PLANTS AND THEIR POWER

THAT AFTERNOON

“What’s gotten into Seulmi? Now I have no one to walk home with.” Hyerin bitterly thought to herself.

As she was strolling by the school gates, Baekhyun was just standing there as if waiting for someone.

Hyerin failed to see him because she was too caught up thinking. When she did spot the guy, she instinctively dove right into the bushes and hid.

She just didn’t want another encounter with the guy who saw her cry for no good reason. “Aissh, eotokhae?!” she hissed.

Hyerin peeked through the surprisingly and unusually soft leaves. In fact she’d never tried to feel those leaves before. Now they served as her safe spot.

Byun Baekhyun just stood there, leaning on the wall and occasionally glancing at his watch.

“He must be waiting for Chanyeol.” Hyerin claimed as she lightly scratched her knees.

A few more minutes passed and Baekhyun didn’t seem at all impatient. Hyerin wiped beads of sweat on her forehead and clawed at her neck. She’d been scratching all over.

“Tch, what the hell is this? Why am I itchy all over?!” she panicked.

“Wait, what is this?! Oh my GOD it’s POISON IVY! Who in their right mind puts Poison Ivy in a public bush!? AND AT A SCHOOL!” her whispered rants went on.

The fact that Poison Ivy may grow wherever it pleases has escaped Hyerin’s mind at the moment.

With a huff of irritation, she stood up and jumped out from the bushes. Hyerin lost her balance and fell right on the ground.

Of course, before she knew it, Baekhyun was already on his way towards her. Hyerin stared up at the sky in defeat and just said, “Very funny.”

“Hyerin, a-are you alright?! Why are there red spots all over you?” Baekhyun helped her up.

Hyerin dusted herself off and replied, “It-it’s Poison Ivy.”

“It’s what?!” Baekhyun blinked, “What were you doing there?”

“I, uh dropped my pen and it rolled right through those bushes.” She answered innocently.

Baekhyun failed to stop his small giggle and just said, “Come on, I’ll take you to the nurse. Let’s just hope she’s still here.”

Hyerin felt itchy all over, she barely managed to discipline herself from clawing her own skin off. That Poison Ivy was no joke, she was covered with red burning spots and it took every ounce of her being to stop herself from scratching each and every one of them.

“Here’s some soothing cream. Put it on the red spots, it’ll help. Tch, I’ve told the school’s groundskeeper to get rid of those darn ivies! I must have a word with him again!” the nurse was very caring.

Hyerin applied the cream generously. All she could do was sigh because the cream did in fact help the itching go down.

“Are you alright now?” Baekhyun sounded concerned.

“If I remember correctly, you’ve already asked me that this morning?” Hyerin answered without considering who she was talking/ joking to.

“Heh, well you pack a lot of surprises.” He stated.

“Yeah,” Hyerin turned her gaze away from him. “I usually don’t.”

“That’s what I thought too!” he smiled, “That’s why there’s never a dull moment with you!”

Hyerin froze. And worse, she was in the middle of applying cream on her elbows. Her position was very compromising/ hard to stay in.

“Err, I mean I think you’re fun to be with!” Baekhyun tried to save his skin. Even he didn’t realize he’d slipped.

It didn’t help at all, Hyerin stayed in that uncomfortable position while the cream dripped down her hand.

Seeing as how the situation had gone so utterly hopeless, Baekhyun spoke once more, “H-Here let me help you with that.”

His hand landed right onto Hyerin’s. Hyerin remained frozen, you’d think she would outdo a real statue with the amount of stillness she’s managed.

But she yielded. Hyerin gave a small yelp and moved.

“I-I can do it. I-It’s okay.” She awkwardly nodded at the ground.

Baekhyun’s phone started to ring.

“Yeoboseyo?”

Hyerin found a chance to collect herself.

“Nae, I’m on my way.” And Baekhyun shut it off. He appeared to be in slight panic.

“Um, Hyerin I’m sorry I have to go. I hope you get better soon!” he yelled the last part because he was already in a hurry.

“Sure.” Hyerin murmured to herself as she tended to the last spots on her feet.

“Hm? Oh, where’s your boyfriend?” the nurse went right in and asked.

Nurse Shin was a little bit on the older side. Everything she said with that curly gray hair of hers seemed so sweet and genuine. Her very presence feels nice and warm.

Hyerin stared and said, “H-he’s not my boyfriend.”

“Too bad, you two look cute together!” the nurse mindlessly shipped them.

Hyerin gave an uncomfortable laugh and shook her head.

“Just try it out! You never know, you two might end up together!” the lively nurse shrugged and exited.

Hyerin sighed and closed off the bottle of cream and straightened up.

“Uhm thanks, Nurse Shin.”

“Do you feel fine now, dear?” the nurse turned to her.

Hyerin gave a nod and smiled.

THE NEXT DAY

A number of students were frantic and some were on top of ladders attaching colorful decorations to the halls and putting up signs that indicated the school festival was indeed under way.

Hyerin shut her locker and glanced at Seulmi’s to see if she was there.

She saw a girl’s figure with the upper half buried in the locker. Hyerin walked over to see if it was Seulmi. She tapped the girl’s shoulder and it showed the very stressed and sleep-deprived face of Cho Seulmi.

Seulmi blinked and yawned. Her hair was a mess but a perfect place for birds to lay their eggs. Her uniform was creased and her bag was bulging with pieces of paper.

“Care to explain?” Hyerin crossed her arms on her chest.

Hyerin peered through Seulmi’s locker and gaped at all the crumpled paper. Some folded, some completely torn, and some unidentifiable.

“Can it wait ‘til lunch? I’m still pretty tired.” Seulmi rubbed her forehead only to reveal that her hand was covered with cuts and bandages.

Hyerin gasped and took her hand, “What happened?!”

Seulmi eyed her hand and simply replied, “I told you, can it wait ‘til lunch? I have to get some real food into my system. I’ve been living on cookies and biscuits for the last 16 hours.”

Hyerin was taken aback for a minute until Seulmi decided to trudge on to her class.

First period was where all four of them; Hyerin, Seulmi, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol had together. It was Homeroom.

Seulmi barely walked but as she did, she approached Chanyeol’s desk where he was already sitting, and placed a white origami of a swan.

It looked so delicate and refined. It would’ve taken at least a few minutes to create such a piece.

“Next time, don’t just give it away. Okay?” Seulmi murmured.

Chanyeol just looked at her then at the swan. He touched it and examined it. Then he just smiled.

“Yah, what was that all about?” Baekhyun nudged the other guy.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure.” The latter shrugged.

The teacher entered the room and the students were at once in total silence. “So, we’re having the school festival tomorrow! Can you believe it?!” she sounded more excited than the students. But the students fed off of her energy, they all howled in joy.

“Are you guys all prepped?” she took a few strides from her desk. “I want a status check! Decorations! How are we doing?”

A female student stood up and spoke, “Decorations are in progress as we speak. We made sure that the whole city knows that it’s our school’s annual school festival.”

“Alright! How about the booths!” the teacher pointed.

This time, a guy wearing glasses stood up and answered, “There’ll be 15 different types of booths. These of which I know the students will surely enjoy. They’ve all been screened thoroughly and approved.”

“Wonderful! Now, let’s hear from the sound systems and public announcers!” the teacher hopped to one side of the room.

Two girls stood up and the first spoke, “The sound system is being set up. We made sure that everyone, we mean everyone in the whole campus will hear us!”

The second eager student then spoke, “The announcers and the DJ have been briefed and shall be ready for tomorrow!”

“Impressive! The programs, Ms. Cho you’re up!” the giddy teacher pointed to her.

Seulmi managed to stand up and answered only this time, her energy didn’t exactly match the teacher’s, “I’ve assigned the programs for the outside stage and inside stage depending on what the performance will be. The 2 plays along with other performances will be held in the auditorium, and other programs like battle of the bands will be at the outside stage.” And she sighed.

“Uuh, well alright. Well done, everyone!” The teacher clapped her hands.

LUNCH

“It’s lunch, you’ve eaten, and your hair looks about right again. Tell me what happened.” Hyerin placed her chin on the palm of her hand and listened attentively.

“It was nothing.” Seulmi shook her head. “He gave me this paper swan and I didn’t know it was important so I threw it away.”

FLASHBACK

Seulmi arrived at about 4:30 in her home and she stared for her computer.

Google.com

How to make a paper crane/swan

She typed it in thinking that it would be the easiest thing in the world to just follow the instructions and make one for herself.

“This should be easy.” She proudly claimed.

But as the results started to show, hung open as she saw that there were different varieties of such origami’s. She didn’t know which one it was or if she could understand such instructions.

Nevertheless, she clicked on one of the results and read on. Seulmi pulled out a pile of paper and started to follow the ‘easy’ steps.

Fold upper right hand corner all the way to the lower left corner and turn it over.

Now, fold it in half, don’t let the other corner inside the fold…

The instructions went on.

“There!” she declared as she stared down on what looked like a simple paper boat. “WHAT? WHY DOESN’T IT LOOK LIKE A SWAN?!” she whined. “Tch, I must’ve folded it wrong or something. I’ll have to start again.”

Seulmi tossed the crumpled paper aside and began once more.

She went at it for a solid 5 hours and still failed to get it. She even went to youtube to see if the people there could be of any help. But even though the instructional videos should’ve been enough, Seulmi’s piece of paper never took the form of a paper swan.

“YOU’VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! THIS IS RIDICULOUS!” Seulmi tossed her nth paper to the pile over to the side of her room.

Seulmi even consulted an Origami Online Forum just to ask if any of them could help her make a paper swan.

It is amazing how people can be so good in something and be terribly unreliable in others. The art of origami must’ve despised Seulmi to her very soul.

For the last few hours, this was all that she did. She busied herself just trying to master a single origami.

END OF FLASHBACK

Hi, NotAnEmptyUsername!!! Thank you for the nagging and everthing. Sana magustuhan mo. HAHA. Enjoy reading everyone! I hope you like it! Please? :D