Odd-eyed Beauty // hwang minhyun (#27)

Two

Yeongwon

I sat down on the same bench as I am the day before and I did the same as usual, looking around for anyone who might be passing by here. I would have been done at this point as I am assured that no one ever comes all the way from their classrooms to this area.

The nerds would make their way to the library as the ring bells for lunch break and stay there for least 30 minutes before scarfing down a hotdog bun or a drink, the popular squad will be at the caféteria having their meals with everyone staring at them and no one else, the athletes would be training at their respective places even though it is not the time to actually train.

And I, Bae Yeongwon would be here eating her lunch without having anyone to disturb her while having a conversation with herself since no one comes here anyway. Until someone broke that record yesterday.

Who could be that special someone who would be here for? The garden is my special place and no one else would patronise this place other than myself. Ever since he spoke to yesterday, he made me wonder about a lot of things. Did he upload everything that I had said to myself? Did he take a video? Did he think that I was weird?

I will make sure to catch him if he ever comes by today, I will make him confess to everything that he had done and I will never let him go unless he will promise that he would tell nothing to anyone. Even if my image is already wrecked, I would still want one bit of myself to be kept inside of me. It is my own privacy and I don't want anyone to know about it.

I took out my bento box and opened the lid, it is Soba noodles today and it is filled with bacon, again with my favourite ingredients. No matter what the main dish is, it would either be filled with cheese or bacon. I should ask Omma to cook me cheese tteokbokki tomorrow as I felt like eating it tomorrow.

I scooped up a mouthful of the soba noodles and put into my mouth as I took time to savour the amazing taste of the soba noodles that my mother had cooked. It is amazing how she isn't a chef and yet she learnt how to whip up these delicious foods without going to cooking lessons, all she does is look up on the internet for a particular recipe and cooked that very recipe later for dinner.

"My mother is such a great cook. I would die if I couldn't eat her food for one day." I blurted out without realising and paused for a moment, looking around wondering if anyone heard it if that guy heard it. Was he here?

No one replied and I felt a little relieved, I picked up my fork and continued eating, eating the bacon and savouring its saltiness of the meat. How can bacon taste so good?

And I heard a weird sound from the distance as if someone is here and their stomach is growling for food. I stopped eating once again and I did the same, looking around once more.

"Don't try to look for me, stay at where you are at." It is the same person who spied the other day, the one who replied if I liked the rain. He is here and he is listening to me blabber about myself once again.

"Why?" I asked the obvious. He wants to get out of this place because he has just encountered a weirdo who loved to talk to herself. "Who are you?"

"I don't want to reveal my name, I don't want you to know who I am." He answered.

"Then you know about me, you know who I am," I commented, judging him a little. What is he trying to be so secretive for? "That's a little unfair you know."

"I know your name but I don't know how you looked like. I only know that you are a weird girl who loves to come here during lunchtime to talk about herself."

"And you are a guy who has been eavesdropping on my conversation with myself all the time. You are being even weirder." I told him. "How long have you been here, listening to me talk?" I asked. How long has he been stalking me?

"Yesterday was the first time." He replied, to my surprise. "I didn't know that there is a place like this in campus until yesterday. And then I heard your voice."

"And you have already made your presence known the first day you came here." I picked up my fork again and I ate my soba noodles as fast as possible, it is not delicious anymore if it is exposed to the air for too long.

"The way that you speak to yourself is so engaging, I can't help but want to be in the conversation as well. So, continuing from yesterday, answer my question."

"I don't want to answer your question." I deadpanned. Why should I answer his questions? He is being a creep right now. "And get away from here as far as possible and never come back here ever again."

"Please? It is just one question, I'm just so curious about your answer." He pleaded. "And I won't tell anyone about this, I promise. I would love to listen to you speak about yourself, your life is so colourful."

There he said it, he is the first person who ever said that my life was colourful other than my own family, no one would ever say to me in school. They only care about me having two different eye colours and thinking of ways to ridicule me for having two different eye colours, they never asked me if what colour I liked, what food I like to eat, or even my favourite artists.

He was the one who asked me a question about myself and it wasn't a hard question to reply to. It was one of the easiest questions but it was a huge step for me to start talking to someone comfortably other than myself in school.

"Do you like the rain?" He asked me the question that I didn't reply him the other time.

"I like the rain as well, it makes me feel relaxed as the rain droplets gently hit the windows as it drizzled. What about you? Do you like the rain?"