When I arrive at my 1^st period classroom, the only people sitting there are Amy, Key, Jon, and Emily.

“Hey guys,” I smile tiredly, throwing down my bag on my desk and collapsing in my seat.

“Are you feeling better from yesterday?” Key asks sympathetically, examining my cuts. He lightly runs his fingers over my arm, causing my face to heat up a little.

“Yeah,” I smile embarrassedly, looking at the floor. “I’m just tired.”

“Well, you better wake up.” Emily tells me. “I heard all the high school teachers immediately begins teaching heavy material on the 2^nd day of school. It totally .”

Half an hour later, people eventually begin trickling in the door. And a minute before the bell rings, Kris Wu swaggers in, his golden hair wet from a shower. He completely ignores me.

I narrow my eyes at his exasperatedly good-looking features. This guy is so obnoxious and stuck-up and snooty. I don’t know how I’m going to spend weeks training with him, and the rest of my life working with him. This is total bullcrap.

“Um, Hana? Why’re you looking at Kris like that?” Jon questions suspiciously, examining my face. I quickly snap out of my trance.

“What? Oh, nothing.” I curl my lip. “Kris just looks really arrogant.”

“You're right," Jon nods.

"He looks mean, too." I continue. "And rude. And annoying."

Jon exchanges glances with Amy. "Um, I think we get it-,"

"Oh, and totally conceited! Like he thinks he's way better than everyone else," I fume. "Kris looks like he really ." 

Unfortunately, I say that last sentence too loudly, causing Kris to turn and glare at me. I glare right back at him, clenching my fists. "Stupid cocky little-,"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Emily grabs me by the shoulders and drags me away from my stare-down with Kris. "Um, Hana, it's not the best idea to get on his bad side-,"

"You talk about him like you know him," Key laughs. My eyes widen.

"What? Me? Know him? I'm new. I don't know anyone. Right? Right. Oh, hey, I think class is starting. Let's sit down!" 

"You're making it too obvious," Kris mutters in my ear as he passes by my chair.

"Bite me," I hiss. He gives me a spiteful glance. 

The rest of the week is extremely busy. By the end of the week, I’ve turned in 3 projects, an essay, and a lab report, and I have another lab report, presentation, and literary essay due on Monday. Not only do I have an extremely high load of schoolwork to complete every night, but I have stupid training with Kris as well. 

And trust me when I say this: I would take twice the amount of homework I had every night if I never had to train with Kris again.

“Faster! Your mile needs to be 6 minutes, not a second more!” Kris barks as I sprint on the track, panting heavily with every step on the black synthetic track. I feel like I’m going to die. When I finally complete my final lap, I collapse on the ground- only to be pulled up again.

“What do you want?” I huff, clutching my stomach in pain.

“Your time was 6:46.” Kris replies coldly, shoving his stupid iPhone stopwatch in my face. “You have to run it again.”

“N-No,” I groan, burying my head in my arms. This entire week I’ve been alternating between grueling conditioning and frustrating chi practice. At least I’ve gotten somewhere with my chi; just yesterday, I managed to partially chop of a section of a tree off using my hand.

Unfortunately, according to Kris, I’m not getting faster or more agile. To be honest, though, it seems like he takes out his hatred of me every time we go to training. 

Suddenly, I hear the sharp blare of a cell phone. “Hello?” I hear Kris say. After a sharp intake of breath, he mutters, “Yeah. Wow. Sorry, I lost track of time. I’ll be there in 15.”

I hear his footsteps near me. “It’s your lucky day, Hani. I forgot that today’s our first football game. Go home.” And he walks away.

The walk home is literally agony. That craphead couldn't drive me home?! Now I have to attempt to make my way back to my house without vomiting. 

As I rub my muscles and trudge home, I realize that I have a ton of schoolwork waiting for me in my room. And that’s when everything starts to become too much. All the stress, all the hard work- everything- just comes collapsing in on me. I lean against a stop sign and start sobbing. I wish I was still in New York, with my sisters. We didn’t have the best life, but at least when I came home I could look forward to 4 kind faces beaming up me, hugging me, asking me how my day was.

Here, I have no one…

I sniffle in despair.

“Hey. Are you okay?” a warm voice asks.

I gasp with shock and whirl around.

Key is standing right behind me, arms crossed, his eyes full of concern.

I redden slightly. I’m sweaty and smell bad, my eyes are probably bloodshot, my face is tear-stained… oh, great.

“H-Hey,” I try to laugh, hurriedly rubbing my eyes. “Um, this isn't what it looks like…,”

“Come on, Hana. I’ll give you ride home.” Key leads me to his car, which he’s parked in the middle of the road next to the stop sign. A little tingle of pleasure runs through my body; he illegally obstructed the road just for me?

“Thank you so much,” I tell him gratefully after we’ve arrived at my house. “I seriously can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”

“Hana, I know we’ve just met. But you know you can talk to me about anything, right?” Key says.

I give him a small smile.

“Thanks.” I unlock my house and step inside. “Are you sure you don’t want to come in?”

“I was on my way to pick up my sister from softball practice,” he replies. “I should get going.” With a cheery grin and a wave, he drives off.

And for the first time this entire week, I feel… happy. 

A/N: Sorry for the long break. It feel great updating this story again! :)