In the realm of dreams

Part 2 - First day, second impressions

Baek Yoona

Oh Jisung kept making me laugh during lunch. His jokes were so stupid I laughed at their ridiculousness rather than for their humour quotient. He didn't strike me as someone who was too precious about appearing important. The best thing was his parents owned a fried chicken shop!

Jisung and I had plenty to talk about it turned out – we both liked anime and 2PM. Jisung wasn't sporty he said. Shame. I dared not ask if he liked poetry. He didn't seem the type to appreciate poetry but he had an easy way about him and also he seemed to be friends with everyone in class!

Jisung's desk was on my right. On my left sat a girl named Soobin – she wore her hair like a middle-schooler in two pigtails. If I become her friend, I am going to convince her to change her hairstyle! Behind me sat the class president, our banjang – Choi Soohoo. He seemed like the quiet type. He introduced himself to me and said he would go through my induction during self-study period.

After lunch we had one period of Physics – which was my least favourite subject. My dad insisted I take the science route even though I have told him many times I prefer the humanities. Appa says science graduates have better prospects. One would think my interests are varied – between practicing sports, studying science and reading poetry. But I know very well where my heart lies.

Someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around on my seat to see Sooho pointing at me to go outside to the corridor. Time for my induction.

'Should I call you Sooho or Banjang?', I asked as we skipped to the corridor. Well I skipped, he just sort of walked in a straight line. He gave me a weird look, like I had asked him something extraordinary.

'Whatever you want', he turned and started walking down the corridor with his hands in his pockets.

'Where are we going?', I caught up with him.

'Senior common room', he replied.

Like that meant anything to me! I didn't know where all the different rooms were!

'And where is the senior common room, Banjang?' I asked him adding a thick layer of tease in my voice.

'End of the corridor, to the left.'

Clearly he didn't grasp my sarcasm. Sigh! He is quite tall and taking long strides, I have to jog at times to keep up with him. His side profile was rather fetching – all sharp jawline and little-too-long-to-be-comfortable-fringe. Ah I loved a good unkempt fringe on a boy!

I wondered what he would look like if he smiled. Did he ever smile? Could a Neruda poem make him crack a smile? I mean a Neruda poem could make it rain on a desert so it could make him smile.

We sat down on a desk facing each other and he started showing me a map of the school, describing the different rooms.

'Where is the gym and how long is it open?', I interrupted him.

'It's here', he pointed to a big rectangular room on the map. 'There is also the old training room here, not many people use it now since the new gym opened. Mr Yoo has asked me to show it to you. He mentioned you might want to practice there?' he asked.

'Oh yes, I would love to practice there if possible, it's nice to be able to practice without interrupting PE classes.'

He pushed the bridge of his glasses up his nose with his index finger. 'Okay, I will give you the spare set of keys and will take you there some time.'

'Can we go now?', I asked. I could think of no better way to spend my self-study than by exploring my new training space. But Sooho looked unsure. Of course, he was probably the nerd-type. The type that really did cram during self-study period!

'Now? Now is a bit...how about after last period? I also need to collect the keys before I take you there.'

'Oh right, okay then. After class it is.'

He explained a few more things to me, which frankly, I only half listened to. I was kind of drowning in the lull of his clear diction I think. His voice was gravelly and his words seemed to be carefully curated.

'Do you read poems?', I couldn't help but ask.

Choi Sooho

I was quite taken aback by her question. I was talking to her about societies and she suddenly asked me about poems.

'Erm do you want to know if there are literature clubs? Yes, there are.' I replied.

'That's cool. But I asked if you read poems', she said, folding her arms and leaning back on her chair. She seemed to own the space she occupied. So sure of herself but not in an arrogant way.

'Ahem...eh sometimes', I answer. I didn't want to say I only read poems as a mechanism to bring order to the chaos that I sometimes found myself in. Another recommendation from my therapist that I have found helpful in the last few years.

'I knew it. You seem the intelligent type.'

'Does reading poems make someone intelligent?' I asked.

She seemed to ponder.

'Understanding poems makes someone intelligent, don't you think?', she leaned forward. I noticed the beauty spot on her chin, small but impactful. Much like herself. Did she really think I was intelligent? Was being intelligent a good thing in her book? Or was being sporty a better thing in her book?

'You know what, let's go to the old training hall now. Wait for me here, I will go and get the keys.' I told her as I gathered up the map.

*************

The old training room was a small annex on the east of the main school building, separated from it by a narrow strip of overgrown grass. It greeted us with dust and a faint aroma of dampness. It needed airing, clearly no one had come in here in a long time.

'It's not used much, so you might have to clean it up a bit before using it,' I said, waving the spiderwebs out of our path.

'This is so cool,' she said twirling around to take a 360 degree view. 'I feel like this is going to be my personal gym.'

The thought seemed to make her happy.

'Ahem..if you want I can help you tidy it up a bit. Tomorrow after school?', I offered. Although the room wasn't very big it has been used to store some old gym equipment that would need to be moved aside to make some space for her to train. She couldn't move those machines by herself. As class-president I should offer to help her.

'You will? That's awesome', she said similing. 'I can treat you to tteokbokki in return,'.

'Deal'. Tteokbokki would be a bonus. I am just happy at the mere possibility of spending some time with her. Even if it meant cleaning out this dusty old room.