flipped - winrina ff

Jimin: Flipped

The first day I met Kim Minjeong, I flipped. Honestly, one look at her and I became a lunatic. It’s her eyes. Something in her eyes. They’re hazel-colored, and framed in the blackness of her lashes, they’re dazzling. Absolutely breathtaking.

It’s been over six years now, and I learned long ago to hide my feelings, but oh, those first days. Those first years! I thought I would die for wanting to be with her.

Two days before the second grade is when it started, although the anticipation began weeks before— ever since my mother had told me that there was a family with a girl my age moving into the new house right across the street.

Soccer camp had ended, and I’d been so bored because there was nobody, absolutely nobody, in the neighborhood to play with. Oh, there were kids, but every one of them was older. That was dandy for my brothers, but what it left me was home alone.

My mother was there, but she had better things to do than kick a soccer ball around. So she said, anyway. At the time I didn’t think there was anything better than kicking a soccer ball around, especially not the likes of laundry or dishes or vacuuming, but my mother didn’t agree. And the danger of being home alone with her was that she’d recruit me to help her wash or dust or vacuum, and she wouldn’t tolerate the dribbling of a soccer ball around the house as I moved from chore to chore.

To play it safe, I waited outside for weeks, just in case the new neighbors moved in early. Literally, it was weeks. I entertained myself by playing soccer with our dog, Butters. Mostly he’d just block because a dog can’t exactly kick and score, but once in a while he’d dribble with his nose. The scent of a ball must overwhelm a dog, though, because Butters would eventually try to chomp it, then lose the ball to me.

When the Kim’s moving van finally arrived, everyone in my family was happy. “Little Jimin” was finally going to have a playmate.

My mother, being the truly sensible adult that she is, made me wait more than an hour before going over to meet her. “Give them a chance to stretch their legs, Jimin,” she said. “They’ll want some time to adjust.” She wouldn’t even let me watch from the yard. “I know you, sweetheart. Somehow that ball will wind up in their yard and you’ll just have to go retrieve it.”

So I watched from the window, and every few minutes I’d ask, “Now?” and she’d say, “Give them a little while longer, would you?”

Then the phone rang. And the minute I was sure she was good and preoccupied, I tugged on her sleeve and asked, “Now?”

She nodded and whispered, “Okay, but take it easy! I’ll be over there in a minute.”

I was too excited not to charge across the street, but I did try very hard to be civilized once I got to the moving van. I stood outside looking in for a record-breaking length of time, which was hard because there she was! About halfway back! My new sure-to-be best friend, Kim Minjeong.

Minjeong wasn’t really doing much of anything. She was hanging back, watching her father move boxes onto the lift-gate. I remember feeling sorry for Mr. Kim because he looked worn out, moving boxes all by himself. I also remember that he and Minjeong were wearing matching turquoise polo shirts, which I thought was really cute. Really nice.

When I couldn’t stand it any longer, I called, “Hi!” into the van, which made Minjeong jump, and then as quick as a cricket, she started pushing a box like she’d been working all along.

I could tell from the way Minjeong was acting so guilty that she was supposed to be moving boxes, but she was sick of it. She’d probably been moving things for days! It was easy to see that she needed a rest. She
needed some juice! Something.