The first time I met Kim Junmyeon was during the third month of school assembly on my first year.
"Urgh, I'm so tired." I huffed out a short breath in dissatisfaction. Irene who stood beside me raised a brow, not really bother to ask more since I was the type to whine about anything every second. Looking back towards the stage, there was itㅡ the principal who still was having the best day of his life talking about school improvement this year.
"Did you ever notice that he's actually wearing a wig?" I whispered to Irene. The girl widened her eyes due to the sudden information.
"Stop it! I don't want to laugh during the assembly." Her lips were twitching; only seconds away from breaking into a laugh. Ah, so she too did notice it too. It was obvious for me, so I wouldn't mind if another person could sense about it from miles away.
I was about to reply more but a chuckle was heard from my behind. Geesh, the person behind even eavesdroppedㅡ but I guessed he noticed about it as well. Shrugging the person off from bothering me, I added more just to annoy Irene, "What do you call the security outside of a Samsung Store?"
"Oh my god." She closed her eyes, trying hard to hide her laugh.
"Guardians of the Galaxy." I accidentally snorted out loud over the uncalled joke. Do Kyungsoo smacked my arm from the side after hearing something enough to irritate him in the middle of the assembly. "Auw!" I winced as I widened my eyes.
A few students turned their head around and grunted at the voice pollution that I had been making. One of them even yelled out a loud warning, "Shush!"
"Behave yourself." Kyungsoo tried to calm me down. I stuck out my tongue and scooted closer towards him instead, finding a new victim to hear another of my lame joke. I swore I could hear Irene breathing out a relieved sigh from escaping the torture.
"A man was hit in the head with a can of Sprite." I grabbed Kyungsoo on the shoulder. His face started to get redㅡ not because he was shy of me making physical contactㅡ but because he knew what was coming afterwards. "But he's okay, it was a soft drink." His serious expression turned into a little smile as he finally cracked.
Kyungsoo glanced sideways, "What do you call a bear with no teeth?"
I burst out into a laugh, "A-a gum-gummy bear! Hahahaha!" It was so funny that I had to crouch down on the floor while holding for my stomach like it was about to explode. Heat started to spread across my cheeksㅡ I didn't expect Do Kyungsoo to join up telling lame jokes in the assembly.
"Is she okay?" Someone asked from behind while I was busy hiding my laugh into my lap.
"Oh, don't worry." Kyungsoo was the one who replied. "She's always being dimwit like this all the time." As an agreement, I quickly waved my hands dismissively in the airㅡ trying to stop them from being too concern over the pathetic person laughing. It was at the right moment just when the principal had finished his speech, so the rest of it was concluded in short time.
"Ah, today is the best assembly ever." I wiped away a tear that managed to escape in the midst of laughing.
"You're embarrassing us." Irene chuckled as we started to head out from the hall. I just replied with a snicker. Oh , come on. Laughing should be the best medicine to get rid of the stress and the fatigue building up inside me. School had barely begun; but I already hated waking up in the morning. Phew, I was only on my third monthㅡ but I was starting to worry if I could survive until the end of the semester though.
I took time heading back to the classroom without Ireneㅡ since it was now the homeroom period anyways, nobody really bothered to get back to class early for attendance record. I yawned lazily as a light bulb appeared on top of my head. Should I just skip classes today? Oh, Park Chorong. You really were a brilliant.
After few more internal debating with my inner self, I went to head somewhere quiet for a while to gain some quick nap. I was sure nobody would try to find me anyways..
I peeked into the nurse office with an evil grin. I swear I wasn't always like this; plotting something wasteful like skipping classes just for some sleeping time. When the nurse teacher wasn't inside as usual, I quickly snuck into one of the comfy bed and pulled the cover all the way up onto my head. It wasn't lock either, so I wasn't entirely at fault here.
And I totally drifted into my deepest slumber ever..
Preferably two periods later, I was startled when the sound of the door being opened abruptly. "Oh cheeseball!" I accidentally hollered when I rolled off from the bed. Just before my beautiful potato face get face planted on the floor, I secured myself by turning my head up, "Who is it?" Was it the nurse teacher?
"Err..sorry." A boy blinked his eyes. He seemed shocked with my presence; now that I had fell onto the floor stupidly, I bet his brain had already went jammed from thinking straightly. "Y-your underwear.." He diverted his eyes away out of blue.
I gasped and regained my footing properly, standing up. Heat started to spread across my skinㅡI could sense my face was getting red in embarrassment. Trust me, I didn't usually get embarrassed easily. But upon knowing that this handsome guy had seen my pink polka dotted panty, I wasn't sure if I could survive today. It felt like half of my virginity had been taken away!
"It's not that fancy and I don't have sexy butt, so please forget about it."
The boy just showed an awkward smile as his face was getting red as well. He stepped inside, putting the books that he was carrying on his arm since earlier. "Uh-" He spoke and broke the icy atmosphere. "The nurse teacher isn't here for a while since she has a meeting."
I shrugged, "It's fine, I'm not really sick. I just wanted to skip classes today." Scanning his side profile in secretly as he started to arrange the medical books on the desk, I couldn't help but to acknowledge his face. I didn't know this school had this kind of handsome boy! Totally my type! He had a perfect ratio for his parted comma hair; and his skin was whiter than mine. He wasn't that tall or short, but just on the nice height for boys on my liking.
Before my face get redder than before and freak the unknown boy out, I decided to step out. "See you again, then." But just before I could manage to close the door, it was stopped by his foot.
"W-wait!" He held me back. "Let's go back to class together."
"Are we in the same class?" I eyed on him, but when he started to stare back at me, I ran my eyes away.
"No, I don't think so. This is our first time meeting."
"Cool." I shortly replied, suddenly feeling the awkwardness surrounding us. First time meeting and he had already seen my underwear. What a failure..
"You have a good sense of humour." His sudden compliment almost made me choke on my saliva. Where did that come from? "I was behind you when you started spouting jokes."
I widened my eyes in realisation. Oh, so he was the one who first laughed and asked if I was okay. What a nice guy. And what a coincidence to be meeting him again. I let out a short laugh, "No, it's just some lame jokes that I occasionally found on the Internet during 3 in the morning."
"I appreciate every effort on any dad or lame jokes."
I pressed my lips tightly, "Okay." He had a handsome face and liked those jokes that Kyungsoo totally despised? He totally matched into my ideal type. "Thenㅡ" Pausing my words, I stopped my feet out of blue when hearing someone calling for my name from somewhere.
"Park Chorong!" I stiffened when Mrs. Jung stopped me in the track on the corridor, just right about to pass the staff room. Geesh, this person knew exactly the time I was going to walk in front of this door. Putting up the brightest smile that I've ever had on my school life, I turned towards the teacher.
"Yes, ma'am? What can I help you on this lovely morning?" She suddenly pinched my arm, not trying to explain what was the thing she got mad about. That arm had already been abused by Kyungsoo's smack, now my teacher dared to add more bruise on it. "T-time out, time out!" I held my palm up in panic. "What did I do? I'm innocent!"
"Innocent?" She huffed in disbelief, "You skipped classes!"
"Huh, really?" I feigned shock.
"Don't pull that innocent card in front of me." She was about to nag more when her eyes drifted into the boy beside me. She seemed to recognise him since a nice smile was plastered. "Oh, what are you doing here? You should go back to class."
I looked at him, "Yeah, you should go back to class and forget about me. I think I'm going to be given a detention class and can no longer be saved." With a bitter tone, I was only met with a pair of burning eyes on Mrs. Jung's face.
"Yes, you are right!"
The boy chuckled, somehow amused with the situation in front of him. "It's fine. You don't have to go to the detention class." He shook his head before turning towards the teacher with a smile, "This girl was having a stomachache and I took care of her in the nurse office."
What, really? I was in the same shock state as Mrs. Jung. "I don't think that is the truth." The teacher pursed her lips when knowing the boy was trying to save my ass.
"The nurse teacher is having a meeting, so I had to help her to get an emergency rest. It was pretty bad."
Mrs. Jung was quiet for a while before finally spoke, "Is this true, Chorong?"
"..yes.." I slowly nodded. "I was literally dying back then.."
"If you want to punish Chorong for being sick, then you'll have to include me since I'm the one who helped her to skip classes." What a convincing lie. Wonder if it would work?
Mrs. Jung released a defeated sigh as she raised her hands up, "Alright, fine! I'll let you go since he helps you to get away with it." She then continued in a slow tone, "Can't believe he'd protect this stupid Chorong." What? That was it? He only had to lie a bit and she totally bought it? I had to convince Mrs. Jung for ten minutes just to go to restroom during a few minutes away from recess.
"Mrs. Jung, I heard that." I gave her a lopsided grin.
"Off you go then! But make sure you really head back to class." She warned with eyes widened. I quickly nodded with an enthusiastic smile, watching her figure to gradually disappear into the staff room again. Upon hearing the door was closed, I let out the deepest sigh ever.
"Thank god." I touched my chest in relieved. "You totally saved me."
"Any day." He nodded.
My, wasn't he cute? "W-what is your name again, by the way?"
He gave me wide smileㅡ and light was emitted from his skin as if he was an angel. My heat beat faster, as butterflies flied inside my stomach dramatically. I've never had this kind of feelings before.
"Junmyeon. Kim Junmyeon."
I could literally feel myself was about to explode. It was getting as red as a tomato, right now since his smile totally had captivated my attention. Before he could reply for anything more and make my heart flustered, I found myself running away with heated face and let out a silent squeal.
Ah, Kim Junmyeon. That was the name I'd write onto my pink diary book today.