ARA’S POV

     I was starting to walk home when Kyung-sook caught up with me.

“So how was your…uh…dentist appointment?” I asked her

She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Um, it was eye-doctor appointment, actually. I got new glasses. Like ‘em?”

I looked at her. The glasses were rectangular with thick, dark red frames.

“They’re nice.”

She smiled. “Thank you!” Then she looked around. “Um, where are you going?”

I stopped and looked at her. Why would she ask that?

“Home…why?”

“Um, the dorm is that way.” She pointed the other direction.

A grin spread across my face. The dorm? I lived in a dorm now? As in, a college dorm? Looked like my wishes were only starting to come true. I followed her down the sidewalk as she shook her head at me.

“Really, Ara, your mind must be somewhere else today. I heard about your incident earlier when I was gone. You poor thing, it must’ve been so embarrassing! But it’s a good thing you got it cleaned up before the boss got there or she would’ve fired you. I don’t want you to get fired; I like working with you! It’s too bad you had to work in those clothes all day, though. I bet you can’t wait to take a shower when we get back, huh?”

I just nodded, and then asked, “What’s today?”

“The first of August…” She answered like I should’ve already known that.

I already did know that.

“Ya, I mean, what day of the week is it?”

“Oh, it’s Saturday.”

I rang my fingers through my grimy, dirty hair. “I need to look over my class schedule. I’m totally blanking out today.” I lied. “Do you know where I left it?”

“Your backpack, I assume.” Kyung-sook said.

I nodded. “Right.” There were some things I’d have to figure out before I made a complete fool of myself…

     My first thought when I entered my dorm room was, My bed is so much smaller… I’d had a full sized bed in my parents’ house. Here I shared a twin-sized bunk bed with Kyoong-sook. The room itself was pretty small too, but very neat. There was someone else there, sitting on a bean bag reading a book. Apparently I roomed with a couple of nerds, but that didn’t bother me.

“Hey, Eun Hye.” Kyung-sook greeted.

Eun Hye waved without looking up from her book.

“Hi Eun Hye.” I said, following Kyung-sook.

She looked up at me. “What happened to you?”

I looked down at myself. I looked like even more of a mess than I felt.

I went over to the dresser in the corner, saying something about needing a shower. The Kyung-sook cut her story about my smoothie incident short and stopped me.

“Hey! Are you trying to steal my clothes? Your droors are on the bottom.”

“Oops.” I closed her droor. “Sorry.”

Kyung-sook shook her head and said to Eun Hye, “This girl needs to get more sleep. We’d better make sure she doesn’t stay up late at night.”

I looked down at the clothes in “my droors”. It was so weird to see the clothes I’d always worn at home in this strange place that was completely unfamiliar to me. I took out an outfit and left to wash myself.

     “Ahhhh…” I came back into the dorm room with a towel on my head, drying my hair. “I feel so much better now.”

“You look so much better too.” Kyung-sook laughed. “You really should have looked in the mirror at the café. People were staring at you.”

I shrugged. “Ya, but at least I didn’t get fired…” I didn’t add anything about meeting the one and only Xiah Junsu, but I still hadn’t stopped thinking about it.

“So…” I looked around the room.

There were three backpacks. How should I tell which one was mine? Well, which one would I most likely choose? There was a plain purple one. I bet that one was Kyung-sook. Simple, yet bright. There was a blue one with a froggy key-chain. Blue was my favorite color, but I didn’t remember owning a frog key-chain. Then there was a really cute pink and beige shoulder bag with swirls and scroll designs all over it. That was the one I went for. When I opened it up, I was shocked. The first book I saw was a huge Calculus text book. No way! Oh please no… I can’t possibly be taking Calculus, can I?

“What are you looking for?” Eun Hye asked me.

“My class schedule.”

“Why would your class schedule be in my bag?”

I looked up at her. “Oh, right, that would be pretty weird, wouldn’t it?” So the blue one was mine.

And there was my schedule, neatly folded up and placed in the front zipped-up pocket of the bag. I looked at the key-chain attached and squeezed it. It was pretty cute.

I almost groaned when I looked my schedule. I had five classes—which seemed a bit much for me since I hadn’t been in school for a few years…  Well, actually, according to the year I was in now I had just graduated… I had Art (Drawing), Science (Biology), and Math (Algebra) on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, and English (Composition) and History (World History) on Monday and Wednesday from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

I decided to explore my backpack a little more. I had two books for math and my English book was kind of big, but my science book was sorta small. I didn’t have a book for art, but I did have a separate portfolio of drawings and supplies. I had rainbow-colored notebooks for every class—even art—and each notebook was drawn on with black and silver sharpie. Doodles and random words... A green one for science, a red one for art, a blue one for math, a yellow one for English, and an orange one for history. I had a purple pencil bag with a clear plastic window and a black zipper. Nearly all my pens and highlighters were pink, with exception of only a few. And all my pencils and erasers were either covered in sparkles or graphics. I almost laughed at myself. I was back to my old, vibrant, upbeat, high school self again. I had forgotten how youthful I was. I thought of how I had become more and more serious and boring as I got older, forgetting the fun and innocence of my childhood. Maybe this whole going-back-in-time wish thing will do me some good in more ways than I thought.

     The next day was Sunday. No school. At least I was eased into the new routine of having classes for most of the week. I looked through the notes in my notebooks and read through chapters of my text books so that I would be caught up come Monday. I studied until my brain hurt and my eyes were tired—worried that if I didn’t, I would be so dumb during class that they’d flunk me. Breakfast that morning had been stale cereal and I skipped lunch, so by dinner time, my stomach was complaining to me—loudly. I finally closed my books and put them away. I was done! I’d gotten to the last chapter recorded in my notebook. Success! I thought. I had forgotten so many things. Like the feeling of accomplishing a goal. Of working towards something and getting it finished. It felt good to work hard and know I’d achieved something, even if it was a small thing like homework. I stretched and looked at the close. 10:30 pm. I should get something to eat before I starve… I got up and went out.

Kyung-sook, apparently, worked on Sundays and Eun Hye liked to study in the park. Neither of them was home yet so I guess they had also gone out to grab a bite to eat before they returned home. I found a cheap Chinese take-out place and ordered small servings of egg rolls, low mien, and fried rice. If I remembered correctly, my job as the frozen desserts place was part time during the week, with Friday and Sunday being my days off. I thought that I must have been on a scholarship or something because I had too much money for someone in college with only a part time job. Maybe my parents were paying for college. They had always encouraged me, but never pushed me. Come to think of it, I think one day my dad did offer to pay for it if I would only go. I must’ve taken him up on his offer through that wish…

     I broke out the low mien as I walked back to the dorm, too hungry to wait until I got back. As I walked I could feel something different about myself. I never walked this much before, but I wasn’t tired. I had started realizing how tired I was all the time when I turned 20 and I thought it was just because of laziness. But now I felt more…energized. I smiled and skipped for a few steps. That was when I accidentally bumped into someone and dropped my noodles.

“Oh!” Oh no…there goes my low mien. Darn it, I love low mien; I was really looking forward to eating that! Then I looked up at the person. Oh my gosh! “I…I’m sorry.”