.  ‘But isn’t it weird and ridiculous when someone just runs away while saying, ‘Cool! I beg you! Thanks!’ to the person who’s about to get beaten on behalf of you? That person isn’t just having no shame but also acting like a piece of trash!’ I thought.

  As a citizen, I just kept a conscience; thus, I had no idea why Ban Hwee Hyul was sending me that respectful gaze. The look in his eyes had something that made me realize how trivial and unimportant I was, instead of myself feeling satisfied with how nice and kind I was.

  The moment I tried to ask him not to look at me that way, we arrived at the mall in front of the subway station, at last. Holding off myself striking a retort, I heaved a small sigh and looked around.

  After browsing a few optical stores that I knew with my eyes, I found that most of them were closed just as expected. I sighed again while looking at my watch.

  “I mean it,” I uttered, then we headed toward the street vendor in front of the station. Looking at the numbers of eyeglass frames neatly displayed on the table, I pulled Ban Hwee Hyul’s arms.

  “Let’s go. I’ll fix your glasses and bring them to you next time. Anyway, you have to be just half-blind, right?” I asked.

  Ban Hwee Hyul replied, “Huh? Uh, yeah……” with a sour face.

  I brought him to the street vendor and stood in front of the cart. The guy, who was killing time on the seat, got up. As soon as he tried to initiate a conversation with a swiveling smile, I shouted, “Excuse me? Which one here makes you the blindest?”


  Showing a dumbfounded look at my question, he replied, “Huh? Are you looking for a sunglass?”


  “No, not those……”


  The guy asked me, “Glasses that you can’t see through? You mean something that’s old enough to have blurry lenses? Are you looking for that?”


  “Exactly!” I shouted determinedly.

  At that very moment, the guy’s face hardened in confusion. He stared at me with a look in his eyes that seemed to say, ‘Why is she looking for something like that?’


  However, he was a professional seller. Quickly concealing his facial expression, the guy picked up a few glasses kindly and gushed, “This is also old; this one too. Ah, so is this one.”


  Around that time, I turned my head aside to look at Ban Hwee Hyul anxiously. No matter how old and blurry the lenses were, it would still be incomparable to the glasses with heavy lenses. Thus, would this be okay for him?

  Diverting my eyes back onto the guy, I carefully tossed a question.

  “Do you mind if we can try it on?”


  The guy replied willingly, “Of course, I don’t mind. Please help yourself.”


  Feeling relieved at his response, I turned my head and looked at Ban Hwee Hyul. However, the moment the guy gave us his permission, Ban Hwee Hyul became stiff and didn’t seem to know what to do. When I asked, ‘What’s wrong?’ he touched his shaggy bangs and murmured, “Would it really be okay? We’re in the streets now……”


  “Oh……”


  He added, “If I take off my glasses, people passing by…… also this man here……”


  ‘This man here?’ The guy’s eyebrows seemed to slightly wriggle, but I had no time to care about that reaction.

  Rubbing my chin, I also became lost in the same thought as Ban Hwee Hyul’s. I had never seen him picking a fight against other people, but according to what the person named Kyun Woo or Gun Woo had said earlier, something serious seemed to take place.

  I looked around. The subway was still operating since it was during the weekdays; college students and office workers crowded the streets in front of the station. What if Ban Hwee Hyul and any of these people launched into a vicious, sustained attack? Having that thought in mind, I trembled in fright.

  However, we couldn’t buy glasses without giving a try to wear them. Being lost in thought for quite a while, I finally raised my head.

  “Um, earlier……” I murmured.

  “Uh-huh.”


  I carefully added, “You didn’t feel like hitting me, right?”


  Ban Hwee Hyul nodded without hesitation.

  ‘That’s enough then,’ I thought. Looking aside immediately, I soon picked up the most sophisticatedly designed glasses on the display stand.

  When I stretched out my hand and took his glasses off, Ban Hwee Hyul flinched in surprise then looked at the side reflectively. Bringing his head toward the front, I uttered, “Don’t look anywhere else, but just look here, only at me. Get it?”


  “Don’t tell me what to do.”


  “.……”


  I laughed in my thoughts while watching Ban Hwee Hyul becoming sharp-tongued as soon as he took off his glasses.

  Anyway, although he talked harshly that way, Ban Hwee Hyul didn’t take his eyes off me and just stayed calm. Every time people bumped into him in the narrow street, his brows met in the middle; however, he seemed to be as patient as possible not to throw a punch.

  Taking that opportunity, I put the glasses onto him hurriedly and asked, “What do you think?”


  “What would I think? All the glasses are the same……”


  “Nah, I can tell that it’s a fail just by the way you talk. Hold on for a sec.”


  Turning my head back to the display stand, I reached out my hand to the next glasses. As I switched my glance to the owner of the cart while picking up the new glasses, the guy was looking pale as if he had seen a multiple personality disorder from Ban Hwee Hyul’s reactions.

  Haha…… turning my head back to Ban Hwee Hyul awkwardly, I put the other glasses on his face and dropped the same question.

  “What about this one?”


  “Don’t make me get annoyed; give me the dirtiest one ASAP……”


  “Sorry, I’ll find it properly this time.”


  Turning my head away from him, I clicked my tongue. Well, Ban Hwee Hyul himself wouldn’t be interested in this thing at all, but his glasses looked too thick and old-fashioned that I wanted to change them into a decent and good-looking one. However, that didn’t work maybe because good ones had been taken care of very well.

  I had no choice but to choose among the few crude and out of style glasses. Stretching out my hand to them, I asked, “Ban Hwee Hyul, now I come to think of it……”


  “Why?” he blurted out sulkily.

  Listening to his yet temperamental voice, I shook my head and thought, ‘Hmm, maybe this isn’t it too.’ I took the glasses off his face then dropped another question.

  “Why do you not feel that you want to punch me too?”


  Regarding his relentless actions against the two bullies, Ban Hwee Hyul didn’t seem to condone someone just because she was a girl; he seemed to be close to, literally, a fighting dog. However, I had some idea why he was being generous to me.

  ‘Is it because I’m the first one he befriended?’ I murmured.

  Hmm, I tilted my head. Although I cringed at some TV drama lines such as, ‘Because you’re my first friend,’ it didn’t seem that bad to become a special person to someone.

  Waiting for Ban Hwee Hyul’s response in the delightful tension, I picked up the next glasses. However, the moment I tried to put the glasses on him, the look on his face seemed very enigmatic.

  I asked, “What’s wrong? Did I ask you such an odd question?”


  “No, you are……”


  He then remained wordless for quite a while, which made me nervous. Looking down at me, Ban Hwee Hyul seemed like he was watching a kid playing around near the shore.

  I uttered, “Ah, hey, wait……”


  “.……”


  “If you’re gonna tell me, because I look like I’m gonna be dead soon, or I’m too weak and fragile like mosquito larvae, then just keep your mouth shut.”


  However, Ban Hwee Hyul without glasses wasn’t indeed amenable. Furrowing his eyebrows in a flash, he continued loudly, “Why do you tell me to shut my mouth when you asked me the question? Who do you think you are?! Am I your dog or what?!!!”


  “No, that’s not what I’ve meant! Gosh, at that time, I didn’t know that you’re gonna respond that way……”


  “If you had an expected answer, why did you ask me then? Are you training me like a dog? Huh?”


  Shoot! I reeled from his retort while touching my forehead. The way he talked sounded so dirty and harsh, but every word that slipped from his mouth was, unexpectedly, correct that I wasn’t able to refute properly.

  Yeah, right. If I had an expected answer, I should have just trusted him and moved on. Why did I try to hear that from Ban Hwee Hyul directly and check if that was right?

  Covering my face with my hands, I threw a glance around me. When I had eye contact with the dazed shop owner, I just shrieked in my thoughts, ‘Geez, he might have heard the mosquito larvae thing! So shameful!!’


  While I was at it, I also turned my head to somewhere else. Maybe there wouldn’t be anyone who had listened to those silly words, right?

  Just about that time, I met someone’s eyes. The person was standing vacantly in a near distance. Due to the mature-looking silhouette, the person seemed to be, at first, a college student. However, when I took a closer look, the person was wearing our neighborhood school uniform.