I Only Like You (Tusundre · Completed - Official authorized)
  • ~ 1 ~
  • Lee Hyun-Joo is my best friend, my High School classmate. She was born on the month of May. For her father, she was considered as the jewel of his life, which led to the emergence of her name.
  • According to various rumours, when Hyun-Joo was young, she suffered from a huge bout of illness, and hovered near the brink of death. As a result, her parents didn’t impose any expectations on her in relation to her studies – they were satisfied as long as long as she could run and jump about like a healthy kid. Hyun-Joo lived up to her parents’ expectations, never ever falling out of the bottom three places in all the big exams and small tests she sat for.
  • Her father wasn’t anxious, and always assured her that everything would be alright. He promised her that when the time came, he would pay ‘school fees’ that enabled her to enter X High School. During our era, all the children would have heard of the following saying: ‘Entering into X High School is equivalent to having one foot into the huge universities.’ Despite that saying, we subsequently found out that our admission into the universities had not much relation with this ‘foot’ we had by virtue of being in X High School.
  • Hyun-Joo thus let loose and daringly played for the three entire years in Junior High. However, during the year when we were due to take our graduating exams, there was a sudden amendment in the policies made by the Ministry of Education – ‘school fees’ were no longer allowed, and admission into schools would be purely based on the grades that we scored. Her entire family was stupefied – her dad was unable to discover any solution despite asking all his friends and networking acquaintances. It was only when our Principal changed the name of the funds from ‘school fees’ to ‘construction fees’ that Hyun-Joo managed to enter into X High School.
  • ~ 2 ~
  • I was extremely stressed when I first entered school. When I was in Junior High, I could still manage to squeeze into the Top 10 – however, when I came to High School, I realized that there would always be people better than me. A simple glance around the school compound yielded geniuses everywhere. I couldn’t even bear to compare my trashy results with theirs.
  • Thus, I was extremely good to Hyun-Joo. I helped her buy her breakfast, accompanied her always, and when we ate together I always gave her my meat so that she would be able to feel the love between classmates. Till today, whenever she reminisces about these incidents, tears would always fill her eyes. I simply don’t have the heart to tell her that all my actions were motivated by my fear of her transferring out of school – with her around, I would never be at the bottom of the class.
  • Once, when we were taking our Mathematics exam, I had absolutely no confidence. Hyun-Joo was seated right behind me, and when she handed in her paper, I was extremely shocked – she had answered the difficult questions with an entire page of scribbles! My vision turned black momentarily and I thought in my heart that I was dead – I’m going to be the top from the bottom this time round!
  • After class, Kim Taehyung helped the teacher to mark the Mathematics Paper. When he returned he comforted me, “Don’t worry, you scored slightly better than her.”
  • I told him not to comfort me – I saw that her answer sheet was full of her scribbles.
  • Taehyung was at a loss for words, “She didn’t even answer a single question – she simply copied each question five times.”
  • ~ 3 ~
  • Hyun-Joo and I each have a strange hobby – I liked to collect pretty wrapping papers whilst she liked to collect beautiful notebooks. Every term when school reopened, she would prepare 5 or 6 new notebooks and carefully write on each notebook “Language Notes”, “Mathematics Notes”, “English Notes” and so on. However, after diligently taking notes for five pages, she would inevitably give up and use the remaining pages to play Tic Tac Toe.
  • We used to pass notes around whilst we were in class and exchange all sorts of gossip. Generally, people often used scrap paper to write down these notes. Only Hyun-Joo would specially prepare a “Gossip Notebook” specifically used to pass notes around.
  • Thus, this notebook became a compilation of all the gossip in our class, and contains meticulous records on who was in a relationship with who, who broke up with who, and who was the third party in whose relationship…
  • Subsequently, this notebook was unfortunately confiscated by our homeroom teacher. All the secrets in our class thus lay exposed to our homeroom teacher, and everybody wanted to strangle Hyun-Joo to death.
  • ~ 4 ~
  • There was a period of time when it was very trendy to wear branded sport shoes to class, especially a model, which costs about 500 dollars. It was during these periods of time when I’d be especially regretful of the fact that I wasn’t an only child, and that my mom’s budget was limited. I knew that my mom had a very difficult time trying to earn money – and since Seokjin had managed to sweet-talk my mom into buying him a pair, I couldn’t bear to ask for another pair.
  • I would be lying if I said I didn’t mind. Youths aged fifteen to seventeen have an extremely strong sense of vanity – when I saw that other people were wearing branded shoes whilst I was only wearing random shoes that cost ten dollars, I felt a sense of embarrassment when I was talking to others.
  • One day, when we were having physical education lessons, the female students gathered around to chat during free time. Gradually, the topic shifted to the recent branded sport shoes that had just been released, and they discovered that almost the entire class was wearing Nike or Adidas shoes. Just then, a female student suddenly spoke up, saying that no, Y/N isn’t wearing Nike or Adidas.
  • Another person that pointed to my shoes and asked, “What brand are those?”
  • At that moment, I felt as though I had been caught red-handed when trying to commit a bad act. My entire face flushed red and I was at a loss for words.
  • Hyun-Joo, who was standing by my side, had just returned from purchasing a popsicle. She broke off half of it and handed it to me, then sat herself down and said loudly, “My mom said that Nike shoes are crazily expensive for its lousy quality, and is specifically marketed to cheat people like me with no concept of money.”
  • Her speech left everyone feeing awkward.
  • After that, Hyun-Joo rarely wore Nike shoes, instead choosing to wear random shoes like me.
  • Later one year, when Hyun-Joo was celebrating her birthday, I gifted her with a pair of shoes. I drank too much that night, and confessed to her that I always remembered that she had helped me to resolve the awkward situation that year.
  • She opened her eyes widely, clearly having forgotten what happened then, “Did such a thing really happen? How come I don’t recall even the slightest bit of it? Oh right! Eomma did scold me before for having no concept of money – this is something that I remember extremely clearly.”
  • There are people in the world who are filled with evil intentions and hostility; this is only because they have never ever been treated gently by people in their lives. I believe that I am able to retain my gentle nature only because I met kind and beautiful people when I was young.
  • ~ 5 ~
  • Our school had two sets of uniform – a blue set and a red set. Once, a high ranking official from the Ministry of Education was due for a visit. Thus, the homeroom teacher thus kept stressing that everybody had to don the blue uniform. I’m not terribly clear on whether Hyun-Joo simply hadn’t listened or she had merely forgotten – but when Monday rolled around, the whole school was dressed in the blue uniform. Only she alone donned the bright red uniform, looking terribly conspicuous in the queue.
  • Our homeroom teacher was so angry that she rebuked Hyun-Joo loudly in the corridor, “It’s all because of you that our school is unable to obtain an excellent grade! You’re just like a spoiled mango, spoiling the whole bowl of mangos! This is going to be recorded as a big fault…”
  • No matter how open and carefree Hyun-Joo was, she was still a teenage girl. After getting scolded in front of so many people, she could only lower her head in an attempt to repress her tears. I wanted to comfort her, but I hesitated as we had a huge fight a few days ago. Although I don’t recall what we fought about, I remember that the sorrow that I felt when I ended my friendship with my best friend – it was as though I had broken up with my boyfriend.
  • That day, after we finished our first lesson, we received a sudden notice to assemble below the block. Everybody guessed that we were going to receive a lecture from the principle because of the school uniform. Hyun-Joo was so scared that her face turned white. The homeroom teacher starting rushing everyone to assemble below the block, leaving me alone in the classroom. At that moment, I made a decision – for my friend, I’m going to suffer the punishment together with her.
  • I changed into the red school uniform and walked into the queue. Kim Taehyung was terribly surprised, because the uniform I was wearing was his. He frequently left his red school uniform under his desk as he was too lazy to bring it home.
  • When Hyun-Joo saw me, she was momentarily stunned before bursting into tears, her cries ringing out extremely loudly. The moment I saw her cry, I too, burst into tears. Perhaps I was scared that my actions would really be recorded as a big fault. If this was a movie, and the camera was capturing the scene from above, one would be able to see two small red dots facing each other and crying aloud in a sea of blue, as though the two red dots were crazy. Even the principal who had stepped onto the podium stopped his lecture, and stared at us in surprise.
  • Of course, neither of us really received a big fault. Both of us were simply assigned to do clean up duty for a month. Hyun-Joo told me that having grown so old, that was the single most embarrassing incident in her entire life – but because of me, her memory of that incident became an extremely warm one. At that time, she felt that we would always remain friends forever.
  • ~ 6 ~
  • Hyun-Joo was extremely gifted in certain subjects but terrible at others. Her combined scores for Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics could not even exceed the score she received for a single subject – Language. When we about to promote to second year of high school, the school wanted to stream us into different classes in accordance with our varying standards, so Hyun-Joo started becoming anxious.
  • Kim Taehyung was an obedient child, and had to return home before his curfew. Thus, I had no choice but to drag Seokjin to help tutor Hyun-Joo, and that’s when my nightmare began…
  • Usually, tuition went like this:
  • Jin threw out a single question.
  • Hyun-Joo would still be trying to process the question, when Jin had already scribbled down the answer in a few quick strokes.
  • Hyun-Joo: “What are you writing? I don’t understand your solution a single bit.”
  • Kim Seokjin: “What? You can’t even understand this?! I already wrote it out in great detail.”
  • I stretched my head over to glimpse at the answer sheet –Haa! even though one would require five steps to arrive at the answer, the great Kim Seokjin went directly from the first step to the last, happily skipping all the intermediate steps in between. As such, it was impossible to understand how he arrived at his answer.
  • Subsequently, we concluded that Kim Seokjin had his own unique train of thought: one that only he could understand, and one that we are unable to critique – because if we made even the slightest comment about his train of thought, he would angrily slam the table and leave, but not before scolding us for being extremely stupid. Usually, when I encountered such a situation I’d just shut up. According to my previous experience, quarrelling with him was a waste of energy and time, and the chances of winning is abysmally low. But Hyun-Joo was different. Hyun-Joo would never admit defeat. Instead, she would jump up like a raging bull. The two of them would then proceed to quarrel ferociously and sling personal insults at each other. Just when I thought they’d sever all relations with each other, the two of them would return to their seats, with one person focused on copying and the other focused on explaining how he arrived at the answer from the first step.
  • I suppose this is a rather unique manner of getting along with each other.
  • ~ 7 ~
  • Since Kim Seokjin grew up together with me, he does not have an appreciation of gender differences. Once, Taehyung, Hyun-Joo, Seokjin and I were strolling home together. Taehyung and I were way ahead, Seokjin hovered in the middle whilst Hyun-Joo lingered behind. All of a sudden Hyun-Joo stopped and hollered for me.
  • “Y/N, did you bring that thing?”
  • “What?”
  • She mouthed something at me.
  • I was befuddled.
  • Seokjin said, “Sanitary pad.”
  • “What?” I didn’t manage to catch what Jin was saying.
  • “Hyun-Joo is asking, whether you have any sanitary pads on you! Her period is here!” Kim Seokjin’s voice rang out brightly.
  • Hyun-Joo froze instantly. Even the ten-thousand-years-iceberg-face Kim Taehyung blushed profusely…
  • ~ 8 ~
  • Hyun-Joo had a childhood sweetheart. As he was four years older than her, he was studying in university when we were in high school. Their parents were very close, sometimes even directly referring to each other as in-laws. Because she was frequently spoilt by her boyfriend, Hyun-Joo had always been a carefree and joyful girl. However, when we were in Year 1 of high school, her boyfriend suddenly requested to break up.
  • Hyun-Joo was devastated, and lost a great amount of weight. After being extremely lifeless for half a month, she called me one night, saying that she was determined to have a proper talk with her ex-boyfriend the next day. Finally, she asked me secretively, “Do you know how to apply makeup?”
  • Of course I didn’t know how to, and asked her why she wanted to apply makeup.
  • She replied, “Because I want to appear in front of him looking my best.”
  • As a result, the next day Hyun-Joo stole her mom’s makeup pouch and came to my house. After spending an entire afternoon experimenting with the makeup set, we finally managed to apply some make up on Hyun-Joo which we personally thought was extremely beautiful but was extremely ugly in actuality. I praised her as being Korea’s Paris Hilton, whilst she complimented me as being Korea’s Audre Hepburn. Seokjin, who was sitting beside us, couldn’t bear to hear more, and commented that the friendship between girls was highly pretentious.
  • I retorted that he didn’t know anything about female friendships. Why would we need female best friends? It’s only so that we are able to satisfy our own vanity! Korea’s Paris thus proceeded to negotiate with her ex-boyfriend. Although I’m unclear about what happened, I knew that when the negotiations ended Hyun-Joo was wailing like a baby, refusing to return home. Thus, her ex-boyfriend had to locate my number from her mobile phone. I dragged my Seokjin oppa along to pick her up.
  • I still recall that night. It was a dark and windy night and we found Hyun-Joo by the Han river. She was crying ferociously, and her hair was in a mess. The makeup on her face had begun to run, causing her face to look like an artist’s palette. According to Seokjin, he was so frightened that his legs felt like jelly – because he thought that it was a river spirit had emerged.
  • Subsequently, the ex-boyfriend had an extremely unreasonable request. He said that as long as Hyun-Joo managed to complete folding 9,999 lucky stars before his birthday as a birthday gift, he would get back together with Hyun-Joo.
  • However, it was less than a week to the ex-boyfriend’s birthday! Hyun-Joo was focused on folding stars every single day, and I helped her as well. When the girls in our class found out about this project, they pitched in their efforts and helped to fold paper stars as well – somehow, before we knew it, the entire class was helping to fold paper stars! Those who were terribly clumsy and unable to fold (like our Kim Taehyung) helped by counting the lucky stars, and reported our progress to us regularly.
  • That week was amazing – every single time the bell rang, signalling the end of class, our entire class went silent. Nobody went out to play. Everybody buried their heads, trying their hardest to fold lucky stars. Everyone was strangely touched by the unity that we displayed, and focused on the single-minded goal of helping Hyun-Joo. We were like soldiers, ready and waiting for battle.
  • Even now, whenever I recall this scenario, a cold shiver would run down my spine. A classroom that is deathly silent, with everyone lowering their heads and muttering under their breaths – those who didn’t know better would have thought that our class was holding some kind of mass ritual.
  • Finally, right before the ex-boyfriend’s birthday, we managed to gather 9,999 lucky stars. Hyun-Joo bought a gigantic flower vase to store them. That day, after school ended, everybody stayed behind whilst the flower vase made its rounds around the class, allowing everybody to put their lucky stars into it. When the vase reached Hyun-Joo, it was filled to the brim with lucky stars.
  • Hyun-Joo brought this vase and went to meet her ex-boyfriend. Her ex-boyfriend was extremely shocked – initially, when he first made this request, he simply wanted her to recognize the impossibility of them getting back together, and he never thought that she would manage to fulfil his request. Ultimately, however, the both of them still broke up. Nevertheless, Hyun-Joo commented that strangely, she never felt even the tiniest bit of sadness whilst she was carrying the vase of lucky stars home.
  • Subsequently, when we were in Year 3 of high school, there was a senior who had contracted leukaemia. The principal rallied the entire school to conduct fundraisers, with the proceeds being donated to that senior. We suggested selling that vase of lucky stars. On the day of the fundraiser, our entire class, along with Hyun-Joo, lugged the vase of lucky stars to the sports field, receiving innumerable stares along the way.
  • In the end, our homeroom teacher purchased the vase of lucky stars and placed it in his office. This year, when our classmates went back to visit him, they reported that to their surprise, the vase of lucky stars was still there! Now that I think about it, that year when our entire class was focused on folding the lucky stars, we garnered a great deal of attention, with random people flocking to our class to view our star-folding exercise. Surprisingly, our homeroom teacher who was renowned for his strict nature had turned a blind eye to our project – perhaps he too, was touched by our unity. At that time, the youthful us were filed with innocence and enthusiasm, we were rebellious but kind. That, was the best side of us.
  • ~ 9 ~
  • One day, I was drinking with Hyun-Joo. Although Lee Hyun-Joo has been to countless of blind dates, she hasn’t been able to settle down with anyone. When I asked her for the reason why, she replied, “I have psychological barriers.”
  • Me: “Ah?! What barriers?”
  • Hyun-Joo: “Managing to like somebody always requires a certain amount of time, and it is always during this timeframe that I discover that the other party is a retard.”
  • Me: “HAHAHAHA, I’m the exact opposite of you! The only reason why I married Taehyung at the speed of light was because I was afraid that he would discover that I was a retard.”
  • Taehyung, who had been sitting next to me and listening to our conversation this entire time, finally spoke up, “No wonder I always felt that something was off, I’ve been had…”
  • ~ 10 ~
  • Hyun-Joo is presently working at a publishing company. One day, I accompanied her to the bookstore to conduct some surveys. When we saw a literature book, Hyun-Joo started reflecting, “How I wish I was working on a book written by a famous author – I wouldn’t even have to provide a summary of the plot; simply putting the author’s name would ensure great sales.”
  • I replied, “That’s true, if you’re working on Manhwa books you would also achieve the same effect.”
  • “In the whole of Korea, innumerable people hope to be the editor of Manhwa books, so I’d never get the chance. Rather, I feel that both you and Taehyung have hidden potential, so in the future when you two become famous, remember to let me be the editor of your autobiographies.”
  • “I’m terribly unambitious, so don’t count on me.”
  • “Of course I’m not counting on you – all we need is for Kim Taehyung to become famous! At that time, your book would be known as The First Autobiography of The First Wife of Successful Entrepreneur!”
  • “Wait, why would I be known as his first wife? Would he have a second wife?”
  • “That’s hard to say, when one earns great amounts of money, one would be faced with innumerable temptations. I intend to help his first, second, third and fourth wives publish biographies, thus forming a series. It’ll definitely sell well!”
  • “Goodbye, I intend to break off our friendship from here on out.”
  • ~ 11 ~
  • I texted Hyun-Joo over Kakao Talk, and we agreed to watch Song Joon Ki’s new movie during the upcoming weekend.
  • Hyun-Joo: “How can this man be so timelessly handsome!”
  • Me: “The male god lives forever, Song Joon Ki exists eternally.”
  • Hyun-Joo: “When I finally strike it big, the first thing I’m going to do is to be his sugar momma or sugar baby.”
  • Me: “Wouldn’t it require a lot of money to be his sugar momma or baby?”
  • Hyun-Joo: “Even if I can’t be his sugar momma or sugar baby, I can surely have a one-night-stand with him at the very least!”
  • Me: “Then we have to work harder and earn more money to meet him.”
  • Kim Taehyung, who had been silently listening to us all this while, finally opened his mouth, “By the time you guys earn enough money, Song Joon Ki would already become an old man.”
  • "................"
  • ~ 12 ~
  • When Kim Taehyung and I decided to marry, everybody wished me a blissful and long marriage. Only Hyun-Joo held my hands tightly and told me seriously, “My dear, I will always support you no matter what you do. Even if you intend on escaping from the wedding, I’ll buy you sports shoes.”
  • Taehyung glared at her innumerable times.
  • She is my classmate, my best friend, my bridesmaid, and the future godmother of my children. When we are both eighty years old, we would be companions in the nursing home, sitting side by side on our wheelchairs whilst admiring at the handsome hunks in the distance. She is my dearest, dearest, Lee Hyun-Joo.
  • ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  • A/N ~ Waiting for your precious replies...... Don't feel shy to comment.......... Borahae 💜✨
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Chapter 7: My Dearest Lee Hyun-Joo