Chapter 48: {Senior Year Starts pt. 2}

It's so hard to pay attention in class when your girlfriend sits next to you every class. Jugyeong pulls our desks close when we don't have large tables of two.

I still need to make a friend. UGH.

{This is exactly why I made it a mission, you need a life. You literally have Jugyeong, Suho, Dowoon, Sangah, and to an extent, Kiara as your friends. That's sad. You LITERALLY have no friends outside of your friend group. That's just SAD.}

Hey! Many people have less friends than I do.

{Just because you're not the bottom of the barrel, doesn't mean you're even at the middle. You're girlfriend that's one of the most beautiful ladies here is barely at the middle of the social caste.}

Why would I care?

{You don't have to, just make a friend like a normal person.}

Fine.

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Now it's 6th period, and we got Coach Yoo-ji as our PE teacher. Dangit.

{At least she's hot.}

True.

"Hey suckers, I'm Coach Yoo-ji, since y'all beed to get your lockers and crap we're doing nothing." she said.

"This is your instructor? I've never met her, she's pretty, so we're screwed. The pretty teachers always give the most work." Jugyeong whispers at me.

We're just sitting outside for now, we don't start PE til next week.

She starts calling out names for attendance:

"Hyun Ferrari?"

"Here." I reply.

"You go to this school? Well at least I know one person here."

All the boys just stare at me.

A few more names pass...

"Jugyeong Keum?" Coach Yoo-ji asks for attendance.

"Here!"

"Oh that's your girlfriend Hyun, hi."

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After finishing attendance, Coach Yoo-ji brought out her tobacco flavored gum, she should just wear a patch. They even helped the mega chainsmoker that was my dad 10 years ago quit.

I didn't notice the flavor until she got a new one mid lesson once and I could see a big NICOTINE GUM label on the package in English.

She comes up to Jugyeong and I, we were just chilling, minding our own business...

"Hyun! My boyfriend broke up with me again!" Coach Yoo-ji complains.

"Was it the African guy you brought to teach us the spider clinch?" I ask her.

"Yeah, he was so handsome too! Jugyeong, you got a keeper. You don't get guys like Hyun much anymore. You get 20 something year-old women like me that are single because the times nowadays don't teach commitment. Even if I'm prettier than 99 percent of people." she says while grabbing my wrist for whatever reason.

{Egotistical...cute. Yes I'm a simp}

I cringe and she lets go.

Jugyeong looks nervous, but after Coach Yoo-ji said I was a keeper...

"Hahaha yeah. I'm fortunate." she says.

Then Coach Yoo-ji replies, "Hyun, you got any cousins you could hook me up on a date with dude?"

"All my male cousins that are 25-35 are all hitched, addicts, or live in Puerto Rico. One is all three."

"Dang!"

"Sorry."

"It's fine. I'm gonna go get to know some other kids now. Maybe they have a handsome foreign or mixed family member I can prey upon."

{If you were older, she probably would prey upon you.}

I can't fathom that thought.

Jugyeong puts her head on my shoulder and hugs my arm. I could feel her thick and warm embrace in every direction if you know what I mean by that.

"What's wrong Jugyeong?" I ask her.

"I just can't believe we have one more year of pain."

"At least we get to leave a period earlier."

"That's true."

She falls asleep in the same position. The bell will wake her up.

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Day 2 of school...

"Today's the first day of club right?" I ask Jugyeong.

"Yes, time to torture Mrs. Lim with my presence alone."

"I thought you were gonna be less of a hate-eater this year."

"I never said I was, just more lowkey about it."

"Now that you say that, yeah, I stand corrected."

"Have you asked our friends to come hang over at this club in the morning?"

"Nah."

"Why not?"

"I kinda wanna branch out first. Also, we can get more of what's essentially free time together since I read the rules. Homework is only required to be worked on once a week at this club, and then we can mess around."

"You? Branch out babe?"

"I wanna make a new friend."

"No girls."

"Hey! You know I'll always be faithful to you!"

"I was just joking I know that silly, though the girl though, that's a different story. You're as handsome as you were when we were kids, maybe more now. Girls try to steal good men like you."

"Women scare me with how hostile some of y'all are."

"Toxic feminity is much less bearable than toxic masculinity, at least toxic masculinity can be ended by kicking his balls, toxic feminity is masochistic."

"How did we go from making friends to toxic feminity being masochistic? This is a whole different level of weird conversation winding."

"No idea."

When we enter Mrs. Lim's room to go to club...

"Ah hell, y'all signed up for my club? Don't you have taekwondo Jugyeong?"

"Quit last year Mrs. Lim."

"I hate my life sometimes."

"We're not THAT bad."

"I just got divorced, not THAT bad is now THAT bad."

"What happened?"

"My cousin put vodka in our lemonade and I couldn't tell that it was in there before it was too late, I got drunk, had to get an Oober, the guy was cute. You can fill in the rest."

"You cheated? Dang, I feel sorry for your ex."

"Even I feel sorry for my ex that I did that to him. Don't get married, it just ends in heartbreak."

"Well you're the idiot that cheated."

"If y'all do get married, don't drink alcohol with your cousins and order an Oober."

"Noted."

This got awkward very fast.

"I know right?" Jugyeong whispers in my ear.

I love when she whispers in my ear, let's just say with how much Jugyeong makes my blood pump blood faster, at least it touches every corner. If you payed attention in physiology, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

{Is talking like you're breaking the fourth wall your new coping mechanism now?}

It kind of is. Sometimes I wish my whole life were like a book.

Speaking of books. I made up a perfect title for my book. "My Non-existent System."

"Hey Hyun, what would you prefer. Get married when we're both 18 in normal years or wait a bit longer?" she asks me.

That's random.

"Doesn't matter to me, as long as the time feels right."

"Honestly same."

Now it might be weird that we talk about this, but we're at the point in our relationship, since we were close already from the beginning, that we already know what we want. Most couples aren't comfortable enough to talk about stuff like marriage until one of them randomly goes on one knee and then you have to decide if the "yes I'll marry you" is genuine. I think the only thing weird about what Jugyeong and I talk about is just the fact that we're 17 and a half talking about this instead of being actual adults.