"......which relates to Henry Moore's statement that to be an artist is to believe in life."

Then I guess I'll never be a real artist my whole life.

I thought to myself as stroked the tip of my pen to the white ruled paper on my notebook, taking notes of what Mr. Jang just said. The ringing of our school's lunch bell suddenly came to our ears. "All student's favorite kind of music", they said, since it gives them time to devour their meals, hang with friends, or even keep up with the hottest news going around school.

Well it's definitely not my favorite though, since for me it only means that I'll have to survive another lunch break alone without him.

Without him.

Great, I've just succeeded in bringing myself back into my depressed state. Not that I've went out from that state since he left though, not even once.

"I know you guys love my classes too much, but it's too bad that we'll have to end this one here. Don't forget about the assessment I gave you, be well and see you on my next class." Mr. Jang said as his voice became muffled from the noises of the students putting their notebooks away and rising from their seats, leaving for the cafeteria. The image of him stretching in his seat in front of me appeared. Turning his head towards me who sat behind him, he threw a sleepy grin and ask me "What kind of food are you going to share with me today?"

An image which turns out to be only a good, old memory of mine.

I stayed still behind my desk trying to shook off my thoughts while other students are starting to leave, Mr. Jang seemed to notice my behavior and walked into my direction.

No, please don't come and ask me if I'm okay.

"Good afternoon Jiya, you feeling okay?"

There he goes.

"Good afternoon to you too, Sir. I'm doing fine" sheesh I hate lying, especially to people I respect.

"Well, since you are, I'll be expecting another brilliant work of art from you for our assessment this time. It has been months since your last, please put your heart to it."

"I will try not to disappoint your expectations, Sir." I said hoping that my answer would satisfy him.

"Very well, then. Enjoy your lunch." he said as he left.

I rose from my seat and glanced to my right, unintentionally meeting the gaze of Woo Hyerim, who is about to leave the class with a group of other girls. She gave me a concerned smile, which I replied with an awkward one, while her friends gave weird stares to me. After making sure they have left the room, I made my way to exit the room myself, only to have Jeon Jungkook blocking my way as he was laughing to the view of his buds tackling each other jokingly.

One of his friends named Kim Taehyung saw me behind him and silently notified him by pointing his head towards me. Jungkook gets his message and turned around facing me. "Oh, h-hey Jiya" he smiled as he finished his words. "Hey....... Jeon Jungkook" I tried replying his smile hoping that it wouldn't be as awkward as the one I sent Hyerim. After some seconds of sour silence he finally said "Um.. we'll leave first, then. See you later Jiya." and left with three other guys.

Funny, about how everything was all awkward and so different from two months ago. I stared at my black leather wrist watch, its tiny golden hands telling me that it is 12:03.

Exactly two months ago..

It was a typical cold spring afternoon. Friday, March the 20rd to be exact. I stood up and placed my sketchbook inside my bag, I can feel a light tug on my left uniform blazer sleeve. I turned my head to the direction to find a smiling Jeon Jungkook. I blinked twice and waited for him to speak, my heart beating a little faster than usual.

"Jiya-ah, I've been wondering.." he then paused while rubbing his nape nervously.

"I'm listening." I answered curiously.

"Would you go out with me, you know.. To grab some food and see a movie perhaps?"

Did Jeon Jungkook just asked me out on a date?

My heart thumped like crazy and my cheeks felt warm.

"Sure, I would love to" I tried answering calmly, while inside my mind I'm practically screaming.

"Great, does today at 4pm seems okay?"

"Seems good." I agreed since tomorrow is Saturday and we have much time to do our homeworks on the weekends.

"I'll text you the details later. Until then, Lee Jiya."

"Until then, Jeon Jungkook."

The heads of his friends can be seen on the other side of the open door as they seem to be eavesdropping Jungkook's attempt in asking a girl out. He then walked to the door and exited our class through it. A loud cheering of boys then can be heard when he appeared before them, celebrating Jungkook's triumph together.

Boys.

I shook my head and chuckled lightly. I almost forgot that in front of me, there sat another boy as noisy.

I noticed that he was sitting backwards on his chair, facing me. On my table, he rested his head on the palm of his hands. His mouth was widely grinning, his eyes becoming smaller from the grin. I was waiting for him to comment about the previous event which he had silently witnessed.

Three

Two

One.

"AIGOOOO, I SHOULD MARK MY CALENDAR. MARCH THE 20th, 12:03 PM. LEE JIYA GOT ASKED OUT FOR HER FIRST DATE EVER." he teased loud enough for the whole class to hear. Luckily only the both of us were inside the classroom.

"Oh shut up, Park Jimin."

Author's note.....

Please give this work much love and support, would really appreciate comments, votes, and shares! :)

I felt suffocated by all the memories that suddenly flooded my head. I came to realize that I wasn't even hungry anymore. I canceled my decision on going to the cafeteria and returned to my seat instead. Crossing my arms on the table, I let out a sigh.

I'm done with all the crying..

I then laid my head on top of my crossed arms.

Staring out to the classroom window, I fully opened the windows to my memories.

I closed my eyes, letting my memories drag me back to Monday, March the 16th.

Monday, March the 16th.

"Today I have extra good news for you, as I will be assigning all of you to do a very fun project." Mr. Jang announced after receiving our greetings. Students all over the class could be heard grunting, oh and I was one of them of course. Unlike the me you saw nowadays, back then I flowed on the same direction as my friends.

"What's more exciting is that you guys are going to work in pairs," he continued.

"Sir, do we get to pick our partners by ourselves?" a deep voice of a male could be heard from the back of the class. I turned my head to see that it was Kim Namjoon, the class president asking.

"Of course" Mr. Jang said. All of us cheered and started eyeing our 'targets', as in the ones we want to work with.

"I'm not finished with my words. Of course you may, by drawing the numbers I have prepared." the cheers turned into disappointed complains in a split second. We stood one by one getting our tiny piece of paper with numbers in it from the box Mr. Jang was holding. I silently prayed while taking my number, hoping that I would end up with someone in my favor. Returning to my seat, I unfolded my paper. A big fat "7" was written on it. I wonder who gets the same fate as me.

Jimin waved his hand at me and mouthed "two." Oh I guess we wouldn't be teaming up. I shrugged as I put up seven fingers. He then pouted and made a sad face, I chuckled at his actions and replied him by sticking out my tongue. He showed me an overly-exaggerated offended face as his response. "Now please sit with your partner, starting from group one on the front-left corner of the class, and ending on group twelve on the back right corner." Mr. Jang's instructions got us rising from our seats trying to go to the the designated spots. I and Jimin luckily was already in the right places. We high-fived as we didn't have to even stand up.

Suddenly someone pulled the chair beside me and sat there.

He was holding a small paper with the number "7" prime prime on it.

He was Jeon Jungkook, and he was smiling at my direction.

Park Jimin, knowing that I have a tiny crush on Jungkook bursted out into laughter. Jungkook seemed confused about the situation, I stopped Jimin by secretly kicking his chair from behind. Jimin, being himself, pretended that I had just broke his tailbone and kept saying that he was in pain.

"Park Jimin, do you need assistance from the school healthcare unit?" Mr. Jang asked him since he was being too noisy.

"No sir, I'm good" he answered, being embarrassed that his art teacher had witnessed him wiggling in his seat. I threw him a smug smile meaning 'in your face, Park Jimin' and he gave me a sour look on his face.

"Now the project I'll be assigning you, is to depict someone through caricature. That particular someone might be anyone, as long as you are able describe their personality and traits into visual details in the caricature. Picking a well-known character such as Mahatma Gandhi or Adolf Hitler is fine, but choosing the ones near you, such as your classmates are also allowed. Well, as long as you got their permission and not harass their image." I took some notes about the assignment. "Well then, I'll give you time to discuss." Mr. Jang continued.

I'm glad that I got paired with Jungkook. His unique style of drawing would be perfect for this caricature project, and of course also because I, ahem, kinda liked him. Speak of the devil, Jungkook suddenly said to me "Hey, it's great that you're my partner, let's work together and get along well," and smiled. I smiled back and answered shyly "Me too, sure thing." Jimin turned his head around and gave me a weird smirk right when I thought my life was being too peaceful without his teasing.

"What's up with you man?" Jungkook asked Jimin.

"Nothing, I was only congratulating my best friend for being in the same team with you." he answered. I warned him to shut up by giving him threatening stares.

"And why would you do that?"

"Because Jiya looooooves y-" before he could finish his sentence I covered his mouth with my hand and attacked him.

Jungkook gave out a confused expression but ther laughed at us, well to be more detailed at me beating the crap out of Jimin from my seat.

Jeon Jungkook, the one that tends to be quiet in his group of four. The others were Kim Taehyung, Jung Hoseok, and Min Yoongi. He is an all rounded student, being good and even exceling in both academical and non-academical subjects. Plus, he got good looks and and a blessed vocal chord. Every girl in the class have a mini fangirl inside of their hearts for Jeon Jungkook.

"So, who are we going to draw?" the boy asked me

"Well, we can always draw Park Jimin with all his countless flaws.." I said a little loudly so that Jimin could hear me.

Jimin was trying to convince his partner, Taehyung, that they are not allowed to draw Bart Simpsons since he is not a real person. Hearing my remark, he turned his attention to us again, abandoning Taehyung. "You don't feel contented yet, that after torturing my perfect body you still wanted to hurt my feelings?" he said in a dramatic tone. I was going to answer him when suddenly Taehyung went crazy and cannot handle another abandoning "Jimin, listen to me, Jimin-ah, Jimin ah, Jimin-ah listen to me, in - ah , Jimin, Park Jimin, Jiminnie" Jimin finally gave in and turned his back towards me and Jungkook while scrunching his nose, about to explode from all the Taehyungness he was experiencing. Jungkook and I can only laugh from the view.

Jimin and I were always best friends. Well we're not the kind of best friends that are friends since childhood like what you found in teen novels. I have no childhood friends since the neighbors that live in my street either are a sweet elder couple, have no children, or have children but their child is like still a baby or already a senior high-schooler when I was just a kid. At school I used to got along well with everyone, and kinda have no specific best friend.

That was my life up until my 4th grade in primary school, when suddenly news about perverted uncles spread around school. Parents were going crazy and so did the school. Parent meetings were oftenly held in my school to discuss about the issue. We kids are now equipped with emergency whistles to school, and were taught to run if a stranger approaches. My school finally came up with a solution: to make the students go to school and go home from school in groups according to where they live.

As I said, I have no kid my age in my street. So my parents got kinda paranoid and started finding out if there is any kid going to the same school with me living nearby. After days of searching, they finally found the Park family. The Parks had just moved in and resides a block away, and more importantly the Parks have a little Park Jimin who is on my age. Since their house is closer to the school, we agreed that I will meet Jimin infront of his house every morning before walking to school together.

On my first day of meeting him my mom accompanied me to his house. We waited in front of his house for like ten minutes, but he hadn't show up. My mom decided to knock on their door. Mrs. Park seems to be in a hectic situation opening the door for us. "Oh my, good morning Mrs. Lee and little Jiya. I'm very sorry that we kept you waiting, but my Jimin won't stop crying after I told him about those perverted uncles. He was too scared to get out from the house," she said sounding tired and a little stressed. Sounds of a little kid sobbing and whining could be heard coming from the kitchen.

What a crybaby.

"Jiminnie, come here. Your friend is here!" Mrs. Park approached the kitchen, trying to bring out Jimin. The house suddenly became quieter, the sobs and whines stopped and sounds of Mrs. Park lecturing Jimin could be heard. I couldn't really grasp the words but some of them were

"stop" "infront of a girl" "shouldn't cry" "will like her", and "pretty".

Jimin blowing his nose then could be heard.

Yuck, this kid.

Mrs. Park then returned to us on the living room, this time bringing a frowning Park Jimin looking like a mess with tear stains on his cheeks and a little red nose. I guess I should be the one initiating introductions with him then..

"Hello, my name is Lee Jiya. Let's go to school together!" I said giving him my widest smile while offering a handshake.

"P-Park Jimin. Hi." he said as he took my handshake, he was looking down and being all shy.

Our mothers decided that we should really leave now if we don't want to be late for school. Jimin was a little hesitant at first but then agreed. After bidding our goodbyes to our mothers, we left for school.

After about 3 minutes walking in complete silence, I noticed that he was still afraid. This kid is starting to get on my nerves...

"Yah." I said.

He stayed silent but looked at me.

"You don't need to be afraid, I'll protect you from those ahjusshi," I said with a little scolding tone.

He scoffed.

This kid is really something. I thought trying to hold my temper back.

"Don't be silly, boys are the ones who are supposed to protect girls. I'll be the one to protect you."

His answer startled me. I felt a little churn in my stomach and stayed quiet at his answer.

We continued walking until we reached our school stomach and stayed quiet at his answer.

We continued walking until we reached our school.

Everything went out well and as planned for the first week. We started getting to know each other. Jimin's timidness started to fade away. He is actually pretty cute and fun. I learned that his friends called him ddochi, since he looked like a little puppy. I disagreed to it though, and told him that I thought he looked like a dinosaur. Since then he always wanted to wear a dinosaur costume for Halloween.

One evening we were walking home from school.

"Hey, remember when I said I wanted to be a dinosaur for Halloween?" he asked.

"Of course, why?"

"Well if I dressed up as a dinosaur for you, you should dress up as a tooth fairy for me." he said giving me a 'toothy' smile.

"But you wanted to be a dinosaur yourself, and why a tooth fairy? I wanted to be cool mummy!"

"It was because you said I looked like one! You'll look cute and smaller than me as a tooth fairy!" he pouted, trying to convince me. I looked at him and realised that I was a little taller than him and understand his reasons while holding my laughter.

A chuckle accidentally escaped my mouth as I answered "Okay then, but I can't shrink myself though!"

"Now you're even laughing at me, you're so mean Jiya-ah. I'll just wear my mom's high heels then." he said by making a face.

I can't help but laugh at his ridiculous statement. I kept laughing at him but all he did was stare at me.

"What's wrong, Jiminnie?"

"H-hey, don't you think that ahjusshi has been following us for a while now?" he said, his voice shaking as he spoke.

I slightly turned my head and saw a figure of an uncle not too far behind us.

Jimin grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

"When I say three, run." he whispered, looking straight to my eyes.

I nodded silently.

"Three, tw-" his countdown was stopped abruptly since I suddenly pulled him, running.

We ran like crazy.

"YAH JIYA, I HAVEN'T EVEN FINISHED MY COUNTDOWN!" he said while running.

"YOU TOLD ME TO RUN WHEN YOU SAID THREE, BUT YOU STARTED YOUR COUNTDOWN FROM THREE YOU PABO!!" I yelled at him, still running.

He stayed quiet for a while. He then realized his own stupidity and started laughing at himself, his eyes almost closing from his laugh.

"YAH JIMIN-AH DON'T CLOSE YOUR EYES WHILE RUNNING!" I scolded him.

But then my stomach felt ticklish thinking of his stupidity and I started laughing with him.

We ran down the street while laughing hand in hand.

We're quickly getting nearer to his house. In a second, we stopped in front of his house panting, being totally out of breath.

"Hey kid!"

a voice of an old man could be heard calling to us.

We froze in our place, it was the uncle from before.

As he got closer to us, our knees shook and were unable to move.

All we did was tighten our grip to each other's hand.

I suddenly recognized his face, he was our school's gardener ahjusshi. Why was he following us?

"Aish kid these days are so tiring! You, Park Jimin, dropped your lunch box earlier and I was only trying to return it to you. But all of a sudden you two started running like gerbils!" he explained while catching his breath.

We stayed still with our mouth hanging open from the fact we had just learned.

"J-joisonghabnida** ahjusshi, we thought you were the perverted ahjusshi who roamed near this area.." Jimin explained, getting his lunch box from ahjusshi's hand.

"Ayy, what are you talking about. That freak has been arrested two days ago by the local police." he said with a slightly annoyed tone. We stayed quiet for some time, trying to recover from all the sudden information.

We then apologized to him and said our thanks.

After he left, the sky was already dark. I looked at Jimin's direction, my eyes meeting his.

We stared at each other's eyes for a while.

A second later, the silent air was torn from the sounds or our laughter. We were clutching at our stomach and we fell to the ground. Laughing at what just happened, with our gaze directed towards the stars.

We weren't childhood friends. We're perverted uncle-surviving friends.

...****************...