I know it sounds crazy, but the smile is what gets me.

How often it’s given over how many smiles that guy gives overall.

Sometimes it’s funny how many smiles people can make. There’s the polite smile, which may not even involve teeth, and certainly doesn’t reach the eyes.

There’s the genuine smile, when someone has said something funny, but not enough to make you laugh or you’re in a polite, formal class setting that all you can do is smile or snort quietly, which definitely reaches your eyes.

The greeting smile is the smile that acknowledges one’s presence, and can be in between the polite smile and the genuine smile.

I could see Taemin’s smile…and now it seemed all fake. Forced, even if it met his eyes.

Okay, I’m lying. His smile was still beautiful. But I saw less and less of it. In fact, it was almost non-existent. And I was giving myself a hard time about it because I used to see it every hour or so in each class I had with him. And it’s been a month since the incident at the store.

Maybe if I didn’t have such expectation, I would be alright that I never saw his smile.

I shook my head, shaking myself awake as the choir teacher droned on and on with the sopranos, just in time to see Onew’s head nod off.

“Onew!” I whispered poking him. His head snapped up, and his eyes searched mine.

“Sorry, you were falling asleep, and I didn’t want you to get in trouble,” I whispered.

He smiled. “Thanks.” He sighed, rubbing his head. “I had a busy night at SM academy.”

SM academy. People went there to practice their vocal training. Only the best singers were recruited there. I stared at him in awe, but before I could ask him any more questions, the choir teacher raised her hands, and I faced front again.

As I sang, I considered Onew’s life. Not only did he go to SM academy, but he was one of the smartest people in the school. We were only freshmen, but he not only was taking two science classes, but he made the top Science Olympiad team in the school, where the scores really count in competitions.

When the bell rang, everyone stood up to get their backpacks and go to their fourth period class. “Hey Onew?” I asked, tentatively.

He paused, looking up. “What?”

“Did you ever send that email to Jeanine?” Thank god she was out sick today.

“No…”

“Okay good.” A smile broke out on my face. “You don’t have to.” I swung the bag on to my back. “I’ll see you around then.”

I walked out, feeling the lack of weight on my chest.

“Sonya!” I turned around to see Julie and Elizabeth running towards me. “Come on, girl, we actually have lunch together today, and I’ll be making good use of it!” Julie growled.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “She’s been talking about purple elephants ALL DAY.”

“At least it’s not unicorns-” I started to say

“NO! Don’t even get her started on that!” Emily said, covering my mouth, as we burst into giggles.

“Well, Sonya, funny how you would say that, as it turns out unicorns are a mutations of rabbits, which was concluded in a recent study,” Julie said in a Southern drawl, rolling the words on her tongue.

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “Let me guess-they can swim too.”

“Yes, in rainbow water!” Julie said gleefully.

As I smiled, I suddenly realized what I had been missing all these months was here all along: friends. Even though Jeanine was my first friend, she had become way too pushy, and her loud personality was getting annoying. Maybe I had just morphed into a quiet student that liked to let it all loose in the hallways on wild stuff.

Maybe I was just loosing my mind.