Noise Of Silence

- Chapter 5-

      I joined a non-mixed school for girls (Academic Branch) following my father's desire, in the same high school as Min Soo. And my first days were extremely horrible. Imagine a twelve- hours study day that begins at eight in the morning and ends at ten or eleven at night.

      I was unable to read or draw anything for a whole month during the main school period which starts at eight in the morning and ends at five in the afternoon. The ten minutes break between classes was not enough to think of anything to draw.

     Besides, the lunch break, which begins after four sequential lessons, was allocated to lunch and talking to the curious girls who keep asking me about my unusual features, my modest clothes, and the strange moves and bows (Islamic prayer) I do at the end of the classroom on a small rug five times a day. To be honest, for an introverted person like me, I was feeling as though I was forcing myself to talk to those girls in whom I had no interest.

     And when the girls started to isolate me for my endless silence. I felt comfortable. The idea of being with people has always filled me with awe

     After that, I used to hear them talking behind my back throwing their mean words at me. Even though those words were just like spears, I did not care about them. To me, a cadaver had not had a right to complain.

    Whenever the main lesson ended at five in the afternoon, the supporting and strengthening lessons started to continue till eleven at night. That was a real hell, but I could not complain because my parents were paying an arm and leg for me to get that classy education.

      The days were passing fast bringing the dreams of the girls to get high degrees to join Seoul National University, whose acceptance tests are tougher than those of Oxford and Cambridge. I was picking up their chattering during the breaks while scratching my drawing notebooks with sharp pens without drawing a thing.

    I was not in the same class as Min Soo but that did not prevent her from joining me on lunch breaks. We used to meet frequently in the evening. It seemed that she was enjoying making me shocked by showing me the celebrities she follow dancing on stages half-naked, doing horrible moves. My shyness always succeeded in making my insane, geek friend scream happily. That girl is a real mess of media, she knows about most of the famous pop bands in Korea, though she only focuses on men's bands such as " 4 Men" " Boys Republic " " X-Five" and "BTS".

     For years, she tormented me with their news, their newest albums, and the rewards they gained from Asian Musical festivals.

      For a nerd like me, I preferred to spend my adolescence and school life studying history, science, and mathematics. That was why,  the more she spoke about them, the more she discovered the gaps between us. 

      She was fond of them, she fancied and loved them so much.  She was listening to their songs from her cell phone on our way home every day, while I fell overwhelmingly into a deep sleep on the subway listening to the Holly Quran.

   In the first year of our friendship, I always felt that Min Soo didn't like
my introverted silent personality that lacked passion and vitality.

     She was so festive,  so delightful, so jolly, and so rejoiceful. She was the first of her kind, I smile each time I remember her running to the toilet to fix her makeup, or buying a bottle of Soju and drinking it on our way back home when her brother or my father do not come to take us home.

     
   As she told me that she dreams to undergo plastic surgery to have the same features as mine, I was baffled. I had never seen her as someone who needed surgery to make herself prettier. Despite, her slick nature, her blossomed psyche and warm features were so gracious.