By 19th Waver, Dongok Kim

Adapted from Chapter 20 

I just can’t understand those girls. The way they talk like, the way they agree on stupid things that seem to be goddam nonsense. Unless they don’t have brain, they can’t be that phony. Maybe they don’t know how to think their own way. Anyway, I fought with the phony girls in my school because I was just annoyed by their attitudes toward the teachers. They all agreed that the Old Mr. Headmaster is the phoniest bastard in the world. Well, it’s true that all the adults aren’t that lovely and smart, Old Mr. Headmaster is especially annoying bastard among them. I couldn’t just stand the girls keep nodding at Old Mr. Headmaster when he was talking in front of the podium at goddam Morning Assembly. Among the girls there was the headmaster’s niece so I couldn’t simply say what an old bastard he is. Instead, I said, “What a wonderful speech I’ve ever heard for chirssake.” Humans are smart creatures, and they should learn how to adapt themselves in different situations. And I’m very good at lying. Sometimes, I don’t even notice myself lying and when nobody stops me, I can even make up a story for hours.

           Feeling dirty surrounded by those phony bastards, I got out of the school and walked back home. On the way home, however, I thought my mom is in the house and she will be so irritated when she sees me not in the school. It’s hard to control her when she is actually angry. However, I didn’t feel like going back to the school full of phonies. And besides, I didn’t have any money to go somewhere else. So what I did, I decided to spend time in the playground in the apartment complex that I used to go as a kid. I still didn’t know if it was there or not. I have been so long since I last played in the playground. Then, something terrible happened. I’ve live in the same place for more than ten years and it was my first time to see no one at there. No single living creature in the playground. No yelling of kids, no sounds of laughter heard from far away. No toy cups or toy shovels rolling around the slides. So many things were absent. I couldn’t find any of those I used to see at there.