on tralfamadore

Seungwan inspected every inches of the school hallway as she walked few steps behind the principal who guided her to her homeroom class. It was a very clean school, not one trash or dirty spot she could find in the hall. A bit creepy for her. To think that the place was home for hundreds of hormonal teenagers, perfect cleanliness was not normal.

At least that was what Seungwan thought.

"Clean environment gives peaceful atmosphere for the students. We always make sure to give them a perfect condition to study and to reach their full-potential." The principal told her as if he knew exactly what she was thinking of. "Do you want to see our cafeteria?"

"Eh?"

And just like that, Seungwan was eating a pork sandwich in the quiet cafeteria with the middle aged man smiling across her. No one was there, obviously, since all students were starting their classes already. Seungwan lowered her gaze, obviously trying to avoid the principal's intense scrutiny. The principal was observing her as if she was an antique painting and he was trying to estimate the price.

"Shouldn't I be in class, like, as soon as possible...?" Seungwan asked uncertainly.

"Do you want to be in class as soon as possible?" Principal Kim asked her with her own question. A cheeky smile plastered on his face. His wrinkles deepened as his eyes turned into pair of warm crescent shapes. Seungwan was taken aback by the taste of her own medicine and couldn't hold back her genuine amused smile. "I've been your age, Miss Seungwan, and I know being in a new place can be nerve-wrecking..."

"I'm not nervous." Seungwan retorted. And then she quickly realised her unintentional harsh tone she just used to her new school's principal. "...sorry, I didn't mean to..."

Principal Kim's laughter was echoing in that empty cafeteria. "It's okay. I probably crossed my line, too, so... I apologise." Seungwan pressed her lips into a thin line. She didn't know how to react at that. "You know, you don't have to hold back here. We have motto, 'To understand and to respect.' So don't bite your tongue."

"You know what has happened to me when I did that in my previous schools..." Seungwan trailed with distant voice. She played her sandwich with lazy manner. A bitter smile bloomed as she heaved a nostalgic sigh.

"Oh, believe me, I know." Principal Kim shrugged nonchalantly. He put both of his hand on the table and slightly leaned his body toward her, as if trying to inspect her closer. "And I want to see that with my own eyes. The real Miss Son Seungwan."

This time, Seungwan was the one who laughed. "Okay, that was the first." And then she smiled sheepishly. "Do you think... there will be a good thing in a fourth chance? Not second, but fourth?"

Principal Kim smiled warmly. "Good things can happen any time, any place, Miss Seungwan. Good things don't fall from the sky, you make your own good things. You understand?" Seungwan nodded faintly. Principal Kim got up from the chair and clapped his hand. "Now, let's go to your class."

Seungwan breathed in as she pulled her uniform to get rid the wrinkles. She was tailing Principal Kim to her homeroom class. There was no doubt seen on her face. She was determined, she wasn't going to be kicked out this time. She would graduate from this school, no matter what. And before she knew it, Seungwan and Principal Kim stood before one of the door in the hallway. She could feel her hands started sweating and her legs felt like jello. She still insisted she wasn't nervous though, she just needed to adjust with the temperature. Yes, she was in denial that way.

Principal Kim knocked and he opened the door. He signed Seungwan to wait outside as he entered the classroom and talked to the homeroom teacher. Seungwan stared at the floor and couldn't bring herself to look up. She knew her soon-to-be classmates were staring curiously. Suddenly, she heard the principal called her name. "Miss Seungwan, come in."

The brunette girl walked in. She tried very hard to give her confident walk as best as she could. Her smile grew wider as she met Principal Kim's approving look; she knew she nailed it. And then her gaze met with her new homeroom teacher.

"Miss Seungwan, this is your homeroom teacher..."

The young homeroom teacher waved his hand and laughed nervously. "Oh, no, no. I'm just a substitute until Mrs. Jang came back from her maternity leave."

Principal Kim gave the teacher a look. "Well, until then, you're the homeroom teacher, right?" The teacher sighed as he gave in. The students were muffling a chuckle because of that impromptu banter. It seemed like it wasn't such a big deal, a disagreement like that. "Okay, Miss Seungwan. This is Mister Zhang Yixing. And Mister Zhang, this is Miss Son Seungwan."

Seungwan gave him a 90 degree bow and then she faced the entire class to give another respectful bow. "My name is Son Seungwan. Nice to meet you all."

"Okay then, I'll trust Mister Zhang to help you to adjust. I hope you'll enjoy your time here, Miss Seungwan."

"Thank you, Sir."

Principal Kim sent her one last smile before he left the room, leaving Seungwan with a bunch of strangers who looked at her like she was some kind of alien. Seungwan couldn't help but fidgeting uncomfortably. was dry and no word came out from .

"Okay, so..." Mister Zhang broke the deafening silence in the room. "...you'll be sitting with..." He narrowed his eyes as he was trying to read something from a paper on the table. "Kang... Seulgi?"

A girl with long dark hair raised her hand. "But, Sir, this is Jihyo's chair."

Mister Zhang raised his brows and asked, "And where is she now?"

Kang Seulgi bit her lips. "...sick, I guess?"

The laid-back looking teacher smiled triumphantly. "Well, it's her loss then." Then he looked at Seungwan. "Problem solved. Sit down, please. Kang Seulgi won't bite you." Seungwan muttered a silent thank you and walked to her chair. "Okay, let's continue..."

Seungwan wasn't completely aware about what Mister Zhang was talking about, she was busy trying to cope with her new environment. She bet she looked like a deer-in-the-headlights right now, but she couldn't care less. That was until her new chairmate poked her arm.

"Hey." She greeted her with whispery voice. "I'm Kang Seulgi."

"Yeah, I kno..." Seungwan stopped in mid-sentence and corrected her response, "Hey, I'm Seungwan."

"If you need a help about anything. I mean, anything, you can ask me." Her new chairmate almost blinded her with her cheery and perky smile. Seungwan only managed to give her an awkward smile and a faint nod. "I'm the student representation for eleventh grade, so... it's kinda my job. But I'm not doing this just because it's my job, I also want to befriend you. Really. I mean, don't take it wrong way, but..."

Seungwan cut her before Seulgi's ramble went too far. "It's okay, Seulgi. I get it. And thank you very much, I really appreciate it." At her words, Seulgi sent Seungwan a smile once agaian before finally getting her focus back to Mister Zhang in front of the class.

But the lecture was interupted few minutes later by a knock on the door. And when it was opened, a boy with unruly uniform stood there with a sheepish smile on his face, as if he wasn't just late from a class and he just interupted a lecture. However, to Seungwan's surprise, Mister Zhang didn't seem mad at that. The students didn't seem surprised as well. In fact, they looked like amused at the sight.

"Mister Park Jimin. Welcome." Mister Zhang let him in without giving the student any hassle. "Please sit down and please do your best not to disturb your friends."

"As if I ever did that, Sir." Park Jimin smiled cheekily and proceeded to get into the class.

Seungwan's eyes were following him like a hawk following its prey. The boy apparently was sitting behind her chair. Seulgi was aware of Seungwan's wondering eyes. She poked her once again and explained to her, "He was in the baseball team. They got a dispensation to skip the first lesson to train to prepare for the summer game."

Seungwan nodded absent-mindedly. She looked over her shoulder and her eyes met Park Jimin's.

The boy poked Seulgi's back. "New student?" He asked while pointing Seungwan with his eyes.

Seulgi nodded. "Mm-hm. Seungwan, this is Jimin. Jimin, Seungwan." Seungwan turned her head a little and smiled at Park Jimin politely. "So, you hit Taehyung's so-called best pitch today?" Seulgi asked Jimin amusedly. Clearly, they talked about something that Seungwan didn't know.

"Don't say things like that. It was his best pitch."

"Then Ansang's baseball team is doomed." Seulgi playfully mocked. Jimin glared at her, but he chuckled in the end. "Jimin is the power hitter of Ansang's baseball team." She informed Seungwan who looked very puzzled at their conversation. "He's, like, the cannon of the team."

"Now you're exeggerating." Jimin protested.

Seulgi lowly chuckled. "I'm just repeating what people say about you."

Jimin grumbled, "I don't care. Just stop it."

"Ehem." Mister Zhang cleared his throat. "Miss Seulgi, Miss Seungwan, and Mister Jimin, do you have something to share to us?" The teacher didn't look pleased with them.

Jimin grinned. "Well, Sir, Seulgi said that the problem number two is too easy for her, she's willing to finish it for you."

Seulgi's eyes widened. "Park Jimin!"

Mister Zhang's lips was tugging in a very joyful manner. "Thank God, finally someone understand what I'm talking about for the past two hours. Come here, Miss Seulgi. Show them how it's done."

Seulgi's mouth was gaping for air as if she was a goldfish. Just by taking a glance, Seungwan knew Seulgi wanted nothing but choking the jock who sat behind her. However, Seulgi conceded. She walked to the front and accepted the chalk that Mister Zhang gave to her as she was trying to solve problem number two.

"And you, Mister Jimin." Mister Zhang suddenly called. Jimin hurriedly straightened up his sit position and looked at the young teacher with anticipation. "Come here. I bet Miss Seulgi feels lonely to be here by herself, so I save you problem number three to be solved."

The silence broke into a fit laughter. Jimin froze on his seat while Mister Zhang only looked at him with mischiveous look. Seulgi laughed the loudest and Seungwan joined with the parade. And the new girl couldn't help but thinking, It's not such a bad start to begin the dawn of a new day.

"You're the worst, you know that, right?"

"Back at you, Brother." Seulgi spat at Jimin.

Seungwan was trapped between both of her new friends. Both Seulgi and Jimin were still cursing at each other about the mishap that happened to both of them at Mister Zhang's class. It was already recess time and both of them still couldn't get over it.

Seungwan had to walk between both of them since Jimin and Seulgi refused to stand side by side until they finally found an empty table at the cafeteria. Seungwan bought herself a sandwich pork like she ate in the morning with Principal Kim. She ate her lunch slowly as she stared at the bicker that happened to both students in front of her.

"Don't mind them. Old couple always does something like this, no?" Seungwan was surprised with the sudden intrusion from a stranger who took a sit beside her without asking for permission.

"Shut up, Tae." Jimin grunted unamusedly at the unexpected visitor. "Seungwan, this is Kim Taehyung. Tae, this is Seungwan..."

"The new student, I know." Taehyung cut Jimin's words and smiled at Seungwan with his beaming face. "I've heard about you."

Taehyung's words managed to pique Seungwan's interest. "About me?"

"Yeah. But I definitely missed the news about how beautiful you are..."

Seulgi groaned. "Taehyung! Don't scare her on her first day!" She glared at the rascal and then looked at Seungwan apologetically. "I'm sorry, Seungwan. He's kinda stupid that way."

Seungwan shrugged. "And what exactly did you hear about me?" She asked curiously. Seulgi and Jimin couldn't contain their curiosity either because the news certaintly didn't reach their ears.

"That you're exceptionally smart and you're a proficient chess player..." Taehyung said carefully. "And some other things about your... um, previous schools..." His tongue twisted awkwardly. He realized he just spat something that he shouldn't have mentioned in the first place.

The three other students on the table only looked at Taehyung as if he grew a second head. The table was probably the only place of silence in such crowded place. That was until Jimin spoke up, "You better keep your ears for good things only, Tae." He said in neutral tone. "I mean, it's great if Seungwan is really proficient at the things you said, but... I mean, it's not appropriate to assume things, yes?"

Seulgi nodded vigourously. "Yes. I mean, come on. Give her a break from your nonsense."

Taehyung laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, Seungwan."

Seungwan smiled and gave him a shrug. "It's okay. I mean, it always happens to all new students, right?"

Seulgi, Jimin, and Taehyung couldn't contain their relief to hear her words. They continued their chattering about things that Seungwan secretly couldn't careless. She didn't quite here what they were talking about. She was happy enough that three of them made an effort to include her into their conversations. But Seungwan's mind was wandering somewhere else, What gossips that Ansang's students have really heard about her?