BAEK KYUNG Just A Human Being

Good Days

MINA:

The next day she wore her leather coat, leather boots and brought her Harley to school.

She waited for Baek Kyung in front of the school entrance. He was walking to school with EarPods in his ears and that 'Don't mess with mess with me' look in his eyes. She smiled as their eyes met. He took his EarPods out "Where's your school uniform?"

"I graduated high school already. Didn't I tell you I'm from a different world?" she explained.

"You told me you're from a different Manwa, but not that you've finished high school already" he said.

"Well, now you know" she grinned at him "Wanna skip school and hand out with me? This Noona will buy you lunch."

He scoffed "Noona?"

She smirked "I'm much older than you kid."

He looked over at her method of transportation "Is that a Harley over there...since when did you own a motorbike?"

She beamed and nodded "I've brought her over from my world. Isn't she a beautiful beast? She might be vintage, but she can do 110 miles an hour."

He shook his head "I never expected you to be a bike chick. Alright, I'll go."

She handed him a helmet "Good. Hold onto me tightly. I ride really fast."

He rolled his eyes "I doubt it." But he found himself holding onto her for dear life once she started riding at maximum speed.

"Hey! You'll suffocate me if you squeeze me like that..." she told him and he relented a bit.

Their first stop was the shopping mall. "You've never been on a motorbike, have you?" she asked him while putting away the helmets in the bike.

"I have" he lied. "No, you haven't" it was so obvious he was lying. He shrugged.

"Let's buy you a new outfit" she told him "I'm not taking you out in your school uniform."

He wanted to buy the first thing and go.

"I'm buying the outfit, so I'm choosing it too" she told him making him try four different outfits to decide the best one. He grumpily cooperated.

They then drove to an ice skating rink. The place was pretty empty in the morning so they had fun racing and trying to sabotage each other's best timings. Both of them were quite competitive so everything ended up being a competition. They decided to have hot chocolate right after to warm up. She got extra whipped cream on her hot chocolate and got some on her nose while eating it. He made fun of how childish she was. So, as revenge she bopped his nose with the whipped cream and used his momentary shock to take a picture. She laughed at his completely surprised expression on the picture. He immediately wanted the picture deleted, but she wouldn't let him. He chased her around trying to open her iPhone with her fingerprint so he could do it himself. From far, to the people walking by, they looked like they were a cute young couple.

Next, they went to the arcade and wasted their money on many 1vs1 games. When it came to the claw machine, they were both bad at it. They tried at least 20 times before Mina got a stuffed animal out of it. She gave it to Baek Kyung as a souvenir.

They went to have lunch afterwards. He wanted to have steak, she wanted to have a spicy vegetable hot pot. They played rock paper scissors to decide and she won. Because it was a very popular hotpot restaurant, they had to wait in a long cue in the cold. Her hands were freezing cold because her fancy jacket didn't have any pockets, his were warm because he kept them in his pockets. She tried to rub her hands together and blow hot breath on them to warm them up. He rolled his eyes at her useless efforts and grabbed one of her hands and put it in his big pocket. She laughed at that gesture but thanked him for his kindness. Finally they were inside and he actually ended up enjoying the dish she ordered.

Somehow during the meal, they ended up talking about serious matters. "About Eun DanOh..." she scrunched up her nose "Do you really love her? Or maybe, you're just scared to be alone without her by your side?"

He tilted his head to the side thinking "I idealised her, I don't know if it was love or need. Either way, my illusions of her have been broken. I've given up on whatever feelings I had for her."

Mina was taken aback by the maturity in that sentence. She realised Baek Kyung was almost real. Life never gave him a break. All he could do was accumulate all the hurt, but still keep going. He was relatable. Baek Kyung's character development made her happy for him.

He sat back to look at her "Now, I get to ask you a question. You said you'd tell me the story of your family another time. Can that be now?"

She smiled "Ah, clever. Get ready for a really boring story" she took a deep breath. He focused all his attention on her.

"I'm kinda like a sad character that only gets sadder. My family, well...it's quite big. My dad was the owner of a wine company, he died from a stroke leaving many debts behind. My mother ran from the debtors with only my siblings and I. She worked her bones off to have us settle in a city far, far from home. Bring the eldest, I was always burdened with unreachable expectations. I lived for my family. Helped my mom raise my siblings and did well in school to make my mom happy. My mom is the person I love the most, she sacrificed so much for me and my siblings, I could never repay her back. All she asked in return was that we do well in school and get respectable jobs in future so we wouldn't have to live like her. But my dream was to become an artist. I just loved how the silly stories I drew in my spare time could make my siblings and my friends laugh and cry. I was the happiest when I drew and that's how it became my dream. But my mom was terrified of my dream and brought me back to my senses. She said that what I wanted to pursue wasn't a stable job, that I'd struggle to make ends meet, that I'd be unsuccessful and unhappy like her. I gave it up then, as mom asked me to. As soon as I graduated university, I was immediately recruited by a great company. The figures of my annual salary made my mom incredibly happy. She bragged about it to all her friends. She was so proud of me because I wouldn't have to struggle with money like she did her whole life. But guess what? I had never been more unhappy in my life. It was torture waking up every morning at the ring of the alarm, do the same corporate work all day long, come home exhausted and depressed. I worked there for six months before leaving to follow my dreams. All the money I had saved for my dream was stolen by my boyfriend who I never suspected to be a con artist, since we went to the same university and graduated together, but I guess he used my money to follow his dream. My mom came to visit me one day without any notice and found out I left my corporate job. She was disappointed that she had worked so hard to raise me to end up like this. She saw me struggle with my dreams as she had predicted and she became ashamed of the mess I had become and never spoke to me again from that day onwards. I tried to get back on my feet with my talent alone. After searching long and hard, I got hired to be an assistant artist for an experienced Manwa author. It's a very demanding job with a low income. These days I keep myself going by thinking that even though I'm far, far from achieving my dream, at least I'm in the right direction."

She was surprised he didn't fall asleep through that "See? It's such a boring story."

He stared at her without saying anything. She smiled. She didn't want to hear anything. Not 'I'm sorry about that'. Not 'It'll get better'. Not 'You'll get there eventually'. None of those things could comfort her and she heard them too many times from other people.

They only had small talks while finishing their dessert and paying the bill.

Mina asked Kyung "What else do you like other than tennis?"

"I don't know." he shrugged "I don't have my life figured out. I wish I had a dream like yours."

He asked her "What car do you drive?"

She told him "I prefer motorcycles." He was intrigued by her Harley. He said he wanted to learn from her. She told him to buy his own motorcycle.

They were having an exciting conversation about going to see a car race together, but in the middle of the conversation he was gone. She stared at the spot where he had stood just a moment before. She realised he was summoned for a stage again. She was very annoyed at the timing of that. Disappointed, she got on her Harley alone.