The year Jinyoung started middle school was also the first year that he hadn’t gone on a camping trip before the start of the school year, which was his and his father’s annual tradition. 

His mother had offered to drive him up the mountain to his and his dad’s usual spot, a clearing between Starry Meadow and the waterfall, but Jinyoung wasn’t in the mood, and it didn’t feel right. His father, the town’s fire chief, had been dead a little over a year by the time Jinyoung was twelve, and somehow going back there without him felt wrong.

Most of the kids in his class were children that he had been going to school with for years, and ever since his father died, none of them really knew how to talk to him. Sitting down at his desk in the middle of the classroom, he supposed he’d have to endure another school year that would pass by in a hazy blur. But then the teacher clapped his hands together.

“We have a transfer student today, boys and girls!” said Mr. Hong, the homeroom teacher. He turned to the door and in walked the prettiest girl Jinyoung had ever seen.

She had short, flat hair and a round face, but it was her eyes that commanded his attention. Her bright, wondrous eyes and her smile. She wore a daisy chain around the crown of her head, and Jinyoung thought she looked like a fairy. His heart started pounding from the get-go. Who was she?

“Hello, I’m Kim Jisoo.” As she introduced herself, Jinyoung started to feel a strange sensation, as if he’d met Kim Jisoo before. He racked his brain for an answer as she spoke some more about things she liked, like books and reading. Just as she was about to answer one of the teacher’s questions, he suddenly realized why she looked familiar.

“Wait! Aren’t you that peach girl?” Jinyoung hadn’t realized at first that he said that aloud. The other kids turned and looked at him. Kim Jisoo’s face went pale. Was it not her? No, it must be.

On the way over to the mountain camp site where he and his family spent many summers, Jinyoung’s dad had once pulled into a roadside parking lot of a fruit stand, where a man was selling peaches with a little girl. Their truck had popped a tired, and they were looking for a little help. While his father worried over the tires and his mother browsed the stands, Jinyoung had used the time to wander around the lot, and he noticed the girl, who must have been his age. He also noticed the older boys who were hanging around. They were calling her something, a nickname of sorts.

“Kim Peachu!” he said, hoping that if he used her friendly nickname, she might warm up to him. Instead, the children all laughed, and Jisoo looked appalled. Jinyoung was confused.

Mr. Hong directed her to take the desk right in front of his, and Jinyoung couldn’t believe his luck. The pretty new girl, sitting by him every single day for the rest of the school year. Things were starting to look up. He was determined to be friends with her. There was a slim chance she’d remember their run-in at the fruit stand, but he was sure that his prior knowledge about her life as a farmer’s daughter would win him some friendship points. During the lesson, he leaned forward in his desk and tried to talk to her.

“Hey!” he whispered. “You live on the peach farm, right?”

She didn’t answer. He couldn’t tell if his whispering was too soft or if she was just trying not to get in trouble with the teacher. He scooted even closer.

“Is the farmer your dad?” he asked. “I’ve been there once! My mom bought two dozen peaches, but half of them went bad and we never got to eat them. But they were good!”

“Stop talking to me!” she twisted around in her seat and shouted so forcefully that Jinyoung nearly fell back in his chair. Everyone was staring at them, including Mr. Hong, who calmed the room and snapped at Jinyoung and Jisoo for talking during class. Jinyoung saw Jisoo’s face color with embarrassment, and he was sorry he’d gotten her in trouble. 

In the weeks that followed, Jinyoung continued trying to be Jisoo’s friend. She must have been extremely shy, because she rebuffed almost all of his attempts, even his attempts to apologize for the first day. Somehow, using her nickname didn’t seem to win him any of her favor. In fact, most days she downright ignored him.

He decided to let up his attention for a bit and let her settle into the school’s society herself. Sitting behind her, he noticed that she was a hard worker, always furiously taking notes in class or flipping through her books, reading and re-reading each lesson, especially in math. Once, while leaning forward, he noticed that she had neat handwriting, too. But he also noticed that the solution of one of her problems was wrong.

“You have to move the decimal to the right,” he whispered, and he saw her tense up again. “It’s multiplying by tens.”

Even as a little boy, Jinyoung had a great respect for rules. He abhorred the idea of cheating,  but he tried to justify himself this once by telling himself that it wasn’t cheating, he was merely giving her a little hint. 

“Leave me alone,” she said. He saw her jot down another incorrect answer, and he bit down on his lip.

“You have to shift the decimal to the left in the coefficient,” he whispered. “It’s scientific notation.”

“I know that! Leave me alone!” she said, evidently getting more annoyed with him, which in turn was starting to annoy Jinyoung. He didn’t doubt that she was smart enough to do math figures on her own, but he was just trying to help. 

“I get it, I’m not stupid!” she said.

“I didn’t say—“

“Just leave me alone!” 

Again struck by the force in her voice, Jinyoung sat back down in his own seat and decided to respect her wishes this time. He was worried that she’d fall back in math class, but he was surprised when just the opposite happened. The next time Mr. Hong called her up to the board to write a long number in scientific notation, she got it correct. In just a short amount of time, she was finishing her problem sets faster than anyone else, including him. A couple girls were now asking her to help them with their problem sets.

Jinyoung was impressed. Pretty and smart. He was inspired. He started working even harder to catch up with her, knowing that a girl as beautiful and intelligent as Jisoo wouldn’t be satisfied with a boy who couldn’t keep up. It wasn’t long before they were the two smartest kids in the room. He thought for sure that that now that they were on even ground, she’d want to be friends with him. But her attitude toward him didn’t improve, not even the following year when they were voted co-class representatives.

By that time, Jinyoung had given up his quest to become her best friend. For the most part, their partnership as co-reps was civil and functional, though not very friendly or warm. But he decided it was more important to be a reliable partner, even if it was only for the purposes of running the class together. 

When the school fair came around, Jisoo came up with the idea of asking the class to write short essays about what they believed the future held for them. Jinyoung knew she’d excel at this; being a writer was what she wanted to be, after all. When she submitted her piece to be j