2 Dangerous Survival - Introduce Her

On the other hand, he might just show up on a whim. I don't know. In any case, Jaemin thought, I expected Yoojun to skip something as trivial as a study trip, but then he promptly shows up. Was this on a whim too? "Jaemin."

Jaemin was staring at the ceiling panel lights wondering about Yoojun when a perky voice interrupted his thoughts. From the seat across the aisle, Kim Chaewon (Female Student No. 15) offered something wrapped in crisp cellophane.

The bag sparkled like water under the white light, and it was filled with light-brown discs—cookies, probably. On top was a bow tied with a gold ribbon. Kim Chaewon was another girl who was neutral like Yoo Jimin's group. Other than her kind eyes, which were noticeably dark, she had a round, girlish face and shoulder-length hair.

She was petite and playful. In short, she was an average girl. If there was something particular about her, it was probably the fact that she wrote the best compositions in literature class. (This was how Jaemin got to know Chaewon. Jaemin would spend break periods writing lyrics for his songs in the margins of his notebooks, and Chaewon would insist on reading them.) She usually hung with Karina's group, but because she'd showed up late today, she had no other choice but to take an open seat.

Jaemin half-extended his hand and raised his brow. For some reason, Chaewon became flustered and said, "They're leftovers from the ones my brother begged me to bake. They're best fresh, so I brought them for you and Mr Lee." "Mr Lee" was Felix Lee's nickname. Although he had bulging, friendly eyes, the nickname seemed appropriate for someone who could be, oddly enough, mature and wise.

None of the girls called him by that name, but Chaewon had no problem calling the boys by their nicknames, and the fact that this hardly offended any of them indicated how uniquely disarming she was. (Jaemin had a sports-related nickname, the same name as a famous cigarette brand, but in the same way that Hyunjin was referred to as "The Third Man" no one called him by this to his face.)

He'd already noticed this before, Jaemin observed, but she's the only girl who calls me by my first name. Felix, who'd been listening in on them, interrupted.

"Really? For us? Thanks so much! If you made them, I bet they're delicious." Felix snatched the bag from Jaemin's hand, quickly untied the ribbon, and took out a cookie.

"Wow, these are awesome." As Felix praised Chaewon, Jaemin grinned.

Could he be more obvious? The moment Chaewon sat next to Jaemin he'd been repeatedly glancing over at her, sitting upright, completely nervous. It was a month and a half ago during spring vacation.

Jaemin and Felix had gone fishing for black bass at the dam reservoir that provided the city with its water supply.

Felix confessed to Jaemin, "Hey Jaemin, I got a crush on someone."

"Huh. Who is it?"

"Chaewon Kim."

"You mean from our class?"

"Yeah."

"Which one? There are three Kim. Yeonhee Kim or Hyunjin Kim?"

"Hey, unlike you, I'm not into thin girls."

"What the…? So you're saying Yeonhee is thin? She's just a little plump."

"Sorry. Anyway, well, uh yeah, it's Chaewon."

"Huh. Well, she's nice."

"Isn't she though? Isn't she?"

"All right, all right." Yes, Felix Lee was obvious. But despite his behaviour, Chaewon seemed oblivious to Felix's feelings for her. Maybe she was slow with stuff like this or something. It wasn't surprising, given her personality.

Jaemin took a cookie from the bag still in Felix's hand and examined it. Then he looked over at Chaewon. "So they lose their flavour?"

"Uh-huh, " she nodded. Her eyes strained, oddly.

"That's right." "Which means you're sure they taste pretty good."

He might have learned this form of sarcasm from Hwang Hyunjin. Jaemin often used it lately, to the dismay of other classmates, but Chaewon just emitted a happy laugh and said, "I guess so."

"Come on, " Felix interrupted again.

"I told you they were good, didn't I, Chaewon?" Chaewon smiled.

"Thanks. You're so nice." Felix all of a sudden froze up as if he'd jammed his finger into an electric outlet and turned mute. Staring silently into his lap, he proceeded to devour his cookie. Jaemin grinned and ate the rest of his cookie.

The warm, sweet taste and smell spread through his mouth.

"These are good, " Jaemin said.

Chaewon, who'd been observing him all this time, exclaimed, "Thank you!" He could be wrong, but somehow the tone of her voice was different than when she thanked Felix.

Well, wait…true, she was staring at him while he was eating the cookie. Were they leftovers from the batch she'd baked for her brother? Maybe she'd baked them for "someone else." Or maybe he was just plain wrong.

Then for some reason, Jaemin thought of Simyeong. She was a year ahead, and a fellow music club member until last year. In the Republic of Greater East Asia, rock music was strictly prohibited in school club activities, but when their adviser Ms Hyuna was absent, music club members would play rock on their own. That was the kind of membership the club attracted in the first place anyway. I'm Simyeong the best female saxophone player.

When it came to rock saxophone though, she was the best in the entire club. She was tall (almost the same height as Jaemin, who stood 171 centimetres) and plump, but with her remarkably mature face and her hair bundled by her shoulders, she looked awesome with her alto saxophone.

Jaemin was thrilled by the sight. Then she taught Jaemin how to play difficult guitar chords. (She said, "I played a little before I started playing the saxophone.") From that point on Jaemin spent every spare minute he had practising his guitar, and by his second year, he was the best player in the club. It was all because he wanted Simyeong to hear him play.

Then one day, when the two of them happened to be alone in the music room after school, Jaemin played and sang a version of "Summertime Blues" which impressed her. "That was so great, Jaemin. That was so awesome."

That day Jaemin bought a can of beer for the first time in his life and celebrated with a private toast. It tasted great.

But three days later when he asked her out, confessing, "Um, I like you, " she responded, "I'm sorry, I'm already going out with someone." She graduated and went to a high school with a music department, along with her "boyfriend." Which reminded Jaemin of his conversation with Felix at the dam over spring break.

After sharing his feelings for Chaewon, Felix asked him, "Are you still hung up on Simyeong?" Jaemin answered, "Yeah, I think I'll be hung up over her the rest of my life."

Felix looked stumped. "But she has a boyfriend, right?" Throwing the silver lure with all his might as if throwing a ball in from the outfield, he answered, "That doesn't matter."

Jaemin took the bag of cookies from Felix, who was still staring down into his lap. "Aren't you going to leave some for Chaewon?"

"O-oh yeah, I'm sorry." Jaemin returned the bag to Chaewon. "Sorry about that."

"That's all right. I don't mind. You guys should take them all."

"Really? But we shouldn't be the only ones." Jaemin took his first glance at the guy sitting next to Chaewon. Wrapped in his school uniform, Hwang Yunseong (Male Student No. 5) leaned against the window with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.

He might have been asleep. His hair was cropped so short he looked like a monk. His slightly stubbled face reminded Jaemin of a punk racketeer at a carnival. Wow, facial hair, everyone! Doesn't he look kind of old for a junior high school student? Well, there was one thing he knew. Although Class D consisted of the same students as it did last year, Hwang Yunseong had transferred last April from Daegu. And due to some circumstances, an injury or illness (he didn't look like the bedridden type so it must have been an injury), Yunseong had to stay behind for a year because he was unable to attend school for over six months. In other words, he was one year older than Jaemin and his classmates.

Jaemin himself never told anyone this, but that was what Jaemin had heard. He hadn't heard good things about Yunseong. There was a rumour that he'd been a notorious thug at his last school and that his hospitalization was a result of a fight. To support this rumour, his body was covered with scars.

A long scar from what appeared to be a knife wound ran over his left brow, and when they changed in the gym lockers (this was beside the point, but Yunseong's body was built like a middleweight boxer's), Jaemin was shocked to find the same kind of scars covering his arms and back. There were two round scars next to each other on his left shoulder. They looked like gunshot wounds, but that was unbelievable.