Chapter Two

The letters were keeping Sora frustrated. She had thought that it was all a joke at first - that someone pranked her, or that it was a dare, or that someone had mistaken her desk as someone else’s. She thought it would only happen once. But now, she was staring at at least half a dozen of these small pieces of papers with small notes on them. She had kept it every time she received one in the front pocket of her backpack. And today, in this hot Saturday morning, she was cleaning her things when she remembered about this. She was then staring at the papers in front of her, all of it was obviously torn from their school’s notebook; the tiny spacing between the blue lines made it obvious. 

    ‘Han Sora, I wish I can talk to you.’

    ‘Han Sora, you look pretty today.’

    ‘Han Sora, have you eaten?’

    ‘Han Sora…

    ‘Han Sora…

    And there were a few more Han Soras, and she herself honestly didn’t know what to feel or how she felt. Of course, she was pleased to hear those compliments and praises, but at the same time, wasn’t it rather creepy? She felt that someone, most probably a male, was stalking on her. She shook her head and decided not to think much about it. After keeping the papers back to its former place, she resumed tidying her room but was soon interrupted by a knock on her door. 

    “Yes?” Sora answered and opened the door, only to find her brother standing there. He had a skin slightly tanner than Sora and was relatively way taller than her, but other than that, the two siblings had very similar facial features.  

    “Hey,” he said with a hint of nervousness, “Mom’s here.” 

    Sora tried to not look surprised, “She’s back?”

    The male nodded, “Yeah, she wants to meet you.” 

    Sora raised both her eyebrows, as though she was amused, before shaking her head, “Tell her I don’t want to meet her then.” 

    And with that, she closed her bedroom door and continued her cleaning. 

~*~

    The sky was clear and the sun was scorching, but it didn’t stop the boys from running across the court and dribbling the basket ball. 

    “Ya, ya, ya, Sungyeol, block him!” Woohyun yelled from one end while Sungyeol was trying to stand in front of Howon, another friend of theirs who was pretty much better than the others in terms of sports, who was aiming to shoot. 

    And with a swift throw, Howon scored despite Sungyeol’s lanky legs and his effort to block the opponent team from winning. 

    “As expected, Howon and his team won!” Sungjong shouted from the bleachers.

    “Dang, Howon, you should just sit and be a referee,” A male with tiny eyes groaned as he went to the bleachers for his water, “It’s not fair.” 

    “What are you talking about, hyung,” Howon was grinning after his victory shot and he hi-fived his teammates, Myungsoo and his classmate who was also a part of his dance team, Jang Dongwoo. 

    Woohyun sat beside Sunggyu, the tiny eyed male, as he catch his breath. Basket ball wasn’t exactly his forte, but playing with the guys wasn’t bad. The others were about to start another round, but after looking at the clock on his phone which showed that it was almost twelve, Woohyun groaned.

    “I can’t join you all, I need to see Mrs. Han.” He said and changed his shirt into a clean one.     

    “On a Saturday?!” Sunggyu scoffed, almost laughing. 

    “Oh right,” Sungyeol grinned, “Have fun!” 

    “Why? Did you do something?” Dongwoo asked while wiping his sweat on his forehead with his towel. 

    Sungjong sighed, “What else would he do except not doing his homework and getting a detention.” 

    The whole group let out a chuckle. It wasn’t unexpected of a Nam Woohyun to do so. 

    “Alright, see you, Woohyun.” Howon said.

    “And have fun!” Dongwoo added with a laugh. 

    Woohyun shook his head and scoffed, “Hm, I will.” 

~*~

    When Woohyun arrived at the main entrance of the school, he was greeted by Nara and Mrs. Han who were already waiting for him. 

    “Follow me.” Mrs. Han said without any hint in her tone that she would be showing mercy to these two students. 

    At least Mrs. Han caught Nara too, Woohyun thought. Apparently, the teacher realized the obvious similarity between Myungsoo’s and Nara’s homework, and she didn’t have to asked who copied who’s. And it wouldn’t be a lie to say that Nara had not expected it at all - it was after all, a copying done unprofessionally, she would say. 

    Woohyun and Nara gulped when they were brought to the storage room. This would only mean one thing: cleaning. True enough, Mrs. Han handed them the cleaning equipments and briefed them, “As you can see, the first floor is empty. I had told the cleaning staffs to stay at home and enjoy their weekend while the both of you take care of their job. You are to clean every first year classes, and I will check on them when you are done. I want it to be sparkling clean. I will be in my office marking papers, let me know when you’re done.” 

    When Mrs. Han left, the two groaned and as much as they hated it, started cleaning. 

    “Were you playing basket ball with the guys?” Nara asked as she moped the floor while Woohyun was busy cleaning the tables. 

    “Yeah we were,” He said, “Sadly, I’ve never been on the winning team.” 

    Nara laughed and shrug, “Bad luck Nam Woohyun.” 

    “Don’t say that,” Woohyun glared at her jokingly, “Oh, talking about luck, what do you think my luck would be if I ask Kim Younha to go to prom with me?” 

    “You’re asking Kim Younha to prom?” Nara eyed him skeptically before resuming her moping. 

    “Well, it’s just for fun.” Woohyun answered casually. 

    “For fun?” 

    “Myungsoo and Sungyeol were betting on me,” He explained, “If I can get her to prom, Myungsoo’s gonna pay me and Sungyeol 20 bucks, a good deal right?” 

    Nara stared at the male disbelievingly, “Woohyun, as much as I know how you love your ‘the one who can get every girls’ heart’ title, the fact is Kim Younha has a boyfriend.” 

    “She just broke up with him.” Woohyun shrugged.

    “Oh,” Nara changed her tone completely, losing the concern in her voice, “Well then, you guys would suit each other - both of you currently hold the record of having the most ex.” 

    Woohyun grinned, “I like your positivity.” 

    Nara rolled her eyes. Her friend Nam Woohyun had always have a little bit too much of self confidence. 

    It was almost four in the noon when the two reached the last class on the floor, it was in fact, their own class, and they couldn’t be happier. 

    “Okay, let’s exchange roles, you clean the tables,” Woohyun sighed and handed Nara the dirty napkin. 

    The female accepted it with a look full of disgust on her face, “Fine.” 

    Both of them worked quietly, too tired to talk about anything. They could only imagine running up the stairs to the teachers room, telling Mrs. Han that they had done their job and going back to their homes to take a nice, cold shower or perhaps stop by the mart for an ice cream. 

    “Hey, Woohyun,” Nara called as she kneeled in front of Woohyun’s desk, throwing out all the rubbish he kept in the open drawer underneath it, “Are you that jobless during class that you keep on tearing your notebook?” 

    Woohyun, taken aback, dropped his mop and ran towards Nara, “Oh geez, it’s a mess huh? Let me clean this up by myself.” 

    The male slightly shoved Nara away, and she didn’t mind at all considering how tired she already was. Woohyun let out an inaudible exhale of relieve. He was almost done for - an inch to getting caught. 

~*~