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: 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.
When he was small he learned the saxophone for a period of time. It was precise because of his taciturn nature that my mother-in-law suspected that he suffered from autism. Coincidentally, she had connections with a famous saxophone teacher then, and thus she made Tae attend saxophone lessons in the hopes of allowing him to make more friends.
Not long after, the teacher complained to my mother-in-law, claiming that Taehyung simply couldn't meld into the group.
My mother-in-law decided to have a chat with Taehyung.
"Son, how many people learn the saxophone with you?"
"4 or 5."
"How are they?"
"Alright."
"Is there anyone who you get along particularly well with?"
"No."
"You must take the initiative to approach others, and try to converse more with them. If possible, you could also invite them to visit the house."
"I Can't."
The introvert shook his head severely.
My mother-in-law was on the verge of breaking down, "AND Why not?"
The introvert answered with an air of righteousness, "I'm using my mouth to play the saxophone, so there's no time to talk."
When my mother-in-law recounted this incident to me years later, I snuggled into the sofa and laughed uncontrollably. I told my mother-in-law that she ought to have let him learn ballet instead – then, his mouth would be free to talk to others.
Taehyung passed by with a cup of water and rolled his eyes at the both of us.
~ 3 ~
I underwent a major operation when I was in Junior High. Because the operation caused some damage to my nervous system, there were a couple of years during which my entire back had a total loss of feeling. I rarely bring this up in front of others, and nearly no one knew about it.
One day whilst we were doing self-revision in class, the female student seated behind me started to play 'Guess the Word' with her desk mate.
After playing a few rounds with her desk mate, she asked me to sit up and proceed to write on my back in an enthusiastic fashion. I was instantly stunned as my back had no feeling at all.
I shook my head and told her that I couldn't guess the word. She began to write another word on my back, and I shook my head once more.
She was in a state of disbelief, and commented that I must have been pretending – the word she wrote was so simple, how could anybody fail to guess the word?
It was an extremely awkward moment for me. If I didn't explain my nervous system injury, there does not appear to be any other reasonable explanation for my inability to guess the word; but if I started explaining my injury, it would be extremely troublesome. At that moment, I was at a loss as to what to do.
Just then, Kim Taehyung, who rarely plays with us or talks to us spoke up. "Let me try."
I wasn't very familiar with him then – even though we were desk mates, we hardly spoke as he was a ten-thousand-year-old iceberg after all. Thus, when he spoke up just then, everybody went into a state of shock: Is the genius finally descending from this throne to interact with us commoners?
He didn't even wait for me to agree before placing his finger on my back and writing. Naturally, I had absolutely no idea what those words were, but Kim Taehyung's participation had revved up everybody's interest in the game, causing everyone to stare intently at me. I felt that it would be highly embarrassing if I refused to answer; thus, I just picked out a word offhandedly, saying that he wrote his surname.
Who could have guessed that he would claim that I was right.
I was extremely shocked! My guess was actually correct?!
Subsequently, he wrote another word on the back. Once again, I tried my luck and guessed that it was my surname.
He chuckled, and replied in his low voice, "Yup, right."
The female student sitting behind me was puzzled, "But no matter how I look at it, it doesn't look like Y/N's surname to me."
However, nobody bothered to investigate further, and chose to continue chatting instead. Thus, I managed to fudge my way through successfully without getting caught.
Till today, I still have no idea what Taehyung wrote at that point in time. It was only later that I discovered that Taehyung had already known about my operation beforehand. The school had conducted a physical examination previously, and my absence on the day that they returned the physical examination report resulted in my report being placed on my desk. It was then that he glanced at my report and silently committed my injury to his memory.
~ 4 ~
If Kim Taehyung is "the man who can recall everything at first sight", I would be the "woman who is unable to recall anything despite multiple sights."
My history and math were terribly poor, whereas his history and math were excellent. Whenever we sat for our exams, he would always solve the questions at lightning speed, and basically only required half an hour to complete the paper, after which he would stare out of the window and drift into a daze. It was only then that I dared to sneak a few peeks at his answer sheet and copy his answers.
I continuously comforted myself whilst copying – after all, the Bible says that "It is more blessed to give than to receive"; therefore, what I'm doing does not constitute cheating, I'm simply helping Taehyung rack up points so that he'd be able to obtain more blessings in the future.
The process usually goes like this:
(Sneaks a few peeks at his MCQ answer sheet) ACBCD, BCAAD, okay, got it.
(Buries my head and furiously scribbles the answers) BCAAD, BD... What was it again? Darn! I forgot!
(Sneaks a few more peeks stealthily) Oh oh, it's BCAAD...
(Buries my head again) Wait... Was the final answer B or D? I didn't look properly!
Just when I was about to take another look at his answer sheet, I discovered that this person had actually folded his answer sheet in half!
I looked up in surprise – only to find him staring at me silently, with an expression of disdain etched on his face.
I managed to squeak out a burst of hollow laughter and tried my best to recall whether the final answer was B or D, but to no avail.
Finally, a cold voice rang out, "It's D."
"....."
He complained disparagingly, "You can't even copy properly? So stupid."
I could only grit my teeth and silently bear the insults for the better good, instead choosing to act as if I didn't hear anything.
Taehyung was the Class representative. Before we became desk mates, we had absolutely no interaction at all. That said, there was an incident that remains deeply etched in my mind.
The exam scripts for Mathematics were being returned to us then. The Mathematics teacher had divided the exam scripts into two piles – one pile for students who managed to pass (this was given to Kim Taehyung to distribute), and another pile for those who failed (and this was left to the teacher to distribute). Naturally, my exam script was in the pile that failed.
When it was my turn, the Mathematics teacher said disparagingly, "Only four correct answers for a simple multiple-choice paper? Even a pig that I'm teaching would score better than that."
Kim Taehyung walked past at that precise moment and glanced at my paper. He then righteously rebutted the teacher, "She has five correct answers." The teacher was momentarily stunned, and the whole class made extremely ambiguous noises, "Wow~~~~~"
From that moment onwards, I was given a new nickname – "Five Answers".
Speaking of this matter, Kim Taehyung is unable to recall even an inkling of this incident. Thus, he doesn't even realize that this nickname of mine is bestowed on me solely because of him.
After the incident, Taehyung's role as class representative was suspended after a few months – the reason is that this person is often unable to memorize people's names. This resulted in him often returning the exam script to the wrong person.
~ 5 ~
I really like Agustd. One year, he came to our city to hold a fan club meeting. Even though the organizers announced that they would only be distributing the tickets at 5 PM, the fans had already started to queue up by 12 noon. From a distance, one could observe the black masses of people assembling whilst hugging their banners, as though they were an illegal mob.
I deliberated on whether I should play truant in order to get hold of some tickets, and begged Kim Taehyung to help me. He coldly refused.
I decided to play truant anyway, disregarding Kim Taehyung's lack of support in relation to my course of action. I sent a text message to my homeroom teacher, informing her that I was suffering from menstrual cramps and had to return home that day.
Who knew that on that particular day, my brother would suddenly discover his conscience and took the initiative to help me obtain medical leave. He told my homeroom teacher that I had injured my leg, and had to report to the hospital. (This annoying brother of mine specializes in causing trouble for his sister for twenty years.)
Taehyung, though seemingly disinterested in helping me out, couldn't resist helping out at the last minute. He then ran to the homeroom teacher to inform him that I had to return home as a result of a fever. The homeroom teacher became enraged and slammed the table, "She herself said that she had to go home because of menstrual cramps! Her brother then told me that, having injured her leg, she had to go to the hospital! Now you come to inform me that she's having a fever – So, what exactly is she doing?!"
According to witnesses at the scene, Kim Taehyung. was stunned into silence for a second – only a second – before replying calmly, "As a result of her menstrual cramps, she suffered from a persistent high fever. However, she insisted on attending physical education class, and as a result, she fell from the horizontal bar and injured her leg. Thus, her mother brought her to the hospital." During the entire process, his face never even reddened for a moment. This ability indeed renders people speechless. Upon hearing about this incident, I patted Kim Taehyung's shoulder and sighed regretfully. It's a pity that Kim Taehyung was born in Korea. Had he been born in other parts of the world; he would definitely have been the head of the police force or criminal syndicate who wouldn't experience increased palpitations or a change in face color even at gunpoint.
The next instance happen when we were due to take our History exam. Before our class was due to take the exam, another class had already sat for the History paper. Thus, I decided to be smart and obtain the answers from the earlier class.
Kim Taehyung wanted me to revise my work properly, but of course, I wasn't so obedient. Instead, I chose not to heed his advice, throwing my books aside and obstinately trying to memorize the answers. Because of this incident, Taehyung was rather upset with me and decided not to speak to me for one whole day.
On the day of the exam, I was extremely confident. However, the moment I received the exam paper I was stunned into silence. To my absolute horror, I discovered that the paper I was sitting for was totally different from the one which I had studied!
Kim Taehyung slowly completed his exam script with a "You totally deserve it." expression on his face while choosing to ignore my existence.
Shocked and at a loss as to what to do, tears began forming in my eyes. When the teacher reminded us that there were only thirty minutes left before we were due to return the papers, my script was still entirely blank. Kim Taehyung, who was seated beside me, suddenly asked me, "Do you know your mistake?"
I nodded my head vigorously, with the tears still in my eyes.
He threw his exam script to me, "You better not try the same thing next time."