“And that’s the date we will have the test.” The teacher said as she spun around towards the class after he had written down the date for their test to be.

Jessica opened her calendar and wrote down the date. As she looked down on the calendar she noticed they were going to have three tests that week, one essay was supposed to be sent in, and the week before that they have one test, and even the week after they have two more tests.

Jessica was happy that she was keeping up with her studies. The tests wouldn’t be too hard, and she didn’t have much left on her essay to write. She was in good phase with everything, and she had no need to stress over it.

The sound of a chair scraping against the floor in the classroom made the students and teacher turn towards the girl who had raised from her seat. Seeing who it was, Jessica felt her face fall.

“Ms. Kim, where are you going?” The teacher asked Taeyeon who had stood up from her seat.

“Restroom.” Taeyeon said and pointed at the door of the classroom she was headed towards.

“In this classroom we raise our hands up and ask before living the class.” The teacher said and crossed his arms.

“Yeah…but I didn’t want to announce to the whole class that I’m going to pee.” Taeyeon said and shrugged her shoulders. The teacher raised his left eyebrow as he continued to hold Taeyeon’s gaze, the girl looked around the classroom at some of the students who were looking at her.

A faked shocked expression appeared on the girl’s face, like she just had realized what she had done.

“Ops, I did it anyway. Okay, now when everyone knows, I’m going to relieve myself. Bye!” Taeyeon waved towards her classmates and she strolled over to the door.

Jessica could only sigh and shake her head at the girl. She had learned that it was better to not give Taeyeon any attention during her small rebellious moments like this. And so she turned her head away from Taeyeon and looked down at her calendar instead.

When Taeyeon was out of the classroom the students returned their attention back to the teacher. The man only shook his head, his hand brushed through his brown and grey locks. A sigh escaped his lips, and Jessica could see the frustration in his eyes. But it quickly disappeared as he turned towards his remaining students.

“Okay, so as I was saying,“

The man turned back to the whiteboard behind him and began teaching again. Jessica started to take notes again, and even though no one else in the class noticed, not even the teacher noticed, but Jessica noticed that Taeyeon never returned to the class again.

---

“So many tests! My brain is going to melt!” A girl in Jessica’s class exclaimed as they were sitting by a table in the cafeteria. Jessica didn’t mind her and continued to eat her noodles in silence as she listened to her classmates complaining about the tests and essays.

As she listened to what they were saying, hearing their worries, and seeing a bit of stress on their faces, she couldn’t help but think of the girl who had left the class earlier that day. She wondered how Taeyeon was taking it, looking at the girl studied even less than these girls, Taeyeon should be the one stressing over the tests and essays.

The chewed the noodles slowly as she was thinking about the girl. That reminded her, she hadn’t seen the girl since she had left the class. She swallowed her food and turned around in her seat, her eyes landed on the two girls that usually hung around Taeyeon. The girls were sitting with a few other girls from another class, but Taeyeon couldn’t be seen anywhere.

She turned back to her bowl of noodles, picked up some of them with her chopsticks, and put them in as she thought back to Taeyeon’s friends. None of them seemed concerned about the girl, and seeing they were enjoying their time while Taeyeon was gone, and none of them seemed to wonder why the girl had left and never returned, Jessica begun wondering what kind of friends Taeyeon had.

Fake ones. That she could easily figure out. But the fake friends didn’t even seem to try to hide the fact they were fake. And that bothered Jessica more than she wanted it to.

“You seem to be in deep thought.” One of the girls from her class pointed out. It made Jessica snap out of her thoughts about Taeyeon. She turned to the girls that sat by the same table as her, she only shrugged her shoulders and swirled her chopsticks around in the bowl of noodles.

“I’m just trying to figure out how to manage my time with all the tests and essays.” Jessica said.

“You’ll do fine, Jessi. You study a lot, the tests will be easy!” Another girl said.

Jessica only nodded her head. The girl was right. But Jessica wasn’t sure if she should put in some time to help Taeyeon in her planning, or if she should ignore it as the girl wasn’t really her problem.

She frowned when she felt a part of her disagreeing with her mind. The girl was her problem, because she cared, and caring would make it impossible for her to not wonder how the girl was doing.

Her shoulders slumped.

She wondered how Taeyeon was doing.

---  

Jessica found it strange. She hadn’t seen Taeyeon for the rest of the school day, and now as she was walking home she didn’t hear the girl’s steps following her. There was no sign of the girl anywhere, and she was getting closer and closer to her home.

She didn’t have Taeyeon’s phone number, so she couldn’t call and see how the girl was doing. Had the girl gotten sick? Had she gotten into an accident? Jessica didn’t know, and she didn’t know how she was going to find out how the girl was doing.

A sigh escaped her lips and she shook her head.

You have got to stop worrying about her, Jessica. You’ll lose your focus if you continue like this. Jessica thought to herself. She had reached her apartment complex and entered the building and went over to the elevator. She put her mind on to stop thinking about Taeyeon, and focus on things that needed to be focused on.

Another sigh escaped her lips as she exited the elevator. She went to the door of her home, unlocked it and entered.

“I’m home.” Jessica called out as she was taking off her shoes.

“Ah, Jessica!” Her mother appeared from the kitchen. “I found your friend downstairs, so I brought her up. She’s in your room now.” The woman told her.

Jessica’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. What friend?

Her face suddenly fell.

No way…

After getting putting away her shoes she marched her way to her bedroom. The door was closed, and she opened it, startling the girl who was seated on her bedroom floor, a book in the person’s lap.

The girl Jessica had been worrying about the whole day.

“Welcome home.” Taeyeon said innocently, completely oblivious to the rage building up inside of Jessica.

Jessica closed the door behind her. She let out a sigh, slowly turned back to Taeyeon who was still watching her with her big brown eyes, big brown eyes that stared innocently at her. So different from the fierce and tough look Jessica remembered the girl had left the school with.

“Why the hell did you leave school early?” Jessica barked. Taeyeon flinched. The girl hugged the text book in her lap to her chest as she stared confused at Jessica.

Jessica sighed and brushed her fingers through her hair. She had no time for this, she had no time to stress over Taeyeon’s actions. She shook her head and went over to her bed where she dumped her backpack.

“Um…” She heard the girl sitting on her bedroom floor say. Jessica didn’t pay her attention, a girl causing her that much worry wasn’t worthy of her attention.

“I…wanted to ask you…something.” Taeyeon mumbled.

Jessica was listening. But she wasn’t showing that she was listening. She focused on getting the books out of her bag instead, preparing everything she needed to study while she continued to listen to the girl on the floor.

“Um…never mind…”

Hearing the defeated sound in Taeyeon’s voice Jessica spun around towards the girl. The girl had her eyes focused on the book in her lap, Jessica took notice that it was one of the subjects they would soon have a test in. Her eyes left the girl on the floor, looking towards the girl’s backpack that was beside her. To Jessica’s surprise, she saw it was filled with books, something she hadn’t seen it be for a long time.

Jessica could only figure out what it was Taeyeon wanted to ask. She sighed and turned around towards the girl, she opened to speak but stopped herself as she took in Taeyeon’s form and expression. The girl was resting her chin in her palm, the girl’s index and middle finger were pressing against her temple, her jaw was clenched, her shoulders tense and her eyebrows furrowed in concentration.  

As Jessica looked at Taeyeon’s eyes she could see it. She could see the same feelings she had seen on her classmates during lunch, but Taeyeon’s feelings seemed stronger, like they were ten times worse than what she had seen on those girls.

Taeyeon was stressed. And it wasn’t a little stressed.

Jessica let out a sigh. She went over to the girl on the floor and sat down right in front of her. Taeyeon didn’t look up from the book, and it made Jessica place one hand over the page the girl was reading.

Taeyeon looked up, open like she was going to say something, and Jessica could catch the irritation on the girl’s face, but it quickly disappeared as the girl’s eyes met hers. Taeyeon only closed and stared confused at Jessica.

“Studying like this won’t be any good.” Jessica said.

The confusion in Taeyeon’s eyes disappeared. “Then how…?” Taeyeon asked hopelessly.

“Little by little. You have to take it slowly. You can’t do it all in one day, no information will enter your brain then.” Jessica said. “Take part after part. Read one chapter, write down the most important things from that chapter, go to another subject, study a part from that and do the same.” Jessica explained.

“I don’t have time for that…” Taeyeon said.

“You do. If you study every day.” Jessica said and looked at the girl. “No slacking, okay?” Jessica said.

Taeyeon nodded her head. Jessica nodded her head too and took the book from Taeyeon’s lap, she began marking the pages the girl should read today before she handed over the book to the girl. Taeyeon began reading, and Jessica grabbed the girl’s backpack to help marking the pages in those books as well.

“What was it you were going to ask me?” Jessica asked when she realized that she hadn’t given Taeyeon a chance to do it. She looked at the girl beside her, Taeyeon didn’t look at her, and she thought she could see a small blush on the girl’s cheeks.

“It’s not important…” Taeyeon mumbled without looking up from her book.

Jessica furrowed her eyebrows. She had been sure Taeyeon was going to ask her to help her study, but now it didn’t seem like it. She glanced one last time at Taeyeon before she went back to help the girl with the books. Once she was done she went over to her own books to study.

To her surprise Taeyeon didn’t throw her books around in frustration today. Jessica didn’t know why, but she felt successful. It felt like she had aced a test. And she didn’t know why, but having Taeyeon on her bedroom floor, seeing the girl concentration on her studies, comforted her.

Knowing where the girl was, and what the girl was doing, made Jessica feel peaceful. And she wasn’t quite sure why. But it was something she wasn’t going to think too much about.

Not know at least.