What a difference a few hours can make.

At 9.30 a.m., the sky had been Mediterranean blue, the sun had pretended it was July instead of late September. I hurried to my house immediately after school.

Who would have guessed that by lunchtime, a particularly very mean bunch of rain clouds would swoop along, chucking down water so hard I looked like i had just gone for fully clothed dip in the Han River by the time I made it to home. As for my shoes it sounded as if I was treading on soggy, indignant mice with every step.

The weather wasn't the only thing that had change for the mega-worse over the morning. My mind had done a complete swivel on the matter of leaving my group of "friends". I mean how hard is it to leave a gang? I heard from my classmates from school that once you are in a gang, you can NEVER EVER get out of it. I pulled my hair in frustration. I have been avoiding them for weeks already. They are bound to find out about my plan (of leaving their gang) sooner or later. Unless ... unless of course, I developed a contagious illness that meant I do not have to go to school for a year until the gang were disbanded ( it is quite impossible for the gang to disband since they keep recruiting kids who are deprived from family love or come from broken families like me). Ace idea!

"It's got to be something to do with getting soaked in the rain," I thought.

A dusty part of my brain whirred into life, initiallizing the keywords "damp" , "cold" and "diseases". Words such as flu, pneumonia, tuberculosis and many more came flooding into my brain.

Before I could settle on anything in particular and develop instant symptoms, a familiar voice echoed in my ear.

"Where have you been these past few weeks Kim Hana," Fann asked me sweetly.

I turned around and saw the rest of my friends. They were waiting for an answer.

"I had something to do at home," I mumbled back.

"What do you do at home?" Fann asked agitatedly, frustrated at the way I answered her question.

"I...I...I...,"I stamm