Chapter Two

Yeunja let out a sigh and stepped back to examine her painting. Blotches of colors spread across her dark blue canvas creating a rather surreal tiger lily. But there was something wrong with it. Despite the fact that it was a great work of art, it just wasn't right.

"Kang Yeunja?" the teacher, Ms. Sun approached her and her painting.

"It's not right," Yeunja confirmed.

"Yes, it's lacking emotion, Yeunja," she nodded. "Try again."

"What?"

"Start over."

"But I've --"

Ms. Sun ignored her and walked towards another student.

"Oh my god..." she groaned and sat down on the bench in front of her painting.

"You know how to fix that?" Choi Seunghyun appeared behind her, wiping the paint off of his hands.

"What do you want?" she demanded in English.

"So you do speak Korean?"

"A little." She shrugged.

"Aish, would you just speak it already?"

"Not to you."

He smirked and moved closer to her painting.

"Here's what it needs." He grabbed a broad paint brush, dipped it in the can of red paint sitting at her feet and swiped it diagonally across her painting.

"Hey!" Yeunja shouted furiously and jumped up, grabbing his arm so he couldn't do any more damage. "What the f^ck?!"
"Yeunja-ssi?" Ms. Sun started towards her. "I understand English enough to know what you just said."

"Oh...mianhamnida..." she muttered, glancing at Seunghyun.

"Oh...!" Ms. Sun gasped when she saw the painting.

"Sorry..." Yeunja said again. "I shouldn't have --"

"No, no, this, Yeunja, is what I am talking about!"

"Huh?!" (Seunghyun was practically dying from holding back his laughter...) "You mean this red line..."

"Exactly, the colors represents your more provocative emotions. The anger, the lust, the passion!...towards...Seunghyun-ah?" she guessed. "Though I prefer abstinence, I am glad you kept it within the limits of your art. A rather 'clean' version of such feelings compared to some...If you know what I mean..."

""What?!" Oh god. Seunghyun was getting such a kick out of this... "Maybe this is all directed to you...!"

"Oh, ha ha, you're so clever aren't you?" Ms. Sun laughed and playfully hit Yeunja. "Remember abstinence!"

"Oh, you won't be disappointed in us," Seunghyun replied.

"What?" Yeunja turned to him with a disgusted look. "Do you wanna die?!"

"Good, good! Make me proud!" she gave them a thumbs up and hurried off, practically ready to conquer the problem of teen pregnancy.

"Aha, aren't you FUNNY?!" Yeunja smirked, returning to speaking in English.

"Yah," Seunghyun rolled his eyes. "That's not cool."

"I think it is."

"And I put the 'emotion' into your painting so I better get credit for it."

"Just go away."

"There's something I understand."

"I wonder why."

"Hey, be nice." He smiled at her then left.

"Oh, me? Be nice?" she muttered. "That's funny."

After class ended, she just left. No excuses or anything. She just didn't want to stay late anymore. Maybe it was time to E X P L O R E...(:

With her headphones on and Lady Gaga streaming through the cord she started walking along the street. People passed her, going in and out of stores, restaurants, hotels. To be brief and accurate (somewhat-ish) the city was huge. And Yeunja didn't know exactly when to stop. It went like this: saw a really cool shop, but then there's one over there too! And there, and there, and over there too...Maybe someday she would visit that one, but she wanted to keep on going 'cause maybe there were even better shops around the block or something! And about five blocks later there was! The music shop across the street. Glamorous and Americanized. Just what she liked.

"Ahh…" she gasped and started across the nearest crosswalk like a law-abiding foreigner.

"LOOK OUT!!"

Someone nearly pummeled her with their motorcycle and ended up turning rapidly and running off the street almost hitting several civilians and luckily scoring a fire-hydrant instead. Other pedestrians that had been on the crosswalk were gasping and cussing at the person on the motorcycle who had nearly hit Yeunja.

"Yah! What the hell were you doing crossing the street right there?!" the motorcyclist started shouting as he jumped off the motorcycle and came towards her.

"Choi Seunghyun..?" Yeunja tilted her head slightly. "Is that you?"

"Kang Yeunja?"

"You nearly killed--"

"What is WRONG with you?!" he so rudely interrupted her. "Look what you did to my motorcycle!" She took a glance around him to see the totaled front of his bike. "You're paying for the damage that YOU'VE done to my bike!"

"I'm what?!"

"This is your fault! If you hadn't been crossing the street then --"

"And how am I supposed to pay for that?" she shouted in Korean, pointing at his motorcycle.

"You mean...you can't?" Seunghyun grinned maliciously. "Well, you can just work it off..." (Wait, Wait, WAIT!!!! This isn't one of those storylines where the girl becomes the guy's 'slave' and this then that happens, bam to da bang, and in the end they fall in LOVE........is it?........Pfft! No, of course NOT!)

"Hey! Slow down there!" Yeunja ordered. "First of all, I am NOT working for you and second, I'm not even paying you!"

"What?!" He clearly understood her since she was speaking Korean.

"I had the right-of-way! Not you!" she loudly informed. "So I could sue you!!"

"But you --"

"I just might ss hole!" she said in English, smiling unpleasantly, then turned and finished walking across the street.

Yeunja really wasn't going to file a lawsuit against the impudent Choi Seunghyun. It was enough knowing that he was afraid she would that really got her up on her high horse. But at school he wouldn't stop bugging her…

"Yeunja-ssi," Seunghyun leaned close to her as she worked on copying the work from her textbook to her notes. "Yeunja-ssi…"

"Shut up," she mumbled.

"How about we be friends?" he was even closer when she looked up at him, his arm rested on the back of her chair.

"Yeah, right. You're pathetic," she retorted in Korean.

"Why?" he didn't move away.

"Whatever," he smiled and leaned back in his chair. "You like me, right?"

"Sorry, you're not my type," she stated. "Not at all."

"Yeunja-ssi…" he grabbed her wrist. "It's okay. You don't have to hide your true feelings…I know how you feel. You shouldn't be afraid to express your true desires."

"Oh, I knew Seunghyun-oppa would understand," she replied in a soft sarcastic tone. "God only knew that I've been in love with you ever since we first met."

"See? Doesn't that make you feel so much better?"

"You're so full of it..."

"What?"

"You don't think I actually like you."

"Well, all the other girls do." The bell for the end of class rang.

"Yeah, well I'm most definitely not like them," she pointed out before gathering her books and standing up. After shoving them into her bag she left.

"Kang Yeunja-ssi!" She turned around to see Choi Seunghyun following her through the quad.

"Good god, now what does he want?" she grumbled.

"So…About the other night…"

"What about it?"

"I'll make it up to you," he offered.

"How?"

"Yeunja…" he moved closer to her, placing his hand on her arm. "You know how many girls want me…" he whispered in her ear. She guessed it was his attempt at being seductive…yeah, nice try.

"What? Is that even relevant?"

"Yeunja, I'll make an exception for you, 'cause you're cute—"

"What did you call me…?"

"—I never go for girls my age or younger. They're all so immature."

"You called me cute?!" Yeunja hissed grabbing his collar in a violent gesture.

"What?"

"You are SICK," she spat, pushing him away, and in a swift, ninja-like (BATMAN!!) move landed a hard punch on his jaw. He stumbled back astonished. "I'm not going to sue you and I would never, ever, ever, EVER, do anything with you. At all. Not ever!"

"Why did you hit me?!"he demanded, rubbing his jaw with an expression like 'damn girl where'd you learn to punch like that?!' sketched into the contours of his face.

"Don't ever call me cute. Even if you're lying."

"What?!" She rolled her eyes and started to walk towards the gate of the school yard.

When she returned home she found Sangmi and Youngjae sitting at the kitchen counter eating Chinese takeout.

"There you are," Sangmi greeted her.

"What are you doing home so early?" Yeunja asked, setting her bag down on the stool beside the counter.

"What about you?" Youngjae retorted.

"There's a party tonight with the school board and their families," Sangmi informed her before she could snap back at her step-brother. "Here, have some food." She gestured to the many cartons on the counter top. "Dad should be home soon and then we're leaving."

"Oh, well I'll change then," Yeunja offered.

"Change into what?" Youngjae muttered.

She rolled her eyes at him and headed up to her room to choose an outfit…

Black skinny jeans, white v-neck, red hoodie, and gray converse. Is that as good as she could come up with?!

"Oh god…" she moaned as she stood in front of her full-length mirror. "I miss California…"

"Yeunja-ssi?" Sangmi called through her door. "Dad's home. Time to go."

She opened the door just before her step-sister could leave.

"Alright," Yeunja smiled softly and headed downstairs with her.

"Yeunja, I'm glad you came to Korea," Sangmi said happily, looping her arm through Yeunja's.

"Eh, thanks," she replied softly as Sangmi led her out the front door towards the car parked in front.

"Yeunja," her dad stopped her from getting into the vehicle, "you can stay with me tonight. I'll introduce you to everyone."

"Okay." She nodded and got in the backseat with Sangmi.

"Sangmi," Yeunja pulled her aside before they could start up the path to the country club. "So is being part of the school board dad's only job?"

"No, he's a producer for AS-X entertainment(A/N:*fictional entertainment company!!)," she replied. "He's also best friends with the school board advisor, which is why he's part of the school board. You'll meet him soon."

"Oh…yeah, okay…"

"Yeunja?" her dad turned around and motioned for her to hurry.

"This is a fellow board member Mrs. Baek," her dad said as he introduced Yeunja to a middle-age woman in a dress suit.

"Ah, Dae Jungsu-ssi's American daughter," Mrs. Baek greeted then in an attempt to communicate with the already understanding Yeunja, said in English, "Welcome to Korea! Glad to have you!"

"Komapsumnida…" Yeunja replied politely.

"Oh, how cute," Mrs. Baek sighed and grasped her dad, Dae Jungsu, by the shoulder. "You have a lovely child to add to your family."

"Thank you," he nodded before she left to greet someone else.

"Dae Jungsu-ssi!" another woman approached a bit younger than Mrs. Baek, and still as unattractive… "Is this your daughter?" She didn't wait for him to respond. "She's so lovely!"

"Jungsu-ssi?" more women approached Yeunja's dad. " Your daughter is so lovely! We've heard a lot about you!" Is there a repetition going on? Has her dad been talking about her…? "How old are you dear?" "She looks a lot like her mother!" "Bom-ssi…!" "No, she looks more like her father." "We've heard soo much about you!"

"From who?" her dad spoke up quickly before they could say anymore.

"Head Principle," one of the unknown ladies said.

"Speaking of which…" Jungsu turned to his daughter. "Thank you ladies." He offered them a polite nod then said, "Let's go," and put his hand on Yeunja's back and pulled her towards the h'ordeuvres.

"Those were…pleasant woman," Yeunja said, choosing her words carefully so she wouldn't sound as sarcastic as she meant to be then added slightly onto the next topic, "Oh, I'm not hungry…"

"No, we're going to meet someone."

"You're best friend?" she guessed.

"Yeah…I suppose you could say that," he muttered then put his arm around her shoulder. "There he is." Her father didn't even notice Yeunja flinch at his touch.

"Choi Chinhae-ssi!" He greeted a tall, rather large man.

"Dae Jungsu-ah," the man responded enthusiastically, "where have you been for the past several weeks?"

"Working, remember? I am a producer," he replied.

"Ah, yes, yes," the man nodded then caught Yeunja's curious gaze. "Oh? You must be Kang Yeunja, the American!"

"Oh, yes," she nodded.

"Nice to meet you!" he grabbed her hand and shook with great force. "I like your clothes!"

"What?"

"Really, I do!"

"Uh, thanks," Yeunja laughed nervously.

"My son finds Americans absolutely intriguing," he continued, "You should meet him." He turned to her dad, adding, "I like her already! Just like her mother."

"I'm what…?"

"Ah, Choi Seunghyun! Come meet our new American friend!" Senior Choi encouraged.

Choi Seunghyun?! Yeunja turned slowly to see him approaching. And then it registered. What Dong Youngbae had told her. Seunghyun's dad was the principle of the school. So Mr. Choi was his dad.. Wow, Yeunja, you are the next Picasso…He was smart right? (Yeah…don't think so.)

"Kang Yeunja, this is my son, Choi Seunghyun," the man introduced.

"Nice to meet you, Kang Yeunja-ssi," Seunghyun greeted.

"Likewise," she replied.

"My son is taking private lessons in English so he can practice with you," Mr. Choi informed her. "He's really quite good."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, well you two should go get to know each other," her dad put in. "Let us talk."

They nodded and edged away.

"Wow, so you do speak English?" Yeunja asked in her mother-tongue (a.k.a. English).

"Yes, I do," Seunghyun replied in the same language while smirking.

"Way to go…" she grumbled.

"Well you did it too," he reminded her.

"Yeah, ha ha, you're so clever aren't you?"

"I am, I know," he grinned. "So, you're dad is Dae Jungsu?"

"Obviously," she replied. "He's your dad's best friend."

"Looks like we're gonna be seeing a lot of each other."

"Oh, well that just made my day all the more better," she said in an undertone.

"Yes, well, you're lucky to have a dad like him."

"What do you mean?"

"He's a producer. He works with some of the best musicians in Korea," he informed her (like she should know this!).

"Really…?"

"Yeah," Seunghyun nodded. "Your friend, Dong Youngbae, knows your dad."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he's a singer. Your dad has been working with him for about four years now. It's pretty cool since your dad is one of the top producers now."

Yeunja was tempted to roll her eyes. She didn't really want to hear anymore about how cool her dad was.

"So why did you come to South Korea?"

"My dad asked me to come."

"And instead of staying in the U.S. you came here?"

"Is that bad?"

"Depends on where you lived."

"Santa Monica…"

"Yeah, I think that's pretty weird."

"Whatever…" she shrugged and started to walk around the room in hopes of losing him.

"I meant why would you give up that kind of life to live here?" He followed her unnervingly close.

"Maybe it wasn't what I wanted—"

"Oh, did you meet Dae Jungsu's daughter?" a woman said loudly from behind a planter. "The American girl." She said it as if she was scorning Yeunja. It was Mrs. Baek.

"No, I haven't yet, but I saw her," another woman replied.

"It was fairly obvious this girl is bad-mannered. She doesn't know how to properly greet her elders," Mrs. Baek continued to dote. "It's because she's American. They're all so informal."

"That is true."

"Isn't it? Just like her mother."

Yeunja rolled her eyes and headed towards the entrance. Even Seunghyun seemed a little taken back, but he didn't follow her.

"Unni?" Sangmi had obviously seen her leaving and came after her.

"Hi, uh, I'm just gonna leave, 'kay?" Yeunja said passively.

"Wait, why?"Sangmi didn't move from the steps behind Yeunja, but her voice sounded demanding, objecting to Yeunja leaving. "I don't think dad would like it if you just disappeared."

"Mian…" she mumbled and started across the parking lot of the country club.

Her dad wouldn't actually care. Why would he? Though of course Sangmi would think that being the naïve person she was…After sixteen years of non-existence what made Sangmi think their father would care now?

Yeunja arrived home near midnight, took off her shoes in the front hall and started upstairs.

"Yeunja-ssi?" her dad came from the living room as if he had been waiting for her. "It's late…" he pointed out.

Is it…? She was tempted to say, but simply nodded instead.

"Where'd you go?"

Don't even pretend to care…

"I walked around…" she shrugged.

"Where?"

"Between the country club and here…" She was waiting to see if he would actually punish her.

"Please tell me next time you do...this. I would appreciate it if you wouldn't go off alone."

"But I've always been alone," She said in an inaudible voice.

"What?"

"Nothing…" she turned and headed upstairs. Didn't they always come home late? Her, Sangmi, and Youngjae? Why was he making such a big deal out of this?

"Yah…Yah!" someone was tugging on her jacket trying to get her attention. "KANG YEUNJA!!" She glanced up at the estranged teacher, Mrs. Nam was it? Oooh…it was Japanese class. "Well, good morning," the teacher said sarcastically.

Yeunja sat up quickly, combing her hand through her messy hair. Why was it so messy?

"Thanks you two for joining us," Mrs. Nam continued on in her exasperated tone. "We feel so honored…"

Yeunja glanced next to her to see Seunghyun raising his head slowly with sleep in his eyes.

"Well great! Now you both have extra-curricular work to add to your homework!"

"Extra-curricular?" Yeunja repeated.

"Did I stutter?!"

"No ma'am…" "Awesome. See me after class you two."

"Fine…"

"Just because both your fathers are part of the school board does not mean I will excuse your behavior," Mrs. Name scolded ever so passionately. "Now," she opened a folder on the desk in front of her, "I'm assigning you both a project."

"Individually?" Yeunja guessed, or rather hoped.

"No. You and Seunghyun will write the script for our Theater Club's spring performance."

"Wait, what?" Seunghyun demanded, standing up from the desk he was slouching in beside Yeunja.

"We don't have time!" Yeunja insisted.

Mrs. Nam simply ignored them and continued giving instructions. "Every day during lunch and study hall you will meet in room 408 to write. And maybe I'll let you do the casting."

"Study hall? As in the five to ten p.m. study hall?" Seunghyun responded with an irritated tone.

"Obviously," Mrs. Nam sounded even more annoyed.

"But, you apparently don't know, Seunghyun and I don't work well together," Yeunja replied.

"Which is why this is a team effort."

"And when is this alleged 'performance'?" she asked.

"Early June."

"Oh…? That doesn't give us much time to write the play…" she grumbled.

"Yeah, that's not fair—"

"Neither is having to lazy, procrastinating, punk students," Mrs. Nam scowled at Seunghyun. "Don't think I haven't noticed you two ditching classes. This is justice for being so irresponsible."

"Why not just give us detention?" Yeunja retorted.

"That's an American punishment…which does not prove effective," she snapped back. "But this, I like this."

Yeunja smirked, shaking her head. Of course she did…

"What's a good topic?" Seunghyun mumbled almost to himself as he studied his pen with a disturbingly fixated interest.

They were sitting in Room 408 with a stack of blank binder paper and some more of those clickey pens the Seunghyun had (you know the ones that go clickey-clickey and such). Brainstorming. The teacher would check up on them every half hour to make sure they were still there.

"I don't know," Yeunja shrugged while scribbling on the top sheet of paper with a pen.

Comedy."

"Romantic comedy," Seunghyun elaborated with strange excitement.

"Yeah. About a self-centered guy who thinks he's the sh!t and writes a bunch of crappy poetry," Yeunja replied. She really was turning those wheels in her brain. "Oh, and he's really hot but a total jerk. Kay?"

"Heh, and then there's a girl who comes to the school in the middle of the year and acts like she's better than everyone, but really she's a loser and total freak. She's not even cute either," Seunghyun added, sounding like he was spouting about an ex or something. "And she secretly likes the jerk dude."

"Psh! You wish!"

"She does!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Hey, this is fiction!"

"So?"

"Then who would they fall in love with?"

"I don't know."

"I like my idea," Seunghyun persisted. "This is how Hollywood works!"

". . ."

"You didn't come up with anything."

"Fine. But there's gonna be another guy."

"A love triangle?" he guessed. Very good…Smart one!

"Yes."

"I like your thinking."

"Sure you do…"

"Okay. But the girl ends up with the first guy."

"Why? He's a jerk."

"But secretly he's the coolest guy ever!"

"In what world is that?"

"His name will be…George!"

"Why George? That's a lame name."

"Well I like it."

"Is that your American name?"

"Heh, no!"

"Sureee.."

"Mine is Jack."

"You don't look like a Jack."

"Yes I do."

"No, you don't."

"I do too."

"You wish."

"What's your American name?"

"Sandra."

"You don't look like a Sandra."

"You're just saying that."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do. It's pretty obvious. You should just keep your Korean name."

"Whatever. We're talking about my characters name not my own."

"Your character? Does he represent you or something?"

"What? No! What makes you say that? You're the one who invented him."

"So why'd you say: 'my character'? Since he's obviously mine because I invented him."

"Why does it matter?"

"I'm just curious. " Yeunja shrugged.

"Let's just write the script. Okay?" Seunghyun groaned. "We have to be together for the next four months, so let's make the best of it."

"The best?" Yeunja smirked. "If that's even possible…"

Seunghyun smiled crookedly in return like he was ready to take her on at any moment.
Bring it on…she thought with a scowl.

It had started to rain by the time he had gotten out of after-school study. She had called

him twice, but he had missed both calls. It was almost mid-night when he called her back.

"….Meet me at the coffee shop in Jongno-gu," she said and hung up before he could say anymore.

She sat with her back to him in the farthest booth, sipping her coffee.