Do Not Feed Recklessly - Chapter 1. Part 2

‘Does he have nothing better to do?’ Jia wondered, doing her best to ignore him.

But no matter how she reacted, Ethan never backed down and kept tossing remarks her way.

‘You can bark all you want, I’ll just do my thing.’ Jia thought, focusing on her garden as she used a small shovel to tidy up the soil.

Then Ethan said something that made her hand freeze in place, mid-dig.

“Why don’t you have friends?”

“What?”

It was a sensitive topic for Jia, something that had been bothering her for a while. And now Ethan had poked at that sore spot.

“Why don’t you have any friends at school?” he pressed.

” Why do you care?” Jia snapped, suddenly angry. Her face flushed red as she stood up and shouted at him.

“Mind your own business, idiot!”

Jia was overwhelmed with embarrassment—the shame of not having any friends and the humiliation of having that weakness exposed by someone she didn’t even like. A mix of emotions washed over her, none of them pleasant.

In her discomfort, she became determined to avoid Ethan at all costs. While she couldn’t avoid him on the school bus, she did her best to ignore him when their paths crossed.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“…”

Jia remained silent, pretending he wasn’t even there.

“Idiot.” 

“…”

“Loser!”

But Ethan, as oblivious as ever, wasn’t discouraged. He continued to follow Jia around, always engaging her in conversation. Now, it wasn’t just in the yard; he would also approach her at school, striking up conversations whenever he had the chance.

Although Jia found this increasingly annoying, she couldn’t deny that talking to Ethan, however reluctantly, was helping her improve her English.

As time went on, Jia began to make friends. With these new friendships, school became a bit more enjoyable, and her language skills improved rapidly.

The days of begging her parents to let her move back to Korea had all but disappeared. If only her relationship with Ethan had improved, everything would have been perfect.

Unfortunately, that never happened. They were still at each other’s throats whenever their paths crossed.

Ethan would often leave gifts in the form of creepy caterpillars, tossing them through the gaps in the fence.

This meant that poor Jia, peacefully tending to her garden, would suddenly be startled by a hideous insect, causing her to fall backward in shock.

“Ahhh! Oh my God”

She let out a scream, only to hear Ethan’s loud laughter echoing from the other side of the fence.

“You… you jerk!”

Jia sometimes threw dirt in his direction, but that only made Ethan laugh harder.

Still, Jia wasn’t the type to just let things go. She had her own ways of getting back at him.

The more Ethan teased Jia, the more fiercely she retaliated. Once, she filled a water gun with ice-cold water and ambushed him. Another time, when their mothers insisted they make up, she secretly smeared spicy gochujang in the sandwich her mom had packed for him.

Throwing things at each other or pulling each other’s hair became a regular occurrence, and whenever their paths crossed, it inevitably ended in screaming and fighting. Their parents were constantly forced to intervene and separate them.

“Ethan!”

“Jia!”

“What are you doing, huh? You should be getting along with your friend.”

By this time, instead of saying she wanted to go back to Korea, Jia had started asking other questions.

“Isn’t Mr. Taylor’s family moving away soon?”

Still, in a small blessing, as time passed and both Jia and Ethan grew older, the physical fights stopped. That didn’t mean they got along any better, though.

Late at night, Jia lay in bed, pulling the blanket up over herself as drowsiness slowly crept in, and she began to drift off to sleep.

“Thud, thud.”

But as always, Jia’s eyes fluttered open at the familiar sound coming from the window. At first, she thought it might be raining, so she looked outside. But now she knew better.

“Damn Ethan, again…”

She didn’t even have to look to know it was Ethan, probably throwing wet paper or small stones at her window as he often did. It seemed he just couldn’t leave her alone, even when she was asleep.

“Thud, thud, thud.”

Unable to take the noise any longer, Jia reached over to the bedside drawer and grabbed something – her Korean gonggi (jacks) set.

“Alright, let’s see how you like this.”

Jia grabbed a handful of Gonggi stones and threw them out her window, aiming directly into Ethan’s room.

“You damned idiot! Don’t you ever sleep?” she shouted, hurling the small stones with all her might.

They flew through the air in graceful arcs, landing around Ethan’s window. Now and then, she got lucky, and one would slip through the open window.

For some reason, Ethan found the whole thing hilarious, laughing out loud even when one of the stones hit him on the head. Despite being hit, he didn’t seem to care and continued to laugh, completely unfazed.

Jia couldn’t understand what he found so funny, but it made her feel better as she kept throwing the Gonggi stones at him, venting her frustration.

“Can you just let me sleep? Seriously, let me sleep!” 

Every weekend, Ethan’s pointless pranks robbed Jia of her rest and left her exhausted.

“If you’re bored, go to a party or something! Just stop bothering me here!” 

“Why would I go to a party? Watching your angry face is way more fun.”

Ethan laughed, his shoulders shaking with amus*ment as he teased her.

Jia glared at him angrily. 

‘Why are these damn houses built so close together?’ she thought, blaming the proximity of their houses as she kicked the wall in frustration. Of course, the only thing that hurt in the end was her foot.