1

The night in which I met Kang Young-min was the very best night in my life and also the very worst. Ordinarily I would laugh at myself and agree that it couldn't possibly be both, but my years spent at Pa Jun College Preparatory school have taught me a few things about bittersweetness. He seemed so fascinating to me- even the salty smell of his hands was a kind of rich perfume. I remember clearly my first day at boarding school, after the tearful separation from my parents and sisters in my dorm room. I sat on the bottom bunk, clutching my small sack of belongings and staring and the white walls of my new home in Gimcheon.

"Kim Juhee?"

I looked up with a start and tightened my grip on my bag. A girl about my age stood in the door, wearing traditional academy uniform: a plaid skirt with a blue suit jacket. She had huge, round, glasses that covered most of her face and a long braid that ran down her back and ended at the hem of her skirt.

Her voice interrupted my stare. "Are you Kim Juhee?"

I nodded, closing my mouth when I realized it was hanging open stupidly. I felt like I had seen this girl before, but I couldn't imagine just where or when it would be.

"My name is Jang Ha-jeong. I'm your roommate."

I figured that she was before she confirmed it, but I let a smile creep up all the same. She didn't look bad at all as far as living companions go, and one of my worries was that I would get some sort of freak as a bunk mate.

"Top or bottom?" I asked, standing. "I don't mind either way."

"May I have the bottom bunk? I don't like heights."

I beamed and bowed low, my hair falling over my face.

"Pleased to meet you... Jang Ha-jeong."

"May I call you Juhee? I know it's crude, but there are an awfully lot of Kims I have met today, and I don't want to get confused."

I couldn't help but laugh at Jang's eccentricity. "Of course you may. I'm sure we'll be friends in no time anyway."

She beamed. "Then... in exchange, you can call me Ha-jeong." She giggled. "It's been a while since anyone's called me that."

Swinging my bag onto the top bunk, I crawled up after it, crossing my legs and making myself comfortable. Ha-jeong unpacked her things from a small bag, placing them orderly on her desk. I took the time to look around, surprised at the size of the room, which was almost twice that of my room at home. Two desks adorned the northeast and northwest corners and the bed set was lined up against the north wall. This left plenty of room for an entire set of sofas and small chairs, with a six foot bookcase next to the door on the east side.

"It's pretty big," I remarked, brushing my hair out of my face. I was already starting to be comfortable with my bunk mate.

"Yes! Very few go here, so the ones that do have the luxury of space."

I turned at an awkward angle to reach into my pocket and pull out the small, folded blue paper. Pressing it flat on my bedspread, I reviewed the neat handwriting of the school secretary for the umpteenth time.

"What's your schedule?" I asked Ha-jeong, who had settled herself on one of the mammoth bean bags.

"I haven't gotten it yet. They said there were complications with the logistic stuff. You?"

I glanced at the paper. "Math first hour after home room, then English..." I groaned. I had always hated English. "Society, chemistry, then lunch at 12:50."

"After that?"

"Physics, Society 2, Math 2, Korean, then Japanese. School ends at 5:30 for dinner."

"That's not too bad!" Ha-jeong stood and crossed the room to the beds, pulling herself up on the top bunk next to me. "I hope we have some classes together."

Biting my lip, I grinned sideways at her. "I thought you didn't like the top bunk."

She looked startled, then laughed. "Only when I'm asleep. If I'm awake, I can keep myself from falling!"

"Is this your first year here?"

She shook her head. "Second, actually. I'm eighteen, too, though. I got here a year early." Ninety percent of the academy was eighteen, though it was a two-year course.

I crinkled my nose. "So you know, then..."

"Eh? Know what?"

"Are there any good looking boys?" That was the only truly important question, and there weren't any percentage breakdowns in the brochure.

Ha-jeong blushed a deep red. "Well... most fancy Kang Young-min, but..."

"But?" I prodded, bouncing slightly. She grew a shade darker and seemed reluctant to continue.

"There's a boy who works at the library sometimes... His name is Park Pil-gi."

"And..." I bit my lip again. "You are together?"

Her mask fell into wistfulness. "Maybe someday..."

So this Park Pil-gi was definitely off-limits. If my intuition was right, and it usually is, we would be as close as sisters in a few weeks time which meant I couldn't even touch Park. I moved on. "Tell me more about this Kang Young-min."

"Oh..." her face fell.

"What? Is he unkind to you?" Perhaps I had made an enemy without realizing it.

"No, it's not that at all. He is very kind. There's just something very... off about him." She twisted her lips and screwed her face up in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

She paused for a moment before continuing: "I'm not too sure myself. The outside is very beautiful, but I think there is something ugly on the inside that he's trying to hide."

"Well, we all have secrets," I reasoned. "Sometimes they just get too big for us."

Ha-jeong stared into space for a while, swinging her legs back and forth off of the bed. I wasn't entirely sure quite what I should say or even think. I'd have to meet Kang and see for myself what unnerved Ha-jeong.

"I'm going to go explore campus for a while, you want to join?"

She shook her head. "I came all the way from Seoul, so my drive was pretty long. I might take a nap."

"Suit yourself."

Waving goodbye to my new friend, I jumped off of the top bunk and made my way to the door, poking my head into the hallway. By this time, most of the students had been shown to their dorms and were now unpacking their bags and meeting their roommates. Since I had already gotten off on such a great foot with mine, I decided to take the hour before orientation to explore the campus. Our room was at the very north end of the hallway, and the only staircase was to the south, twenty doors away. I took my time to get there, leisurely strolling down the long, carpeted hall and trying to memorize the names on the door plaques. By the time I reached the stairwell, I felt like I had already made connections with the owners of the names I had read and was humming happily all the way to the courtyard.

There were only a few students scattered around the garden, most of them sitting alone or with only one other person. Since this was the first day for most of us, we didn't have time to meet a lot of people. I spied a gang of girls under a willow tree in the middle of the park and gathered up the courage to introduce myself. I took a few steps forward, then stopped, eyeing their behavior. Something heated was happening. The first three girls were laughing and seemingly enjoying themselves, but the remaining two looked like they were arguing. My curiosity got the better of me and, taking advantage of a nearby shrub, I crouched to the ground, careful not to get my skirt filthy.

"You sick whore! Who gave YOU permission?"

I was expecting a response, but I only heard sobbing intermingled with the others' laughter. Carefully, I peeked over the top of the bush and focused my eyes on the two arguers. One had her back to me and the other wore a look of unquenchable rage, her fists clenched and her short hair bristling.

"I'm sorry, Ko," the first sobbed, keeping her hands over her eyes. "We really were only talking."

The one called Ko scoffed, crossing her arms and flipping the ends of her hair out of her eyes. "He wouldn't fall for someone like you anyway."

One of the laughing girls suddenly jumped on the picnic table and waved her arms, shouting to the courtyard: "Lee Eun is an ugly slut!"

She repeated it until it became a chant, the other two laughing girls joining in and doing a dance of their own. The crying girl hunched her shoulders and the angry one looked pleased, circling the first like a vulture's prey. The one I presumed to be Lee said something indiscernible to me, her voice was too weak and shaky.

"What was that?" Ko demanded, walking forward until she was inches from the other. Lee stood up a little straighter.

"You don't have your name on him."

The angry girl lifted her arm to strike and I decided it was time to intervene. I leapt over the shrub, my anger compelling me to run straight toward the five students, ignoring the warning glances from the others in the park. I was already right behind Lee before Ko noticed my presence, raising a single eyebrow at me.

"Hi?"

Lee Eun looked up at me like a beaten puppy and it was only just then that I realized I had absolutely no plan. I fidgeted with the ends of my sleeves, eyes darting between Ko and her minions.

"Um.. h-hello," I stammered, making an effort to keep my spine straight. Ko put her hands on her hips and stared.

"And you are..."

"Kim Juhee." I tried to keep myself from bowing. "I wish I could say it's a pleasure."

She narrowed her eyes. "Can I help you?"

My mouth opened and closed of its own free will. Instinctively, I grabbed Lee Eun's elbow and began to drag her back toward the girls dorm, making sure I seeped enough anger into my footsteps.

"Oi, where do you think you're going?"

I ignored her but sped up.

"Think you can hide behind a new student? You're asking for it!"

"Why aren't they chasing us?" Lee asked meekly as she was being dragged along. "You think they're afraid of you?"

I laughed and gave her a cocky grin. "No, they just don't think I'm worthy of their time."

We made it to the academy in what seemed like an eternity, the frustrated yells of Ko and her gang chasing us to the door. I waited until we were out of both sight and earshot before I spoke to Lee again:

"We're early for orientation still, but we can talk. And you can meet my friend when she arrives."

She smiled meekly but didn't reply. Instead, she took a step inside and seemed to be surveying the academy lobby not unlike a child checking under her bed for monsters. We were the only ones in the foyer except a tall, white-shirted boy who was sitting on a table facing away from us.

I made sure the door behind us closed so as to not let in the stifling August heat. By the time I turned back to Lee, her eyes were full and sparkling and she couldn't keep her eyes off of the tall boy, who either didn't notice our entrance or chose to ignore it. At first, I supposed he was a student aide for the secretary, who was behind the counter talking with a student. However, he didn't seem to be doing anything productive, rather – as I got closer, I realized he was reading a novel. It was in Chinese.

Lee Eun didn't seem to be moving anytime soon, so I approached the table the boy was sitting at, smoothing out my uniform and clearing my throat. He looked up from his book at my approach, squinting in the setting sunlight from the huge west window. He was good looking, but not remarkably so. I bowed low, smiling reassuredly and taking a deep breath.

"Hello. My name is Kim Juhee. What's yours?"

The boy eyed me almost suspiciously before replying. "Park Pil-gi. It's a pleasure."

The Park Pil-gi? My nervousness suddenly increased twofold. "Y-your book," I stammered stupidly.

He glanced down at it briefly then his gaze returned to me. "What about it?"

"That's Chinese, right?"

Immediately he brightened up. "Yes! I studied abroad in Taiwan for two years. I loved it there."

I opened my mouth to reply, but there was no stopping him now.

"I want to be a translator when I graduate and learn all the Chinese dialects. Then I can live there for the rest of my life." His face twitched slightly with excitement and I had to contain my laugh. He looked a little like a rabbit.

"Have you met Lee Eun?" I asked, reaching behind me and tugging her forward. Physically, she didn't struggle, but I could almost hear her thoughts screaming for me to let her run away. She glanced sideways at me, purposefully letting her eyes wander from Park.

"Ah, I believe we have met. I'm Park Pil-gi, in case you don't know."

Lee gave him a weak smile and her gaze shifted to the linoleum.

"You come to the library sometimes," he continued. "If memory serves me correctly, you're a fan of the foreign language section, too."

She let out a croaking noise that sounded like she was clearing her vocal chords from a build-up of dust. "I'm learning English..."

"Really?" he exclaimed, scooting forward. "Say something to me in English." I had become exclusively a spectator of the conversation.

There was a long, painful pause before Lee spoke again. I knew enough to tell it was English, but I had no idea what she said: it sounded too foreign. She went on for a while, and even gestured with her arms a few times. Amusing that the most I had ever heard her speak was a speech not even close to what I could understand.

Park's smile shifted to a surprised one. "Impressive! Did I hear you say something about cats?"

Lee's blush deepened an octave.

"How long have you been studying?"

I received an unvoiced cue to exit the conversation and peeled Lee's fingers away from my elbow, bowing out and retreating back to the courtyard. Perhaps I had contributed to the blossoming of a new friendship today. Receiving the cool wind with open arms, I skipped to my next destination: the mammoth library. Pa Jun was famous for it: one of the biggest libraries south of Daejeon. It was eight stories high, and packed to the brim with books in every language about every subject. There was only fifteen minutes left until orientation, so students were beginning to pile into the library's lecture hall, an appendix on the west side of the building. Instead, I went through the main entrance, a set of three automatic sliding doors printed over with the hours of operation. There were no lights in the lobby with the exception of the setting sun streaming in through the glass entrance.

I took a few steps forward, dizzy with awe at the massive size of the first floor alone. Shelves and shelves of books ranging from romance novels to chemistry textbooks stretched out in all directions, lining up in a three-dimensional pattern. At the center, a round, brick-walled elevator stood in wait to show me what the other levels had to offer. I would have little control of myself in this labyrinth and, worse still, would desire no control.

My admiration was interrupted by the rude sound of the warning bell, beckoning the students to their seats in the lecture hall. Stealing one last glance at the hundreds of wooden shelves, I jogged back out the sliding doors and was once again wrapped in a cool, refreshing breeze. I rounded the corner to the double doored entrance of the auditorium, propped open to let in the flow of oncoming teenagers. Slipping into the crowd, I stood on my toes briefly to peek over their heads, searching for Ha-jeong, Park, or Lee. I was unusually tall for a Korean girl of my age, so spotting a pair of gigantic, black-brimmed glasses didn't present too much of a problem. I shoved gently through a throng of gossiping girls to reach Ha-jeong, who stood alone.

"There you are. I was wondering if you were going to be late. You seem like the kind of person who has her head in the clouds." Ha-jeong remarked, biting at her nails.

"I almost was. How do you get used to a library so huge?"

"You don't," Park pointed out, suddenly appearing over my shoulder. I stepped back to let him form a circle of conversation, completed by the meek entrance of Lee Eun, who was tagging along quietly behind him. "I'll bet you can't even if you read every book."

Ha-jeong hummed in agreement. "There are some books on the fourth floor that make Hyangga

look like it was written with a crayon."

Lee stared blankly at her, blinking in such a way that made it seem as though she didn't believe Jang was really there. Ha-jeong bowed low as soon as she noticed Lee's gaze.

"Forgive me for not introducing myself earlier. Jang Ha-jeong. I'm Kim's roommate."

Park gave Lee a few claps on the shoulder, causing her already hunched form to sink lower. "This is Lee Eun. She doesn't say much, but she's really quite a nice person."

I was fairly certain that I was the only one who noticed Ha-jeong narrow her eyes slightly at his comment. She exchanged bows with Lee for a second time just before we all got our turn to go through the door and round a corner into the lecture hall. It was only about three-hundred seats, but that was more than enough room to accommodate the small student body. My new friends and I chose seats on the far side of the hall, settling into them and shedding our jackets. I extracted a small notepad and pen from the pocket of mine, jotting down the time and date on the first page. I had gotten into the habit of carrying paper with me since I was in primary school; I habitually forget even critical things.

Pen in hand and journal in my lap, I settled back just as the lights dimmed for the projector presentation.