I closed my eyes. Kris was carrying me bridal style to the nurse’s office. I felt something that felt like a tissue wiping blood off of my face.  I opened my eyes a little bit, and looked up at Kris. He looked worried, and like he felt bad.

     “Kris,” I said quietly, “how are we gonna explain coming to the nurse in the middle of class?”

     He shrugged a little. “I guess we could say that you fell going to class,” he suggested.

     I gave him a ‘seriously’ look.

     “Really,” I said, looking at my watch. I impersonated his voice saying, “hey, uh, she fell down the stairs on the way to class, and I saw her lying at the bottom of the stair case on the way to my class which is on the complete other side of the school, and it took me half of the period to get to here.”

     He glared at me. “I’ll handle it,” he said.

     I rolled my eyes, but decided to drop it.

     A few silent minutes later, we got the office. I made little noises and moved around in Kris’s arms indicating, ‘put me down.’ He got the signal and did put me down, but helped me into the office.

     I was about to tell him that I could walk perfectly fine by myself, but then I took a step and a shooting pain went through my leg. I grunted and Kris gave me a sympathetic look. I returned it with a glare.

     The attendance lady looked at us.

     “Shouldn’t you be in class?” she asked.

Kris opened his mouth, and closed it again, and then pointed at me.

“Uh, she fell…” he paused, “down a flight of stairs.”

She looked at me up and down. “Okay, bring her into the nurse’s office, and then go to class,” she said to Kris.

“But—“

She gave him a look so he closed his mouth, nodded, and lead me into the nurse’s office. He helped me into a chair, gave me a small smile, and left.

The nurse came out smiling, and her face fell when she saw my state.

“Oh my gosh,” she said, “what in the world happened to you?!”

I explained how I fell down a flight of stairs. She nodded. Then she bandaged up my cuts and gave me an ice-pack to ice my hurt leg and arm.

“What class are you suppose to be in?” she asked me.

“Gym,” I replied.

“Oh heavens no,” she said more to herself than to me and shook her head. “You are in no shape to be in gym. I’ll call your teacher and tell him why you’re not in class, and why.”

I nodded, and with one more glance at me, she went into her office space, sat down, and called my gym teacher.

I sighed, and slouched in my chair, feeling the cold ice against my bare arm, (the nurse had me roll up my sleeve) and thought over what had previously happened.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Chen yelled at Kris from across the table after I had explained what had happened earlier.

Kris shrugged. “It’s not my fault that she was in the boys’ bathroom.”

“Well,” I cut in, “if you haven’t noticed, there aren’t any freaking girls’ bathrooms at this school.” I glared at him, and then shook my head, and returned my gaze to my food.

“Hey guys,” said Baekhyun, who walked up to the lunch table with a tray, and sat in between Chanyeol and Suho.

We all spent the rest of lunch time eating in silence.

When the bell signaling the end of the lunch period sounded, we all got up and threw our trash away.

We all parted ways going to the next class. Chen, Kris, Lay and I all walked to 5^th period (biology) together.

When we got in, Kris headed towards some other friends to sit with, and Lay, Chen and I sat together, with Chen in the middle of us.

A little bit later, our teacher walked in.

“Hello class!” she chirped, and everyone quieted down. “This week, we are going to be working on a project. It’ll be a group project; everyone will be split up in groups of three.  You will be making a big poster—please use poster board—and it’ll be about what we have been working on lately. This will be a big part of your grade!”

A boy sitting right in front of me raised his hand.

“Yes?” our teacher asked.

“Uh,” he said, “do we get to pick our own groups?”

“No,” she said, “I’ll pick them so there isn’t any conflict.”

There was a groan throughout the room, but our teacher ignored it. She picked up her ‘name stick cup’ (which has everyone’s names on a Popsicle stick in a little cup) and mixed the sticks around.

She pulled one stick, read the name, and then picked two others, and read those names, and they were a group. A few groups later, she called Chen’s name.

“Jongdae, will be grouped with,” I crossed my fingers, wanting to be in his group. “Yixing,” him and Lay high-fived, “and Yoojung.”

I sighed. I wanted to be in their group I thought, disappointed.  

Two groups after, my name was called.

“Hyoyeon will be paired with Kangdae, and Wufan.”

I was excited about being paired with Kangdae, but not with Kris.

Kangdae just came into the school a couple of weeks ago, and I didn’t know him that well. Kangdae is tall, but not quite as tall as Kris. He was thin, but not scary-thin like Sehun. It was good thin. Kind-of-like-Lay thin. He has medium-length, dark brown hair. He had a hard jaw line and high cheek bones, his skin was tanned slightly, also. All-in-all, he was super handsome and smart and I’m super shy (because I wanted to go up to him before) and this was the perfect opportunity to show him some Hyoyeon.

And well… Kris is Kris, and I didn’t want to be in a group with him.