Chapter 2

Rows of square desks with curved metal rods holding them up are what greet me as I enter my first class.

Math has always been a weakness for me and my artistic brain so I can’t help but cringe at the prospect of yet another boring lesson of nothing but numbers and formulae.

In this class my desk is positioned next to that of a girl named Lee Hyerin- one of the first people to call herself my friend when I first got here. She’s a shy person with the tendency to babble on when she thinks no one is actually listening to what she’s saying. Even I have to admit just how cute she is- she has the weirdest little habits that you only start to notice as you get to know her.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’m not interested in making friends when she first approached me offering me to share her lunch and sit with me on my first day, she just seemed so cute and so she stayed.

Along with being my first friend here, she has also been one of the best helps to me in getting by in Math class. Regardless of my good grades-I honestly have no idea how that happens- I often don’t do my homework because it literally bores me to sleep so she usually slips me her work book before the math teacher can get to checking our row- which luckily is the very last in the class- for incomplete homework. And here I thought things would change when I got to Korea but it seems teachers are the same everywhere.

All in all, Hyerin is a life saver and out of gratitude for her taking care of me, I stick by her most of the time.

So math class drags on, as per usual, and by the time that is done I’m dreading Physics because although I tend to find the actual subject interesting, it’s a study subject that is directly linked to math and I hate studying.

In Physics I sit at a long desk that seats four of us with a passage in the center and then another long desk on the other side. Mine is the third of four rows from the front- which suits me well enough because I have an invasive Physics teacher and I sit right next to the passage.

In my row sits a boy named Kang Gitae- a very nerdy boy who keeps to himself mostly, except when he wants to talk about school related matters, her sits right next to the window. Next to him is a girl named Kim Sungmin (I always thought that Sungmin is a boy’s name but she taught me otherwise).

Sungmin is a very boisterous and bubbly person who generally gets along with anyone and everyone because he smile is the most contagious thing to ever exist on this earth.

A lot of the time I wish she had been placed next to me in this class so her happiness can rub off on me and wipe all my physics sorrows away, but I wasn’t so lucky when we were assigned our seats so… whatever. At least she chooses to hand out with me on occasion come lunch time. She really does have this amazing ability to brighten one’s day.

Seated next to Sungmin is a boy who I find a bit unnerving to this very day and since the first time I set eyes on him. From what I’ve been told, he came here as an exchange student last year- just like me- but for some reason nobody seems to want to dwell on any topic involving him for too long for three months now he’s done nothing but stare at me when he thinks I’m not looking and now and then talk to me whenever we have been given work to do in pairs in class. Besides that he just ignores me- which makes physics all the more torturous because we get to chat a lot in that class if we keep it hushed while we work, which means talking to the person next to you. But what’s the use because for me that person is Han- people call him Luhan but I’m not people.

He’s originally Chinese so his name doesn’t have your average three syllables Korean name and surname. Apparently he made a huge deal about people calling him just by his name Han and he insisted on being called Luhan. I don’t understand why someone would want to change their name to begin with because I personally loved my old name. But just as I had to with my old life, I left it behind in South Africa when I came here.

Han never says much to me but always like he’s pondering something really hard. Whenever I see him outside of class I can’t help but notice how animated he is and also… how he just can’t stop talking when he’s around anyone but me.

It always makes me think that I did something wrong to him and he doesn’t like me, even though he does smile at me on the rare occasion, so I think it’s safe to say that when he decides to strike up a conversation with me out of nowhere, I am pretty surprised.

What did I do to deserve your attention Han Lu?

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