3rd Person POV

Come on, bus. You can do it. Go faster.

Seolhyun silently willed the bus to double its speed, or maybe skip a stop or two, along its way to school. She woke up late again (her ringtone sounded too lullaby-lic and promptly set her back to sleep after waking her up) and at this rate she would probably be around 10 minutes late. Not good when she was riding on my third late slip for the term.

Seolhyun reached for her bag, which was slung to her back, to retrieve her water bottle, in order to wash down the disgusting remnants of burnt toast and hastily applied toothpaste still lingering in . Fumbling around and not discovering it, she cursed lightly under her breath. Between getting changed in record time, wolfing down burnt toast (she could never master how to use the toaster properly) and reminding her neighbour Bomi to help check on her grandfather thrice a day (to ensure that if he did collapse from his cancer someone would find him before it was too late), she had completely forgotten to replace her water bottle in her bag after taking it out to wash last night. 

Damn, thought Seolhyun, a pang of sadness ripping through her heart. Thinking about her grandfather always made her really sad. Many a night had been spent pondering how she would cope and live on without him, how she would get over grieving for him, what she were the final words she would say to him.

“deo dagawa Just 10 Seconds geu nugudo al su eopsge nal neukkyeobwa Just 10 Seconds deo dagawa Just 10 Seconds…”

Seolhyun’s ringtone, set (for now) as AOA’s 10 seconds, rung shrilly, sharply piercing the quiet chatter on the bus that preceded it. Conversations stopped as all eyes turned to stare at Seolhyun, some tinted with annoyance, others with curiosity. With an apologetic look plastered to her face, Seolhyun wrestled with her skirt pocket for her phone, but not before her ringtone expired and whoever the caller was called again.

Checking the screen, and noticing that the caller ID said “Unknown number”, she hastily swiped accept on the screen and placed it to her ear.

“Yoboseyo?” greeted Seolhyun into the receiver.

“Is this Kim Seolhyun?” enquired the foreign voice, which although sounding calm, had the undertone of anxiety and worry. Who is this? Someone at the hospital saying that grandfather had to be re-admitted?

“Ye…yes,” Seolhyun replied, the above possibility choking her.

“This is Ms Shin. I am in class already, and school has commenced. Why aren’t you here yet?” the voice continued in an official-sounding manner. Dropping her voice deeper, Hyejeong added, “Please don’t tell me you’re doing something foolish right now, okay? I’m really worried for you.”

Seolhyun chuckled to herself. Of the few things she was good at, reading other people’s tone was clearly one of them. “I’m fine,” Seolhyun finally responded. “I’m just a little late.”

“No ,” came the much calmer reply, before Seolhyun heard a sharp intake of breath and an apology for her language. Ms Shin must have just sworn in class, she thought to herself.

“Next time, Ms Shin, please make your calls outside class,” advised Seolhyun. She heard a rapidly muttered goodbye, a male voice in the background calling her out for her language, before an unpleasant monotonous sound greeted her.

Hyejeong must have just hung up.

Seolhyun eventually comes to class 30 minutes late, what with persuading the security guard to let her in and going to the general office to pick up her late slip, to the general ire of Hyejeong and the rest of her classmates. Well, mostly Hyejeong, actually. The rest of her classmates were just snickering away about “how much of an uncultured low-lifer she is”.

At the end of her class Hyejeong called Seolhyun back to speak to her, but it seems that Seolhyun’s trembling hands and cold sweat borne by the fear of being punished for her tardiness was unfounded as all Hyejeong wanted to do was to remind her of their arranged meeting later that day.

-----

Seolhyun spent the last period doodling on her notebook and thinking about the Hyejeong conundrum. On one hand Seolhyun knew for sure that she wanted to see Hyejeong again (due to her drawn-but-definitely-not-attracted to Hyejeong issue), and yet she was apprehensive of Hyejeong’s ability to assist her. She knew from experience, of course, that this could just be yet another prank played by her bullies for classmates to troll her.

On one hand Seolhyun knew that she made an agreement with Hyejeong to see her later that day, and agreements with teachers shouldn’t be broken; on the other hand Seolhyun simply still couldn’t face Hyejeong on a professional level ever since they ed a few months ago. Hell, she even mentally referred to her as Hyejeong now, having moaned that name many times over on that night.

Confused, and slightly dazed, she leaned down to her seatmate, Naeun, to consult her on this issue. “I didn’t come here to talk to you, you pleb,” interrupted Naeun before Seolhyun even opened . Right. She forgot temporarily that all her classmates were rude judgemental es.

In the end Seolhyun, wrecked by indecision, just decided to make a run for it once school ended. With a bit of luck, she might be able to escape Hyejeong’s wrath for quite some while.

Noticing that it was 5 minutes till dismissal, Seolhyun began to mechanically shift her belongings into her bag, preparing to bolt out once that middle aged wad finished circlejerking about philosophy and mentally undressing the hottest girls in her class. Naeun noticed, and sneered at her. “You’re missing out a lot, pleb,” she said, condescendingly.

It was philosophy. Seolhyun was missing nothing.

-----

Hyejeong walked briskly down the school corridor, in the direction of Seolhyun’s class and her form class. She had a hunch that Seolhyun would try to bail on her, and therefore decided to dismiss her last class a few minutes early so that she could get there in time.

She looked down, and checked her watch. 3:28. Great. There was 2 minu