•1•

Him.

No name was mention, but Inhae already had someone running through her mind.

It wasn’t love at first sight. No. She didn’t go that way, maybe she would found someone attractive at first sight, but never love.

It grew naturally, almost too naturally that it scared her and it stuck to her like a piece of herself that she couldn’t get off of. His stupid middle parting styled hair, his stupid smile, his stupid laugh, his stupid ways, his stupid eyes, his stupid smell – she remembered everything about him, still.

When she had first met him, she was eight years old.

Had her bags tugged tight when she followed the teacher to her supposed to be classroom. It wasn’t really her fault to begin with, she didn’t really know anything. She just came to school and followed her friend to her class, not knowing that she was on the different class – she didn’t even know that they could change class every year – resulting the teacher to usher her back to where she was supposed to go.

Inhae didn’t like being in the top class. Her friend once stated that the top class only had the snob kids that don’t want to play with each other so the eight year old her was really anxious about that.

When she came into the class, every student there stopped with their lesson, eyes gawking at her who just came and quickly, she tugged the straps of her bags, trying to ease down the anxious feeling.

“…her name wasn’t in my class. So, I thought that she maybe in your class?”

Another teacher, seemingly beautiful with her big eyes and red lips looked at her, smiling. “What’s your name, dear?”

“Song Inhae.” She mumbled.

The teacher smiled, looking at the book that was on her desk, brows furrowing for a second before she smiled again. “Yup, she’s in my class. Thanks Haneul.”

Haneul, the teacher that was behind Inhae just smiled, nodding before patting the girl on the head. “Be nice, okay?”

She just hummed, silently praying that the male teacher won’t go anywhere but sadly he had gone before she could say anything.

“It’s okay. My name is Ms. Woo and I’ll be your new teacher. It’s okay, this is just like the other class. You will like it here, okay?”

She just blinked at the woman who seemed to have no trouble seeing her not giving any response.

“Okay guys, we have another friend with us. Her name is Inhae and I want you to be nice to her, okay?” The students hummed together in harmony and the teacher smiled, eyes looking everywhere in the class.

“How about you sit over there?”

She just frowned, somehow didn’t like that she got to be sitting alone and the others got to be sit in pair, but she followed the teacher’s order obediently.

Being in the top class wasn’t so bad like Inhae thought it would and she wondered why her friends would say something like that.

She didn’t think that learning in the top class would be easy, she had thought that it would be hard since the teachers might put their hardest on them, but weirdly she managed it and have a thought that maybe she was smart after all and it wasn’t a mistake that she got into the top class, but she didn’t want to say it out loud – she might jinx it.

The friends in the class were nice too. They weren’t snobby like what her friends had said. They were nice. They played what she and her friends had played and really, it wasn’t bad.

She knows the people in the class already, had their names on her head but to say that they were friends might be an overstatement – friends, no but acquaintances, yes.

They had their own clique, their own group but nevertheless friendly with everyone else and Inhae did just that – she got into her own gang.

Soojung and Jinri – when Inhae first saw them, Soojung didn’t seemed like she liked her, frowning and looking away so that she won’t see her but Jinri later told her that Soojung had always been like that because she was a really shy girl. The pair sat behind her on class and always talked to her, asking her to join into their talking and she was beyond happy that she had finally gotten herself some friends.

It was later that week that Inhae found herself staring at her homeroom teacher bringing someone into the class. She had thought that maybe he was like her, sitting on a different class before finally noticed that he belonged to the top class when the teacher announced that he was a new student.

She didn’t mind that. But she do mind that he was supposedly sitting beside her, where she had laid her bag there and she was feeling dejected – somehow a bit sour over the fact that someone will be in her comfort zone.

He had looked at her when she took her bag that was on the chair, putting it beside her on the ground.

They didn’t talk to each other and Inhae was beginning to feel shy all of a sudden. She wanted to talk to him, but she was being too shy to even say anything or do something.

Jinri was the one that talk to him after the teacher had left, asking him questions and all which Inhae glad that he had answered.

Jongin.

His name was Jongin.

“Can we share a book? I still didn’t get mine.”

Her heart thumped a bit, listening to him talking to her for the first time. Inhae looked at him, noticing that his lips jutting a bit. She nodded, pushing the book on the center before both of them scooted their chairs closely, shoulders slightly bumping.

“I didn’t know your name.” he whispered.

Her heart thumped again. She glanced at the teacher that was teaching in front before glancing back at the boy beside her.

“Didn’t Jinri tell you earlier?” she whispered back at the same tone.

He glanced down, biting on his lower lip, “She talks too fast, I didn’t understand anything.”

She wanted to laugh, really but she couldn’t get the teacher to notice that they weren’t paying attention so she pressed her lips tight, frowning.

Seeing that, Jongin had his shoulders deflated. “You don’t want to tell me?” he asked, taking her action as a sign of rejection.

“No.” she shook her head.

“I’m Inhae.”

She had never seen someone smiled so big at hearing her name before.

“I’m Jongin.”