“I’m heading to school now!” a girl announces loudly whilst sliding into her shoes.

 

Once she receives some sort of reply, she heads off and makes sure that everything is locked properly. While everyone commutates to school by either their chauffeur or their parents, this particular girl walks to school despite the weather. Despite the countless students that pass by her being sheltered from either the cold or heat, they never stop once.

 

To them, she was simply another student heading to school and whenever their eyes chance upon her battling against the harsh weather, they simply look the other way. On rainy days, some will stroll into class, sit down as lessons start and in the midst of the lesson, the door will open and she will slide in, head hung low to pair with her apologies. She’ll be dripping wet and all they simply did was to move away from her.

 

She did not mind their actions towards her. She knew her place. She didn’t belong in such prestigious school. She lucked out during the scholarship candidates and ended up in this private plus extremely expensive school whose history dates back a few hundred years. She always sat at the back, in the corner of the class, hidden away from plain sight.

 

When the bell for break rings, everyone rushes out of class but she stays. Her books opened in front of her as she munches on bread and water, or the occasional rice with some leftovers. She didn’t have friends and she didn’t see a need for having them. Having heard the conversations exchanged between the girls in her school, she rather not.

 

Being invisible meant that no one notices your presence and it worked well for her. She knew everything that was going on in school, whether she wanted to know or not. Conversations in the girls’ bathroom were the most common source but there were times where people spoke too loudly, thinking that no one was around or simply ignoring her presence. But there seem to be a certain sense of underlying trust that people have formed with her around. They knew she wouldn’t talk just because she wanted to.

 

She finally reaches the school’s majestic gates. Her eyes immediately trail to the guard’s house and go over before knocking on the window gently. The guard’s face appears and she bows her head slightly to greet him. He smiles back before making a hand gesture to hurry up for class. She nods and waves goodbye before heading to her classroom.

 

Her footsteps direct her to the classroom that has become her second home. When she enters by the back door, everyone was still hanging around in their friend groups. It was rare that she arrives at school early enough to not have the teacher around. She keeps her head down and heads for her seat.

 

She takes off her bag and hangs it up before taking out her English book to start ahead in order to not fall behind in class. She repeats the English words in her mind as she softly reads it out. A boisterous laughter drags her out of concentration and she side looks to catch peach pink hair. She lets out a soft sigh, already used to the person’s antics.

 

He was Kang Daniel, adored by many for his family status and looks. It didn’t help that he studied aboard for a period of time, adding more to his image. He usually has a group of girls following him and his group of friends. Wherever they went, it was noisy and she learned to keep her annoyance to herself.

 

She stares at the word as she repeats it in her head. Another laughter breaks her concentration and she sighs. She knew it wasn’t going anywhere if this were to continue so she closes her book before standing up quietly. She heads for the bathroom after a quick check of time. Being aware of the time she could waste, she heads for the toilet that was hardly used for its distance from the school building.

 

After she finishes her business, she washes her hand and above the faucet sound, she hears two people talking. She slowly turns off the tap, carefully listening to the conversation. As the guy’s voice rises, she frowns slightly. Kang Daniel? The female’s voice was unrecognizable and she slowly walks towards the entrance, her head popping out slightly to see an older woman, arms folded.

 

“Why?” Daniel asks, holding the woman’s wrist.

 

“Why?” she repeats in an annoyed tone. “Yah, you’re too young for me. I can’t believe you took it seriously.”

 

She flings his grip away as his head lowers. “It was simply a dare. My friends saw that you were cute and dared me to get your heart in a month. The month is up, I’m out,” she states coldly.

 

The student’s heart aches with the cold words thrown at her classmates as she winces slightly. Her eyes travel to his hand where it was tightly clenched. A few more insults and the older woman turn around to leave. She lets out a soft breath and was about to straighten her stance when Daniel yells and drives his fist against the wall.

 

A loud, resounding crack sounds and she flinches. He redraws his hand, cradling it as he curses in pain. She hesitantly approaches him as he sinks to the ground with closed eyes. She kneels next to him, “Are you okay?”

 

His eyes fly open and he jumps slightly. At the sight of her, his eyes narrow. “You’re from my class. You’re that girl,” he says and she chooses not to respond but analyze his injured hand.

 

She gently probes his hand and he flinches when her thumb lands to push his thumb lightly. “Painful?” she asks and he hesitantly nods.

 

The bone was at an odd angle that was probably adding to his pain. She pulls his arm towards gently and when catches him off guard by locking his thumb back in place. He yells out in pain and curses at her. She stands up, helping him up despite his complains of pain. “Just go see the nurse and she’ll know what to do,” she says as she releases her grip.

 

She bows and turns to leave. “Wait!” he calls out and she does so, turning around slightly.

 

“Choi Junghye,” he says and it sounds foreign to her. “Your name. Choi Junghye. Am I right?”

 

She smiles very slightly and nods before turning to walk away, ignoring his calls. Someone finally called her by her name and her insides warm up. Someone acknowledges her presence. Someone bothered to learn her name. Someone cares. At that thought, she smiles a little wider and skips slightly back to class.

 

~~~

 

Junghye enters class the next day, early once again. Like usual, she seats herself down and opens her books to start studying. She senses a pair of eyes on her that bothers her slightly. She pushes it away and continues to look down at her book. The hinges in her mind start to move as they dissect the problem presented in front of her.

 

Her writing hand scribbles down on a scrap paper with a pencil while her eyes glance from paper to paper. When she was close to solving it, a movement caused her table to shake, breaking her focus and for the pencil to stab into her palm.

 

She winces in pain, immediately cradling her palm, the sharp point of the pencil lying on the table. “I-I’m so-sorry,” a Busan satoori appears and her eyes slowly trail upwards from the pale hand.

 

Her eyes met peach hair and she simply nods before looking back down at her hand. A bit of blood was appearing so she stands up, heading for her locker. With one hand she unlocks it and takes out plaster then struggles to remove the packaging. 

 

The pair of pale hands stops her as they ripped open the plastic covering to carefully place it over her wound. She notices the cast on the right hand and looks up to see Daniel’s eyes full of concentration. When he was done, he redraws his hands back, one of them crumpling up the plastic package.

 

Junghye tilts her head slightly at him glancing around them. “Th-thanks for y-ye-yesterday,” his Busan accent appearing once again. “The doctor said that it was fortunate that you locked my thumb back in place if not, it would have been worse and could have possibly messed up really bad.”

 

She smiles slightly at his babbling and simply lowers her head slightly as her reply. He then leans closer to her and was about to speak when the teacher enters, the bell shrilling. She immediately heads back to her seat and takes out her notebook.

 

The rest of the class hurries to their seats as the teacher knocks the ruler against the wooden podium, requesting them to hurry up so that class could start. After a while, the teacher takes the roll call and starts teaching. Halfway through teaching where Junghye was diligently taking down notes, a small piece of paper lands on her notebook, almost hitting her head.

 

She frowns and looks around. Daniel was looking at her and gestures her to open up the paper from across the room. He quickly glances forward and positions himself to allow him to see her while making sure that the teacher wasn’t going to catch him. She grows curious and does as he says.

 

She unfolds the paper and frowns slightly. Did you tell anyone about what happened yesterday? I wanted to ask you that just now but saem came. She simply folds the paper and places at the edge of her table, picking her pen up to continue following the lesson. When the bell finally rings, she stretches her stiff body as the teacher reminds them to review before leaving.

 

She releases a sigh before lying down on her table slightly. She closes her eyes, planning for some shuteye. A flick to her forehead wakes her up. Her face scrunches up as she lifts her head up to look at who was the culprit. Kang Daniel. She sighs, knowing to kiss goodbye to her short nap.

 

He drags a chair to sit next to her, hands resting on the backrest. “Why didn’t you reply?” he asks with an urgent tone.

 

She breathes out heavily before grabbing the piece of paper and hands it back to him. She then stands up with a book in her hand as she decides to roam the hallways a bit. He opens up the paper, expecting a reply but nothing comes. He looks at her leaving figure and frowns, the paper crumpling under his strength.

 

He gets up and heads after her, gaining some attention from his fangirls. “Yah! Choi Junghye!” he yells and she hears it.

 

She shakes her head, not wanting to hear it and speeds up her pace, still looking at her book. But he catches up and grips her tightly before roughly turning her towards him. “What is this?” he asks, holding up the note, anger noticeable. “Are you dumb? Can’t you at least reply?”

 

She looks at the note before looking at him in annoyance. She wrenches his grip off her, brushing the spot slightly and stretches it. She turns to walk away but he grips her once again. “Stop walking away from me and talk!” he exclaims.

 

“Whatever I say now, you’re just going to be mad,” she speaks with a death glare on, not wanting to deal with this.

 

She notices the circle forming around them and sighs internally. This is why she never spoke to anyone. But this Kang Daniel here is messing with her. Her free hand lifts up to flip her hair out of her sight. Her eyes close momentarily and shake her head. “I do not wish to deal with you,” she says and walks away, the crowd separating for her.

 

As days pass, Daniel obsessively follows her around to harp on about an answer. He was always returned with silence or very few words about asking him to stop. She didn’t know if he was dumb or if he was dumb. If she wanted to tattle on what happened that day, she would have already done so. But she settles for him being ignorant and not observant.

 

With the constant attention from the school’s most popular guy, there have been talks going around and she simply turns a blind ear to such words. She didn’t care how they viewed her. She didn’t need their validation. She was herself if she didn’t betray herself, she didn’t give a hoot about how others view her.

 

Right now, she’s walking the hallways once again with a book in her hand, trying to solve a math question. She hears hurried footsteps heading her way and sighs internally, wishing that for once he would stop. She was also surprised that he held out this long with lashing out. But she spoke too soon.

 

It seems that today was going to be exceptionally tiresome. He repeats the question in a hushed tone. The usual ignoring act got to him and he groans in frustration. Her eyes never left the book and it annoyed him even more, that she didn’t even acknowledge him. When he saw the chance, he gripped the book out of her hand and tossed it out of the building.

 

She stares at him with wide eyes when a ‘plop’ was heard. He peers over to realize that the book ended up in the pond. She shoves him aside and dashes down to the pond. She tries to get the book back and when she does, the water had damaged it too much. Her solutions and equations all gone. 

 

Junghye immediately rushes to the toilet to use the hand dryer to salvage whatever she could. After spending close to half an hour in there, the book somehow dries but nothing could be salvaged. Her grip tightens as a tear rolls out of her eye. Books were hard to come by for her family situation. She had to beg the seller for a cheaper price for the almost brand new book and she got it off for an extremely discounted price.

 

She storms back to her classroom, fully aware that classes were going on. She enters her classroom to see no teacher and her eyes land on Daniel who was laughing away. She slams the book on his table, eyes piercing. He flinches and turns around, “Ah, you scared me.”

 

“Pay me another book,” she states and he looks at her weirdly before scoffing.

 

“Why? You deserved that. I asked you for an answer for days and you didn’t reply me. This is simply payback,” he replies with a shrug and she frowns.

 

“Pay me back!” she exclaims furiously and the class quiets down. 

 

He side-looks at her and scoffs once again. “No. Just buy ano- Oh wait. You’re a scholarship student. You don’t have money,” he mocks, earning laughter from the people around him. “Peasant. Oh well, blame fate for gifting you your poorness. I cannot help you with that.”

 

“Pay me back,” her voice drops to a dangerous low.

 

“No, peasant,” he replies, enjoying it. “You deserve that, just like this.”

 

He stands up swiftly and tips a bottle of juice over her. The people around her snicker and laugh. He tosses the empty bottle aside and smirks before shoving his hands into his pocket, sitting back down. Her fists clench tightly as an announcement happens, asking the students in her class to head to the gym.

 

Everyone immediately moves and before Daniel leaves, he stops in front of her, “Goodbye. Peasant.”

 

He then strides out, feeling good about himself. She stands there as tears roll down her face. She did not know how long she was there for but a soft voice breaks the silence, “You okay?”

 

Junghye lifts her head slightly while wiping her tears away to meet eyes with a tall male whose fringe almost covered his eyes. She nods slowly as she stares down at her uniform. A clean shirt appears in her line of vision and she looks at the male who was smiling, his eye smile on display, “Wear it. You’ll get cold.”

 

She notices that he was wearing just a shirt, breaking the school rule. Before she speaks, he cuts her off, “It’s okay. Just wear it. Don’t want you walking around in a juice-soaked uniform.”

 

She hesitantly grabs it and he picks up his blazer. He holds up the blazer and blocks possible wandering eyes and looks down. She smiles slightly and quickly changes. “Done,” she softly says after buttoning up the last button. 

 

His hands came down and smile. She bows in gratitude and he smiles even wider. “You can repay me by being my friend,” he speaks, seemingly reading her mind and sticks his hand out. “Byun Hyunmin.”

 

Her hand rises to shake his and when she was about to introduce herself, he speaks, “Choi Junghye. I know. You’re the talk of the school recently.”

 

Her head lowers as she puffs up one side of her cheek. “Your name is very fitting,” Hyunmin mentions and she looks up with curiousity. “Jung meaning silent and chaste and Hye meaning intelligent woman. It fits you very well.”

 

Once it process in her head, she makes eye contact with him. She smiles. He falters slightly at the sight of emotion. Then he grins.