Love Potion for Sale

Chapter 1 : Love for Sale

It started since when we were both young. He was my classmate when I am in grade 4. He always catches everyone’s attention since he is a smart ass. And not to mention, he is extremely handsome.

I am the ugliest girl in the class since then. I always have my messy hair. I have braces since then because my mother told me that my teeth would look good someday if I start having it in a young age. But I’m not wearing eyeglasses. I’m not a smart ass, for god’s sake. I am one of the naughtiest in the class, they would say.

“Eun, Mimi told me that my hair looks like a mess!” It was my best friend, Soomi. She is always crying because she is always getting bullied. They always mention her messy hair. Talk about messy hairs… mine’s also like that.

“Don’t worry, I’ll do something,” I patted her back to stop her from crying. “Let’s go now… our teacher would surely be mad if we would be late for the class!” I cheered

We walked to our classroom and thank god, our teacher is still busy so she didn’t recognize us. We walked to our chairs where in front of us… there was Mimi sitting. Mimi was the prettiest girl in the class. But ironically, she’s the most spoiled brat too.

I tried to think of an idea… anything that would make Mimi cry. Then something popped in my mind. “Soomi, can you give me your bubble gum?”

“What? But it’s icky!” Soomi replied

“Just place it here!” I said pointing at a paper. She spits it on the paper I mentioned and looks at me with confusion. I smiled at her and grabbed the paper. “Oh Mimi, what a beautiful hair you have!” I started chanting.

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Teacher! My hair! Yuck!” Mimi started shouting as soon as our class ended. The teacher rushed to her to check what she was talking about.

“Eun! W-What did you…?” Soomi was trembling as soon as she recognized what I did.

“We don’t know anything about it, okay?” I said quietly as I started packing my things while our classmates were busy watching Mimi cry and shout. I was really laughing inside.

“Hi Yoseob!” The next day, no one ever knew how that happened to Mimi’s hair. But her hair was now so short. That’s good for her. She’s always talking about her long and soft hair. Say what, now.

“Do you really think no one saw what you did?” Yoseob replied without looking at me.

“What are you talking about?” I asked as I sat beside him.

“Mimi’s hair… you’re the one who did it, right? I saw you.” He looked at me angrily.

“How… did you…?” I started trembling.

He glared at me. “How dare you… I like her with her long hair! Look what you did, because of you she had to cut her hair!” he shouted at me angrily. Good thing no one was here to hear what he was saying.

“B-But… she was such a brat! I just did that because she’s bullying Soomi!” I answered

“What a lame excuse!” he laughed.

“What are you talking about?” I asked

“Just say that you like me! You’re too jealous of her that’s why you did that! You know that I like her! Look, no matter how long your hair would be, I would never ever like you! You’re so ugly!”

“B-But you said… you said you like my hair! You said I was pretty” I started to cry.

“I just said that because I wanted you to like me!” he laughed.

“What do you mean? You even gave me a bottle of water when I asked for it! You said you like me!” I replied

“That’s just a bottle of water…. It doesn’t mean anything. And as what I said, I just wanted to see if you like me. My friends used to tell me you’re the only girl who doesn’t like me…. So I did that to prove that you like me just like other girls do. I was right!” he laughed again.

From that day on, I swore to myself that I would never ever talk to him again. But it seemed like fate wasn’t on my side. I was avoiding him but fate would keep me with him.

“Hi Eun Hye…” it was the first time he called my two names.

“Yoseob,” I said without looking at him.

“Could we just forget about our elementary days? I mean, we’re so young back then…” he started

“Oh, that? It’s… okay.” I know I’m dumb.

“Can I ask you a favor?” he asked

“What is it?”

“Could you answer my assignments?” he smiled sweetly. “Please? I have a date with Mimi and I can’t do my assignments so… please?”

“Uh, sure.” Oh fuck, what did I just said?

“Thank you!” he stood up without looking back.

And now, we’re finally high school students. I am his ‘best-friend-in-times-of-doing-assignments.’ And his girl friend? Guess who? Its Mimi… that brat is still a brat.

“Soomi? Why are you still here?” I asked Soomi without looking at her as she sat across the table. I was busy answering Yoseob’s assignments by now.

“I knew it,” she hissed, “You’re doing his assignments again.”

“What can I do? I always get tongue tied when he’s asking me favor.”  I looked at her with a convincing tone. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “Why are you that mad at him?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Because he’s making my best friend a retard!” she hissed again.

“Retard? Are you calling me a retard?”

“Who the hell in the world would do her crush’s assignments…” she muttered, “Only Eun Hye would,”

“Please just try to understand me,” I said calmly as I started doing the math problems. I was scribbling the numbers when Soomi grabbed my hand making me stop. “Hey! I’m writing! Give that back to me!”

“Eun Hye, please… stop it. Whatever you do, he can’t recognize you! He has a girl friend, okay?” she said looking at me with pity eyes.

I heaved a sigh, “Soomi, do I really look desperate?”

She forced a smile, “I’m sorry… but you look desperate more than you think you do.”