Of Pocky and Pepero
SUMMARY: A South Korean transfer student is struggling to adjust to her new life here in Japan, that included getting used to the strange boy who she's been sitting next to for the past month. OC
Chapter 3: Murasakibara
NOTES: Italicized is Korean speech
A month went by and Soo-Jin was already homesick.
The school that she was attending to, Yosen High, was terrible. Everywhere she went, there were freakishly tall and buffed boys lumbering around. Was this even natural for Japan? Never had she felt so puny (and intimidated) in her life. She especially felt dwarfed when sitting next to her desk neighbor, Murasakibara.
Now, Murasakibara sure was something. They hadn't exchanged a single word yet Soo-Jin found herself knowing him pretty well. One thing was obvious was that he loved to eat junk food. He would eat it for lunch, before class would start, during break, and even sneak in a few mouthfuls when the teacher's lecturing.
He was also incredibly unmotivated. Whenever the teacher would call on him to answer a question, Murasakibara wouldn't even bother trying, just delivering his own random response that would elicit a sigh from the teacher as he would call on someone else. Soo-Jin wasn't sure if the boy was academically stupid or not.
He spoke in a slow, lazy drawl, and his eyes always looked droopy as though he was perpetually tired. It was probably from the lack of nutrients from the piles of packaged crap he consumed on a daily basis. Strangely, though, he was quite fit, not an ounce of fat noticeable on his body. From what Soo-Jin gathered, he was a regular on the basketball team.
Every morning, she would enter class and find the tall boy already in his seat, eating his snacks like a mindless robot. "Weirdo," Soo-Jin would think to herself before setting her schoolbag down and pulling out her chair.
How Murasakibara and Soo-Jin spoke for the first time began something like this.
It was after school and Soo-Jin, along with some other classmates, had cleanup duty. Today, she was in charge of taking out the trash, which was probably given to her since no one wanted to do it. Were her classmates taking advantage of her? Why yes, they were.
It was believed that she had complications with translating the language because she was always quiet in class, but that wasn't the case. Her comprehension of Japanese wasn't exactly limited (thanks to her Spartan teacher from the fiery pits of hell) despite her poor retention. Additionally, she did well when it came to writing and reading Japanese characters.
She was actually being a…pushover. Funny how back in South Korea, Soo-Jin would bluntly say yes or no, but somehow her confidence dwindled when coming here. This was one of the reasons why she hated coming to Japan—foreign places, ugh.
Soo-Jin held the trash bin in her arms and carried it outside, walking behind the school building and to the dumpster. After emptying the bin, she went back inside, only to find that all the students had seemingly vanished.
Well, all except for one. Murasakibara was sprawled across his desk, snoozing.
"He wasn't there before," Soo-Jin muttered to herself. She looked around, finding that nobody was really in here. Had everyone already finished his or her duties so quickly? Skeptical, Soo-Jin inspected the place, and found that the tasks were done either hastily or incompletely.
Her classmates must have been eagerly expecting something if they produced a poorly cleaned room. The girl sighed in resignation, accepting her fate in finishing the room, and gave a brief glance over to where Murasakibara was.
Why on earth was he here?
Well, it didn't matter. What mattered was to complete the unfinished duties and then go home—home, as in, her foster family's home, not really hers. Sheesh, this was getting annoying.
Surprisingly, it only took her twenty minutes, from dusting the erasers to sweeping the floor. She patted her hands on her skirt, as if to pat away imaginary dust off of herself. Murasakibara was still sleeping…and he has progressed to a nasally snore.
"Good night, weirdo," she muttered. Soo-Jin threw her schoolbag over her shoulder and was about to turn to leave when her eyes landed on a felt-pen. An innocent-looking felt-pen just sitting by the corner, just waiting to be picked up. By who? By her.
"No, I shouldn't."
But the temptation was far too great!
Soo-Jin plucked the pen off the floor and approached the deeply sleeping Murasakibara. She uncapped the pen and positioned its point a centimeter above his cheek. But then suddenly, her whole hand wavered and shook. She was feeling conflicted whether or not she should be doing this to her fellow classmate…
Ah, whatever.
Of course, the boy wouldn't notice the feel of the pen on his skin in the duration of his slumber—Soo-Jin practiced many times on her mother and a former classmate she particularly disliked. She was practically a pro when it came to face-drawing discreetly!
And face-drawing she must!
When Murasakibara woke up and went to practice that day, his teammates laughed at him long and hard. Least to say, Murasakibara was certainly unpleased to find what happened to his face when he entered the boys' bathroom, observing himself in the mirror.
The next day, when break came around, Soo-Jin was about to get up to go take a walk (because sitting in the same seat for hours while listening to the teacher lecture can make you sleepy) when something clasped tightly on top of her head.
"Eomeona(1)!" Soo-Jin yelped. She tried to pull away, but the hand was pretty much holding her in place.
"Ara…" She flinched when she felt those strong fingers grind into her noggin. Murasakibara forced her to turn around to face him, and Soo-Jin found herself staring skyward to meet the eyes of a giant. "Ah, you," he said, and then paused. After a moment of silence, he tilted his head and murmured, "Who are you again?"
"…"
He continued to stare down at her.
"Eomma(2)!" Soo-Jin whimpered.
Murasakibara blinked slowly. "No, I think your name was more like Sou-Jan."
"No… Soo-Jin…"
"Okay."
Silence.
"Yesterday," he began in that typical drawl of his, "did you draw on my face?"
"Aah… N-No…"
"Everyone who had to do cleanup duty was about to leave the room just around the time I entered it, and you weren't one of those people." If possible, the corner of his lips made a deeper downward contour. "I'm not stupid."
"I wish you were," she muttered.
He paused. "Thank you," he said, giving a curt bow.
"…Ah?"
"I don't know what you really said," he said, lazily scratching his head, "but I'm assuming you apologized." With that said, the boy released his grip on Soo-Jin's head and reached into his schoolbag to grab a bag of potato chips. "Please don't draw on me again."
"…Babo(3)."
"Thank you."
"…"
(1): Oh my gosh!
(2): Mommy
(3): Stupid