When did this all start? Perhaps if I hadn’t met you… if we never encountered each other I wouldn’t be in the place I am now.

1^st Grade (Primary School)

“Hye Seon! Look at it! Isn’t it pretty?”

“Oh? It’s pretty!” Hye Seon smiled and looked at her own reflection in Mina’s pink mirror.

“My mommy bought it for me. I lost it... But I found it again!” Mina exclaimed, waving her mirror around.

As the school bell rang, Hye Seon ran to her mother who was crouched down a few meters away. Smiling, she ran towards her and was hauled off the ground by her mother’s warm embrace.

“Mommy, can we go to buy things? There’s something pretty I want!”

As they entered the shopping mall, Hye Seon browsed around. Finally, she came across a rack that hung little mirrors, notepads and pencils. Although she knew it was not good to copy, Hye Seon only liked the pretty pink mirror with the bunny at the back which was identical to Mina’s.

“Mina! Mina! I have something to show you!” Hye Seon ran towards her best friend right when she got to school.

“Look! I got the same one!” She said cheerfully.

“You stole mine!” Mina shouted. Mina was known to be clumsy and misplace things but Hye Seon never expected her to blame her for something she didn’t do.

“No! I bought it yesterday with mommy!”

“You went to my house and stole it!”

“I don’t even know where you live!” No matter what Hye Seon said, Mina stuck to what she believed. Hye Seon sat alone as she watched Mina go to the other girls.  Moments later, a few of them walked over to Hye Seon.

“Hye Seon, can I see that?” One of them asked. Being a gullible and innocent child, Hye Seon willingly handed it over. It was not until they walked away with it and gave it to Mina that she realized that it had been taken from her.

“That’s mine! Give it back!”

“No it isn’t! Stop lying!”

“Mrs. Kim! Mina took my mirror!” Hye Seon ran over to her teacher crying. Although she had gotten back what belonged to her, she was labeled a liar for the rest of the year.

3^rd Grade

“Sunhwa, you still have to count with your fingers?” Hye Seon decided to make conversation with the shy girl that had sat in front of her for about two months now. As they were doing their math homework, she noticed that she was lagging behind, trying to calculate everything by counting her fingers. Shocked, Sunhwa looked up at Hye Seon, hiding her hands under the table.

“See I can count with my head. It’s faster!” Hye Seon continued, quickly completing another question which may have taken Sunhwa double the time. Although she didn’t do anything she felt was mean or wrong, Sunhwa was on the verge of tears.

“Just think of your hands and count your-sniff sniff- fingers in your-waaa-what’s wrong Sunhw-WAHHHH” Sunhwa suddenly wailed. Taken aback, Hye Seon went silent, eyes wide open as she watched the girl in front of her cry. Alarmed, the teacher quickly rushed to Sunhwa’s side.

“What’s wrong? What happened Sunhwa?” The teacher tried to calm her down.

“She-sniff sniff she made fun of-hick.. me! B-because-sniff I used my fingers-hic..  to count!” Sunhwa pointed an accusing finger at Hye Seon. Finally grasping the situation, Hye Seon began to shake her head frantically.

“No! I didn’t! I was telling her that it’s faster to count in her head. I was trying to-“You don’t tell people what to do! Do you think you’re so smart?! What if you had to count with your fingers?! Apologize!” Without hearing Hye Seon’s side of the story, she was immediately yelled at, making Hye Seon in turn, break down in tears.

“Are you okay?” one of Hye Seon’s classmates asked worriedly.

“Don’t touch her! Leave her alone!” the teacher yelled, picking up Hye Seon’s desk and moving it way at the side, away from most of where the other students sat. 

4^th  Grade

Hye Seon entered the classroom as the other students lazily filed in. Scanning around briefly, she moved to the back corner of the classroom and sat silently.

This will be my seat from now on.

5^th Grade

“But Mr. Han, I can’t see the board from here!” A boy shouted from the corner. Their  teacher had recently switched everyone’s seat since they were talking too much. Hye Seon had taken one of the seat in the center of the room which she really despised.

“Well is there anyone who wants to trade seats?” Mr. Han asked? Nobody ever sat at the back corner except Hye Seon and he had expected he could keep the most troublesome student in the back corner. Unfortunately for him, Hye Seon slowly raised her hand.

“…very well then. Hye Seon, you may go sit at the back.” The teacher gave in. She was a quiet student, almost silent, and no teacher ever picked on her.

*Present Time*

“Oh my god I’m so sorry. KIM JONGIN! LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!” If Hye Seon was like every other girl who would find Heechul attractive, she would’ve accepted his apology and believed that it was sincere. However, no matter how apologetic he acted, she could catch a hint of suppressed laughter in his voice. 

She looked at the floor as people stifled their giggles. Out of all their laughter, a small chuckle caught her attention. Moving her view upwards, Hye Seon saw Jongin laughing behind his fist which covered his mouth.

Kim Jongin. You out of all people…