Besides gym, the rest of the day was fairly uneventful—lunch in the library with books to keep my company, boring classes, dumb kids, the norm. It was always during the last class where I watched the clock, and it moved the slowest. I begged the minute hand to hurry up and hit the 2, but it never listened to me.

Finally it was time to go home. I slowly zipped my bag 30 seconds before the bell, getting my footing ready to bolt out that door.

“Brrrring~”

I quickly bowed to the teacher, and slid past classmates down the crowded hallways to walk to the bus stop home. It felt relieving to be walking by myself and not have to be around others. If I didn’t leave quickly enough, I would be stuck behind a group of slow, annoying walkers, and if I tried to move past them, they would end up talking about me, even if they don’t know who I am.

I turned up the volume on my iPod, blocking out everything else around me. I couldn’t help wondering if Hyun Soo would be riding the bus home…maybe we could go home together, and—

Stop. Hold it right there, I told my cranium firmly. Hyun Soo is a delinquent jerk whose first two mocking words to you were “Don’t die”. Why would you even want to be around him?  Leave him be. Even if you’re neighbors, you’re as good as strangers. Keep it that way.

“That’s right.” I said out loud to myself, now sitting on the bench, waiting for the afternoon bus. “Cht. Don’t die. That’s what I should be saying to you.” I muttered. There’s no way the school will tolerate his behavior and egotistical attitude. Maybe that’s why his family had to move—their bratty son can’t get his act together.  

The slow, city bus roared to a stop, and I boarded, sitting in a window seat. Only a few short minutes until I would be home. I’m gonna eat last night’s leftovers, watch a movie~ screw Monday.

Out of absentminded habit, I reached up to my neck to rub the chain of my locket. But my finger touched air. I looked down, my locket missing.

I silently gasped, and shot up, scrambling off the bus. No, no no…I thought desperately, staring the sidewalk down. I scanned every detail, hoping to catch a faint glint of silver. I got on my knees even, crawling around with my hands blindly hoping to feel for the smooth heart piece.

“Come on, come on come on,” I whispered to myself, forcing my eyes to stare harder into the ground. Maybe it’ll magically appear if I stare hard enough. I ignored the stares of people as navigated around their feet.

Still no luck.

I ventured farther back, retracing my steps back to the school. My hands become increasingly red, knees more sore, and my stomach hungry. Just when I thought I had found my locket, I saw that it was a 10 cent piece.

 After the setting sun and 3 hours of blind searching, I gave up, walking dejectedly back to the dark bus stop.

My good luck charm was gone. My defense and excuses against this weird place was gone. The one thing with memories and good associations was gone. Gone, gone, gone.

I don’t like crying, because I see it as a sign of weakness, but today I couldn’t hold back the tears as I crashed my body into the bus seat, feeling the epitome of frustrated.

In all my anger, my elbow hit something hard, sending a shattering pain.

“Oowww!” I shrieked. I saw that it was a tall black bag. Whatever was in it was making me want to break it in half and throw it out the window.

“Yah, shut it, will you? Ah? Countryside hills can hear you.” The deep, calm voice of Lee Hyun Soo rang in my ears.

I closed my eyes, took in a deep breath, and counted to 10 in head, trying to control myself.

“Please keep your thoughts to yourself.” I said through gritted teeth and tears. Although I couldn’t see his face, I knew he was the one sitting next to me at the window. I was glad, since my tear stained face and messy hair were a disgrace. Even so, he will probably call me all sorts of new names and come up with more critical remarks for our next encounter.

I heard him sigh. “Anger bounces back.”

“Huh,” I gave a short incredulous laugh through my tears. “And like you have the right of claiming you’re the happiest person in the world.”

He didn’t respond.

“Whatever. I don’t care to deal with people like you.” I said with as much malice as I could, hoping to would make him hurt or fester even the slightest. But if he was hurt by my comment, he didn’t express it.

I realized that even though he didn’t know my name and we had only met once, we were already very informal with each other. No barrier kept me from saying what was on my mind about this rude kid. The last of what little shiny coating he had as a person dissipated completely.

Well, what goes around comes around.

I turned my attention back to my locket dilemma, and realized that I hadn’t searched the bus yet. Feeling a glimmer of hope enter me, I scoured the bus floor as discreetly as possible.

“Hey! What are you doing!” I heard Hyun Soo say as I searched under and around his seat. “ert!”

“Shhhh!” I said to him furiously. “I’m looking for something.” I tried to focus my eyes as the bus bumped along, but it was impossible.

“Yah, just forget it. It’s lost.” He told me.

That was it. Now that I searched everywhere possible, my locket was truly lost and forever gone.

The bus came to a jerking stop, exhaust smoke clouding up loudly with the breaks.

Hyun Soo stepped over me, and swung his giant hard black bag over his shoulder with his hands shoved in his pockets. I realized that this was my stop, too. I followed behind down the steps and to the other side of the street without another word.

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