Where your eyes linger: A re-telling

Episode 1: Bad Habits

(A Plan Falls Apart)

(Tae Joo)

The morning sun is creeping up into the sky and it's a rather pleasant day. A mass of multi shaped buildings line the wide street that Kang Guk and I usually take on the way to school. It would be a rather uneventful morning, were it not for the fact that I was dashing across the asphalt with three people on my tail.

Pil Hyun and his two tall friends charge after me and I can't help laughing as I race ahead, keeping pace so they wouldn't lose sight of me, but not quite letting them catch up either. I had a plan all set up for how this was going to go . I was hoping to end this today, with Pil Hyun, so as not to draw too much attention.

I was in my last year of high school and at the start of the new school year my father had moved Kang Guk and I into a house of our own. In the hopes that I would live quietly, without being recognized.

"Han Tae Joo, you son of bitch!" Pil Hyun yells and I turn to see him wagging his finger at me, huffing and puffing as he tries to keep up the chase. "Stop right there, you buffoon!"

My smile only gets wider as I head down the hill. "Stop running after me." I reply to his outburst half-heartedly. This was fun. I hadn't run this much in a while. It felt good to let off a little steam while teasing him. His reactions were always so funny.

We round a couple of curves and I work my legs over a small hill. I hear a shout behind me. "You, go that way." I don't turn to see what happens but I can guess, so with my breath getting a little strained, I duck into a small alleyway behind a brick building. It's enclosed on the other side by a tall cement wall with bushes atop it.

I stutter a few steps to make sure they haven't lost me and then I turn around and see one of the tall friends in a gray sweatshirt blocking my other exit. I catch my breath a bit as I make a superficial show of trying to get around Gray Sweatshirt, until Pil Hyun and the other tall friend come to block the exit behind me. I can't help grinning at their posturing as I back up into the brick building. "You're damn fast aren't you?" says the other tall friend who's wearing the same school blazer as me.

Pil Hyun comes up behind his friends as they flank me. "All right," he says. "with Min Gyeong, I thought, well it could happen." I smile at the fact that his head barely reaches over his friends shoulders. "But the three of them," he continues. "That's overdoing it!"

He pulls on his friends like he wants them to hold him back but the height difference gets the better of him and I can't help but laugh. "Why are you guys so tall dammit!" He barks, realizing his disadvantage and pushing them away. He huffs indignantly and flicks his black and red bomber jacket back onto his shoulders.

"Min Gyeong?" I ask like I don't know who she is. She was Pil Hyun's first girlfriend and he'd been so proud of it, touting it over everyone like a big prize. So I couldn't help myself from wanting to mess with him a little. "She was pretty, that's true, though she was a bit short.'' I say flippantly, the girl had barely come up to my shoulder.

"Do you wanna die?!" Pil Gu threatens while acting like he's about to hit me. I smile back at him lazily. Just let him get it all out I think. "And Hyeon Jeong, then?" he asks, referring to his second girlfriend. After I'd stolen the first he'd touted getting the second one more loudly then he had before, trying to rub it in my face. So, of course, I wondered what kind of face he'd make if I stole her too. "I was hardcore in love with her." Pil Hyun laments, sounding a bit sad about it.

I try to catch my breath a little. "She's the one who came on to me first-"

"I'm on the verge of being traumatized right now!" Pil Hyun interrupts. "Even though I don't like the Christian religion, the faithful Kki Ppeum. I was sure Kki Ppeum would never be like that." he sounds rather defeated as he says it, looking down at the ground. My grin widens at his reactions and makes me confident that he'd chosen the third girl solely based on the fact that he thought I couldn't steal her.