The bus was so crowded and people in the bus started to bump into each other as it got more and more crowded. Girls next to me giggled and talked all the way to their destination. The man standing across me talked into his phone with a loud voice. Boys at the back seat were making fun of each other that in the end got into a little fight. So imagine how noisy the bus would have been. As everyone is breathing heavily in the bus and as no one was opening the window for they didn't want the cold air from an air-conditioner to get out through the window, the bus was full of carbon dioxide. However, the air in the bus was not cold enough to make me satisfied with the situation. I got annoyed by the humid air and loud noises.
The people in the bus were usually students and mostly middle and high-school students. Several bus stops went by and these annoying conditions continued until the bus came to a place called 'Bank Intersection'. The place was named for four banks' existence at an each intersection road. The bus stopped there and suddenly almost all the people in the bus were gone. This is because lots of private educational institutes gathered at the 'Bank Intersection' and since most Korean students go to these institutes; the place was very well-known.
Kids got out of the bus and dragged their bodies to their destination which would probably have been private institutes. However tired they might have been, they were looking at each other and laughing. Watching kids giggle and talk to each other on their way to private institutes from the window, I could not hide my smile coming from the memory of mine. I was also one of the students who had been lingering around at the place when I was a high-school student. I hated to go to these institutes since it was like a living hell to me. But I had to go because it is kind of a duty for many Korean students to take private lessons besides school education.
Looking back on those days, almost every day was same. After I finished a dinner at a school cafeteria, my friend and I brushed teeth and got ready to go to institutes located at the 'Bank Intersection'. Since the place was not very far from my school, we walked there, talking and having fun together. However, as soon as we got there, all of our energies were drawn out from our bodies and suddenly we felt tired. I went to the institute where they teach both math and science. The place was all white, which reminded me of hospitals. Entering the place, I could hear the bell ringing from the bell tied to a door. The smell of woods struck me every time I walked down the hall. At that time there were only boys' high-schools and girls' high-schools around my town and I was also a student from a girls' high-school. There were many boys in the institute since they teach only math and sciences and because I couldn't see any boys from my school, it was the only place I could encounter boys. For this reason, there were many students with a blushing looks and a face of bashfulness.
The bus stopped at my destination and my friend had been waiting for me at the bus stop. I ran into her as soon as I saw her. She greeted me with that face I had missed for years. I could not stop thinking of back when I was high-school since I passed the 'Bank Intersection'. We talked all day about the old days and had a great time as if we were high-school students I'd seen back at the bus.
It was like a living hell at that time but the place was rather a very valuable place, now I think of it. It is where I have spent half of my life and the place is full of my teenage memories that I could not have gained otherwise. I plan to go there some time and look back on the time I have spent.
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