Steph walks into school with Yoona, smiling. Her smile turns into a toothy grin when Sooyoung bounds over to them, cob of corn in hand.

“Hey, Yoona.” A pause. “Hey, Steph. What’s up? Finally got the time to spend with us old friends?” Sooyoung tosses a verbal jab with an easy grin.

“I really was busy.”

“With the new guy. We know. We saw.”

“Not the guy. I was busy with a little boy pup.”

“A pup? What?”

“I saw an abandoned puppy on my way to school on the first day so I smuggled him in.”

“You did what? Puppy? Smuggle? When did you become a puppy smuggler? Is that your identity for the new year?”

Steph rolls her eyes. “No. I wanted to find him a new home but my apartment prohibits pets so I thought I could keep him in the garden shed till I move next weekend but Ha Min found out somehow and told on me.”

“That shrivelled, rotten lady’s finger . . .” Sooyoung frowns. “But why didn’t you tell us about it? We could’ve helped you. So where’s the puppy now? And how much trouble are you in?”

“I didn’t want to get anyone into trouble. I really thought I could get away with it since it would only be for a couple of weeks. Anyway the puppy is at Yoona’s now. And I’m stuck with a week’s worth of gardening duties.”

“The pup’s at Yoona’s? I wanna go see.”

Yoona laughs at her bouncing friend. “After school, Tigger boy.”

“Okay! Oh boy, I can’t wait.”

|\/\/|

Steph isn’t looking at him. Taeng is saddened by the fact. It’s only been a few days but he has come to look forward to Steph’s smiling eyes meeting his, as though they were conspiring to take over the world. It sends a thrill down to his toes and gets his blood pumping. And now, he misses it. How can he apologize? How can he make things right again?

It proves to be harder than he thought. Steph is out of the classroom before he can make a move and when he finally finds her in the cafeteria, she’s already seated with other people. The girl on Steph’s left is beyond pretty. She reminds him of a sunflower, radiant and warm. Sitting opposite them is a boy whose legs stretch way past the table they’re sitting at. Who are they? Are they her friends?

“Hey, who ya spying on?”

Taeng jumps in his skin and turns around. “Oh, it’s you. Hi, Hyoyeon.”

“Oh, I see two girls. So it is Steph or Yoona? I’m guessing Steph. I can tell you like her quite a lot.”

“The other girl is Yoona . . .” Taeng mumbles as things finally fall into place. If the pretty girl is Yoona, it might not be Steph that Seo is interested in after all.

“Yeah, she’s really pretty, right? Lots of boys are always asking her out but she sticks to Sooyoung all the time.”

“Does Yoona like Sooyoung?”

“They’ve been friends since middle school. It’s not that kind of relationship.”

“Oh, I see.”

“So it’s Yoona you’re looking at?”

“Huh? No, no it’s not.”

“Steph then? I knew it.”<