I was so startled by the sound of my own message alert that the word I was writing in my notebook veered off in a straight, dark line. I looked at the screen of my phone and saw an unknown number in the sender bar.  When I saw the message itself, though, I knew exactly who it was.

                Mimi~

                I glanced behind my shoulder at the closed door and quickly typed out a reply.

                Are you really going to start bothering me when you’re not around, too?

                The phone chimed again within seconds and I muted the volume.

                I’m everywhere, hehe ^^

                Now is not the time. I’m studying.

                The message barely finished sending before my mom opened the door. 

                “What are you doing?” she asked as she set a bowl of fruit on my desk. She narrowed her eyes at the phone in my hands.  “Why aren’t you studying?”

                “I am,” I insisted as I showed her my history notes. “Soojin was just asking me a question.” The lie came so easily that I almost surprised myself.

                She still looked suspicious, but didn’t question any further. “Just make sure you’re staying focused.”

                “I know.”

                She closed the door behind her and I let out a little sigh of relief. 

                That night, as I was preparing for bed, I saw the screen of my phone light up again. 

                Are you still studying?

                No. Now I’m going to bed.

                My phone vibrated with an incoming call. I hung up with a frown and crawled under my covers. It vibrated again. In the darkness of the room, the screen was brighter than usual. I picked up this time in the hope that responding would allow me some peace.

                “What do you want?” I hissed.

                “How do you get your stars to be so perfect?”

                I pulled my phone away from my face and looked at it incredulously. “Did you really call me to discuss this?” I snapped.

                “It would be weird if I just said I wanted to hear your voice.” I could hear the laughter in his voice. 

                I narrowed my eyes. He was playing with me. “I’m hanging up.”

                “Wait, just stay on the line for a few minutes.”

                “I don’t want to wake up my parents.”  While he was talking in a regular voice, I had to whisper.

                “Do you want me to sing you to sleep?”

                I snorted quietly. “Are you that confident in your voice?” I asked, entertaining him before I realized what I was doing.

                “Of course.”  There was a pause.  “Mimi, what do you want to be in the future?”

                What a loaded question. I closed my eyes, thinking. “I don’t know,” I replied after a while.

                “Well, I want to be a singer.”

                I raised my eyebrows in surprise.  “Like, an idol? In a guy group and everything?”

                “Yeah.”

                I considered this. Seungcheol was quite the ambitious one. “That’s such a competitive field. What if you’re not successful?”

                “I’ll become successful, don’t worry.”

                I frowned doubtfully. “You sound sure of yourself.”

                “Of course.”

                I didn’t know what to say to that. I had never encountered someone so steadfast in pursuing an impossible dream. I pitied him, but at the same time, a strange jealousy tugged at me.

“Well, that’s good. I need some of that confidence,” I finally murmured, feeling suddenly sleepy.

                “Why?”

                “I don’t know. I just always feel like I’m not good enough.”

I caught myself then.  Why was I talking about this with him? He was still practically a stranger. I hadn’t even had a conversation like this with Soojin.

                “I’m tired,” I said quickly. “I’m going to sleep.”

                I hit the end button before he got a chance to reply. I set my phone on my nightstand and buried my face into my pillow.

                What is wrong with me?

-x-

                Beside me, Soojin cackled with laughter. I broke my gaze from my English workbook to give her a questioning look. It was in the middle of independent study time and other students were shooting us death glares.  One girl in particular, Jung Aeri, looked especially lethal.

                “I drew somebody,” Soojin announced, showing me her notebook. In it, she’d sketched a puppy with big shining eyes. It was wearing our school uniform with a nametag that introduced the eager dog as Choi Seungcheol.  Her masterpiece was complete with a speech bubble that had “Mimi” written inside. 

                I smirked and swatted my friend in the arm.  “Haha, very funny.”

                “Don’t you think it resembles him?” She tore the page from the spiral and handed it to me. “You should give it to him later.”

                “Why would I do that?”

                “Well, he gave you a present, so you should give him one back.”

                I shook my head. “It would only encourage him.”

                “Isn’t that the point?” She reached over and stuffed it in my backpack before I could protest any further.  “I think he’s a good addition to your life. A breath of fresh air.”

                “Who ever said he was an addition?  More like an unwelcome interruption.”

                She shrugged. “Either way.”

                I yawned and suddenly remembered the midnight conversation I had with Seungcheol. “You know what’s weird?  He called me last night.”

                Her eyebrows shot up. “He did?  Why?”

                “I don’t know. Maybe he was drunk or something.”

                “He doesn’t seem that irresponsible.”

                I shrugged. “It was just strange.” I stopped to consider that statement.  “Then again, everything he does is strange or annoying.”

                Aeri turned around and shushed us then. Soojin gave me a cryptic smile before we both turned back to our work. 

                I’d already prepared myself to scowl when I boarded the bus that night, but Seungcheol wasn’t there. I took my regular seat and stared out the window. Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t seen him all day. No wonder it was more peaceful than usual.

                I walked by myself, thinking that I’d finally be in a good mood when I reached my house. Instead, my steps were rushed and I kept glancing behind me. When I shut the door behind me, I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding and I loosened my tight grip on the straps of my backpack. 

-x-

                Sundays were the only days I was free from school and my supplementary classes. Even so, my parents would only let me go to Soojin’s house and I was required to bring my homework with me. 

                “Ah, this is so boring!” Soojin said as she collapsed to the ground. We were sitting on the floor of her bedroom, our textbooks and papers spread out on a short coffee table.

                “You wanna go for a walk? We could study outside at the convenience store.”

                I laughed.  “I’ve never seen anybody study at a convenience store.” 

                “It’s getting stuffy in here. Let’s go,” she said, hopping up and cramming everything in her backpack.  At times, I envied Soojin. She seemed so carefree and aloof, but she still got good grades and was popular. I, on the other hand, was just a prickly studying machine that no one wanted to get close to.

                It was nice outside. We bought ice cream and sat at one of the plastic picnic tables, talking idly about school and music we heard recently. 

                I was finishing the last of my cone when Soojin nudged me.

                “Hey, isn’t that Seungcheol?”

                I followed the direction she was pointing, and sure enough, there he was, coming down the road and carrying a bulky sports bag. Just as my eyes focused on him, he looked in my direction. He broke out in a grin.

                “Mimi!” he called.

                “Oh God,” I muttered as he walked towards us. 

                “Sorry I wasn’t on the bus yesterday,” he said.

                “It doesn’t really matter,” I replied. I glanced at his bag. “Where are you going?”

                “Dance studio. Do you want to come?”

                A dance studio? So he was serious about this whole singer thing. I opened my mouth to turn him down, but Soojin cut in. “Yeah! You should go, Mikyung.”

                “What?” I asked in bewilderment. 

                “Don’t worry, I’ll cover for you.” She stood up and pulled me to my feet. “Just don’t get home too late,” she added with a wink. Before I could say anything further, she skipped away.

                If I blew off Seungcheol now, I knew I would never hear the end of it from both him and Soojin, so I had no choice but to begrudgingly follow him.

                “Soojin drew something for you,” I told him, getting the piece of paper from my backpack and handing it to him as we walked. He unfolded it and laughed. 

                “It looks like me.”

                I crossed my arms over my chest. “I guess.”

                “Next time, you should be the one to draw it. I want to know how you’d interpret me.”

                “Trust me, if I drew you, you’d have horns and a pointy tail.”

                “So mean,” he whined. He stopped in front of a large building and opened the door, motioning for me to enter with a grand sweep of his arm. I rolled my eyes and stepped inside. 

                It was bustling with people, all scattered around and concentrating on different activities. Some were dancing while others sang and rapped. 

                I shrugged off my backpack and sat in a chair pushed against the wall. One of the boys called over to Seungcheol and they started talking and cracking jokes. 

It was uninteresting at first. I pulled out one of my textbooks and started flipping through it. 

                Then he started practicing. He and a small group of guys were working on a dance routine, and in no time, they were sweating. Seungcheol was sincere and focused, firmly correcting someone if they made a mistake. They went through the steps at least ten times. 

                As the boys broke off to work on other things, I checked my watch. My jaw dropped. It was almost dinner time. I started packing up and Seungcheol came over.

                “You’re leaving?” he asked, taking a sip of water. He looked tired. 

                “Yeah.  My parents will throw a fit. I wasn’t even supposed to be at Soojin’s house for very long. Who knows what she told them.” 

                “I’ll go with you.”

                I was quick to stop him. “No, it’s fine. You usually go later than this, don’t you? That’s why you take the late bus.” This had occurred to me while I had been watching him.

                “Yeah, but Mimi—”

                “Good job today, Seungcheol.” I couldn’t believe such words had escaped my mouth, but I figured it was the most appropriate thing to say.

                He raised his eyebrows and smiled at that.  “Are you finally warming up to my charm?”

                I bit my lip and avoided his gaze. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.” I slung on my backpack.

                He seemed to remember something and reached into his pocket. “Here,” he said, depositing a few crudely-made paper stars onto my palm.

                I didn’t know how to react to his sudden present, so I just nodded and smiled vaguely.

                “See you,” I said awkwardly as I turned and left the studio.

                On the bus, one of the stars was starting to come loose.  I smirked a bit to myself at his ever-clumsy craftmanship and unraveled it so I could refold it.  Inside, to my surprise, was a message.

                Hi, Mimi!

                I raised my eyebrows and undid the other ones. 

                This is hard.

                I’m sleepy.

                The last one carried over from our conversation over the phone.  I think you’re fine the way you are.

                A lump started forming in my throat.

                “You’re dumb,” I murmured to no one in particular, clutching the strips of paper. “You’re really dumb.”