"One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" by Aramis

= spin-off of Salad Days "Brother, En Garde!" =

Prologue

The first and last time that WooHyuk ever beat the sh-t out of me was on May 29, 2003.

I knew the boy could pack quite a punch, but it was the first time I was ever at the receiving end. Let me
tell you, it was one painful experience.

But he and I both knew that I deserved it.

And when it was done and over with, and we were lying on the ground, panting to fill our lungs with much
needed oxygen, he rolled over and gave me a very sad smile.

"You're one hell of an idiot."

I couldn't help but laugh, though the actual laughing part made my sore face hurt.

"Thanks, thanks a lot for informing me."

WooHyuk pushed himself up onto one elbow and glared at me. "I've been planning this for years. You'd
better not mess it up."

"I won't."

And with those words the ordeal ended.

But the story shouldn't begin there.

It actually begins ten long years ago.

With my first meeting with WooHyuk.

Part One

It was a hot day in September and the first day of the second grade back in 1993. I had just transferred
from Seoul to a small, isolated town in the farthest reaches of Gumi.

The room was silent while the teacher introduced me to the class. I guess I looked a little out of place with
my ironed uniform and my glasses.

Then the teacher left at break time and things began.

"Hey, look at the dork!"

"Four eyes!"

"Can you still see if you close your eyes since you have two extra eyes, Four Eyes!"

As I was pondering this last idiotic question, an authoritative voice spoke up from the back of the room.

"Have you ever ridden on a subway train?"

There was a kid sitting on a desk in the back of the room, his arms crossed, his eyes piercing. Everyone fell
silent so I knew this was one important kid.
"Sure, all the time," I answered honestly and he knew.

His eyes were studying mine. "How's a subway train different from a regular train?"

Everything the comfort of attending a school unbullied and fully accepted depended on if I could
become this guy's friend. So I answered everything as truthfully as I could.

"Well, the subway train sometimes goes underground."

There was a round of oohs from the remaining students.

"It's true," one of the other kids jumped into the conversation. "I had to go to Seoul once when my
grandfather died. I didn't actually ride in the subway train, but I did see the tunnel that it disappeared into.
It was like magic."

The important kid jumped off the desk and crossed the room in sweeping steps. He reached me, everyone
was still watching, and suddenly hooked his left arm around my neck.

"What did you bring for lunch, New Kid?"

And that was how Jang WooHyuk accepted me into his foreign school.

When school was over that day, WooHyuk immediately caught up with me at the front gates. "Where do
you live, kid?"

I told him the recognizable small-town landmarks near my house.

"Great," he said with a solemn look, "we can swing by your house, drop off your stuff, and head to my
house."

I stopped walking and stared at him.

He poked his own chest with his thumb, grinning proudly. "I always have the latest video games." He
glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes. "You can come over today and play them. If you want."

Only an idiot would have refused that offer.

Before I knew it, I had dropped off my bag at home and was sitting in front of the Jang's television set.

"Streeeeeeeeeet Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighter!!!" WooHyuk yelled, grabbing a controller and tossing it to me. "Prepare
to be CREAMED!"

I positioned myself comfortably. "That's what you think."

The living room filled with yells and screams and accusations and laughs.

I nearly dropped my controller when a feminine, cute voice interrupted us.

"Whachoo doing?"

I looked up to see WooHyuk push a little girl away. "Go away, Yeon Hee. Can't you see we're busy?"

"But I wanna play," the girl, Yeon Hee persisted.

WooHyuk glanced over at me and rolled his eyes. "Little sisters."

I didn't tell him that I wouldn't know, I didn't have any siblings.

We both ignored Yeon Hee and turned back to the game.

"Ryu is kicking your butt!" I crowed, knocking WooHyuk's Ken down with several super cool maneuvers.

"And Ken makes a comeback!" WooHyuk attempted to knock down Ryu.

And failed.

The words "RYU WINS" flashed across the screen.

I jumped to my feet and pumped my fist enthusiastically. "I am the MASTAH!"

WooHyuk was frowning at me, observing me. "I thought you never played before."

"I never said that," I retorted. "Besides, I'm from Seoul. Of course I played Street Fighter before. All the
time. I have this game."

Suddenly, in the midst of my triumphant dance, I felt something pull my hair and I felt flat on my back.
Dizzy from the shock of having just hit the ground, I stared up in silence.

Yeon Hee's wide eyes were staring down at me.

And she spoke horrific words.

"Gum. Sticky."

"NoooOOooOoOoooOOo!!!" I yelled, reaching my hands up and touching the back of my head. Sure
enough, my hands came away covered with pink bubblegum.

WooHyuk was pointing and laughing at me.

That was how Mrs. Jang found us. She immediately scolded Yeon Hee and led me to the bathroom, where
she profusely apologized as she snipped off the hair with gum bits. I ended up leaving the bathroom with
bald spots here and there.

WooHyuk laughed even louder.

I should have been mad at Yeon Hee. I should have. But when I saw her six-year-old eyes fill with
apologetic tears, I couldn't be mad.

Instead I laughed, too.

That stopped WooHyuk's laughter as he stared at me in surprise.

And so I stopped laughing, too.

We stared at one another in silence.

That was when we both knew that we would become the best of friends.

And that was how I first met WooHyuk. And his little sister Yeon Hee.

And so my story begins.

Part Two

"Yeon Hee! Get your butt down here, or we're leaving without you!"

I watched as the vein on the side of WooHyuk's neck stood out, red and strained, against the background
of his white neck.
"You're going to pop something," I commented. I spotted the throbbing vein on his forehead. "Or many
things."

"Every morning," he mumbled angrily. "Every morning she spends two hours getting ready, making us near
late and forcing us to speed... "

My heart thumped eagerly with hope. Maybe... "We could just leave," I mentioned as casually as I could.
"After all, Yeon Hee's not a little girl. She can walk to school by herself... "

My words trailed off at the look on WooHyuk's face. He was struggling to control the annoyance on his face
as he attempted to smile at me.

"No, we can wait a little longer," he said, and his words killed the hope in my heart.

I shrugged, pretending I didn't really care.

But I did!

For over nine years, Jang WooHyuk was my closest friend and partner in crime.

Then, senior year in high school, Jang WooHyuk revealed his true self; he turned into an obsessive,
overprotective, jealous raging bull.

Because senior year in high school, Yeon Hee came to our school as a first year.

Before Yeon Hee stepped through the iron gates of our small town's high school, WooHyuk was the coolest
guy in school; everyone wanted to be his friend. But after his transformation, he became the most feared
and the most avoided.

All the blame went to the unsuspecting Yeon Hee. Because, though I hadn't really noticed over the years,
the other guys claimed that she was a "hottie."

That was how WooHyuk recruited me into the bodyguard business in order to "protect his innocent little
sister." More like horribly restricting the poor soul.

Naturally the threesome that used to only be formed on limited occasions outside of school was formed
inside as well. Everywhere WooHyuk and I went, Yeon Hee came as well. I felt like a grade school kid once
more.

It was suffocating.

Sure, she was a cute little thing, but one is never entirely relaxed in the presence of a female, best friend's
sibling or not.

This morning turned out no different from all the other mornings so far in the school year. Out of years'
habit, I arrived at the Jangs' front step at precisely seven in the morning. I waited five minutes before
WooHyuk came tumbling down the stairs, his hair disheveled and his shirt untucked. Mrs. Jang had my
breakfast prepared, and though I always protested that I already ate, I finished a full plate before WooHyuk
finished his.

As soon as we dumped our empty plates in the sink, WooHyuk's screaming up the stairs began. Yeon Hee
repeatedly replied, "I'll be right down! Hold on!" but she always meant to take more time.

In the end, WooHyuk always ended up yelling, "We're leaving without you!" and today was no different. It
was the only way to make Yeon Hee rush. She always came chasing after us as we wheeled our bikes out
of their house gates.

"Took you long enough," WooHyuk grumbled.

Yeon Hee sped ahead of us, kneeled, and tied the laces of her rollerblades in the time that it took us to
catch up to her. "You guys are mean," she complained as she pulled her last loop. "Not even giving me
time to tie my laces."

As soon as WooHyuk saw that her laces were tied, he swung his leg over the bicycle seat and pushed off. I
followed suit, glancing back and making sure that Yeon Hee was ready to follow. She was, and so I focused
on maneuvering my bike around a corner.

In the fifteen minute ride from the Jangs' house to school, WooHyuk and I usually discussed the plans for
the day, the weekend, and upcoming school events.

"What's the student council planning for the spring festival?" he asked me over his shoulder.

I was, unfortunately, student body president, among many other things. I think everyone voted for me
because I wear glasses and look studious. A common misconception.

"Something light. We're caught between the usual of having food booths and a talent show, or doing
something like a dance-a-thon. Any ideas?"

WooHyuk shrugged his shoulders, and his forehead creased in thought. He fell into a pensive silence as he
thought about possibilities.

Suddenly I felt myself jerk back as some substantial weight latched onto my backpack. I looked backwards
to find Yeon Hee hanging onto me, cruising leisurely on her rollerblades, smiling innocently. "Give me a ride
to school like this and I'll give you an idea."

I nodded, not knowing what to say because I could never say no to that smiling face.

"You're the best, ChilHyun!" Yeon Hee announced gratefully.

Her words shook WooHyuk out of his thoughts. He glanced back and frowned at his baby sister. "Yeon Hee,
stop bothering ChilHyun. He's not your friend."

Yeon Hee stuck out her tongue. "He's a lot nicer than you! You never let me hang onto you."

We approached the tall gates, and Yeon Hee shrieked joyfully as I surpassed WooHyuk and sped down the
small hill leading up to the gates.

A lot of the male students on foot stopped and watched appreciatively as Yeon Hee's school uniform skirt
flew precariously upwards.

WooHyuk shot each person a deadly glare and barked, "What are you looking at?"

Everyone knew better than to get entangled with WooHyuk so they hurriedly scurried on their ways.

As I pulled to a stop in front of the bike racks, I noticed that Yeon Hee was no longer laughing. She let go of
my backpack and plopped down on the ground to change into her sneakers. I busied myself with locking
my bike to the rack and watched her from the corner of my eye. She was frowning angrily at WooHyuk,
gritting her teeth.

"Something wrong?" I asked her once the chain was in place.

She finished changing shoes and stood up, brushing off her skirt, swinging her blades over her shoulder.
"He's ruining my social life! I have no friends!"

"Sure you do," I reassured her. "You're always surrounded by girls."

She eyed me strangely, as if she knew something I didn't and I had said something very dumb. "For other
reasons than wanting to be my friend. My fault for having a brother."

I was confused. "What are you talking about?"

She shrugged, and I could see she wanted to change the subject. She waved her hand at me, saying, "I'll
see you after school."

I watched as Yeon Hee walked away. Guys were now sending her furtive glances, making sure that
WooHyuk didn't notice their interest in qualities other than her intellect.

WooHyuk pulled his bike up next to mine and locked it securely. "When are you going to pass a school bill
that changes the girls' uniforms from skirts to pants?"

"I can't just change the dress code on my own," I protested. "The entire school, or the majority, has to
agree."

WooHyuk just grumbled in reply.

Only when I sat down in my seat inside did I remember that Yeon Hee didn't tell me her idea for the spring
festival. Thinking of Yeon Hee made me think of WooHyuk. It almost seemed like every minute of the day
my thoughts were occupied by the two siblings.

I wondered when WooHyuk's crusade to isolate and thereby suffocate his sister would end.

Probably not until the day she died.

Part Three

"A play?"

It was by accident that I ran into Yeon Hee, but I knew an opportunity when I saw one and made sure to get
the spring festival idea from her.

She nodded.

I had to be honest; I was fairly disappointed with her idea. And I couldn't hide the disappointment that was
evident in my voice. "But the drama club puts on plays all the time. It's not something special."

She shook her head at me as if she wasn't surprised that I failed to recognize the brilliance of her idea.
"Sure, drama clubs put on plays two or three times a year. But ordinary students don't. I think you should
open it to the public, hold auditions, and fill the play with students who would, in any other circumstance,
never participate."

She was starting to make sense. "So it'll be a chance to really involve the students, right?"

"Now you're getting it!"

The smile grew on my lips until I was beaming. "I'll be sure to run the idea by the student council."

She beamed back at me. "You're very welcome."

As I was watching Yeon Hee's disappearing back, a long arm circled around my neck and hooked me
affectionately. I looked around to see a fellow classmate grinning mischievously at me.

"So that's the reason you hang out with Jang WooHyuk so much," Tony An teased. "I knew it!"

I ducked my head out from under his arm and pushed it away. "It's not like that. WooHyuk's my best friend.
And Yeon Hee is his younger sister. He requires me to keep an eye on her. For purely platonic reasons."

"I know," Tony replied, "and that's called an ulterior motive. And I don't blame you. She's cute."

"I never noticed," I growled through gritted teeth.

"I'm really jealous of you," Tony continued, ignoring my words. Read here

It wouldn't make a difference how much I tried to explain to Tony. Talking to him in this state was like
talking to a rock. I doubted he was listening to anything I was saying. Perhaps it was just a stupid impulse,
but I felt this great urge, this need to convince him of my truth.

"She's just a little kid to me!" I said, not realizing my voice was steadily rising. "How many times do I have
to tell you? If it wasn't for WooHyuk, I probably wouldn't even talk to her!"

Tony's eyes were wide, then narrowed in suspicion. "Are you telling the truth? You really don't like her?"

I nodded vigorously. "Yes, how many times do I have to tell you?"

Suddenly Tony grinned. "Then it wouldn't matter to you if I asked her out?"

Ask Yeon Hee out? Ask YEON HEE out?

"You mean, like on a date?" It was a stupid question but also the first one that popped into mind.

Tony raised an eyebrow at me. "No, to hold hands and skip down the street. Of course on a date! What else
could I mean?"

What was this uneasy feeling spreading through my body, from my toes to the tips of my ears? It gave me
the sensation that I should to discourage Tony from doing as he wanted.

"I'm not sure WooHyuk will stand for that," I hinted.

Tony crossed his arms confidently and winked at me. "What could he possibly do to me? I'm a friend."

I smiled uneasily and forcibly.

Yes, what could WooHyuk possibly do?

I soon found out later that afternoon.

It was inevitable that WooHyuk would drive Yeon Hee to an early grave.

The next time I saw Yeon Hee, which happened to be in between classes, she was frustrated and nearly in
tears, and she conveniently used my shirt as something to clench in her angry fists.

I only worried about wrinkles for a few seconds because her angry prattle tore me away from private
thoughts.

"- so completely selfish and egotistical!" she was saying.

"WooHyuk?" I interrupted to ask.

"Of course WooHyuk, whom else would I be talking about?"

Yes, WooHyuk seemed to be the only obstacle for her in the road to a better, more gregarious lifestyle.

"What did he do this time?" I asked, but not really eager to know.

She shook her fists angrily, wrinkling my shirt even more, and burst out, "Finally some guy has the sense
to ignore my idiotic brother and ask me out, and what does the idiot do? He drags the guy behind the
school building and beats him up!"

I certainly had not expected that. "He beat up Tony?" I blurted out without thinking.
Yeon Hee looked at me strangely. "Tony? Who's Tony? You don't mean senior Tony An, do you? Because the
guy who asked me out is in my grade. His name is Lee JaeWon."

I was an evil person, innately and through and through evil. Why was I feeling disappointed that Tony was
not the person that WooHyuk beat up? Tony was a fellow classmate and a friend. I should be glad that he
escaped WooHyuk's wrath.

"He's just being protective," I tried to defend my best friend.

She glared at me because she had expected me to take her side, badmouth her brother with her, support
her complaints.

"Is this JaeWon kid all right?"

She finally let go of my shirt and threw up her hands. "It was awful! No one had the guts to step in and
stop him. Fortunately, one of my friends informed me, and I stopped the bulldog before he did much
damage."

Bulldog? I admit it fit WooHyuk's present image. And I could understand Yeon Hee's anger. But what could I
possibly say to her? I was WooHyuk's best friend.

"He's just being protective," I repeated my argument weakly. But whom was I kidding? The man was
maniac.

When I walked into the classroom, I found Tony sitting in ashen silence.

I perched myself on the desk in front of him. "Did you hear?" I asked him, knowing that he did.

He nodded dumbly.

A malicious, guilty feeling of pleasure rose in my soul, and I had to crush it to keep it from emerging. "Are
you still going to ask her out?"

Tony just grew paler and dropped his head onto his desk and began knocking it noisily against the surface.
Bang, bang, bang.

WooHyuk strolled into the classroom and stopped to stare at Tony.

"What's wrong with him?" he asked me.

I shrugged and looked over at my best friend, who was looking unruffled and as if he had not beat up an
underclassman just that day.

"So," I opened my mouth to ask about this Lee JaeWon.

But WooHyuk cut short my words.

"We'll have to watch over Yeon Hee more carefully," he informed me. "Too many dogs in this school for her
to be safe."

It was amazing how similar the siblings were, both using canine analogies.

Little did WooHyuk know that Yeon Hee considered him the biggest bulldog of all us dogs.

Part Four

After school, I was on my way to the student council room when from the other end of the hallway a tall,
pale young boy came approaching me.
As soon as he saw me, his face grew paler (if that was even possible), he ducked his head, and scurried
past me with rapid feet motions. But not before I noticed the large black eye he was sporting.

Without thought I turned around and called out his name on assumption. "Lee JaeWon!"

He froze in his tracks.

Sympathy flooded my body. He must have been really traumatized by WooHyuk to shy away from me like
that. "So you are Lee JaeWon." I retraced my steps until I was standing face to face with him.

He kept his head ducked, shaking his head to drop his bangs, obviously anxious to keep the bruise as out
of sight as possible.

I reached out a hand, he flinched expecting some form of physical abuse, and I gently lifted his head by
the chin to study the bruise. "WooHyuk went a bit overboard, didn't he? Does it hurt a lot?"

JaeWon shook his head, still silent.

I stuck my hands in my pants pockets. "I'll apologize on WooHyuk's behalf."

This opened his mouth. "There's no need, sir." He bowed his head, slipped past me, and disappeared
around the corner at the end of the hall.

I stared down the empty hall. I wasn't thinking of anything particular, but it took a yell from one of the
student council members to arouse me into action.

"ChilHyun! We're waiting for you!"

I sighed and headed to the student council room.

Dropping my papers on the conference table, I began the student council meeting.

Two hours later, the meeting was over with overwhelming support for the production of a play as the
spring festival event. Everyone's assignment for the week was to come up with suggestions for the play.

I entered the classroom to find a very disgruntled WooHyuk sitting cross-legged on my desk. "What took
you so long?" he barked as soon as he saw me. But he didn't give me a chance to reply as he plowed on.
"Yeon Hee left twenty minutes ago!"

I couldn't see what his point was. "So?"

WooHyuk pursed his lips and frowned at me. "What do you mean so'? We always walk home together."

I busied myself with packing my bag. "You guys don't have to wait for me every day." I tried to ignore
WooHyuk's accusatory stare. "You could have just left without me." I tossed him a light smile. "At least
Yeon Hee was smart enough to do that."

WooHyuk jumped off the desk, huffing and puffing. "You're such a brat."

I swung my bag over my shoulder and smirked at him. "You know I used to think you were a really cool
guy." I paused significantly, implying my thought with the silence.

He caught the implication and stared at me. "Are you saying I'm not?"

I left the classroom, WooHyuk hurrying after me.

"My first impression of you was that you were the head honcho, the cool guy who had everyone's respect.
Then I realized why you were considered the leader."

He waited for me to continue.

"You were the strongest fighter. You could beat up anyone, older or younger. It was and is a constant
prayer of mine that I will never be at the receiving end of one of your punches. Yes, you were and are quite
a fighter." I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. "I could tell by that shiner you gave JaeWon."

WooHyuk looked away. "He deserved it."

I stopped in my tracks and stared at him incredulously. "For wanting to date your sister? Is that the
qualification for a meeting with your fist?" When he didn't reply, I sighed. "I hope you're not planning on
punching out every guy who ever asks Yeon Hee out."

"Of course I am. How else can I protect her?"

"You're going to force her to die an old maid."

"If that's her fate, so be it."

"You're a jerk."

We were halfway across the schoolyard by then. WooHyuk turned around to face me and began to walk
backwards in order to face me, kicking up dust in our faces in the process.

His face was serious, a deep contemplative serious that I hadn't seen for quite some time. "My first
impression of you was that you were a very honest guy."

I raised my eyebrows at him. Honest?

"You weren't easily intimidated. You didn't avert your eyes when I looked at you. You weren't eager to be
my friend. And so I thought you would always be honest with me. I still think so."

It was ironic, how completely wrong he was about me. And I had to tell him so. "You obviously didn't realize
at the time we first met that I tried hard to get on your good side. You're wrong about my so-called
honesty."

He cracked a smile at my words. "You beat me at Street Fighter."

"What?"

"That day we first met, you beat me at Street Fighter."

Again, I wasn't following his point. "So what? I'm willing to tell you the truth now. Truthfully, you sucked."

His smile widened. "I know."

His unexpected words stopped my feet. I stood there, in the dust, staring at my smiling best friend who
had also stopped walking.

"I knew that I sucked. The reason I knew I could trust you for your honesty was you beat me without
hesitation. No one ever beat me before that day. You may have altered your actions in the classroom in
order to fit in, it's a natural method of survival. But one on one, you weren't intimidated by me. You beat
me at a game I had never lost before, no matter how much I sucked." He cocked his head to the right.
"And so I know that you'll always be honest with me, no matter what happens."

The trust was so plaintively present on his face.

A late reaction to WooHyuk's words occurred late that night as I lay in bed, thinking over his words, his
strong trust.

It made me feel red and embarrassed and I felt like a hypocrite.

And I had no idea why.

Part Five

Monday morning came and gave me a nice little surprise.

Both WooHyuk and Yeon Hee were at the breakfast table, ready to go, when I arrived. I must have been
quite a picture, staring at them in shock, because Yeon Hee giggled at the most likely unsightly expression
on my face. Her older brother was too busy scowling at his toast to bother with my shocked facial muscles.

"I have morning clean-up duty," Yeon Hee explained as she laced her rollerblades at the door.

I raised my left eyebrow in doubt. "That didn't stop you last time from shirking it off and sleeping in. You
didn't even care that it dropped your grade as long as you got your sleep."

Yeon Hee shrugged and looked mysterious, and WooHyuk, who was unfastening his bicycle from the iron
handrail in front of his house, deepened his scowl.

Only when WooHyuk and I were at a considerable distance away from Yeon Hee, who was skating leisurely
along, did I ask him what was going on.

"I don't know," he grumbled, his brows seemingly permanently frozen as dark ledges overshadowing his
eyes. "She won't tell me. She's up to something, I swear to God, ChilHyun."

I looked back at Yeon Hee, whistling away without a care in the world, and felt a bit uneasy as well. "I think
you're right," I agreed with WooHyuk. "Something big forced her out of bed early this morning. What could
it be?" Curiosity gnawed at my conscious mind.

WooHyuk just shrugged in response.

What could it be? What she finally shaping up to realize the importance of her grades? Or perhaps she
realized how important morning clean-up duty was in learning responsibility in the long run? Or, was it
possible, she developed a liking for cleaning?

I was deep in thought about the possibilities explaining Yeon Hee's strange behavior when I felt Yeon Hee
latch onto my backpack again.

"Give me a ride like this again, and I'll give you an idea for the play," she offered a deal.

Like I said before, I could never refuse a smile from her, so I found myself peddling harder to accommodate
her added weight. It elated my spirits to hear her squeal of pleasure when we once again sped down the
small hill. WooHyuk was yelling something at us from behind, but I don't think either one of us heard due
to the whistling of the wind.

She was in a big hurry, I could tell because she tried to speed away without changing into her sneakers.
But I never make the Yeon Heee mistake twice so I called out to her, "What's the play idea?"

She made a fantastic tight 180 on her in-line skates and grinned as she skated backwards. "Romeo and
Juliet!" she yelled back at me.

It was totally overdone, and I was once again disappointed in the banality of her suggestion.

She noted the disappointment on my face and grinned wider. "A modern day version," she added.

And I smiled, I liked the idea.

"Why are you standing there, grinning like an idiot?"

WooHyuk always had a way with words.

I gave him a playful shove as I locked up my bicycle and he locked up his. He was giving me a shove back,
one not quite so playful, when I noticed a tall figure slinking by, hoping to pass unnoticed.

Lee JaeWon.

I glanced at my watch. It had just turned 7:17 am. Why was he at school so early in the morning? The
answer to the question stuck me instantly.

"Hey, WooHyuk, morning clean-ups are done in pairs, right?"

WooHyuk nodded. "Always a guy-girl pair. Why do you ask -" His voice trailed off as the Yeon Heee thought
that had popped up in my head occurred to him as well. The clouds gathered on his face. "Yeon Hee, that
sneaky weasel!"

It was the wrong thing to do, totally immoral and unlike my usual standards of behavior, but I couldn't
resist when WooHyuk suggested that we sneak to Yeon Hee's classroom and spy on her. Except he didn't
call it spying, he called it "protecting" like he did all his other actions regarding Yeon Hee, and it managed
to convince me, at least on a superficial level.

Our four curious eyes peeped into Yeon Hee's classroom through the open door.

She was counting out the chalk to be used at the blackboard while JaeWon was rearranging the flowers in
the vase on the teacher's desk.

They were talking, and I barely managed to stop WooHyuk from bursting into the room.

"I'm sorry about my brother," Yeon Hee was apologizing. "Sometimes he just doesn't think."

More like most times, I corrected her in my mind.

"Don't worry about it," JaeWon replied in the Yeon Heee quiet way that he had spoken to me.

She was obviously agitated by the thought of her brother, she clenched a piece of chalk too hard and it
snapped in two. "I wish he had asked me before he threw out his fists. I could have explained to him that "
she paused, uncertain if she could continue without hurting JaeWon's feelings.

JaeWon moved the position of the sunflower in the vase and completed Yeon Hee's sentence for her, "- that
you turned me down, and we were just going to be friends."

She shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "I'm sorry, JaeWon."

He smiled. "You should never be sorry for turning down a date offer you're not interested in."

It was here that I heard footsteps approaching us and had to drag WooHyuk away from the door. Neither
said a word on the way to our own classroom, but once there, he burst out into angry chatter.

"That sneaky girl," he berated his sister. "Using her school responsibilities to meet with that mangy boy. I'm
really going to let him have it the next time I see him!"

I interrupted WooHyuk's ranting. "Weren't you listening to them at all? You gave the kid a black eye for
nothing. She turned him down."

WooHyuk became pensive, pursing his lips, his eyes growing dark in thought. "I'm not following."

"Yeah, I don't understand why she turned down the only guy who wasn't scared off by you."

"Yeah," he echoed.

"But at least we know why she woke up early this morning."

"Yeah, to meet JaeWon! The scoundrel!"

Sometimes WooHyuk's one-track mind really amazed me. "She came early to apologize to JaeWon, not for
some secret rendezvous."

"I suppose," WooHyuk admitted begrudgingly. He opened his bag and began to pull out his books, his side
of the conversation now at an end.

The question that was troubling my mind was why Yeon Hee turned JaeWon down.

"Maybe she doesn't like him more than as a friend," I mumbled to myself. "Is there someone else?"

WooHyuk looked up from his organizing. "What did you say?"

"Nothing. I said absolutely nothing."

Part Six

Wednesday morning, WooHyuk and I entered the classroom to find everyone buzzing with excitement. The
girls were on their side of the room, without doubt gossiping about the latest news, and the guys were
gathered on the other side, the rumble of their laughter coming from their midst.

"What's going on?" WooHyuk grabbed the nearest classmate.

The poor guy looked surprised to suddenly be staring eye to eye with WooHyuk. "Uh, t-transfer student,"
he stuttered.

"Transfer student?" WooHyuk repeated, releasing the guy and turning to me. "At this time of the year?
That's strange."

I shrugged and sat down in my seat.

"I wonder if it's a girl or a guy," he continued talking to me, regardless of whether I was listening or not. He
took his own seat, which was right next to mine near the back of the room, and left his bag untouched.

I busied myself with pulling the books out of my bag and stacking them atop my desk. "A guy."

His eyes widened. "How do you know?"

"I saw him registering in the office yesterday."

"Hmm," WooHyuk mumbled, looking slightly disappointed. "I was hoping it would be a girl. We're seriously
lacking in natural resources." He eyed the girls' side with displeasure.

I grinned. As eager as WooHyuk was to keep all males away from his sister, he himself was a regular skirt-
chaser. "There's a girl, too. In Yeon Hee's grade. I think they're siblings."

"Fabulous," his face lightened. "I like them young."

I shook my head and feigned disgust. "You are a sick, sick man, my friend."

He stuck out his lower lip at me. "It's better than being a misogynist like yourself."

I looked down my nose at him and replied haughtily, "I'm not a misogynist. I'm just not interested."

"You mean you just can't get any."

"Shut up."

"It's because of the glasses, Four Eyes. You should get contacts."
Before I could retort, and I swear I had a great comeback in mind, our little argument was interrupted by
the homeroom teacher entering with a stranger at his side.

"In your seats!" the teacher barked at us. "This is Moon HeeJun. He just transferred here." Sometimes it
was amazing how adults could state the most obvious things as if they were stating something new and
important. "I'm sure everyone will get along with HeeJun just fine."

Moon HeeJun was of average height with eyes that seemed almost too large for his face. He had a light-
colored face, half of which was covered by his long front bangs.

The students were already whispering and passing notes.

I heard the females closest to me already gossiping.

"Why wasn't he forced to cut his long hair like all the other guys?"

"I don't know. Maybe he's really rich and he bribed the administration."

I hadn't noticed until then, but now it was blatantly obvious, the ponytail at the nape of the new guy's
neck.

"Risky," I muttered to WooHyuk, whose eyes were focused on the ponytail as well.

"Looks like a punk to me," WooHyuk whispered back to me.

The teacher motioned for the transfer student to take the seat behind WooHyuk. As he passed by WooHyuk
in the aisle, both of us caught sight of the gold reflecting light on his earlobes.

A ponytail and pierced ears? How was this allowed? And I thought our school was extremely strict.
WooHyuk nearly got suspended one time when he bleached his hair.

That memory obviously stuck on WooHyuk's mind for he spent the next hour muttering about ponytails
and pierced ears and bleached hair.

Fortunately he was calmed down by the time the first break came around. But not for long for an extremely
pretty girl appeared in the classroom doorway and in a clear voice asked for the new guy.

I watched as WooHyuk fumed, adding "cute girl" to the list that included ponytails and such.

I allowed him to torture himself for a few minutes before I broke the good news to him.

"That's his sister?" he repeated disbelievingly.

"Yes, his sister."

His sullen behavior immediately vanished. "She's beautiful."

I couldn't help but laugh at WooHyuk; he was so incredibly clueless. "Want to know her name?"

His eyes brightened. "You know her name? Tell me, tell me."

"Ane."

"Ann," he repeated blissfully.

"Pronounced so but it's spelled A-N-E not A-N-N."

"Ah-neh?"

"Pronounced Ann, spelled A-N-E."

"Ah-neh," WooHyuk persisted stubbornly.

Moon HeeJun reentered the classroom and casually took his seat. Guys immediately crowded around him,
chattering eagerly.

"Who's the cute girl, New Guy?"

"Yeah, and how do you know her?"

HeeJun was grinning leisurely, leaning back in his chair. "You guys interested in my sister?"

At the word sister, most of the guys immediately lost their enthusiasm. They had already had enough
brotherly love from the most well known brother of all, Mr. Jang WooHyuk.

WooHyuk was the only person who remained interested in HeeJun and his beautiful sister. "Introduce me,"
he said to HeeJun, "to your sister, yeah?"

HeeJun looked WooHyuk up and down, scrutinizing him. "You like my sister?"

"She's cute."

I couldn't believe the conversation they were having.

"Sure," HeeJun conceded, "I can introduce you guys. But it's up to her whether or not she'll choose to meet
you. She decides who she likes, not me."

I was surprised and awed by HeeJun's composed nature. He sure was a nonchalant guy.

I ran into HeeJun after school that day on my way to the student council meeting, and I made sure to greet
him, my responsibility as student body president.

"You're that guy's friend," HeeJun returned my greeting.

I grinned. "Yeah, the guy who likes your sister."

HeeJun grinned back. "Well yeah, but I meant to say the guy who kept muttering about my appearance
during class."

He knew yet he was unruffled. And he even agreed to introduce WooHyuk to his sister.

"So it doesn't bother you that WooHyuk likes your sister?"

HeeJun shrugged. "Should it?"

It was amazing, the difference between the two older brothers. I'm sure there were a lot of males at our
school who wished WooHyuk would be half as unconcerned about Yeon Hee as HeeJun was about Ane.

I grinned throughout the student council meeting, occupied with wondering whether WooHyuk knew just
how paradoxical he was being by going after someone else's little sister.

Part Seven

By the next morning, the news had spread throughout the entire student body like brushfire.

"A modern day version of Romeo and Juliet.' "

"Auditions next Monday, Wednesday, and Friday."

"The student council says they're going to intentionally not pick any drama club members so that us
regular people can participate."

"Awesome, where do I sign up for an audition time slot?"

During the breaks in between classes, there were mad rushes to the bulletin board in front of the student
council room, where the sign-up clipboard was hung. It was amazing how many students wanted to take
part in a play, I would have never guessed. I decided to treat Yeon Hee out sometime for her wonderful
idea.

I was on clean-up duty after school that Thursday and was on my way back to the classroom with some
mops when I ran into Tony lulling about in front of the student council room.

"ChilHyun," he greeted me, an unusually bright smile on his face. "This is perfect!"

I furrowed my brows in confusion. "What is?"

"This play! Yeon Hee! Me!"

What the heck was this idiot babbling about?

Tony noted the confused look on my face and launched into an explanation. "This play is the perfect
chance for me to get to know Yeon Hee without running into WooHyuk. Imagine if she gets the part of Juliet
and I'm Romeo," here his face turned red just with the imaginary thought in his head, "we would even have
a kiss scene together!"

Something went clunk. I wasn't sure at the moment, but the strangest thought told me it was my heart. If
hearts could go clunk, that is.

"Kiss scene?" I nearly choked on the words.

That's right. How could I have possibly, but it seemed that I had completely forgotten "Romeo and Juliet"
was a romance as well as a tragedy. No, it wasn't that. I hadn't forgotten that "Romeo and Juliet" had a kiss
scene, I just hadn't imagined Yeon Hee playing Juliet before.

Yeon Hee... kissing Tony?

There went the clunking again.

Tony was nodded his head rigorously, beaming like a kid who just stole a cookie from the cookie jar. "Isn't it
perfect? WooHyuk couldn't possibly say something against us spending hours and hours together during
rehearsal. A few lines recited here, a few kisses there... "

Clunk.

"Hey, ChilHyun, aren't you on the board that decides who plays what role?"

I could only nod my head numbly.

Tony jabbed me in the ribs and winked. "Hey, I'm not asking for extra favors here, but Heck! That's
exactly what I'm doing. If you can, try to lean towards me playing opposite Yeon Hee, yeah?" He didn't wait
for my answer; waving enthusiastically, trusting in me completely when he shouldn't, he disappeared down
the hall.

I leaned on the handle of the mop and peered at the sign-up list.

Sure enough, signed up for one of the last time slots on Wednesday, was the name Jang Yeon Hee. After
having noted this, Tony had signed up for the last time slot on the Yeon Heee day.

It was a strange thing, that you could spend years knowing a person yet not really know them. I had never
known that Yeon Hee was interested in theatrical performances.
It made me wonder, what exactly did I know about her?

I quickly shook my head to dispense the thoughts. There was no need to know anything more about her
than the fact that she was Jang WooHyuk, my best friend's little sister.

That seemed to make all the pieces fall into place.

Since I had clean-up duty that day, WooHyuk had already left by the time my duties were over. At first he
had insisted on waiting for me whenever I had clean-up duty, but I had discouraged him of that with
difficulty. I was still working on convincing him to go home on Wednesdays when I had student council
meetings. He even considered joining the student council with me, but the idea of extra duties was a turn-
off for him. It was ironic that originally back in our first year I had thought he would make the perfect
student body president. He was the perfect leader: charismatic and authoritative.

But WooHyuk had nominated me, wouldn't let me do the Yeon Heee for him because he didn't want us to
compete, and I ended up student body president. When I won the election, WooHyuk was the first one to
clamp his hand on my shoulder and tell me heartily and earnestly, "Congratulations!"

Surprisingly on leaving the school building I found Yeon Hee waiting for me on the bench near the
schoolyard. She stood up when she saw me and smiled and I knelt to unlock my bicycle from the rack.

"What are you doing here so late?"

"I had to stay after school but WooHyuk would only let me stay if I promised to walk home with you. What a
tightwad."

She looked frustrated, and I understood completely.

We began to walk across the dusty schoolyard together, me leading my bicycle and her with her skates
over her shoulder.

Most times, even the silence between us didn't bother me because we were so used to each other that it
wasn't strange. But for some reason, the silence between us as we walked together was suffocating me. I
had to break it.

"I saw your name up on the auditions sign-up list."

A smile lighted up her face. "Yeah, daring, isn't it?"

"I didn't know you were into acting."

"I'm not. I'm doing it to save myself." I raised my eyebrows questioningly. "To breathe a little."

I was beginning to understand. "A form of escape, right?"

She grinned mischievously. "I have to escape from his obsessive control somehow."

"Smart."

"I always was."

I guess you had to be sly and plotting when you had a brother like WooHyuk. If he interfered in my social
life, nonexistent or not, I would retaliate in similar ways.

Yeon Hee interrupted my thoughts by grabbing my backpack and holding out her in-line skates towards
me, smiling without a word.

I nodded my consent, and I pulled Yeon Hee who was on her skates for the last mile until we reached the
Jangs' house.
Part Eight

"You're allowed to read from any script for the audition since our script is not ready yet."

Yeon Hee nodded, relatively calm and composed, probably because she didn't exactly need to get the part.
She just thought it would be great if she got it and escaped from WooHyuk for several hours a day during
rehearsal.

"What will you be reading from?" I asked her, though I already knew. She had forced both WooHyuk and me
to play opposite her while she practiced the entire weekend.

"Romeo and Juliet,' the original version. Act one, scene five, when Romeo and Juliet first meet."

"We'll need someone to play opposite Yeon Hee, we need a Romeo."

Everyone glanced around the room to spot anyone who was waiting to audition. But those who had already
auditioned had left, the person auditioning after Yeon Hee was a girl, WooHyuk was nowhere in sight, and
Tony was yet to make his appearance.

Yeon Hee waited impatiently while we, the deciding board, just looked at one another stupidly.

"ChilHyun can do it," she finally spoke up. "He helped me practice this past weekend."

There was no way around it since everyone was looking at me expectedly, so I got up with a sigh, handing
my clipboard to a fellow student council member. I climbed onto the stage in the auditorium. Yeon Hee
handed me her copy of the script since she had her part memorized.

She was being so serious about this audition that I didn't know what to think.

"Any time you're ready," the student council advisor told us.

Standing opposite Yeon Hee, in the spotlight of the spacious auditorium, my heart was beating fast and
unevenly. So this was the effect of performing live, in front of an audience. But I usually wasn't camera shy,
nor did I have stage fright. So why was my heart beating so wildly?

I knew I had to calm down in order to help Yeon Hee have the best possible audition. I took a deep breath,
trying to even out the heartbeats. I nodded at Yeon Hee to tell her that I was prepared, and she smiled in
return, indicating that I was to start, to do exactly as I had done when we were practicing.

"If I profane with my unworthiest hand / This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this, / My lips, two blushing
pilgrims, ready stand / To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."

My voice was unusually deep and ringing and full of emotion.

"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, / Which mannerly devotion shows in this: / For saints
have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, / And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss." With those words,
Juliet no, Yeon Hee raised her hand and I followed automatically. She pressed her palm against mine
tenderly.

Clunk.

It felt hot, incredibly hot. It was the spotlights, yes that was why I was feeling hot. Yet why did it feel like I
was blushing?

I recited the next line, suddenly conscious of a very important fact. There was kissing coming up! Of course
while rehearsing in the Jangs' backyard, I had not once really kissed Yeon Hee. It had always been a
rushed, forward motion where I nearly touched my cheek to hers, and that was it. But on the stage, well it
was different in front of viewing eyes. Everything was serious and real.
The moment came quickly, too quickly, for me to decide what to do. According to the script, I was
supposed to kiss Yeon Hee twice before she ended the scene. Did I dare could I kiss Yeon Hee? The
decision was instantaneous.

"Then move not while my prayer's effect I take," I recited, leaned forward, and kissed her gently on the
forehead. "Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purg'd."

I did the Yeon Heee for the second kiss, I kissed Yeon Hee softly on the forehead.

"You kiss by th' book," Yeon Hee recited the last line she had practiced.

We both turned expectedly towards the judges.

There was a hushed silence in the room.

One of the student council members broke it. "ChilHyun, you didn't even need the script!"

I glanced down at my hands and realized they were empty. The script was lying on the ground, near my
feet. I must have dropped it sometime during the performance, but that meant that I had everything
memorized. Had I helped Yeon Hee that much over the weekend, so much that I had memorized Romeo's
lines?

"Bravo," the advisor cheered. "That was exceptional. I think we found our Juliet."

Yeon Hee grinned, bowed like a professional. "Thank you." She turned to me. "Thanks for your help,
ChilHyun."

"It was nothing."

I was feeling strangely dazed as I headed back to my seat.

WooHyuk popped out of nowhere and asked cautiously, "How did Yeon Hee do?"

"Great, I think she pretty much got the part."

WooHyuk looked torn between wanting to celebrate Yeon Hee's success and wanting to complain that Yeon
Hee would spend so much unsupervised time rehearsing without him.

I I didn't hear a single word he said to me.

"Why are you so flushed?" he asked me suddenly. "Are you hot? But it's air-conditioned in here."

I touched cool hands to my cheeks and frowned. "Yeah, I'm hot. Just hot."

The next girl auditioning had a hard act to follow, and she ended up messing up the soliloquy she had
prepared.

"Next," the advisor called out. "Tony An."

Tony, too, appeared out of nowhere and hopped onto the stage.

Without a real reason, my frown deepened and I glared up at him.

I had to admit, he had a certain presence that worked well with the stage. He was cool and confident, and
probably more determined than ever to win the part of Romeo after hearing Yeon Hee was sure to play
Juliet.

And if I had viewed his audition objectively, I would have thought it was pretty good. All the other judges
thought so. But I was strangely feeling evil, and my scores for Tony came out harshly.
While the other judges gave him high nines out of perfect tens, I managed to drop the average immensely
with my scores.

Acting, four!

Involvement with the audience, three!

Recitation, two!

Everything, why I was treating Tony so harshly and why I was so flushed, was a great fuzzy blur. But one
thing on my mind was clear.

I did not want Tony to be Romeo.

An abuse of power, that was the single most dishonest moment of my entire political career.

Part Nine

I caught a cold that following night (divine justice for my abuse of power?) and suffered in bed for the
entire weekend. Therefore, I was relieved of any further judging of the auditions. Throughout the weekend,
friends and even people I've never spoken to before called my house to ask for results. I was sick and tired
of it all by Saturday morning and pulled out all the phone cords to stop the ringing.

WooHyuk came over around noon on Sunday, Yeon Hee trudging along after him, both looking concerned.

"I thought you were so sick your parents turned off all the phones," WooHyuk said with relief when he
learned that my fever had subsided. "Look, we even made chicken soup for you." He pointed at the pot
Yeon Hee was carrying.

"Chicken soup? You two made it yourselves?"

WooHyuk nodded proudly while Yeon Hee rolled her eyes.

"He means I made it while he stood over my shoulder and criticized me," Yeon Hee spilled the truth,
placing the pot on the counter.

"Hey! I peeled the garlic!"

"Only one."

"Two!"

The siblings' bickering amused me as it always did. They were always fighting and at each other's throats,
but not once did I ever hear anything truly harsh or hurtful come from their lips.

"You're just mad because I tried out for the play," WooHyuk said, sticking his tongue out at his sister.

My eyes widened. "You what?"

"Of course I'm mad!" Yeon Hee replied, not paying any attention to me. "That was the one thing I thought I
could do without you! You're giving me absolutely no personal space!"

"You what?" I repeated.

WooHyuk, too, ignored me. "I just wanted to test my acting skills," he lied blatantly. "Besides, we're not
even sure who got what part. I might not even have made the list."

"Both of you shut up and listen to me!" I shouted. WooHyuk and Yeon Hee turned to me in surprise; I hardly
ever raised my voice. "WooHyuk, you did what?"
He grinned at me innocently. "I tried out for the part of Mercutio."

I didn't even have to ask him why. He was obviously concerned about the hours that Yeon Hee would spend
at rehearsal without him with a roomful of other guys (and girls but he wasn't concerned about them).

"You really don't know about the final list?" WooHyuk questioned me.

I shook my head. "Everyone seemed to think I was overstressed, so they're keeping the results from me. I
won't find out until Monday morning either."

WooHyuk looked concerned. "You were pretty sick. In all the time I've known you, you've never been so
sick for so long. Maybe you really are overstressed."

I shrugged. But I wasn't stressed, I really wasn't.

They ended up spending the entire afternoon in my room, the three of us talking about random things,
mostly with the siblings arguing without end. I only kicked them out at the hour I knew I could no longer
waste my time because I had a pile of homework waiting for me. And I knew WooHyuk had the Yeon Heee
pile at home.

I attacked my history book first, but by the third page I was already dozing off, too tired to keep my eyes
open. I gave up on doing my homework; I had never missed a single assignment throughout my academic
career, I figured it was okay for this one time.

Monday morning came quickly and when I arrived at school, I was just as curious to find out who made the
cast as everyone else.

There was a crowd around the list in front of the student council room.

"Excuse us, excuse us," WooHyuk barked, bulldozing through the crowd and conveniently making an
opening for Yeon Hee and me to follow.

"Yeon Hee, you got the part of Juliet!"

I was happy for her but that was pretty expected. My eyes followed the list, past the role of Romeo and
focused on Mercutio. There was his name, Jang WooHyuk.

I heard cheers behind me from WooHyuk as his eyes caught sight of the Yeon Heee line, and Yeon Hee
wailed unhappily. She had tried to escape, but her plan had completely failed.

"I'm sure he blackmailed or threatened someone for the part," she muttered darkly and in a low voice, so I
was the only person who heard her.

Suddenly WooHyuk slapped me on the back. "Hey, I didn't know you tried out!"

My mind froze on WooHyuk's words. "Wha what?"

"You're on the list," he explained, pointing.

I focused my sight on the paper, checking the small extra parts to spot my name. "What are you talking
about? I'm not a townsperson or ballroom dancer or anything."

WooHyuk lifted his finger and pointed higher on the list. "There."

The first word that came into sight was "Romeo." The name beside it read "Lee JaeWon."

I immediately forgot that I was looking for my own name. "JaeWon tried out for the part of Romeo?" He
must've done his audition on Friday, when I was out sick. I was worried. This could cause problems in the
future between WooHyuk and Yeon Hee.

"Keep reading," WooHyuk prompted me.

I did. And my mouth dropped open. Underneath JaeWon's name were the words "Romeo understudy, Ahn
ChilHyun."

"What the " I sputtered.

The advisor appeared suddenly at my elbow. "So you already saw the list, ChilHyun."

"Mr. Han, why is my name up there, as the main character's understudy, nonetheless?"

He grabbed my elbow and led me away from the crowd into the student council room. "Don't let anyone
find out, but we placed you on the list without you auditioning formally."

"I realize that, Mr. Han, but why? Or how?"

"Your performance when reading opposite Yeon Hee was so spectacular, we really wanted you to be part of
this. But we couldn't give you the part of Romeo because you hadn't auditioned. So we bent a few rules to
make you the understudy."

Spectacular? But I wasn't an actor. I didn't know how to act.

"All of us judges agreed," Mr. Han continued, "that you and Yeon Hee had real chemistry on stage. Too bad
you didn't audition. You would've definitely gotten the part."

Chemistry... ? With Yeon Hee?

Mr. Han smiled at me and placed his hand on my shoulder. "Regarding the part of Romeo, it was a toss-up
between Lee JaeWon and Tony An. Lee JaeWon's scores came out a bit higher."

Ow, that really hurt my conscience.

"So what part did Tony get?" I asked cautiously.

"Paris. They have similar images."

In class, WooHyuk kept asking me when I had auditioned for a part. I couldn't tell him that I hadn't, that I
only got to be the understudy because I had "chemistry" with Yeon Hee. That wasn't something you told an
obsessive older brother who fights well.

So I shrugged it off as no big deal.

And it wasn't. After all, understudies didn't have to do anything unless the real Romeo couldn't perform.
What were the chances of that happening?

Part Ten

The director actually the student council advisor tapped his foot impatiently and checked his watch for
the third time. "She's late," he made an obvious comment in a disgruntled voice. "The first rehearsal, and
she's late."

I leaned over to WooHyuk sitting beside me and whispered in his ear, "Where is Yeon Hee?"

He whispered back, "She signed up for all these activities for the spring festival. No doubt she's at one of
those meetings still."

I raised a single eyebrow. "I never knew that Yeon Hee was so active in extracurricular activities."

"She's not. I think she's only trying to get away from me." WooHyuk's voice sounded so depressed, I had to
pat him comfortingly on the back.
"What activities is she working on?"

WooHyuk started to count them off on his fingers. "The tea booth for her class, the cotton candy booth for
the literary club, the face painting booth for her ballet club, and... er... I forgot the rest."

All those in addition to playing Juliet in the school play?

"Is she insane?" I gasped and my voice came out louder than expected.

Mr. Han whipped around to glare fiercely at us. "No talking!" he yelled, his nerves at an end.

WooHyuk and I snapped our mouths shut.

The auditorium doors swung open in perfect timing, and Yeon Hee sailed through.

"I'm so sorry I'm late," she greeted us quite breezily. "My class couldn't decide on pink teacups or blue
teacups. All the boys kept insisting that pink was a sissy color... " Her voice trailed off when she saw that
everyone was silent and staring at her. "What's the matter?" Her face was almost deviously innocent, her
eyes wide in question. Then her face blossomed into a smile. "You guys aren't mad, are you? I just got
carried away with arguing with the immature boys."

Her smile had the Yeon Heee effect on everyone else as it did on me. No one could possibly stay mad at
her after seeing that smile.

The director positively melted. "No, no, you're only a few minutes late. And who's to define lateness? Ha ha
ha."

WooHyuk and I exchanged looks, and for a split second, I knew we were thinking the Yeon Heee thing: if
only we were born as cute, innocent-looking girls!

But the moment passed as everyone grew serious. The assistant director the activities director of the
student council passed out the modified scripts.

"The spring festival is in two and a half weeks, on a Saturday. We have exactly eighteen days to get this
show on the road. That means extensive rehearsals every day, including the weekend. For the next
eighteen days, no one in this room will have any free time outside of school. All free time will be devoted
to memorizing, acting, stage rehearsals. Any questions?"

One of the extras raised her hand; it was the girl who had ruined her soliloquy after Yeon Hee's audition.
"Even all the extras? But I have one line in the entire play!"

"The minor characters are the building blocks of the play!" the director barked and launched into a cheesy
lecture about the importance of a solid foundation.

Meanwhile, I opened my Calculus book and began my homework.

The director cut his lecture short on a winded breath and sharply surveyed the room. "Everyone is here,
right?"

The assistant director shook his head. "Mr. Han, two people are not here yet."

And so Mr. Han's long lecture on the important of minor characters was contradicted by the fact that he
had cared only that Yeon Hee was late, not bothering with the less important actors. He tried to look less
idiotic by clearing his throat and asking, "Who are the two people not present?"

"Moon HeeJun, third year, and Moon Ane, first year."

My ears perked up at those names and I stopped working on my calculus homework in the middle of an
integral. "What parts are they playing?"
The assistant director glanced down at his clipboard. "Moon HeeJun will be playing the part of Tybalt. Moon
Ane will be Yeon Hee's understudy."

WooHyuk looked aghast. "But she's too pretty to be a replacement!" he said loud enough for only me to
hear.

Grumbling, Mr. Han checked his watch for the fourth time.

In an entrance even more dramatic than Yeon Hee's, the double doors of the auditorium opened and in
walked the two transfer students.

"You're late!" the director scolded them.

HeeJun calmly muttered a "We're sorry" and Ane gave a neat bow of her head, not saying a word.

"Now, if we can begin... "

Glancing around the room, I almost felt a shiver of anticipation travel down my spine.

Was it fate or pure luck that the people most on my mind these days all ended up working on the spring
festival play?

Moon HeeJun, the guy who was clearly WooHyuk's alter ego and the most composed guy I had ever met.
There was something about him that made me feel uneasy.

Moon Ane, HeeJun's little sister and currently WooHyuk's target of affection. She and her brother have
already adapted themselves to our school as if they've been here all their lives.

Lee JaeWon, the boy who liked Yeon Hee and got beat up by WooHyuk even though he was turned down by
her (a horrible mistake on WooHyuk's part, no doubt about it). Fate would have it that he was now acting
opposite Yeon Hee in the greatest love tragedy of all time.

Tony An, a fellow classmate and acquaintance who was trying to chase after Yeon Hee without WooHyuk
noticing. I was maliciously glad that I had dropped his audition score and thereby prevented him from play
Romeo. I was WooHyuk's best friend, it was my duty to protect Yeon Hee from lecherous teenage boys.

Jang Yeon Hee, my friend's little sister and my involuntary client in the bodyguard business, though she
wanted neither WooHyuk's nor my protection.

And finally Jang WooHyuk, my best friend ever since the second grade. Sometimes he did things beyond
reason and beyond my approval, but I've never known him to turn his back on me, ever.

It was a curious arrangement that the play created, bringing together seven different people.

My pencil hovered over my calculus homework, but my eyes were watching the three people onstage. Mr.
Han had led and was now lecturing WooHyuk, Yeon Hee, and JaeWon about their roles on the stage, calling
them the pillars of the entire production.

I didn't notice her presence beside me until she spoke.

"I wonder why clichs always say jealousy has an ugly head," Ane stated quietly, close to my right ear.

I turned my head, surprised to see her there, wondering when and why she had sat down beside me.
"What did you say?"

Her eyes were focused on stage. "I think jealousy can be a beautiful thing. Especially if it helps you achieve
what you want most." She faced me, her face smiling and her head cocked to one side. "Don't you agree?"

I shrugged nonchalantly, pretending I knew what she was talking about.

She faced the stage once more. Her voice did not waver once as she spoke.
"Yes, I think I am very jealous."

Part Eleven

A shadow appeared over my shoulder and its hand reached out to slam my calculus book shut.

"Ahn ChilHyun," Mr. Han scolded me, "this is rehearsal, not study hall."

It was the fourth day of rehearsal and already I was bored out of my mind. "But Mr. Han " I began to
protest.

"No buts, ChilHyun. Now get your butt on stage." He laughed at his own joke as he propelled me up the
side steps and onto the stage.

Yeon Hee and JaeWon were sitting on the wooden floor, their heads close together, discussing something
or another about their roles. Ane was perched on a random wooden box, eyeing me curiously.

"Go practice," Mr. Han ordered, shoving me towards Ane.

I sidestepped, shying away from the mysterious girl.

She smiled at me in an amused manner. "I don't bite, quit looking at me so suspiciously."

She was mistaken; I wasn't suspicious about anything. The one solid rule I had regarding relationships was
this: never look at the woman a friend is interested in. I planned to keep to that. Besides, I could already
feel WooHyuk boring a hole into my back from across the auditorium.

I reluctantly took a seat on the floor exactly two feet away from Ane's box.

"What scene do you want to practice first?" she asked me.

"Does it matter? It's not like we're going to be performing on stage during the spring festival."

"Aren't you the optimist. I don't know about you, but I want to act. Who knows? Maybe Yeon Hee will come
down with the flu that day."

"Talk about optimists."

Ane's face grew serious as she leaned in towards me, causing me to lean away. "Why bother auditioning if
you don't want to perform?"

"Who said I auditioned," I muttered underneath my breath. I couldn't tell her the truth, that I hadn't and I
had never planned to either.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, I didnt say anything at all."

She stared at me, into my eyes, as if trying to read my mind. For a moment I wondered if she could, her
eyes definitely seemed deep enough. She leaned back, her eyes never leaving my face, smiling as if she
was satisfied with what she had seen in my mind.

I had to lower my eyes first, losing the glaring battle. "Let's start with act one, scene five, I guess. That's
our first scene together, right?"

She flipped through her script then laid it down when she saw that I didn't have mine. "Why don't you have
your script?"
"I don't need it."

"Why not? Don't tell me you already have it memorized!"

I tried to look modest and failed. "I did help write it," I explained.

"Still," she said, seemingly impressed. "You must be really smart."

What can I say? I didn't wear my glasses just to look good.

"So," she said, flipping open her script again. "You -"

She was interrupted by WooHyuk's overpowering voice echoing throughout the room.

"You're standing to close to her!" he was yelling.

I turned to see that Yeon Hee and JaeWon had stopped discussing matters and were now preparing to act
out the balcony scene. He had his hand on her arm and had been in the middle of pointing something out
to her for his right index finger was outstretched.

"And now you're touching her!" WooHyuk continued yelling maniacally.

"WooHyuk," Yeon Hee protested. "Leave us alone so that we can act!"

I jumped to my feet, ready for intervention.

"Act?" WooHyuk sputtered. "Act? He's two inches away from breathing "

I slapped my hand over his mouth and grinned nervously at everyone. "Excuse us, everybody, but
WooHyuk here needs a little time-out." With his feet dragging and kicking, I led us into the hallway outside
the auditorium.

WooHyuk made a strange growling noise.

I glared at him. "Don't you dare bite my fingers." I only released him when we were clearly out of earshot
of everyone in the auditorium.

"What are you doing?" he yelled at me as soon as my fingers released him.

"What do you think you're doing?" I yelled back.

"I'm doing my job and protecting my little sister!"

"Next time do it without making a scene!"

We yelled at one another for the next ten minutes without any progress.

WooHyuk collapsed against the wall, panting and gasping for water and air. "That JaeWon kid is really
getting on my nerves."

"She turned him down, remember?" I rasped. "No need to worry."

But WooHyuk still looked worried. "People say if two people spend enough time together, they start caring,
beyond as friends."

Why did I get the sudden feeling that he was talking to and about me?

He sighed loudly. "I need to separate them as much as possible."

"Is that wise? I think they're friends now. If so, Yeon Hee will hate you even more."
WooHyuk gave me a suspiciously sweet smile.

"What?" I asked cautiously.

"You're going to help me."

"What!"

"She can't hate you," he reasoned. "You're not her brother."

"And why would I help you torture your sister?"

His smile was strangely comforting and unnerving at the Yeon Heee time. "Because you're a lot like me.
Only less psychotic."

That was not as all reassuring.

I shook my head in exasperation. "You're not just psychotic. You're like some insane boyfriend who can't
handle the fact that his girlfriend has a life outside their intimate circle. Except you're supposed to be her
brother, not her boyfriend."

WooHyuk's voice grew a little calm and a little sad. "I'm not just a brother. I'm sort of like a keeper."

I raised my eyebrows in question, wondering what exactly he meant by keeper.

"A kind of gatekeeper. For that one right person for her. Far, far in the future. When I find him, I'll let her
go."

Part Twelve

Gatekeeper, eh?

So that's what he thought he was. Some powerful man situated at the gates, sending most strapping
young men away in search for the perfect male to date his sister.

Made me remember what HeeJun had said about him not being the judge of whom Ane decides to meet. In
all sincerity, two older brothers could not be more different.

"Get away from my cousin," a monotone permeated the auditorium. It was HeeJun, reading off his script.
"You dirty Montague."

Mr. Han had his hand to his left breast over where his heart should be, looking traumatized. "What are you
doing?" he enunciated each syllable with heavy emphasis.

HeeJun innocently blinked his eyes. "Reading my part. Is something wrong?"

"Not only did you change the lines, but where is the emotion? Tybalt is an angry character, a man who
hates all Montagues! How can your Tybalt voice be so flat?"

"This is my character interpretation. I don't think Tybalt is angry at all. I think Shakespeare meant for him
to be a cool, collected guy who just happened to be born to the wrong cousin." He glanced down at his
script. "And about the lines. Who in the world says something like Leave my cousin at peace for she is not
suitable for a man like yourself' or You are a dastardly fellow, you who are called Montague'?"

Ane glanced over at me and I shrugged my shoulders, telling her without words that I had not written that
part.
It was only Saturday, the sixth day of rehearsal, and Mr. Han was already near breaking under the stress.
"You were so good during the audition! What happened to the passion, the life in your performance?"

HeeJun scratched the back of his neck and glanced over at Ane. But he didn't say a word.

"What kind of answer was that?" I asked WooHyuk, who was standing on my left. WooHyuk shrugged, he
didn't seem to care much.

Ane was at my side in a moment. "I forced him to audition," she said quietly. "He didn't want to, but I
forced him to."

"Why?" I asked, completely confused.

She smiled at me. "Because I knew we would both get parts."

"That doesn't answer the question," I retorted, but she was already walking away.

I was fuming. Ane never talked when she didn't want to, yet she was always forcing me to talk to her when
she wanted.

WooHyuk, too, was staring after Ane. "Isn't she wonderful?"

"Wonderfully annoying," I replied under my breath so that even WooHyuk couldn't hear me. To explain my
bitterness, the girl had spent the past few days bossing me around. As if it wasn't enough that I already
got that treatment from the Jang siblings!

From across the auditorium we heard Mr. Han bellow in frustration, "That's it for today! I'll see everyone
tomorrow at two. And have your lines memorized. Especially you, Moon HeeJun!"

HeeJun shrugged on his backpack, clearly ignoring Mr. Han, already heading to the exit. "Ane," he called
over his shoulder. "You can go home by yourself, right? I have a date." Without waiting for her reply, he
left, the auditorium door shutting behind him.

Ane, who had been sitting cross-legged on the stage, stood up and latched herself onto my arm.
"ChilHyun, do you have a car? Can I get a ride home?"

I stared at the girl hanging on my arm. "Uh, I don't have a car. I ride my bike to school."

Ane's smile grew wider. "Great, that's fun, too! I can ride on the back."

I glanced at WooHyuk nervously, who was struggling immensely to keep his face expressionless. "WooHyuk
has a bike, too. Why doesn't he give you a ride home?" For a moment I saw my best friend perk up, and
my heart sighed in relief.

But Ane yanked on my arm and dragged me down the aisle, barely giving me enough time to grab my bag.
"Come on~ We can get some ice cream on the way."

I cast a last desperate look behind but strangely the Jang siblings looked forbidding; both had deep scowls
on their faces.

Later, WooHyuk told me what happened after I left the auditorium. He had kindly told Yeon Hee to pack up
to go home. Instead of listening to his friendly advice (keep in mind that this was all told to me by
WooHyuk himself), Yeon Hee stomped away and snapped at him.

"I'm going home with JaeWon!"

WooHyuk claimed that he attempted to gently dissuade his sister, but she had flatly refused to listen and
disappeared with "that evil kid."

But he only told me this information after I repeatedly reassured him that Ane and I were not involved.
"Are you sure?" he kept asking me.

Finally I had to slap him on the back and say loudly, "Toughen up! It's not like that, you know!" I paused
and looked at him slyly. "You should make your move sometime. Since we're all working together, you
don't need HeeJun to introduce you guys. At the next rehearsal, just sort of start up a conversation, be
slick."

"Right, right," WooHyuk had agreed.

But the next day, when Ane appeared at my side, WooHyuk let out a shy, "Hi," and stood in front of us,
awkwardly shuffling his feet.

She stared at him for a moment, as if unsure who exactly he was, replied with a curt, "Hi," and promptly
led me away.

"Who is that?" Ane asked me once out of earshot.

"Jang WooHyuk."

All I got was a blank look from her.

"He's playing Mercutio."

Blank.

"Yeon Hee's older brother," I tried one last time.

The light bulb brightened above her head. "Ah, I see." She immediately lost interest and changed the
subject. "I finally memorized all my lines. Let's get started."

But I was already distracted. Looking around the room, I realized that Yeon Hee had disappeared. "Hey,
where did Yeon Hee go?"

"I just saw her leave with JaeWon."

"What! Where did they go?"

Ane was looking at me strangely. "How would I know? What are you so worked up about?"

She was right. What was I so worked up about?

I attempted to compose myself, working on a nonchalant shrug. "Nothing," I replied, "I'm not worked up."

But I was lying. I was feeling flustered.

It wasn't like me to feel so agitated about Yeon Hee being with JaeWon, that was WooHyuk's job.

It really was frightening how day by day I was growing more and more like WooHyuk.

Especially when I had absolutely no right to interfere in Yeon Hee's life.

Part Thirteen

"Romeo, oh Romeo, why did you have to be a Montague? Deny your father and refuse your name. If you
can't, promise you will love me, and I will no longer be a Capulet."

"Should I listen more, or should I speak now?"

"Your name is my single enemy. Changing your name will not mean changing yourself. What exactly is a
Montague? It doesn't signify a hand or foot, arm or face, or any other part belonging to a man. Oh, be
some other name! What's in a name? A rose would smell just as sweet if its name were something else. So
Romeo would, even if not named Romeo, be the definition of perfection. Romeo, reject your name, and for
losing that name, which is no physical part of you, you can have me."

It was the world famous balcony scene, and no single person in the auditorium was not mesmerized by the
performance on stage. I literally was on the edge of my seat, leaning forward, staring at Yeon Hee's face as
she recited her lines.

Even cool HeeJun, sitting directly behind me, let out a soft, "Damn, she's good."

"And that JaeWon guy," Ane sitting beside her brother added, "is pretty talented himself." She poked me in
the shoulder to get my attention. "At this rate, we'll never get to act on stage."

WooHyuk had been sitting next to me but had disappeared sometime during Yeon Hee's name monologue
and was yet to reappear.

Tony was a couple of seats down, his mouth open and practically drooling.

The scene drew to a close, and Mr. Han was soon on his feet, applauding as he had never done for any of
us.

"My stars, my stars!" he crowed happily, probably thinking that the main couple made up for all the trouble
the supporting actors were giving him, namely WooHyuk and HeeJun. "What talent, what presence, what
chemistry!"

I nearly choked on my own liquids. Chemistry? Did he just say that JaeWon and Yeon Hee had chemistry?
And only a week after he told me the Yeon Heee thing! What a traitor! Fuming, I sank back into my seat
and slouched.

Ane jumped over the back of the seat and slid into WooHyuk's empty seat. "They look sort of sweet
together, don't they?"

I sank even lower.

"She just doesn't seem to notice you," Ane continued, meaning to instigate an argument with me.

Scowling, I inadvertently took the bait and snapped at her, "I don't know what you're talking about. Who
notices who?"

"You're a fool and a coward."

"Go away, please."

She was studying my face seriously. "You're vicious when you're clueless. Yet every emotion presents itself
so obviously on your face. The hurt, the jealousy, I can read it all. I told you my thought on jealousy, right?
How I think it's a beautiful motivating force?"

I shifted my gaze to look at her. "So what?"

Smiling, she placed her elbows on the armrest separating us and cradled her head in her hands. "Looking
at you and your emotions makes me feel even more jealous." Her eyes followed Yeon Hee's every motion
on stage as she talked with Mr. Han.

I felt someone watching us, turned to see Yeon Hee looking at us with a curious look on her face. She
wasn't mad, or smiling, but looked as if she was trying desperately to control some emotion from emerging
on her face.

Suddenly, WooHyuk was towering over us, staring down at Ane who was in his seat. But he was too
spineless to tell her to move.
So I did it for him. "Ane, move, you're in WooHyuk's seat."

"You're a brat, Ahn ChilHyun," she told me, reaching out to playfully ruffle my hair.

I shied away.

Still grinning she got up and stepped on the seat to jump over the back and into the next row where her
brother was sitting quietly.

"She acts like she's older than me," I grumbled to WooHyuk quietly.

"She's adorable," he sighed hopelessly.

"Yeah, if you like the dominatrix type."

Mr. Han finished talking with JaeWon and Yeon Hee and signaled for HeeJun and WooHyuk to join them on
stage.

"Moon HeeJun, do you have your lines memorized?"

HeeJun shrugged in a cool fashion, as if uninterested, his hand gripping his script. He saw Mr. Han's eyes
fall furiously on the script. "For reference, in case I forget."

Which he did. A lot. It was clear that Moon HeeJun was not interested in playing the role of Tybalt in our
school play.

"Your brother's really something," I told Ane later while we were rehearsing by ourselves in the corner of
the auditorium, isolated from the rest of humanity.

Ane pursed her lips as if in thought. "Yeah, something."

Somehow, I couldn't really explain later, I got the idea that the "something" in her mind was not a good
thing.

"Is he a good brother?" I asked her, already guessing her answer.

"Sure," a pause, "he gives me my personal space."

I grinned, once again comparing the Moon siblings to the Jang siblings. "Exactly what Yeon Hee wants."

Ane ignored me, once again deciding that she didn't want to continue the conversation. She was such a
one-way street.

Suddenly, WooHyuk's voice was reverberating throughout the auditorium.

"Moon HeeJun! Why are you holding my sister's wrist? Are you trying to hit on my baby sister?"

"I'm Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, and I'm supposed to drag her away in the scene," HeeJun replied, his voice as
cool as a cat's yet strangely just as loud and authoritative. "Are you on drugs or what?"

"What did you say to me?" WooHyuk bellowed.

"You're crazy," HeeJun retorted. "A regular madman, a psychopath. Are you that insecure about your
sister's morals?"

"What did you say about my sister?" WooHyuk's voice was growing louder and louder.

Ane was watching the scene on stage carefully, a frown prominent on her face.
I excused myself from our rehearsal, which both of us had already forgotten about, "I've got to go regulate.
Be right back."

"Get it through your thick skull that not every male in the world is attracted to your sister!" HeeJun was
saying as I bounded down the aisle and onto the stage, and I managed to pull WooHyuk back before he
literally attacked HeeJun. I was the only one holding WooHyuk back, everyone else was cowering
somewhere in the shadows.

"Let me at him!" WooHyuk savagely roared, trying to tear out of my arms.

"Get a grip of yourself!" I snapped, tightening my hold on his arms, amazed at my own previously
nonexistent but now present colossal strength.

"You need mental therapy," HeeJun made the last statement. "If Ane were to like you even remotely I
would be first in line to get you locked up and have her live a life of celibacy for the rest of her days."

Ane was suddenly there on stage, tugging on her older brother's right arm. "Come on, let's go, it's not like
you to get so involved."

HeeJun allowed himself to be led off stage.

It was the strangest thing, but I could've sworn there was a big smile on Ane's face as the two disappeared.
Her first genuine smile.

Part Fourteen

For the first time since rehearsals began a week ago, Ane disappeared with HeeJun, and I was left to ride
my bike home without her. Feeling nostalgic, I waited for WooHyuk and Yeon Hee so the three of us could
walk home as we usually did.

WooHyuk came to me with a long face, saying that he had to stay late because Mr. Han wanted to "discuss
matters" with him. He and I both knew a long tirade was coming, so I offered to wait. But he insisted that I
leave and walk Yeon Hee home.

Before I knew it, I was rolling my bike along as Yeon Hee walked silently beside me.

Was I the only one who felt awkward? Since when had Yeon Hee and I become such awkward strangers?

I had to break it. Somehow. I wasn't ready to, yet I opened my mouth to speak. "So, how are uh, things?"

I could swear I saw a small grin tugging at her lips. "Things?" she repeated. "Things are fine, I guess. How
are your things?"

I was glad to see that she was joking with me, the awkwardness had suddenly vanished with the stupidity
of my question.

We shared a common laugh.

Even so, something seemed to be bothering her. She was hesitant in telling me what was on her mind,
though it was obviously disturbing her very much.

"What is it?" I finally asked, dying of curiosity.

She took a deep breath, avoided my eyes, and asked, "Where have you been the last couple of days?" She
caught my confused look and hurried to explain herself, "I mean, I know we've been at the Yeon Heee
rehearsal every day, but I feel like I never see you. We don't even walk to and back from school anymore."
There was probably a very guilty look on my face. It was true. It was tradition for WooHyuk, Yeon Hee, and
me to walk to and back from school, but ever since the start of rehearsals, somehow I got roped into
walking Ane home instead.

She saw my guilty look and grinned. "So you know what I'm talking about."

"I'm really sorry," I blurted out.

"For what? I just meant that I missed you I mean as my brother's best friend. And WooHyuk is always
complaining about missing you, too." She paused, I waited. "And... she's nice."

"Who?"

"Ane. She's in my class so I know a little about her."

"What about Ane?" Every passing second of the conversation, I felt as if I was falling deeper and deeper
into a large hole labeled "confusion." What in the world was Yeon Hee talking about?

Yeon Hee stopped walking and looked at me incredulously as if she couldn't believe I wasn't following the
conversation. "Are you kidding me?"

"What? Why would I kid you?"

She came to the conclusion that my confusion was genuine and so continued walking. "She seems
interested. In you." Before I could say anything, she rushed on. "I think you should go for her."

"Whaaaaaaaaaat?" I couldn't believe my ears. Yeon Hee thought Ane was interested in me? Or possibly
vice versa? "Don't tell me you don't know about WooHyuk being interested in her."

"Of course I know," Yeon Hee replied. "But he's chasing a false dream. Love isn't supposed to be one-sided,
you know."

LOVE? Wait a minute here. How did we go from talking about Ane being a nice girl to the forbidden topic of
love? Why was Yeon Hee even relating the two together, placing them in the Yeon Heee train of thought?

"Yeon Hee?" I ventured uncertainly. "I'm clearly not following you."

We were now walking the second block away from school.

Yeon Hee was walking in silence, as if sorting out her thoughts. When she finally spoke, her voice was low
and flat. "I'm just saying that maybe you should be more open-minded. It's not every day that some
beautiful girl throws herself at you."

"With Ane, it's not like that. She's just the girl playing the role opposite me. That is, if you and JaeWon don't
perform."

Yeon Hee looked unconvinced, but instinct told me that not to continue the conversation.

And we didn't need to because someone was calling out our names.

"ChilHyun! Yeon Hee! Hold up!"

We turned around, and to our surprise especially mine Tony was waving his hands maniacally as he
raced toward us.

"Imagine, running into you guys here! What a coincidence!" Tony crowed too happily. His voice was way
too forced and bright to be real. I wasn't dumb enough to fall for his act.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, perhaps a bit too rudely.

But Tony didn't seem to notice though Yeon Hee looked at me with surprised eyes.
"I was just on my way home. You guys live in this direction too?"

Yeon Hee explained where we lived, east of the school.

"This has got to be fate," Tony chattered excitedly. "I live near there, too!"

Stop the narrative right here. First things first. I knew for a fact that Tony An lived in the completely
opposite direction. One time I had to drop off his homework at his house because he was at home sick. All
this pretending to run into us was all a premeditated plan to get to know Yeon Hee. Tony clearly thought
this was a perfect opportunity because WooHyuk was held back by Mr. Han.

"But you live in the opposite OW!" Tony stepped on my foot in the middle of my sentence.

Shouldering me off to the side, Tony began conversing with Yeon Hee intimately.

Abandoned, I stared as the two smiled at one another, exchanging meaningless words nevertheless
scathing to my ears.

They didn't even notice when I stopped walking, watching them continue on without me, watching their
shrinking backs outlined in the rays of the setting sun.

What was this emotion tugging at my heartstrings?

I first felt it when I first saw Yeon Hee and JaeWon rehearsing together.

I felt it again when Yeon Hee's earnest eyes told me to give Ane a chance.

And now I was feeling it the strongest as I watched Yeon Hee smile at Tony and leave me behind.

My heart gave a strange tha-thump.

Another.

And another.

Tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump.

Part Fifteen

The silence of the library enveloped me and I was happy. But the tranquility did not last long. I watched in
drawn-out anxiety as the doors opened and the person I was hiding from entered.

I did the first thing that popped into mind. I dropped to the ground and crawled underneath the desk,
hoping that the slab of wood was covering my body.

Two sneakers appeared in front of my eyes, then a pretty face.

"ChilHyun! There you are!"

"Hi, Ane."

"What are you doing underneath the desk?"

"Uh," I fumbled for an answer, "I dropped a pencil." I emerged from beneath the desk empty-handed and
let out an uncomfortable laugh. "It must have rolled away."

A quick but comprehensive glance told Ane that there was no pencil in the immediate vicinity. But kindly
she let my lies slide. "I was looking for you."
"Why?" I admit that was rude, but somehow with Ane, I was always on the defensive.

She wasn't at all fazed. "You know, the spring festival is only a week away."

"Right."

"And I was wondering if you had a date."

Was she asking me to be her date? I couldn't, no, I refused to believe it. She wouldn't, we weren't in that
kind of relationship!

"If not, do you want to go with me?"

And my belief was immediately shattered.

The moment of truth was instantly upon me. I had several lies I could tell. First, that I already had a date,
which wouldn't work because the communication lines of high school would inform Ane that I didn't.
Second, that I wasn't planning to go, but that was useless because I was student body president and
therefore required to attend. Or third, that my grandmother will probably be ill a week from now. If she
could believe that I foresaw the future. It always seemed to work with the teachers. The third lie was my
best bet, and I opened my mouth to execute the plan.

But she spoke before I could, conveniently cutting me off, "If you're going to tell me that your
grandmother's sick, I already know that you use that excuse like you breathe the air, so don't bother."

She had me figured out and cornered. But, in all honesty, she didn't make my heart beat as Sa others
did. I had to refuse, I had to turn her down.

But she cut me off again. "I know you're waiting, perhaps thinking to ask someone else. But you won't ask
her. You know and I know that you won't. So you have a choice, would you rather go to the festival alone,
or escort me as your acting partner?"

I I had nothing to say to that. What could I possibly say? Everything she said was true.

I ended up stuttering, "Yes."

Smiling, in a whirlwind of action, she left as she had appeared, in a single moment.

The library was quiet and empty without her. I was allowed to return to my studies, but my mind refused as
I stared down stupidly. I couldn't believe it. I had just agreed to go to the spring festival with Ane.

Hopefully no one would find out too soon.

As soon as I stepped into my classroom after lunch, a cannonball flew at me and grabbed me around the
waist.

"Ahn ChilHyun, come with me!" WooHyuk growled as he dragged me out of the room.

"WooHyuk, wait!"

But we were already halfway down the hall.

So he knew. Never underestimate the speed of high school gossip.

By the look on WooHyuk's face, I almost expected him to tackle me and start rearranging my face. Instead,
he pulled to a stop near the staircase. He had a serious look on his face. "Tell me what happened."

The lack of violence on WooHyuk's part was causing doubt to form in my mind. Did he really know? So I
decided to try and feign ignorance. "What are you talking about?"
But I should have known better; WooHyuk had always known when I was lying ever since we were kids.
"Cut the bull****. What's this about you going to the festival with Ane?"

The guilt, the confusion, the remorse all bubbled up within, and I found myself almost in tears. "I didn't
mean to accept. But she kept telling me that I couldn't and everything she said was true and I know you
like her but she's so pushy oh, I don't know!" I ended up wailing.

"So it's all true," WooHyuk said at the end of my babble with a little sigh. "You really do have a date."

I looked at my best friend uncertainly. "I still have time, should I cancel now? If I cancel on her, maybe you
could ask her."

"Ask who?" he looked confused.

"Ane, who else?"

It almost looked as if we had been talking about completely different topics.

"That's not the point. Well, it is sort of the point, but in a minor way. You aren't supposed to go to the
festival with someone else. You're supposed to go with me like we do every year. Especially this year,
since Yeon Hee is here, too. I was expecting the three of us to go together."

I was feeling extremely unsure. "So do you want me to break the date?"

WooHyuk too looked unsure of himself. "Well, since you made a promise, I guess it's too late. Just go with
Ane." He looked immensely pained as he said this.

"Okay," I said doubtfully.

He cracked a small smile at me. "Don't worry about it, buddy. I know you didn't do it intentionally. She's the
one who asked you, not the other way around."

Things were back to normal, or as normal as they could get under the circumstances. I had vowed to
myself that I would keep away from Ane, but the play was constantly forcing us together. I was just glad
that WooHyuk understood that I wasn't interested in her.

On the other hand, I couldn't help but remember what Yeon Hee had said about Ane, about her being
interested in me.

Was it possible?

I would have to ask her the next time I saw her.

Back in the classroom, people were still whispering about us, me in particular. They were probably all
wondering if our friendship ten years in the making was finally over. Were they surprised when we walked
in with smiles on our faces.

HeeJun was also waiting for us to come back. He raised his eyebrows when we entered, as if slightly
surprised that all my limbs were functioning. "So you're going to the festival with Ane," he commented as
he examined me. There was a small smile on his lips. "At least you're better than that fool you're always
hanging out with."

Fortunately WooHyuk didn't hear him; otherwise, there would have been a full-scale rumble right there in
the classroom.

HeeJun didn't seem to care in the least.

Either that or he thought I wasn't such a bad guy.

It's pretty obvious which way I preferred to think.

Part Sixteen

That day at rehearsal Yeon Hee refused to talk to me.

I had considered the awkwardness over between us and had greeted her with my brightest smile. Instead
of responding, she had coldly walked past without a single acknowledgement.

"Was that a burst of cold air or were her eyes just frosty?" Ane joked as she sat down beside me.

I was too dumbfounded about Yeon Hee's behavior to respond to Ane.

"If looks could kill," Ane began rambling off all the clich sayings she could think of. "Staring daggers.
Burning up with j-"

"Stop it, will you," I muttered in an annoyed manner.

She looked strangely pleased to see Yeon Hee and me in such estranged terms. Sometimes I couldn't help
thinking that she enjoyed watching people fight.

"So what should we practice today?" she said a little too brightly for my current mood.

"You choose," I grumbled.

Instead of choosing a scene, Ane crossed her legs and stared intensely into my eyes, so much that I looked
away.

"What are you staring at?" I asked uncomfortably.

Ane grinned at me. "Should we match our outfits for the festival ahead of time?" Not only was she on a
completely irrelevant subject, but her voice had gotten a few decibels louder.

"Match our outfits?"

"Yeah," Ane's voice grew steadily louder until it was carrying across the auditorium, "since we're going to
the spring festival together, I figured we should match our outfits."

That's when I seriously noticed Yeon Hee staring daggers at us. "What are you doing?" I hissed at Ane,
hoping, praying that she would stop being so ostentatious.

"Ooh," Ane squealed in a low voice. "Do you see how she is burning up with jealousy?"

"Stop writing a stupid daytime soap opera and get serious, we need to practice."

Ane pouted at me. "Party pooper. I'm trying to help you."

Was this girl actually serious? "How are you helping me?"

She grinned mysteriously at me. "In more ways than you know. Shall we start?"

But I wasn't satisfied. I had to ask her the question that was gnawing at my mind. "Do you like me?"

She looked up, looking amused. "What?"

"Are you romantically interested in me?"

"Do you want me to be?"

"N no," the answer flew out before I could stop it. That was extremely rude.
But she was grinning. "I thought so. Where did we leave off practicing last time?" With her expert change
of the subject, she launched into a random scene, forcing me to follow suit.

I kept forgetting my lines, missing my cues, losing my attention because I spent the entire rehearsal time
staring across the room at a certain frosty someone. And I wasn't the only one. WooHyuk was constantly
staring at his sister, with different intentions than mine. He wasn't worried about Yeon Hee's cool behavior
because she wasn't mad at him, at least not this time. He was watching to make sure no male tried to
steal her away.

Me... I was watching because every time our gazes locked, she shifted as if I were nothing more than a fly
on the wall. Or judging by the coldness in her actions, I was more like a cockroach than a fly.

And truthfully, her actions hurt me. I didn't understand at all why she was acting like that, what I had done
to make her so mad.

I just didn't know.

Ane constantly shook her head at me, telling me how dense I was, what a fool I was.

All these females in my life were driving me crazy.

At the end of rehearsal, Ane bestowed a great smile on me and said, "Let's walk home with Yeon Hee and
her brother."

"What? Why?"

"Because I want to."

There was no more explanation than that as she bounded across the room to tell HeeJun. I saw HeeJun
shrug and leave the auditorium.

The atmosphere was tense as the four of us exited the school. Ane, who seemed to have been quite happy
just a few moments ago, was building up storm clouds in her eyes. Yeon Hee, as everyone already knew by
then, was thoroughly ignoring me and therefore walking on the other side of WooHyuk to be as far from me
as possible. WooHyuk was trying to lighten the mood by talking incessantly, or perhaps he was just
nervous that Ane was with us. I knew that in such a situation it was best to be silent so I was.

A few blocks of walking and Ane's mood lifted. She smiled again as she started talking with WooHyuk.
What a strange girl. A few days ago, she didn't acknowledge his presence and now she was laughing and
smiling with him. What a capricious girl.

"So, do you have a date to the spring festival?" Ane asked the question and brought up the dangerous
subject. "If you do, we should double date. Doesn't that sound fun, ChilHyun?"

What was this girl trying to pull, constantly talking about us going to the festival together?

"Yeah," I muttered softly.

WooHyuk momentarily glanced at Yeon Hee, then answered cautiously, "No, I don't have a date. I usually
go with ChilHyun. You know, just two guys hanging out."

Ane was smiling quite flirtatiously. "I'm sorry, it seems I've stolen your date."

Then she had the audacity to grab my arm and cling onto me as if we were dating!

Her hands! Around my arm!

For a split second, I saw Yeon Hee's eyes widen then narrow quite dangerously.

"I'm going on ahead," she said, it sounded as if through gritted teeth. "You three take your time." Without
another word, she sprinted ahead and disappeared.
Both WooHyuk and I stared where she had disappeared, understanding that she was even madder than
before, but not quite getting why.

We reached a fork in the road; to the right were WooHyuk and my houses, to the left was Ane's house.

"WooHyuk," Ane purred, "you don't mind walking alone the rest of the way, do you? I want ChilHyun to
walk me home. We still have some stuff to discuss."

WooHyuk acquiesced and we shared our goodbyes for the evening.

As soon as WooHyuk was gone, Ane began laughing. Loudly. The loud HA HA HA kind of laugh. Where you
throw back your head and really let it rip.

"What is so funny?" I asked a bit irritably.

"Did you see the look on her face?" Ane crowed in between laughs.

I stared at her incredulously. She was laughing because Yeon Hee was mad? "Stop laughing. I don't see
why you think it's so funny. I don't even get what's going on!"

She shook her head, hiccupping. "Guys are so dense."

"What?"

She wagged her finger at me, smiling mysteriously. "What did I tell you about jealousy?"

I had a feeling she expected me to memorize everything she said. "Uh, it's a great motivating force."

"Right," she said, pleased that I remembered. "Just you wait and watch. It'll motivate her."

"Who?" I questioned stupidly, not even trying to hide the fact that I wasn't following the conversation.

But she didn't answer. Instead she waved goodbye as she walked down the neighborhood street without
me.

"Hey, don't you want me to walk you home?" I asked, being the gentleman.

"Nope," she replied, not even bothering to turn around. "I've got some thinking to do on my own. See you
at school tomorrow."

Honestly, in all honesty, I simply did not understand the female mind.

Jealousy would motivate whom?

Part Seventeen

WooHyuk looked haggard that next Wednesday morning, three days before the spring festival.

"What's wrong?" I immediately asked, concerned.

"Yeon Hee," came his monosyllabic, monotone answer.

Immediately I was even more concerned. "Is she all right?"

"Physically, yes. Mentally, she's losing it." He gave a martyr's heavy sigh. "I spent the entire night trying to
convince her to tell me what was wrong."

I fidgeted in my seat. "And? Did she tell you?"

WooHyuk shook his head sorrowfully. "I'm losing my sister, man! She used to tell me everything. I was her
support, her pillar. Now I'm like a dog she kicks away and abuses."

It wasn't often that WooHyuk was so tragic most times, violent, yes, but never quite so depressed so I
had to pat him comfortingly on the back as I cooed reassuringly, "Yeon Hee's just going through puberty.
Don't you worry about it."

Whom was I kidding? I was telling my best friend not to worry about his sister when I myself was going out
of my mind with worry.

We comforted one another until our homeroom teacher interrupted our amateur therapy session.

"Get a hold of yourselves," the teacher warned us, but he was smiling. I guess he was amused by our
dramatic displays. He continued once we were calmly in our seats. "As you guys all know, our class has a
singing gram booth. But unfortunately I have some bad news. Our singers have all come down with
laryngitis."

"All four?" I inadvertently burst out, my leadership qualities taking over. "What will we do?"

The teacher nodded his head grievously. "All four. So we need some new singers. Any volunteers?"

No one voiced his or her eagerness to participate.

I slouched in my seat, my leadership qualities shrinking by the second, avoiding the teacher's eyes.
Whenever there were no volunteers, I, as student body president, always found myself forcibly persuaded
to take over.

"ChilHyun?" the teacher prompted me.

"I can't sing," I feebly excused myself.

The teacher, what a sneaky man, turned to WooHyuk and asked him, "Can he?"

Now, WooHyuk is the type who can never lie. He's a thickheaded, obsessively protective, heedlessly violent
human being who could never lie to others.

And so he threw me an apologetic look as he answered meekly, "Yes, beautifully."

I slapped my hand over my eyes and groaned. I leaned over to WooHyuk and whispered, "If I suffer, you
suffer, too."

Knowing that that was only fair, WooHyuk hesitantly raised his hand. "Uh, I volunteer to, uh, sing."

The teacher was beaming, his sneaky plan now successful. "Any more volunteers?"

To our surprise, another hand raised into the air. "I'll help," stated the cool and calm HeeJun.

"Not that bastard," WooHyuk cursed under his breath.

"Three is good! All right!" The teacher looked excessively happy.

I, on the other hand, was sighing and groaning every two seconds.

Sing? In front of other people? Did everyone think I wanted to be a performer? First they force me to
understudy for a play. Then they thrust this singing gig on me. I was a bookworm, not an entertainer!

The teacher allowed us to spend the class time outside in the hallway, just us three singers discussing
singing matters.

"Do you really know how to sing?" HeeJun asked me, looking at me skeptically.
"Do you?" WooHyuk shot back.

HeeJun shrugged. "Fair enough. So what exactly do we have to do?"

My mouth dropped incredulously. "You got into this without realizing what we'd be doing?"

He grinned at me. "We're singing, aren't we? I like singing."

Moon HeeJun. What a mystery man.

We began brainstorming possible love songs that we could perform when hired.

"We'll be hired mostly by some girl to sing love songs to some guy, or vice versa," I predicted. "So we have
to know a lot of slow songs before hand."

"And we have to do this all day?" WooHyuk's voice was growing more and more whiny.

I shot a death glare at him. "All you had to do was tell him I couldn't sing."

That shut WooHyuk up.

But I too was feeling very whiny. On top of practicing for the play, I had to sing too!

HeeJun for once was smiling excitedly as he pulled out a sheet of paper and began to write down the titles
of all the love songs he knew. "These are the more common ones."

WooHyuk and I stared stupidly at one another. Moon HeeJun of all people!

At that precise moment, JaeWon was on his way back to his classroom after a bathroom run. As soon as he
spotted us from down the hall, he paused hesitantly, as if unsure if he should walk past us or choose the
long route that would make him go down the stairs, walk one of the first floor hallways, and then back up
the stairs to reach his classroom.

I smiled at him, encouraging him to have some guts, so he tentatively walked towards us.

Fortunately WooHyuk was too busy listing all the songs he knew and HeeJun was too busy writing them
down, so neither guy noticed JaeWon until he was already past us. He paused momentarily, knowing that I
was about to speak to him.

"How are things going, preparing for the play and all?" I asked JaeWon, playing the role of the warm
upperclassman.

WooHyuk and HeeJun looked up in surprise to hear me speak and noticed JaeWon for the first time. HeeJun,
disinterested in the tall lanky kid, returned to writing on his paper while WooHyuk glowered dangerously at
JaeWon.

"Good, good," JaeWon murmured anxiously before giving a quick bow and scurrying down the hall away
from us.

"That disrespectful kid," WooHyuk muttered angrily.

"He looks nice," HeeJun suddenly looked up and commented.

WooHyuk's frown deepened. "Sure, acts all innocent in front of people, then goes around trying to hit on
Yeon Hee. I know what's up his sleeve."

Truthfully, WooHyuk was voicing all my own opinions and suspicions, but I couldn't tell him that. "Come on,
WooHyuk, can he help it that he likes Yeon Hee?" God, I felt like such a hypocrite saying that.

"Then again," HeeJun butt in again, "the quiet ones are always the most dangerous."
Oh, that arrow really hit my weak spot, for I was a quiet guy who hardly ever voiced my opinions.

"That's exactly what I'm saying!" WooHyuk crowed triumphantly, glad to have someone on his side of
suspicion.

Weird. The last time I checked HeeJun and WooHyuk were bitter enemies. Perhaps that was all a bad
misunderstanding.

"Of course bullheaded guys like you are ten times worse," HeeJun added quite snidely.

"What did you call me, you gothic freak!"

I take everything back. HeeJun and WooHyuk were enemies.

"You need to get a grip of yourself," HeeJun said calmly. "This overprotective, overly suspicious brother bit
is getting old."

"Oh, and I suppose being a jackass and completely ignoring your sister is much better?"

I saw a dangerous glint enter HeeJun's eyes. I had to stop this immediately. I jumped to my feet, pulled
WooHyuk up by the collar and pushed him into the classroom. "I think it's time we join our classmates in
the exciting study of science," I rattled on nervously.

Unfortunately I had this awful gut feeling way down that told me I was only temporarily pacifying an
inevitable hurricane. I could tell by the hateful looks on the faces of both men.

Part Eighteen

Two days and counting down.

It was already the Thursday before the spring festival. In all the classes, no one was really paying attention
to the lessons; everyone was too excited about the festivities. Especially the play. Everywhere I went
people were talking about it.

"I heard that JaeWon and Yeon Hee make such a cute couple on stage."

"Yeah, aren't they both first years? How adorable!"

"And that hot new guy is in it, too!"

"You mean Moon HeeJun? Yeah, what a guy!"

"In fact, all the good looking seniors are in the play!"

I passed by these conversations, secretly hoping that they were including me in their category of "good
looking seniors." If not... well I wasn't going to think about that.

Two days.

I should be feeling elated, happy, thrilled. I loved festivals.

But this year was different. As each passing moment brought me closer and closer to Saturday, my heart
grew heavier and heavier.

Perhaps it was the stress.

But whom was I kidding? I knew it was because I had promised to attend the festival with Ane, instead of
going with WooHyuk and Yeon Hee as I had originally planned. I mean, Ane was a nice girl, but I just wasn't
comfortable around her. She always had this look in her eyes, as if she were planning and plotting
something. I knew she wasn't a mean person, so she wouldn't do anything bad, but it seemed that every
time I talked to her, someone else ended up mad at me.

But it was too late to break the date. I was a gentleman and was determined to keep my promise.

Of course, the events of that day proved that I didn't have to do anything. The date would break up on its
own. Actually by Ane's doing. But I shouldn't jump ahead of myself, I should start from the beginning of
that day.

After hearing all those people discuss the play, I entered the classroom to find WooHyuk, HeeJun, and Tony
missing. I questioned the nearest person only to find out that Mr. Han and called an emergency meeting of
all the actors. I dropped everything and immediately proceeded to the student council room.

I was the last one to enter, avoiding Mr. Han's stern eyes. I slid into an empty seat beside WooHyuk.

"Now that everyone is here," the tyrant emphasized the word everyone. "I just wanted to tell everyone that
rehearsal today is cancelled." He pointed to his teeth. "Dentist appointment. That means rehearsal
tomorrow will be twice as long. And remember, tomorrow we'll be going through the entire play with no
stops as if it were Saturday. So be prepared." He glared at HeeJun here, who was tapping his fingers gently
yet impatiently against the table. "That's it. Now get to class before you're all tardy."

WooHyuk stood up and I was about to follow when Ane sat down in the seat next to me in a flash and
pinched me.

"Ow," I cried. "What was that for?"

"Be quiet, and whatever I say, just play along, all right?"

"What?"

But she didn't explain to me. Instead, she immediately began speaking in a loud voice, as if the room
wasn't already small enough for everyone to hear. "I've decided that I don't want to go to the festival with
you anymore."

It took me a second to realize she was talking to me. I remembered she told me to play along so I
uncertainly replied, "Why not, uh, Ane?"

"I like someone else," she declared passionately like a true actress. "That's why I'm dumping you."

Hey, wait just a moment here. I know I said I didn't want to go with Ane, but I also didn't like being publicly
dumped like this. "Ane-"

"Don't say anything, ChilHyun," she cut me off dramatically. "I wish you all the happiness in the world."
With that, she gave me a sympathy hug, stood up, and confidently marched up to WooHyuk. "Jang
WooHyuk, would you like to go to the spring festival with me?"

WooHyuk was entirely frozen in shock. He could only stare down at Ane as if she were crazy.

HeeJun jumped to his feet. "Moon Ane!"

Ane ignored her older brother. "Please say yes," she said in a sultry voice to WooHyuk.

"Y yes?" WooHyuk repeated dumbly.

"Moon Ane, what the hell do you think you're doing?" HeeJun roared furiously.

Ane thoroughly ignored HeeJun again as she grabbed WooHyuk by the wrist and led them out of the room.
But before she left, she sent me an almost imperceptible wink, something that only I caught.

I could only sit there in shock, wondering just what Ane was up to.
Tony walked up to my chair and patted me comfortingly on the shoulder. "Sorry that had to happen to you,
man. And only two days before the festival." He shook his head. "A senior and you have to go to the spring
festival by yourself. Sad."

Somehow, his words were not comforting, they were more aggravating and annoying. I had to try hard not
to brush off his hand angrily.

Yeon Hee was staring across the room at me, as if she couldn't believe what had just happened.

When our eyes met, I shrugged nonchalantly, still playing the part of the injured, dumped guy. I stuck my
hands in my pocket, probably looking very pathetic, when to my surprise I found a folded sheet of paper
inside.

Somehow, intuition told me it was from Ane, explaining what the hell she was doing. She probably slipped
it in my pocket while giving me that sympathy hug.

And I was right.

I opened it and began reading.

"Surprise!" it read. "I can see the weirded out expression on your face. Makes me laugh." What an evil girl.
"Do you like my great master plan? Brilliant or what?" If I knew what you were doing, perhaps I could
answer that. "But you probably don't know what I'm doing. Well, it's simple. I made Yeon Hee jealous for
you. Look, I think it's pretty obvious that she likes you. And you like her. But she wasn't going to act on it,
and you weren't going to either, so I just sped things up for you guys. I purposely asked you to the festival
and made sure the rumors spread like wildfire. You saw how mad Yeon Hee was; she was literally burning
up with jealousy. Now that I'm out of the picture, she'll probably make her move." But how was Ane so sure
about that? "You're probably asking yourself how I know this. Well, call it a woman's intuition. But the truth
is, women are the most courageous when jealous. Just wait and see."

I stood there in the student council room, not noticing that everyone else had left.

Ane. I knew she had something devious planned. But what I didn't get was why she publicly dumped me
then went after WooHyuk.

It was then that I noticed Yeon Hee was still in the room.

She spoke first. "I'm sorry about what happened with Ane. I thought you guys went well together."

"Uh, thanks?" I was waiting. If what Ane said was true about Yeon Hee, then this was the perfect
opportunity for Yeon Hee to make her move. We were all alone in the student council room.

"What was that you were reading?" Yeon Hee asked, going off on a different tangent.

"Just some notes," I fibbed. I paused, allowing her more time, but she didn't speak again. So I did. "Do you
have something to say to me?"

She hesitated, shook her head. "I'll see you around." She moved toward the door.

"Yeon Hee!" I called out.

She paused, turned slowly. "Yeah, ChilHyun?"

My mind went blank, my heart was tha-thumping crazily. "Are you going to the festival?" I said the first
thing that came to mind.

She smiled. "Of course. I'm acting on stage, remember?"

"Yeah, of course. I'll see you at rehearsal tomorrow."

Yeon Hee left the room first, immediately turning left as she exited.

I sighed. I was a gutless coward. My heart was telling me to say something to her, but I couldn't.

I exited the room and was shocked to hear a voice talk to me.

"You like her."

I whipped around to the right to come face to face with JaeWon.

"You were listening?" I asked with displeasure.

"Yes, but I didn't really have to," JaeWon replied, his serious eyes studying me. "During rehearsal, you're
always looking at her. At first I was scared to death of WooHyuk, but I soon discovered that you were
scarier."

Me? Scary? That was a first.

"You pretended you didn't care, but you were just as disturbed as WooHyuk, maybe even more so. And
because you were so nice to me, I knew that you were the scarier person."

He had read me perfectly inside and out.

"If you like her, tell her like a man." Tossing that comment in my face, he walked away.

I stared after JaeWon, angrily furrowing my eyebrows.

"What a disrespectful kid," I muttered.

Not realizing I sounded exactly like WooHyuk.

Part Nineteen

"This is the last rehearsal."

Once again Mr. Han was stating the obvious. So instead of paying attention, I was watching WooHyuk,
keeping an eye on him.

He was grinning quite stupidly at no one in particular.

"You look like an idiot," I informed him in a whisper.

"Stop trying to burst my bubble," he whispered back, his eyes flickering momentarily to Ane, who caught
his eye and smiled back.

I was still puzzled over the whole Ane asking WooHyuk out thing. "So you guys are going to the festival
together?"

WooHyuk tried to smile modestly. "Yeah."

"What about Yeon Hee?"

For a moment, WooHyuk's face fell. Then the light bulb went off above his head. "No problem, you could
take her since you don't have a date anymore."

I swear my heart almost stopped when WooHyuk said that. It sounded pretty perfect.

"Mr. Jang, Mr. Ahn," our tyrant barked at us. "Care to share whatever you're discussing with everyone
else?"
Both of us shook our heads.

"Then please hold all personal conversations until the end of rehearsal."

I never knew Mr. Han was such a tyrant. He was never like this before at student council meetings.

And so we launched into the last rehearsal ever.

It wasn't a perfect rehearsal. We all tried pretending it was the real thing, but there were a few a lot of
kinks.

First of all, everything was extremely boring for Ane and me. We were mere understudies so we spent most
of the time in the audience, watching the performance.

Secondly, HeeJun was spending most of his time and energy glaring angrily at WooHyuk rather than paying
attention to his cues. Mr. Han couldn't even yell at him because he had told the entire cast and crew to
keep going no matter what, and for once everyone was listening to his orders.

Thirdly, WooHyuk was too busy prancing in cloud nine to pay attention to what was going on around him.

Fourthly, for some strange reason, Tony was acting extremely jumpy, especially whenever WooHyuk came
near, as if he had some secret to keep from WooHyuk.

And there were a few other mistakes with the other cast members. People forgetting their lines, missing
cues, tripping over scenery.

All in all, it was a horrible rehearsal. I swear I thought Mr. Han was going to burst into tears.

By the time he finally dismissed us it was already dark outside. Most of us were starving because we all
missed dinner. Somehow, most of us ended up walking home together, except Tony who lived in the
opposite direction. And on the way, some brilliant rocket scientist suggested we eat dinner.

So there we were, all sitting at the Yeon Heee table in a Chinese restaurant. HeeJun was glaring at
WooHyuk, WooHyuk was looking everywhere except at HeeJun, Yeon Hee was strangely quiet, JaeWon was
watching me from the corner of his eye, Ane was grinning happily, and I was fidgeting with my napkin.

The dinner was very silent. We all chomped on our food, most of us except Ane were quite serious.

No one seemed willing to lighten the mood, so I took the duty upon myself.

"Everyone's going to have to bring some ear plugs tomorrow," I joked. "You'll be hearing me sing grams all
day."

For the first time all day, Yeon Hee met my gaze and had a small, barely perceptible smile on her lips.
"You're going to be singing tomorrow?"

I nodded eagerly, glad that someone was talking. "So are WooHyuk and HeeJun."

Ane nearly choked on her chow mein.

HeeJun looked slightly amused as he watched his sister chug down a glass of water. "What was that, Ane?
Why are you so surprised?"

Ane studied her brother with large eyes. "You haven't sung in a long time."

HeeJun shrugged nonchalantly, picking at his broccoli.

Yeon Hee had an entirely different reaction than Ane when hearing about her brother singing. She burst out
into laughter instead.
WooHyuk had this hurt expression on his face. "Hey, what is that supposed to mean?"

"You sing " she gasped out in between laughs. "You act so tough!"

It was a funny image, the picture of scowling WooHyuk singing sappy love songs by "those horrible
boybands," as he always called them.

Pretty soon everyone was laughing at WooHyuk's expense. But he didn't seem to mind too much, so I was
glad the mood had lightened. By the time the fortune cookies had come, no one was glaring at anyone
anymore.

I never really ate the fortune cookie, I always just took out the fortune. And I never took the fortunes
seriously, they never really made real sense. But this time it hit its mark in my heart. "Happiness is close at
hand, carpe diem," the slip of paper read.

Not really subtly I glanced over at Yeon Hee and accidentally noticed that JaeWon, too, was looking at her. I
quickly turned my head, but I knew he had seen me.

On the way out of the restaurant, on my way out of the bathroom, I ran into Yeon Hee in front of the
payphones.

"Hey," I said somewhat awkwardly.

"Hey," she replied just as awkwardly.

What should I say to her? I was still deciding when she spoke first.

"About tomorrow... " and her voice trailed off.

I smiled, glad she had spoken first. "Yeah, what time do you want to go to the festival?"

She had this odd look on her face. "I can't go with you. I promised a friend that I'd go."

My heart did some strange plunging dive. So she was going with a friend? Suddenly tomorrow did not look
quite so promising. But I tried to act as casual as I could. "Yeah, you do that. I guess I'll see you there."

She nodded, her eyes still uncomfortable, she left the restaurant first.

Sighing, I was bemoaning my sad fate in front of the payphones when the men's restroom door swung
open and JaeWon walked out.

I was too surprised to see him, and at the Yeon Heee time wondering if he had heard everything.

He passed by me as if I were not there, suddenly stopped, and spoke without turning around to face me.
"Hurry up and make your move before it's too late. Before I decide to make a move."

What the hell was this? Who did he think he was, my fortune cookie?

He walked away, his hands deep in his pockets, coolly as if we had not just met.

Carpe diem, carpe diem.

It felt like everyone was pushing me to do something.

It wasn't going to be that easy.

After all, though he was my best friend, Jang WooHyuk was a very violent man.

And he would totally go violent on me if I approached Yeon Hee.

Part Twenty

The sun woke me up in the morning, and I silently cursed myself for forgetting to close the blinds before I
went to sleep. I was so agitated after dinner because of JaeWon that I wasn't exactly sure how I got home
or even up to my room.

Then I remembered. It was Saturday.

How was I going to survive?

I rolled over and glanced at my alarm clock. It was almost nine. For the first time in quite a while, I had
slept in past eight.

Usually Saturdays were half days of school, but the school board made an exception for today since it was
the spring festival. So the festivities began at eleven, the play was at seven, and the festival ended after
the dance at eleven after a full twelve hours.

Twelve long hours.

It gave me a headache just to think about it.

There was a knock on the door. It was my mother, wondering if I was all right since I was usually the first
person up every day. I reassured her, reminded her of the play time, and made preparations to leave the
house. Since I was student body president, I had to get to school early to help with last minute
preparations.

I packed my bag with sheets of love song lyrics HeeJun had printed out for us, dressed as casually as I
knew how in black slacks and a collared white shirt, and headed out without bothering with breakfast. I
knew I wouldn't have an appetite all day.

The school was already bustling with people and the smell of festival food. Despite my terrible mood, my
stomach was growling with hunger and I regretted not eating breakfast.

Fortunately, there were food booths of all kinds, and I had saved my allowance for months for this day. First
I attacked the hot dog booth and managed to convince them to cook one ahead of time. It took a lot of
coaxing, but I guess the status of being student body president does have its benefits because they did
cook me one.

Everything seemed to be going fine. There were no visible fire hazards, all the booths were almost ready,
and the decorations were beautiful. Finally I had no choice but to head over to the singing gram booth.
HeeJun was already there, leaning back in a metallic fold-up chair, singing softly while reading the lyrics off
a sheet of paper.

"You're early," I commented.

The usually quiet HeeJun took the time to explain this time. "I didn't want to be there when WooHyuk
picked up my sister."

Grinning, I dropped my bag on the table and opened up another chair. "You told me when we first met that
you didn't care who your sister went out with. I thought you wouldn't be bothered by her choosing
WooHyuk."

"I'm bothered because he's a big baboon."

"He's not that bad," I defended my best friend.

HeeJun raised an eyebrow doubtfully. "Yeah, sure."

"He's just a baboon when it comes to Yeon Hee. He's not the kind of brother you are."
HeeJun almost smiled. "I guess we are pretty bipolar."

And speak of the devil, Jang WooHyuk made his appearance at that precise moment. "Hi guys," he said
cautiously, sneaking a look at HeeJun.

HeeJun thoroughly ignored him.

I glanced at my watch. It was only ten but already the students were beginning to pile into the schoolyard.
"So do you guys want to practice for an hour or so? We haven't tried singing together yet."

HeeJun stood up abruptly. "No practice. If you guys know the lyrics we'll sound decent enough. Where's
Ane?"

It took WooHyuk a moment to answer. I guess he didn't expect Moon HeeJun to suddenly talk to him like
that. "In her classroom, preparing tea."

HeeJun stomped off without another word.

WooHyuk's eyes were wide as he turned to me. "He's intimidating."

Funny, that was what a lot of people thought about WooHyuk.

"So," WooHyuk was saying to me, "was Yeon Hee excited about the festival, or what?"

I avoided his eyes, I'm not sure why. It wasn't like it was my fault that Yeon Hee already made plans with
friends. "I didn't pick her up this morning. She said she was coming to the festival with a friend."

His eyes bulged, the reaction I expected. "Friend? What friend? Male or female? Age?"

"I don't know."

"Argh!" he yelled, immediately jumping to his feet and running off to find Yeon Hee.

"Let her have some fun!" I yelled at his back. But secretly I was hoping he'd force Yeon Hee to hang out
with me instead of her friend. I groaned inwardly, realizing what a hypocritical person I was. And so, so
very weak.

"Is this the singing gram booth?" a timid girl's voice interrupted my self-scolding thoughts.

I looked up. "Sorry, we're not open yet."

She shuffled on her feet uncomfortably, looking incredibly shy. "I I just wanted to avoid the crowd."

Poor girl. Probably wanted to send a singing gram anonymously because she was too shy to tell the guy in
person. I could give her a break.

"All right, just yours then." I pulled out one of the forms that HeeJun and I had made last minute. "Fill this
out as much as you can."

I watched as the girl wrote the name of the recipient, what song she wanted, and at what time. And just as
I had expected, she did not write her own name down.

"That will be two dollars."

When the money exchanged hands, the transaction was complete.

Our first order, and it was for...

LEE JAEWON?

I looked up but the girl was already gone.

DAMMIT.

There was no way I was going to be singing to Lee JaeWon. I was just going to have to mysteriously
disappear when the time came.

It was a premonition.

It was going to be a terrible day.

Part Twenty-One

"I can't find her," WooHyuk declared upon returning to the booth. "She must have seen me coming and ran
off with the scumbag."

"It might be a girl," I suggested.

WooHyuk shook his head adamantly. "Then she would have told me honestly. Instead she hid the truth
from me. Has to be a guy."

He always insisted his logic made sense, so I wasn't about to argue with him.

I glanced at my watch. "Eleven. People will start showing up in crowds now." I couldn't help sighing, I was
in a terrible mood. "It's going to be a long day."

At this precise moment, Ane appeared in front of the booth, grinning. "The festival's starting. WooHyuk,
win me a teddy bear?"

WooHyuk tossed me a pure joyful look and got up from his seat. "Speak for yourself."

I watched the two walk away, partly glad that WooHyuk was finally spending time with Ane, but on the
other hand, depressed because I was left all alone, which seemed to be my fate for the day. Then a very
scary realization came over me. "WooHyuk! You can't leave me alone! We have to sing soon!"

But WooHyuk was already gone.

I had been abandoned by both my singing partners. That meant... I had to sing alone! I was bemoaning my
sad fate as more and more people came up to the booth to order grams. I should have never allowed
myself to join this crazy singing gram escapade. It was always the most popular booth of the festival, it
seemed this was the only time when people could express their love to their crushes, veiled behind
obscurity and music.

Before I knew it, we were almost booked solid from noon until six, just an hour before the play started. This
was no particular problem for me since I wasn't going to be acting in the play. But WooHyuk and HeeJun
should probably glance over their lines before going on stage. That is, once I found them and forced them
to sing.

The clock ticked and ticked and ticked.

I was getting antsy. It was going to be noon soon and I had to find the first singing gram target, a
sophomore by the name of Park ChoongJae. But HeeJun and WooHyuk were nowhere in sight.

About ten minutes before noon, after sweating many quarts, HeeJun appeared, looking immensely dark
and disturbed. I was almost too frightened to tell him we had to sing at noon. But I gathered my puny guts
and did tell him, and he nodded darkly. A job was a job, he told me.

So we began hunting for the sophomore together, figuring if we found WooHyuk on the way we would drag
him along. And while we searched (I knew what this kid looked like), we discussed what songs to sing.
Park ChoongJae was at the face painting booth, watching his friends get quirky pictures on their cheeks.
"I'm next, I'm next!" he was yelling when we approached him.

I glanced at my watch. Noon. Perfect.

I tapped the yelling guy on the shoulder, and he turned to face us. "Are you Park ChoongJae?"

This tall, slightly tanned guy nodded his head.

HeeJun signaled to me and we began to sing. "I swear, by the moon and the stars in the sky. I swear, like
the shadow that's by your side." The All 4 One song, I always liked that song.

Park ChoongJae looked incredibly embarrassed as we trudged through the first verse, truthfully sounding
not that bad. By the repeat of the chorus, a crowd was beginning to gather. And miraculously, I was
beginning to enjoy myself. Perhaps I was fitting to a life on stage.

We informed ChoongJae after the song whom was the sender was, and afterwards we set off to find the
next person, scheduled to be sung to at 12:15.

"This isn't so bad," I commented to HeeJun, an actual smile on my face.

He grinned back. "But will you be saying that by the end of the fifth song?"

I wasn't.

But it wasn't due to the fact that I was growing tired of singing. The singing part was fine. A dark cloud
settled over my head after the fifth song because I saw something that haunted me for the rest of the day.

Yeon Hee.

With some guy.

With his arm around her shoulders.

Crack.

And my heart officially split into two.

I couldn't tell who the guy was, I only saw the back of his head.

And she wasn't facing me either, I saw the back of her head, her hair, and I knew it was her right away.
Then, led by fate's hand, she turned her head and looked directly at me.

Perhaps I had a scary expression on my face, I'm not exactly sure, and perhaps I reminded her of
WooHyuk, but a crowd separated us and blocked my view, and she was gone.

I stood there, silent, forgetting that I had a whole day of singing left, staring at the precise spot she had
been standing, in front of the costume jewelry booth.

So WooHyuk had been right.

Her "friend" was a guy.

A guy with extremely nice hair, better than mine.

HeeJun appeared and slapped his hand on my shoulder. "Hey, ready to go? We still have two songs to go
before we can take a lunch break."

I nodded numbly and tried to turn away. But it was as if my feet were glued to the ground. They were
extremely heavy, too heavy to move.
And I knew then.

I had absolutely, completely, without sense, without boundaries, fallen for my best friend's little sister.

I had known before that she made my heart beat a bit erratically. But I tried to pass it off as a natural
reaction I had towards girls as a guy who had no experience with the opposite sex. I should have known
better. My heart didn't beat so when I looked at Ane.

I liked Yeon Hee so much that the moment I saw the other guy being so affectionate with her, my heart had
stopped beating and I was no longer alive, in the sense that all my joy had disappeared.

Some other guy had beaten me. He had more courage than I did, didn't care that her brother was a
psychotic maniac, and he asked her out as a guy with guts should.

I...

I was nothing more than a coward.

A coward who was too afraid of his best friend to admit his true feelings.

A coward of the worst kind.

Part Twenty-Two

Lunchtime, HeeJun and I separated. We didn't have any singing to do from two until three, and that was
our designated lunchtime slot.

I wasn't particularly hungry after seeing Yeon Hee with another guy, and in addition to that, I was
beginning to think that a loser like myself didn't deserve to eat. So I wandered the festival grounds with
probably a very pathetic look on my face.

There were too many hours left in the day.

While I spent my lunch hour wandering aimlessly, HeeJun spent his at the booth just in case some more
people signed up. When I arrived at the booth to find him, he was looking mysterious, as if he knew a
secret. And the secret was obviously about me because he kept looking at me strangely.

"What is it?" I finally asked him.

Moon HeeJun the most reticent guy I've ever met actually seemed tempted to tell me. But instead, he
shrugged and stood up.

"Let's go sing. Where's your baboon friend?"

For once, I didn't attempt to defend WooHyuk because I was mad at him also. "I don't know."

HeeJun shrugged again. "It's all right. He'd only slow us down."

I raised an eyebrow at HeeJun.

"You're a pretty good singer," HeeJun told me and marched away.

I had to jog to keep up with his fast pace. Seemed that the conversation was over. I couldn't help but think
that HeeJun and Ane were truly siblings. Both always ended the conversation on their terms.

"Who's next on the list?" I asked, struggling to keep up with HeeJun's pace.

"That kid from the play."

I stopped in my tracks. "What kid?"

HeeJun noticed I was no longer jogging and he stopped also. He was looking at me curiously. "You know,
the kid who plays Romeo."

"Lee JaeWon?" I nearly shouted.

"What are you suddenly shouting?"

"I... " But what could I tell HeeJun to avoid this situation? There was no way I was going to sing for JaeWon.
It didn't matter that Yeon Hee had turned him down. He was still a rival to me in my heart. And he was also
a very rude kid.

By a lucky chance, someone stumbled while walking by and knocked right into HeeJun. Both people fell
heavily to the ground.

I saw the opportunity and began to run. I was incredibly sorry to HeeJun for ditching him like that, but the
way I saw it, I really had no choice.

Once at a safe distance and hidden by the crowd, I could hear HeeJun calling out my name faintly. Then he
was yelling other names at me beside my given name, obscene names.

I'll make it up to you later, I promised him in my mind and crept away.

I felt like a fugitive, ducking behind booths and skirting around people. At one of the cheap used items
booths, I bought myself a pair of rusty sunglasses and donned them.

There were several people I was avoiding.

HeeJun, for one.

And Yeon Hee and her new boyfriend.

Even Ane, because I knew that if I ran into her, she would drag me along to do something for her.

"The bottles are faulty!" someone was yelling.

Speak of the devil, there was Ane directly behind me, yelling at the student who was manning the booth
where you toss beanbags at stacked milk bottles and try to knock down as many as you can.

"They're filled with cement or something, aren't they?" she continued yelling at the poor, flustered kid.

Before she could spot me, I crouched as low as I could and began creeping away.

I was only a few feet away when someone grabbed me by the collar.

"Ahn ChilHyun, what the hell are you doing?" WooHyuk asked me, staring down at me as if I were crazy.

I couldn't possibly tell him I was trying to run away before Ane spotted me. "I'm just " But before I could
explain to him what I was doing, it occurred to me that he should be the one explaining to me what he was
doing. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Jang WooHyuk? HeeJun and I looked all over the place for
you!"

WooHyuk looked embarrassed as he pushed me away from the crowd and toward an isolated booth. "I was
sidetracked by Ane while searching for Yeon Hee. She wanted me to play with her so... "

"So you just abandoned us like that?" I intentionally raised my voice, hoping that if I kept pretending to be
mad at him he'd forget that he caught me crouching near the ground.

Unfortunately I was still wearing those dumb sunglasses.

"Never mind me, why were you sneaking around like some criminal?" WooHyuk changed the subject back
to me.

"I I was hiding from HeeJun."

A knowing smile spread over WooHyuk's face. "You don't want to sing those dumb grams, either, do you?"

I shook my head, glad that he had jumped to his own conclusions.

Then, with a loud "ChilHyun!" Ane came rushing to us, hugging a stuffed animal.

"Did you win that at the milk bottle booth?" WooHyuk asked.

Ane shook her head. "The student gave it to me to shut me up. Works every time." She turned to me, her
face suddenly amused and mischievous. "So you were wandering by yourself, weren't you? You were too
late. Yeon Hee's already taken, isn't she?"

Ane should take up crystal ball reading. I'm serious.

I coughed loudly, hoping that she'd catch the hint and stop talking about Yeon Hee in front of WooHyuk.

But WooHyuk was already preoccupied with his own thoughts. Ane's mentioning of his little sister had
reminded him that he still hadn't caught her with her "friend."

Of course if Ane caught the hint, she chose to ignore it. She patted me comfortingly on the arm. "It's okay,
ChilHyun. I think you're so much better than him. You're smarter and nicer and better looking. Though he
does have great hair."

WooHyuk and I yelled at the Yeon Heee time, "YOU KNOW WHO SHE'S WITH?"

Ane looked taken aback by our sudden wild reaction. "Yeah, she's with that guy. In the play. The one who's
playing Paris."

For a moment, I wasn't sure whom she was referring to. There were so many other guys in the play.

"Seems he asked her out right before the last rehearsal," Ane continued talking. "I think he really likes her."

Who else liked Yeon Hee beside JaeWon and me?

The answer came to me suddenly, and it came to WooHyuk at the Yeon Heee time.

"TONY AN!" we screamed simultaneously. "HE IS SO DEAD!"

We rushed away madly, leaving a dumbfounded Ane behind.

I forgot about JaeWon, about HeeJun, about singing. All I could think was that I had to find Tony as soon as
possible. And WooHyuk was thinking the Yeon Heee thing.

Later, when I remembered that moment at a more calm time, I laughed at my impulsive actions. I
remembered that Yeon Hee had once called WooHyuk a bulldog for limiting her actions and threatening
any male that came close to her.

For possibly the very first time since WooHyuk became a jealous bulldog, I fully understood what he was
feeling.

Unfortunately for Yeon Hee, it seemed that she now had two crazed bulldogs on her hands.

Part Twenty-Three
We could have been chanting out loud for all we cared.

"Find Tony An. Find Tony An. Find Tony An."

Thinking about it now, I sincerely pray that I had not been saying that out loud, considering WooHyuk and I
were running like maniacs through crowds consisting mostly of our fellow schoolmates.

Throughout my entire life, I always thought of myself as a man of science, meaning that I was always
measuring ends, calculating consequences, anticipating possible events.

But running through the crowd like a hound on a fox's scent, I realized that was a false, pretentious
assumption. There were so many things I had not measured, calculated, and especially anticipated.

I hadn't expected to fall for my best friend's sister.

I hadn't foreseen a possible, worthy rival in Tony.

I hadn't predicted that I would become a mini WooHyuk.

We reached the main quad and simultaneously stopped. We were both confused by the different directions
we could head since we were now exactly at the center of the school.

"You go right," WooHyuk ordered. "I'll go left."

I nodded.

WooHyuk clamped a hand on my shoulder, his eyes serious. "If you catch the punk, you know what to do."

I was just as solemn. "I do."

After ten years of claiming a solid friendship, we were finally operating on the Yeon Heee wavelength.

With that, we dashed away in opposite directions.

Where could the jerk be? Okay, I knew that I was being unfair. After all, how could I think about criticizing
Tony when he was the one who actually had the guts to admit to liking Yeon Hee? I, on the other hand, had
never verbalized my feelings about her.

Yet, despite the fact that he couldn't possibly know about my feelings, I was angry at Tony. Yeon Hee was
clearly off limits. Hadn't WooHyuk made that clear already?

Bumping into a cozy couple, I quickly apologized. It was over their shoulders that I spotted two people that
looked awfully like Yeon Hee and Tony. But before I could take a step towards him, a viselike hand gripped
my arm.

I whirled around to find myself staring straight at HeeJun's disgruntled face.

"Where the hell have you been?" he yelled at me.

Everything not Yeon Hee-related came rushing back into my mind and I remembered that I was supposed
to be singing with HeeJun. But I had to chase after Tony and Yeon Hee.

"Look, HeeJun, I'm really sorry but "

"No buts," HeeJun barked and began to drag me in the opposite direction.

I dug my heels into the ground and yelped. "Wait, wait a second! Give me one minute! I just have to do
something real quick. I'll sing after that. Come on, HeeJun!"

But HeeJun stared straight forward and overpowered my feeble attempts. I flopped helplessly after him.
"You're ruining my life!" I wailed desperately at him.

His ears were closed to all pleas.

That was how I lost Tony and Yeon Hee from right underneath my nose. I attempted several times for the
next couple of hours to escape from HeeJun's tyranny, but he watched me like a hawk and I was hopelessly
imprisoned. Pretty soon, I realized that I would never escape from HeeJun, and so I began to crane my neck
and search for Tony and Yeon Hee in between songs.

After being forced to calm down, it occurred to me that a loose cannon named WooHyuk was traveling
around on school grounds. I knew that I had to find Tony and Yeon Hee first, before WooHyuk did. At least if
I found Tony first, I wouldn't kill the guy.

WooHyuk was a different story.

Unbelievably, I didn't spot WooHyuk, Yeon Hee, or Tony up until six o'clock, when all the singing scheduled
before the play were done. The only official events left for the festival was the play at seven and the dance
that immediately followed.

Six was the time when all the cast members of the play were supposed to get together for one final
costume and head check. I practically ran there, HeeJun at my heels, because I knew that Yeon Hee would
definitely be there.

I was right. Yeon Hee was in the auditorium. And so was WooHyuk, looking extremely peeved. But Tony was
nowhere to be seen. I wondered briefly if he had run away in fear of WooHyuk's wrath.

Mr. Han was ranting and raving when HeeJun and I arrived.

"One of our actors suddenly missing! What is this unprofessional behavior? How did this happen? And an
hour before the performance!"

We spotted Ane sitting by herself and we joined her.

"Ane," I whispered. "What's going on?"

Ane whispered back, "Tony is missing and now there's no one to play Paris."

So Tony really was missing? Had he run away or had WooHyuk found and killed him?

Mr. Han was running out of breath and leaned momentarily on a chair for a deep intake of breath.

JaeWon, who too was sitting alone, took this opportunity to raise his hand. "I'll play Paris, sir."

Mr. Han's face became even more explosive. "Lee JaeWon! Are you insane? You're our male lead! How do
you expect to play Paris when you're playing Romeo?"

JaeWon was unfazed by Mr. Han's incessant screaming. "The part of Romeo has an understudy." Here he
stared pointedly at me. "ChilHyun can play Romeo."

For a clear minute, Mr. Han seemed to be at a loss of words. Finally he motioned me over to where he and
JaeWon were, which I promptly obeyed. The three of us huddled away from all the other actors, making
sure that they could not eavesdrop on our conversation.

"ChilHyun, do you know the lines for Paris?"

Of course I did. I helped write the play. I opened my mouth to say this but suddenly JaeWon's foot was on
mine, pressing down. Hard. I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from crying out.

"He doesn't," JaeWon cut in. "But I do. Let me play Paris and ChilHyun can play Romeo. It's the only way.
Otherwise, you have a play with no Paris."
Mr. Han knew he had to admit defeat. He had to give up his lead actor to play an insignificant role, and the
understudy had to take over the play. He threw up his hands. "ChilHyun, you'll be playing Romeo. I hope
you haven't been slacking off because you thought you wouldn't be acting."

I sort of nodded my head hesitantly. What had just happened?

Mr. Han walked away, muttering, "When I get my hands on Tony An... "

JaeWon, too, tried to walk away but I held out a hand and stopped him.

"What the hell was that?"

He looked at me. "What? You don't want to play opposite Yeon Hee?"

Suddenly, I felt flustered. "Sure I do that's not the point! Why did you give up your role for me? You know
just as well as I do that I can play Paris. So why did you lie?"

JaeWon was silent for a moment, and I got the feeling that he was pondering his answer, whether or not he
should tell me the truth. He obviously decided on not because he shrugged his shoulders as nonchalantly
as he could. "You're such an incompetent fool when it comes to expressing yourself that I thought I would
help you out. Just this once."

I stood in stunned silence as he walked away from me.

Incompetent fool?

He would help me out?

Was I so pathetic that I needed my rival to help me to get the girl?

I returned to where all the actors were waiting.

"Are you playing Romeo?" Ane immediately bombarded me. WooHyuk too looked at me interestedly.

I nodded my head weakly, not trusting my voice to speak.

With my admittance, in that split second, I was watching Yeon Hee's reaction. A strange expression crossed
her face. I couldn't figure it out, I couldn't make out if she was glad or mad that I would be playing her
lover on stage.

But that question set aside, looking at her produced a single thought that washed out all others from my
mind.

In less than an hour I would be acting opposite Yeon Hee.

I would be pretending to be her lover.

I would get to... kiss her.

Part Twenty-Four

WooHyuk spent most of the next hour staring at me with a funny look on his face.

I tried to avoid him but he stuck to me as if we were a couple.

It was incredibly disturbing.

Thirty minutes before the curtain rose, we were required to put on our costumes. In the brief moment that
WooHyuk left me to buy himself a soda, I was stuffing my second leg into those abominations also known
as tights when the door flew open, and I scrambled for cover.

"Don't you ever knock!" I yelled from behind a foldable metal chair at my intruder Ane, who was standing
in the doorway with an amused look on her face.

"Not like you have anything I'd want to see," Ane shot back.

"What do you want?"

She grinned mischievously and closed the door behind, obviously not caring that I was not prepared to
greet her. I hurriedly tried to pull on the tights, failed in my desperation, and instead grabbed the nearest
piece of clothing lying nearby (a pair of jeans), and tied it around my waist. I looked incredibly ridiculous, if
I do say so myself.

Conveniently, Ane chose to ignore my embarrassing display of jeans and legs because she was bursting to
tell me some news she thought more important. "Guess who I just ran into in the janitor's closet?"

"Who what the hell were you doing in the janitor's closet?"

She looked at me sternly. "That's my private business. Anyway, so I opened the door and found the Good
Yeon Heearitan Lee JaeWon inside desperately trying to memorize lines."

I stared at her dumbly.

"For the part of Paris," she had to explain further.

The realization struck me. "He doesn't know the part?"

Ane looked amazed at my stupidity. "That's obviously what I'm saying, isn't it?"

"But why would he say he knew the lines if he doesn't?"

She looked absolutely exasperated with me. "You're asking all the wrong questions. You should be asking
why he gave up the chance to be Romeo and act opposite Yeon Hee, whom he clearly likes, and gave that
chance to you."

"That was my second question."

She shook her head. "I thought and thought about it in the minute it took me to run over here. The only
conclusion I could come up with is that he knows something. Something so important that he willingly gave
up this opportunity for you."

"But what?"

So we both sat in silence, pondering this riddle.

Lee JaeWon was one annoying kid. First he bravely goes after the one female everyone avoids because of
her chain and ball (WooHyuk). Then he insults me, calling me scarier than WooHyuk. Finally he gives me
the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to kiss Yeon Hee without having WooHyuk go ballistic. What was his
hidden agenda?

The door flung open. "ChilHyun, are you dressed ye... " WooHyuk's words trailed off as he noted two things.
One, Ane in the room. Two, my absurd fashion ensemble.

I dared him to laugh with a glare. "Don't ask."

So he tried majestically to keep in his laughter. "Mr. Han is looking for you. I think he's planning to quiz you
on all your lines."
I had to sigh. There always was a downside to everything.

On my way to find Mr. Han (after getting my tights on properly and ditching the jeans), I ran into JaeWon,
who was looking extremely strained and snappish.

I greeted him cautiously, still unsure as to what his motivations were.

He studied me for the briefest of moments, doubt flickered, then he was striding away.

"What a rude kid."

"Who's a rude kid? JaeWon?"

Yeon Hee looked disturbed, especially since she knew JaeWon had offered to play Paris instead of me. She
always picked the worst moments to show up and witness my weaknesses.

"Nothing," I muttered uselessly, knowing that I couldn't take back the fact that she had already heard me.

"You sound like WooHyuk when you talk like that."

Was that disappointment in her voice?

"I hate that."

Yes, she was definitely disappointed.

"Yeon Hee," I said her name, not exactly knowing why or where I would head the conversation now. "I'm
sorry."

She was looking at me curiously. "For what?"

Yes, for what? For losing her to Tony? For becoming a WooHyuk clone? For disappointing her? For not telling
her sooner that I was completely head over heels for her?

I didn't have a reply, at least one that I could tell her. So I stood there in silence, wishing the moment to
pass, for time to pass.

So she tried to speak. "ChilHyun, there's something I have to tell you."

I was glad the weight was off my shoulders. "What is it?"

She was hesitating, hesitating a lot, and it was making me curious. She had a determined look on her face
when she finally spoke. "I "

But we were cruelly interrupted.

"Ahn ChilHyun!"

Before I knew it, Mr. Han was dragging me down the hall, screaming like a maniac.

"I've been searching for you everywhere! Are you sure you know your lines? We must practice! We only
have -" he successfully glanced at his watch and dragged me at the Yeon Heee time, "- twenty minutes!"

I mouthed to Yeon Hee as she grew smaller and smaller, "Save me."

Yeon Hee shrugged, torn between looking miffed that our conversation was interrupted and looking
amused at my pathetic attempts to escape from Mr. Han.

Mr. Han imprisoned me in a room and drilled me on my lines until five minutes before the start of the
performance. I reminded him several times that I helped write the script, but that had absolutely no effect
on his worrisome nature.
Finally, the stage manager appeared. "Five minutes, Mr. Han."

That was when the old man began to cry. He grabbed my hands in his and began to plead with me, telling
me that this was his directorial debut and could I please not screw it up for him.

I pacified him the best I can, which under the circumstances wasn't much. My legs were shaking and I was
beginning to get an awful fluttering in the pit of my stomach.

As I stood in the shadows backstage, I realized that I was, for the first time, experiencing a little thing
called stage fright.

But I was confused as to why I was suddenly a weakling on stage.

Was it because I would be playing a romantic in tights in front of the entire student body and all family and
friends? Or was it because I would be proclaiming my love to Yeon Hee if only under the guise of an
actor's lines?

Either way, I knew it would be a night to remember in the days to come.

And before I knew, the curtains rose.

Part Twenty-Five

By the end of the fourth scene in the first act, Mr. Han was nearly in tears.

No one messed up the show in such a huge manner that it would cause Mr. Han to be in tears, but it was
the little details that got him worked up into a becoming a leaky faucet.

JaeWon flubbed one of his lines. It was actually no big deal, only a mistake that someone who really knows
the script (like Mr. Han) would catch. Fortunately, JaeWon was a faster thinker than I assumed and he
improvised in a praiseworthy fashion.

But Mr. Han was horrified nonetheless. That was when his eyes first widened.

WooHyuk made the second mistake. He tripped on a piece of scenery on his first entrance. His trip was half
off and half on stage so that the audience couldn't exactly tell that he was tripping. Instead, he just looked
like he was staggering as he entered from stage left and looked remotely drunk.

Mr. Han's lips puckered up in disapproval.

I hate to admit it but the third mistake was mine. I entered onto the stage from the wrong side. I should
have entered from stage left but instead chose stage right and forced everyone on stage to completely
change directions to face me.

That was when Mr. Han began leaking liquid.

But I wasn't bothered too much. I was too preoccupied with the approaching act one, scene five. This was
the scene that Yeon Hee performed for her audition, the one in which I kissed her on the forehead. But now
I would have to kiss her not on the forehead but on her lips.

The truth was, I was preoccupied by act one, scene five from the start of the play. That explained why I
hounded Ane, who was lounging around backstage, for some gum during my off scenes. Ane grinned
knowingly, acted mature for once, and got me my gum.

I got in a few quick chews before it was time for me on stage. The trouble was, there were no trashcans
near the curtains so I had to spit the gum out, fast. Which I did, and it stuck fast to one of the bedposts of
the bed to be used in a future scene. Whoops. I could only hope Mr. Han didn't see that.
Yeon Hee was already on stage, pretending to be Juliet in a very beautiful, very Elizabethan gown. The
crew handling costumes had done a fantastic job acquiring our outfits. During the first week of
productions, there had been a huge debate on whether or not to run the play entirely modern, costumes
and all. But it was the thought of some (not including myself) that since the lines were modernized, the
costumes and settings should at least be kept to the original time period so that the play would still feel
Shakespearean. Hence, the gowns and the tights.

On stage, Yeon Hee and I spotted one another, and soon I was circling her, waiting for a chance to talk to
the female who struck me I mean, Romeo with love at first sight.

In the precise moment which to the audience seemed impulsive and daring but was actually practiced
over and over by us thespians I reached out a hand and held hers.

"If I dare to insult you with my unworthy hand, my lips are ready to pray repentance and erase the rough
touch with a tender kiss."

Yeon Hee was a great actress. As I spoke, her cheeks blushed prettily as if she were truly Juliet, approached
by her fated lover.

"Good man, you wrong your hand much. Even the holiest saints have hands that men are allowed to touch.
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."

We pressed the palms of our hands together.

Clunk, went my heart.

Not just because of the palm-to-palm touch, but because time was beginning to slow down with the
approach of the kiss.

We were on stage, acting, pretending to be two characters created by a playwright.

It was all right to kiss Yeon Hee in those circumstances, wasn't it?

"Don't move while I say my prayer," I nearly whispered.

The whole audience seemed to hold their breaths as I lowered my head to hers.

Was she trembling, or was I the one trembling?

It was probably me because it was taking me forever to shorten the distance between us.

Softly, ever so softly, our lips touched, and happiness streaked through my entire body.

Cheers and catcalls erupted in the auditorium consisting mostly of students. Their screams nearly drowned
out my next line, which I recited when the noises had partly died down.

The second kiss occurred much faster, but was just as tantalizing at least for me.

And then the scene was over before I knew what was happening. It was as if everything had revolved
around our kisses.

Stepping momentarily into the shadows of the curtains, I was greeted by Ane's smirk.

"Wipe that self-satisfied smile off your face," she teased.

I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could and attempted to stop smiling. But I failed, of course.

"You still have a lot to look forward to," Ane reminded me. "The balcony scene, the first night together,"
(which, unfortunately was censored by the adults and cut to a short scene of "insinuations" but no real
portrayal) "the wedding, and Romeo and Juliet's final kiss in death."
Now the smile really wouldn't disappear. There really was a lot to look forward to.

Any scene in which Yeon Hee and I did not grace the stage passed by in an indecipherable blur. I barely
kept my head on for the great swordfight between Romeo and Tybalt, especially since HeeJun kept
smirking at me furtively.

The one perk of Mr. Han's evening was probably Moon HeeJun's spectacular performance. An ever-growing
disturbance during rehearsals, HeeJun pulled off Tybalt with great style and flourish. When Romeo finally
killed Tybalt, and I stabbed HeeJun, instead of cheering for the great hero, the majority of the audience
booed Tybalt's death. So in fact, they were booing me for killing Tybalt/HeeJun. I didn't really care, since
that seemed to be the story of my life.

Without any more noticeable mistakes, the play ended fantastically. The suicide by poison of Romeo, the
suicide by knife of Juliet, and their sad kiss in between. There's really no need to describe the kiss on my
part since needless to say, I was as thrilled as the other kisses.

When the curtains fell, there were at least a few people crying at the tragedy of the two lovers. A few
sympathetic parents.

The curtain rose again on all the actors standing on stage for the final bow. We received an enthusiastic
response from the audience that we hadn't expected, and so Mr. Han pranced about on stage as if he were
responsible for all our success.

This was my moment of glory. After troublesome rehearsals, an unexpected move from understudy to lead
role, kissing Yeon Hee multiple times, and a standing ovation from the audience, I stood on stage proudly
with my chin up. All these things had breathed courage into my chest, and I was determined to tell Yeon
Hee how I felt about her as soon as we stepped the stage.

And that was all ruined in the single moment it took HeeJun to lean over to me and whisper in my ear.

"Did you hear what happened to Tony?"

I raised my eyebrows inquisitively at HeeJun and shook my head slightly.

"WooHyuk beat the crap out of him for coming to the festival with Yeon Hee. He could barely walk, maybe
a few bones broken. That's why he couldn't make it. WooHyuk a completely vicious baboon or what?"

And that newfound courage of mine shriveled up and disappeared somewhere among the ocean of fear.

Part Twenty-Six

The dance held in the gymnasium was open to all students, guests, and parents.

On the way to the gymnasium, after changing into regular clothes in the dressing room, I ran into Yeon Hee
quite accidentally. She smiled at me tentatively, shyly, and we exchanged congratulations on a great
performance words.

"I saw the gum on the bedpost," she said with an amused smile.

My face reddened. "Did you?"

"My hair nearly got caught in it. Paying me back for old times' sake?"

"Never intentionally."

We had to say our "see you laters" because someone motioned Yeon Hee away from me. No matter. It
wasn't like I had the guts to say what I wanted to say to her.
I walked to the gymnasium alone and Ane immediately zeroed in on me when I entered. "Why did you
change? I was hoping to see you in those cool tights."

"Very funny. That was the least masculine moment of my life."

A quick look around the area confirmed my suspicions that it was very crowded and not a place I wanted to
be. It would be better just to go on home early, hit the sack.

But before I could excuse myself, Ane spoke. "My brother was looking for you. Says there's still some last
minute singing left to do."

I must have had an extremely funny annoyed look on my face because Ane burst out into laughter.

"He also said that if you tried running away again, he would hunt you down on Monday and hang you by
your underwear on the flagpole."

My eyes widened. "He's bluffing! He wouldn't!"

Ane shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time."

Damn that Moon HeeJun. Did he really think I was in the mood to sing sappy love songs to unwitting people
after hearing about what happened to Tony?

Ane seemed to read my mind, perhaps all my emotions were written plainly on my face for the whole world
to see. "I heard about Tony. Maybe it's just a rumor?"

I shook my head. "He didn't appear for the play. Something definitely happened to him, and I think that
something was WooHyuk."

Her face held this stubborn disgruntled expression. "He doesn't strike me as particularly violent."

"You haven't been around long enough to know," I brushed off her comment.

"Why are you being such a jerk? He's your best friend!"

"I'm not being a jerk, I'm being realistic. Sure, he's my best friend, but he's still a violent guy. There's not
doubt about that. I feel bad for Tony."

Wondering if I was fooling Ane with these calm words of mine.

Apparently not because her eyes were intently searching my face somewhat knowingly. "You are being a
jerk. Why don't you just admit it?"

"Admit what?" I tried to push past her to exit the gymnasium but her hand was gripping my arm. She was a
lot stronger than she looked.

"That you're scared of your own best friend!"

"Get out of my way, Ane."

"You're not going to tell Yeon Hee how you feel now, are you? Coward! Jerk! Loser!"

"Ane, get off!"

She flung my arm away as if I was dirtying her hand. "I can't believe I tried to help you. You're on your own
now." She stalked away.

Her words stung. They really did. And she was right. I was a coward, jerk, loser. But what could I do? I
definitely did not want to end up like JaeWon and Tony, at the receiving end of WooHyuk's fist.
I should have left then. I should have, but instead I sort of stood in front of the doors, looking lost and
feeling lost after Ane's tirade. If I had left then, quietly and inconspicuously, I could have avoided all the
events that would happen, all in a landslide.

"Ahn ChilHyun, there you are!"

Moon HeeJun was speed-walking towards me, grinning. "The star of the show. Come on, I've been looking
for you. We still have some unfinished singing business to take care of."

I was desperate, I tried pleading with him. "Can't you and WooHyuk take care of it? I'm tired, I don't think I
can sing."

HeeJun grabbed me by the shoulders and began to propel me towards the center of the room. "No can do. I
need you. No way I'm singing with that buffoon."

I gave up. I gave up way too easily. I should have put up more of a fight, I should have twisted out of
HeeJun's hold and run far, far away.

HeeJun was humming and bursting with excitement from some secret. Somehow, call it intuition, but I
knew it had to do with me.

From the center of the room, HeeJun changed directions and guided me towards the stage.

I resisted. "What are you doing?"

"I couldn't find the guy we're singing to," HeeJun explained, persisting. "I figured the easiest way would be
to announce his name on stage."

As I took the side steps up onto the impromptu stage situated near the bleachers, I inwardly sighed and
thought that I had had enough of stages for the rest of my life. It was only when I was already aloft that I
realized I didn't know what song we were going to be singing.

I tried to ask HeeJun, but he was already tapping on the microphone after having gotten the band to stop
playing. The microphone whined obnoxiously.

"Sorry about that," HeeJun told the audience with a charming smile. "Excuse me, can I have everyone's
attention? I have an announcement."

Someone from the bevy of partiers shouted out, "Hey, it's Tybalt!"

HeeJun waved obligingly at the enthusiastic shouter. "Yes, I played Tybalt. And this," he motioned to me, "is
Ahn ChilHyun who played Romeo."

There were a few lazy claps.

"But that's not why I'm up here. Some of you may already know that earlier today ChilHyun here and I ran
around campus singing to people like idiots. Actually, those were all done on commission. And officially our
singing duties were over at six, before the play. But I received a last minute commission that I just couldn't
refuse. That's why we're up here. To sing one last song for the evening."

People were already murmuring. I had to stifle the yawn that was trying to escape my mouth.

HeeJun pulled the microphone out from the stand and turned to face me. I took that as a cue and stood up.

"I will be singing this song alone," he sudden announced.

My eyes widened. What was he trying to pull?

"Because this song was commissioned by a young lady for Ahn ChilHyun."
It was some horrible nightmare. After the play, I went home and I was lying in my bed, dreaming all this. If
only that were the truth. No, I really was standing on this stage watching HeeJun as he prepared to sing to
me.

Who would order a singing gram for me?

HeeJun began to sing.

"Maybe it's intuition / But some things you just don't question / Like in your eyes / I see my future in an
instant and there it goes / I think I've found my best friend / I know that it might sound more than a little
crazy but I believe.

"I knew I loved you before I met you / I think I dreamed you into life / I knew I loved you before I met you / I
have been waiting all my life.

"There's just no rhyme or reason / Only this sense of completion / And in your eyes I see the missing pieces
/ I'm searching for I think I found my way home / I know that it might sound more than a little crazy but I
believe.

"I knew I loved you before I met you / I think I dreamed you into life / I knew I loved you before I met you / I
have been waiting all my life.

"A thousand angels dance around you / I am complete now that I found you.

"I knew I loved you before I met you / I think I dreamed you into life / I knew I loved you before I met you / I
have been waiting all my life."

Throughout the song, I stood frozen on stage. And my heart began to sink as HeeJun brought the song to a
close.

Because the person on the other side of the stage, the person walking towards me as the song ended, was
none other than Yeon Hee.

HeeJun's last note lingered in the air, and he turned to me with a great smile. "This song was
commissioned for Mr. Ahn ChilHyun by Ms. Jang Yeon Hee. She wants him to know that she's always liked
him, ever since the she was old enough to like someone."

She was smiling nervously at me, waiting for my response.

How many days, how many nights had I dreamed of this moment? How elated my heart was that the
feelings I had towards her were shared mutually. How I wanted to rush across the distance that separated
us and give her a hug, tell her that I liked her a lot, I have for a long time now.

But as everyone at the dance waited in hushed silence, another face besides Yeon Hee's came into view.

Jang WooHyuk was clear across the room, leaning against the gymnasium wall. He was too far for me to
see his facial expression, but he was slouching, watching us intently.

WooHyuk.

Yeon Hee.

She had just confessed that she liked me in front of the entire student body and parents.

But all I could think about was WooHyuk, WooHyuk beating up JaeWon, WooHyuk beating up Tony... and
WooHyuk beating me up.

My face was flushed and I'm sure my voice was panicky.

"I'm sorry," I croaked out and had to watch with a broken heart as Yeon Hee's smile disappeared. "I'm
really sorry, Yeon Hee."
She was crying silently and I couldn't stay to watch that.

I turned on my heels and ran. With all the strength I had. Because I didn't have the courage to turn back
and face the consequences of falling in love with her.

Part Twenty-Seven

I didn't see daylight for the next day and a half. And during that Yeon Heee period of time, WooHyuk
attempted to break down my door exactly six times. By the obscenities he yelled through the wooden door
and the incessant pounding, I knew that he was angry at me.

Didn't he realize that I did it for him?

Him and his obsessive protection over Yeon Hee.

Lying on my bed, finding nowhere to turn my eyes, Yeon Hee's face lingered in my mind and tortured me.
The saddest smile I have ever seen and I caused it to form on the face of the girl I loved.

I was the precise reason why guys are always being labeled as "slow" and "dense." I was the epitome of
stupidity.

Eventually Monday rolled around, though I had prayed earnestly to all the gods in existence for the
stoppage of time.

My initial plan was to lock myself up in my room and refuse to go to school. Unfortunately, I had to go to
the bathroom sometime and little did I know that my mother had been watching my door like a hawk.

She immediately grabbed me the moment I was out and dragged me down the stairs by the ears.

I screamed bloody murder all the way down.

When we reached the living room, I bellowed, "I'm not going to school! You can't make me!" And yes, even
to my own ears, I sounded pathetically like a six-year-old.

My mother wrenched me by the ear and threw me towards the couch. "You will go to school! After what
you did to poor, sweet little Yeon Hee, you will go and face the entire student body."

"Mom!" I wailed.

But she ignored me. "I never knew my own son was so heartless. To reject a girl's confession in such a
cruel manner. To take her heart and step all over it in front of hundreds of strangers. You will go to school
and face the consequences of your despicable actions."

And with that tirade, ten minutes later she threw me out of the house, threw my bag after me, and locked
the door.

"You're a loser," immediately a voice informed me of the fact that everyone was already ingraining in my
mind.

I dusted off my clothes, embarrassed that JaeWon had just seen me thrown out of my own house by my
Herculean mother, and tried to shrug as nonchalantly as I could. "She's a strong woman for her age."

JaeWon was tapping his sneakered toe impatiently against the ground. "You are the biggest hypocrite in
the world."

He was annoying me, probably because somewhere in the depths of my mind I acknowledged his words. "I
don't have to stay here and listen to you lecture me." I picked up my bag and busied myself in unlocking
my bike.
"You're running away, yet again."

I snapped upright and glared at the impertinent twerp. "I'm not running away. I find no reason to stay here
and listen to you tell me what loser I am. You don't have any right to stand here and lecture me."

JaeWon's eyes widened. "No right? Who gave up the role of Romeo so that you could be with Yeon Hee? I
like Yeon Hee, too!"

"Then why did you do it?" I asked a bit snippily but I truly was curious.

He hesitated, then a low chuckle escaped his lips. "If you're a loser, I'm a fool. All the cheesiest love stories
always tell of a great love that puts her happiness before his. He is always willing to do what he can to
guarantee her happiness, even if it means sending her away to another man. I guess I thought I had that
great love inside of me."

What was JaeWon saying? He had been reenacting a sappy moral from a love story?

"I saw her signing up for that singing gram with HeeJun," JaeWon confessed. "I heard her tell HeeJun that it
was for you, her first and only love. What could I do then? I was nothing to her. So I decided I wanted to her
to be happy."

He was a regular Good Yeon Heearitan. But he was a wrong Good Yeon Heearitan. "You barked up the
wrong tree. I'm not the guy who will make Yeon Hee happy." I wheeled my bike out of my front yard and
down the street.

For a moment, JaeWon was silent. Then he yelled out, "If you believe that, then you're even more
delusional than I first imagined."

Delusional. That was a refreshing change from loser.

I walked slowly to school, as slow as I possibly could. I needed to get to school after the first bell rang if I
wanted to avoid direct confrontation. Due to my plans, I arrived fifteen minutes after homeroom began.

When I slid the door open and stepped inside the classroom, everyone looked at me peculiarly. Not only
was this the first time I was late on my own (if I was ever late before, it was because of WooHyuk), but by
that time, everyone knew about Yeon Hee and me.

"Take a seat, Mr. Ahn," the teacher said crisply. Even he was looking at me strangely.

My seat was beside WooHyuk's, and we both successfully avoided each other's gaze. As I sat down, I
noticed his hands were curled up into fists in his lap and they were shaking.

As inconspicuously as I could, I slid my chair away from him.

I sat as rigidly in my seat as possible, not wanting to instigate any retaliatory action from anyone,
especially WooHyuk.

It was during break when I finally had the chance look around the classroom. As soon as break
commenced, WooHyuk bolted out of his seat and out the door. So I could breathe a bit more freely. A
cursory glance around the room revealed quite a shock.

"Tony!" I yelped. "Are you okay?"

There was Tony An, sitting in his regular seat as if he had not gotten in a fight with WooHyuk. In fact, I
could see no physical damages done.

He gave me this queer look and answered curtly, "Of course I'm okay. What did you expect?"
By this time, the other students were listening in on our conversation since I had been stupid enough to
yell across the classroom. I hurried to his side to talk. "I thought you got into a tangle with WooHyuk."

Once again, a queer look. Or was it that he was continuously looking at me strangely. "If you can call him
cornering me and us having a talk a tangle, sure."

"What happened?"

"He found me at the festival, took me aside, and told me to stay away from his sister."

"That's it?"

"Well, he did wave his fist around a bit but he didn't physically attack me."

"If he didn't hurt you, then why did you disappear?"

Tony made a grimace. "Food poisoning. I plan to sue the classroom that supervised the hot dog booth. I
was in bed for a whole day because of their hot dogs."

The significance of all this hit me only in the middle of the next class period.

Tony was fine. WooHyuk hadn't touched a single hair on his head. Why didn't WooHyuk beat up Tony? And
for what reason had I been so infernally terrified of my own best friend?

In the middle of history class, the class right before lunch, WooHyuk slid a note across his desk and mine. It
was a piece of paper torn hurriedly from a notebook and folded merely in half.

With trembling fingers, I picked it up and opened it.

It was a simple note, it read, "After school. Behind the gym."

And with those five words, my fate was sealed.

Part Twenty-Eight

I never watched the movie "Dead Man Walking," but I'm pretty sure I was feeling something similar to what
Sean Penn had felt as my eyes refused to leave the clock slowly ticking towards three o'clock.

There was a noteworthy occurrence that occurred between fifth and sixth period that helped the time pass
somewhat faster.

Mysterious siblings Moon HeeJun and Moon Ane were caught in the hallway screaming their heads off at
one another. They were taken to the principal's office together, where both refused to answer the question
as to why they had been fighting.

But I knew. Because I was there.

On my way back to the classroom after a bathroom break, I stumbled upon Ane staring out the hallway
window, obviously very agitated. Knowing that she was probably very angry at me for what I did to Yeon
Hee, I tried to edge past her without her seeing me.

Sometimes I have the dumbest ideas.

What an understatement.

"So now you're avoiding me because I told you the truth?" she snapped at me without even bothering to
turn around.
I stopped sneaking away, scratched the back of my head sheepishly, and joined her at the window. "One
can only be told he is a loser so many times before he gets angry."

At my words she faced me with an even deeper frown than the one she had before I showed up. "Angry?
You? With what right?"

How could I explain to her how I felt? "Because," I began, "because, I know it's true."

Her frown vanished as her eyes widened. "Yeah?"

I half grinned, a bit lopsidedly. "Everyone has been brainwashing me."

A small laugh escaped her lips. "If only all males were this easy to manipulate."

I raised my eyebrows in question. But she didn't explain. Actually, she didn't get a chance to because
HeeJun came lumbering down the hall. Immediately Ane's frown returned.

"I have a date with WooHyuk this weekend," she suddenly announced in a voice louder than usual, and I
knew instantly she wanted HeeJun to hear.

Momentarily a look of annoyance fleeted across HeeJun's face, but he said nothing, didn't even break a
stride.

Once he was a few feet past us, Ane whirled around and stamped her foot angrily on the ground. "You're
the worst brother in the world!"

That made HeeJun stop in his tracks and turn around. "What are you talking about, Ane?" he asked calmly.

"You don't care at all what I do," Ane wailed.

"Your life is yours, I don't want to interfere."

By this time both people seemed to have forgotten my presence.

She stamped her foot again. "I want you to!"

I wondered if HeeJun looked as surprised as I did. "What?" he sputtered, for once looking unruffled and
caught off guard.

"I want you to interfere in my life!" Ane screamed loud enough for the whole school to hear. "Why do you
think I went out with that oaf WooHyuk?"

Ah ha. So that was the reason she publicly "dumped" me for WooHyuk.

HeeJun narrowed his eyes. "Are you telling me that you went out with WooHyuk to get my attention?"

"What else could I do? I was so jealous of Yeon Hee. She always had guys fawning over her. Guys that liked
her from right and left. And a brother who protected her."

"Smothered her," he corrected Ane.

Ane threw up her hands. "That's what is wrong with you! Can't you understand what I'm telling you? I
WANTED THAT!"

HeeJun looked too taken aback to reply.

"I went out with the guy you hate the most, and you didn't even blink an eye!"

That wasn't entirely true. After Ane had asked WooHyuk to the festival, HeeJun had constantly chewed
WooHyuk out to me.
"This is ridiculous," HeeJun muttered, seemingly noting for the first time that a crowd was gathering. He
turned away from his sister, only to evoke outraged shrieks from her.

"You lousy jerk!" she yelled at him. "You're even worse than him!" And she pointed at me. So they hadn't
forgotten that I was there.

At Ane's last scream, several teachers came bustling down the hall.

"Moon Ane, what in the world is going on?"

Ane bit her lip and didn't reply. So one teacher grabbed her arm and started to lead her away. The other
teachers seem to know that there was another person involved in this fiasco. I met eyes with one of them
and shook my head to show my innocence. Then they saw HeeJun trying to break through the circle of
people and they grabbed him by both arms.

And that was how the siblings ended up in the principal's office.

For a moment, my own troubles were forgotten as I mulled over this new development in my mind. I could
clearly remember the moment in the auditorium when Ane stared at Yeon Hee on stage and announced
that she was jealous.

"Of what?" I had asked her several times thereafter, but she had never replied.

Now it all made sense.

At first I thought all her crazy actions were to help me along with Yeon Hee. That turned out to be true to a
certain level, but she had an ulterior motive up her sleeve.

Who would have guessed that she would be jealous of Yeon Hee because of WooHyuk?

Any other sane girl wouldn't want a brother like WooHyuk.

But Ane was not an ordinary girl.

The three o'clock bell rang and WooHyuk was already gone, most likely waiting for me behind the gym. As I
dragged my soon to be nonexistent feet in that general direction, I had the fortune of stumbling past the
Moon siblings. They didn't see me but I managed to overhear their conversation.

HeeJun was frowning, but not an angry frown. He looked more puzzled than anything. "Why didn't you just
tell me what was going on?"

Ane opened her mouth but it seemed she had no reply because she quickly shut it again. She couldn't
answer because that option hadn't occurred to her at all. She wasn't that type of person.

Inwardly, I enjoyed my last laugh.

By asking that question, HeeJun had just proved that he didn't know his own sister at all.

It was going to take them some time, but they were going to be all right.

Part Twenty-Nine

"You're here," WooHyuk said to me as if I needed confirmation that I was coming to meet my end.

I stood about ten feet away from him, shifting nervously on my feet.

"You hurt my sister," he continued. WooHyuk always went straight to the point, no beating around the bush
for him.
I stood silent, knowing that one wrong word could aggravate him even more.

"You're my best friend."

His short sentences and pauses were beginning to unnerve me.

"And you broke Yeon Hee's heart in front of the entire school."

It was like an inquisition, and he was reading off all my faults.

"She cried and cried and cried."

He was squeezing my heart, tighter and tighter and tighter. It was time for me to speak my mind. Fear? It
strangely vanished the more WooHyuk talked. I suppose it was so because I knew I was going to get beat
up no matter what, and I figured I might as well speak my mind. So I opened my mouth.

"You scared the sh-t out of me, WooHyuk."

His eyes widened at my words.

"That's right. You, running around like a maniac and raving at all the guys who even looked Yeon Hee's
way, you scared the sh-t out of me. You beat up JaeWon, you chased after Tony, all this scared me."

WooHyuk looked confused. "Never once did I ever threaten you. You're my best friend. Why would you be
scared of me?"

The answer came to me easily and I knew what a complete idiot I had been. "Because I love Yeon Hee."

Ever hear of the expression "the mouth dropped open"? That's exactly what happened to WooHyuk.

"You like Yeon Hee?" he choked out.

"Love," I corrected him firmly. "I love her. But being the spineless weenie I've been my entire life, I couldn't
do anything about it because you were going around beating on all her boyfriends."

For a moment, there was complete silence as we stared at one another.

And to my complete surprise, WooHyuk burst out into laughter. He laughed until tears sprang to his eyes
and he was slapping his knee in mirth. "An idiot, a complete idiot!"

I stiffened, tired of hearing that derogatory term used to refer to me. "I already know I'm an idiot. You don't
need to remind me."

WooHyuk shook his head, wiping away his tears. "No, not you. Me. I've been a complete idiot. The densest
idiot out there."

Now I was the one who was confused. "What in the world are you talking about?"

"I should have noticed you two. I've been willing it to happen so long and afraid it wouldn't happen just as
long that I stopped noticing you and Yeon Hee. I should have seen it, I should have been the first to see,
but my own ambitious thoughts blinded me."

"You're not making any sense, WooHyuk!"

WooHyuk steadily walked towards me, shortening the ten feet until we were standing face to face, arms'
length apart. He raised his hands and placed them on my shoulder, sudden serious.

"WooHyuk?" I said uncertainly.

WooHyuk's smile was kind when he began to speak.

"I've been waiting. Waiting for Yeon Hee to love you and for you to love her back. Waiting while I protected
my sister until the day I could hand her over to you. Because I had decided long ago that it had to be you
and you only."

Was he telling me what I thought he was telling me?

He continued before I could ask any question.

"The first day that we met and you came to our house. I knew then that you were a good kid. Yeon Hee
plastered your head with bubble gum and you laughed. You didn't get angry, you didn't yell, you didn't
make her cry. You laughed instead, and I knew I could trust you. I love Yeon Hee the greatest, and you're
not too far behind, so some day along the span of the past ten years I decided that it would always have to
be you, Yeon Hee, and me."

He laughed again, though I wasn't quite sure what was so amusing. My head was hurting from all the
thinking and figuring out I was doing silently.

"And to think!" WooHyuk said. "All along, all I had to do was step out of the way. I step out of the way and
things would have worked out the way I wanted them to."

As all these revelations sunk in, suddenly I felt unworthy and base. "Why me?"

"Because I knew you would never make Yeon Hee cry." His face hardened. "But you did make her cry. More
than I've ever seen her cry before." He looked most apologetic. "I'm sorry, but I have to do it. You did make
her cry."

I nodded, I understood. I closed my eyes and waited.

And that is how May 29, 2003 became the first and last time that WooHyuk ever beat the sh-t out of me.

I knew the boy could pack quite a punch, but it was the first time I was ever at the receiving end. Let me
tell you, it was one painful experience.

But he and I both knew that I deserved it.

And when it was done and over with, and we were lying on the ground, panting to fill our lungs with much
needed oxygen, he rolled over and gave me a very sad smile.

"You're one hell of an idiot."

I couldn't help but laugh, though the actual laughing part made my sore face hurt.

"Thanks, thanks a lot for informing me."

WooHyuk pushed himself up onto one elbow and glared at me. "I've been planning this for years. You'd
better not mess it up."

"I won't."

And with those words the ordeal ended.

Almost.

Part Thirty

"I'm going to apologize to Yeon Hee."

"What happened to your face?!"

Leave it to Ane to always steer the conversation her way.

"Never mind that," I tried to get her to focus. "I need to apologize to Yeon Hee. What should I do? I need
your opinion."

But she wasn't listening to me. She was digging around in her backpack, and she produced a crumpled
handkerchief. "Wipe yourself."

"Ane! Are you listening to me?"

"Of course I am," she snapped. "Do you think Yeon Hee would want to see you looking like someone
stomped on your face?"

I touched my face worriedly. "Do I look that bad?"

"No, but your left eye is almost purple. And your bottom lip is busted. Wipe yourself."

I obediently brushed the handkerchief against my split lip. "Yeow!"

"Wuss."

I bit back my next cry. "So what do I do?"

"It's obvious," she stated impatiently. "You have to buy her a gift."

"A gift?"

"Preferably something expensive. Something diamond-studded."

"Diamond-studded?!?"

We were interrupted by the appearance of stoic JaeWon. "What are you two screaming about in the middle
of the hallway? Geez, ChilHyun, what happened to your face?"

"WooHyuk," was Ane's curt answer. "I was telling ChilHyun here that he has to buy Yeon Hee a make-up
gift."

"Of course he does," JaeWon agreed. "Something sweet. Like a box of chocolates."

"Chocolate?" HeeJun cut into the conversation. "Who has chocolate? Whoa, ChilHyun. You get caught in a
hailstorm?"

Ane and JaeWon had to explain the details to HeeJun. Soon, HeeJun was nodding his head. "A gift is
essential. Something heartfelt. Like a card."

"Chocolate."

"Diamonds."

"Diamonds? That your harebrained idea, Ane?"

"Diamonds are a girl's best friend.' Didn't you ever watch Moulin Rouge'?"

WooHyuk appeared out of nowhere. "Saddest love story in the world. Why are we standing around talking
about my favorite movie?"

HeeJun was grinning. "So the culprit appears. Nice shiner you gave ChilHyun."

WooHyuk almost looked embarrassed. "Duty called." And he shrugged it off. After hearing the gift idea, he
added in his two cents. "A stuffed hippo. Yeon Hee loves hippos."
I shook my head to clear it. "Let me get this straight. I should buy her something diamond-studded, a box
of chocolates, a heartfelt card, and a stuffed hippo?"

"Exactly!" all four people said at once.

I guess that was why we all ended up at the closest department store that day after school. First Ane
steered us four males to the jewelry counter where I nearly fainted when I saw the cost of some dingy
diamond earrings. After much fanning on JaeWon's part, I came to my senses to buy some very real looking
cubics. Next, JaeWon helped me pick out some macadamia nuts chocolate. HeeJun sorted through
hundreds of "I'm sorry" cards to find an especially sappy one, which he claimed to be perfect. WooHyuk
pointed at a soft, plush sky blue hippo and announced that it was the one.

They all accompanied me to the front of WooHyuk's house, with me carrying all the shopping bags in both
hands.

"Good luck."

"Break a leg."

"Don't say anything dumb."

"You make her cry again and I'll " WooHyuk swung his fist threateningly, and I told him I got the message.

She was sitting on the front steps of the house, picking the dirt out from in between the wheels of her
skates. They shoved me towards her and all immediately dashed behind parked cars to peek at our
exchange.

Yeon Hee looked up at me shifting on my feet awkwardly and juggling the shopping bags. She made a
motion to stand up and walk away into the house.

"Wait," I called desperately. "I have something to say to you."

She paused and waited.

"Here," I said, holding out the first shopping bag.

"What is this?" she asked me.

"Uh, a gift."

She looked at me blankly.

"There's more. Here. And here. And this one." I handed her the other three bags.

She took all three quietly, and her expression remained blank.

"They're all apology gifts," I muttered, "from... " And my words trailed off. Suddenly, I realized how
completely ridiculous I was being. I smiled sheepishly. "Actually, these aren't from me. They helped me
pick them out." I pointed over my shoulder where Ane, HeeJun, JaeWon, and WooHyuk were hiding.

There was a small amused smile on Yeon Hee's lips.

"But," I continued, "this isn't what I wanted to do. I didn't want to shower you with empty, material gifts. I
wanted to tell you tell you uh," I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants.

"Yes," she prompted me.

"I love you," I blurted out, and immediately felt my face flame. "I'm sincerely sorry for what I did to you at
the festival. But I was a coward and a fool. I wanted to say to you on that stage that I liked you, too, but,
but... I have no excuse for what I did."
Her face was frighteningly serious, too serious. "I know why you did it. It was because of WooHyuk. And
truthfully, ChilHyun, I don't think I can date a guy who is afraid of my brother."

Her words seemed to choke my throat.

Suddenly, she raised her hand and touched the newly formed bruise around my left eye. "Did WooHyuk do
this to you?"

I nodded, my throat still too constricted to speak.

"Did it hurt?" she asked warmly.

The warmth of her voice loosened my throat. "No, because I knew it was nothing compared to what I did to
you."

For a split moment, we stared at one another.

Then she smiled at me.

"I'm glad you're not afraid of him anymore. That would have meant I couldn't date you."

When the meaning of her words sank in, I thought I couldn't be happier. I reached out and hugged her
close to my heart, tight, and I could hear hers beating along with mine. I laughed and it came out half
sounding like a sob.

"Yeah, me too," she whispered.

Epilogue

"Yeon Hee, if you don't get your butt down here this instant, I swear we're leaving without you!"

I sat at the Jangs' dining table, chewing on a piece of toast, and smiled as I watched the vein in WooHyuk's
neck threaten to blow.

"I'll be right down!" her voice echoed down the stairs.

WooHyuk huffed impatiently. "Come on, ChilHyun, we're leaving her behind."

It was a ritual, I knew my part. I stood up and headed out the door behind WooHyuk.

"Every day! How can she be like that every day?" he ranted as he unlocked his bicycle.

Smiling, I wheeled mine out of their yard and into the neighborhood street.

Muttering underneath his breath, WooHyuk wheeled out next to me.

"How's it going with Ane?" I asked him to change the subject.

"HeeJun still hates me," he replied blissfully. Which meant that Ane was still sticking to WooHyuk like glue
to annoy her brother.

I shook my head. I probably will never understand what went on in that girl's mind. Well, as long as
WooHyuk was happy.

The front door flew open and Yeon Hee came hurtling out, her skates in her right hand and her sneakers in
her left. She was trying to simultaneously stuff her sneakers into her backpack as she stuck one foot into a
skate.

"Hurry," WooHyuk prompted her.

Yeon Hee glared at him as she zipped up her backpack and stuffed her other foot into the other skate.

"Let's go." WooHyuk pushed off.

"Wait!" Yeon Hee yelled. "I didn't lace them yet."

I hung back, one foot on the ground, watching Yeon Hee hurriedly lace her skates. By the time she was
done, WooHyuk was already several feet away, smiling over his shoulder at us.

"Done!" she announced and stood up with a flourish.

I eyed her for a moment, a frown deepening on my face. "I should start a petition to change the girls'
uniform to pants. After all, at a time when everyone advocates gender equality, why should girls wear
short skirts while guys wear pants?"

Yeon Hee was smiling slyly. "I kind of like my skirt short. Always attracts male attention."

I knew she was just joking but I scowled at her nonetheless, only partially playfully. "I'm putting in a
petition today."

She latched onto my bag and grinned. "We're going to be late."

I pushed off and soon we were racing down the street together.

As I heard her joyful laughter behind me, I felt an uncommon elation fill my heart.

What began over ten years ago was finally at a happy end.

We were where we were always meant to be.