Chapter 4

0.00% Dirty

Gossips had been apparent on every school that I went to, and this school is no exception. Amongst the sea of gossips that I’ve heard so far, and it hadn’t even been a week, there are a few ones that caught my attention. 

First, Jennie had dated almost half of the students in the school, of course excluding the grade schools. 

Second, unlike Jennie, Chaeyoung haven’t dated anyone during her two years of stay here. I find it odd since I actually thought that she looked like someone who has a new boyfriend every month, just basing it from her looks. 

Third, I didn’t hear it from anyone directly but I figured that there were some girls who likes girls, more than friends or sisters. Not that it bothered me, but I just wasn’t exposed to those until now. I think. 

And lastly, apparently Jisoo is someone you shouldn’t mess with or even ‘talk’ to. There were talks on how she drove someone on quitting school. I find that quite unbelievable. I mean, yes, based from my encounters with her, she’s kinda rude and scary, but that’s it. She didn’t look like she was capable of hurting anyone physically. 

But that assumption of mine was shattered when I saw her on my way out of school, with her friends. I squinted to see what they were doing and saw that they were cornering someone. Poor girl. I wanted to go over and help her but then again, I don’t want to be involved. I’ll just eat the guilt for now. 

Now that I’ve think about it, shouldn’t I just report it to the student council so I won’t be exactly involved but still be able to help the girl? But then again I don’t have Chaeyoung’s number, she’s the president after all.

“What’s with the frown?” Chaeyoung suddenly appeared beside me, causing me to put my hand over my chest.

I was frowning? I don’t even know why I feel disappointed with what I saw. Was I hoping that Jisoo wasn’t that kind of person?

“And you’re even sighing.”

This time, I looked over at Chaeyoung and washed away what I was thinking. 

“Sorry. You need something?” I asked, and saw her fidgeting on her flannel. Have I mentioned how attractive Chaeyoung is with her red flannel?

“_____. Can I…. can I—-“

“Chaeng can I have your number?” Did I just call her chaeng? Oh my god that’s probably why her face is getting red right now. She probably thinks I’m acting like we’re too close.

“Of course!” Chaeyoung smiled brightly, making me think otherwise. We exchanged our phone and placed our numbers. 

The honk of a car made me startle a little. Mom is already waiting for me to get in.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I smiled and was about to get in when Chaeyoung called me.

She bit her lip and twirled her hair with her right hand, I can’t help but find it attractive. What’s wrong with me?

 “Umm… if you need anything just…Call me. Anytime.” 

“I’ll call you. Bye.” I hopped in the car and looked at my contacts. She saved her name as ‘Chaengie’ with a blue heart beside it. It’s cute. She’s cute.

“How’s school so far?” Mom glanced at me for a second before turing her attention back to the road.

“Okay. I guess? It’s not that bad.” So far I’m fine with the school, so far. Then I remembered. “I might try joining the basketball team.” Mom smiled at this. She knew how much I enjoy playing sports. She had always given me her support whenever I wanted to try something new, and mom even makes time from her busy schedule to watch me play. No matter how busy she is, she never failed to come to my games.

“That’s good. I thought you were giving up sports when you told me you didn’t want to join any sports this year.” 

I won’t give up on sports. It’s the only thing I have in common with my dad, mom said. The pictures in our house was a proof that I didn’t look like him. I got my dark grey eyes from my mom, my light brown hair, and even my height.

****

When dad died, I used to have nightmares about a man, maybe it was dad but I’m not exactly sure. Actually I’ve still been having those nightmares, however this past week, ever since I started going to school here, I’ve been dreaming, although I’ll consider it as a nightmare, about a girl. And today is no exception. 

I woke up from my nightmare, earlier than my alarm clock. It was only seven o’clock in the morning but I decided to start my day early. I definitely wouldn’t want to be late like yesterday. 

Chemistry was my first subject. I don’t hate it, nor like it either, but I find the joy in it when we’re asked to experiment with different chemicals and such. That’s the only fun part. Which is why when the teacher told us that we’ll be doing an experiment, it made me quite excited. 

The teacher paired us up while I waited for my name to be called. 

“Miss _____ and Miss Kim.” 

Apparently my partner for the activity is Jisoo, who now sat beside me. Not that I’m complaining or anything, but after I saw her cornering that girl yesterday, I felt a bit uncomfortable.

When I glanced at my partner, I noticed that she was playing with the tools in front of her. I concluded that I can’t depend on her, so as much as I didn’t want to listen to the teacher, I had to. 

“Oh so you’re partnered with your crush?” I turned to my right and saw Nayeon standing beside Jisoo, wiggling her eyebrows. 

“Shut the up.” Jisoo glared at her hard, but Nayeon didn’t look fazed by it. How come? Maybe she was already used to it. 

“You guys have good chemistry. Get it? Chemistry.” Nayeon laughed but when neither Jisoo and I said something, she scratched her head and pouted. “Okay I’ll go now.”

We were asked to mix the solutions of bromine and potassium iodide in the test tubes. I was the one who did it seeing as Jisoo didn’t even bother to add the chlorine solution to the potassium bromide solution, which was her task.

“Are you just gonna stare at me?” I’ve noticed it when I was adding drops of chlorine to the solution. At first I decided to just ignore it, knowing that she’ll stop staring, but she didn’t, and I was already getting a bit self conscious. 

“It’s chemistry,” She said in a hushed tone. I didn’t see her blink.

“I know and we have a task for chemistry. So do your part.”

Jisoo raised an eyebrow, her eyes never leaving me for even a second. “I am doing my part. I’m checking if we have a chemistry—- Wait. What the did I just said?” Jisoo shook her head frantically, and when I say frantically, it was really hard that I almost thought she’ll damage her brain.

I couldn’t help but sigh in defeat. “You know what? Just mix this thing and I’ll do the rest.” I passed her the tube and the stirring rod, which thankfully, she obeyed.

However, her staring didn’t stop there. I tried my best to let it go and pretend that I didn’t notice her staring at me while she stir the mixture, but I couldn’t. “Do you really have to stare at me while you mix that?”

“I can do whatever I want.” She shrugged. I really can’t do anything about this anymore. I looked at her with the tiredest expression I have, letting her know that I’m done with all this creepy staring but then when she brushed her hair with her fingers and her long sleeves rolled down, my eyes caught a purple welt on her right forearm. 

“What’s that?” I pointed at her forearm and her expression changed from a blank one to a ‘I’m about to kill you’ one. 

“Mind your own business.” She glared at me, telling me to back off. Someone’s on her period today. Actually, she's on her period everyday. 

Due to our great teamwork, we finished the activity earlier. Although technically I was the one who mostly did it, she didn’t even help answering the follow up questions! 

I passed the paper and came back to see Jisoo scribbling some things on the paper, not that I care after she gave me a hard time as her partner. 

“Eew what’s that?” Nayeon took a peek at the Jisoo’s paper. I don’t know why but my eyebrows furrowed at her reaction. Whatever Jisoo wrote on that paper, she shouldn’t mock her like that.

“A dog. It’s dalcom.” Jisoo remained unbothered and focused on what she was doing. I figured by now that she’s drawing. Is dalcom the name of her dog?

“Since when did dalcom became an alien?” A snicker came out of Nayeon’s lips.

I saw how Jisoo rolled her eyes but ignored her friend, who already went to her partner. Being the nosy kid that I am, not really, I took a peek on her paper and saw some doodles on it.

I honestly don’t know why but I find it cute even though it looked like a kindergarten drew it. “It’s cute.”

And then I saw it even though she was looking down. Jisoo had a timid smile on her face, and somehow it made me happy. She should smile more often.

Lisa and I both have our free period at the same time. I was planning on killing some time at the library but then she said she had a better place in mind. We went out of our building and headed to the grade school building. I wondered if we were even allowed here, but I didn’t say anything and just followed the blonde.

“Let’s sit here till our next class.” 

She brought me at the school’s playground. Now that I’ve think about it, why were the grade schoolers have a playground and we don’t. It’s a bit unfair I think, but that’s beyond the point. 

We sat at the swing and admired the fields in front of us. It was surprisingly empty, but a pretty sight at the same time. 

I was enjoying the silence, when Lisa suddenly giggled and faced me. “I suddenly remember my older sister… do you have any siblings?”

I wished I had one. “I’m an only child. My mom raised me alone.” 

Lisa had her head tilted a little, making her look like a confused child. “And you’re dad?”

“He’s gone. He died when I was a still a kid.” 

She was now frowning. “I’m sorry.” A frown doesn’t fit Lisa, I wanted to wipe it off her face and replace it with a smile, but I don’t know how.

“It’s fine. It doesn’t really affect me that much anymore.” And I don’t really like it when I sense pity from anyone when talking about my deceased father.

“My dad died as well, so my mom and my sister are the only ones I have.” Lisa looked up at the sky. Unlike me, I can still see that she’s still not over the death of her father. I can feel the sorrow radiating off of her.

“I’m sorry to hear that. But I’m sure your mom and sister loves you a lot, seeing that you’re always smiling and laughing.” 

“They do.” She laughed, making me smile as well. “I think your mom loves you a lot too.” 

She does. “Well, even though she’s always busy with her business, I know she loves me.”

Lisa leaned in closer. “You know we have a lot more in common than I thought. My mom and dad were into business as well, but it didn’t turn out well, so…” I wasn’t so sure if I was reading her too deep, but I sensed something different on her tone. She must’ve missed her dad a lot.

“Business is full of risks. I guess it’s just a matter of trial and error.” I cursed myself for sounding like a business woman. 

“Yeah… I guess so…”

****

“W-what?” Two of my classes are already done, and there’s one more left. Chaeyoung, Wendy, and I went to the cafeteria since we had a break before the last class. Wendy went to buy her food while Chaeyoung and I sat at the table. She was sitting across from me and I had been counting the time since she started staring at me. It had been e