Where your eyes linger: A re-telling

Episode 2: A relationship of equals

(Where we stand)

(Tae Joo)

Kang Guk has been off for the entire day. Tense almost like he's on edge about something. He keeps walking behind me where I can't see him and only answering questions with one word responses. Nothing I've done has seemed to shift his mood all day.

Once the final bell rings, we take our books, and head out the door. Halfway up the walk I look down to notice one of my shoes has come untied. With a huff I walk over to a small stone wall that lines the road and sit down on it. Kang Guk quietly follows me and sits down next to me. He looks out with the same troubled expression he's had on all day.

"Did something bad happen to you?" I finally ask as I start to tie the strings on my white sneakers.

"No." He replies immediately, but still isn't looking at me.

"Then why did you do that?" I ask straightforwardly. I'd been thinking about it all day and still hadn't come up with an answer that made sense. At least not one that made sense at the level in which he had been angry at me.

He stays quiet for a second or two and then replies. "I don't like that bastard." His voice is monotone and doesn't fit the statement well at all.

I finish tying my shoe and put it back down on the ground. I look over at Kang Guk and his face looks the same as before, unreadable. I'd get how he wouldn't like Pil Hyun because he'd hit me, but he'd apologized and it's not like he'd done anything to hurt him directly. "Pil Hyun is fine." I assure him. "And he's cute."

That, after all this time, finally gets him to look at me and smile. "Look at yourself before you start calling someone cute." He teases me and my mood lightens immediately.

"Hey, don't you remember getting caught in my arm bar?" I tease back, grabbing onto the good feeling that had been missing since this afternoon. "Now I might even fight better than you."

"Really?" He asks tauntingly, turning his face away from me and looking out infront of him. " Then there must be no reason for me to keep being your bodyguard."

The words hit me like a hidden dagger sinking in and bleeding out my good mood. That same prickly feeling from before courses through my nerves as I watch his face. He'd said it in jest, but so unaffectedly that I couldn't let it go. It wasn't something he should have said.

He turns to me and I stare back at him accusingly, wondering how he could suggest something like that so easily. "Didn't I tell you not to say something like that even as a joke?" I chastise him, my indignation rising as he struggles to respond to me.

His eyes blink rapidly and his mouth works a few times before it forms words. "Yeah, I'm sorry." He apologizes, yet his apology does nothing to quell the irritation inside of me. I finish tying my other shoe and slam my foot back down onto the road.

"Let's have a bout today." I insist without turning to look at him. He responds weakly to the suggestion. My jaw clenches and I feel like rude words are about to come out of my mouth. So to avoid it I roughly grab at my bag, stand up, and start walking away. After a few steps I notice that Kang Guk isn't following me. I stop and turn back around. "Aren't you coming?" I ask, still a little irate. He was still sitting there staring back at me with another look on his face that I couldn't decipher. He stays like that for a few seconds just looking and then he sighs and turns to pick up his schoolbag. I turn to continue walking, confident that he was following behind me.

As he always does.

(Kang Guk)

I've tried to do what I can to repair the damage I did this morning. Staying out of his way answering him simply and trying not to think too much about it. I can't let it happen again. I'd done perfectly fine so far, even when Tae Joo was dating those three girls I never let anything slip. I don't know why just recently it has become harder for me not to react.