“Hyeri, hurry up!” Minah calls up the stairs urgently. “You’re going to make us late for the first day of school you idiot!”

After a few noisy seconds Hyeri hops out of her bedroom doorway, jamming her foot into an already tied shoe before hurrying down the steps two at a time. As she passes an exasperated Minah, Hyeri blows a raspberry in her friend’s face and whines, “Don’t call me an idiot, idiot!”

Hyeri’s mother steps in just as Minah begins to voice her cheeky response. “Girls, there’s no time to fool around, you’re already late as it is! And Hyeri, how many times have I told you to put on your shoes properly? You’ll ruin the backs if you keep forcing them on like that!” Her mother scolds, all the while ushering the two teenagers out the door.

With the door closed behind them, the girls take one look at each other before racing to their bikes leaning against the garage door, laughing wildly as they fiercely pedal out of the doorway and toward their high school.

---

“Listen up, everyone! This is our new teaching assistant, Park Sojin. She’s—“

“Sorry we’re late!” All heads in the classroom turn to the door as two disheveled girls practically barrel through. An awkward silence falls over the class as Minah and Hyeri are too breathless to speak and the teacher is busy giving them an appalled stare.

Minah, fulfilling her usual role of the resident drama queen, has her hands on her knees as she gasps for breath. In other words, she is being completely useless.

Hyeri nervously fidgets with the strap on her backpack, slowly peeking in her teacher’s direction.

Unfortunately, her eyes tend to have a mind of their own, and today was no exception. Instead of seeking eye contact with the teacher (Hyeri’s puppy dog eyes are nothing to scoff at), they gravitate to the absolutely radiant girl—woman—next to her. The woman has long, silky blonde hair that fell in waves around down her back and around her face. Hyeri’s eyes, suddenly equipped with their own free will and a bad attitude, travel slowly down the woman’s slim form before they roam back upwards.

Great, now her body is burned into my mind, able to torture me for the rest of my sad life. Hyeri thinks pathetically, not ready to submit to endless torment only seventeen years into her life.

To Hyeri’s immense embarrassment, the other woman’s intense stare seems to catch her own, and Hyeri could swear she felt her heartbeat pulsing in her ears.

Finally, the teacher has collected herself enough to put Hyeri out of her misery. “Go ahead and take your seats since it’s the first day, but keep in mind that after today I will not tolerate tardiness,” She warns in a stern voice. “You girls are seniors. Act like it.”

And with that, they know they had been dismissed. Hyeri, however, is still stunned from her mind’s betrayal, wondering why it chose this moment to show its true colors and if the object of her scrutiny was aware of it. And whether she was bothered by it or not if the former was true—

Hyeri’s thoughts are interrupted by Minah attempting to nudge her slightly so she would begin to make her way to a seat, but Minah isn't exactly a master of subtlety. When Minah’s elbow makes contact with Hyeri’s ribs it generates a very audible grunt and makes her stumble to the nearest empty chair. Minah follows her lead and takes the seat next to her.

After a few seconds the conversation returns to the classroom, and the still-recovering Hyeri spends the rest of the day avoiding the woman—whose name, she learned, is Park Sojin—she had unintentionally eye-d.

---

The blaring of the bell signals the release of the hounds (well, students). Not too long after came Hyeri and Minah dashing out of the building to their bikes hidden in the shrubbery around the side of the school.

Minah hastily mounts the bike and sped off, Hyeri not far behind her. “Last one home has to buy snacks!”

“That’s not fair, you got a head start!” Hyeri protests, peddling faster to make up the distance. She soon surpasses Minah, who is busy cursing her stumps for legs, and as she looks back to gloat she doesn't see the white convertible that had just pulled out of the parking lot in front of her.

Before Minah could so much as get out a syllable of warning, Hyeri collides with the hood of the car, the relatively low height of it causing the lower half (her bike) to come to a speeding halt and the upper half (Hyeri herself) to go flying across the hood.

Hyeri comes crashing down on the other side of the car, the wind escaping her lungs and her head slamming into the pavement in the process. Stars twinkle in her vision, rendering her unable to see much of anything. Minah’s muffled voice, seeming to whisper her name, is far away. Gradually, the stars dominating Hyeri’s vision fade into complete darkness.