𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝'𝐯𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐎𝐧 | ᵗʰᵉ ⁱᵐᵖᵒˢˢⁱᵇˡᵉ ʰᵉⁱʳ

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏

He dislikes the girl at first sight.

Or second, if he thinks about it. He saw her two evenings ago, rushing onto the bus and swearing in heavily accented English when she found out it was the wrong one.

Taeoh presses close to the rooftop railing, watching aloofly as the girl—Kim Seri, Inha had screeched in terror—calls Inha 'fuckface' while shaking him by the collar, accusing him of shoplifting from someone named Suah's store.

He flails his arms. "I didn't! I didn't do it!" He swears, "You can ask Han Taeoh. He saw me. Didn't you, Taeoh?"

Taeoh doesn't feel like interfering. He reluctantly nods though she doesn't seem to care much for his opinion. She's taken an instant dislike to him as well. "Whatever." She has a slight accent when she speaks Korean. Her features, he realises when he pays attention, are a little mixed. "You better pay Suah's dad for everything you stole," she hisses, letting go of him and begins to leave the rooftop.

A darkness Taeoh doesn't expect flickers through Inha's eyes. "Bitch," he mutters.

"Orphan," she shoots back angrily.

Taeoh is taken aback for a second. He assumed these two to be friends with how familiar they were acting. The corner of Inha's mouth twitches. "I have a father," he defends firmly.

Kim Seri gives him a very pointed onceover. Her mouth presses into a thin, unimpressed line. "Mm," she raises her eyebrows as if calling him out on his bullshit, "You definitely do."

•✧•

"Who, Kim Seri?" Inha hoists his helmet on his hip and scratches his cheek. "She's the English teacher's niece. Moved here a couple of months ago with her dad. Kim Seri is her Korean name. Her real name is..." He screws up his face, trying to remember. "Shin-something. I peeked at her documents at the school office out of curiosity. I dunno...she's Irish. Half of her, anyway."

Taeoh pauses, the gate to his temporary house half-open. With a tilt of his head, he guesses, "Sinéad? Like Sinéad O'Connor?"

"Who?" He rolls his eyes at Inha's overexaggerated confusion. "It's the name with the thing over the 'e', right? Wah, that's pretty spot on." He leans against his bike and scowls, "She's so damn annoying. Sometimes, I feel I could run her over with my bike."

Taeoh nods. He can understand why Inha would dislike her. "I thought you were friends," he says honestly, "It's a surprise that you let her get away with cursing at you."

"She's tolerable but still annoying," he answers, "Goes to the Kangoh International School for Girls. I'm civil with her because she's Mr. Kim's niece. He might flunk me in English if she talks shit about me." Inha swings back and forth on the balls of his feet like a child. "You know what's weird, though?" He grins to himself, like he's hiding a secret. With a twinkle in his eyes, he says, unprompted, "She told me to be wary of you."

•✧•

She's on the wrong bus again.

Taeoh watches her from three seats away. The bus is just about empty but Kim Seri is still standing. She talks animatedly on the phone, in the same accented English that's too quick for his ear, gazing out the windows but not really looking.

What stands out about her is the light shade of brown her hair is. It's tied in a tiny ponytail with a parted fringe over her forehead. Maybe dyed, Taeoh thinks. She has multiple piercings in her ears—he counts six in one and seven in the other. Her face is square but not harsh or pointed. Thick eyebrows and brown eyes. Lips not too thin. Under the denim shorts, the band t-shirt and jacket, she's curvy compared to the usual slenderness in the women here.