Namjoo woke up with a heavy feeling burdening her chest. At first, she didn't open her eyes. She was more focused on detecting where the pain was coming from, which was near her cheek. When she did open her eyes, she found Ilhoon hanging around in the white room, searching for some ointment. The injured girl tried to get up, but her body was immobilized. She tried to speak, but the pain on her jaws caused her to let out a scream. Ilhoon, who was too busy with finding the medicine, jumped in surprised and accidentally knocked down a chair behind him.

He widened his eyes, and quickly bent down to pick up the chair. "S-S-Sorry!"

Seeing how Namjoo wanted to get up, he helped her out by slowly pushing her up to a sitting position. Namjoo forced a smile, but quickly flinched and touched her sore cheek. Ilhoon scurried over to the counter, and grabbed an ice pack from the drawer. He handed it to Namjoo cautiously as if she was a stray dog ready to bite him.

"Thanks," Namjoo mumbled, barely audible. She placed the cool pack on her bruised cheek. Flinching, she shut her eyes tightly, but continued to force a small smile.

"I-I-It was nothing," Ilhoon stuttered.

"You know, you always stutter," she pointed out, stretching her jaws to see if her cheeks still stung. "Why?"

Ilhoon widened his eyes, then bowed his head. "S-S-Sorry!"

"There you go again. Maybe if you stopped stu--Ow! My cheek!" she cried, dropping the ice pack. Ilhoon quickly scurried over to the white cabinet, grabbed the ointment he was trying to find earlier, and ran straight back to Namjoo. He bit his bottom lip in guilt, and quickly applied some medicine on her purple skin.

"I... T-This is all my fault. I-I'm so sorry!" he apologized.

"Ah... Ow! That hurts!" Namjoo exclaimed. "Anyways, why are you saying sorry? It's not--Hey! Take it easy!--your fault."

"S-S-Sorry!" he repeated. "I-I mean, not sorry! I mean, sorry, but I'm not... S-Sorry..."

Namjoo rolled her eyes, then watched Ilhoon put the ointment away on the table. From another cabinet, he grabbed a make up kit and pulled out a powder concealer. Using a brush, he lightly tapped on the powder and gently brushed it against Namjoo's violet bruise. Namjoo blinked her eyes in surprised, and watched Ilhoon fix her up intently.

"You sure know where everything is," she . Ilhoon blushed, but focused on her injury.

"I... I come here everyday. The nurse isn't going to be here everyday for me, so I kind of had to find things on my own," he explained, finishing up with the make up. After five minutes, he stopped and handed a mirror to her. When Namjoo saw her reflection, her eyes widened in surprise.

"Woah! This is like... woah! This is like magic! How did you do it?" she asked, touching her cheek. "It hurts, but it looks like it was never there!"

"The teachers are going to kick me out if they see all my bruises. They're going to think that I've been fighting, so the only choice I have is to hide all my injuries," he explained, revealing his arm. Namjoo almost screamed and the black splotches peppered on his pale skin. She covered with her hands, but then reached out to touch his arm with one hand. Before she could touch it, Ilhoon quickly jerked back and covered his arm with his long sleeves.

"Oh, you poor thing," she whispered.

It took a minute for Ilhoon to say something. "You can't tell anyone, okay? Promise? You can't tell anyone!"

"Okay, okay, I won't tell. But seriously, you should tell someone yourself. Look at your arm! It's scary! Does the nurse know about this?"

"Kind of... most of the bruises are covered up, so she doesn't really notice."

"But doesn't it feel painful when she grabs onto your arm to examine your injuries?"

"Hold in the pain," Ilhoon said. "That's all I can do."

Namjoo shook her head in shame. She glanced at the clock, then gasped. She climbed off the bed and ran straight to the door. Ilhoon stood up and followed right behind her.

"W-Where are you going?" he asked.

"Kai! I need to see him!" she replied.

"N-No way! You still want to see him after he punched you? You could've died--"

Namjoo stopped her tracks, and Ilhoon did the same. She turned around and glared at the frightened boy. Raising a finger, she stomped her feet closer to him and scrunched her eyebrows.

"I just confessed, and he took it way too lightly. I am not backing down without a stand!" she declared, raising a fist. Seeing this as a threat, Ilhoon flinched and backed away. He only nodded his head quickly, and watched Namjoo walk away. Once she disappeared from his sight, he scratched the back of his neck and stared off at the wall across from him.

She... She's very weird, he thought, shaking his head.

Namjoo stared at the wooden door that blocked her way from entering the student council room. Should she knock and be polite? Or should she barge into the room and snap at Kai for being unashamed of his cruel behavior? Then there was the third option: Should she turn back?

"You! Student there!" someone called her. Namjoo turned around and found a beautiful woman wearing a lab coat. Staring at the woman in awe, Namjoo gaped and slowly accepted a folder the lady was handing her. "Are you going inside?"

Namjoo paused, then nodded her head. "I'm planning to."

"Great! Can you give this to Kai? I don't know if he's in there or not. If he's not there, just leave it on his desk," she said. She was about to walk away until Namjoo grabbed her coat.

"Wait! If he's in there, who should I address you as?" Namjoo asked.

"If you say that I'm Nurse Gina, you'll be fine. But most people spell my name as 'G.NA' instead of 'Gina.' They like to play with my name," G.NA responded.

"A nickname given to a nurse? How unusual."

G.NA smiled. "It's a little thing going around the school. See you around!"

The alluring adult walked away, tapping her high heels against the floor. Once she disappeared, Namjoo turned her attention back on facing Kai. Since she had an important folder to deliver, there was no backing out. She took a deep breath, then gently knocked on the door.

No response.

Feeling impatient, Namjoo opened the door without waiting for a response. She scanned around the room, and found no one there. The disappointed girl grimaced. She walked closer to the opposite wall, where a wooden table stood near a large window pane. The window was draped with velvet curtains, and blocked the sight of the blinding sun. Not only was the room dark, but it seemed quite lonely. The way the books lined up against the bookshelves and the way the desks were ordered far apart from each other made Namjoo think that most of the student council member worked alone by themselves to gather several information for their own.

When she finally arrived at the large table, she found Kai's name plate standing at the edge of the table. She scorned, but raised the folder above of his desk.

"Idiot," she muttered, dropping the folder. Instead of landing flatly against the table, the folder opened and documents flew out of the given folder. Namjoo asked and widened her eyes as she crawled behind Kai's desk to pick up the files. After collecting the items, she stood up and grabbed the paper. Unsure of what order the papers were in, she stuffed the documents away and neatly placed the folder at the center of his table.

Right then, Namjoo saw a crumbled piece of paper in the trash can. Out of curiosity, she slowly bent down and picked it up. She unfolded the wrinkled lined-paper and attempted to read it. However, before she could take a glance at the paper, she heard the door knob click open.

"Hold up, I think I left something important. Be right back," a familiar voice said from the door. Namjoo gasped, looked around, and hid behind the thick curtains. She heard the door swing open and close, and listened to the footsteps that seemed to approach her.

"Huh," Kai muttered. "The nurse wants me to see if I could convince the principal to improve the medical room? Psh. As if."

Namjoo narrowed her eyes. Jerk!

"Mm... Ilhoon, make up, Ilhoon, bandages, Ilhoon, bruises... What the heck? This is all about Ilhoon's injuries! No way am I going to the principal to talk to these matters," Kai exclaimed. Namjoo listened to Kai dump the folder she had left into a trash can. She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

Then, she heard rustling.

She heard his hands go through papers and even more papers. The sound of the papers sliding against each other quickened. When Namjoo managed to take a peek, she noticed that Kai was searching through the same trash bin she had picked up the crumbled paper.

"Shoot, shoot, shoot," he mumbled. "Where is it? Where did it go?"

"Kai! Are you coming?" another voice from the door called. Kai bit his bottom lip, scratched his head, and picked up another thick document.

"Y-Yeah. I'm coming," he stuttered, staring at the trash can as he left. 

But before he left, he saw a pair of shoes hiding behind the curtain of his windows.

He paused, smirked, then left the door.