Park Chorong wakes up every day an hour before it’s needed to work out on her running machine. She prides on her discipline and hard work because she knows that, that trait is what had given her every good thing she has in life, and her body is no exception to this.  Under those endless layers of sweaters and long sleeved blouses, there’s an extremely fit and attractive body. And that’s what gives her the strength to get up every morning to do her morning routine.

She jumps from the bed, changing in a heartbeat into her sportswear, decided to keep burning every calorie earned during the festivities this past December. Chorong plugs the machine and singing softly to the tune she starts slow, feeling the burning of her muscles and as the pace increases, her mind drifts off.

The last half of her junior year of high school is about to start and she can’t wait for it to be over. Although, the closer the senior year is, the scariest it becomes. But that does not deter her from being excited every beginning of classes; as the introvert person she is, it hasn’t been easy to make friends and, when she moved from Seoul to Jeju City almost three years ago, the change was welcomed. Now, she has friends, not many, but she can say that the three friends she has, they are the real deal. Namjoo, her best friend, is the always kind, mostly innocent and loud girl she never knew she needed, Naeun is a quiet girl who manages to make a mess around her in her own special way and, Eunji… well, is Eunji. Their story together could be seen as an example of friendship overcoming the threat of romantic love or be seen as a sad love story.

Unavoidably, Yoon Bomi comes to her mind. It’s frustrating, really. She doesn’t understands why the girl hates her so much. Bomi is a social butterfly, everyone loves her and she is a bulb of energy and positivism… that dies off around Chorong. The girl behaves evasively and unfriendly to her and she can’t stop wondering what went wrong or why her interest for Bomi has never disappeared even when the girl treats her so bad.

Chorong reaches for the towel hanging on the running machine and scrubs her face forcefully. She is determined to find out and will commit herself to it.

She jumps off of the machine, panting and sweating, grabbing her water bottle and drinking carelessly. She wipes the trickles of water running down her chin and bents to unplug the machine. If Park Chorong weren’t so caught up into herself, she would have stopped to dry her hands off but, today, she only had less than a second to think “oh boy” before feeling the powerful current of electricity biting her hand and running up to her body.

Even though it lasts just a few seconds, it hurts like anything she has ever felt before and her scream is a lot quieter compared to her pain. The last thing she feels before fainting on the floor is like a thousand needles prickling her whole body.

When she wakes up just seconds after, her head feels like it isn’t even there and tastes like iron. How can she possible be so stupid to grab a current with her hand wet.

 She has barely sit down on her bed and is trying to process her face to face with death when her mom leans against the door frame of her room.

“Good morning. What would my princess like for breakfast? Ready for today?”

“Ready as ever, mom.” Chorong is trying to breathe normally, “Whatever you have is good for me, I’ll be down in 10 minutes, thanks mom.”

Inna smiles and closes the door.

That’s when Chorong finally examines her hand to see a red burnt mark across it, hurting intensely. Great. She will have not only a painful memory but an ugly one too. She better starts showering before she runs out of time.

Exactly 18 minutes later, she’s nearing the kitchen stool, showered and dressed.

“Good morning, Dad.” She kiss his cheek and cheerily digs into her bowl of bibimbap. “Mom, your breakfast is a success, is so good.”

“Obviously, I’m the best cook in town.” She boasts.

Chorong tries to give her a hands up but winces immediately.

“What happened to your hand?!” Inna rushes to her and takes a closer look. ‘My God.’

Dongwook catches a glimpse of it behind his coffee. ‘Oh .’ “That looks horrible, dear.”

“Oh wow, language Dad.” Chorong replies and her dad looks confused. “I got burned straightening my hair, it’s nothing really.”

‘The first aid kit.’ Her mom disappears to the living room.

‘So it was just her clumsy self.’ “Figures it just was you being you. I was worried for a second there.” He says laughing.

Chorong gasps but does not have time to defend herself from her Dad’s antics because Inna is back and takes her hand between hers and starts bandaging it. ‘How the hell she did this to herself.’

“Oh my God, Mom!” Chorong exclaims bewildered, not used to hearing either of her parents curse.

“What?” She asks, finishing her task with an innocent expression. The black-haired girl would have believed her if she wouldn’t have just heard her.

“Both of you are surprisingly very straight today. I’m just surprised. First time in my life I hear you curse.”

“But…” Her mom mumbles watching her daughter walk out of the kitchen and the house. Brow furrowed, she turns to her husband. “Did I say something out loud?”

“No. We didn’t say anything.”

Chorong was having a heck of a day, the weirdest of her life.

First, she was electrocuted and surprisingly enough, survived. Then, her parents start cursing out loud out of nowhere in front of her and acting like they did nothing, like it’s the most normal thing ever.

And now, everyone in school has gone mad.

This morning while she was walking to her first class, this girl she goes to Math class with, Sooyoung, walked behind her mumbling the strangest thing:

‘If I still had some clothes on and we both were drunk, it doesn’t count, right? I’m still a ? Right?’

Chorong gasped and looked at her, earning a glare from the girl, like she just wasn’t questioning her ity in the middle of the hall.

One class after that, heading to her English class, she walked past a group of boys and heard one of them say, loud and clear ‘I’d so tap Chorong.’ Chorong spun around, stunned, cheeks tinged red and eyes wide, but she couldn’t spot which one said it. After a staring contest with all of them and a “What’s the matter?” from Seungwoo, she excused herself and hurried to class.

Today, the class seems to be chattier than ever… well, the whole school. She really can’t decipher what those murmurs say or whom they belong to but, they’re seriously starting to give her a headache.

She reaches for her notebook and a pencil in her backpack with her injured hand and winces quietly when the zipper scratches the bandage.

‘Oh my God, is she hurt?’

Chorong’s eyes scan the classroom, looking frantically for the owner of the husky and clearly feminine voice, but she only finds bored students and a stern looking teacher who’s trying to point the difference between tense and time. Unbelievably, no one seems to care about whoever is talking loudly in the middle of the class.

‘What happened to her? Did she punch someone? Ha! Yeah, Rong punching someone..’

At this point, Chorong is staring rudely back and forth at every girl in the class, but no one of them seems to be talking. She closes her eyes, trying to pin point the direction of the voice, but every time she thinks she has it, she loses it again.

‘Oh my God, what if she’s cutting herself? OhmyGod, ohmyGod! And she seems so distracted and lost. OhGod, ohGod! Hold on. That doesn’t make sense, the bandage is not on the wrist and… It’s Park Chorong, she wouldn’t do something like that.’

She tries to recall that husky voice. Why isn’t anyone disturbed by her? Why isn’t Mrs. Seohyun saying something?

‘Stop it. You shouldn’t be worrying about her. Why do you do this to yourself, Bomi’

Of course it’s her. That voice! Chorong turns around on her seat slowly, to the person sitting right behind her.

“What are you looking at, Chorong?” Bomi snaps, but it has no sting to it.

“Were you saying something?” She asks, her voice quivering a bit under Bomi’s gaze.

Bomi stares at her, confused. “No, I wasn’t.”

Chorong nods, confused, and turns her attention back to the front. She wonder is she has gone mad. It would explain a couple of things that happened today.

‘What the hell was that? Maybe she’s not okay. She looks pretty as always but… something’s off. I could ask Hayoung to check on her and ask her… just in case. I wouldn’t be breaking any rule, it wouldn’t be wrong… yeah, it’s fine. Hayoung could, just in ca-’

This time, she spins around so quickly she nearly falls off the chair. And there’s Bomi, looking at her like she just grew another head.

“What is your problem?” The auburn-haired girl whispers harshly.

“I-I… I thought I heard you… you just… uhm… never mind.” Chorong stammers blushing red. The bell rings signalling the end of the class.

She gathers her things and runs out of the classroom to the nearest bathroom to calm herself.

Chorong walks to the Performing Arts Club dragging her feet and rubbing her temples. She’s suffering a full blown headache now.

“Chorong-sshi, welcome back! Your holidays’ were good?” Mrs. Im asks her. ‘She looks tired’

“They were, Mrs. Im, thank you. And yes, I’m a bit tired.” Everyone is already sitting on the benches of the music room.

She sits next to Naeun, who glances worriedly at her and rubs her shoulder softly.

“Is okay, Chorong-sshi.” Im Yoona then turns to her papers. “We should start with the planning, right guys?”

There’s a general sound of agreement and the black-haired girl reaches for her backpack to get some pill for her head.

“You okay, Rong?” Naeun whispers while Mrs. Im is busy suggesting her ideas for today’s practice.

“Yeah, it’s just a headache.” She answers. The other girl seems surprised by her stressed aura.

‘She looks sick. Hope she’s not overworking herself again.’ She hears Eunji say.

‘She looks annoyed. I’d tap that still’ Ilhoon’s voice gets to her.

“What about the hand?” Naeun insists.

‘Stupid camper. That’s the only reason he could get me. Coward .’ Hayoung mumbles. She glances at her and sees her beside Namjoo, both of them focused on Hayoung’s mobile.

“The hand?” She asks closing her eyes shut, feeling seriously dizzy.

‘I should buy the shoes. Hmm, is a reasonable amount. They slide better against the floor.’

“Yeah, the bandage Chorong. Are you sure you’re okay?”

‘Oh God, she looks like she’s going to faint. ! I should have known! I should have asked something! Calm down, Yoon Bomi, someone might notice. Calm. Down.’

“Oh yeah. It’s just- I got burnt straightening my hair”

‘What did I ever do for her to ignore me like that? I think I was a good boyfriend. I pretended to listen to her, never stared at her s while she was watching… well, maybe that one time, but she didn’t even notice!’

“Oh, that happened to me once. I was straightening m-“

“WOULD YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP?”

Chorong is standing in front of the entire Performing Arts Club, nostrils flaring, breathing uneven and eye twitching. Everybody is stunned by her outburst.

“You- you’ve been all day… confusing me and- and talking and- and then being all… innocent, but I can’t take it anymore. I’m… I’m out of here.”

She grabs her things and storms to the door.

‘Damn, that’s kinda hot.’

Chorong stops dead in her tracks. She heard it again, loud and clear, and this time, she doesn’t doubt who the voice owner is.

Walking back to the benches, she stares intently at Bomi, daring her with her eyes to deny it again.

“What. Did. You. Just. Say?”

Bomi looks taken aback by her piercing stare, but recovers quickly.

“Geez Chorong, I didn’t say anything. What? Now you’re hearing voices?”

‘. Me. If she keeps looking at me like that, I might not take responsibility of my actions.’

And this time, Chorong was closely inspecting the auburn-haired girl’s face and there’s no way for her to miss how Bomi’s lips didn’t move to speak the last sentence and, unless the dancer is suddenly a ventriloquist, it can only mean one thing.

“Yeah. Yes… I think I am.”