After the crying fest, Areum apologized a few more times. The girls decided it was time for bed and the night ended. The next morning Yejin woke up and felt a heavy weight on her chest. she checked her phone and saw a ‘good morning’ text from Jackson. She replied with a simple ‘morning’ as she rolled out of bed and forced herself to shower. She spent the day lounging around the house as the empty silence started to grow uncomfortable. The girl worked on school assignments and wondered if her mother would ever bring her brothers back.

           The next day was Monday and Yejin had never been so excited to go to school. She didn’t intend to suddenly become social and befriend everyone in her grade, but getting out of the suffocating house and even being pestered by Jackson sounded nice. The boy had even asked if he could drive her to school, which didn’t sound awful but she still denied. Her usual bus ride gave her a sense of comfort as she sat in a seat next to the window and watched the scenery pass by to the tune of whatever song her came on shuffle. The girl got to school with an extra twenty minutes and headed to her classroom, prepared to eat the snacks she stuffed in her bag on her way out the door.

           Yejin walked in the classroom when she heard her phone buzz. She made way to her seat in the empty room before checking the message. Where are you? Jackson’s text read. She responded by saying the classroom and locked her phone while pulling out the milk and few small bags of chips. She had her headphones in when she opened the bottle of milk and took a sip. When she picked up the bag of sweet potato chips she didn’t hear the boy walk in the room. Yejin opened the bag and ate a few as she looked out of the window, watching the slow sunrise. The girl looked ahead and saw Jackson sit in the seat in front of her and dodged his attempt to pull a headphone out of her ear. The boy pouted at this and Yejin held out a chip to him. He simply opened his mouth and the girl leaned forward to place it in. She paused her music and took off the headphones when Jackson said something.

“What?” she asked.

“Can I have a drink?” he said, pointing to her opened milk. A quick middle school thought of a