Was It All For Nothing? - By Sarah Jaju

Untold Secrets (Chapter 25)

Min-Jae:

Imagine that you're at a ball, but you're alone. You're aimlessly roaming, trying to find something to do. The girl who you wanted to ask, already has someone to go with, and you end up as a loner. That's what happened with me.

I was standing in a corner all alone, like a depressed idiot till 9:30pm. The weird thing was that I couldn't see Hae-Ri anywhere, but I did catch a glimpse of Hae-Jun a couple of times. When I was about to leave, I finally caught sight of Hae-Ri, but she was in tears! 

"Hae-Ri? Gwenchanayo?" I asked. (Are you okay?)

"Aniyo! I'm not okay, and I need a shoulder to cry on!" she said, her voice trembling. (No!)

I decided to take my chances, "Wanna dance?" and I was ever so relieved when she said yes.

But then, as they say, 'some things are too good to last', I made the stupidest mistake of confessing to her about my feelings. She was shocked, like anyone would be, and abruptly left me standing all by myself. Again.

I hopelessly stood there for a few seconds, and then decided to find Jessica. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that she was supposed to be Ho-Jin's date, and my eyes had to go through the terrible torture of seeing them kissing by the chocolate fountain. I groaned, what was it with me interrupting weird sights these days? I decided that luck wasn't on my side. Returning to my room was the option that I could see.

Would this misery ever end? I remembered the last time that I fell for a girl this hard. It was in highschool, and guess who the girl was...it was Jessica Myres. I hung my head low, and walked back to the guys' block with a shuffle, remembering the first few moments of this childish crush of mine.

...

It was during our maths class, and everyone was sitting in the usual classroom setup; rows and columns. I was standing in the doorway, about to enter, but then I caught a glimpse of this new girl who I had never seen before. I was awestruck, and couldn't look away, as cringe as this sounds. She was staring hard at the board with her dagger-like eyes that seemed like they could pierce into anyone's soul. Her blonde hair was held back in a low, messy, half-ponytail, and her curtain bangs covered most of her average-sized forehead.

I took a couple of steps forward, and to my absolute surprise, the new girl called Jessica caught my stare, and shot me a quick smile. I couldn't help thinking, Damn, she's hot. I have to talk to her. I was determined to curse all my doubts that held me back, and went up to talk to her during our 20 minutes recess.

She looked even prettier up-close, and her personality was even prettier than her pretty face. She told me that she was Australian, which explained her friendly demeanour. I fell for her pretty hard, until she started dating Kim Ji Han, who was the most popular guy in our grade. I slowly got over her, but as the months flew by, our bond -friendship- grew stronger and denser.

God, how I miss those care-free days, I would do anything to go back! I thought, but obviously there was nothing that I could do to change the present situations that strangled me.

Jessica:

He wrapped his strong arms around my waist, and I clutched his face. And then, we kissed. Just like that. A few months ago, I would've never believed that I would be in a relationship with my best friend's elder brother. And yes, that night, we made it official.

Ho-Jin was such a gentleman! He even gave me a piggy-back ride all the way to my room, just because my feet were hurting due to the pencil heels that I had been wearing for the past 6 hours or so. His skin felt warm through his black tuxedo, and I held on tight.

When I entered our room, I found Hae-Ri glued to her phone with a wide smile on her face, and she didn't even notice that I was back.

"Earth to lover-girl!" I said, grabbing her attention.

"It's lover-girl...and lover-boy!!!" she beamed, finally looking up from her phone.

"You mean...he asked you out?!" I confirmed, bursting with mirth.

"Yeah!!" she squealed, jumping up to hug me. She plug her phone and it hit the corner of her bed, making a dent in the screen, "Oops."

"Well, guess what. Ho-Jin asked ME out!! We can go on double dates now, chingu!" I announced. (My friend)

"Ya! Good for you, queen! You deserve it!" she congratulated.

"Hae-Ri Ya..." I said.

"Nae?"

"You know I love you, right?" I asked, not realising how mushy I sounded.

"What?!!" she screamed, making me flinch, "So you're cheating on my brother, then?" ah, she was being sarcastic, but I knew that she got the message.