No Eul trudged around, in a daze.

She had received her acceptance letter just that afternoon but the excitement she thought she’d feel hadn’t arrived. Instead she was feeling melancholy. Four years without Joon Young.

She sighed.

She hadn’t expected to be accepted. Although her grades weren’t bad, they weren’t even close to being the top of the class. No Eul figured the reason she was accepted was because she hadn’t applied to an Ivy League school, preferring to set her sights lower.

It’s not that she didn’t want to go study in the US, she did, but she hadn’t told Joon Young that she’d even applied to schools overseas. Now she was accepted and had to be there in a couple weeks to take a crash course in English.

Resigning herself to the fact that she’d have to tell Joon Young that she was leaving, No Eul turned her steps towards his house. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she almost walked right past it.

Walking through the front door, she greeted his parents by habit and headed into Joon Young’s room.

“No Eul!” he crowed. “I hadn’t expected you to show up tonight! Perfect timing! You can rescue me from studying.”

Joon Young winked and pulled her out of the house and to the small park in their neighborhood.

They sat on the swings in silence for a moment before Joon Young finally said:

“Jeong Eun was over earlier. We were talking about applying to the same schools. You’re going to apply with us right?”

No Eul got up from the swing and walked forward a few steps but stayed silent.

Joon Young continued talking about the things he and Jeong Eun were planning to do together but No Eul just tuned him out.

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Why are you dating her?” she said softly. She had said it so softly that she was sure Joon Young wouldn’t have been able to hear her at all. But he had, almost.

“What?”

Startled that he had heard her question, it took No Eul a minute to reply.

“Joon Young, why are you dating her? I really don’t understand. Tell me what is so good about her so I can understand!”

While she was speaking she had turned to face him, getting angrier with each word that left . Months of torment at the hands of Jeong Eun flashed through her mind so her words came out more venomous than she’d intended.

“She’s pretty…” He began, but No Eul cut him off.

“She’s pretty?! That’s the most important factor?! Don’t you know the kinds of things she does to the other girls?! Don’t you know what she does….”

To me.

No Eul finished the sentence in her mind but Joon Young knew her too well.

“What? What does she do to you, No Eul? Help you with your assignments? Lend you her books when you forget yours? Yes, she’s a terrible person! I don’t know how anyone could be attracted to her!”

No Eul curled her lip in disgust. Jeong Eun only does that nice stuff when you’re around, she thought. When you’re not around, she’s awful. You think I actually forgot my books that many times?! No! She shredded them so that they’re unusable! She throws my gym clothes in the trash nearly every day and has her lackeys follow me around the hallways just so they can cause me to trip and drop all my stuff. Jeong Eun isn’t nice at all…

But she didn’t say any of that out loud.

“You know what? Just forget it!”

No Eul stormed away. Somehow the whole conversation had gotten sidetracked.

She hadn’t even told him she was leaving.

The cold war had begun.

4 days later:

No Eul was walking through the hallways of the school, trying to keep an eye on Jeong Eun’s lackeys behind her. She knew that they were just waiting for a good time to send her sprawling on her face. Since the hallways were so crowded right n