chapter fourteen           

it was the 'official' first day of school. the girls were exuberant, knowing that most of them were going to be classmates. kymin crashed headfirst into the dining table, flailing around with her arm trapped in the sleeve of her uniform. "kymin-ah!" ji-ae gawked at the younger. at the table, eunji gagged on her toast  as chaebyul struggled to not spurt orange juice out of her nose. kymin was especially grumpy today, given that she had to stay back for extra remedials. the girls were really understanding and made sure that they didn't mention their classes in front of kymin. minah had actually offered to coach kymin, although kymin was skeptical about it. the girls soon dispersed for their respective classes.

the first class of the day was mathematics. chaebyul, ji-ae and minah headed for the proficient class while hyusu and eunji went on their way to intermediate. the class was fairly empty  when they first stepped in. soojung was already in class, and waved for chaebyul to join her. instinctively, chaebyul looked to ji-ae for permission. the latter motioned for her to go ahead as ji-ae herself snagged the seat next to minah. students filed in as the bell rang. amongst them were baro and tiffany, who both sat on top of the lockers by the side of the room. they waved to ji-ae as the teacher walked in. chaebyul was setting her stationery out when she noticed a familiar face. sehun. he definitely recognized her, from the way he looked at her. unfortunately for chaebyul, sehun took the seat directly behind her. it felt like there were eyes boring into the back of her skull. minah and ji-ae had sat in the second row, right in front of chaebyul and soojung. class was uneventful, if you exclude the fact that the boy in front of minah kept turning around and asking to borrow stationery. minah didn't so much as glance at him. ji-ae had to loan him her entire pencil case. "hey, by the way, I'm jongin." he leaned back in his chair and looked up at minah. what's your name?" minah straightened up and moved away from him in disgust. 'huh.." he grinned cockily at her. he was about to try a second attempt, but was called out by the teacher. ji-ae registered their exchange with amusement as minah resumed focusing on the blackboard. behind them, chaebyul was having trouble paying attention. she felt sehun kicking her chair repeatedly and tried to shift her chair forwards, but the kicking continued no matter how she tried distancing herself from the table behind. at some point in time, she could feel somebody actually caressing her hair. she didn't dare look, but she wasn't sure if it was sehun, a spirit or probably just the breeze. 

class wrapped up pretty soon afterwards. the next lesson was history and ji-ae bided goodbye to the other two as she headed for the advanced class. on the way though, she was stopped by an apparition clinging on to her. baro and tiffany rushed up, wondering what the spirit wanted from her. the spectre was in near hysterics, mentioning that his girlfriend was now on the roof of their school and if nobody stopped her, she was going to jump off the building. he extracted a necklace from his pocket and handed it to ji-ae. "please, can you help me pass this to her? it was for our anniversary.. but I didn't have the chance to give it to her.." anxious about the girl on the roof, ji-ae nodded as she called for the boy to lead her to the roof. baro and tiffany followed close behind. the boy stopped mere inches from the doorway to the rooftop. "she's out there." he pointed to a girl standing at the edge. ji-ae immediately rushed towards her as she called her name. the girl turned around in surprise, squinting her eyes in suspicion when she couldn't recognize ji-ae. "hey.. I'm ji-ae.. there's something that I have to give you." ji-ae held out the necklace as she explained. "your boyfriend.. I don't know how he passed away, but he meant for this to be your anniversary gift." "who are you? how did you know him? why do you have that?" ji-ae mentally berated herself for giving out too much information. "it's hard to explain.. but he's right here with us. you might be able to feel him." tiffany and baro pushed the boy towards hisgirlfriend. "he's right in front of you now." the girl looked skeptical but felt the air around her change. "he's - he's really here, isn't it? he told me.. he told me he'd get this for me.." the girl finally caved as she recognized the necklace. still in shock, the girl thanked ji-ae and made a hasty retreat. "is she going to be alright?" ji-ae was doubtful herself as she found herself asking the three spirits. the boy nodded his head. ji-ae turned to the boy and addressed him kindly. "your affairs here have been done; you can leave peacefully now." the boy shook his head sadly, admitting that he doesn't know how. although ji-ae didn't know if it could work, she blurted the first thing that came into her mind. "just.. let go." the boy seemed to understand, walking to the edge and looking up at the clear sky. he turned around one last tiime, mouthing another silent thank you, before he disappeared in a ray of light. "it's my pleasure.." ji-ae waved at nothingness.

"what are you doing here?" a deep voice came from behind ji-ae. not only did ji-ae jump in shock, both the spirits were surprised too. ji-ae spun around on her heels, but over compensated, tripping over the boy's foot. she felt herself falling; her view of baro and tiffany became lopsided. she slosed her eyes tightly, bracing herself for the impact. time seemed to have slowed to a stop as she felt a pair of strong arms catching her around her waist as she fell, a hand sliding up to her back to balance out their weight. she could even feel his breath on her cheeks. she slowly opened her eyes and stared into another pair of brown eyes. "ah - " she gasped, as he righted her, like she was as light as a feather. "joesonghamnida.." she managed to choke out, as the former tilted his head curiously. ignoring her thanks, he repeated his question. "who were you talking to? I was awoken by your voice." ji-ae struggled to come up with an answer, but failing to do so, apologised again before running off for her next class. ji-ae could feel her cheeks blush scarlet. wasn't those kind of things supposed to happen only in dramas? she squeezed her eyes together as she attempted to shake off the image in her mind. scuttling into history class, she belatedly realized that baro and tiffany had left her behind on that roof. shaking her head, she slipped into an empty seat by the window, just in time for attendance-taking.

in the halls, a lone figure with a spirit in tow was turning this way and that, scouring the entire place. eunji couldn't believe that she had lost her way. she was just about to turn down a corridor when a figure hurtled into her at top speed, knocking her into the wall. eunji didn't even have time to gasp; she was knocked breathless. in a panic, the boy half-dragged, half-carried her behind the school fountain just a mere distance away. he apologised furiously as he tried to conceal them both. "mianhae! my sunbae's chasing after me.. please duck down further!" he rested his palm on eunji's head and gently pushed her down. eunji struggled to regain her breath. "sunbae! what did you do?!" after a moment's confusion, eunji recognized the boy as yixing, chaebyul's brother. he grinned sheepishly. "uhh.. put dead rats in my sunbae's physics textbook?" he quickly put a finger to her lips to shush her when he heard footsteps storming past. eunji gave a resigned sigh. I'm already late for my history class. I'm so dead. she looked around for younju, but couldn't find her anywhere. great, now I've also lost my friend. thankfully, yixing was there to render his help as a school directory. wiith his help, she managed to locate her classroom in no time at all. "but how am I going to get in there? they're already halfway through roll-call!" eunji cried in dismay as they neared the classroom. "trust me!" yixing suddenly clouted her on her head, to which she exclaimed painfully. yixing hauled her through the door just as eunji was rubbing her head. "joesonghamnida songsaengnim, eunji got into an accident on the way here." momentarily snapping out of the pain, eunji stared in horror at yixing's idea of an ingenious plan. yixing hurriedly pushed her into the empty seat beside ji-ae before taking his leave. he popped his head through the doorway again and sent her a playful wink. ji-ae attended to the younger as she made her promise to tell her what happened. attendance was still being taken as eunji settled down. "kim woobin?" there was silence. ji-ae remembered  the boy on the rooftop. so he was supposed to be in the same class as me. it finally dawned on her that woobin had gone to the rooftop to skip class.he did say he was woken from his nap after all. eunji jumped as someone tapped her shoulder. "we're in the same class!" jungkook beamed. beside them, two other guys stared at them quizzically - donghae and hyukjae? it was after all an eventful first five minutes of history.

in the proficient class, hyusu was seated with chaebyul, while minah had a table to herself. hyusu was extra-ordinarily excited as she spotted both her best friends entering the class. changmin and zitao sat directly in front of hyusu, turning around and introducing themselves to chaebyul and minah. hyusu began chattering to them excitedly as chaebyul looked on in wonderment. hyusu was really talkative with those she was close with. minah had returned to studying her notes. as the bell rang, an attractive boy entered the class with a stack of books. hyusu's jaw dropped as she immediately identified the boy. kim ryeowook. zitao snapped his fingers and brought hyusu back from her subconsiousness. he followed her gaze and immediately understood what had happened. he wagged his finger at her as hyusu hurriedly tried to hush him. changmin was grinning from ear to ear, sharing glances with chaebyul. thankfully, the commotion went unnoticed and hyusu resumed arranging her stationery.

the classrooms were cleared out fairly quickly after the last bell rang. kymin took out her korean textbooks lethargically before laying face-down on her desk. damn remedials. kymin already felt that school hours were too long, and yet she still had to endure another two hours of private tutoring - by a sunbae, no less. she was prodded awake by a nice-ish looking boy - possibly her mentor. he's cute. kymin shook her head vigorously. what was I thinking! he introduced himself as donghae, a sunbae at eighteen years old. although he was indeed cute. (a bit, not a lot.) kymin stared up at him blankly, still not fully awake yet. he gave a sigh as he sat down, leafing through his backpack and producing a stack of papers. "your assignments.." he gestured. "are you sure you haven't just been putting them through google translate?"

in the library, eunji was reading a recipe book, taking down the recipes for simple pastries. I want to help out in the kitchen too. she was thoroughly engrossed in her reading when she felt a breeze ruffle her hair. she wasn't even aware of the spirit standing beside her. "excuse me.." eunji ignored the voice and didn't pay any attention to the spectre even when she laid a hand on eunji's shoulder. "excuse me.." she repeated again. this time, eunji heard. she stiffened as she looked up. younju, where are you when I need you? the spectre did seem nice enough though eunji was still tensed. it was the first spirit she had met in a long while after all. "I need your help.." the ghost was a dead librarian. beckoning to eunji, the spirit retreated to the far end of the library. eunji got up to follow rather timidly, but before she had the chance to step away from the table, she tripped over her own chair, sending it smashing into the ground with a resounding crash. she herself jolted up because of the racket and found herself buried - in someone else's chest. she yelped as she pulled away from him. the rest of the students in the library were looking at them. eunji quickly mouthed a 'sorry' and bowed apologetically to them before turning to the boy. she recognized him as zitao, hyusu's best friend. "joesonghamnida, sunbae-nim.." she uttered. zitao didn't seem to mind. in fact, he was staring at her from head to toe. eunji fidgeted before excusing herself, running to where the librarian spirit waited for her. I'm more accustomed to seeing ghosts than having sunbaes look at me like that..

in the other aisle, hyusu was hiding behind a shelf.. staring at another person flipping through the books in the fiction section of the library.

kim ryeowook.

co-author's note:     heyyy so this is chapter fourteen! I chose a weird picture, I know haha but I guess kind of matched the chapter's topic as well? fate? no? and I'm so sorry for the weird stuff I've done with the characters x.x I added some details because I thought they needed a more.. personal touch (; anyway, do look forward to the next chapter because sherr's coming back! ^^ she wants to write her own character's encounter with ryeowook tsktsk I wonder what's in store for hyusu?~

p.s. MAMACITA asdfghjkl;