I  slowly opened my eyes, trying to avoid the sunlight seeping in from outside the balcony in my room. "Good morning Ma'm." my maid greeted me. "Morning,” I said, while stretching. "Don't forget you have school today.” I groaned once I heard her mention school. “Miss Hye Ja wanted me to tell you that your father will be out on a business trip again.” I sprang up from my bed. "Nooo! Why does he have to go again? He’d just come back from the last one…” I knew my whining wouldn’t bring him back from his trip, so I just sighed in defeat.

It’s a new day, so why not a fresh start in school? I’ll give it another shot. I jumped off my bed to prepare. When I finished preparing for school, I ate my breakfast and rushed toward the car after bidding goodbye to my mom and the workers. *Another day at school*  Dong Moon greeted me as I closed the car door. “I hope this day will turn out better for you.” I looked up the rearview mirror and smiled. “Yeah. Me too.” I bid him farewell when I got off the car.

*I need to make friends.* I looked around the hallways as I walked to my first class. It was pretty early, so there wasn’t much students around yet. As I got closer to the classroom, I heard some girls giggling. I peeked inside the classroom and found a group girls surrounding Lay's seat, taking pictures. I walked in and made my way to my seat. I was hesitant at first because I wasn’t too sure if I should approach them. The girls noticed me and rolled their eyes. I smiled and waved to them but they just walked away.  
 

When they left, I saw Lay sleeping peacefully. The sun lit on his hair and half of his face. Were they taking a picture of him sleeping? I glanced over to the group of girls. They were applying makeup on and taking pictures of themselves. I shook my head and turned back around. After a few minutes, more people came in. Class was about to begin, but Lay was still sleeping. I bit my bottom lip and stared at Lay. *What do I do? Should I wake him up?* The teacher came in and my eyes were wide open. I took one of my pencils and poked Lay’s arm with the eraser. When I noticed his eyebrow twitch, I pulled my pencil away.

Lay slowly sat up and stretched. He looked around then squinted at the clock placed at the back of the classroom, to check the time. He rubbed his eyes and payed attention to the teacher. I smiled to myself, proud of helping him out. When I glanced at him, I noticed a couple of papers on his desk. I couldn’t quite make up what it was. He noticed and took the paper in haste, stuffing it in his folder. I quickly looked away, sorry that I’d looked in the first place. *I wonder what it was though.*

Thankfully, class ended quickly. I made a lot of friends too. There was a lot of people who welcomed me today. Some knew about me, but others didn’t know who I was at all. It was pretty interesting to get to know them all. I’d realized that the school was much more diverse than I’d thought. Despite a majority of Korean students, there were foreigners as well. I figured that my father knew of this because he’s always wanted me to get used to interacting with foreigners--for “business purposes.”

I was heading to the lunch area, but on my way there, I caught sight of the guy who gave me the sandwich yesterday. He was reading a book under a tree. The wind blew on his hair, carefully picking it up then gently placing it back down. I walked towards him and fake coughed. "Hey there,” I called out. He diverted his attention from the book, to me. “Oh, hey!” "Sorry if I’m bothering you," I smiled awkwardly. "No, it's fine. Not at all. Have a seat." he patted his hand on the green grass. As I crouched down, he stopped me. "Hold on." He took his school coat off and placed it next to him. "There." “Thanks. I'm Kim Yerim by the way." I held my hand out. He chuckled. "I'm Lee Taemin," he shook my hand. His hand was as warm and as calming as the soft breeze.

Taemin and I have been shaking hands for what felt like a minute already. Our handshake slowed down and then we were both just holding hands. The wind was blowing on my hair now. We both stared at our hands holding, then slowly pulled our hand away. My face began to heat up and Taemin rubbed the back of his neck. After a moment of silence, we started talking to each other to get rid of the awkwardness.

Lay came down the stairs of the second floor. He stopped walking when he saw me. He wasn’t sure why he’d stopped, but he did. I was laughing with Taemin. He looked down and put a hand over his chest. What was it? He looked back up at me. He shook his head back and forth to gain back his consciousness.

I stopped smiling and looked near the stairs. No one was there. *That's weird... I swore felt someone staring at me.* Taemin looked to the direction I was looking at. "Everything alright?" Taemin looked at me. "Oh? Yeah..." I stared back at him. “It’s probably nothing.” Taemin smiled at me and made a joke. Pretty soon, we were both laughing again. Lay was standing behind a wall and squeezed his chest when he heard my laughter. He closed his eyes to calm his heart down.

The bell rang and Taemin held his hand out to help me get up. He took his book and his coat. "Well, good bye!" he smiled to me. "Goodbye!" I beamed. “I guess I’ll see you soon.” I bit my lip and nodded. “Yeah. I guess so.”

____________________________________________________

Days have passed since the day I’d introduced myself to Taemin. I was making more and more friends and school was actually fun for me. I hung out with Taemin everyday and we learned more about each other from such a short amount of time. As for Lay, I found myself not paying so much attention to him anymore. Although we’ve never had a real conversation, somehow it felt as though we grew apart. We still sat beside each other in class, but we were both becoming invisible to one another.

"Okay everyone. Listen up!" the teacher called for everyone's attention. "We will be having a group assignment." My classmates started to cheer. I saw all the girls running to my direction, preparing to get to Lay. I turned away and waved at Taemin, who was already staring at me. The teacher called for everyone's attention again. "Settle down children. I’m not done talking here. For the sake of my classroom, your partner will not be of your choice." People groaned in annoyance. The teacher took out a ballot box and smiled as he waved it around.

"There are papers with different colors and numbers. You will all pick out one paper and unfold it when I tell you to. Whoever you get the same color and number as, is your partner," the teacher said while passing the ballot box around the room. He got to my desk and carefully placed the box down. I took a paper from the ballot box out and took a deep breath. When everyone got a paper, he started to count. "Okay, everyone open their paper in 3...2...1!" Everyone opened their paper and searched around the room for their partner. I peered over at Taemin to check what color he had. *The same color!!* Taemin jumped off his seat and bent down next to my table. I made eye contact with Lay. All three of us had the same color, but was it the same number?....

"Take a chance. You never know what might happen." -Ukn