“Ga Innie, want to play chess?”

Even though I can’t see myself, I can bet my eyes narrowed suspiciously, “are you secretly a chess expert or something?”

“No, I’m really not good at board games, but everyone has formed their own little groups playing different things, so want to play chess?”

“Sure, why not? But let me say that I at chess first,” Yes, I’m saying sure even though I remember thinking a few days ago that playing things like chess was too intellectual to be doing after an exam.

Nicole might say that she is not expert at chess, but she sure is better than me, as before long, half my pawns are wiped out and both my castles are gone.

“No, my horse!” I exclaim rather melodramatically, as Nicole captures my horse.

“It’s a knight, Ga In!”

“But at least I can get a castle in exchange,” I mumble as I capture her castle.

“Rook, Ga In.”

“Who cares what it’s called as long as I know what the pieces do?”

She laughs, “yeah, what else should I expect from someone like you.”

Not too long later, Nicole nabs my queen, much to my despair, since I really like the queen in chess. Who wouldn’t like the queen, seeing that it can do everything. I fell right into her trap of her sacrificing her castle—I mean, rook.

Which leaves me really kind of bare, and escaping multiple checks, before Nicole decisively ended the game of chess. Indeed, I was no match for Nicole, who was definitely a different level from me when it came to chess. Remind me once again why I said that I did not like playing intellectual games so soon after exams?

So it’s back to lounging around and watching others entertain themselves till there is an opening to play.

Vomit boy taps me on the shoulder, “want to play heart attack with us? It’s Seulong, Taecyeon, Junho and I right now.”

“Join us, Ga In!” Yells Seulong from the other side of the classroom as he deals the cards. Taecyeon turns to face me and nods eagerly at the suggestion.

“Nicole, do you want to join us too? We can add in some more cards so you can play with us!”

She looks at me, “Ga Innie, you playing?”

“Yeah, I guess, there’s nothing else to do right now anyway.”

So we join the four boys to play heart attack. Why are all these games so stressful, I do not know.

“Heart attack!” Seulong shouts, and everyone throws down their cards in a flurry to stack their hands in the middle of the circle. Unfortunately, I am late to the party, and my hand is exposed, right on the top of the stack. Not looking very good.

Seulong brings his hand down quickly, and I’m too slow to remove my hand, but thankfully, it doesn’t hurt very much.

Taecyeon clicks his tongue, “Seulong, how can you do this? Do you know how hard you slapped me just now? But you’re so different now.”

“Well, I know you can take it,” Seulong replies as he collects the cards to shuffle.

“Are you seriously doubting that Ga In can take it?”

“Well, I sure think that you can take it better than Ga In can.”

Junho looks at Taecyeon, then at Seulong, and back at Taecyeon, “You guys are sure strange.”

“Heart attack!” A few people shout at the same time, and I’m dropping the cards to get my hands as low in the stack as possible. Who got the set of four cards, I know not, however, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is I do not get slapped. Apparently whose hand is right at the bottom counts, so it’s Nicole who gets to do the slapping.

She doesn’t hold back when she brings her hand down, and Junho takes a beating.

“See Seulong, even Nicole slaps as hard as she can! While you’re like f