Chapter 1: Jessica’s Crush

It’s the first day of school in Korea. It’s also Jessica’s first school day in Korea. She’s only been in the school for a few minutes and she’s already covering her ears.

Aish. It’s too noisy.Jessica thought.

Everyone is screaming and yelling and running at the same direction.

“Is it always this noisy?”Jessica asked herself in English.
“Yes. Always. You’re new here, I guess? You should get used to it.” Someone replied in English. She smiled at Jessica with a bright sparkling smile. And then she walked away.
Jessica looked for a quiet spot and she just couldn’t really concentrate because her ears are hurting from the noise.

A school shouldn’t be this noisy.Jessica thought to herself again.

She then heard girls screaming one word.

“Jonghyun! Jonghyun! Jonghyun!”The girls all screamed.

They then all moved out of the way of a guy who was walking and she saw him.

*dugdug, dugdug, dugdug*Those are the only things Jessica could hear.

The guy, who was apparently named Jonghyun, turned left and everyone else followed him. The hallway Jessica was walking in is now quiet.

Phew! I think my ears are broken already.

A girl then clicked her hands in front of Jessica and she just noticed she was there. The girl was with the same girl that replied to Jessica’s question that she asked to herself.

“Are you okay?”She asked in Korean with a smile.
“Uhhh… Yeah.”
“Okay then. I’m Yuri by the way. Kwon Yuri. But you can call me Yul if want.”Yuri said and then shook her hands.
That’s weird. Jessica thought. That name sounds familiar.
“And I’m Tiffany. Tiffany Hwang or Hwang Mi Young. You can call me Fany.”And she shook her hands too.
“I’m Jessica. Jessica Jung. My Korean name is Jung Soo Yeon but you can call me Sica coz’ it’s shorter.”
“Nice to meet you, Jessica.”
“Are you new here?”
“Uhhh… Yeah. I’m from San Francisco, California.” The two girls then looked at each other.
“No way, I’m from California as well!” Tiffany said, hitting Jessica’s arm gently and with a bright smile.
“Really?” Jessica asked.
“Yeah.”
“No wonder you know how to speak English.”Jessica said, smiling.
The bell then rang.
“I’ll go first, nae?” Tiffany said.
“Sure.”
Tiffany then left after saying “Annyeong!~” to Jessica.
“What do you have first?” Yuri asked, pointing at Jessica’s schedule paper. Jessica looked at it. “I dunno… Uhhh…” She said, looking at her schedule. She turned the paper sideways and upside down. “Uhhh…”
“Here. Let me help you.” Yuri said, taking the paper from her gently. She then read the paper. “Uhhh… You have… Maths first.” She read and then looked at you and smiled. “Great. You’re in my Maths class.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. And all of my other classes as well.” She said.
“Cool?” She tried to say but she ended up saying it shyly.
“You seem shy.” Yuri noticed.
“Yeah, well… New school, you know.” Jessica explained.
“I understand.” Yuri replied. “But hey, you don’t have to be shy around me. We’re friends.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s alright.” Yuri replied. “Now. Let’s go to class, shall we?”

Yuri and Jessica went to class and entered.

“Oh? Yuri-ah!”A girl, that seems to be a friend of Yuri’s, said when she saw Yuri and Jessica.
They walked over to her and other girls with her.
“And she is…?” The girl asked nicely.
“Ah! Taeyeon-ah, this is Jessica. She’s new here. She seemed lost so Tiffany and I talked to her and it appears that she’s in all of my classes. She’s from San Francisco, California.”
“Ohh? California? Just like Tippani~” Taeyeon said and high fived the other girls. “Hi, Jessica. I’m Taeyeon.”She then shook her hands. “And that is Sunny, Hyoyeon, and Sooyoung.” Taeyeon introduced the others, while pointing at them when she mentioned their names.
“Nice to meet you, Jessica.” They all greeted her and shook her hands.

A few other guys came in.

“Oh, great. They’re in this class again.”Sooyoung whined.
“Soo, they’re always in this class since 1^st grade. Our classes never change.”
“Hyo, it was an expression.”
“What’s wrong with them?” Jessica asked, curious.
“They’re jerks. That’s what’s wrong.”  Sunny replied.
“Sunny.” Taeyeon said with a poker face.
“What? It’s true though.”Sunny replied, trying to win their apparent argument.
“Well she probably won’t think they’re jerks, you know.” Taeyeon talked back, pointing her hand at Jessica.
“Hm. Made sense.” Sunny said, ending the argument.
“Jessica-ssi, those guys are the most popular boys in the whole school.” Taeyeon explained. “Explains the noise outside, right?”
Jessica just nodded.
“That guy is Siwon.” She said, pointing at the guy. “And that one’s Leeteuk. That guy over there’s Kyuhyun. That guy’s Nichkhun, he’s Thai. And that guy with the long hair is…” Taeyeon stopped for a few seconds and then cleared . “… Minho. And that guy sitting down over there is Jonghyun.”
Jessica looked at him and started hearing the same sound. *dugdug, dugdug, dugdug*
“Jessica.”
No answer.
“Jessica?”
No answer.
The girls noticed she was looking at Jonghyun and then looked at each other.
“Jessica fell for the charms of Kim Jonghyun.” Sooyoung joked, but only loud enough for only the 6 of them to hear and no one else. And they all just laughed a little bit.

The teacher then came in and everyone started walking over to their seats while Jessica is still frozen. Taeyeon touched her shoulders with her hands and pushing her down slowly into her seat. “Come on, Jessica. You can daydream about Jonghyun later.” She teased, and also, only loud enough for the 6 of them to hear.