Chapter Text
First and foremost, a person needs to be born to be human. The most simple steps are often times overlooked.
Of course, the person has to be born out of a human, not just any birth results in a human; but I’m absolutely sure that all of this goes without saying. It’s something that everybody knows but still often forgets. The very thing that connects us all is that we are inherently people. Everyone, all together, makes up what we call a person.
And after you are born, the other things that people say make someone “human” begin to matter less and less. Or maybe, they matter more and more, but the point is that the most solid thing we go off of is whether or not we are genetically people.
Maybe these thoughts came from the fact I’m sitting in Biology class, but again, it doesn’t dampen the point being made.
Each person probably has their own standards for humanity, but to me, everyone actually values the same things, just all in different amounts. Much like how some people like their coffee black and some prefer to drown it in milk, not everyone can agree on a person's definition of what makes someone human.
But I always found it silly to argue about it when everyone clearly agrees at the most fundamental level. Arguing about anything so simple, whether it’s coffee or philosophy, just doesn’t make any sense at all.
A piece of paper bumped my elbow. I looked down, it was folded up nicely in a small rectangle, clearly ripped out of her notebook. It could only be one person, my seatmate and best friend of four years, Kim Ji Won, or Elizabeth, or, more simply and often, Liz.
I glanced over at her but she only stared at the teacher as he rambled on about the circulatory system or something, so I easily unfolded the note, the edges weren’t folded with much force:
YJ
Can you stay after for Book Club? ;(
-LZ
I refolded the note and sighed quietly. Maybe I did that because I knew Liz was watching me from the corner of her eye, and deep inside me– and on the surface level– I very much did not want to go to the meeting. As clearly as I tried to make that, Liz wouldn’t let up. She didn’t do it in all of our four years as friends, and she certainly wouldn't start now.
I scribed indignantly on the top of the folded paper:
YES!!!
Double underlined with three exclamation points and an eye-roll because Liz now fully watched for my response. I didn’t even need to slide the paper back over as I clicked my pen off, she’d already grabbed the paper herself. She probably didn’t even read what was written, she knew I couldn’t really say no.
Four years of friendship, and not much has happened. We met in middle school and only because friends because of our propinquity, we were seatmates, and in middle school that’s just who you became friends with. Now, we’re in high school. Although we’re not too similar, we’re still close. Liz likes books and I do not, but we both enjoy each other’s company, and chick tenders.
“Today will be the day!” Liz said randomly. It seemed random to me, but maybe she was speaking before. Often times I get lost in thought, it’s much easier than speaking. Maybe that ideology is the reason that Liz is one of my only friends.
“The day for what?” I asked after glancing around and seeing that everyone else was talking too. Mr. Kim probably stopped teaching for the day, but as previously stated, I don’t often notice these things.
“The day I ask for her number,” Liz responded. I nodded at that.
A few months ago, when our third year of high school began, the book club had started gaining some new members. It wasn’t that I particularly cared about this resurgence, it was just that Liz, as the club’s president, was too happy to not constantly bring it up to me.
“You always say that.” I deadpanned. And it’s true, she does always say that. It gets exhausting at times because as much as Liz loves being bold to me, she can never be that way with others. She is just plain and shy to everyone else. Maybe it’s endearing as well, but it’s mostly exhausting.
“But it is different today.” she began, and now my eyebrow quirked up. She sounded like she believed in herself, so maybe I could too.
“Because at the last meeting she asked me if she could bring a friend to the next one, so I, of course, said yes. But she was still hesitant and asked me if I was sure, so I said yes and that I was actually bringing one of my own friends,” she said now gesturing at me to point out the fact that I was that friend as if I couldn’t deduce that myself.
To bring the topic of Liz and I’s friendship back up, we have many things in common besides chicken tenders. We both like romance movies, art class, and spending late nights wandering the streets with no particular destination; but another common thing is that we both like girls, well, that’s something I found out about her a month after we met, and she doesn’t know about me yet, but that’s complicated.
“You should’ve asked Leeseo then, you know I hate these things,” I said. Social settings were just not for me. Especially in book clubs where I actively did not read any of the books they discussed, so really, there was no point in me being there, besides the fact that Liz had asked.
“I can’t, the girl she’s bringing is Leeseo’s sister,” Liz said as her hands found their way to smooth out the creases that had formed on her forehead.
“How do you even know that?”
“Well it’s because I did ask Leeseo, but when I explained everything she told me that the girl Rei was bringing was her sister and that I should find someone else.”
“You should’ve brought her anyway, isn’t it better if it’s someone you all know?” I asked. Also, how does Leeseo even know what her sister does and doesn’t do? Especially something as useless as a club meeting, it was weird that she’d tell her sister about that
“I don’t know, she just insisted that I should choose someone else. She doesn't even dislike books!” Liz said exasperatedly. It was clear that talking about it was only getting her more and more riled up, but she cooled down and went on anyway.
“She even insisted I bring you as if I have any other real choice.” Liz finished defeatedly, arms now crossed on the desk with her head lowering to fit into them.
“Well, it’s a good thing you have me,” I said smugly as I leaned back in my seat, crossing my arms to show it was a joke. In reality, it wasn’t really a joke, and also, I just wanted to lift Liz’s mood off of the floor after the rollercoaster she went through. Happy that I accepted, then angry explaining everything to me, and finally, sad at the recollection of it all. It seemed like a lot, but I guess it isn’t really a lot for Liz.
She lifted her head and smiled lightly, “Yes, Yujin, yes I am.”
I blushed at the way she said it, like she really meant it, probably because she did. Looking back, it was nice of her to ask Leeseo over me even though we both know she’d rather have me there, she didn’t abuse her ability to convince me to do anything, and that’s probably why we work so well together.