Chapter 12

Chapter 12



I heard a series of loud raps on my door.

"Yes?" I called, taking out my headphones. It was a boring Saturday and after having a boring lunch with my family, I'd retired to my room, taken a nap and was now chatting on MSN with Min Ki.

"Your father is calling us," my brother said without opening the door. "Come down quickly."

"Great," I muttered. No one had called me to come to the kitchen to help with dinner and I'd certainly not made an effort to remind them. Was I about to get scolded about my laziness and have my chores increased tenfold? I sighed. The joys of childhood. I slipped my feet in my slippers and looked at the computer screen to read his response to my last comment.



Missing my Soul: My internet is being really slow today so stop bugging me. It's only about 30% uploaded and I'll let you know when it's done.



I'd left Korea before one of my favorite awards shows aired so I'd made Min Ki tape it for me.



Missing my Seoul: Yo, I have to run.

Missing my Soul: Oh, now I get it. You only came online to make sure I was uploading your precious show, huh?

Missing my Seoul: Yes, I'm using you. Have you got a problem with that?

Missing my Soul: No.:p




I laughed.



Missing my Seoul: :D Anyway, my father is calling me – I think he's on the warpath again.

Missing my Soul: That sucks. Well, I guess I'd better try to get some more sleep – I think I'm skipping church today.

Missing my Seoul: Poor you. If you were here, you'd be able to catch some sleep while at church.

Missing my Soul: lol. Alright, better log off before you get into trouble. And don't forget to send me the photos.

Missing my Seoul: Okay. <3






***



I walked down the stairs to find my brother and parents sitting in the living room around the coffee table pilled with paper plates and cups, soda, two buckets of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, wedgies, coleslaw and pretty much everything else that KFC had to offer. I was surprised that an employee hadn't been thrown in with the spread.

"Why don't you sit down?" my father coaxed, grinning and pointing at the couch across from my mother.

I slowly walked over and did as he said. Okay what the hell was going on?

"So," my father started, grinning so widely it reminded me that it had been quite a while since I'd seen so many of his teeth.

Normally, when someone smiled, you were put at ease but because it was my father, it had the opposite effect. It was almost like I was in a horror movie and the piano music had come on, warning us of impending doom.

I tried to look at my brother but he appeared to be avoiding my eyes which was the telltale sign that he was also getting freaked out. I glanced at my mother but she didn't appear the slightest bit affected.

"… I've been thinking about it and I think Saturdays should be our chill-out day," he continued, chuckling because he was quite aware that adults sounded stupid using the word 'chill-out'."

I looked at my brother again and this time he caught my eye and sent me a WTF look.

"What that means," my father started again, "is that on Saturday evenings, we'll just relax as a family - no cooking," he said, looking at my mother, who smiled tightly in return, "we can order whatever you kids like to eat be it pizza or Indian food or whatever…." He looked around the room and when he got no reaction, he continued, "… and we can watch movies and you can tell us what happened to you in the past week."

I sat into my couch and tried to figure out his angle. Our dinners had become repetitive and quite strained because every night my father tried to start a conversation about how our day had been but a minute later, after everyone had answered with the most commonly used one word response, we'd fall into silence with only the sounds of the clanging of our cutlery keeping us entertained.

I looked over at the DVDs he'd rented and smirked when I saw that they were 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Pride and Prejudice'. Did the old man have a thing for Keira Knightley?

"So why don't I start?" my father asked before going into in depth detail about the embassy's search for a new director.

I leaned forward and picked up a drumstick. Other than 'fine' what else could I possibly say when it was my turn to speak?



***



I'd just stepped out of English class and was about to head to my Biology class when I spotted Ryan walking ahead of me. I hadn't been able to catch him in History class the previous day and we seemed to be missing each other at lunch so I was yet to talk to him about Min Ki's photo.

"Ryan Cho," I yelled as I ran towards him. "Ryan Cho!"

He turned around with a confused expression on his face and when I saw the other students in the hallway giving me weird looks, I fought the urge to blush out of embarrassment and stopped running. I walked swiftly towards him.


"What's going on?" he asked curiously.

I caught my breath and smiled unevenly. Then I reached into my bag and pulled out my camera. I knew it was weird but what else could I do? "Say cheese," I ordered, pointing it at him.

He immediately put his hand over it and from the look on his face, I could tell that he was getting more and more inquisitive. "Why do you need my photograph?" He shook his head and said, "I'm trying to come up with a reasonable explanation but I'm drawing a blank here."

He looked a little cross-eyed so I couldn't help but laugh. "Just guess."

"You're in a cult and they asked for a photograph of your next victim?"

"Wow," I said in mock astonishment. "You should play the lottery – your guessing skills are awesome."

He looked down at me and frowned. "I don't want to be late for my next class so just tell me why you need my photo."

"It's for Min Ki."

He stared into space for a few seconds then shook his head. "Sorry, I still don't get it. What does he need my photo for?"

I shrugged. "He just wants to know what my friends look like." Well, that was the explanation he'd given me. I just figured that he was trying to share in my experience and as my boyfriend, it only made sense for him to have an idea of what my friends looked like.

"Why?"

"You have to go to class, remember? Stop wasting time and just smile."

He looked at me uncomfortably. "So I should just stand here and smile like an idiot?" he asked, waving his hands in the air.

I laughed. "Mr. Filmmaker, isn't that what you always tell people to do? Smile and look in the camera?"


"But that's different," he insisted. "Right now, I feel like you're about to take my mug shot or something."

I frowned. I grabbed his arm to pull him away from the crowd. I couldn't help but notice that he had slightly less arm hair than Min Ki. I shook the comparison out of my head then focused my attention back at the task at hand. "My digital camera is kinda weird so you need to stand very still so I can take this picture."


"No," he said, pulling me and turning me around so that we were facing the same direction and the top of my head was next to his ear. In a swift movement, he relieved me of the camera, pointed it at us then took a photo. Without bothering to look at the results, he shoved the camera back into my palm and said, "Problem solved. Now you have your photo. I have to go to class."

As he left, I took a look at Ryan's handiwork and other than my very shocked face, all it revealed were his chin and half of his nose. I sighed. Why did he have to make it so darn difficult?



***

I dumped my tray on the table and plopped on the seat in a loud thud. For a while there, I hadn't thought that it would happen but it was possible to find an empty table to sit at at lunch.

"May we join you?" a person with a shrill voice asked the moment I was about to bite into my crouton. I looked up to find a heavily made up face belonging to one of the so-called Prada Bitches.

Confused, I looked over to make sure that I hadn't mistakenly taken their table but considering we were smack dab in the middle of the cafeteria, I was quite sure I hadn't.

"Su Jin Oh?" she asked, sitting down without waiting for my response. "I'm Natalie and that's Sarah, she's…," she said, introducing the rest of her friends to me.

"Do you still remember me? I'm Seung Mi," the ambassador's daughter said far too sweetly. "We are quite offended that you stopped eating lunch with us," she said with what I hoped was mock seriousness. "Aren't we, Girls?" she asked her group who predictably agreed in a loud chorus.

"So… what about our English lessons? I've been waiting for your call for so long."

"Really?" No, seriously. Really? "I think I'll be fine – I can already feel my English improving."

"Cool. You like catfish?" she asked, suddenly looking at my plate. "I love catfish."

What the hell was going on? A few minutes later, Sarah, Tina, Seung Mi and everyone else were in a heated conversation about the best sauce to have with salmon.

As I sat with them, simultaneously trying to look interested and wondering why they were suddenly nice to me, Natalie said, "Su Jin, does your brother pick you up from school?"

I dropped my fork and just shook my head. So that was what it was all about? Did my brother use some kind of voodoo? How could every single dumb girl be attracted to him? What the hell? And why did they all have to talk to me about it?


"I already told you he's her brother," Seung Mi said.

I sent her a tight smile then turned back to Natalie. "Yes, my brother picks me up. Why?"

She shrugged. "No reason," she said before taking another bite of her salad.

"He's single?" another girl asked.

"Why do you want to know?" I snapped.


The girl opened her mouth to respond but must have thought better of it because no words came out. She looked to Natalie for help so I did the same and waited for a response.

"We're just curious. No reason. Anyway," she said, straightening her back, "we usually go to the mall every Saturday." She looked me over and did a very good job of blanking out whatever she was thinking. "Wanna come?"

I swept the table, looking at all their colorful faces. I didn't even know what Seung Mi's deal was because she'd ignored me that other time even though she already knew what my brother looked like. I wanted to tell the rest of them to kiss my a.ss because they were bitches and users and that my brother wouldn't even use them to wipe his butt. I wanted to give them a firm 'no' and pick up my tray and leave them watching behind with gaping mouths. But instead, all I could come up with was, "I don't know."



***



After lunch, as usual, I was in the computer room. After logging on, I smiled when I saw that Min Ki had replied my email. Taking Ali's photo had turned into a huge production because she'd made me wait for her to apply a fresh coat of make-up and after that, she must have posed a hundred times –by the tree, at the school gate, leaning on a car, in every possible way- till she found a photo worthy to be sent to him.


Sending Ryan's photo had been a little trickier. Only having one shot meant that I really didn't have much choice but I was quite sure that Min Ki wouldn't be satisfied with half of a face so later that day, unbeknownst to Ryan, I managed to get a pretty good photograph of him as he stood by one of his classrooms talking to a friend. I couldn't figure out what his problem was because he was actually quite photogenic and leaning against that wall, in a weird way, he reminded me of Dennis Oh. Something to do with his nose and ears.




I clicked on Min Ki's email.



Date: 1 Sept 23:18:47
From: "Ha Min Ki"
Subject: Re: Pics
To: "Oh Su Jin"



Jinnie,

Thanks for the pictures – they were nice. I'm glad to see you've made some friends. Did you say that Ali's family is from Canada? Canada is just like America, isn't it? Don't they sound alike and have a similar culture? I am sure it wasn't hard for her to adjust to living in America. She looks like a nice person and I hope you make more friends like her.

Ryan seems nice too but even though his family is from Korea, he's American, right? So I was thinking... you know I have no problems with you having male friends because I never said anything about your relationship with Il Woo but I'm not sure about Ryan.

You mentioned that he's Ali's friend, didn't you? And it's strictly platonic? But why is it platonic? Were they together in the past? Or did she reject his advances?



I thought back to what Jonathan had said and for the nth time since that confrontation, I wondered if they truly were just friends. I was dying to know what was going on but I didn't have another Ali-like friend to fill me in on all the details. I continued reading.



I don't want to sound worried but some of these guys really don't think it's possible to be just friends with girls. Sometimes, a guy is friends with a girl because he's just waiting for the right time to ask her out. Or maybe it's just part of this strategy for getting her, after all, most relationships start as friendships. And since I'm here, he might think you're single. Have you made it clear that you're unavailable? I was wondering, but will it be weird for you to wear your ring at school? If everyone sees it then they'll know you're taken. smile.gif I've started wearing mine in public and whenever anyone asks about it, I feel so proud telling them about us.



I groaned. If I started wearing my ring at school, there was no way it wouldn't make it on the school notice board and only God knew what theory they'd come up with. I wouldn't want to be known as the pregnant girl who later became the poster child for abortion because her belly never grew.



I don't want to sound paranoid but I must admit that I'm a bit worried. I would hate for you to be uncomfortable and you mentioned that he's giving you his notes. Are you sure he doesn't have ulterior motives? And if he asks you out and you reject him, will he stop giving you his notes? Just to be on the safe side, trying making friends with other people in your class who can help you. I don't want to scare you but I'm male so I know how other guys think. There's no way he can't see how cute you are so I think it might not be just friendship on his side. Of course, I might be wrong but what if I am not?

Don't depend on him and try to make more friends, okay? I know you feel like a stranger at that school but you've got a sweet personality so I'm sure it won't be hard to make more friends, okay? Girls preferably.


Love,
Min Ki.



P.S.

I know you're going to reply and tell me to stop being jealous and yes, I am jealous but only because everyone at your school gets to spend time with you. But other than that, I'm just worried. There are so many unscrupulous characters out there and I just want to help you protect yourself, so don't misunderstand me.



P.P.S

Write back soon.