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“I’d appreciate it so much if you could give this to him!”
Miae stared at the red heart shaped box in front of her that was wrapped in a pretty white satin ribbon shaped like a bow that was being handed to her by, not even a classmate, but just a random student.
“You are friends with Kim Cheol, right?”
Miae looked up to the girl when she asked the question and saw the questioning, but hopeful, look on her face. She mentally sighed, “Why did her seatmate have to be so popular?”
Yes, even in high school they sat next to each other and Kim Cheol was still very popular despite how he felt about it.
“Yeah, I’ll give it to him! It’s no issue,” Miae smiled while adding another box of chocolates not meant for her in her bag, which was starting to fill up to the point she almost couldn’t close her backpack.
“Oh, thank you so much!” The girl smiled and walked away chatting giddily with her friends.
Miae sighed aloud when the girl was far enough away. She hadn’t even entered the school yet! Miae kept walking towards the entrance hoping her short stature would hide her from her peers.
As soon as she entered, she noticed a bunch of nervous students holding boxes of chocolates light up at the sight of her.
Miae hadn’t hoped enough.
Miae felt drained by the time she reached her classroom. She had such a big crowd around her when she just entered school. The crowd had to follow her to the student store so she could grab a bag since her backpack couldn’t carry any more boxes of chocolates.
Even then, while walking towards her class she was stopped a few times.
But it was ok. She finally made it inside. Her friends immediately ran up to her as soon as she walked through the door.
“Wow, Miae! You sure are popular!” They giggled.
“Ugh, you guys wouldn’t be laughing if you guys were made the delivery boy!” Miae fumed while walking to her desk.
“Well, at least some people had the courage to place it on his desk instead of giving it to you.”
They were right. The desk next to hers was full of a variety of boxed chocolates. God, she couldn’t imagine carrying more than what she already had.
Still, she was upset that her desk mate had to be so popular and yet so reserved! Had he been just a bit more approachable, maybe she wouldn’t be carrying all this chocolate meant for him! They were even spilling onto her side!
She quickly set the bags full of chocolates for him on his side of the desks. She then dumped out the ones in her backpack on his desk.
“Wow, you should really be more careful with those! People put their love and care into them,” her friends “smiled” in a mocking tone.
“Why should I be careful with them when people themselves don’t care to put the chocolate near his desk!” She pointed to the box of chocolates that wasn’t anywhere near Cheol’s desk. It was far on the other side of Miae's desk.
“Because that one isn’t even for him,” one of her friends examined the box closely and brought the tag on it close to Miae so she could see.
“Miae, it’s for you!”
Miae carefully grabbed the square pink box with its pretty red bow. Sure enough, the little tag on it read, “To: My Beloved Miae”.
“Oh my god, Miae!” Her friends gasped while grabbing onto her arm. “Who is it from?!”
“Uhhh, I don’t know…” she said, examining the tag. She started to look all over the box.
“It doesn’t have a name on i-“
“Then, you must have a secret admirer! Miae, open it up! Maybe there’s a clue inside!” Her friends jumped up and down while cheering and grabbing Miae’s arm.
Instead of opening the box like her friends suggested, Miae stayed looking at the bottom of the box, where a small airplane sticker held the wrapping together on the box.
“No, it’s fine!” A giddy smile rested on her face. “I’ll open it up later.”
Cheol and Miae had to stay after school. They both had cleaning duty together.
Fortunately, a large crowd of students were in a hospitable spirit and decided to help them out so they could finish quicker (though they were mostly just talking with Cheol) and because of that they finished very quickly and could go home.
Just not alone.
“Cheol-ah! Are you going to the party over at Seonyeong’s house?”
“Do you have any plans today?”
“Hey, is it true you don’t have a Valentine? If so I can-“
“I’m gonna go to cram school and play soccer with my friends after that,” Cheol finally spoke. “I’m not planning to go to any party.”
“What?!”
All of a sudden all the people surrounding Cheol spoke all at once to try and convince him to go. It was so loud. Miae couldn’t make sense of what anyone was saying.
She finally had enough.
“Hey, Cheol-ah! You’re playing in that park over in the new neighborhood, right? Didn’t Wook say something about wanting more people around because the area was starting to get too dangerous?” Miae asked very loudly.
“Wha-“
“Hey, you should all come!” Miae turned to the crowd and then got close and quiet. “Sometimes, when they play for too long they get hot and take off their shirts!”
The crowd quickly changed moods and started to squeal.
“Yeah! Better get home and change to look pretty or handsome or whatever!” Miae hoped the anger in her voice didn’t betray the “helpful” look she was trying to convey.
Immediately, the crowd started to disperse and soon enough it was just Cheol and Miae.
“Ahhhhh, finally! Sweet silence!” Miae sighed with a small smile.
“Miae-yah,” Miae turned to the suddenly strict and skeptical voice behind her. “What did you say that made them go away so quickly?”
“Uhhhh, don’t worry about it?” Miae averted her eyes. “Anyway, let’s go!”
She quickly turned away and started walking away.
“Miae-yah, you come back here!” Cheol yelled through gritted teeth.
Miae peeked behind her and saw that Cheol was a little too close for comfort.
“Gah! No, wait!” She started to run. “Cheol-ah, there was nothing else I could say that could make them go away faster!”
“You-“ he started to pick up his speed, “I’m sure that’s not the case and you just said the first thing you thought of!”
Cheol chased Miae demanding answers until they arrived at a park.
“Stop! Cheol-ah, the chocolates! You’ll mess them up!” Miae slowed down to point at the many bags full of boxed chocolates he was holding.
Cheol didn’t slow down.
“You know I don’t care about the chocolates!”
“Ahhhhh!”
Miae screamed and continued running until she saw a bench and sat down on it.
“I give up! You win! God, I can’t believe you made me run so much,” Miae tried to catch her breath.
Cheol rolled his eyes, finally slowing down, and sat down next to her.
“I’ll tell you what I said, just let me catch my breath for a bit,” Miae panted.
Cheol set down the bags to grab some water from his backpack. Miae looked at all the boxes in the bags. They looked pretty in their pink and red wrapping paper and bows and ribbons.
She looked up at Cheol and smiled. Why did he have to be so popular?
“Here’s some water- what?” Cheol was handing her the water but stopped when he saw Miae’s expression.
“What?”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you like me but you also want me dead!”
“Well, because I do!”
Miae finally grabbed the water from him and started to drink it.
“Like me? Or want me dead?” He questioned.
Miae took a moment to drink the water and finally answered, “Uhhh, both?”
“What do you mean by that?” Cheol took the water back.
“Don’t worry about it! In any case, thank you,” Miae smiled at him while reaching for her backpack. She zipped it open and brought out the box of chocolates that were on her desk earlier.
“Ah, it was nothing,” Cheol gave her a sheepish look. “It is Valentine’s Day… and you did make me lunch today. It was good, by the way.”
“Well, that’s because I knew you’d get so much chocolate today! Besides, you’re not the biggest fan of sweets, so you wouldn’t have enjoyed them,” she replied.
“Still, I would’ve eaten them,” he intertwined their hands together.
“That’s sweet,” Miae giggled, “but you still have a lot more chocolates you can eat!”
“You know I said I’d give them to you!” He reminded her.
“Right!” She let go of his hand and reached for the bags. She grabbed a random box of chocolates. It was another red heart shaped box, but the ribbon was white and full of glitter.
“Ohhh, this one’s cute!” Miae started to turn the box around until Cheol grabbed it from her hands. “What? Cheol-“
“Hey, maybe don’t get that one? There’s a lot more you can choose from,” he pointed to the bags on the floor.
“Huh? Why not that one?” Miae questioned. Was there something he wanted from that one particular box of chocolates? Did he want that one box of chocolates?
“Wait, do you want it?” Miae pointed at the box in his hands. “Who gave it to you?”
“Don’t worry about it!” He nervously glanced between her and the box.
“Cheol-ah,” Miae started to raise her eyebrows at him. “Why can’t I have the box of chocolates?”
“You don’t need this specific one,” he answered. “There’s a lot more you can choose from!”
He grabbed another bag and put it in her hands.
“I want the one in your hand,” she set the bag down again.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you can’t!”
“Why? Do you want it?”
“No!”
“Then, why can’t I have it?!”
“Well…”
Miae had had enough. She lunged herself at him and grabbed the box.
“Hey! Miae-yah! Give it-“ he tried to get the box back, but it was too late. Miae had seen the tag.
She saw who it was for and who it was from.
The tag very clearly read, “To: Miae, From: Your Secret Admirer. Please accept these chocolates and, in the future, my feelings.”
Miae was in shock. They were for her? She looked over at Cheol who was obviously avoiding her gaze.
“Cheol-ah…” she quietly started to laugh, “ did you not want me to see them because they were for me?”
He stayed quiet.
“No way…” she finally broke out into laughter.
“Did you think I would accept them or something?!” She laughed. She thought maybe her eyes would tear up. “You dork!”
“Hey, you can’t laugh at me!” Cheol finally looked her way, and his red face only made Miae laugh harder. She was sure she was tearing up now.
“God, you’re so jealous sometimes! You deserve to be embarrassed right now,” she teased him.
“And you aren’t?? I’m pretty sure I noticed you being jealous at least 2 times today!” He retorted.
“I wasn’t jealous!”
“Oh, really? Then what was it?”
Miae pursed her lips, not being able to give him an answer. Looking back on it, she might’ve been a bit jealous…
“Fine! I was a bit jealous but you were too!” She crossed her arms and frowned at him.
They both sorta glared at each other until Miae couldn’t glare at him any longer and broke into a fit of giggles.
Cheol sighed but Miae could see the tiny smile on his face.
Miae grabbed his face and squished his cheeks between her hands.
“Next time, just be honest and say you’re jealous,” Miae brought his face down and pecked his forehead.
“The same goes for you,” he pecked her cheek.
They continued to give each other small pecks until Cheol pushed Miae away.
“Huh? Cheol-ah, wha-“
“You never did tell me what you told the crowd to make them go away,” he raised his eyebrows at her.
“Oh. Right,” Miae nervously smiled.
He continued to glare at her until she finally answered.
Sort of.
“Don’t take your shirt off after you play soccer today. Also, don’t be surprised at the crowd that will be there,” She quickly got up and started walking towards their apartments. “Well, we have to go or we’ll be late to cram school!”
“What?”
Cheol stayed stunned for a few seconds.
“Miae-yah? What do you mean by that?!” He finally got up and picked up the bags to go walk beside her. “Miae-yah!”
Miae slowed to let him catch up, but then stopped to look at the airplane above.