Seunghee woke up in an instant. She looked up at her analog clock hanging on her wall. 6:06am. She pulled off her white bed covers and climbed out of bed. The sun was already shining brightly through her pastel purple curtains. Seunghee rubbed her eyes and opened her windows. The wind carried the early morning fresh air into her room. Unlike most people, Seunghee was an early riser. Yes, she loved sleeping but she hated being late or even just on time even more. Seunghee was used to being early, usually ten to fifteen minutes early to any event and she found people who came late very annoying, maybe she even disliked them (but she didn’t want to sound mean).

She washed her face, brushed her teeth and headed into the kitchen to make breakfast. After breakfast, it was still only 6:47am so the girl decided to go for a short walk around her neighborhood. Still in her pajamas, Seunghee walked to the park where she had met Kai yesterday. 
“Nobody would see me or know me anyways”, she thought, looking down at her pajamas. 

She sat on a swing and just sat there for some time thinking about nothing in particular. Just about…life. She thought of her parent that claimed she was their treasure yet they hardly showed any signs of affection towards her. Many people would be jealous of her life; she was never tight on money, she had excellent grades and she wasn’t ugly. 

Suddenly, Seunghee felt a presence behind her. It felt really familiar…but she couldn’t pinpoint who it was. 
“Hi”, a voice said. 
Turning around, Seunghee was meet with the most intense dark brown eyes. It was Kai. Seunghee was surprised but she didn’t show that on her face. 
“Hey” she greeted back.
“So… Seunghee why’re you up so early?” he asked
“I’m usually like this” she replied, chuckling.

Kai walked to the other swing next to Seunghee. He was surprised. Really surprised. Most girls liked, no loved to sleep. He didn’t know any girl (not that he had any female friends) that voluntarily would wake up early and take morning strolls. Also, he doubted any girl would dare to wear their pajamas in public or not wear makeup. He just assumed most girls would. And yes, it was quite true. Obviously Seunghee was different.
And he liked it.

The two talked for some time about random topics like the day before but they realized it was getting quite close to school time.
“You should go back home to change into your uniform” Kai reminded her.

Seunghee only then realized she had been talking to Kai in her light pink teddy bear patterned pajamas. She blushed.
“Yeah… I should” she said in a slightly embarrassed voice.

He chuckled at her silliness. 
“Do you want me to come with you?” he asked.
“What, with me to change? Wait no that sounds dodgy like… I meant like… why? Don’t you have other stuff to do?” Seunghee said, stumbling on her words. 

Oh, she was such an embarrassment. Seunghee was not usually like this; she was clear with her words and never clumsy with anything. So what was going on? 

“Shhhh” Kai silenced her, holding in his laughter. “I just meant to walk you back home”.
Wow, Kai you gentleman.

“It’s fine, Kai, I can at least handle that much myself” she said smiling at him.
Dang. That was the second time Kai was rejected by Seunghee. Kai’s pride wasn’t hurt though. He felt as though it was right. Usually, he would get worked up if a girl rejected his offer this quickly but somehow Seunghee managed to make him feel annoyed yet very normal and right. He didn’t know why.

“Bye then, see you at school Seunghee” Kai called as she walked away. 

She turned around and saluted at him with an eye smile. Kai felt strangely happy and bubbly. The two had become so comfortable with each other’s presence just over a day. It was a strange occurrence for both of them.

-

After arriving home, Seunghee changed into her new black and white uniform. It was a white blouse with the Seoul High logo on the left pocket with a black and white checkered skirt. The uniform was simple and clean looking, giving off an upper-class feel.
Seunghee brushed her fingers through her hair a few times and grabbed her MCM bag and headed for the door. 

-

The school bell rang and all the students broke out of their groups and went to their seats. Seunghee sat in her spot, third row from the front next to the window and took out her red pencil case. Ten minutes later, a familiar male walked into the classroom. Seunghee immediately knew it was Kai. His eyes found hers and he slightly smirked at her. Oh, that smirk. Ignoring the teacher’s presence, he walked to the empty spot next to Seunghee and took a seat. Whispers could be heard throughout the classroom.

“That’s the second day in a row Kai’s come to school!”
“He keeps doing stuff related to that new girl!”
“Who cares?”
“Is he actually gonna listen in class now?”
“But isn’t Kai smart, he doesn’t listen in class but he manages to - “

“Ahem” Mrs Jung said cutting of student. 
“Sorry Miss” the student said quickly, bowing her head.

Kai casually took his pen out of his black Herschel bag and a blank piece of paper.
Not even an exercise book.
Seunghee just smiled at him briefly and continued to listen in class. Kai was flicking his pen throughout the whole lesson.

_

“-and that ends the topic on complex numbers, please revise carefully, especially the imaginary numbers! We will be having a class test this Friday” the Maths teacher said, rubbing off the complicated working out on the whiteboard. Many students were frantically trying to copy down all the notes before it was all rubbed out. Kai’s piece of paper was still blank. He looked over on his left to Seunghee’s neatly written work from Maths class and cleared his throat. 

“Oi Seunghee. Can I copy your notes?” he asked trying to sound cool about it.
She looked at him with eyebrows raised and looked at his empty, blank piece of paper.
“Do you even listen in class?” she asked.
“Well, I do…” Yes, I do listen in class. That doesn’t mean I have to write anything. 

Kai doesn’t write anything down because he has to keep his cool reputation and his back off aura. Too bad that aura disappeared when Seunghee came; he didn’t even know why. Sometimes he was sick of being the lifeless boy, but he felt it was necessary because he felt guilty for his parents, who died because of him. He didn’t deserve a colourful and happy life. He had to live a dull and mundane life or else he thought he would die of guilt.
“Yeah okay but I need my book for the rest of the day. Sorry Kai. Maybe you can copy it another time?” she replied, waking up Kai from his thoughts.
“Thank you” Kai said sincerely. “How about after school at the dance studio?”

Seunghee was caught off guard. After school? With Kai again? She knew him from the past and felt bad. She felt as though she had intruded a big part of his life and he didn’t even know. She didn’t want to be on good terms with him yet. She felt terrible for not telling him about the accident she witnessed. 

“Ok then. 4:30?” she said.
“Yeah okay, see ya” he replied.

-

It was stupid for Seunghee to be overthinking. It was just a simple meet up for Kai to copy Seunghee’s Maths notes but somehow she was nervous. Was it because she had known him from before? Or was it because he was a guy and she wasn’t used to talking to guys or something else? 
She brushed off those thoughts and concentrated on her Chemistry lesson.

-

The bell rang for the end of school and students crowded in the hallways towards the entrance of the school. Students pushed, shoved and squeezed through each other to escape the school territory as soon as possible. The noise of the uncontrollable teenagers yelling and chattering was wild. Teachers tried to quieten them down but none even looked in their direction. Even at Seoul High, the most prestigious school in South Korea, everyone gave up on being polite and pompous at the end of the day.

Seunghee waited until the crowd drifted away and walked through the once crowded corridors back home. 
She suddenly stopped in her tracks. Something didn’t feel right. It was as though she had forgotten something important… but what was it?
“Oh! I have to meet Kai to let him copy my notes! Oooops”, she suddenly remembered.
Slightly excited, she walked to the park. 

Opening the door to the dance studio, Seunghee the lights. Kai was not there.
Where was Kai? Had he forgotten? 
She waited for several minutes and Kai had still not come. 

Dejected, Seunghee turned to leave -
“Seunghee I am so sorry! It’s not that I forgot, but my boss wanted me to work overtime -“ he said.
“It’s fine Kai. Really.” She said. 
“So he has to work? I’ve never worked in a proper place. I guess it’s really hard for him then, living on his own…Does he live alone?” she thought.
“Do you live alone?” Seunghee asked casually, forgetting she wasn't supposed to know or care.
“Why do you think that?” he questioned her, in a deadly whisper.
“Well Kai… umm, I was guessing” she stuttered back.
“Seunghee, did you know me before you came here? The way you look at me tells me you’ve known me before. You were staring at me on the first day of school” he asked her seriously.
“Not really… I kind of did… I actually did know you before though, when you were really young, and it wasn’t a … it wasn’t a really good memory actually” she mumbled looking at the ground.
“What happened when you saw me?” Kai growled in a dangerous voice, unlike his usual self.
“Your… mum and… dad…” she whispered feeling ashamed.

Kai froze. His turned around and buried his face in his hands. Seunghee felt really really guilty for being there during one of his weakest moments. Right now, she wanted to hug him, to comfort him, to assure him things would get better, but she didn’t know how to. Her body was also frozen.
After several minutes, Kai finally spoke.

“You saw that happen?”
“Only vaguely…” she said. “Kai, I’m really sorry, I feel as though I’ve invaded your life –“
“I’ll be going home now” Kai said interrupting her words.

Seunghee was speechless. Her eyes were getting teary and she still didn’t know what to say or do.

“I’m really sorry” she kept saying.
“Just go home” he kept saying.

Kai slowly turned to leave.

He didn’t look back,
He didn’t look back to wave at her,
He didn’t look back to give his signature smirk,
He just left.

-

Seunghee managed to get back home. She didn’t even know how. She was so tired and guilty. 
“Today’s the worst day in my whole life, I shouldn’t’ve told him the truth. This is all my fault” she thought bitterly, with tears filling her eyes.

Kai laid on his bed.
“I can’t help but be angry at Seunghee. She should’ve told me as soon as she recognized me. But still… blaming her is not right, she did nothing wrong” he thought to himself, trying to fall asleep.

The two both finally fell asleep after thinking about each other, with a heavy and miserable heart.