I Only Like You

Chapter 2: He who was my Desk mate

~ 1 ~ 

When we were studying, Kim Taehyung was a legend in our school. His face was like the actors in K-dramas who were cast to act as righteous CEO; his results were so good it was considered twisted, and he could even play the saxophone. Thus, he was the object of fantasy for many female students, regardless of whether they were awake or sleeping.

He was rather snobbish, always putting up a cold front in front of others. During that period of time, I merely thought of him as a refrigerator who liked to act cool – my ideal boyfriend was Lee Dong Wook, and I dreamt of becoming his girlfriend of him: together, we would live happy and carefree lives.

Our high school was the best in our city. However, our school had a rather odd rule – that the seats in the class would be distributed in accordance with results. Since our homeroom teacher was extremely law-abiding, we were always instructed to queue up outside the classroom after our Mid-Year Papers and Final Year Papers. The homeroom teacher would then slowly go down the results list; only those who had been called could go into the classroom to select their seats.

This experience was a terrible one, and I always felt that this rule is one of the most inhumane rules that has ever been invented. Kim Taehyung was always the first to enter the classroom, but he never sits in the first row, because he doesn't like it. Rather, he would sit in the fourth row, with his seat always being the one nearest to the window – it has a good view, so it was more convenient for him to day- (act) dream (cool).

At that time, there was a male student in class who never washes his hair; however, as he admired me, he enthusiastically wrote me a love poem, titled "당신의 묘비 전체에 내 뜨거운 피를 흘리고" (Dripping My Hot Blood All Over Your Tombstone). Since I was always just slightly worse than him in terms of results, I would necessarily be required to share a table with him. Just the mere thought of my tombstone with his blood all over it gives me goosebumps.

When I was due to select my seat, the only other seat available was the one besides Kim Taehyung – he always sat alone – in this strange, perverted school of mine, great privileges were bestowed on those who could excel academically.

Thus, I did the bravest thing I ever did in my life. I grabbed my bag and escaped to Kim Taehyung's side, plopping myself down on the chair before he could say anything.

He turned his head and glanced at me – I remember that he was listening to music through his earphones then. I smiled at him extremely awkwardly, while he simply looked at me expressionlessly, remaining silent until the CD in the music player had finished playing.

"Is it Agustd?" I tried to engage him in small talk. Agustd was extremely popular, entire rows of shops on the streets were always playing his music. Kim Taehyung opened his music player and changed the CD before putting his earphones back on. He replied coldly, "The Coldplay."

That's how we became desk mates.

Many years later, whenever I recall this encounter I would complain, "Couldn't you have been friendlier to your new desk mate?"

"Sorry." He apologized sincerely, "After all, nobody could have possibly known that the person who sat down beside me would be my future wife."

~ 2 ~

Kim Taehyung was an extremely quiet person towards those persons whom he didn't know and rarely spoke unless compelled to. If he could able to answer the question with a monosyllabic word, he would never use a multisyllabic word. If he could able to make his point with a single phrase, he would never use a sentence. If he could able to summarize his reply within a single sentence he would never use two. In any case, chatting with him will cause one to be frustrated to death.