"I'm sick of love… Whenever I fall for someone, I always get heartbroken.  I rather just be single and not have to deal with the stress that comes with a relationship."

 "But sunhwa… It's too early to be thinking like this. You're only a junior in High School. Romance is part of every teenage girl's life!" Hyosung shakes me as she says this. "Don't give up on love yet!"

 "I know it's part of every girl's life…  But I just can't take it anymore. I'm sick of developing feelings for someone and then getting my heart crushed when I see him with another girl…"

 Hyosung looks down. She knows what I'm referring to. "I understand what you mean, Sunhwa. Yeah it's heartbreaking to find out that the guy you like is in a relationship with one of you're best friends. But that was just ONE GUY! There are plenty of fish in the sea and someday, you will pull in that special one," she persuades me, looking deep into my eyes.

 I looked down away from her gaze and then busied myself with a strand of hair. "It's not just one guy… Every time I feel like I have something special with a guy, it always ends badly. I'm starting to think that the problem is me. I don't have amazing looks, my personality is plain/boring and I'm socially awkward."

 "sunhwa! Don't doubt yourself, and if you're personality is so boring then why do I love spending all my time with you?! I can't imagine how it would be without meeting you and I'm pretty sure the same goes for Jieun and Zinger."

 "That doesn't count… We're practically sisters since we've known each other since elementary school. But you know how socially awkward I am. I literally stutter whenever I talk to someone."

 "That's just being shy, Sunhwa."

 "TOO SHY."

 "Sunhwa," she starts off as she puts a lock of my brown hair behind my year. "The guys who have broken you're heart so far,  just don’t deserve someone as sweet addorable, and innocent as you. They have no idea, what they're missing out pn."

 "No, it's me… The are guys who actually do take an interest in me, but when they pry and find out how BORING I am, then they lose their attraction. It has happened countless times. I'm sick of feeling hopeful only to be disappointed in the end."

 "Sunhwa…" I can see pity and worry in her eyes.

 "Hyosung, I think that this is a good choice for me. I'll be able to focus on my studies without love distractions."

 "But Sunhwa, how are you going to avoid crushes?"

 "Being crushless shouldn't be so hard. I  mean, all I have to do is not talk with guys too much and not let them think they have a chance with me."

 "But…"

 "Sorry, Hyosung. But I just need a break from all this. But thanks for being there for me!"  I break out in a forced smile and give her a hug.

 "Anytime." she says but I know she still doesn't approve of my love strike.

Rinnng! Hyosung and I separate as the bell rings.

 "Bye! I have to get to class now"  she says before running off.

 "Bye" I reply back even though she's half way down the hill now.

 Now I'm alone. With a sigh, I start walking down the hill too in a slow pace. I have a free period but what's so great about that when I have no one to spend it with.  Hyosung has class right now too and zinger is probably somewhere with her boyfriend, Jonghyun.  Once I'm down the hill, I almost fall to the ground as a girl runs past me with a boy following behind her. I turn around to see if the boy succeeds in catching her. He does but accidently trips so they both fall to the ground with her in his arms. I watch in envy as they help each other up, laughing so hard and smiling at each other. I smile, seeing how sweet they look together, but can't help but feel some bitterness in my heart. Why can't that be me?

 Suddenly the girl notices me and  then walks over with the boy following behind. "Hey Sunhwa! So nice to see you!" she wraps me in a hug.

"Hey Zinger.  Nice to see you too..." I greet her back, feeling horrible that I can't seem to muster up the same, genuine excitement as her.

"Sup Sunhwa,"  Jonghyun lifts his head up in a ghetto type motion.

 "Hey…" forcing myself to look him in the eye.

 "Want to go eat with us?" Z inger asks.

 "Nah, I already ate. I'm thinking about going to the library now."

 "Ohh, alright then. See ya later!" Then she takes Jonghyun's hand and walks off. It doesn't hurt anymore. Seeing my ex-crush with my friend. I feel like I'm becoming stronger. Who needs love? With my head high up in the air, I walk into the school

  ***

 "For this semester, I will give all of you assigned seats" Mrs.Kwon, our math teacher tells us.

 "Aww!" Everyone groans in unison.

 "Sorry guys, but this is so the chit chat in class will decrease a bit."  Honestly, everyone's groaning but I'm okay with all this. I don't really have anyone that I really sit with in this class anyway.

 "Okay, so everyone stand up and I'll tell you where to go." Everyone with another groan gets up and goes to the back of the classroom.

 "Okay so Min Ah, you go there and Eun Jo go there.." she reads off her diagram on her paper and tells us where to sit. Then she points to me and has me sit in a table of four that's already partly occupied with a girl sitting  across from where I'm supposed to sit.  Her name is Park Bom I think. A guy named Onew sits next to me to my right and finally, some dude named Minho is placed diagonally, to the right of me.

 "Okay, everyone take out their homework and we'll begin reviewing."

 I scrambled in my tiny bag and managed to find my homework.

 When I came up with a loose leaf paper labeled with math homework, the two boys were talking to each other.

 Onew was saying how Lebron James was a better basketball player than Coby Bryant  while Minho defended him.

 "Pshh, Coby Bryant can beat him any day. Did you see his stats" and some other mumbo jumbo that sounded like math to me. I'm sorry but I'm really not that big of a sports fan… Although actually playing it is pretty fun.

 Suddenly, Minho turns his attention to me and asks in the deepest voice I ever heard, "Hey, right Coby is a better basketball player than Lebrons?!"

 "I uh…" I have no idea and am still trying to get over the sudden attention that’s on me. Park Bom, Onew and him are all staring at me for my response.

 "Lebron!" Onew whispered to  me.

 Minho was still staring at me, "So what do you think?"

 "I don't know…" I finally said with a shrug of my shoulders and looked down.

 "What?" Minho asks.

 "I don't know who you're talking about…"

 "What - How you don't know who Coby is?!" he got all defensive. 

 "I don’t know…"

 "Oh my god!" Onew did a dramatic gesture. One hand is on his heart and the other on his laid back forhead.  "We have  a major crisis!"  I just looked back and forth from the two in a confused way.

 Suddenly, the girl came in and said, "Don't listen to them. They're just being obnoxious. "

 "Oh, okay" I nodded.

 "Psh" Minho looked at the girl and clucked his tongue.

 "Me, obnoxious? No way."

 "Yeah, you're obnoxious."

 "Shut up"

 "No, you shut up." I just watched them as they went back and forth like this. They finally stopped talking when the teacher started teaching a new lesson. Throughout the whole period, Minho kept raising his hand constantly to answer the questions. He's so obnoxious but so focused on his work at the same time. Interesting guy…

 As I'm staring at him with wonder, the bell rings. I jump up with elation and put my books away quickly, eager to get out of school and meet up with Zinger, Hyosung and Jieun. Just as I try to go through the aisle, I trip over Minho who has just stood up and is pulling down his shirt. Before I can grip on anything, I start to fall but however am caught by Minho who has his arms around me. My face is at his chest, buried in his sweater.