A pair of eyes opened into the semi-darkness, reflecting the indigo sky that was slightly turning a tangerine hue on the edges of the skylight directly above, still dotted with stars.

Jaera stirred on her bed rather stiffly like a machine that has not been oiled for a long time, rust in the form of drowsiness making every single part of her system rigid including the cogs of her brain which was thinking of the same thing since she fell asleep: she forgot to close the sliding cover of the skylight. Had it been high noon, she would have sun-burned her face.

She sluggishly turned her head towards the nightstand where her alarm clock stood. It read 5:59, still fairly early for her. Heck, she beat the alarm that was set for 6:30. Knowing that there was no way she could return to bed, she just lay there for a few more minutes, thinking about how her day would turn out.

Monday, the day everybody hates with the blues kicking in. Oddly enough, she didn’t feel the same way about it. Instead, she was torn between dreading the day and being happy that she was back on familiar ground.

Her friends still didn’t know that she’s back. Nobody does, except for Wonwoo, the person who would look forward to her return the least. She’s never told them about her intentions and plans just like she kept it a secret from her mother until she was standing in front of their doorstep.

She dreaded the day for the adjustments she had to make. Jaera did not worry about the lessons at all after discovering that she has finished half of the lessons for the whole school year. It wouldn’t be such a hassle going through them again and cutting some slack for herself for the meantime. Boredom was the thing she feared though.

On the other hand, she was looking forward to seeing the faces of her old classmates. She attended the academy for the first year and a half of the school year, but she wanted to see how everybody looked like, wondered how they have been all this time.

She knew she would be seeing everyone since the friends she had been keeping in touch with had been helping her keep up with everything that has been happening, new couples, breakups, scandals, everything.

She had Jung Hyeri to thank for that. The girl had been her best friend for almost all her life and she has been a gossip vortex that turns into an oracle after everything has been processed. The good thing about her is that she verifies everything. It fits. She has always wanted to become an investigative journalist. Funny how she did not even know that Jaera has returned.

The girl on the bed just chuckled, finally deciding to get out of bed, picking up the tiny remote by the alarm clock so she wouldn’t forget to close the skylight. She moved to tidy her bed before walking toward her desk to check if everything she had to bring to school was inside her bag which would become lighter by the end of the day, thank goodness.

Her schedule arrived after lunch the previous day. Scanning through it, she was glad that she didn’t see calculus. It was one thing she minded repeating all over again. After all the hard work she has done to pass the subject, it was a good thing that the school decided for her not to take it anymore which meant an extra hour of idleness in the afternoon.

The whole curriculum had been listed for her as well and she was glad she didn’t have to take gym class every Wednesday for the rest of the year. She made sure to take every bit of sports class she could while she was in Auckland and her extra fencing class made up for almost everything. Another extra hour during that day of the week.

Instead, the school gave her an extra half hour off of the supposed gym class for SAT review sessions with a special tutor. She was also given inquiry forms on whether she wants to take extra language or music lessons since she had the prerogative to ditch her lower grade History class in the morning.

All in all, she had a total of six necessary subjects, two that she didn’t have to attend and another one that she has finished. No Math and gym for the rest of the year except for the former during SAT reviews which was also designated for her to make college applications, all but done since the previous year.

To be precise, she almost had nothing to do if it weren’t for the necessary subjects she needed credits for. At least she’ll have time to catch up with all the people she has missed all throughout the year she had been gone.

Jaera started the day early, doing her usual routine, taking a shower, taking time to style her hair while going through her schedules for the day and thinking about which language class to take as a module, not an actual sit-in class.

The nineteen-year old girl stared at herself in the mirror, satisfied by the free-flowing curls tha