The girl made it to her classroom twenty minutes before school started, used to the newly formed routine of meeting Jackson before class. The girl sighed as she took her seat in the empty room and pulled out her phone, sending the boy a good morning text. Yejin sat alone and munched on her snacks for a moment before the boy responded with the same exact message. The minutes ticked by until students began pouring in the class and she did her best to not stare when Jackson took his own seat and didn’t even spare a glance in her direction. Soon the teacher walked in and the lesson began. It was hard not to notice that the whispers had returned, and this time people were talking trash about both Yejin and Jackson.

            “What a little , broke a bone from tripping during the game,”

            “It’s karma for hanging out with the weird girl,”

            “Now they’re both creepy mutes. I hope she’s happy,”

             Yejin tried her best to block them out, but it made her realize why Jackson was avoiding her. She couldn’t blame him. She didn’t think he was weak enough to care so much about what other people thought, but then again she realized she barely knew him at all. The bell for lunch rang and kids started to exit the room. Yejin kept her eyes on her hand gripping the notebook that sat open on her desk. She didn’t feel welcome around Jackson anymore and was unsure of how his friends would treat her now. The girl put in her headphones and decided to pass the break by doodling in the margins of her notes while doing her best to maintain a solid composure.

            Two songs into her alone time someone entered the room unbeknownst to her. They came and sat in the seat in front of her, sitting a lunch tray down on top of her notes with their right hand. Yejin paused her music and looked up to see Jackson turned around in the desk, mixing up the rice with a pair of chopsticks. The girl pulled the earbuds out and lifted the tray to pull her notebook out from underneath.

            “I couldn’t carry two trays,” Jackson said as he held out a spoonful of food for her to eat.

Yejin felt a bubble of relief burst inside of her as she shamelessly ate it. She picked up the chopsticks and the two ate bits of the lunch in a