1.1 | Desiderium ✓

61|sixty one

The air in front of NaEun stood a sudden still, and the few centimeters of distance between her red lips and the microphone felt like miles. 

Song NaEun took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened it again, nothing changed.  There were still about sevens of hundred people sitting in plush, velvety chairs of the sloped floor, each of their eyes on her. 

Challenging. As if they were waiting for her to make just one mistake. She looked down at the paper kept on the dice, her speech that she had been preparing for a few weeks. It stared back at her, waiting to be read. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to… 

NaEun took a deep breath once more, and began. 

"When I was readying myself in the mirror this morning," she said, and swept her eyes over the crowd, "and contrary to popular belief, I don't take hours to complete my makeup. No, that doesn't happen, gentlemen, that stereotype is merely a stereotype." 

A thin laughter cut through the thick silence like a knife. 

"And I hesitated when I saw my red lipstick. Should I use it, or not?" She looked in the eye of the teachers panel, as if mocking them. "Because once I did, and someone told me, why are you wearing red? Do you come here to entice men? Should I wear red or not, that was a hard decision indeed, because gentlemen, and ladies, I did not want to give anyone the impression that I was here to entice men. So I decided to settle on a neutral shade of browns, just like how I am supposed to be." 

NaEun looked down at her scripted speech. She had strayed too far enough to casually include those contents into what she was speaking, but that seemed like a blasted recurrence at the moment. 

"I was told to be successful, intelligent, persevere, ambitious, and all other qualities they usually attach to boys. Growing up, I was all these qualities, still am, because you need all that to stand on this stage." 

A part of the audience chuckled. Rest of them, probably displeased. 

"But they also told us to be less intelligent and less successful than boys. Because then, boys will feel threatened. Now the dilemma, ladies and gentlemen," NaEun raised both her hands to emphasize the word, "I never studied side to side with a boy. I never knew if my intelligence or ambition is less or more!" 

This time, a greater section of the audience clapped. 

"Now if I go by some research that I did, there are two hundred and fifteen boys graduating high school this year from our school. And there's just a hundred and eighty girls. Now that is a massive gap of fifty students. Considerably, multiply it with twelve and you will get six hundred girls less. Six hundred, ladies and gentlemen." 

Silence swept over the crowd. 

"That is a phenomenal number. And do you know that this gap goes on increasing and increasing till we get to adulthood? Do you know what I want to do when I grow up? I want to become the Managing Director of Daehan Airlines." 

Some people snickered, and NaEun's eyebrows arched devilishly. 

"If I dare to ask, what are the aspirations of my male counterpart? He wants to become a Managing Director of some conglomerate as well. Now that didn't make you laugh, gentlemen. Why? Because for him, it is expected of. For me, it sounds ridiculous. 

"That, ladies and gentlemen, that silence just now… accounts to the gap of six hundred. Wait a moment," she said when she saw boys and girls raise their hands to applaud, "the best part is yet to come.

"When I spoke of these things to my mother, my own mother," NaEun chuckled mirthlessly, "she looked at me and said: You are a feminist! Now that wasn't a compliment. It was a tone that said: You advocate terrorism!