Christmas day passed like any other day, except umma and appa were out partying and too busy to be bothered beating me. They returned home wasted and drunk, going off to their room and ignoring me altogether. They stayed up until 3am making gross noises in the other room.

I didn’t sleep that night. I hadn’t been sleeping the past few nights anyway. I’d been too busy thinking.

I kept thinking about the ring.

That night, after I’d gone up to put the ring back and saw Seungho’s bracelet…I started to realise the frightening similarities between Joon and his cousin.

I’d thought it over, and over…and over and over and over until my head had started developing migraines.

I walked through the grey iron gates without a second thought. All of them were too focused on Joon for anything else to even register in my mind.

Blankly dropping my bag and slumping back in one of the cheap plastic chairs, I sighed, looking out the window as I thought.

It’d already been more than 2 weeks since I had last seen Joon, and I’ve been starting to think that was the last I’d ever seen of him. Was that it? Meeting this stranger that knew so much about me and then letting him slip away from me without a trace of information about him?

It was a while before I was snapped out of my thoughts and back into the dull, mindless English classroom. So much for learning, this classroom was as lively as a prison cell. Or where I live. And yes, I chose those words carefully. That place will never be my home. It never has been and never will be my home.

It was Doojoon that had disturbed me, a guy that was known as being cheerful, funny and full of live. A natural born leader.

Exactly the opposite to me.

I looked up at him blankly.

“Anyo Kim Jae Hwa-sshi!” he said, cheerful as ever and oblivious to my blank stares.

“Anyo…” I said back lamely.

“Ahhh~ ottoke? There are two new students transferring to this class today. One’s from our brother school – you know the one near the edge of the city? – and the other’s a transfer from an all boy’s school…it’s harder to be class captain than you’d think you know?” he said with a smile on his face. He was sitting in the desk next to me, leaning back casually on his chair and folding his arms behind his head.

I listened to his thoughtful voice in silence, too busy being consumed in my own thoughts to pay much attention to his sweet, happy face. I hid in my hair, letting the straight dark brown locks conceal my face.

“Yeobosayo? Jae Hwa-sshi, genchana? You seem out of it” he said concerned

“N-neh, I’m fine.” I replied. He caught me off guard.

“Oh, here comes the sesangnim and the new students, I hope they are good to us, don’t you?”

“Neh, I’m sure they’ll be good” I said, tucking some hair behind my ear and shyly looking down. I don’t know why he suddenly started talking to me; we usually never speak to each other.

I glanced up at him through my long hair. He was smiling kindly down at me, his eyes bright but gentle. I gazed into the dark brown of his eyes, lost in smooth dark chocolate.

“Students!” I snapped my head to the front of the class, whipping my hair around and letting it fall around my face again, concealing it. I stared at my hands in my lap. Teacher Jinki continued, “We have two new students joining this form this morning. Please introduce yourselves,” he stepped aside to let a rather tall guy with white hair step in place of him.

“Uh, anyohaseyo, nega Yoseob-mida. Please take care of me,” he bowed politely, glancing up at the class.

But I swear he only glanced up at me.

I could hear all the girls giggle and whisper in approval. He had white-ish blonde hair that swept up away from his face and dark, black-brown eyes that were framed by long lashes. He had a cute, chubby nose and his medium lips turned up into a full, half-hearted smile. The smile didn’t touch his eyes though. He scanned the class briefly, fixing his dark, dark eyes on mine.

He stared at me for a long time, but I couldn’t find it in myself to return the favour. Some thing about this guy rang great big bells in my head, clashing on the sides of my skull like a warning alarm. He seemed familiar…but I wasn’t sure if it was in a good or a bad way,

I was too busy trying to avoid Yoseob’s quick but intense glances that I almost didn’t see the other guy standing next to him.

He had his black hair cropped short so it fell over the sides of his face in strands. He was wearing the school uniform, but it didn’t look right. His tie was pulled loose, his shirt hung over the waistband of his trousers casually and several of his top buttons were undone, revealing well defined collarbones and a chiselled chest. He was smiling warmly at everyone in the class, his eyes landing on me and his smile growing wider.

I knew that smile. I would always know that smile.

Joon.

By now the girls in the back row seats were causing a riot. I’m pretty sure there were a few erted whispers and picture snapping too.

“Anyohaseyo, nega Lee Joon-mida, I’m transferring here from across the district because I found it hard to study there, I hope we can all be good friends in the future” he bowed as well, only not as refined as Yoseob had.

He looked in my direction when he said good friends. Unknowingly, I blushed, looking down at my hands again.

“Take a seat that’s open you two, I’ll be back soon class, open your textbooks and start reading ‘The teachings of Confucius’ and answer the questions in your books in FULL sentences, Mir-goon.” Teacher Jinki said, gesturing to the right hand side of the class where Mir sat, just in-front of me. Mir groaned in disappointment, folding his arms over his wide chest and pouting like a little boy. Several of the girls in the class giggled, admiring his cuteness. I looked away disinterested.

I directed my eyes to the open window, relishing the feeling of fresh air blowing away all of the complicated thoughts that had piled up and accumulated throughout the past few days. I closed my eyes. The bruise that appa gave me a few days ago was yellowing and fading away from my forehead. I gazed out at the endless fields that lay out as the school’s backyard.

The school was settled in a cosy spot in the hills, surrounded with lush, grassy plains to one side and a large stretch of roaring water and ocean spray to the other.

I breathed the ocean breeze swept in by the wind slowly, letting it calm me. Why?

Because Joon chose the empty seat beside me.

“Well, this is going to be interesting” Doojoon whispered to me, still in the seat to my right. Joon was on my left, meaning if I wanted to look out the window, I had to see past him.

I smiled a little bit at Doojoon, politely. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Yoseob, sitting at the back of the class with his feet up on the small desk and most of the girls in the class taking glances whenever they could. Some were even brave enough to go up and talk to him. A girl called Jessica and several of her friends.

But Yoseob weren’t even listening to them, his eyes still trained on me.