Spring Day 轉; knj + ksj

Predictions

I hated to admit that Jin was right. I really hated it, but based on the stares and googly, lovey dovey eyes I was getting from females, I knew that Jin was right. I lost this round. I guess let's back track a bit to see how things came this way.

Over the weekend, Jin forced me to first get a haircut. He picked this fancy salon and seemed to know all of the hair dressers there. I really didn't get how he can be so sociable all the time. Besides all that perkiness, he made the stylist pick the latest hair trend. It was something with a comma. It was more like parting 90% of your hair to one side to look like a comma. I was not sure how I felt about appearing like a grammatical device, but I'd live.

Later, he took me shopping. We were browsing local, hip designers and even classic ones like Salvatore Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci. I never had any interest in fashion because clothes were just clothes to me. I wore what my mom would buy for me and they were just plaid button-up shirts, jeans, simple t-shirts, and sweaters—the normal kid starter pack. Jin, however, grabbed so many different items that I didn't really know how to call them. There were plain t-shirts, yet they looked different from the ones I owned. Was it the material or the cut? I'm still not sure.

I didn't buy too many new clothes because Jin said I was going to have to work out and by then I'd have to buy different sizes. I listened to him as I wasn't the one paying for these clothes. I had no idea how or where Jin was able to make these purchases. I assumed he came from money; he didn't even look at the price of the clothes and just swiped his credit card away. His motto was this: "If you like it, I'll buy it."

That idea kind of frightened me. I don't like what Jin and my grandpa said to be true. My grandpa often emphasized that when we were young. We were told to be cautious of gifts because accepting them would mean that we'd have to repay that act of "kindness". Since I'm playing by Jin's rules, I . . . will have to pay him back somehow. If it's money, I don't have that.

Ever since the financial crisis in 2008, my father's small company had to close its doors. We downgraded from a nice, charming home to a cramped apartment. I had to come back from a year's study in New Zealand; the original plan was for me to study there until I graduated from high school. Then I'd, hopefully, get into an Ivy League school in America or in one of the prestigious universities in Korea. We also had to move districts, but the move wasn't that big. We were still ten minutes away from our original neighbourhood where Choa still resided. After my father's business went bankrupt, he was unemployed for a good year or two. We were frugally living off of our savings that were depleting faster than the clock could keep up. My father still wanted to give off the image that we were still doing fine, so our spending habits weren't changing so much. Every night, he'd have a bottle of wine or several cans of beer to drink away his frustrations.

Despite his inner struggles, he never complained to my sister or me. He reminded us not to worry, but seeing him dwindle day by day only made me realize that I couldn't think of just myself. My dream also involved my family. I had to work hard for them. I had to get into the best college, pursue something that'd earn a lot like investment banking, and then head into a big company. I'd be an office worker to support our family.

Luckily, my father did find a desk job at another medium-sized company, so things weren't looking so gloomy. Still, nothing is the same as before. My mother and father often bickered about finances because my father still likes to act very generously among his friends and relatives. He liked to treat everyone to fabulous meals when that act would very likely cut off much of the month's budget. I guess that's why I liked listening to music so much, especially rap. Somehow the lyrics were more truthful than current pop songs. I couldn't relate to cute things at all.