"And I, was Water."

 Minutes before meeting with Dongmin...

 "Don't be shy, Woonhak. You got this! Just do it!"

  "Wait, hyung! I-I'll go..." 

I don't wanna go. I'm too nervous. 

  "You'll end up whining about not speaking to her. You even did your hair. No more next chances!"

  Sigh. "What would you know, Sungho-hyung?"

Who knew giving out the menu could be this hard? 

  I'm at Jim's Burgers helping Dad just like yesterday. Every week, I help out for four days: Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Tuesdays. Even though today is Monday, I had to come and help Dad since it's just him, Maria, and Elijah, and three people can't run a restaurant themselves. 

  Last month, we hardly had any customers at Jim's Burgers. Stress hit Dad hard, seeing that people didn't enjoy his meals. Recently, out of nowhere, our restaurant was filled with twice as many customers. We even got 2 more employees! Even though the situation almost made him give up, Dad remained ambitious. Maybe that's where I get it from. However, it's completely drained out of me right now. 

  I should be like Dad. I should be determined. I even did my hair in hopes that she'll come. 

   "Menu for Table 7!"

  Man, that startled me. That's her table. I wanna go up to her. Badly. But I just can't bring myself to do it.  

  Frankly, it is only hard because it's a girl like...her. And when I mean "her", I mean Carmen. 

  We're both 16 and go to the same school, and we've gone there since we were kids. So, we practically grew up together. And of course, Carmen and I aren't strangers. We live on the same street. We've had conversations, eaten together, and worked on projects together, as if we're friends. 

  I love it, but then I hate it. Cuz I don't want us to be just friends.

  I should think it through. This moment is special. Carmen's sitting here, in Table 7, in our restaurant. In fact, she's sitting on the table that I usually sit on. I should be the one to help her.

  No more next chances like how Sungho-hyung said. My heart beats faster as I walk towards Table 7. 

  "About time." I hear Sungho-hyung say behind me.

  Everything felt like slow motion. There she is, running her fingers on the tiled walls. She watched the sparrows out the windows with her dark brown eyes. Carmen must have waited for a while. Ah, seriously, what went through my head? Maybe all the hairspray fried it.  

Here I go. I knock on the table to get her attention.

  "Carmen! You must have waited for a long time. Got our menu for you!" 

  "Woonhak!" Carmen looked surprised. "Wow, umm. Your hair. It's...definitely something." 

Whoa, I guess she likes it. Spending hours on it was worth it then. 

  "Where were you? I couldn't find you at school."

Huh?   

  "You were...looking for me?" I look at her, pointing at myself in denial. 

  She snatches the menu from my hand.  "Well, I suppose I was..."

  "I missed school today to help Dad."

  I don't get it; this is not her typical self. Carmen's not usually timid. She's always either super chill or interestingly hyper. She didn't even bring her Walkman, which she always has with her. Her mannerisms are different today. She furrows her eyebrows as she searches the menu. 

  Carmen does that when she's upset. She furrows her dark eyebrows and leans on her hand. I bothered her. It'd be better to say sorry. 

  "I'm really, really sorry for not coming on time. I should have come right away-"

  "You're good, Woonhak. This place is busy. I didn't know. Don't take it personally." 

  She's talking fast. "No, no! It's my duty to hand out the-" 

  "Can I get the cola?" She cuts me off again and looks at me impatiently. She pushes the menu back and fidgetily scrapes off her orange nail polish. 

  "W-well I..."

  I hesitantly look back at Sungho-hyung, who avoids eye contact to hold himself from laughing. Why's he finding this funny? I blink my eyes quickly in search of words. I'm suddenly speechless. Was I too late? Did I trouble Carmen that much? Was she starving? Oh man, what have I done? 

  "I-I'll get you some cola. As quickly as possible." I fumble for my notepad, my hands sweaty as I rush to note it. I head straight to the back.  

  "Also, let's play some basketball when you're done!" She yells as I'm about to leave. 

  I pause for a moment and look back at her. It hadn't been a second that our eyes met, and she rushed back to concentrate on her chipped nail polish. I've never experienced this. Does she... 

  No. She won't ever! I just showed her how foolish I am. There's no use in keeping my hopes high anymore. But...basketball? She said, "Let's play basketball."? 

  Gosh, what does she know? I think of it every day. "When will you and I recall our childhood, the moment we met, by playing and hanging out at the court together again?" 

  Basketball's what brought Carmen and me together. We would play almost every day before sunset and do homework together afterwards. After all this time, it seems like she remembers. She wants to play again, like the good days. I miss that. And I hope she does too. 

"Yeah, we can do that," I tell her. Carmen looks up at me. I adjust my cap and nod my head. 

"Let's do it! See you there at six!" 

End of Kim Woonhak: #1