Today, I have a rather different visitor. A girl came up to my seat. It’s the same girl who made eye contact with me on my first day.

“Lukas, I really like your eyes.”

She has long, wavy hair— brownish and silky. Her skin is white as snow, with a hint of blushes on her cheeks. Her eyes are round and big with sparkly pupils. She probably wears minimal make-up too. She looks like the celebrity in the ads near Mr. Park’s apartment.

Did she just say she likes my eyes?

“Thank you..”

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Yes?”

That escalated too fast. Before I could answer her, she held out her hand for a shake.

“I’m Lee Chan-mi. Let’s be friends!” I reached for her hand but In-ho came and shoo-ed her away.

“Ah, what are you doing? Don’t bother us!” 

“Hey, go study. Is your job dating everyone in the school?”

“F—k. You’re so annoying.” She walked away giggling.

That scared me a little. I can tell it’s a bad word by how angry In-ho looked. He then turned to look at me.

“Hey, do you want to go to the library?”

I mentally jolted.

“Library?”

“Yeah, since those three are gone right now, let’s run away.”

I spring up so fast and startle him. “Let’s go.”

“Oh…okay.”

In the hallway, we talked quite a lot. Our conversation naturally flows well.

“Your Korean is getting better.” 

My ears suddenly feel a bit hot. “Really?” 

He nodded. “Keep practicing.” 

I never got so excited over a compliment before. It made me so happy, I couldn’t stop grinning. I covered my mouth with my hand. It didn’t help that In-ho kept staring at me either. He must have stared because my face resembles a red vegetable right now.

When recess ended, we got up and left the library. The session we had was silent and calming. I like it too much. I managed to finish two pages this time, even though the meaning was still half clear in my brain.

“Let’s do this again.” In-ho turned to me. “What do you think, Lukas?”

I almost screamed ‘YES’ to his face but I held back.

“Yes.” I answered, calmly. Good job, me.

As we stepped to class, a boy's voice suddenly greeted us loudly from the back.

“Kang In-ho, hey!”

We both turned around at the same time.

“Who is this?”

The boy leaned his face in my direction as he stepped nearer.

He wore a light brown sweater and folded the sleeves on his white school shirt, exposing his wrist and a dangling bracelet. He’s tall, around the same height as Ki-sung and while he’s pale as In-ho, his eyes are less round and more slanted upwards. He has one hand placed in his pocket.

“He’s a new student in an exchange program from Germany.”

“Germany? That’s interesting.”

I just stayed stationary with sealed lips—mind a little stuck.

“Is that why he’s so f—king big?”

“Hey…” In-ho doesn’t look impressed.

“What? I can’t curse in front of him?” He stepped towards me with a smile. 

“I’m sorry if that was rude. I’m Do Han-byeol.” He initiated a shake. “You can call me Dohan.” 

“Hello..I’m Lukas.” I returned his shake.

“I feel like you’re good at fighting. Have you fought anyone at this school yet?”

“Can you stop that?” In-ho seemed more annoyed than before.

“I’m just being friendly. Why are you so protective of him, Honnie?” He rested his right arm around In-ho’s shoulder. 

‘Honnie’ must be In-ho’s nickname. They seemed really close.

In-ho pushed him aside after a few exchange of lines. “We’re catching a class. See you later.” In-ho walks past me. “Let’s go, Lukas.” I turned around and followed him.

Do Han-byeol stared at his friend’s new ‘foreign’ friend. He scoffed.

“Is he his dog?”