.  Kim Hye Hill laughed out loud. Casting a few words to Lee Mina, the other girls didn’t hesitate to pick up the chips on the floor and eat. As I looked at them enjoying the moment, Lee Mina continued.

  “Oh, anyway, listen Donnie! What Yi Ruda said was……”


  “Hey, but it was truly insane. Yoon Jung In kept asking him, ‘Why did you kiss Donnie in the cheek?’ and Yi Ruda said, “She looked cute,’ with a smile.”


  “The ‘cute’ he mentioned isn’t something that we use to a dog or so. You know what I mean!”


  “So lovely that he’s gonna die!”


  “So cheesy that I’m gonna die out of cringing!”


  When someone said like that, all of us burst into laughter. I heard them talk with a smile too. Although what they said was true, Yi Ruda would never like me as a girl.

  As I kept laughing, I suddenly felt unbearably nauseous. I covered my mouth and ran into the bathroom. Kim Hye Hill, the only person taking control of herself from die laughing, stood up and followed me.

  I skipped lunch and dinner, so nothing really came out from vomiting. While I puked, Kim Hye Hill rubbed my back during the whole time. ‘Thanks,’ as I said and stood up to rinse my mouth, Kim Hye Hill flung a question.

  “Did something happen? Your face doesn’t look good from the time you came into the room.”


  “Oh……” I said while wiping out the water around my lips. Kim Hye Hill stared at me. Rolling my eyeballs for a moment, I opened my mouth at last.

  “Um…… what happened is……”


  “Uh-huh,” Kim Hye Hill nodded. The drops of water from my chin scattered against my feet.

  I continued, “A boy kissed my cheek and asked if I wasn’t nervous at all.”


  “What?”


  Narrowing my eyes, I wiped out my chin with the back of my hand.

  “I mean, isn’t it the same as asking me if it hurts when he punches me in the face.?”


  “Hold on a for a sec……”


  Kim Hye Hill paused me shortly in a serious face. While I looked at her without saying anything, she furrowed her brows and spoke to me.

  “That seems……”


  “Uh-huh.”


  Kim Hye Hill fell into thought for a while then hesitantly continued in a suspicious face.

  “He likes you.”


  “No, he likes another girl.”


  “Really?”


  “Yeah.”


  “Are you sure? Aren’t you getting it wrong?”


  I scratched my cheek.

  “I don’t think so.”


  “Yes, you do. You ain’t getting it right.”


  “No, it’s something that can’t be understood wrong.”


  As I affirmed like that, Kim Hye Hill finally grimaced her tranquil face then asked me again.

  “.…… Then what is it?”


  “I don’t get it either.”


  “Yeah.”


  Standing face to face, we looked at each other blankly then fetched a sigh. The retreat was over like that, leaving a bunch of unanswered questions.

  Article 14. The Female Protagonist Has Only One Friend.

  Someday, it’s hard to sleep. It’s a day when my head is banging and dizzy as if it got smashed with something and my body so heavy like water-soaked cotton. Lying down tranquilly inside my room on that kind of day, my bed seems to be a boat floating after the river.

  I repeated myself getting up and getting back to sleep several times. Every dream wasn’t that so terrible or brutal; however, they were all related to my memories, which felt quite upsetting when recalling them. Especially, the last dream left inside my head clearly.

  Ban Yeo Ryung and I were sitting along on a comfy purple couch. Only the white walls surrounded us. No people, no decorations. There were only us in the space.

  In front of us, there was a glass table and a pair of wooden bowls were on top of it. The bowl in front of me was empty.

  Suddenly, I realized my body was as small as a kid. As soon as it came across my mind, I became so hungry. Even it was a dream, the hunger I felt was so real.

  ‘Is there anything I can grab?’ While I glanced around for some food, a pouring sound came from the front.

  Next to my empty bowl, something like marshmallows showered down to Ban Yeo Ryung’s bowl. Even they filled the whole bowl, they kept pouring over and dropped to the sides.

  Putting hands together neatly on her knees like a good child, Ban Yeo Ryung stared at it nonchalantly. She then opened her lips.

  [I don’t need them.]

  Her words were particularly clear. While I looked at her blankly, Ban Yeo Ryung took a glance at me then spoke to the empty space again.

  [Please stop.]

  [Why?]

  Surprisingly, a question flung from the space. Before answering back, Ban Yeo Ryung was a little hesitant. Her attitude was, somehow, similar to that of Ban Yeo Ryung in the real world.

  She, at last, responded to the question.

  [Gonna hate me.]

  [You? Who?]

  [Those who don’t have much like me.]

  Ban Yeo Ryung then rolled her eyeballs to see me. Her moist black eyes shined serenely and that was the last scene of my dreams.

  Narrow sunlight leaked through the window. It was difficult to see the clock in my bed. I tried to get up but soon felt how heavy my body was today, so I buried my face in the comforter and stayed like that for quite a while.

  Thanks to the knocking sound on the front door, I could avoid sleeping for hours afterward. Getting myself barely out of bed, I roughly swept my tangled hair back then went outside to the living room.

  The entire was quiet. When I glanced at the living room clock, it was already 9 in the morning. It was summer and the sunrise took place earlier. Today, the sunlight felt weak, so I thought it was about 5 in the morning or so; however, it might just be a cloudy day. I opened the front door barefoot. And those who stood in front made my jaw drop.

  As I just got up from bed, I encountered them with tangled hair and unwashed face while wearing a paint-stained white t-shirt and shorts. Compared to myself, Ban Yeo Ryung and Ban Yeo Dan were wearing layers of clothes.

  Yeo Dan oppa was dressed in the most decent outfit that I ever saw. He wore a jet-black, slim-fit suit. A deep blue lining was dimly seen through the pocket on his chest. He wore a less saturated round t-shirt inside and loafers on his feet. Ban Yeo Ryung, standing behind him, wore a cream sleeveless sweater on top and white lace skirt on the bottom.

  Holding the doorknob, I was at a loss of words for quite a while. Yeo Dan oppa then broke the ice while handing me out something.

  “It’s 9, so I thought you already woke up. Here.”


  “This is……?”


  As I took it from him, it was a gift-wrapped chocolate box that looked like those in the hotel bakeries. Dropping my gaze at the box for a second, I soon grinned brightly.

  “Wow, where did you get this?” I asked, raising my head.

  “Got it as a gift from my relatives lately,” he replied shortly.

  As if it was the end of our conversation, Ban Yeo Dan tried to close the door. ‘Oh, hold on,’ I said, squeezing my hand into the closing door, then I asked Ban Yeo Ryung.

  “But where are you guys going in this morning with those outfits?”


  “Oh, our uncle recently remodeled his store. He’s holding an event to celebrate that, so we’re going there.”


  I showed a face to her that I understood in a flash. There was a famous designer in Ban Yeo Ryung’s relatives, so I knew what was going on.

  Ban Yeo Ryung and Ban Yeo Dan often got invited to those events. I also went there together once when I was in middle school. After I became a sidekick of Ban Yeo Ryung and Ban Yeo Dan in that party, I promised myself to never join them again no matter how delicious and funny things were there.

  Anyway, as I shook the chocolate box to show my gratitude and closed the front door, the silent house welcomed me again.

  With dim eyes, I stared at the TV and a pile of laundries then walked out to the terrace and opened the window. The dark clouds reminded me of some heavy rain today. Scratching my head, I went back into my moon. On the desk, I saw the book, “Don’t Eat the Marshmallow – Yet! The Secret to Sweet Success,” thrown there. I grabbed it and placed it back into the shelf with a grimace thinking, ‘So, the dream about Ban Yeo Ryung and I with a bowl bunch of marshmallows was simply from that book.’


  I didn’t want to think about the dream and apply any meanings to it anymore; therefore, I pushed it as deeply as possible into the shelf. After that, I picked up my phone and opened it. A few messages arrived.