Chapter Text
* YERIM'S POV *
Yerim was waiting for her friend in front of the school’s gate. It was the first day of her second year in middle school, and she looked at all the first-years arriving, she could not help but feel like a grown up. They either looked giddy or lost, with no in-between. She remembered that when she first went to middle school the previous year, she had thought of it as a huge step. Leaving primary school was exciting. She would be with older people, including pre-teens, and she was as intimidated as she was happy. It was funny for her to look at the new kids arriving. She was, in a way, reliving her own experience by replaying memories in her head.
A car parked in the nearest spot to the gate, and a very chic woman came out of it. Yerim thought she had never seen a woman that beautiful. She hoped she could be just like her when she grew up. The woman opened the door on the passenger side, and a smaller version of herself came out of it.
Yerim thought she was seeing double. It was undeniable that the girl was related to the woman. Seeing how young the woman looked, she was probably her sister. In any case, she looked very affectionate, because she hugged the kid tightly.
“Mom, let me go!” the young girl whined.
Yerim gasped. The woman was the girl’s mom? She was probably not even thirty. She did not look older, anyway. Her eyes went from the woman to the girl, comparing their facial features. They had the same eyes, the same nose, the same jawline, the same lips… The girl had a more juvenile look, but it looked like someone had sculpted one of them, and then tried to make a smaller replica and succeeded.
She understood why someone would want to sculpt such human beings. It was like trying to invent perfection. There was something about them that made them look soft, yet intense. Yerim could not explain it.
“Please don’t murder anyone, Yeojin! I won’t bail you out!” the mother threatened before getting back in her car.
The small girl stuck her tongue out as her mother pulled off. Yerim was amused by the exchange, but also a bit scared. What kind of girl was she for her mother to need to ask her not to murder anyone? She started walking towards the gate, like middle school was already her playground, although it was not – Yerim had never seen her before, and she usually was pretty observant. Confidence flowed out of her body, and Yerim was fascinated by how the younger girl could be so assured.
“Hey Yerim! Are you waiting for someone?”
Chaeryeong’s voice tore her away from her thoughts.
Chaeryeong was late, so Yerim was hanging out by herself on the bench at the far end of the park. She was glad her school had a park that they could go in at every break. Some people were not respecting it, though, and Yerim was always upset when she saw that someone had carved insults on a tree or left a plastic bag on the ground. She could not help the trees, but she tried to always pick up the trash she found. Sometimes people would give her weird looks, but she did not care.
From her bench, she could see everything. But that day, one thing captivated her attention more than the others.
The girl whom she had noticed on the first day, the one who looked just like her mom was hanging out by the pond nearby. She was squatting on the edge of a stone, fiddling with water.
“Yeojin!” someone called her.
The girl looked up so suddenly that she lost her balance. Yerim gasped. She did not know why they kept the pond there without any protection. It was not safe for students. But in the second she saw the girl lose her balance, she could not think. She just looked, in shock, as the younger girl managed to regain her balance, and breathed a sigh of relief when she did.
“No! You made it swim away!” Yeojin whined.
What had swam away? Yerim would never know, but she was curious. What could the girl find so interesting in the pond? What sparked her interest? What kind of interests did she even have? Her curiosity was triggered once again. She wished she could befriend that girl and get her answers. But she was intimidated. She knew it was stupid to be intimidated by a younger girl, but she was. Everything about her screamed a strength, power and confidence that Yerim simply could not match.
She watched the girl walk away, abandoning the pond and the friend she had made in there to join her human friends. After that, Yerim often thought about how she wished she was one of them.
All week, Yerim had been excited about the field trip to the snail farm. She and Chaeryeong had been talking excitedly at how they would have a competition over who could find the most beautiful snail. For a lot of pre-teenagers, it would have seemed lame, but Yerim was still a child. She felt like one, anyway. And in a way she felt grown-up too. It was weird how the two feelings collided with each other within herself. She was still not used to it, and did not know how to navigate it.
However, her expectations about the snail finding contest were ruined, because Chaeryeong was sick. Now, Yerim would have to spend the whole trip to the snail farm alone. She could always join Chaewon once they would be there, but they would not be riding the same bus. She tried to stay positive anyway. At least, if would give her time to listen to the playlist she had carefully crafted the day before without being interrupted by anyone.
Or so she thought.
She had barely had time to listen to two songs when someone was shoved by force in the seat next to her. She recognized the girl. She had studied her facial features so often that she could have recognized her in a crowd now.
“I’m not even that noisy!” she heard her complain to a teacher.
It was not true. Even over music playing in her headphones, Yerim could hear her screaming. The teacher gave Yeojin a harsh look. She then saw the girl look at her and turned her head to lean it against the window, blushing.
For a while – about three minutes – Yeojin was quiet. Yerim was contemplating whether or not she should talk to her. It was the opportunity she had been waiting for for months, right? But what would she say to her? She had nothing to say. She would make a fool of herself if she tried to befriend a younger girl, especially if she was clumsy with her approach.
She did not need to try. Yeojin ripped her left headphone off her ear to put it into her own without saying anything. Yerim gasped at the gesture, as it was unexpected, but did not protest. She simply blushed, hoping her playlist would not be too cute for the other girl. She had made a happy playlist, because she was happy to go outside of the school and wanted to stay in the right mood for it.
In the corner of her eye, she saw the girl looking at her phone screen.
“You have a message from Park Chaewon” she stated, plainly.
It was the first time that Yerim her heard talk. She had mostly heard her scream before. She had a deep voice, even when she was not screaming. The older girl had not even noticed that her phone had vibrated, as she was too focused on the task she had assigned herself: looking as far away from the girl next to her as she could. She unlocked her phone.
Park Chaewon: Could we trade our lunches?
Chaewon was a picky eater. She knew it from the brunches her parents and Chaewon’s dad often had together on the weekend. Her dad never really gave her good food to eat. On the opposite hand, Yerim had asked her mother for kimbap that day, and she had saliva coming out of her mouth just thinking about it. But she did not want Chaewon to starve. She knew that her friend would not eat at all if she could not eat something she liked.
Yerim: Of course, Chae 😊
She hit sent and locked her phone.
“You’re a pushover” Yeojin said.
“I’m not!” she squealed, surprised that the girl meddled in her business.
“Then don’t let Park Chaewon steal your food!”
“She’s not stealing my food!” she complained, and then squinted her eyes at the younger girl. “Why are you looking at my phone?”
Yeojin put both her hands in the air as a defence.
“You didn’t hide it from me!”
Yerim’s jaw dropped. She thought it was common sense to not look at other people’s phones. But maybe Yeojin was just curious. She could never be as curious about Yerim’s phone as the older girl was about her, though.
“I didn’t think you’d look!”
Even if they were bickering, Yerim was happy. They were acting as if they had always known each other.
“Trying to figure out how I could improve your playlist is complicated if I can’t look at what’s on it!”
Yerim pouted, somewhat offended by the fact that the girl did not like her playlist.
“It’s too happy! It doesn’t even go with the weather. See, it’s all grey outside! When it’s grey you should listen to things with more…”
“You can stop listening to it, then!” she interrupted her, defiant.
She looked out the window and sighed. She did not think her first interaction with the girl she had been wanting to befriend for ages would go this way. Suddenly, the girl offered her one of her own headphones, an apologetic smile on her face. Yerim grabbed it, still upset, but giving her a chance anyway.
And then, she could not keep the smile that tried to creep on her face. Maybe Yeojin had handed her a way to get to know her on a silver platter. Yerim believed that someone’s music taste said a lot about themselves. The girl played a song Yerim had never heard. She listened to every note, every variation of tempo. And then, the rap part came, and her gaze left the window to land on the DJ’s face. She was completely absorbed by the music, spitting the bars as if she had written them, her lips moving to the syllables, her articulation perfectly controlled.
Yerim smiled, watching how much fun the younger girl was having. Suddenly, she stopped rapping.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing!” Yerim replied immediately, the word coming out a bit stronger than she had planned.
Her gaze dropped to the floor, and she blushed furiously.
“You don’t like my music, do you?” Yeojin asked.
Yerim shook her head.
“No, it’s great! Keep playing it, please.”
She was trying her best to look at the floor, but she did notice the other girl softening. She spent the rest of the ride listening to the girl rap and comment on the songs she was playing. She said their titles and the name of the artists out loud, but Yerim knew she would not remember them. All she would remember was the way her new friend’s eyes were sparkling as she talked about music.
Yerim and Yeojin were sitting together for lunch. Weirdly enough, they had not left each other’s side since they had gotten off the bus. When Yeojin’s friends had called her over, she had not even looked at them. She had stayed with Yerim. She had not given any explanation, she had just not left her side. And there they were, sitting on the grass of the owner’s garden, getting ready to eat. That was until Yerim spotted Chaewon on her way over.
“Crap, Chaewon…” she mumbled to herself before her friend was standing next to her.
The blonde girl – she had been allowed to bleach her hair for the first time that year – noticed that she was not alone and smiled at the girl who was next to her before handing Yerim her lunchbox. They traded their boxes, and as Chaewon was about to leave, the brunette noticed something weird. Her box was heavier than it was when she had packed it. It was also not the same color. Or maybe she did not remember correctly? She squinted at the box the blonde was holding and decided to let it go. Maybe she was just turning crazy.
She then opened the box that was in front of her. She let out a squeal when she saw kimbap in it. And it was a purple box too. She heard a chuckle next to her, and turned her head to Yeojin, who was smiling widely at her.
“I told you not to let Park Chaewon steal your food!” she said, very satisfied with herself.
Yerim looked at the lunchbox in front of Yeojin. It was the one Chaewon had just given her. But if her box was in front of her, and Chaewon’s in Yeojin’s hands, what box had she given her friend? She gasped, realizing what had just happened.
“You exchanged our lunches so I could give yours to Chaewon instead of mine?”
Yeojin nodded, and started eating Chaewon’s egg rolls, still smiling although her mouth was full. Her eyes were sparkling, and Yerim could not help but think about how genuine she was. She had traded her lunch so Yerim could keep hers, and it was the first time someone had done something that nice for her.