“Hello,” Munhee said when I walked into the orchestra classroom.

                “Hey,” I waved, taking my seat next to her.

                “So, how’s your day going?”

                “Uh…pretty normal,” Except for having a new kid hanging around. Though I don’t see why that should affect my day.

                Today we would be practicing only. We won’t have any new material for a while. Since Munhee and I already learned most of the song we have to practice we decided to relax today. We’ve been playing violin together since middle school.

                Munhee started laughing about Yeong’s behavior at lunch today. Yeong is on the volleyball team and she was telling us about her practice game today. She had wanted to hit one of Jang’s friends with the ball so badly today. I don’t usually go to anything sports related at school unless Yeong is in it. Or Jiyong, but he supposedly doesn’t like them too much.  I’m not really a sports person either.

                We’ve all been friends for such a long time. Ever since elementary school, really. Even our parents grew up together. I wonder if they meet in their youth to. Munhee, Yeong, and Jiyong are they only friends I’ve managed to keep my whole life. Everyone else just seemed to drift away. I wonder if my mom went through the same thing. The weirdest thing to be about their relationship is how they all seemed to get pregnant at the same time. Maybe magic has something to do with it. Yeong is the oldest by a few months and Munhee is the youngest. They’re like my sisters basically. I don’t know what I’d do without them. Sometimes it seems like besides my mom, they are the only family I have. Especially since the only people I know in my family are my mom and her parents….I don’t remember anything else. Shouldn’t I at lease feel safe telling my friends about my magic?

                I guess one of the reasons I never told them I was a ‘witch’ was because of my embarrassment. If they were to ask me to do a spell and it didn’t work, as usual, they wouldn’t believe me. Even if I tried to call myself a witch the doubt came back. I don’t think I ever really considered myself a real witch though. If I am, then I must be a lesser version of what a witch should be.

                My mom had always said that I was born without fear. I remember looking at the rude cartoon depictions of green skinned women with long warty noses and not being afraid. She even said that I was never afraid of the dark. I still see nothing frightful about it. Thinking about my mom reminded me of how she doesn’t know about my magic either. But, what if she did know? My grandparents taught me everything I know about witchcraft-a sudden pain shot through my head, making me jump. I clenched my eyes shut in a feeble attempt at trying to ease it.

                “Lucinda,” Munhee said in a worried voice, her hand on my arm, “Are you okay?”

                When I finally made it home, I headed straight to my bedroom and opened the window. It felt so nice out today. I sat at my window seat and started my homework. That didn’t last too long though; all the sights and sounds were distracting me. Especially the clear blue sky and cool breezes. The sounds of cars driving away, people talking, children playing.

                I walked over to my bed and laid down, deciding it was time for a break. It felt so comfortable to just relax. Unconsciously I started carving the clay out from under my index finger with my thumbnail. The clay had suddenly reminded me of Taemin. The way his eyes were and how they made me feel. Was it him, or just me? I couldn’t possibly be afraid of this guy I know nothing about. Thinking about it was making me frustrated. But at who, him or myself? Or my unsorted feelings? Being confused always frustrated me.

                Slowly, I noticed my eyes drifting. My constant deep yawning was overpowering me. I gave in to sleep without a fight.

                A light knocking sound woke me up, reminding me of the other night.

                “Lucinda?” I heard. It was my mom. I got up quickly and opened the door while rubbing my eyes.

                “Hey mom,” I yawned.”Sorry, I was asleep”

                “I was wondering why it was so quite. I thought you weren’t home.”She explained. “Well, it’s time for dinner.”

                “Okay,” I nodded and followed her down the stairs.

                The rest of the night went by normally. I ate dinner, talked to my mom and got ready for bed. This time I made sure to take off the necklace and lightly placed it on my dresser. My eyes drifted up to the mirror, though I wasn’t looking at my reflection. I was staring at my book of shadows.

                I walked over to it and picked it up off the floor and carefully put it on my nightstand. When did I move it? I turned out the light and went back to sleep. I slept like I hadn’t slept in days. The beautiful full moon slowly passed with the days.

                Nothing new had happened for days. It was a little quite today since Yeong decided to stay at home today. This might have lessened Munhee’s chance at having a heart attack because of Yeong. Jiyong was walking me to art today.

                “Lucinda, where were you born?” He asked.

                “In Yulyeong,”I had told him that before.

                “So, your mom’s from the same place?”

                “Yeah, so…”Why would he ask that? Every time people asked me questions about my family I would start to feel like I have to be cautious.

                “I was just wondering because we were doing this project in my class about where people really come from. Like, where exactly, what location and such,” He emphasized, “You know what I mean?”

                “Yeah,”I lied. The only place I’ve ever been is Manyeo, but I’m pretty sure I was born here. My grandparents were from Manyeo. I lived there for a little while before we came back here. Jiyong came to a stop outside of the art classroom.”So….I’ll see you later?”I asked.

                “Okay,” He smiled “see ya “I waved and walked into the class room.

                The first thing I noticed was that Taemin was already in his seat, my heart started to beat faster. As I went to my seat, I gave him a small smile. Over the days that had passed, that had become the only type of communication between us. But strangely I have to admit that it pleased me greatly to have him smile back at me…I might even be looking forward to it every day. Why can’t I just talk to him?

                The clay for our class projects had finally finished drying and we would be painting them today. After having my spell go wrong, my creativity ran out the window hand in hand with my confidence. I couldn’t think of anything to do as a Christmas ornament so it stayed a boring, plain, flat disk. I looked over at Taemin’s and was shocked. He had turned a lump of clay into a beautiful little angel playing a flute. Mrs.Ahn explained to the class where everything was in the class for the fifth time while I tried to ignore my disappointment.  I could have done a lot better than this circle. Maybe next time I ca-

                “Do you want me to get the paint?” Taemin asked as he stood up.

                “Uh….sure,” He talked to me! Ugh, why am I getting excited about that? “I’ll help,” I walked with him to the crowded cabinets of art supplies, watching him closely. The first color he reached for was red, is that his favorite color? I reached for a purple bottle of paint, then yellow when he suddenly winced in pain.

                “Are you okay?”                                           

                “Yeah,” He said in a low strained voice, turning away from my eyes. I looked at a scar on his neck, then the ones on his hands that his long sleeved shirt couldn’t cover. Is he hurt? Are there even more scars covering the rest of his body? I quickly looked away when his head turned my way again. We collected a rainbow of colors and poured them into small containers. When we returned to the table there was now an empty mug of water. I reached to it before he could.

                “Ill fill it with water,” I said, if he’s hurt he should be sitting down. He nodded to me and went to organize the colors on the table.

                When I returned he was staring blankly at the table. What is he staring at? As I sat down the stool squeaked loudly, making him look up at me with a light smile. I smiled back awkwardly, hoping that the burning in my cheeks wasn’t visible. Pulling my eyes away from his silver gaze, I placed two dry paint brushes in the water. I swished one around in the water and got the container of red paint. It was the only color I’ll have to use.

                “Why use red?” He asked with his eyes on my circle.

                “Aren’t they always red?”  No! Why did I say that? “….most of the time…” I added quietly. Ugh, I should just stop talking.”…Well….” He laughed quietly, looking into my eyes, making my blush deeper.

                “Well, not if you paint it brown. Then it would be a cookie.”

                My laugh was short as I looked away. I’m still surprised he’s even talking, let alone giving me eye contact. He hardly ever talks. Jang gave up communication with him when she finally noticed he wasn’t interested. Or was she just ‘playing hard to get’?  With three simple swipes of red I was done with my project. I didn’t want to pollute the clean water with red so I placed it to the side on some paper.

                I watched as Taemin skillfully mixed colors and began to color the angels wings. With slow , nothing like my quick ones. I wonder what it will look like when he’s done. After finishing the wings, he started on the dress. He put so much detail into it; there were wrinkles in it and everything. Even the hair was detailed. When he finished making the dress baby blue and painting the hair, he looked up at me. How long was I staring?

                “It looks good,”

                “Thanks,” He smiled and started to put the brush in the dirty water.

                “Do you want me to change the water?”

                “No, I’m done” He lifted it, showing it to me as he inspected it. I didn’t want to repeat myself so I just nodded. He sighed and placed it back on the table. On his exhale he looked up into my eyes, his face serious.  Looking into the silver pools made me feel cold. “Did you know that there are certain meanings for different colors?” Why would he ask me that?” Though, something about that sounded familiar.

                “Um…” It took a few seconds, but I remembered where I’d heard it from, or where I’d seen it. It was written in my book of shadows. The different colors of candles you use during a spell can affect the outcome of the spell. Maybe I should just lie; I don’t want him asking how I know. “No,”

                He smiled in response. Does he know I lied? His eyes fell to his angel as he continued to speak.

                “Red can be used for courage, protection…” he trailed off, almost like he was hinting at something.

                “Really, what else do you know?” What if he does know something? Well, just because he knows about something that’s also written in my book of shadows doesn’t mean he knows about me.

                “I’ll tell you later,” He said. Just as he looked back at me the bell rang. I watched as he emptied the water in the sink and left the class in one swift movement.

                When was ‘later’? Next period?  Tomorrow? No, not tomorrow. Tomorrow is Saturday.