(Class D-11, break time)

"Haiz, I want to go home~ I don't want to take the test~" Jiho shuffles to Binnie's place and sits down beside her.

Binnie is studying, as always. She lets out her breath and looks up as Jiho takes a seat.

"So what? You didn't study, right?"

"How could you study when you were bothered by ABC last night?" Jiho frowns. "That guy creeps me out that I couldn't even sleep tight."

"Of course I never cram before the test. I study piece by piece everyday."

"Not everybody is a Mathlete like you, Binnie-ah~"

"You know, if information is plugged in your brain repeatedly, and you retrieve it on a daily basis, you will remember it till the last day of your life. That's how I study."

"Because you are a Mathlete, Binnie-ah! You can't make everybody like you!"

"So you're denying the purpose of life, Jiho." Binnie closes her notes and looks straight into Jiho's eyes.

"Uhm, what do you mean?"

"If your brain didn't function like that, you would be a zombie then. What do you want to be? A fashion designer? A singer? A teacher? A doctor? If you don't train your brain to be the thing you want to be, it will never function right, and your life will always be an endless cycle."

"Uh, Binnie..."

"I think I shouldn't say too much about this, or else I'll break the friendship between us. I'm grateful that I have some friends in this class, or else I'm just a loner. Now I need to plug stuff in my brain. You better cram for now, or go visit Seunghee."

One thing that hardly anyone knows about Binnie is that she is savage. She is so freaking savage. A slight stimulation can trigger her to break into a lecture like an old lady complaining. Because she endured much. She bears much hardship being a Mathlete. She was brainwashed about how Mathletes are different from other students. She is placed a heavy pressure on the shoulders that she is a representative, and a representative is different from other mathletes, her fellows, too. She feels like being in this superior left-brained world is much more like being in a negative right-brained world, where she has to fight with herself, where she has to eliminate inferior thinkings and assumes "I'm special. I'm superior." She has to consider what is good and what is not, who is good and who is not.

Jiho sadly looks away from Binnie, and secretly walks out of the class. Binnie needs her personal space. When she studies, nothing can disturb her, even if her phone rings.

Jiho walks out and wanders the corridor. She doesn't have anybody to hang out. Or actually, she has no real friend. Seunghee, Binnie, even others, are listed in her social friends list. There is a huge different between a social friend and a real friend. Jiho talks to her social friends and smiles, and laughs, but doesn't have fun. Social friends are just tools for her to keep herself in the "safe zone". Only being with real friends, she can find herself being herself. She may not laugh, she may cry, but she can release her fellings for a better self. Unfortunately, she doesn't have anybody to rely on as a real friend. Even Yang Taeho isn't somebody to share her feelings, because she has no feelings for him.

And he has no feelings for her too. They are like two random stranger that know each other. Two strangers in a bunch of other strangers.

Jiho goes out to the yard and quietly sits down on a bench. In such situations, she just wants to sit and look at other students playing around, look as they are playing, smiling, laughing, having fun. They are chatting, talking, gossipping, having fun. They are having fun. Jiho looks at them as she almost cries. What is the meaning of being at school? She doesn't fit in well with the environment. Teachers are harsh, friends are cold, lessons are boring. Where would she be now?

"Hey!" A hand touches her shoulder that awakes her from deep thoughts.

It is Yang Taeho.

"Are you crying?"

Jiho lets out a long breath and slowly shakes her head.

"Can I sit here with you?"

Jiho nods and scoots aside.

"Are you mad at me? Why don't you talk?"

"I don't know." She finally speaks up. "I'm just tired of my class."

"Did they say bad stuff about you?" He asks.

"I don't know. They may do that everyday, though." Jiho answers carelessly and avoids eye contact with him.

"Really, Jiho-ah, what happened to you? You seem way too irritated than normal." 

"Am I?"

"Yes."

"I don't know." She lets out a sigh again. "Binnie just gave me a lecture, so I'm a little touched. That's it."

"Really?"

"Really."

These awkward moments are an everyday thing to them. Because they are not lovers. They are not boyfriend and girlfriend like people think. They are just strangers coming across each other. And there is a whole story behind that.

The two sit next to each other for a while. No looking. No talking. Just sitting still and ignoring the world, ignoring all the people around, all the scenes happening, all the phone ringing sound.

"Jiho-ah."

"What?"

"Can we break up for a while? I'm tired of this mess."

"Break up?" Jiho stares at Taeho like he had burn the school down. "Why?"

"I feel like we should stop acting like this. I'm bored. I'm tired of people look at me and talk about me behind my back."

Jiho goes dumbfounded for a while. Is this her fault? Or is it his fault? Why does he say they should stop acting? Or does he know that...Oh actually he does know.

"And anyway, you should stop pretending about this too. I know what you did is good for both of us, but it turns out now it only separates us. I know saying this to you sounds like I dump you, but we've never established a real relationship so I hope I don't offend you. I'll wait for your response."

Taeho says monotonously then leaves the bench without turning back. He leaves Jiho sitting on the bench wide-eyed and stupefied.

"Yah! Yah idiot! Come back here! What are you talking about?"

Jiho shouts the loudest as she can, but then she realizes she can't shout anymore. She is too shocked and confused to raise her voice, and her voice will attract a bunch of garrulous people coming. She only knows that since when she has stood up and stared into the blank space with tears rolling on her face. Her head feels weighty. Her limbs become stiff. Her phone in the pocket is too ponderous.

"Why do I have to hold this in the whole time?" 

(Nurse office, break time)

"Hyun Seunghee, are you awake?"

Seunghee slowly opens her eyes. She feels the gross antiseptic smell, the blinding white ceiling, the soothing cool air, the soft mattress under her, the things that don't belong in a classroom.

"Are you awake?" The nurse asks again.

"Where am I?" Seunghee weakly rises and looks around. 

"You're in the nurse office. Do you remember anything?"

Seunghee looks into the blank space and tries to recall. She was in class, 2nd period to be exact. She was doing an assignment for Literature. What was it about? Oh, friends, that's right, a poem about friendship. Then, then, she felt...dizzy, and...woozy, and...shaky, and...

"Seunghee! Seunghee! Are you OK?" The nurses breaks Seunghee's thoughts by shaking her shoulder vigorously. "You get sweaty and turn green."

"Did I? Really?"

"I think this is because you don't sleep enough and work too hard. You ought to stay here till the end of break time and rest well. I'll talk to your homeroom teacher." 

"Thank you so much." Seunghee lies back on the bed.

What happened to her, actually? Did she faint? Probably? Why does she feel sick when thinking about what happened?

So she fainted. But when? Was it when she was reading the poem? And what's in there that was so disturbing?

She lets out a long breath. At least she can have a little rest. Was it because the conversation wih ABC worried her so much? Then she couldn't have gone to school today. She could have been lying sick at home. What is happening to her? Why is her heart cowering and why is her brain cringing?

When she is about to fall asleep again, the door creaks open and reveals Jiho sneaking in.

"Jiho? What are you doing in here?" Seunghee sits up. "Are you crying?"

Jiho shuffles in and sits by Seunghee.

"Never mind. How are you now? Feeling well?"

"Yeah, better. What happened to me?" 

"Well, you've done half of your paper when you suddenly collapsed trembling in a pool of sweat."

"Really? Woah, so what..."

"I was wondering too. Our tough Seunghee never falls for a cold, right?"

The two silently laugh to themselves.

"Yeah, but I...actually felt cold in the spine when it happened though."

"Hey, what was the last thing you remember before you collapsed?" Jiho asks. "They say you always see the things deep in your conscious mind before you pass out."

"Before? I was reading the poem. There was something that keeps my mind lingering. Ah, Minha!"

"Jeon Minha?" 

"I don't know, but an image of her flashed in my mind before I can think of anything."

"Hm, serious." Jiho pouts and sighs. "Hey!" She draws out her phone. "I received this message. I wonder if others receive these too!"

Jiho shows Seunghee the text and Seunghee turns extremely green then. Fearing that Seunghee might pass out again, Jiho leaves the murse office and promises to check Seunghee's phone if she got the same message, as she leaves her phone in the class.

(In class D-11)

(Class C-10, break time)

"Yah Yewon! Where are you going?"

"I'm going to the library. There are some problems with my computer account."

"Then wait until next Computer Science class. You don't need to do that stuff right now!"

"My account doesn't work even before today's class. I raised my hand but the teacher took no notice."

"Ok then, go wherever you want."

Arin leaves the classroom in slight anger when her friends tried to keep her in class but they act like they don't care what's happening. She quickly jogs to the library. Luckily there is no nobody around in the computer area to stalk her business. She logs in her account. And it appears the same error message she saw earlier. She tries the other account of a former student, and the computer says this person no longer belongs to the district.

"Weird."

She remembers having cleared all the old information and plugged in her information. Or is there a setting that prevents existence of two accounts from the same owner? Arin rapidly logs out her second account and retries her own account. Still doesn't work.

"Why is this happening to me?"

She goes find the librarian to help her. Unfortunately...

"A problem with computer? Hm, sorry honey, the technician that is in charge of accounts is not at work today. Can you wait until tomorrow?"

"Uhm, OK. Thank you."

Arin is about to come back to her place to log out and leave, when a sudden figure comes that she surely knows can help her.

"I think I can help with your account."

It's Mrs. Ahn, the chief administrator.

"Uhm..."

Arin believes this is not a good solution for her situation. If Mrs. Ahn finds out she has two accounts, her life is totally ruined.

"No thanks, ma'am. I think I can wait till tomorrow. I need to come back to class to study for a quiz now. Have a good day."

Arin quickly gathers her stuff and walks out of the library as fast as she can.

(In her pocket)

Author's note:

1. Sorry for the constant late updates. I'm very busy on Friday and I may shift the update to Saturday. But I think I got the hang of it now. Also, I run out of chapters in stock so now on, from this chapter, the style may seem a bit faster-paced and twisted. It's getting to the end soon.

2. ABC sends text messages to all the girls now. What is his plan? And how can he do that and predicts the exact future? (Hyojung and JinE have a conflict with their classmates, Arin gets disconnected from her accounts and Jiho gets dumped.)

3. There are more and more hints going on (the italic text). The people in class D-11 are so cold to each other, Binnie is cruelly savage, Jiho is now alone on herself, Seunghee is disturbed by flashbacks about Minha. And what's up with Minha, anyway? All we know about her is she died.

4. There must be a reason that Yang Taeho breaks up with Jiho. What does he know? Is he ABC? And who do you suspect?

5. How come Mrs. Ahn creepily shows up that the very time?

6. Quote of the chapter: The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected. (Nicholas Sparks)