"I like your name," the transfer student tells her in a voice that's unnaturally level, a performance of professional calm too rehearsed to really feel genuine, as she leans over Seulgi's desk after the bell rings. "It's really cool."

Seulgi pauses, halfway through loading her books into her backpack, and looks up at the girl. Her face has a neutral expression on it, maybe with just a hint of a smile, almost cold, and Seulgi wonders if she's being threatened. It's a little presumptuous of a new student to be trying to set a new status quo, but then again, this one's been shipped straight back from America and who knows how things are meant to work over there.

It's not like Seulgi hasn't been complemented on her name before. It's not written in hanja; it's just pure Korean, a little unique. Kind of trendy, or so her classmates keep telling her. She likes it just fine. 'Wisdom' is a pretty good thing to hope your child will have. At least it wasn't one of those embarrassing, really long names that never fit into the entry section on the top of test forms. 'Kang Seulgi' fits fine into those three block spaces they give you. Seulgi won't have trouble filling out forms for passports or driver's licences or anything else.

She decides to play things diplomatically. "Thanks. I like yours too, Jung Soojung. It's the same if you say it backwards or forwards, huh?"

The transfer student's eyes light up a little, smile softening on her face, and Seulgi feels bad for ever thinking this girl was trying to pick a fight. It's really just a cold sort of awkwardness, very chic, very sophisticated. Seulgi had always admired that sort of cool look. 

It's nice to think that someone with an image like that, all elegant and composed, thinks her name is cool. Rather than just being pretty, Seulgi's always wanted to be the kind of girl other girls admired and not just because of her looks. Her looks might be lacking. All through middle school, the girl who sat next to her, the girl who Seulgi had been convinced was her friend, kept suggesting she try out some double eyelid tape. Seulgi refused all the way though until, the day before graduation, she found her bag in the middle of the water fountain.

Soojung shifts awkwardly, leaning her weight from one leg to the other while she looks around, sometimes looking Seulgi straight in the eye, sometimes looking away like she can't remember what's the polite standard. Maybe she can't. Soojung's accent is pitch perfect and her grammar is fine but there's something about her choice of words that's just a little odd--something in the way she strings her sentences together.

"How long did you live in America?"

"Ah," Soojung says. Seulgi can see numbers and calculations flickering in her head, almost flashing in the back of her eyes. Maybe they're not numbers, but words fluttering past in translation attempts instead. Seulgi wouldn't really know. "I was born in America, actually. I lived there my whole life until now."

"Oh," Seulgi says. "Your Korean is great."

That's the wrong thing to say, because Soojung flinches for a fleeting fraction of a second before schooling her features back to that polite calm instead of the shy, hopeful smile that was on her face just before. Seulgi feels like kicking herself, and she doesn't really know why because she's only known Soojung for a few hours, half-asleep at her introduction that morning to the class.

"Um, not that it wouldn't be great anyway," Seulgi says, trying to recover. "Whether you're Korean-American or Korean, if you're Korean's good then it's good but that's it I guess." 

Soojung smiles again and Seulgi takes it as a win. She says, "Are you going home now or do you have a cram school or anything to get to?"

"I'm going home, actually." The school day was long enough.

"Okay," Soojung says. "Which way are you headed?"

"The station by the bridge."

"That's on the way for me too," Soojung says, pleasantly. She folds her hands in front of her. "Can we walk there together?" 

She's pretty blunt. Maybe it's an American thing. Good for Soojung, anyway. It's probably hard to try and make friends in the middle of the school year when you just came from a completely different country. Seulgi doesn't know how she'd handle it. Soojung seems nice enough. There's no reason to object. Is there?

"Sure."

Soojung's smile widens and her fingers lace and unlace themselves, b with nervous energy. "Okay. I'll get my bag."

Soojung rides a bicycle into school. It's a girl's bike, which she can only tell because of the lack of a crossbar, and it's a matte dark grey that makes it edgy cool and still understated, which seems to fit Soojung.

She could get home faster, Seulgi's sure, if she was actually riding the bike now, but instead she's walking it next to her as she accompanies Seulgi to the train station where she's begin her own long, gruelling commute through overcrowded pubic transport. 

Soojung must live nearby, she guesses, though she supposes it's too early for them to be having those kinds of conversation. The bicycle suits her, anyway. Soojung seems pretty athletic. Seulgi (or anyone really considering how obvious it is) can see how toned her legs are, even through the tights they all have to wear as part of the school uniform.

They're the same age, so Soojung is talking to her informally, at least. Well, mostly informally. Some of her verbs are conjugated a bit weird, but Soojung would probably be embarrassed if Seulgi brought up how she keeps drifting in and out of panmal.

"How long have you been back in Korea for?"

"Just a week."

Soojung will definitely get it, then. She's just readjusting, that's all. Seulgi remembers the way she flinched in the classroom when she brought up her Korean and elects to wait and see how things go. Nothing Soojung's saying is wrong, after all, just occasionally odd. Cute, even. It could be getting used to speaking Korean or it could be shyness. Her smile is, at least, useful in clearing that up. She should talk to the rest of class tomorrow and clear things up before Soojung has any weird rumours spread about her. Between Soojung's cold default expression and the way she bluntly talks, there's far too many possibilities for misunderstanding.

"How are you finding things?"

"They're going okay."

Seulgi wishes she was better at small talk. Things might be better if Seungwan was around but she scampered off to dance practice or whatever it was she did after school as soon as the bell rung, as always. How she found the time and energy to do anything after school was beyond her. Once she made it through the mountain of work school issues, Seulgi just wanted to fall asleep.

The silence between them, broken only by the occasional creak of Soojung's bicycle chain clicking away against the gears, is oddly comfortable. They reach the station faster than Seulgi thinks it usually takes for her to get there. It makes her want to take a longer route here next time.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Soojung asks, with a hesitant wave goodbye.

"Of course. You've got the desk next to me after all."

Soojung grips the handlebars of her bike tightly, knuckles bone white, and nods. Seulgi gives her a wave back and disappears into the stream of people filtering through the turnstiles of the station. Even though the train is packed to the brim like always, commuters jammed in like overflowing sardines bulging as they rot in their tin, the ride back home seems like it's going to be more pleasant than usual.

Seulgi plugs in her earbuds and smiles.