“Jiwoo, it’s your first day of your last year in high school, are you excited?”

I looked up from my breakfast to see the beaming faces of my two sisters. Jimin was the one to ask the question but Jiyoon was just as excited to hear my answer. “What is there to be excited about?”

Jimin clicked her tongue. “You’re always like this.” She sighed as she took a sip of her coffee.

My parents weren’t around anymore, so being the oldest in the house, Jimin has been taking care of college student, Jiyoon and the youngest, me.

“Come on, Jiwoo, aren’t you excited to see the new male classmates?” Jiyoon refused to leave the conversation at that.

Between the three of us, Jiyoon was the craziest about boys and she was the one with the least amount of luck with boys. Yet, she was still going. Kudos to her. “Would you like to go in my stead?”

A sigh left her lips. “Why don’t you try to find a boyfriend this year?”

I pretended to think for a moment and shook my head. “I think I’m okay with my life as is.”

Jimin nudged Jiyoon. “It’s pointless. Give up, Jiyoon.” She sets the newspaper she was reading down and stood up. “Are you done, Jiwoo? I’ll take you to school.”

I nodded my head and walked over to the sink to place my finished plate into it.

“Jiwoo, at least find some cute boys that you can tell us about when you come home.” Jiyoon continued to push for it.

To make her happy, I nodded my head. “Sure, unnie.”

Jimin and I left her as we headed out the door. Jiyoon took the subway to her university and usually left later than us. Thankfully my school was on the way to Jimin’s job at the company and that saved me from taking the public bus to school in the morning, one of the busiest times of the day where everyone was going to work.

It wasn’t long before we were driving down the familiar busy street. I looked out the window to see the rest of the students walking towards school and the gates slowly coming into view. Jimin slowed to a stop in front of the curb. “Thanks, unnie. I’ll see you tonight.” 

“Jiwoo, do you need me to pick you up?”

Considering how late she gets out of work, I decided to take my chances with the public bus. “No, it’s fine.”

She nodded and I closed the door before she drove off.

“Jiwoo!"

I looked up to see Sanghee waving at me by the gates. I gave her a small smile and walked up to her. 

We walked beside each other towards the school building. We watched as girls laughed and met up with each other and the boys fooling around in their own groups. Sure, we weren’t the most popular but it didn’t put us at any disadvantages. It was most likely due to the fact that Sanghee and I weren’t really outgoing. We stayed within our two-(wo)men friendship and minded our own business. And we were content with that.

But, you couldn’t always avoid trouble.

And there was one trouble in our lives. The trouble named Kim Donghyuk.

“Still hanging with each other, I see.” Donghyuk caught up and walked beside me. Sanghee and I ignored his sudden presence and continued on our way into school. By talking to him, you only fueled his annoying nature. “Come on, the silent treatment is getting old.”

“Donghyuk, just because you have nothing else better to do, do you really need to come bother us?” I asked in a bored manner because that’s what I was. I was bored with him always pulling the same stunt to get some rise out of us… at least I think that’s what he was trying to do.

He chuckled. “You never change.”

“I could say the same about you.” I retorted evenly.

“Jiwoo, I’ll head to my locker first. I’ll see you in class.” Sanghee said lightly. She has also gotten better with dealing with Donghyuk. That’s right, ignoring was the best defense we came up with.

Right, and this year, Sanghee wasn’t sharing the same homeroom as me. We split and walk in opposite directions. To my dismay, Donghyuk had decided to follow me. I found my locker and stopped to open it. “What do you want?”

“Well, I’m President of the Student Council and I’m getting to know my classmates.” He answered and shrugged.

I always did question the validity of the voting process.

“There are about 800 students in this school, go get to know someone else.” My tone wasn’t malicious nor did it show any emotion and I think that’s the problem. But when I think about screaming or yelling at Donghyuk to leave me alone, I always decide that it was energy that I was uselessly wasting on him when I can use it elsewhere. Like getting away from him.

And, that's what I did. 

“I guess I’ll see you later, Jiwoo!”

I sighed after hearing him yell down the hallway. Well, at least he wasn’t following after me.

I walked into homeroom to see that our seats were already decided for us but found myself thankful that the seats weren’t doubled up. No seat partners and I took joy in that. It wasn't long before the door opened and in walked this year’s homeroom teacher. The students returned to their seats and I watched him cross the room to settle things on his desk.

“Good morning, I’m Mr. Woo and I’ll be your third year homeroom teacher.” He checked his attendance sheet and noticed a few bodies missing. “Is Kim Hanbin, Kim Jinhwan, and Kim Jiwon here?”

Hanbin? Kim Hanbin?

He was in this homeroom? The memory of that night popped into my mind. I mean chances of him remembering me were pretty slim. It had already been a week or so since then and it was dark that night, I had my hoodie up, and he was clearly blinded by rage (may be a bit of an exaggeration) – but I think I was safe.  

The students looked around but no one could provide the answer to the teacher’s question. But, it wasn’t like anyone was that close to the three boys to know.

Another year and those troublemakers were still making trouble it seems. I heard the teacher sigh and mark off on the sheet. “It looks like the rumors are true.” He mumbled quietly to himself.

The door opened again and everyone looked up to see who it was. Well, wasn’t it the troublemakers themselves. The three walked in, unconcerned about the fact that they were late.

“Wow, three Mr. Kim’s, how convenient. You three, stay right there.” Mr. Woo spoke out. “You do know you are all late. It is the first day and I’m willing to let it slide.”

The three boys just looked at him.

“Please don’t let it happen again.” The teacher continued and motioned for the boys to take their seats. Which to my surprise and to the surprise of the students, they obediently did. No objections, no back talking, no nothing. Did they finally grow up? Who knows but I surely doubt it.

Despite my reasoning earlier, I did avoid making any unnecessary eye contact that may cause me problems for the rest of class.

***

“I heard the three were in your homeroom.” Sanghee leaned beside my locker. “Did Hanbin notice you?”

I shook my head. “Nope, but I don’t think he was actually looking for me.” I mean I didn’t exactly cause him any trouble, if anything I ‘helped’ him so why would he come after me? See, I was being too anxious again.

“Hm.” Sanghee hummed in thought. “Well, no reason to complain.” She chuckled.

I nodded and smiled in agreement. “Let’s go to lunch.”

On the way there, Sanghee talked about her homeroom and the first words out of concerned the male students in her class. This is exactly why she gets along with my sisters. She giggled as she talked about some kid who managed to catch her