It was summer.
When I was young, I thought the love I read about in books or saw in dramas was grand and powerful. I believed that, in the street with cherry blossoms falling, everything fades out except for that person, and that to win their love, I had to do whatever it took, even offering my life for them was just a standard feature. The definition of love I learned from a young age was like that: "Falling in love at first sight and being able to give everything for that person." Maybe that's why, my first experience with love wasn't so grand, and it took me quite a while to recognize what love really was. He was the type of guy who would break every cliché about love at first sight – just an annoying guy. The guy who took my first place – that arrogant jerk. To describe him more, he was the complete opposite of me, someone who was always bright and surrounded by people, as if someone was shining light on him.
The first time I met him was on the day our midterm grades were released in the first year of high school. I had already heard of him, as his name came up multiple times every day in class. He was handsome, tall, kind, and good at studying, admired by many girls. He always smiled and passed by, and the first time he bothered me was on the day the midterm grades were announced when he came to our class. I thought there was no way he would know about me, considering he was always surrounded by people.
"Hey, I'm Jeon Jungkook. You're Koo Hye-won, right?"
"You know me?"
After the teacher handed out the grade sheets, I was sitting there in shock from my "second place" score. For a moment, I looked up from my grade sheet and saw Jeon Jungkook standing in front of me, the protagonist of the rumors I had been hearing every day.
"Yeah, of course. I heard you're really good at studying. My friends told me you were always number one before high school."
"Do you need something? I don’t think it’s about studying. I heard you’re number one in the whole school. If you want to brag about being first, go tell the people around you."
"This time, I was just lucky. It’s not about studying; I just wanted to be friends with you. But you’re being really cold."
I was already upset from my lower grade, and now this guy, who was number one, wanted to be friends? It felt like I was dreaming. I assumed there could only be one reason why he was talking to me – because I was number two, and he wanted to know who I was.
"Sorry, but I didn’t come to this school to make friends. Besides, you already have a lot of friends around you. Why are you bothering me? If you’re done talking, can you leave? I need to study."
"Let’s do this: I’ll keep trying to be friends with you. If you don’t want that, beat me in the next final exam and get first place. Then I won’t bother you anymore. But if I still get first place, you’ll have to grant me one wish. How about it?"
"Why should I do that?"
"If you don’t want to, then you can just be my friend~"
Suddenly, he came and asked me to be his friend, and then told me to beat him in the final exam if I didn’t want him to bother me. It didn’t make sense, and I didn’t have time to waste on such things. I packed up my bag, ignored him, and headed home. While walking home, I thought about what had just happened, but after a while, I snapped back to reality and started reviewing my English vocabulary.
A week passed in no time. During the week, he had been troubling me on the way home, but fortunately, he only came to see me at dismissal time, so I didn't have to deal with a barrage of questions from other kids. It was like that until yesterday. After I told him not to bother me on the way home anymore, I had no idea what would happen the next day. The next morning, I left home, not wanting to waste time, with both earphones on, listening to online lessons as I made my way to the classroom. It was always a bit noisy in the mornings with girls doing their makeup and boys playing games, but when I turned the volume up and arrived in class, I unpacked and laid out my study materials. While listening to the lessons, my neck started to hurt from staying in the same position for too long, so I took off my earphones and turned my neck. Suddenly, someone spoke to me from the side.
"Hye-won, hi."