Her new school was a little different from what Dara was accustomed to. Now she had to wear a uniform, which was okay except that she didn’t like the pleated skirt that stopped a few inches above her knees. She chose to wear knee high-stockings to lessen the amount of skin showing and she tied a sweater around her waist. She wore her hair back in a high ponytail. Leather penny loafers and a backpack completed her outfit.

Jiyong and Youngbae picked her up from her house and drove with her to school, which caused her to get a lot of curious stares when they arrived. Jiyong offered to accompany her to the office to get her schedule but she declined, explaining that she wanted to do this on her own. “I have your number,” she reminded him. “I’ll call if I need help, okay?”

He smiled at that, proud of her determination. “I’ll see you later then,” he told her, and left with Youngbae to go find their class.

As Dara made her way to the office she couldn’t help but notice the stares and whispers from students as she walked past. Instead of ignoring them she met their gaze and smiled. At the office she found several other students standing at the bulletin board which listed the names of students and their assigned homerooms. Dara bypassed them and went into the office where she found only one other student, a tall nervous looking boy, sitting on the bench. She nodded a hello to him before approaching the desk and politely inquired of the busy looking woman behind the counter that she was told to report there to pick up her schedule.

“Your name?” the woman asked, picking up a thin stack of papers on her desk.

“Park, Sandara.”

Her brows furrowed as she skimmed through the pages. “Ah, here you are. Park, Sandara.”

She deftly pulled the form out and handed it over to Dara. “Room 317. Ms. Kim is your teacher. Do you know how to get there?”

“No, but I’m sure I’ll find it okay.”

The lady noticed then the tall boy sitting on the bench and addressed him. “Channy, what are you still doing here? I told you Mr. Goh won’t be able to see you until this afternoon. Come make yourself useful and show Ms. Park here to her class.”

She turned then and waved Dara off toward the boy who was standing now and bowing toward the lady before facing Dara. He bowed again, eyes on the floor, and Dara couldn’t help but smile. She extended her hand to him for a handshake. “I’m Park, Sandara. But I prefer to be called Dara.”

His eyes flitted up to meet hers briefly before focusing on her outstretched hand. His cheeks reddened as he bowed again and finally took hold of her hand and shook it lightly. “Nice to meet you, Dara-ssi. I’m Park, Chan-yeol.”

“Oh, we have the same last name!” Dara smiled at him again and his cheeks blushed again.

“I’ll…I’ll show you to your class,” he said, motioning for her to go first.

“You’re really tall,” Dara said, as they walked. “Do you play basketball?”

He smiled shyly and shook his head. “I’m on the swim team.”

“Really? Cool!”

By the time they reached their destination Dara had learned that Chan-yeol, or Channie, was two years younger than her but he had been advanced up a grade and was entering in as a freshman.

“Wah—that means you must be really smart!” Dara said, making him blush again. She thanked him when they reached the classroom and he waved shyly before leaving.

Ms. Kim was already at her desk so Dara walked in and introduced herself.

“Oh you’re the new student from the U.S. I heard you were being assigned to my class,” Ms. Kim said. “Welcome. Take a seat anywhere. I’ll have you introduce yourself later to the class when the bell rings.”

She chose a seat next to the window and stared out at the campus and all the students milling about. Dara picked up her backpack and retrieved her phone so that she could take a photo of the scene. She then posted it to her twitter account with the caption #newschool.

Jiyong was on his phone when he saw her tweet. He smiled and was about to reply when he saw several of Dara’s friends from the States begin to post replies to her.

: Good luck, Dara!

: Girl, we miss you. Come back home!

: You guys wear a uniform? Can’t imagine you in a skirt! Selfie!!

: Hey, call me! I want to hear about your first day!

The last post was from her friend Seungri. The one she had gone to the dance with. Jiyong recognized his name. After reading their posts Jiyong decided to send her a text instead and ask for her homeroom number. A few seconds later he received a response. He quickly sent her another message telling her to wait for him during morning break and he would pick her up from her class.

**

By the time break came around Dara had settled into her class and had already begun to make friends. Her seatmate was a girl named Victoria and Dara was thrilled to learn that Victoria had also lived in the U.S. She had spent two years living with her aunt and uncle out in California when she was younger. Victoria introduced her to one of her best friends, a girl named Amber. The two invited her to join them and their friends during break but Dara explained she was meeting someone.

Shortly after Victoria and Amber left Jiyong showed up. “Ready?” he asked. Dara left her books and bag on her desk since her next two classes were in that same room. She only took her purse that had her wallet and phone in it.

“How was class?” Jiyong asked, as they walked down the hallway. Dara told him of the friends she’d made and of the boy named Channie that had showed her the way to her class. She was talking excitedly, gesturing with her hands, and Jiyong couldn’t help but smile at her.

“How are your classes?” she asked.

“It’s good. Top and Youngbae have the same homeroom as me. The work is as expected.”

Dara noticed how girls were staring at her and Jiyong as they walked. She glanced behind and saw at least half a dozen girls following behind. Some glared at her.

“Oppa, are these what they call your fangirls?” she whispered.

Jiyong looked behind and scowled at the girls following them. “Don’t pay them any attention,” he said.

“Okay,” Dara nodded, and leaned closer again to whisper. “If you need me to take care of them just let me know, eh oppa?” She made a fierce looking face and punched her fist into the palm of her other hand, and Jiyong burst out laughing at how ridiculously cute she looked.

**

Youngbae couldn’t help but snicker when for the tenth time during lunch some guy approached their table, slowed, and then said hi to Dara. She smiled politely and returned their greeting, which only encouraged some other fool to come forth and repeat the same routine.

“Stop being friendly to them or they’ll never stop coming around,” Jiyong told her. Even as he spoke, number eleven approached the table.

Dara smiled and bobbed her head in greeting to the boy before leaning back towards Jiyong and whispered, “I can’t be rude to them like that. Besides they’re just being friendly.”

Jiyong snorted and returned to eating.

“Don’t you think they make a cute couple?” Bom whispered to Top. He looked from Jiyong to Dara and back again, and then shrugged his shoulders as he went back to eating his lunch. He had no intention of getting involved with Jiyong’s love life. Besides both claimed that they were like brother and sister to each other. Top reminded Bom of this.

“Brother and sister, my ,” she scoffed, keeping her voice low. “Mark my words,” she said to Top. “Those two will end up together.”

**

Saturday morning rolled around and Dara was awakened by the sound of her phone. She reached for it and answered while her eyes were still closed. “Hullo?”

Jiyong’s voice answered her. “Are you still sleeping, sleepyhead?”

She groaned, her face scrunching in a frown. “Why are you waking me up so early, oppa? It’s Saturday,” she whined.

“It’s already past nine. Harabeoji and I are waiting for you downstairs with breakfast. Hurry up.”

Dara gave a loud groan and hung up the phone before pulling the covers up over her head. She had enrolled in a special class to help her with her hangul. The classes were every Wed and Friday night so she hadn’t gotten home until almost ten the night before. Then she had stayed up doing homework so she could have her weekend free. And now that crazy boy was here waking her up when all she wanted to do was sleep in.

Her phone rang again and she figured it must be Jiyong so she let it ring. But after the fourth ring she reached for it and yelled, “Yah! I’m awake already!”

“Dara? Wow, who twisted your this early in the morning?” a male voice said.

Dara froze, then looked quickly at the caller id.

“Seungri? SEUNGRI!!!”

She bolted up in bed, her sour demeanor gone as she heard the voice of her friend from the states on the phone and she gave an excited scream.

“I can’t believe you’re on the phone calling me! Aww, I miss you, Ri! How are you?”

“Ssantokki, why haven’t you called? You said you would keep in touch and you haven’t called me once since you’ve moved there.”

Dara giggled as she explained that school didn’t get out until almost 6pm every day, and then she had tutoring classes on some evenings. “I’m so tired, oppa. I feel more like I’m in college with this schedule!”

“Don’t complain, you’re the one that wanted to move over there.”

“I’m not complaining. Despite the tough schedule I really am enjoying myself here.”

Dara heard a female voice saying hi in the background. “Chaerin, is that you? Hi!!”

It turned out Ri and Chaerin were on a date and the two decided to give Dara a call to see how she was doing. Dara gave them a brief rundown on how she was adjusting to school in Korea and how much fun she was having. She’d continued to post pictures online as a way of keeping in touch with both Ri and Chaerin online as well as her other friends from back home.

As she talked she got out of bed and made her way downstairs, still dressed in her comfortable sweat pants and pajama top. Her long hair was twisted up in a messy bun.

She saw Jiyong and her grandfather sitting at breakfast out on the patio by the pool. Dara made her way over and hugged her grandpa from the back and kissed him on the cheek while still talking on the phone. “Morning Papa,” she whispered, grabbing a bottle of juice from the table. She walked behind Jiyong and gave him a light slap on the back of his head as she headed over to one of the lounge chairs. Jiyong glared at her and she stuck her tongue out at him before smiling and settling on the lounge chair.

“That must be one of her friends from back home,” Jiyong said, turning back to Sanchol.

“Sounds like Seungri.” Sanchol’s mouth curved upwards at the sour look on Jiyong’s face.

“How is my granddaughter doing in school?” he asked. He’d already heard from Dara that she was doing well but he wanted to get Jiyong’s perspective.

“Neh, she’s doing alright I guess. But harabeoji, you have to tell her to stop being so nice. Half the boys in the school are following her around.”

“Only half?” Sanchol asked, and made a clicking sound with his tongue. “My girl must be losing her touch.”

“Very funny, harabeoji.”

**

“Why don’t you come with us?” Dara asked Jiyong. He was on his way back home while Dara was planning to go watch the swim meet. Bom and Minzy were going to watch Top and Daesung, who were both on the swim team.

“It’s too hot,” Jiyong complained. He wanted to hang out with Youngbae instead listening to music.

“Well, okay,” Dara said, walking him out to the car. “If you guys change your mind you know where to find us.”

“Where are you going afterwards?”

“We’ll probably go grab something to eat and then come home. I want to spend some time with grandpa tonight.”

“Well have a good time. Don’t get too much sun,” he warned, before jumping in his car and waving goodbye.

The swim meet was held at one of the college pools and Minzy and Bom were already there and waved to Dara when she arrived. Dara wore faded jeans and a blue tank top to support her school’s colors. Her hair was split in two braids and she wore a cap on her head and sunglasses. Minzy giggled when she saw her.

“Unnie, you look so young!”

Dara smiled and made a peace sign as she struck a pose before sitting down. The girl’s team was just finishing up before the boys competition would begin.

“Where’s Jiyong?” Minzy asked Dara.

“He didn’t want to come. He said he was going to Bae’s house to listen to music.”

The girls watched the last relays by the girls team. Dara recognized Krystal, one of her friends from her history class.” She cheered loudly for her and stood up and made a victory sign when Krystal finished her heat first. Krystal saw her and waved back at Dara.

A few minutes later Bom pointed excitedly to the boys team that had just come out from the prep area. “Oh, there’s my baby boy,” she pointed him out to Dara and Minzy.

Dara looked over and saw Top and several other members of the boys team make their way to the pool. She spotted Daesung and Chanyeol as well. All of the guys were tall and lean with perfectly sculpted abs and wide muscular shoulders. The swim trunks they wore hugged their hips and powerful thighs.

“Oh my god,” Dara whispered, dropping open at the sight. “I promise to come to every single swim meet this year.”

Minzy laughed and pulled Dara’s cap down over her eyes while Bom clapped loudly for Top.

**