[  T H E   D A Y  O F   T H E   I N C I D E N T
J A E N A ' S   S T O R Y  ]

PICTURES AND PIECES OF paper are scattered everywhere on the table top of Jaena’s work room. It’s early in the morning, five to be exact, she had left home—scaring her mother by waking up so early—and headed to school by using the bus. The school newspaper goes out today, and her main article is still not done. She’s been focusing all of her free time to finding the juiciest information about Mister Park and Misses Kim; but, the two of them are seriously good at covering their tracks and keeping their romance a secret. She doubts that other school officials know of their…situation. Seeing as staff relationships are prohibited—it’s just as bad as the no-PDA rule for high school couples on campus. Apparently conservatism still runs high school like the way social media runs teenage life. Not something anyone’s truly a fan of; but, follows along with because societal rule is scary and no one wants to cross it.

Throwing a picture of basketball star Hyunwoo to the side, Jaena focuses her sight on the few notes she jotted down on random post it notes, and her laptop as well. None of it seemed to pop out ‘front page headline’. No offense to Hyunwoo—he seems like a great guy—but he’s…bland. He’s just too pure, too innocent, too kind. Where’s the grit? Where’s the greed? Where’s the disgust? He’s as bland, and as innocent as a potato. How’s anyone supposed to actually read the Daejeon Star when it’s so boring she feels like she could die just from being forced to write it. And Minhyuk, her editor, is no help. He just sits there with his headphones in and watches her struggle to come up with story lines like it’s the best thing since cable television. And marks her spelling and grammar mistakes with either a sharpie or highlighter—no in-between—and always places an angry or sad face in the top right hand corner of the paper as if to say ‘bad, you did bad. You Jaena!’ When he’s done he sticks in his headphones and ignores her. What does he even listen to? Is she the only one who wonders?

Jaena huffs as she pushes away her papers and grabs for a random picture set to the side. The tips of her fingers graze over it, and a small—distant—smile begins to bloom. To most, the picture isn’t anything. Just Hyunwoo holding a basketball, wearing his jersey, and smiling tightly. To Jaena, it’s bigger than just boring-nice guy Hyunwoo. It’s Hyunwoo, the star basketball player who may not like basketball. With just the picture of him and his fake smile—and the remembrance of his rehearsed attitude, Jaena can work with this. Oh, she could definitely work with this! She grabs the picture, and her laptop, and scurries over to the sectional coach in the corner next to the window overlooking the outside of Daejeon. Bright green grass, the city in the distance, looming clouds, and the early morning dew: it’s heaven to a writer. Not to mention her instant cup of coffee sitting on the table next to her (made twenty-or-so minutes earlier, and hopefully is still warm). She throws one of the loose shawl blankets over her legs and sets her laptop a top it. Bending her fingers, and cracking her neck—she’s ready.

DAEJEON STAR!

Monday, SEPTEMBER 19th, 2016

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UPCOMING EVENTS—Homecoming basketball game and dance (pg. 4) Science Fair (pg. 10) Bullying Support Group (pg. 22) Lacrosse Tryout’s (pg. 25) Yearbook Art Contest (pg. 30) Fall Musical—Midsummer Night’s Dream (pg. 34)

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SON HYUNWOO HAS A SECRET?

By JUNG JAENA

STAR BASKETBALL PLAYER, possible candidate for valedictorian, teacher’s favorite student, and overall great guy—that’s Son Hyunwoo. We all know him as the supposed savior of Daejeon after giving us two wins in a row last year when he suddenly joined our failing basketball team. Before, none of us knew him. He was odd, good; but, odd. We were indifferent. Why then? Why did he join then? The year was almost over. We had no chance for a championship or a win of any kind. We were failures yet again. And yet, Son Hyunwoo appeared like the stars at night—surprising us all and taking us to new heights of excitement every time he’d show us something different. Now we all cheer for him every chance we get. We high-five him in the hallway. We sacrifice our food in the cafeteria for him. Some of us give up time to help him with homework or test prep. Others stay up for hours to create banners for games. He’s a hero in our eyes.

And I, Jung Jaena, had the pleasure of interviewing everyone’s favorite student. As I approached him, I began to realize how much confidence oozes from him. Not in a cocky manner, not at all. He’s very well defined, and treated me nicely despite my ways of forcing him to talk to me. He called ‘break time’ to his sweaty and huffing teammates—who looked toward me in gratitude (as I’m sure they needed a break). He pointed me over to the bleachers and allowed me to get comfortable with the environment and pull together all my necessities—staying patient the whole time. He’s truly kind. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel something…something off? As I dove into our interview, that feeling began to grow and grow and grow until it shimmered like a diamond—dangling in front of me; but, too far to reach and grasp.

Now, I may be speculating—as no one can know what Hyunwoo is thinking for sure; but, I’m starting to suspect that maybe, just maybe, Hyunwoo isn’t truly a fan of basketball. Not in the sense that he doesn’t like to watch it; but, in the sense he doesn’t want to play it. That doesn’t make sense, does it? He appears out of nowhere, slightly saves are team, is about to push us further and further for senior year—and yet he doesn’t like basketball? To me it seems like there’s an underlying force pushing him to play. Not for fun, not for experience, not for the comradery. But for scarcity of failure, grief, or the loss of pride. Maybe I’m being delusional. Maybe I’m seeing things. But I can’t possibly be the only one who notices the lack of a smile while shooting hoops, or the absence of fun in his soul while playing a skins-vs-shirt game with his teammates. As teammates gather around to laugh, and make fun at one another—Hyunwoo sits to the side going over plays with a serious look on his face. He’d sit there for hours if he could, working too hard and acting too serious. One day, we’ll figure it out. One day, we’ll see the real Hyunwoo. But the one who pretends to smile in times that he isn’t, and the one who seems to be too kind is not the true Hyunwoo. A word for all: no one can be that kind and not find themselves dying on the inside.

Minhyuk places the pieces of jumbled papers down—not wanting to read anymore—and ticks one grammar mistake before shoving them back toward Jaena who waits patiently in front of him. She folds the papers nicely in her hands as she keeps her gaze on him. “What did you think?” She asks—nervous; but, at the same time not. Minhyuk—visibly annoyed at the fact that he can’t shove his headphones in—uses his highlighter to point at the papers. Jaena stares down at them for a minute before looking back at him.

“It’s our, not are.”  Okay Hermione, Jaena thinks to herself as she watches him stick his headphones in and lounge into his chair. It took her nearly an hour and a half to write her two-page newspaper headline. Although it’s not perfect, it’ll be interesting. Maybe she’ll actually get a response from someone other than just throwing her newspaper away in the trash like it’s just that, trash. And that stings, to know that the work you took weeks to create was just dumped in the trash. Even if they don’t read it; she’d wish the students would have the common decency to just shove it in their lockers instead. Jerks.

Jaena places her papers in her laptop and closes it shut before placing it in her cross shoulder bag. Before leaving the newspaper room, she kicks the edge of Minhyuk’s attention—grabbing his attention easily. She points to his headphone; he slips one out. She acts as if she’s about to say something but instead grabs his headphone and sticks it in her own ear. To say she’s surprised at the music, is a lie. She’s in awe. She took Minhyuk to be a fan of those goth bands—he dresses, and acts like an emo? Or is she stereotyping? Well, that’s the norm at this school. Anyways, Mayday Parade, Twenty-One Pilots, and Fall Out Boy. That’s who she suspected him to listen to. Not this band, definitely and absolutely not this band. 

“Mister Chu?” Jaena lifts an eyebrow up as Minhyuk’s cheeks flush a tint of pink. She drops the earplug and takes a step back. “Apink? That’s…interesting. I’ll keep that in mind.” She taps the side of her head before sending a smile his way and living. Yet, as she leaves, she can’t help picturing Minhyuk holding a bias sign—possibly Bomi or Eunji—at an Apink concert singing Mister Chu and doing the dance steps while next to his seat and chanting with the rest of their fans with a huge grin on his face. Thus giving her the chills. That is something she never wants to see.

The hallways of Daejeon are already starting to get packed, it’s nearing five-thirty, and class starts soon. Most kids in her grade don’t have a first period (usually it’s a free period where they study in the library, or go catch coffee) sadly, Jaena decided to sign up for a psychology class without realizing it took place in the morning. Go her, woo! Just kidding, it , and she can barely keep her eyes open. One time she even contemplated sticking googly eyes to her closed lids in an attempt to pretend to be awake. Then she realized her teacher isn’t stupid, and her classmates are petty tattle-tellers who hate her for her amazing talent of writing. 

Her parents always said that if people bully you, they’re just jealous. Although, she’s still struggling to figure out why Jooheon bugs her. A while ago she wondered if the idiot had a crush on her; but, she easily debunked that when she stumbled upon him flirting with a girl in her grade. Jiyoon. Kang Jiyoon. The girl was flushing like a ripe tomato and Jooheon looked like the joker from the batman comics with his wide grin and dimples. It was horrifying to say the least. To see meanie Jooheon flirting was a true life nightmare. It’s the last thing a victim would want to see of their bully—their happiness. Gross. Not to mention that Kang Jiyoon isn’t the nicest student Jaena has come across. She’s cordial, correct; but, the girl has spying eyes. One minute she’s talking to Jiyoon, the next the female is running down the hallway screaming ‘Stop!’ at the top of her lungs. Not really someone Jaena wants to get on the bad side of. Of course she also knows the benefits of being friends with someone like Jiyoon, protection. Protection from a bully like Jooheon. Or the thought of a friend standing up for you against ridiculous rumors.

Jaena truly wishes for the day that she can have a true friendship. Whether they protect one another and worry about appearances later. Sadly, she’s come to realize that some students at the school are rather afraid to approach her, or look at her because of her online blog. At first, she never wanted to publicly shame people—that was never her goal. She just wanted to write. She loves to write. Her intentions were to write the good things about people in school. Like how Hyunwoo constantly volunteers at the animal shelter when people think he’s just playing basketball. Or how Jiwon is the part-time assistant (helper) to the older gentleman at the observatory where she helps on the days he needs it and she’s free. Even how Hoseok (the supposed bad-boy) is actually a pretty nice guy as he donates thousands of money his step-father gives him to a nearby charity for children—with no reason to do so. Yet, students in the school only ever want drama. Her good intentions twisted around and formed into something she can’t truly understand. But for the sake of her writing, and her passion—she continues to do what everyone wants. So she finds the shame, and she finds the grit and she wraps it into a formable article to post on her blog. For thousands of nervous users to see, hoping (praying) that they’re not the next victim of her blog.

She understands that if she wants to be on the good side of people, she has to stop her blog. At the same time, she’s nervous that if she does, it’ll only lead to backlash from the students she victimizes. Like that second year girl from last year who got knocked up and left school because of her. The article she posted was just a speculation, not an assumption. Jaena never came out and said ‘hey, this girl is pregnant and a ’ she never even referred to the girl’s name or that she was actually a . As Jaena is not one for shaming. One of the students started creating assumptions and before Jaena knew it, the girl was in shambles and gone. Everyone was looking for someone to blame, other than themselves—the people who bullied her, who shamed her, who made her feel worthless. So, they blamed her. Jaena. Despite Jaena having no partaking in the bullying, they twisted rumors around to say that she was the one who made assumptions in her blogs—and everyone’s too cowardly to look the article up to see that they’re wrong. But, because of that, Jaena walks around every day with a burden too large. Sometimes if she falls asleep in class, she pictures that girl being torn apart bit by bit, and she jolts awake. She’s too scared to go and apologize. And she’s not confident enough to come out and assure herself that she did nothing wrong. Because, what if she did?

That’s why, that reason there—is why she thinks the only time she’ll ever have friends is when she’s far away from high school, and instead in college. As no one (hopefully) will know her and instead will treat her like everyone else. They won’t ostracize her, and they won’t make her out to be a pariah. Maybe it’s just fiction in her head, just a dream—nothing more. She can’t help but want the dream she seriously can’t have. It may be an achievable dream for many—as making friends isn’t even that hard—but for Jaena, it’s nearly impossible. No matter who she talks to, they won’t stick around for longer than half-a-day. 

Jaena finds herself being shoved to sit in the middle of the class today. Since psychology is an elective class, and not a mandatory one, their teacher allows students to switch up seats and sit where they want to—Jaena believes it’s a social experiment. He’s trying to figure out things about everyone. Who likes who? Whose friends with who? Who hates who? And so on and so forth. Although, that may just be Jaena’s interpretation of it. Today, her old seat is taken by a group of soccer players—crowded in the back next to the door, talking about plays that no one else cares about. In the right and left hand corners towards the front of the classroom, are two groups of friends—weaved in out are pairs of friends laughing, talking, interacting. Jaena was hoping to spot Sora this morning, as she’s the only other girl like her—someone who really doesn’t have friends. Well, she has Hoseok; but, he’s a family member, does that even count? Sora doesn’t like talking to her that much, when they do, it’s mostly Jaena trying to get her to say something. She’ll nod, laugh maybe, but mostly sit and stare at anything besides Jaena—no eye contact whatsoever. 

Psychology was as boring as ever. For some reason, she expected underlying tones of murder and deception along with insanity and crippling anxiety to be involved with the study of human nature. Yet, all that she’s coming to find is why people act the way they do and how normal people are not normal and not normal people aren’t as crazy as you think they are. Also, a lot of people are hypocrites in society—go figure. She half-assed her notes and instead focused on what she’s been wanting to find out since day one of the school year: Mister Park and Misses Kim. Her investigation came to a stand-still after going through last year’s notes of Misses Kim with Coach Jung. Last year she could only find bits and pieces of their relationship. On January 4th, she saw Misses Kim—dressed in a little black dress—go scampering into the gym. Jaena peaked through the small crack of the door to see her and Coach Jung—who was wearing a black suit with a red tie—hugging in the middle of the empty and dimly lit room. The photo she took came out crappy, as lighting wasn’t great and she couldn’t use her flash in fear that they’d notice her. On February 19th, Jaena stayed late in the girl’s locker room to take a long shower after getting smashed into the wet grass while playing an intense game of soccer. While leaving, she glanced into Coach Jung’s office to find Misses Kim sitting on his desk—legs crossed showing them off in the process—and facing Coach Jung as he sat in his plush desk chair. Jaena—equipped with her camera like always—snapped a quick picture before high tailing it out of there.

After those two incidents, Jaena could find nothing else about their relationship. She spoke to other teachers nonchalantly, hinting about a relationship between the two; but, the teachers either knew she was a gossip writer, or they seriously didn’t know. Either is plausible at this school. But that picture she had taken, with Mister Park and Misses Kim flirting in the way back—says something about Misses Kim’s character. Not to mention Jaena had heard somewhere that Mister Park had recently gotten a divorce from his wife of two years. As to why? She’s unsure; but, with Misses Kim suddenly appearing in front of him all flirty like, is just a sign that says: cheater in bold letters. How much alimony does Mister Park have to pay if that’s the case? More than the average she supposes.

What was the relationship between Coach Jung and Misses Kim? Although Coach Jung is only in his late thirties (if Jaena remembers correctly, about thirty-seven) and Mister Park is nearing the middle of his thirties (thirty-four as of now) there’s a huge difference between the two. Coach Jung is hugely hated by all the students in the school for being too tough and demanding. On the other hand, Mister Park is kind-hearted and treats every student like his own child—despite never having any. Coach Jung barely has enough money to cover his car insurance and waste most of it on alcohol. While Mister Park is the son of some multimillionaire tycoon and doesn’t drink. Their contrasting background and attitudes lead Jaena to believe that Misses Kim isn’t exactly a but instead a gold-digger. Maybe she liked Coach Jung, actually liked him; but, was sleeping (or just talking) with Mister Park which lead him to promptly fall for her and thus lead to his divorce. Coach Jung found out, and amicably split with Misses Kim leading to Misses Kim attaching herself further to Mister Park so that she can cover the gaping hole in her heart from Coach Jung breaking up with her.

Of course, that’s all just hearsay and conjecture. It’ll probably never be found to be true, and it’s probably more simple than what she’s assuming; but, drama sells. Class ended quite promptly and Jaena packed her things quickly—she just wanted it to be lunch already. As she found that Mister Park and Misses Kim sneak out through the gym to their cars in the back lot of the school every lunch. To do what? It’s not too hard to figure out. Two more classes she reminds herself, and she can ditch third period early to prep herself for her snooping. Fix her camera up, clean the lens, grab a bite to eat, stuff her bag with her notebook and any tools needed—and go forth to follow after her story.

On her way to her locker, she’s stopped short. An angered Jiyoon—well, a passive aggressive Jiyoon—stands in front of her holding a crumbled page of the Daejeon Star in her hand. “What the hell is this?” She questions, tapping her foot impatiently as she stares at Jaena like she has twelve heads instead of one. To be honest, Jaena has no clue what rummages through Jiyoon’s brain. She fluctuates between adamantly serious and disciplined crazy—there’s no in-between. As far as Jaena knows. Jiyoon shoves the pages toward Jaena’s face, “What in the freaking hell is this?” She retracts her hands and places her empty one on her hip.

“The school newspaper?” Jaena answers, seeing as that is what it is.

Jiyoon rolls her eyes and scoffs, “Wow, great observation Sherlock, you’re a genius! I applaud you!” The girl shoves the pages of the newspaper into Jaena’s chest, forcing the girl to wrap her fingers around them so they don’t drop. “I’m not sure who you think you are to make assumptions about someone you met one time; but, if you dare publish anything else about Hyunwoo—you’ll be contacted by my lawyer immediately.” Jiyoon takes a breath before she’s pointing at the newspaper in Jaena’s arms. “I’ve circled everything I think is inappropriate, and scribbled in notes for you to abide by. If I catch you doing something irrational like this again—instead of obeying the rules of head writer for Daejeon Star—I’ll bring Principal Junghwa into this matter and have you fired straightaway. Do I make myself clear?”

Jaena slightly nods her head as she folds the paper nicely and shoves it in-between the pages of her notebook. “As clear as day.” Jiyoon spares Jaena one last glance of animosity before she’s off—speeding down the hallway like the track star she is. Well, you can’t please everyone, right? That’s what Jaena tells herself. Not one article has one hundred percent positivity and following. Not everyone is going to agree with what you think; especially those who it may bring a negative light to—such as Hyunwoo and his protective best friend Jiyoon. His teammates may also be upset. But there’s nothing she can do about it, as she’s just a writer—not a pleaser. And as a writer you can’t be subjective, or so they say. 

Second period was not fun at all, it’s a mixed class with seniors and juniors. Some of those seniors and juniors happen to be teammates to Hyunwoo. They all stared at her like she did something so unforgivable that she should suffer pain for it. She kept her head down the whole time and tried to avoid the demonist gaze of others. Jaena wouldn’t be surprised if one of them threw that paper airplane at the back of her head. She would’ve given them a nasty gaze if not for the fact that she was too tired to and didn’t want to give herself more attention than she already has. Despite that, fundamental tones of discomfort shift through her in the worst of ways. Good job on tarnishing your reputation further! She thinks to herself as she feels her head drop to the top of her table. You’ll truly make friends now! Sarcasm, the best medicine for nearly nothing other than creating annoyance in one’s self.

After class, Jaena waits for everyone to leave the room—she feels them spare looks toward her, whether good or bad she doesn’t necessarily care. Or, at least, on the outside it looks as if she doesn’t care. On the inside it hurts lightly. She knows all of them—their names, their grade years, their whole history. She's gotten to know each and every one of them over the time she’s had. It’s not mandatory to get to know her, she knows that; but, people could at least try. Maybe she’s a hypocrite, as she’s the type of person that speculates about people and creates fantasy about them in her head at the same time she’s asking others not to do that about her. Judging is a natural fad to do when meeting someone. You judge people by what they wear, how fit they are, by the way they talk, and act. Leading you to assume who they may be just on your assessing. Are they nice? Mean? Approachable, or not? Would you be able to befriend? Or should you distance yourself? 

Jaena assumes that people in general try to make themselves think that they don’t judge people. They pledge themselves to equality and rights for all and blah, blah, blah. Though, everyone still has those tendencies to asses and judge. It’s natural, and even if the slogan ‘everyone does it’ isn’t the most rightful or even inviting sentence to say: it’s true. There’s no law in society that says you have to like everyone, or that you can’t say who you think you won’t or will get along with. So, making assumptions—although not the nicest affair one can do—isn’t illegal, nor is it technically a bad thing. One may wish, with all their might, for it to stop; but, that’s impossible. Even if you’re one to say ‘everything’s plausible’ this isn’t. You can’t change the way everyone thinks. Sadly, Jaena’s beginning to realize how true her deductions are. 

Like she promised herself, she managed to wiggle her way out of her third period algebra two class to follow her newest blog subjects. She reaches her locker: unloads her camera necessities and investigative journal—shoving them all into her bag before grabbing a muffin her mother packed her for a snack and leaving. Her plan: to stay quiet while sitting on the three steps leading to the gym hallway. By the time she’s halfway to finishing her muffin, the bell rings—signaling for class to get out and head for the cafeteria or quad for lunch. In an attempt to stay focused, she shoves her muffin back into the plastic baggy and places it neatly in the small pocket of her backpack. 

She glances at her watch: five minutes to noon. When she looks back-up, she spots them—all the way down on the opposite side of the hallway leaning on one another, laughing and giggling. Barely, just barely, holding hands. Pretending to fix the lens of her camera, Jaena zooms in by swirling the lens, and snaps the perfect shot. Now she just has to catch them in the act and her newest piece will write itself. Although she pretends her main gaze is on the camera, she flicks her hazel eyes up every two seconds to watch them. Waiting until the exact second they enter the gym. Unknowingly to her, many others enter with them—the same people she’s about to be involved with.

Mister Park’s feet step through the door, and Misses Kim heels slip in as well—Jaena jumps to her feet, throwing her backpack over her shoulder and running for it. By the time she reaches the gym door and throws it open—the pair of teachers are half-way out the gym to the backlot. Camera at the ready, Jaena jogs after them, unsuspecting and definitely unknowingly she’s thrown to the ground—her camera flying across the room. She curls her body at the impact of the blast, hearing light screams and yells from those surrounding her. Needless to say, this is not what she expected to have happen. Just before she reaches the ultimate and perfect shot for her blog: it’s all taken away from her because of a giant idiot with too much time on his hands.

[  P R E S E N T   D A Y  ]

JAENA FELT THE WORLD tumble as Jiwon flew into the air with ease. She read through the papers Jiyoon had yesterday, and learned that the base is the most vital position because without the base the flyer wouldn’t go up. She is now the foundation of any stunt. Supposedly, she has the most difficult position of all the main spots. They’ve tried nearly twenty-million-times to get Jiwon in the air and each time they’ve failed miraculously. She’d forget what to do when doing it. She wouldn’t lift with her legs so that her strength would fail to go through her arms and shoulders—not giving her enough strength to throw Jiwon into the air. She’d forget to keep her back straight, causing severe pain in her lower back. Their timing as a team , and it’s not just because Hoseok and Jiwon don’t get along. But because they don’t have any trust in one another, so they don’t have confidence and thus, aren’t a team. Needless to say, they .

That’s why, when Jiwon comes flying down at a fast rate, her foot easily catches the edge of Jaena’s nose causing Jaena to hit the blue mat below her and Jiwon to tackle both Changkyun and Hoseok to the ground when enveloping her arms around their shoulders. Jiwon screams out in frustration, “You threw me up the wrong goddamn way!” Hoseok huffs and shoves the girl off of him by kicking at her shin and pushing at her shoulders. Resulting in her to flop next to Changkyun. Changkyun who pushes her off of him as well and rushes to Jaena’s side who’s holding her nose in the upmost of pain. A small amount of blood creakingly out from underneath.

“Are you okay?” He questions as he helps her into a sitting position and focuses his eyes on her covered nose. “Let me see!” He pries her hand off of it—despite her protests, and lets his eyes glaze over the giant smack of blood leaking from her nostrils. Hoseok stands behind Changkyun and tries to resist the urge to say ‘oh’ in a disgusted tone; because, damn, that’s going to hurt like a . And he would know. The first few years of skating resulted in mass nose and face injures. He ate it nearly every day. Jiwon pulls herself off the ground to come over and stand behind Changkyun as well, looking as apologetic as ever. She didn’t mean to do that.

“Look, Jaena, sorry—and all; but, you had me facing the wrong direction. I should’ve been facing away from you. I read the handbook, you’re supposed to be shoulder-width apart from me with my back facing you.” When Jiwon says ‘handbook’ she means she watched Bring It On and paid attention to the terminology. There’s no way in hell that Jiwon actually read that stupid blue book Jiyoon gave them this morning. But, she might as well pretend like she did.

Hoseok scoffs and crosses his arms, “Yeah? Well if you knew so much, why didn’t you tell us? You brat!” As Hoseok and Jiwon begin their bickering match—Changkyun helps Jaena to her feet. If Jaena could, she would tell Hoseok and Jiwon how petty each of them are being. But she’s afraid to talk as it might lead to her chin hurting even more than it already does. When Jaena glances at all the other teams, she finds them actually working well together—even Haeyoung and Kihyun. How are they not the messy ones? Somehow, Jiyoon and Jaena make eye-contact and in the split second that Jaena keeps looking at her, Jiyoon mouths ‘get it together’ as if Jaena has been the newly elected leader of their small group.

“Will you two shut it?” She manages to state—though in a low voice, and slightly in pain. Jiwon backs off and places her attention on Jaena. Despite Jiwon’s dislike for the gossip writer, she does feel bad for the incident she just put her through. Jaena staggers forward as she places her hand back over her nose. “We’re a team now, stop fighting! If we keep fighting it’s only going to lead to one of us getting hurt again. And statistically speaking, it’d be you Jiwon!” With the courage Jaena musters she pushes past both Hoseok and Jaena and begins her way to the nurse’s office to get her nose checked out. Unknowing to her, Changkyun quickly follows after—feeling immensely guilty for what happened to her despite not technically being involved with it.

As Jaena gets herself checked out by the finicky nurse, Changkyun waits patiently outside for her. A huge bandage is put across her nose, making her sigh—that just looks ugly in the worst of ways. When the nurse leaves for the back office, Jaena looks into the mirror on the wall and frowns. She picks at her cheeks, and the chubbiness lining her neck; before, poking at her sides. She’s glad Jooheon didn’t mess with her today, it’s kind of messed up; but, when he points out her weight, she gets seriously self-conscious. Right now, this bandage isn’t helping her feelings about herself. Before the tears well-up in her, she looks away from the mirror and leaves.

“Jae, are you okay?” Changkyun’s voice makes Jaena jump as she turns her body away from him. The last thing she expected was for him to follow after her. And the last thing she wants is to have him see her like this. Changkyun places a hand on her shoulder and shifts her around with simplicity, Jaena keeps her head down regardless of Changkyun wanting to see if she’s okay or not. “Hey, can I look?” He places a finger underneath her chin and tries to nudge her head up. She tries her hardest to stop it; but, he manages to push her head up, enabling him to see her face. She expects him to be appalled at her nose, and overall look; but, he only grimaces. “It hurts a lot, hunh?”

To say the least, Jaena is shocked by his words. It’s not usual that she finds someone outside of her family caring about her. She does have people who care about her, mainly her family as said; but, the feeling of someone other than them caring is a feeling she’s never truly experienced. Despite Changkyun just being nice, she can feel a warmth spread through her body. Not many people know this; but, kindness can go a long way for someone like Jaena. To the point that it brings tears to her eyes. She quickly wipes them away as she nods her head and Changkyun reaches up to pat the top of her head. “It’s okay.” He whispers to which she nods as her hands come up to cover her eyes and cheeks. She assumes that he thinks she’s crying because of pain; but, that’s not the case. She’s just overwhelmed by his benevolence.

Changkyun awkwardly continues to pat the top of her head; before, she reaches toward him and grasps him into a hug. Her arms circling his waist as her head lies on his shoulder. Changkyun obviously didn’t expect this—but, Jaena likes hugging people, especially when she’s emotional. And Changkyun just happens to be there, and is the reason she’s like this. As she pulls herself together, wishing for the tears to leave her alone and let her be. Changkyun decides to pat her back instead of head—as there’s nothing else he can do but try to comfort her. Though, it’s not something he can easily do.

“Thank you.” Jaena mutters as she pushes away from Changkyun and wipes her sleeve across her eyes. Changkyun gawkily keeps himself at bay as she shuffles around him and heads back to the gym—to hopefully get through this day without any more injuries. When they finally reach the gym, their greeted by the bickering of Jiwon and Haeyoung (not Hoseok). The two stand in the middle of the gym, Haeyoung on the left side facing the girl’s locker room and Jiwon on the right side facing the boys.

Despite the distance between each other, Jaena can spot the huge amount of tension circling between them. “Who are you to speak to me that way? You don’t know me!” Haeyoung barks as she drops her arms from her chest and glares profoundly at Jiwon.

“I’ve known you since sixth grade, . I can speak to you anyway I want!” Jiwon screams back, as she too drops her hands from her chest and leaves them by her waist. Haeyoung looks ready to pounce on Jiwon for calling her that; but, keeps herself in place instead of doing so. Jiwon seems to notice what Jaena does, and grins at the sight. “Oh, you didn’t know? Everyone read the article Haeyoung! I’m surprised you didn’t see it, it was even posted before you came here.”

Haeyoung scrounges her eyebrows together, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“The article. Online. ‘Soon to be Freshman Oh Haeyoung: Is she the Everyone Makes Her Out to be? The Answer: Yes!’ Just ask Jaena, she wrote it.” Jiwon shifts her fingers to point over at her, and Jaena watches as Haeyoung’s confused gaze looks over toward Jaena. She watches as Haeyoung’s confused gaze transitions between slightly hurt to a hardened gaze. “So, my points proven, a can’t be leader!” And that’s what makes Haeyoung do it—go flying at Jiwon and tackle her to the ground.

Everyone in the room gasps—or shouts out in fright—as the two girls roll around the floor pulling at one another’s hair and yelling like crazy. “I’m just stating the truth!” Jiwon screeches as she manages to throw Haeyoung after her; but, the dancer doesn’t give up and crawls back over to Jiwon—slamming her to the floor the minute she tries to get up.

“Keep your stupid opinions to yourself!” Haeyoung screams as she pulls extravagantly at Jiwon’s hair—causing her to scream. Finally, Hyunwoo and Jooheon go running over to the two. Hyunwoo—the practical saint—lifts Jiwon off Haeyoung while Jooheon grabs for Haeyoung before she can grab for Jiwon. “Let me go!” She screams, fighting at Jooheon’s grasps. Jaena’s sure that no one’s ever seen perfect Haeyoung this way before. “Let me go!” She drains as she lax in Jooheon’s arms letting him pull her off and away from a gaping Jiwon—someone who was consequently surprised at Haeyoung’s ultimate outburst.

Just as Jooheon’s about too pass Jaena, Haeyoung forces him to a stop. Everyone watches as Haeyoung pointedly looks at her. Jaena blanches, the last person she wanted to get on the bad side of, was Oh Haeyoung. “You think you’re so great, don’t you? Speaking such things about people you don’t know. I never believed the rumors that you were manipulative, and conniving like everyone else said. And yet, you’re just that! You dare to say such things about me? You don’t even know me! You don’t know anyone because no one wants to know you. No one wants to be your friend because of what you do and how you treat people—by bashing them online.” Haeyoung backs away from Jaena, as tears once again begin to fall down Jaena’s cheeks. “Stay away from me.” Jooheon follows quickly after Haeyoung as she leaves everyone behind in a complete silence. Everyone too shocked to say anything.

And for the second time in her life, Jaena feels bad for an article she posted online. Her main goal was to never hurt anybody; but, that’s all she seems to do with her blog—and even the newspaper. Now everyone probably probably hates her, so, before anyone begins speaking—she leaves. Letting everyone think what they want while she sticks to herself and only herself. As she always does.

[ authors note ]  Was watching Stranger Things for the millionth time while writing this. Probably my all time favorite show right now, I can't say how much I love it without physically spazzing out about every character (eleven is my favorite). Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and you got to understand Jaena a bit more like you did with Sora. And, that you liked the practice scenes, was dying while writing that part. Also, if you're looking for interesting applyfics check out these:  1 | 2 Both authors seem very friendlly, and dedicated to their works. The first one is a reply series au, and the second is a monsta x applyficau centered around a coach who randomly decides to put together a lot of students on his newly formed swim team.