Jae-Sun stopped outside of a class near the end of the hall and turned to Zhen Ai smiling. Zhen didn’t think it was a coincidence that he was standing directly in a ray of sunlight, allowing his teeth and eyes to glint in a way that, for most girls, would have been absolutely attractive. Zhen didn’t find it attractive at all. “Wait right here, I need to go speak to the teacher first.” He said, opening the classroom door and hurrying inside.

He left the door open so Zhen could see him gesture to her and talk quickly. The teacher gave a brisk nod, and Jae-Sun motioned for her to enter the room. She swallowed and, hesitantly, took a step into the room. She did turned as she closed the door and stared around the class. “Class,” The teacher started, and Jae-Sun moved to her side. He moved behind her and pushed her towards the teacher, who was smiling at her. “This is our newest edition. Please welcome Ahn Jin Ae. She will be joining us at the start of next week.”

The class gave a simple greeting and small bow of their heads. “Would you like to tell us something about yourself, Ahn Jin Ae?”

Zhen turned to stare at the teacher, gaping open in shock. Why would he ask her that! No! She didn’t want to say anything to these people. He nodded his head and gestured to the group frantically. Zhen turned to the class and bit her lip. “I, uh, like photography?”

“Wonderful. Welcome, Ahn Jin Ae.” With that, Jae-Sun grabbed Zhen’s arm and pulled her away from the front of the class and towards the back. “Continuing on,” The teacher said, and Zhen was thankful for the subject changing away from her.

Jae-Sun led her towards what looked like large cubby holes. “We use these so we don’t have to go down to our shoe lockers if we forget something, and this way our bags aren’t around us, so we aren’t distracted from our work.” He tapped to one of the storage’s name tag and smiled. “This one is mine, so we’ll assign you this one,” He said, pointing to the empty one beside his. “That way, if you forget which one is yours, you can ask me, since they’re side by side.”

Zhen nodded, entirely uncaring of the cubby hole. “Is there anything else I need to see?” She asked, impatiently.

Jae-Sun shrugged. “I suppose not. I’ll just take you back to the office to meet back up with your parents and friend.” He gestured to the door at the back of the room. Zhen spun around and practically ran to it. When they were out in the hall, she released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “I take it you don’t really care for school, huh?”

Zhen shook her head. “Not really.” Jae-Sun laughed at this, but he started down the hall, leading the way back to the office. Zhen was grateful that he didn’t say a word to her again until they neared the office. “Thank you for your time.” Zhen murmured.

Jae-Sun nodded his head. “No problem.” Zhen turned and started towards the office. “Hey, uh, Jin Ae?” Zhen stopped walking and, sadly, turned back to face Jae-Sun. “If it’s okay, could I walk you to class tomorrow?” He reached up, rubbing the back of his neck nervously and shoving his other hand into his pocket. “I mean, just so you don’t get lost.”

Zhen gave a small smile. “Sure.”

Jae-Sun’s eyes lit up. “Really?” He asked, and then cleared his throat. “I mean, uh, yeah.” He looked down. “Awesome.” Zhen had to suppress a giggle, which made a very awkward silence fall between them. “Right, so uh, I’ll meet you by your shoe locker?” Zhen nodded. “Great. I’ll see you next week.” He turned and hurried off, muttering to himself.

When he was gone, Zhen couldn’t hold in her laughter and turned to open the door into the office. As her laugh slowed and died off, the door that her foster parents and Mallory had disappeared through opened, and the Shins filed out, followed by a very seething Mallory, and then the counsellor. “Thank you, Ms. Yu.”

“Yeah, thank you.” Mallory hissed, storming past the Shins towards Zhen, who opened to ask what was wrong. Mallory answered before she could ask. “Manager Jeung called ahead and had Yu enroll me as well.” She seethed, saying the words through clenched teeth.

Cho Hee and Dae Hyun were already making their way towards the group. “Ladies, Dae Hyun was called into work, so I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out, the three of us, and get some lunch and then the supplies you’ll need for school this week?”

Mallory turned to Zhen. “Since I’m being forced to enroll.”

Zhen, Cho Hee, and Mallory were walking through the Office Supplies store when Mallory’s brother, Jaspar had called. She had excused herself into another aisle to speak with him, since the entire conversation would, presumably, be in French.

This left Zhen and Cho Hee alone. They already had a basket full of notebooks, binders, and other odds and ends, so Zhen wasn’t really sure what they were still looking for. “So,” Cho Hee started, swinging the basket at her side as they walked. “That Kwon Jae-Sun was kind of cute.”

Zhen nodded. “I suppose.”

“Oh come on Zhen Ai! How could you not think he was cute?”

Zhen shrugged. “Easy. I don’t like men who are overly confident in themselves, who think that they’re all put together and have reached their potential in life. They’re bland, undimensional. I don’t really care for uninteresting relationships.” She said the description, and she wasn’t lying. She really did dislike those who knew they were better than others. Jae-Sun just had that air about him.

Cho Hee looked surprised. “Wow, I guess I can understand that, but you only just met him. How could you see all of that in him already?”

Zhen shrugged. “Easy. The way he brushed his hair out of his face before he bowed, when he was talking to me. Or the way he tilted his head when he talked, and he always talked softly, like I was possibly a seven year old, and he wasn’t quite sure.”

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