Chapter Two: 

Outside My Comfort Zone

“Nara why... What did I do to deserve this?” I whined as I banged my head against the lunch table. I didn’t deserve this. I don’t deserve this. Well technically I do deserve this because I’m so smart and get good grades but I never asked for this and I don’t want this. Ugh I have a headache. 

“You’ve really done it this time.” she taunted me while biting into her sandwich.

“It’s not funny! This is literally my worst nightmare.” I banged my head into the table again. “Ow..” Okay, that kinda hurt.

“Can you stop, your forehead is turning red.” She nagged as she rubbed my forehead. “Maybe it’s not as bad as you think. You haven’t even seen what it’s like yet.” she said as took another bite out of her sandwich.

But here’s the thing. I DON’T WANT TO. I don’t want to have to communicate with my ‘fellow peers’. One of them already hates me aka Hanbin. Oh that’s right. “So who is Kim Hanbin?” I asked her. “He sits next to me in class.” She nearly choked on her food when I told her that. She downed her bottle of water to recover from her swallowing unprocessed food.

“Whatever you do, try not to get too involved with him. Ignore him and only associate with him when you absolutely have to.” she warned me. Whoa, aren’t you being a little over-dramatic here Nara? You’re starting to scare me. Is he like some undercover murderer or child molester? It can’t be that bad.

“Why? Is there something I should know about him?” Again. Not like I really care but since Nara decides to make this sound like a big deal, I can’t help but let her finish the story.

“He may seem harmless at first but he’s big trouble.” she said ominously.

“Big trouble? How?”

“He’s the type of guy who always starts or gets involved in problems. Last year, he got into 9 fights with some kids from another school. He also has the reputation of being an but that’s just rumors. The fights though are facts.”

Great. Just great. I managed to make the guy who loves to fist fight with other people hate me on our first meeting. This is not how I imagined my first day of school would turn out.

“His friend is bad news too. I think his name is Bobby. The one with the really chinky eyes. They’re always glued together.”

Great. Just great. I managed to make the guy who loves fist fighting with other people AND his friend hate me. This is so stressful. This is too much to take in on the first day of school.

“Aren’t you hungry? You didn’t eat anything yet.” Nara asked while going back to her sandwich.

“No. Just leave me to die in peace.” I replied, banging my head into the lunch table once again.

It was 5:19 PM. Like always, I was home alone. I was stressed, hungry, and home alone. And of course, the fridge is empty because Imo never has time to go food shopping anymore. I guess I’ll just run to the convenience store nearby. I threw on a pair of gray jogger sweatpants, a plain gray hoodie and headed out the door. I walked to the convenience store which is about five minutes away from my house. It was still broad daylight out surprisingly. It’s already September so it should start getting darker earlier on in the day. Not looking forward to it. Just so you know, this is me just trying to distract myself from the fact that I became class president and managed to make people already hate me. I honestly want to cry and rewind back to the time where everything went wrong. Did I commit a sin I was unaware of? Ugh I don’t know. This is beginning to hurt my head again. After talking to myself, before I knew it, I arrived in front of the store. I began to look around for something sweet. It wasn’t long before I laid my eyes upon the greatest thing to ever exist. Yes boys and girls, the store had 'chococones’ back in stock. Just by looking at it’s perfection, I can hear the angels singing. I grabbed myself a box and held it as if it were own loving child. Oh what the hell, let’s grab one more. Grabbing another box of chococones, I went to bring them to the checkout register.

I walked along back home as the white plastic bag hanging around my wrist lightly tapped the side of my thigh. I was suddenly interrupted out of my typical daze by a high pitched barking noise coming from behind me. I turned around to find a small pug wagging it’s tail looking straight up at me.
“Hey there little guy, what’s wrong? Are you lost?” I crouched down and gently reached out my hand out to pet him. Please don't bite me. He replied by wagging his tail even faster. He had a collar on him so I’m assuming he has an owner. ‘Obang’ it said. “Did you run away or something Obang?” Atleast I'm assuming that's his name. I had to admit, this dog was really cute. It was round and plump with stubby little legs. Kind of reminds me of myself 6 years ago. I looked around to see if anybody was nearby. I gently picked up Obang, cradling him in my arms. “Come on, let’s go walk around and see if anyone is looking for you.” I turned around and began walking in the opposite direction from my house. After about 2 minutes, I heard a voice calling out from the distance.

“OBANG!!” His ears immediately shot up and he started to fiddle around in my arms. The voice started to get closer and closer.

“He’s over here!” I shouted out back at the voice. After a brief moment of silence, the voice called out again.

“WHERE?”

“Over here!” I called out again. Am I playing marco polo or something? I began to walk closer towards where the voice was calling out. I turned the corner of a building and almost ran into someone.

“Obang! There you are!” He exclaimed with relief. I looked up at the person’s face. A boy who looked to be around my age stood in front of me. He had orange/brownish hair with small eyes, narrow eyes. He had a small beauty mark right beneath one of his eyes. He was panting as if he had been running a marathon.

“I’m guessing this is your dog…” I said as I held out the small pug who was cradled within my arms.

“Yes, thank you so much! I turned around for one second and he ran off somewhere, I thought something bad happened to him.” He gently grabbed the small dog out of my arms and into his own.

“No problem. He randomly walked up to me from behind so I was a little confused.” I replied with a smile. Suddenly, two boys ran up from behind him.

“Did you find him?!” One of them asked worriedly. His voice sounded so familiar. To my surprised, I looked up to see Hanbin and his friend Bobby standing behind the boy in front of me. Oh. My. God. What the hell are they doing here? Do they know him?! I started to panic. I should leave before they notice me, what if they try to punch me?! “Alright well, It’s time for me to go. I’m glad you found your dog!” I smiled at the b