WOWWWW...LOOK AT HIM. Walking so confidently with his group of friends that practically worship him like their leader. His hands stuffed in the pockets of his black uniform pants. His short sleeve shirt revealing his thin yet fit pale arms. The scorching hot summer sun beaming on his clear skin oh-so perfectly. The breeze blowing through his silky black hair. You know what fresh May air smells like? When it smells like fresh cut grass and refreshing lemonade and hose water? He looks like how May smells. Does that make sense? Probably not—
"Y/N!!!!" I hear someone scream my name. I turn to the direction of the voice, and immediately duck when a soccer ball is flying my way. I drop to my knees and dramatically look up to my friends, panting.
"You spaced out! Get your head in the game!!"
Chang-min laughs at me, him and a couple other of my classmates helping me up and dragging me across the field to continue playing defense. I sigh and roll my eyes.
I know what you're thinking. Y/n, are you in love with that boy you just described? I mean, you spaced out while admiring him and how he looks like May smells!
No. I do not like him. Not at all.
As I'm running across the grass, I glance over to see him meet up with his friends to play a game of catch.
Yang Jungwon. President of our high school's student council. Most popular boy at our school and in our small, close-knit town. Fawned over by both girls and boys. Straight A student. Teachers pet, even. Athletic ace. Knowledgeable book work. Basically,
perfect.
And it makes me boil with rage.
Our soccer game finally ends when the opposing team makes a score, my team groaning and sighing. I stop running and put my hands over my head, whining. "Aghhhh it's so hot!! Why do I even play in the heat everyday!"
"Because we've gotta keep you in shape!! You never wanna be active!!" My friend Sasha runs up behind me and kicks me in the back. I choke and nearly fall over, but Chang-min catches my arm and forces me to stand up straight.
"You barely even did anything y/n. How are you sweating so much?" He teases me, and the three of us sit on the stairs that connect the field to the entrance of the back of the high school.
I turn and glare at him, Chang-min tying his blonde mullet hair into a half up-half down style. "I just told you why! It's 300 degrees outside!" I whine again. Sarah sits on the step below us, laughing.
"Summer break is a month away! You've gotta get yourself in shape for bathing suit season!"
"You know I'm not wearing anything like that." I hiss, wiping sweat off my legs and brushing it back onto my black skirt.
My body isn't bad at all. I mean, I look fit despite being so out of shape. But that's not the issue...Its my looks.
Well. I'm not totally ugly. I mean, the light amount of makeup I wear saves my beauty, and my shoulder-length hair frames my face perfectly and gives me a very mature facade. The issue is—
"Metal mouth!"
Before I can turn behind me to see who called my name, I feel a plastic water bottle collide into the back of my head, making a "thunk" sound. It manages to land in my hands. I'm frozen looking at my lap, my brow twitching.
I immediately know who the culprit is.
The three of us turn to see three boys smiling and snickering at me. The one in the middle gives a coy smirk and winks at me. "Fill up my water for me, will you?...Y/n?"
My nose flares as I stare down Yang Jungwon. He can see how angry I am with him, which makes him smile even bigger.
Chang-min and Sarah lean over to each other and whisper behind me. "Guess she lost rock paper scissors this morning?" He mutters.
"Yep. Now she's stuck being his slave for the day. I swear, she's been losing to him everyday since they were kids."
~
I'm now on the other side of the building, covered by shade as I refill his water bottle at the fountain. I silently watch the liquid fill the cup, listening to the cicadas hum loudly.
Yep...The only huge handicap I have that, as said by Park Minseo (our schools hottest student), "makes me go from a 10 to a solid 5.3" isssss...
my braces.
Yes. I have braces at 17. So what? My teeth don't look nearly as bad as they used to, but I still get teased for it. In fact, it's a total turn off for guys.
I used to have to wear glasses before I got contacts. So I had to be blind and have crooked teeth. Talk about double homocide.
Yang Jungwon and I have known each other since we were 5. We've been neighbors for 12 years, and the two of us have history.
I moved in with my foster parents at age 4, when they eventually adopted me for my 5th birthday. We moved into a new house, and there, I met...him.
We got along alright. We would play with the kids in the neighborhood on the weekends, and our parents were often hanging out, meaning we'd see each other quite a bit. But when we entered elementary together...
we had a mutual rivalry.
It was all light hearted of course, though sometimes we actually would annoy the other. In fact, if someone asked me if we were friends, I would reply "Enemies more than friends."
For example, this one time in the 1st grade, Jungwon pranked me by hiding a rubber snake in my lunchbox.
2nd grade, I began wearing glasses, and he called me Four Eyes from then on.
3rd grade, we competed in a spelling bee. I got 2nd...He got 1st.
4th grade, one of his friends wrote a fake confession letter and put it in my desk on Valentines. I showed up to Jungwon's house that night all dressed up, only for him to laugh at me.
5th grade, I placed top of the class, and he didn't talk to me all that summer break.
6th grade, he studied ten times harder just to make sure he'd be valedictorian instead of me. I also got braces, and he teased me for that.
7th grade, we'd constantly smack each other in the back of the neck to annoy the other. One time, I was leaving for school in the morning and he was hiding behind one of the bushes to hit me.
8th grade, I had an impulse to dye my black hair blonde, and it came out ginger. He called me "Four eyed Ginger Snap" that entire semester until I dyed it a subtle brown.
9th grade, he told this guy I liked him and humiliated me. That same year, he would constantly flirt with me because he enjoyed seeing me get flustered easily. He found joy in it.
10th grade—
he got a girlfriend.
...It was the very beginning of that school year, that we all watched him walk into the opening ceremony holding hands with Sun-Hee, a junior who is also the student council's secretary.
They started dating during that summer, and made themselves official when school was back in session.
They were a gorgeous couple, admittedly. Like, match-made-in-heaven type of perfect. They looked amazing together.
That entire year, Jungwon and I grew further and further apart. Our teasing each other and stupid rivalries suddenly stopped, and our friendship vanished into dust. Our daily routine of "playing rock paper scissor on the side walk before school to see who has to carry the other's backpack and do what they say for the entire day" was no longer a routine.
He'd give me minor glances as we passed in the hallway, but never said hi. I'd see him through my window studying in his room, but never bothered to talk to him. I'd just close the curtains.
I didn't know why he abruptly stopped talking to me. I assumed Sun-Hee asked him not to have any close female friends, so he cut me off without hesitation. That made me hate him for a long time, so I too decided to play his game of "who can ignore the other for the longest."
Surprisingly,
I won.