Star University

“Ya, I want to buy this book!” YoungBae said sternly. This was so unlike him, Tao pushed me to my feet and began to talk.

“Neh, Gwenchanha?” He asked politely.

“Hey, Tao, let me handle this.” I said before finally turning to YoungBae, “Annyeong, just this one book, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he replied shortly.

“YoungBae, you don’t read comics. You said you hated them.”

“I am not buying it for me, Seungri dongseng likes them.”

“Why didn’t Seungri oppa buy it then?” I asked.

YoungBae was weird lately and I couldn’t understand why. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I gave him his change and he walked off toward the group who were roaming the store.

“Is he normally like that?” Tao asked suspiciously.

“Ani, not at all. I wonder what’s gotten into him.” JiYong and SeungHyun approached me as I was putting some books back on the shelf.

“Annyeong haeseyo, ajumma, could you point us towards the BigBang section, we want their Autobiography.” Seunghyun said, he was almost always like this, out of all the members, he was the oldest and I treated him like I treated JiYong.

“YA!!!, ajumma?? I gave him a little push, “you refer to me as unnie from now on.” I walked off toward the biography and celebrity section of the store and pointed to their autobiography ‘The first years.’. “Yeogi.”

“Ahh, Gwenchanha ajumma,” SeungHyun winked.”

“ya!-“ SeungHyun and JiYong pulled out a pen and began to write on the first page. “You can’t do that. You have to buy it now!”

“We were going to anyway,” they took it up to Tao and paid for it. “Bye-bye ajumma.”

SeungHyun was being so cute and childish. He is meant to be the oldest but he sometimes acted like the maknae. ‘Tch, babo” I whispered.

“Bye unnie,” Seungri and Daesung said. YoungBae ignored and just walked out.

“Bye oppa, see you soon.” I said cheerfully as YoungBae walked out. I saw a grin on his face as he turned toward the exit.

‘Ah so he was playing with me, babo.” I thought to myself.

I finished my shift at the store and JiYong was waiting for me in the car.

“Annyeong, how long have you been here?” I asked him.

“Not long,” JiYong retorted, smiling like crazy.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Yeogi,” he pulled out the book which he and SeungHyun bought earlier.

It read, ‘To JiEun,
So glad you are back in Korea now, love you so much my dongseng. JiYong’
‘Ajumma, you still look as pretty as you were when we were younger, saranghaeyo AJUMMA, so glad you are back, SeungHyun oppa ;) ‘
‘Ah, noona, if these losers ever tease you, I’ve got your back, don’t worry.
Love Dae.’
‘Noona, im so glad you are back, I can’t wait for us to go to school together. Please call me and we can go in together saranghaeyo noona, Seungri.’
‘ I am glad you are back now noona, it will be just like the old days, I can’t wait, saranghaeyo Hwang JiEun, YoungBae oppa x’

“Aww this is so cute, gomapada oppa” I put the book in the dashboard and we drove off home. I recognised the way back so I could travel on my own from now on. We ate dinner and I went to bed.

I was still nervous about working at the store, even though Tao was really nice to me and I felt comfortable around him. I think I was only really comfortable because I knew BigBang were there. They always made me feel good about myself.

A couple of days passed, and at the book store I got really close to Mr. Lee and Tao, another boy worked there but I hadn’t met him yet. He only worked late on Wednesdays and early Saturdays and Sundays. So I’d only ever meet him on Wednesdays when we work together. ‘Yoo HyunJoo’ I read his name tag. He was a lot older than me and Tao, he was closer to Mr Lee’s age than ours, being at least forty, but he seemed nice, although he was very quiet.
Tomorrow I would get a break from all this hard work and then I’d be back on Friday and Saturday to work at the café.

Me and Tao enjoyed working together and I was putting away some new books that had just arrived from the publishing company when I accidently tripped and fell backwards only to be caught by a boy no older than me or Tao.

“Woah, hyung, you work with some really pretty people.” The boy said holding me upright.

“Ya, loose her BaekHyun,” he turned to me “Gwenchanha JiEun?”

I nodded. “Woah, even her name is pretty. How come you haven’t mentioned her before hyung?”

“Wait you know each other?” I asked.

“Mm, we are both in a group called EXO,” they made a thumbs up signal on the count of three and I thought this was adorable. Then something weird happen I felt like I was going to faint or have a blackout after I saw him. He was so good looking I nearly died.

“Kris, hyung.” Tao and BaekHyun murmured. The boy just smiled and waved at them. ‘Omo, what is this, why are they so cute’ I thought in my head.

“Come and meet JiEun, she’s pretty, and seems cool,” BaekHyun said, he’d only just met me, but he seemed confident that I was a nice person. Great judge of character if I do say so myself.

“Annyeong Haeseyo,” I bowed to them all as they stood in front of me, fixing my hair as I stood up straight.

“This is Kris, and BaekHyun,” Tao explained all three of them stood in front of me, but only one wasn’t smiling. ‘Kris’ I thought, interesting. “This is Hwang JiEun.”

“Tao, you don’t mean JiEun of JiMan, do you?” BaekHyun asked and his face lit up when Tao nodded. I looked away but could make out Tao putting his fingers on his lips and BaekHyun
zipping his.

“Annyeong Haeseyo, BaekHyun, Annyeong Haeseyo Kris. How do you know each other?”

“We are a quarter of the members of EXO, Tao and Kris hyung are part of sub group EXO M along with four other members, me, I am part of sub group EXO K along with five other members. Altogether there are twelve of us in the whole group but we split off into Korean and Chinese subgroups.” BaekHyun explained and I nodded whilst he did.

“We must get back to work,” Tao said pushing me towards the counter. Kris had not taken his eyes away from me.

I felt uncomfortable around him, but not around Tao. Tao was nice to me, and I was able to call him oppa comfortably. It was nice.

After I finished work, at the bookstore I went to the café, and checked my hours for Friday and Saturday. I went to walk out the door when I accidently bumped into someone carrying a cup of hot coffee, they spilt it and it went all over me.

“Ah, Jwehsonghamnida, Jwehsonghamnida, Jwehsonghamnida.” I repeated bowing my head as I did. I never forgot my manners and i would always sincerely apologise for anything I have don’t wrong.

“Gwenchanha?” the boy asked.

“Neh, Jwehsonghamnida. Gwenchanha?” I asked.

“Neh, its okay it’s my fault anyway,” the boy handed me a napkin and I pushed my hair to the sides to clean myself up. “Where are you going?” He asked.

“To the east car park.”

“I will walk you there.” He replied, “just to make sure you don’t bump into anyone else with hot drinks.” He laughed, “I am Eli by the way.”

“Hwang JiEun, I am 18, you can drop formalities with me,” I replied smiling.

“Hwang JiEun, I’ve heard that name before. I’m 22, so I expect upmost formal greetings when we see each other again.” We began walking, I explained I would repay him for the coffee, if he came on Friday or Saturday. He agreed.

“So what school do you go to?” He asked and smiled, throwing an empty cup into a nearby bin.

“I’ve just arrived in Korea, I lived in UK for eight years, I will be attending, Seoul University and School of the Arts, as much to my dismay.” I replied hoping he wouldn’t ask many more questions especially about school.

“Ah SUTA. I thought so, I go there too, we should hang out more often, I will show you around,” Eli said.

“Mm, okay, that sounds good,” I replied.

“Yeogi, put your phone number in, where is yours, I’ll put mine in yours. Let me know if you ever need anything.” He said.

“That’s great, but my brother does go to SUTA too, he can always show me around.”

“Who is he? And you don’t really want to hang out with your brother all the time do you? Come meet me, and the rest of the gang, we gladly welcome anyone.”

“Hwang JiYong, from BigBang, they have just debuted with JMEntertainment.”

“Oh yeah, I know him, he’s a great laugh at the studio, hey maybe I can pick you up Friday and take you to work, I know where you live my dongseng lives next door, well down the road, you know what I mean, there’s a couple acres of field between you guys but yeah, next door.”

“Ah, yeah that would be nice, but how would I get home?” I asked him politely.

“Well I’ll wait for you of course, now what time?”

“mm, how about half three, we could have some lunch beforehand? Maybe, if you want?” I didn’t want to sound too desperate but I wanted to make friends with as many people as possible and this meant sucking up to a lot of people, even if I didn’t really know them. Eli was only the same age as SeungHyun oppa, so I didn’t really care, plus he was gorgeous as hell. I wonder why everyone I knew went to Seoul University and School of the arts I thought they barely let anyone in. I thought it was an elite school for only the most talented people in Korea.

I ate a late dinner and had a shower before going to sleep.

All the thoughts of the past couple of days spun round in my head.

“Hwang JiEun. Everybody knows me, better than myself.”

“What kind of job does appa do?”

“Why am I in Seoul University?”

“Why was YoungBae acting so weirdly?”

I couldn’t help thinking about everything. All these questions were keeping me awake and I hadn’t really spoke to EunJi or MinJi or MinJun or JiYong or even appa much lately because of work.

I could tell my life was going to be like a drama, hopefully not so much like Boys over flowers where poor Geum JanDi gets bullied so much. Hopefully it will be like a simple cute drama like Flower Boy Next Door. ‘I really watch too many dramas’ I thought to myself as I paced up and down the bedroom. I glanced at my clock 00:04, why so late?

I looked at my bookshelf, ah, my new comic, Hana Yori Dango. I am pretty sure that this is the one Boys over flowers is based on. I began to read in lying on my new sofa that I hadn’t had chance to use yet.

Time soon went fast and my alarm for two hours went off quietly, and I began to feel sleepy. I got into my bed and fell fast asleep. I dreamt of Eli, Tao, BaekHyun and Kris, and I especially dreamt of YoungBae oppa. I really didn’t know why on earth he would start acting like that, I didn’t do anything wrong at least I don’t think I did. Unless it was that time when I accidently walked into the wrong room and he was in there. Maybe that was it. Should I confront him? No I hated confrontation has much as he did. I didn’t know what to do.

After a while of thinking, or rather, dreaming I came to the conclusion I would leave it until he confronted me, I knew he hated it as much as I did because when we were little he got scared when he broke a small pot in the garden and he begged me not to tell my umma or my appa.
He was cute like that when he was little.

I stopped dreaming, ready for my day off work and ready to have fun with my sisters and older brother.

Notes

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