“Yah! Mimi-yah!” You glared at her for the use of that nickname as you shut the door, not wanting to hear more from her after the news she announced at breakfast. You kind of regretted your action once she started beeping her horn nonstop. You took two steps away from her blaring car when the teacher on duty, whom you recognized, made his way over from the gateway leading to the front of the school.

“Ah, Choi Mikyung-ssi,” he was rather strict but you had been one of his top students last year so you hoped he wouldn’t mind the ruckus your sister was responsible for at the present. He had a stern face as he sardonically said, “I see your family is in good spirits today,” with a look at the loud car.

You weakly smiled as your sister now held her hand pressed down on her horn so there was nothing but a constant beep. It extended for several seconds as your old teacher continued to look pointedly at her car as a few cars behind her joined in the antics but by the looks on a few of the drivers’ faces, a different meaning was being expressed. You bowed your head in a curt apology while you excused yourself and stomped back to the ever beeping car.

You yanked the door open and your sister smiled sweetly at you as she lightened the pressure at the center of the steering wheel and the beep was cut off abruptly. The ringing in your ears at the sudden lack of sound lasted only a second as the cars behind your sister’s continued on with their own impatient honking.

“Remember, mom is picking you up today after her shift and we’ll be meeting at the mall.” Mieun gurgled from her spot in the back of the car, nonplussed by the ruckus going on around her.

You only glared at her reminder of one of the reasons that had put you in such a sour mood today. You turned away and closed the door before hurrying away. As you walked away, you heard the now familiar car horn beep twice merrily in quick succession as a departing gift before you heard her car pull away. The other car horns were put to rest once you walked past the teacher by the gates. He only nodded to you and you felt that feeling of mortification heat you up as you trudged past him. Only Nunji…

You let out a breath and the puff of air visibly drifted away from you, another reminder of the cold and dreary day you had to spend at school.

There was no one braving the cold weather outside today as everyone made a beeline to the building. You were still feeling the shame your sister dumped on you and stared at the ground as you made your way towards the building. You only looked up when the door was pulled open for you. Or not. A group of boys came out just as you were about to reach for the handle.

They were loud as they chattered about some soccer match that premiered last night. You quickly caught the door from closing behind them and a boy rushed out as you held the door open.

He flashed a smirk at you and you immediately recognized him. “Morning Choi Mikyung-ah.”

You felt the glare fire up on your face as you turned away from him and walked through the door.

“Thanks for holding the door open for me!” Annoying Boy shouted at your back as you walked away to escape from him and the freezing cold. Who was he to talk to you informally you thought heatedly.

You only started to unwrap the scarf around your neck when you walked by the first year hall as your anger flared within you. Laughter drifted down from the stairwell that led up to the second floor and you only wove through the throng of students crowded outside the office in front of the announcement board.

Just when you thought you cleared the crowd, you heard your name. “Mikyung-ah!” Someone caught your arm and you were pulled back into the crowd. “The list is up! The practice times for volleyball is set now!” the girl’s voice was jabbering excitedly. “But there’s a small meeting during lunch we have to go to! You’ll come with me right?”

You looked into the bright eyes of Jimri’s as you processed everything she just said.

She didn’t need a response from you as she fired on, “Oh, I’m getting so nervous at the thought of it. I heard there were more girls who signed up than expected and they might need to cut people off the club. Apparently there’s something going around about the club’s budget not being enough.” She still had your arm clutched in her firm grip as she led you out of the crowd and you thought it would be rude if you pulled your arm away from her. “Just thinking about it is making me feel excited and stressed out! I’m so glad I have you by my side though. It makes it a lot easier knowing I’m not alone.” She beamed at you.

“I feel like this whole thing with volleyball will bring us closer and I already feel as though we’re friends!” She looked shy all of a sudden, “But I hope I’m not forcing myself on you or making you uncomfortable. You’ve always been sooo quiet and I was never sure how I could approach you. But now we have something in common! Now I feel at ease with you and we can get closer once we both join the team even if we only get in junior varsity.”

You both made it to your classroom door and without letting go of your arm, she pulled the door open and she led you over to her side of the classroom toward her desk. There were girls in that section of the room, and you looked over at the direction of your desk longingly where no one was around. The windows were covered in frost, a clear warning of the temperature surrounding that side of the room but you would rather be there enduring the cold atmosphere than where you were being taken.

“Jimri-yah! I was looking for you by the gate but you didn’t arrive yet!” one of the girls called out.

“My mom dropped me off later than usual because my little brother slept in.” Jimri answered while continuing to pull you along.

“That was me yesterday but it was my older brother who kept us behind. He came home around eleven the night before from his after school academy and we couldn’t wake him up on time the morning after,” one of the girls volunteered more information.

They continued on from there until Jimri brought up the active times of the clubs.

“My club is starting next week because we have to find an available classroom to meet in.”

“We already have a place to meet but we have to share a room with another club. Thankfully it’s not any of the musical clubs.”

None of them seemed to mind you were there but you had noticed the looks they sent your way. This was not the first time the girls in your class had tried to bring you into their world but this was the first time they actually succeeded. And you could see that they were doing their best to go on as they normally would but it felt especially awkward on your part.

Throughout your school years, there was usually at least one person who would do their best to include you in activities whether that person be a student or a teacher. The results were mixed with you being forced into the situation or you accidentally falling into the situation.

They appeared to be encouraging and open but you hardly knew what to do when it happened. You weren’t sure what to think or how to act so you usually froze up just like now.

The girls continued to converse with one another and as they did this, you felt just as isolated as if you had been on your side of the room all by your lonesome. But this feeling of isolation was not a good one. You couldn’t pin the feeling down, but it came down to you just not wanting to be where you were.

Their conversation was going on but you weren’t paying much attention to what they were saying. You kept seeing the reassuring glances Jimri was giving you but that didn’t help but rather increase the uncomfortable feeling instead.

“Now, now ladies, let’s get to our seats so I can take roll call.” You were snapped out of the stupor you were in at the homeroom teacher’s voice. You had your back to the classroom door so you hadn’t notice what was going on in the room.

Jimri smiled at you before leaning into you, “Let’s walk to the third year classroom where the meeting is taking place together during lunch, okay?”

You stiffly nodded with a poor excuse of a smile.

There was a flash of concern in her eyes but you quickly escaped to your side of the room as the group of girls broke up and headed to their seats too.

Your hands felt sweaty as you clenched them at your side. You walked between rows so you could get to your seat faster and you bumped into seats in your haste to leave the smothering tension behind you.

You didn’t like this feeling.

You vaguely registered the back of Taekwoon’s head as you walked by him when Yoohyuk stood up from his seat so you could get to your seat. You stumbled a little as your foot caught onto the strap of Yoohyuk’s bag beside his desk. You felt a hand grip your arm to steady you followed by Yoohyuk’s voice, “Sorry Mikyung-ssi. I thought I kicked my bag under my desk.”

You nodded once again and plopped down into the wooden chair. There was an instant coolness to your skin that the window emitted as it did its best to hold off the worst of the cold air. You scooted your chair away from the window a bit to try to escape its range but the distance wasn’t enough to make much of a difference. There was no way you were going to take off your jacket and you regretted taking off your scarf even if it was odd to wear it inside the building.

The teacher was talking but his words weren’t being processed as your feelings and thoughts about similar situations with what happened with the girls lingered. You felt a nudge on your right and you turned your attention to Yoohyuk who was facing the front and looked like he was fully focused on the teacher. You were about to look away when he peeked at you from the corner of his eyes and smoothly passed a slip of paper to you.

You automatically looked up to see whether the teacher saw but he was writing something on the board. You took the piece of paper and unfolded it.

‘Do you want to switch seats today?’ You read the words over twice before shaking your head quickly at your seatmate.

He frowned at you before sneaking a peek at the back of the teacher and quickly gestured for the paper. You gave it back to him and he wrote something down. With another peek at the teacher, he gave the paper back to you. You quickly read the words and shook your head once again. You passed the paper back to him and faced forward as you turned your attention to what your teacher was writing.

“For those of you who joined sports clubs, the school will need an athlete’s physical and a signed release form from your parents before you can attend any games. With the non-competitive clubs, just the release forms will do. Recreational clubs are a special exception especially those concerning school property. I will now be passing out a student action form which is basically asking for your sportsmanship and calling for responsibility regarding school property and your actions when participating in your club affairs.” He started to look through his papers on his podium but after a few seconds of sifting through papers, he stopped. “Oh no. It looks like I forgot them in the teacher’s room.”

He peered at you all through his glasses. “I will be right back. Those forms are required, so I ask that you all behave while I step out of the class to get them.” His eyes ran across the room. He slowly made his way to the door and just as he was about to pull the door close, he stuck his head in and did his best no nonsense look before pulling it closed.

At once chatter filled the room and Yoohyuk turned to you. “I really don’t mind sitting by the window if that’s what’s holding you back Mikyung-ssi. If any of the teachers notice, I’m sure they’ll understand once we explain the reason to them.”

You only shook your head at the same time you pulled your jacket securely around you.

“I don’t think it’s okay if you’re by the window all day. It’s supposed to be really cold today and I heard it’s supposed to be record breaking cold too.”

His voice was persuasive and the chill of the window wasn’t helping. But you still shook your head. It was when you looked away from Yoohyuk’s face that your attention was directed to the boy who was seated behind him. He was looking straight forward, intently at Yoohyuk. His eyes went to you and you were surprised to see the cutting glare in them.

You found yourself glaring back at him when your thoughts went back to the events of yesterday.

Yoohyuk turned to see what took your attention away and Taekwoon turned his glare to him.

“Uhh,” Yoohyuk turned to you but you were still glaring at Taekwoon. “Mikyung-ssi, are you—,” the arrival of the panting teacher made him go quiet.

You turned back to the front and you moved your chair as far away from the window as you could.

“I’m—I’m back. I’m,” he took a breath in, “I’m back so order in the classroom please.” He looked at the time on his watch. “Let me just quickly give you the forms. We don’t have enough time to read through the terms together like I wanted to, so I hope you take the time to go over the guidelines yourself.”

He walked up and down the rows and handed them out just as the bell went off signaling the end of homeroom. “I’ll be back in your class before lunch to pick up the forms. Be sure to sign and date the form at the bottom of the page.” The door was pulled open and your teacher for the first class of the day popped in. “Be good and I’ll be seeing you all later.” He made his exit with a greeting to his fellow staff member.

Just as the lesson was beginning, you got another note on your desk. You already knew what it was but you didn’t make any move to pick it up. You did your best to concentrate on the teacher’s words and you noticed the way the classmates who sat in front of you were in a similar position with the guy directly seated in front of you was scooted as far away from the window like you and he had his jacket on too. Throughout the early morning classes, Yoohyuk continued to pester you about switching seats.

Even though you continued to deny him, he still persisted and you were thinking of just giving in so he would stop bothering you. You were starting to feel flickers of annoyance and irritation dart in and out of your feelings as yesterday’s events as well as what happened earlier with the girls combined with the dread of going shopping with your mom and sister at the mall