Chapter 1

For every action, there's a consequence. For every yes, there's a no. For one of him, there was one of me.





Intro:



"I believe this is for you," Oppa said, handing me an envelope.

After a quick glance at the return address, I tore it open. But before I could pull out its contents, I took a deep breath in to adjust to my sudden lightheadedness.

"So what does it say?" he asked from behind me.

Without glancing back, I pulled out the sheet and read what I'd known I'd find. It took another deep breath but it didn't help much. My cheeks had begun to twitch hapharzardly because the emotions shooting through me couldn't agree on what to tell my brain: was I supposed to smile or frown?


Chapter 1

"Hahaha! Go to jail!" my so-called friend, Na Young, declared with far too much glee. She moved her forefinger over the table and counted the squares one more time. Satisfied, she raised her fist up and said, "Yup! Go to jail!"

Frowning, I said a few choice words under my breath then picked my little plastic horse and put him on the doomed spot. It was the last day of school and since classes had ended and we were just waiting for our report cards, as we'd done in the past week, we were passing time by playing board games.

Tae Ran, my other best friend, picked up my blue horse and put him back on his previous spot. When a defiant Na Young reacted by reaching for it, she gently pushed her hand away. "Gosh, why do you have to be like this? Let her roll the dice again. When next will we get a chance to play Moneyply with her?"

Yes, we were playing 'Moneyply.' It was true that the board did look similar to that of 'Monopoly's,' that the concept was the same, in fact, the look, the rules, everything was pretty much the same as the other game's but because our school was too cheap to fork out good money for anything remotely legit, we were stuck playing the bootleg version you could probably convince a street hawker to give to you for free. But it didn't really matter because other than the initial chuckles that were shared when we finally realized that 'Moneyply' wasn't a typo, we were having as much fun as we would have had playing the real thing.

I took my eyes off Tae Ran's protective hold on my horse and smiled. With her long ponytail, black rimmed glasses, red cheeks and small frame, she looked just like the sweet girl she was on the inside. "It's okay," I said. "Since I'm 'just visiting,' it's not a big deal - I can sit my ass in jail."

"Exactly," Il Woo, one of my other classmates said. "Why does she deserve special treatment?" He rolled his eyes.

I smirked then stuck my tongue out at him. "Stop talking and just roll the dice, okay? I'll be kicking your ass in the next round."

He was in the midst of replying sarcastically when my cell phone beeped, notifying me of a newly received text message. I didn't even have to look at it to know who it was. I covered my mouth to hide my smile then stood up from my chair. "Sorry guys, I have to leave now…." I announced. I'd tried to sound regretful for ditching them so carelessly but I failed miserably. I averted my gaze downwards to keep them from seeing my eyes.

Na Young hit the table dramatically. "Can you see what I mean? She does this every time and when I refused to let her play today you guys thought I was being mean. You see? You see what's happened?"

I looked up and giggled. "Hey, don't get so pissed – you guys can divvy up my property. Gatta run! See you later," I said, turning around and leaving before I could hear any more whines.





***





I tiptoed to him from behind, covered his eyes with my hands then bent over and whispered, "Guess who?" into his ear.

He gently pulled my fingers from his eyes and frowned up at me. "Took you long enough," he accused.

"Whatever," I replied before walking around and sliding beside him on the bench. During the off season, our football field turned into some kind of couples' spot. There was a section of it that was pretty much hidden from the rest of the school and whenever anyone saw a teacher approaching, he or she would alert the other couples and it would be mayhem for the minutes that followed.

But since exams were over and no one really had anything to do, the teachers didn't really mind us hanging out and it showed. Because as it was, the stadium wasn't just filled with couples but also a bunch of platonic little cliques of people who didn't want to sit idly in class.

Ha Min Ki, my boyfriend of almost two years, picked up my hand and kissed my palm.

My chest warmed up at his touch. "What was that for?"

He shrugged. "I don't know – but this is the last time we'll ever sit here together like this."

I frowned. "I know." And it was all because of my father. If he hadn't given me life, I wouldn't have hesitated to hate him.

He shrugged. "I guess I'll just have to find someone else to sit with next year."

"Meaning?"

"I'm just saying…." He pointed to the sky. "Look at those beautiful clouds and look at the horizon," he said wistfully.

I shook my head in irritation. The sky was beautiful as a mass of blue broken up by thick white clouds but there really wasn't much of a horizon – unless boring buildings a few hundred feet away also qualified.

"… and look at the tree." He pointed at the huge ginkgo tree on the other side of the school gate. "Everything looks better," he said, wrapping his arm around my waist, "when you have someone next to you." He turned to look at me. "Do you really want me to give all this up because you won't be here?"

I frowned and gave him my evil look. "Yes."

He jerked back in exaggerated fright and I couldn't contain my laughter. But the sad thing was that my evil look was actually quite legendary. Most times, I didn't even realize I was giving it till the recipient scurried away or got mad because I was supposedly being rude. And I definitely didn't know I was giving it to the school principal that one time till she slapped me for looking at her 'like that.'

He pulled me closer, adopted a faraway look then stared onto our 'horizon.' "Yeah," he said, sighing, "I guess this wouldn't feel right with anyone else. I couldn't do this with anyone else."

I sighed. He couldn't do it with anyone else and I would never get another chance to look at that skyline again. I snuggled up to him and tried to keep myself from crying. Gosh, why did it all suck? I bit a fingernail and looked up at him. I couldn't believe that this was going to be our last visit to our school's football field. Sh.it, I was really going to miss it all.

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