eyes confused, glancing at the best friend, whose gaze was yearning for her. For a tiny 7-year-old boy, Sun Ho was more into these things than Junjin was. Was he sick? Maybe Chung Jae had missed the phase already and he did not like gawking? To him girls were just girls; they weren’t that different from boys. Like Chung Jae’s father always said, ‘Have fun while you still can’.

“And she is pretty, and cute, and she has long hair…” Sun Ho sighed again.

“Then…go talk to her…” Chung Jae muttered, slightly pushing the shorter boy at the girl.

They bumped onto each other and she stumbled a bit, glaring evilly at the kid. Sun Ho’s face was so dark red that the teacher thought he was going to choke, but when Chung Jae appeared next to his best friend and held his hand, she realised what was going on and just smiled.

“I’m Sun Ho!”

Chung Jae grinned and proudly nodded at the best friend, who was trying to declare his unconditional like towards Kim Yeeun. She was a third grader, while the two boys were first graders. She was a smart girl, and she was already learning some English. Kim Yeeun was the coolest girl in the school, as Chung Jae quoted his friend.

“So?” She asked.

Chung Jae frowned and when Sun Ho took a glimpse of him, he just shrugged and mouthed, ‘Introduce again’.

“I am Lee Sun Ho!”

Her friends were all glowering at the juniors, their eyes piercing like daggers. Chung Jae felt cold sweat on his forehead abruptly, his brain telling him to grab Sun Ho’s hand and pull him away. But Sun Ho shook it off and stepped closer.

“I like you!!” he screamed in the middle of the schoolyard.

Kim Yeeun snorted loudly, and shortly that snort had escalated to a witch-like cac