“Let’s take some photos together, Jennie.”

“Rosé, I’m not in the mood.” I pushed away the girl clinging onto my arm. She stuck her tongue out at me and punched me lightly in the stomach before joining the other group of students for some pictures. 

“What’s wrong, dear ?” My mom approached me be a big bouquet of flowers along with my dad. “Congratulations for being an honor student. We are very proud of you.” My dad gave me a hug, smiling with teary eyes.

Yes, I graduated today and do you know why I’m sad ? Well you guessed right, it’s because of Miss Kim. She left without saying anything and out of nowhere. I expected at least some goodbyes from her, but who am I kidding; she has more important things waiting for her in France and dealing with me, I guess would have been a burden. 

~Flashback~

4 month ago….

It’s a Monday today, nothing out of ordinary about this day beside the fact that I’m so late. I slept in this morning due to the fact that yesterday night I stood up late hanging around with Miss Kim at her house like always. We’ve turned out to become very close, almost to a point where I considered confessing to her. It felt like these passed weeks our ‘friendship’ grew stronger, stronger that it ever was with Rosé, Lisa or my other friends. My awkwardness and nervousness faded away that first night I spend at her house and I became so comfortable around her that I kept thinking to myself what my life would be if she would also have feelings for me. I blocked away my love for her deep inside me and I tried enjoying our time together as ‘friends’. Oh, how much I grew to hate that word.

 I was rushing to my classroom down the empty hallway, not wanting to miss too much of the Korean lesson Miss Kim prepared for us, but Miss Lee stopped me. “Jennie, can I have a word with you ?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Lee. I have to go to class, I’m already late.” I stopped walking to talk to the English teacher in front of me.

“I’m so sorry…” She looked at me with pitiful eyes and a sad expression written on her face, feeling like the world’s most terrible thing just happened.

“Why are you sorry ?” I asked confused, not understanding at all what this woman is trying to say.

“Just go to class. I’ll be in my office waiting for you.” She said before walking away. I swear I’ve never seen a weirder person than her. I brushed off her words and went to class, not crossing my mind the thing I was about to see.

Once I entered the classroom, instead of finding Miss Kim writing stuff on the blackboard, I found a young woman, maybe in her early 20s with bleached platinum blonde hair and a pink outfit, her trashy ‘Barbie’ look almost making me throw up. She’s nothing like my classy, elegant and beautiful Miss Kim, and I bet her teaching skills are just as bad as the way she looks.

“You must be Kim Jennie. Your classmates said you might be late today. Sit down and next time try to be here on time.” Her high pitched voice echoed through the classroom, drawing the attention of all of the students on me. I saw Lisa and Rosé looking at me worriedly before I moved my eyes back to the new teacher.

“I won’t be present to your class today, Miss. I just came here to tell you that. I’ll see you tomorrow and I promise I’ll be on time. Please excuse me now, I have to go.” I told the woman; I could hear my voice trembling and the idea of Miss Kim leaving and never coming back haunting my thoughts. The teacher just nodded her head without saying anything and continued with her lesson.

I went directly to Miss Lee’s office, to who I have some questions to ask. I knocked at the door and I heard her husky voice from the other side telling me to come in. She sat at her desk with a big pile of papers in front of her.

“Are you busy ?” I asked her as I sat down on a chair facing her.

“Hmm, I have to look over some essays the first year students wrote, but I know you need me so I’ll take a break.” She took off her glasses and placed them on the desk and the papers to the side before focusing all her attention to me.

“Why did she left without telling me ?” My tears slowly rolled down my cheeks as I asked the question. “We had such a great time yesterday and now she left. Is she still in Seoul ?”

“She flew to Paris last night after she brought you home. She had everything packed and prepared in her car’s trunk and went straight to the airport after she dropped you off.”

“And why didn’t she tell me ?! She could at least say goodbye !”

“For her, saying goodbye to you was something way too painful. She didn’t want to remember you crying and she didn’t want you to see her leaving. That’s what she told me to tell you.”

“Couldn’t you stop her from going ? You are her bestfriend, Miss Lee.”

“I can’t stop her from accepting or declining job offers, Jennie. I also told you to not get used to any of it but you didn’t listen.”

…

“Will she even come back ?” I brought my eyes up from my lap, feeling like the whole world just fell upon me. I feel betrayed and hurt like I never did before; I don’t know if I want to hate her for doing something like this or to move on with life and forget completely about her.

“I can’t tell you that because I don’t know.”

~End of flashback~

“Jennie, yah Jennie !”

“Huh, what ?”

“Geez, I swear I thought you fell asleep with your eyes open.” Lisa said while putting her arm around my neck. “Will you snap back to reality if I tell you that your beloved Miss Kim is heading towards us ?”

“Don’t be silly, Lisa, she’s in Paris.” I told her but she grabbed my cheeks and made me look over to my parents who were talking with her just a few feet away from where Lisa, Rosé and I were.

I can’t believe my eyes. She’s standing there, talking and lau