It’s been a couple of days since Sungjae transferred into the school. Things had settled down a bit, and the girls are no longer crowding outside his classroom while the teacher was giving her lectures. However, most of them still ran into the classroom right after the lunch bell rang to offer him their lunches. After the first few days, he would immediately disappears as soon as the bell rang before the girls could even get to him.

Today, Joy and Wendy were eating their lunches in Joy’s homeroom. Instead of eating in the cafeteria, the girls enjoys eating in a less noisy place where they wouldn’t get bothered.

“Still living out your peaceful life, Joy?” Wendy teases Joy every-now-and-then about being in the same classroom as Sungjae.

“Geez, I can’t, even if I want to unni. Today, there was a lower classman girl that ran into our classroom during lecture just to give him a painting that she drew of him. Turns out she wasn’t even from our school.”

Wendy giggles, “Well, play nice okay. Class is about to start. I’m going back to my classroom. Make sure to email me the new updates to your fanfic.” She gathered her lunchbox and waved the other girl good-bye.

“I CAN’T! I’M HAVING BRAIN-FARTS RIGHT NOW. I NEED INSPIRATION!” Joy yelled, hoping that Wendy was still near enough to hear her.

“What kind of inspiration?”

Joy turned her head to see Sungjae walking towards her. She didn’t answered his question, but instead stares intensely at his round earlobes while grinning sneakily. Sungjae noticed the evil look in her eyes and his survival instinct have him quickly placed his hands on his ears.

“Hey, what’s with that look?”

“Nothing. Where did you disappeared to anyway? I heard the girls were complaining about not seeing you in the cafeteria again today. Don’t tell me you went out to have a smoke? As a model citizen, I advises you not to.”

“Woahhh, what’s with the questions? But, I will tell you if you accept my autograph.”

Joy snickered and shook her head. “Just a couple of days, and you already turned into a troubled child. What a shame.”

“Yahhh! Don’t jumps to conclusion.”

“Yah?! Just because I used to call you “oppa” doesn’t mean that you’re actually older than me. Just you wait, I’m really going to twist those earlobes of yours one day.”

Bewildered by Joy’s sudden confession, Sungjae quickly protects his earlobes again. Joy got up from her seat and walked toward the exit of the room.

“Hey, where’re you going? Class about to start.”

“Restroom.”

“Oh….....Joy?”

“What?!”

“Want an autograph?”

***

After school was over, Joy told Minhyuk that she’ll be staying after in the library today and told him to go on home without her. She was hoping to read some books to find inspirations on her fanfic. After hours of reading a novel about a girl that was trapped in a virtual reality, she concluded that it wasn’t much help.

It was already dark outside and the school library was starting to empty out. She went to the shelf to return the novel back before she headed out, but noticed a loud rumbling sound coming from the far back of the rows of bookshelves.

She turned and went toward the back of the room to check what was making that noise. There, she saw Sungjae snoozing away with his arms wrapped around his head on the table.

Seriously, this kid. Joy thought to herself and went over to interrupts his loud vacuum-snoring.

“Hey, wake up! The library is about to close. Wake up!”

“Mmmmmmm.” Sungjae lifted his head to see Joy in front of him. “Ohhhhh, a goldfish.” And quickly took the opportunity to squeeze her cheeks. Seeing Joy’s sudden changed in expression, Sungjae immediately grabs his two earlobes.

“Yahhh! I’m not a fish you goofball. What are you doing here anyway? Don’t tell me you actually read.”

Sungjae holds up a web-toon comic that he’d been using as a pillow. “I found this place just recently. It’s empty most of the times and I can snores as much as I want without being bothered.”

“Oh, so this is where you been at during lunch all these times. You seriously don’t know why this specific area in the library is so dead?”

Sungjae shrugged.

“Nah, it’s best if I don’t tell you. Ignorance is bliss.”

“What? Don’t tell me there’s a ghost in this school or something.”

“Yup, there is! Rumors has it that there was a girl from this school who was studying for her college entrance exam so hard that she passed away here. The spot you’re seating on, that’s where she usually sits and where she passed away.”

Sungjae jumped up from his seat and ran behind Joy’s back. “Aish. Don’t talk about these kind of stuff during this time of day.”

Sungjae actions caused Joy to burst into laughter. “Gosh, it’s just a rumor. Don’t……..” Joy suddenly realized something and ran.

“Heyyy! Where’re you going?” Sungjae yelled as he ran after her.

“The main entrance!”

Soon, the two arrived at the main entrance of the building and Joy quickly grabbed the handles of the door.

“Crap, its shut.”

“No way. They shuts the door without making sure no one is in the building first?”

“Yeah. Well, the area that you were in, nobody goes there…..We should be fine though. Use your phone to call your manager.”

“I don’t have my phone with me right now. It was taken away from me after the rumors got out.”

“What rumors?”

“You don’t know? A photo was uploaded on the internet of me running off with a mysterious woman. That’s why all my schedules got putted on holds and I was forced to transfer to this school in the first place.”

 “I don’t know. I stopped following you after the incidents that day…...Wait, that mysterious woman you’re talking about isn’t me right?”

“What do you think?.....Anyways, where’s your cellphone?”

“I don’t have one. My parents wouldn’t let me get one, because they thinks I would spend too much times on it to focus in………AHHHHHHHHH!”

The lights in the building suddenly turned off. Sungjae slowly stepped closer to Joy and slightly hold on to her shoulders.

“Oh no, this is just like in the movies. We’re both going to die. We’re both going to die.”

“Geez, get a hold of yourself. The powers in school automatically turns off every nights. We’re just going to have to stay here and pull through until morning. Now, be a good boy and go back to your little corner.” Joy pointed to the back of the building where they were at just minutes ago.

“I can’t go back over there now. I’m sorry, but I have a faint heart. Please don’t distress me anymore.”

“Really? What happened to the rude persona I saw just weeks ago?”

“I told you, I already reflected on my actions. Can’t you let it go?”

Joy didn’t answered his question and slowly made her ways toward the windows of the building. Still keeping his hold on her shoulders, Sungjae followed her to the area where the moonlights was shining.

“Hey, since there’s some lights in this area, let’s just rests here for the night.”

Sungjae took off the vest to his school uniform and offered it to Joy. She took the vest from him and covered her skirt with it as they both sat down against the wall. The room was shimmered in moonlights as the moon glows outside the windows.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Joy turned to Sungjae, sounding more serious than usual.

“What is it?”

“Why do you go here every day? I mean, it’s not like you’re anti-social or anything? Why bothered being alone?”

“….….I guess, I’m just tired of saying the same things every day. When people greets me I’ll greets them back, and when they gifted me something I’ll always thanks them. Before I knew it, I began to start avoiding those words. It’s not like they don’t have any meaning to me anymore or anything like that.……....It’s just, those words makes me feel empty sometimes. Every now and then I want to have a normal high schooler conversation, but it just never really comes out that way. When I leave this place, people will remembers me as an actor and not just as a friend or a student. Manager hyung told me to not bothered about it; that I am living the dreams right now…….”

“…..…...”

“…..Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t have become an actor and joined a boyband instead.” Sungjae chuckled at his failed attempted joke.

“……Hey, did you know? About two years ago, there was another girl that was locked inside this school. This time, it was due to bullying from her classmates.”

“Please, Joy-ah, no more ghost stories.” Sungjae whined and sweat-of-bullets began running down his forehead. Seeing Sungjae’s whiten face, Joy erupted into laughter as she wipes off his sweats.

“Oh, come on. This is the perfect time to tell ghost stories. Here, I even lend you my shoulder.”

“Fine, go on.”

“Well, the girl came out unharmed but she became emotional unstable. She didn’t wanted to worry her family, so she mustered up all her courage and dealt with the situations herself. Eventually, they backed off and the bullying stopped. Even so, things just wasn’t the same anymore. She was angry at the people that bullied her and her classmates that just stood there and watched. She wanted to change but those feelings keep holding her back. One day, she came across an actor on television. He reminded her that there are more to life, and she was able to move on from her past….…Well, the end. So? The story wasn’t too scary right?”

Instead of leaning on her shoulder, Sungjae was staring at Joy the entire time. Joy turned her head to meet his gaze.

“You’re pretty…..

…..like a fish.”

“Yahhhh!” Joy shouted and smacked Sungjae on the head.