Some things you just didn’t learn inside the classroom. Some of them, in fact, you instead learn from the people you often hang out with. I didn’t trust it before, but now I was slowly beginning to think that changing your perspective about other people sometimes did you good too. It was not always what they say that changed you, anyway. Let us say that what they might tell you could affect you, but it was still how you took their words that would matter. How you put them into action was what changed your fate.

The prospect of change had been my life long problem. But perhaps that fact that I hated it, that I was avoiding it at all cost was the reason why I was thinking there was always a problem.

That after the first initiative I took last time, I worked hard on trying to be in a better relationship that I knew would be better if they were my allies.

It all started with Jongdae who instantly became my best friend right after music club. I didn’t know what good I did that he became more comfortable with me after offering a seat to him, but I was glad it turned out this way instead of him ignoring me for his game. I guess, Baekhyun also helped with his characteristic brightness. It made me want to speak more and be like him. He made me feel like I can also be whatever I wanted to be if I just tried.

And it worked.

Surprisingly, I really did.

Now, everywhere I go, Jongdae would tag along while still holding his phone with both his hands, his nose to his game. It was a little annoying that he still played even when he was walking in the hallways with me because I was afraid he’d trip, but thank God that hadn’t happened yet. There were times, too, he’d accompanied me to the library to do research and later ended up playing quietly at a corner. But it was better than him not listening to me at all.

At times, Kim Yeri appeared out of nowhere with research of her own that I had asked from her through the group chat she helped me create. I would not forget to thank her for all the hard work and she would eventually smile. That was the most rewarding thing whenever I saw her. Her smile. Even though she couldn’t express herself well. Her expressions showed how she truly felt. She was just like an open book despite her quiet personality.

Kang Seulgi only read through our messages in the group chat and never left any comments in the beginning. But when Kang Joon started attending the meetings after being asked by the History teacher to pick between participating in the group project or writing a hundred page reflection paper, she appeared more often than not—still picking on her nails, however—with ideas of her own that though weren’t as useful as I thought still counted as effort. I still took it as a form of participation even though she wasn’t much of a help like Kang Joon was.

What only Kang Joon knew doing best was to carry our papers. He even often complained about being given such a lousy task, but the funny thing was that he never once let go of the papers as soon as he saw it and we had to carry it to the library or our meeting room.

Jaejin, in the beginning, only listened to the meetings, but said nothing. He would often play with the silver coin in his hands that I wondered what I had to do to convince him to work. I decided I had to know him better if I needed to make him work that I tried asking my classmates about him. What I found out totally shocked me, though. And it was only when I asked that I became quite aware of his own charms. Jaejin was smart and athletic that he was popular to the girls. They liked him for his outward appearance, but there were also his fans who dig deeper and find out even the smallest things about him, just like his love for collecting coins.

When I found that out, that was when I had a really good idea and went home that day skipping back to the Oh’s house. Sehun had curiously asked what I started rummaging inside my closet but I had my head in the coin collection I used to have. It was buried deep in the pile of memories I kept along with my father’s, but even if it was hard to open the box where it was, I had ignored the tiny pinch in my heart and grinned when I found the medium sized frame where I placed my own coin collection. It was a hobby I got from my father. I used to like collecting coins, but now all of it was going to waste if I didn’t make better use of it that I decided to give this a shot.

“Ya, where are you going with that thing in your hand?” Sehun looked annoyed as he asked because I was ignoring him the whole time.

But I was in a total rush that I couldn’t retort. I had to see Jaejin before I lost the courage to. That I immediately dialed his number and asked him to meet by the nearest café to give him the collection.

“I’ll be back really soon, Sehun! Please tell mom I left for the café in the fifth street!”

Sehun looked baffled by what I was doing that he followed me to the front door and watched me with hesitant eyes as I exited. The adrenaline possessed me, letting a smile slip as I neared our meeting place. Jaejin was sat by the huge window overlooking the sun lit afternoon street of our neighborhood with a pondering look on his face. He was thoughtfully thinking of something that as I knocked on the table top at where he was seated, it almost made him jump in surprise.

His reaction made me laugh. “Sorry to ask you to come here,” I said, sitting down.

Jaejin gathered his composure and cleared his throat. “It’s nothing. I don’t mind. It only surprised me, though, how you got my number. Are you a fan?” he seriously asked, furrowing his eyebrows, that it almost made me laugh again. I held the laughter in, though, thinking it was not going to be in my favor if I made enemies with him.

“Well, I don’t think I’m that kind of person,” I said, smiling to myself. “I guess, you could think of me more like of a stalker?”

The huge grimace that crossed his face as soon as he heard what I said made me burst out laughing. I didn’t think it was going to be nice making fun of other people, too, besides Sehun.

“I’m just kidding,” I told him and slid towards his direction the frame of coins I took from my belongings. “But to be honest with you I’m here to try and bribe you with this.”

He looked down at the unexpected gift in front of him and turned his eyes back at me with more readable confusion on his face. “Is this something like a fan gift or what?”

“Well,” I uncertainly nodded, not really knowing what to make of what he said. “You could think of it like that, but really, I just want you to have it. After doing some research on you, I heard that you like collecting coins and thought that perhaps you would love to add something to your collection.”

Jaejin was still confused and in utter disbelief, but I could tell that he was starting to be distracted by the wide variety of collection I had. His hand held the sides of the frame and took his time on looking at each coin.

“You don’t typically get these kinds of coins around,” he said, almost mumbling the words to himself. “How did you get them?” He briefly looked at me and then back at the coins which seemed more interesting to him now than me.

I was biting my lip in contemplation. Letting go of material things that reminded me of dad was one thing, but telling people about him made me a little self-conscious. Would it be okay to actually tell someone I didn’t know so much about a part of me that brought me painful memories? Would it hurt or would it not to?

“I—“

For a moment I hesitated about it. But then what else could I lose?

“My dad is a History professor and he knew some people that collected coins, too, which can date back to ten or twenty years earlier. It’s just that I also learned to love collecting them because he loved to do it and he thought it was pretty nice I was taking after him that he encouraged me to have my own collection. This is not the entire collection I have, but those are the most valuable ones.”

Slowly, I saw how his façade had broken down. And instead of intimidation there was curiosity lining his face. “If it’s valuable why are you giving them to me? I don’t think it’s right to take something that holds special meaning to you—“

“They are good for their value,“ I said. “But to me, they no longer held any special meaning. So instead of throwing them away I thought of giving it to you.”

Jaejin was still sort of unconvinced but nodded in understanding. I guess, he got the gist of what I just said that he slid the frame closer to him to get a better look of the collection. “I’m not sure how to take this, but I am grateful,” he told me, still thoughtfully looking at the collection. “No one has really given me something as good as this before. Not even the fans. That I’m not sure whether you’re not really one of them.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle since he still managed to joke.

“Oh no, I’m not a fan,” I told him. “But you can think of this as a friend gifting to a friend.”

“There’s no taking this back then.” He said, hugging the frame to his chest.

-

There was a suspicious look on Sehun’s face as I entered the living room. He was scanning me with laser eyes whilst hugging a pillow to his chest. I felt so accomplished that I ignored this and sat next to him with a smile on my face.

“Did he answer your confession?”

I looked at him with disbelief. “What are you talking about?”

He looked away and mumbled, “Baekhyun passed by the café you went to and happened to see you with Lee Jaejin.”

I snorted, thinking that Baekhyun passing by that café wasn’t just a coincidence. Sehun must have planned it. “He did see us?” He nodded sheepishly, not uttering another word. “Well, who knows what we talked about…” I said, teasing him.

He gave me a glare and pushed me away. “Why can’t you just simply answer me nicely if I am—“

“I was just trying to make a better connection with my groupmates so I met up with Jaejin. He’s not that bad if that’s what you’re worried about. In fact, he has very good manners unlike someone I know who physically pushes girls harshly on the couch ~” I teased, averting my eyes from him and standing up to leave.

He shouted back at me as I left. It made me guffaw my way at the stairs to my room. The day felt longer than usual but I thought I was way way more than accomplished because I managed to get my group mates to work without coercion. Who I needed to only work on now was the sleepyhead, Kim Junghoon.

It was not unknown in school that Junghoon was just as notorious as Kang Joon. But Junghoon was worse in a very different level. Kang Joon was a selfish jerk. But I guess, Junghoon has worse of a reputation. No one really knew his family background, but there were talks that even at an early age he had already learned how to drink and was part of a gang. I was quite perturbed when I learned this, from Jongdae who accompanied me in printing a chapter in our research project on the fourth day of making it, and wondered what I could do to make him work without offending him

“More or less he won’t be participating at all,” Jongdae said, helping me sort out the materials we already had on print. “Worst case scenario is that he won’t even report during presentation day.”

I gasped, widening my eyes at the fact he was presenting. “But the History Teacher clearly said that if not all the group members could present on Monday, then we all fail. This is a group project. Not an individual project. You think he would be that inconsiderate?” I asked, finally starting to worry.

Jongdae only shrugged, not giving me a precise answer. I knew that he was a carefree person who didn’t mind many things around him, but at that moment I couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated, mainly because I was—honestly—still doing all the work for our History project, I collected all their researches and extract the most important information from there before editing the entire thing on my own, on top of that now I also need to worry about how not to fail the project. It was nice that I got them all to work—besides Junghoon—but I was still carrying most of the load.

It wasn’t them who stayed up all the time late at night to type down our research. It wasn’t them collating the facts and making sure that everything was in control and was solely based on facts and not just hunches. It was not them spending so much money on printing out the materials. But most of all, it wasn’t them worrying about how we were going to pass this thing. I knew I was a pretty little competitive and I knew an A+ was not anymore possible, but let’s say wasn’t it just natural for a student to worry about her grades, too? Why couldn’t they be more worried about it? Why did they seem so uncaring?

It irked me to know that they were not as dedicated as I was that I decided Junghoon couldn’t just simply abandon the boat. Whether he liked it or not, he must work for the sake of the group.

But that was how things started to go very wrong.

I was feeling very furious and frustrated that day when I marched towards Junghoon’s desk. Surprisingly, he was awake and was talking happily with his friends—as if there was no project he should be worrying about, at all. His voice was so raucous and his laughter was way too loud it pricked even my ears at the slightest.

At first, he had not noticed me or maybe pretended to ignore me, but because I was already pissed off and though not many times I had showed my temper in school, I had a very very serious problem in handling my anger that I knocked on his desk loudly, grabbing not just his attention but also those of the other people inside the room. I knew eyes were on us as soon as I did that. We were a great spectacle that the students watched in anticipation as to what kind of scene I was about to start.

“Kim Junghoon-ssi,” I said, trying to maintain a calm façade even though my voice was already filled with tension. “I know you’re having a really great time with your friends now but I hope you can also spare some of your time to at least think about our group project. We are now very behind because most likely you’re not cooperating with us.”

Junghoon snorted, his sharp eyes trying to slice through me. I was a little uncomfortable he was doing that sort of stare that I just thought of fleeing the crime scene, but what was done was already done. I knew that even if I escaped, either way he was for sure going to hunt me down.

“You started the project without me giving inputs, so why do you need me to work all of a sudden?” he grudgingly asked.

I was on the verge of being tempted to shout at him, but I took a very deep breath and told myself he was not worth my anger. Junghoon was not worth it. “The reason why we can’t get anything out of you is because you always sleep when we meet, if not, you don’t even attend at all. How is that fair?”

Soft snickers tinkled here and there. The