Summary: Siyeon should have paid more attention in class.

Author's Note: For better imagery, imagine the characters wearing the uniforms from the Schxxl Out album jacket photoshoot.

Siyeon was never one to take school seriously. It wasn’t her fault that there was nothing interesting for her to actually learn about. Or maybe it was just her going through a typical teenager’s rebellion, much to her parents’ dismay. It must be her karma for always dozing off in most of her classes and handing in her work late that she’s now in this predicament –standing awkwardly and inconspicuously out by the side of the courtyard of her high school. Wearing a cheaply-made sign with the words ‘Free Hugs’ written on it with a pink marker and a number of cute little smiley stickers pasted around. She could already feel the curious and amused stares coming from all the students walking about. She wished she had a paper bag to sink her face into. Maybe she should have paid more attention in class.

“Come on, Siyeon! You’re not gonna complete the quota and get your credits if you just stand around like that.”

Siyeon looked up, her face scrunching into an annoyed scowl. “This is bull.” In front of her was a tall and lanky girl, sporting a short and chic hairstyle, wearing the same sign as her, though it seemed a little too small for her size. Kang Kyungwon was her name and also one of Siyeon’s close upperclassmen. Some strands of her ebony hair were stuck to the contour of her face. Well, it was a pretty warm day out. Siyeon cursed the heat and her teacher for making her do this.

“It’s your own fault,” the towering girl looked down at her pitifully. “You’re lucky I actually have the time to help you with this. What do you think is gonna happen if you don’t get 100 hugs by the end of lunchtime?”

“I don’t know,” Siyeon gave an unbothered shrug. “Expelled?” A grand smack on the shoulder was what she got. Siyeon yelled out in pain. “Ow! What the hell are you doing, unnie!?” she exclaimed, rubbing her poor shoulder.

“Smacking some sense into you, what else?” Kyungwon nonchalantly said, but with a hint of firmness in her tone. She huffed and puts her hands on her hips. “Look, if you’re not going to help yourself, then fine. But I’m helping you out of this, kid. If I don’t manage to reach the quota in time, then it’s your own fault for not putting in any effort.”

With that, Kyungwon turned away and hurriedly walk off towards a bunch of students on the steps of the courtyard, energetically announcing if they need any hugs. The more unenthusiastic girl huffed, and glanced around in annoyance at her surroundings. People were still staring but all of them were none too bothered to approach her, and her intimidating looks weren’t helping one bit.

“Aish…” Siyeon pushed back her bangs. “I’m gonna flunk this.”

Just as she finished muttering to herself, she felt a large force pushing her from behind, almost tumbling her to the ground. “Hey, watch it!” she turned around and flared back at the offender. Her anger dissipated when she saw a much taller girl, almost as tall as Kyungwon, picking up some textbooks scattered on the ground. Long ebony hair, pale white skin, and from the looks of it, Siyeon guessed that the girl was of mixed origins. Befuddled by how she had never seen this person in school before, Siyeon almost didn’t catch the words being addressed to her.

“I’m very sorry for bumping into you, I didn’t watch where I was going,” the girl hurriedly apologised and bowed her head multiple times. Her voice, Siyeon took special notice of, was low and husky. Not too many girls she has encountered sounded like that. Only until the girl started crouching down to pick up her scattered books did Siyeon broke out from her buffering state of mind and followed the other girl’s actions.

“N-no, it’s okay, I-” the timid stranger did not get a chance to stop Siyeon before she swiped all the textbooks off the ground including a thick paperback. Looking at it, she could only make out two things; it had a nice dark blue cover with a grisly image of a handprint on it, and the title was in English with a bold, dynamic typeface. Not exactly a bookworm and not particularly an ace in English herself, Siyeon couldn’t make head or tails out of it.

“Um…” Siyeon looked up from the book and into the unsure eyes of the taller girl in front of her. “What’s this?” she asked, pointing at the paperback.

“Oh,” the stranger raised her brows at the sudden question. “Well, it’s a thriller I’ve been reading.” There was a brief, awkward pause between them before the girl continued. “It’s by this famous American author who has done a lot of great stories in the thriller genre,” she moved closer and pointed at the words at the top of the cover.

Siyeon squinted at it. “Mic. Michael...C-corn...nelly?”

She heard a sputter of laughter and Siyeon couldn’t resist the amused grin on her face when she looked up at the other girl. “Did I butcher the name?”

“You almost got it.”

“What can I say? I’m good at English,” Siyeon shrugged and handed the books over. “Here.”

“Thank you,” the taller of the two gratefully took the books into her arms with an apologetic smile. “Again, I’m sorry for bumping into you just now.”

“It’s no problem.”

Another few awkward seconds past as they stood in front of each other in the bustling courtyard. Siyeon noticed the blatant stare aimed below her neck. Oh yeah, the stupid sign. She seriously wanted to break this thing apart.

“So…” the on-the-verge-of-failing student trailed her voice, “You want one?”

The taller girl blinked and darted her eyes. “I don’t really need one.”

Damn it, she cursed in the back of her mind. There was no way she was going to get that quota in time.

“But you seem in need of a hug.”

“Wha —” Before Siyeon could even finish, she was pulled into a firm yet gentle embrace. Her sensitive nose caught a whiff of a calming lavender scent from the taller girl’s hair as her chin rested on her shoulder. Her brain buffered for a second, taken aback by the bold move this somewhat shy girl did. Siyeon’s hands hovered in the air, not knowing what to do with them before placing them naturally on the other’s waist. The sign sandwiched in between them made it a little uncomfortable though. “T-thanks,” Siyeon managed to say out. Guess she really did need the hug after all. It felt nice.

As the initiator of the hug pulled away, the ever impulsive side of the failing student asked,“Hey, do you have a name?”

Another surprised blink before the other girl answered, “My name is Kyla.”

“Kyla,” Siyeon pronounced correctly without butchering it, internally proud with herself for getting it right on the first try. “I’m Siyeon.”

“Nice to meet you,” Kyla smiled politely, “though I’m really curious as to why you’re walking around with that sign on you.”

“Yeah, about this,” Siyeon scratched her cheek with a finger in uncertainty. “Could you hug me 49 more times?”

“Eh?”

Siyeon lost count of how many times she made her new-found acquaintance at a lost for words. She must have a talent for this. “You see, I need to get 100 hugs by the end of lunchtime. I have a friend right now who is helping me to get half of that,” she explained as best as she could. “If I don’t reach the quota, it will piss off my homeroom teacher cause I haven’t been the most inspiring student in this whole campus and this is my only chance to redeem myself.” Her determined eyes stared back at Kyla’s unsure ones, hoping that it might get through to her.

“And how do you prove to your teacher that you managed to get those 100 hugs?” Kyla asked, curiously tilting her head to the side.

Taking a step back, Siyeon slipped her hand into the space beneath the front of her torso and the back of the front sign. A hidden compartment from within hid a piece of sticker paper with little designs of hearts, rainbows, and chibi anime characters in cute poses (they seem to be from One Piece, Kyla noticed). “Whoever hugs me or my friend will get a sticker pasted on them as proof,” Siyeon said as she started to peel off a heart sticker from it. “You’re the first person to actually do it with me.” She reached out and pasted the heart just below Kyla’s left shoulder.

The taller girl released a short laugh. “And now you want me to hug you 49 more times?”

“If you could do that, I’ll be eternally grateful and you’ll be one of my bros for life,” Siyeon puts on her best charismatic grin.

Kyla, amused and flattered by the entire request, lets out another laugh and said, “I’m not sure about hugging you that number of times in this very public place.”

Siyeon looked at her surroundings and deflated slightly. Too many eyes prying and even an idiot like her could tell that Kyla was uncomfortable with doing it, even though she did initiate the first hug. She didn’t want to force her against her will or anything.

“How about you give those stickers to me?” Kyla simply stated.

“As much as I would love to cheat my way out of this, I’d rather do this the right way.”

“You’re already cheating by asking me to hug you 49 more times,” the deadpanned stare and tone in the taller girl’s voice did not go unnoticed.

“My teacher didn’t state that every hug must be from a different person ,” Siyeon gestured innocently at her. When Siyeon took a glance at her watch, her eyes almost bolted out from their sockets.

It was almost ten minutes till the end of lunchtime.

“.”

“Um, Siyeon…” Kyla gently brought up her attention. “Just give me the stickers.”

“Okay,” she obeyed and surrendered them to her. “But , how am I going to —”

“I’ll hug you for 49 seconds. Deal?”

Siyeon almost stumbled all over herself onto the concrete floor. “Right here? I thought you said you didn’t want to hug in a place like this where everyone’s looking.”

“Then let’s go somewhere with lesser people.” With that, she pulled Siyeon by the hand away from the busy courtyard. The one being dragged in question could only follow along, the sign flapping along as she walked. Turning a few corners from the courtyard brought them to the side of the main campus building where it was a little quieter, and most importantly, fewer curious eyes. Kyla stopped under a couple of trees shading the area from the summer sun blazing down on them. “Here should be okay, right?” she asked, as she put her books down and turned to face a flustered Siyeon.

Darting her head around, the troubled student concluded that the place did seem alright. Anywhere else would have been more embarrassing. In that brief second, she wondered how Kyungwon was holding up on her end. “As long as you’re okay with it.”

“I can handle a bit of embarrassment if it means helping someone out,” she softly said.

The hug came in much more naturally between the both of them than the previous one, though it still had the level of awkwardness understandably from meeting for the first time just minutes ago. Wrapping her hands around the back of the taller girl, and that lavender scent from before sneaked into her nose once again. Strange how just a mere fragrance could have this calming effect on her. Or maybe it was just the way Kyla held her. It was really nice. Siyeon kept the thought to herself.

Seconds passed by. As much as she liked the hug, it was a very warm day and it was starting to get slightly uncomfortable even under the cool shade of the trees. “Uh, is it over 49 seconds yet?” Siyeon blurted out. “Not that I don’t like this. It’s just really hot today.”

Kyla pulled away, though not breaking the embrace entirely. “You have a watch. I thought you were the one keeping track of the time.”

“Got a little distracted, don’t blame me,” the shorter of the two looked up at the other sheepishly. Taking a look at her watch, a minute had actually passed by. “Whoa, we overshot by a minute.”

“More than enough for you to reach your quota, I hope?” Kyla smiled optimistically.

“Heh, as long as the old man believes the lack of stickers in my possession and if my friend is able to get the other 50 hugs, I’m good.” Siyeon laughed half-heartedly. “Thanks for trying to help me with this dumb ‘assignment’”, she stared back at the other girl in her arms. “You’re a really good hugger.”

Kyla smirked. “Is this the part where you call me your ‘bro for life’ now?”

Siyeon released her grip on Kyla, a bright grin on her face as she puts out her right hand. “You gotta shake on it first, bro!”

The two shared a well-synchronised L.A style handshake, complete with a shoulder bump, much to Kyla’s amusement. The girl must have watched a lot of American movies and hip-hop music videos.

Kyla was really happy to make a new friend.

It was hard being the new transfer student in a foreign land.

“You totally cheated,” Kyungwon closed the staff room door behind her and followed after the younger girl.

“I totally did not,” Siyeon said, her expression aloof.

“That face of yours is giving it all away.”

“I did it fair and square.”

“Sure,” Kyungwon eyed her suspiciously.

“Look, I’m safe now!”

“For the time being. You’re not off the hook yet until you show some actual improvement in your studies, Siyeon,” the lanky girl grabbed her into a chokehold and gave her a good noogie.

“Fine! Fine! I’ll improve! Now cut it out, unnie!” Siyeon struggled until she managed to find an opening and escaped from Kyungwon’s clutches. “Geez, you messed up my hair again.” she said in annoyance, trying to smoothen out her tousled locks of hair. Her attempts to do that were halted when her eyes caught sight of a familiar American girl about to climb up the stairs to the second floor of the campus. By chance, the other girl felt Siyeon’s gaze from her peripheral vision and turned her head to the right.

When their eyes met, they both brightened up and waved energetically at each other. The moment ended when the American girl mouthed an apology at her and had to go up to class in a hurry.

“New friend of yours?” Kyungwon noticed the whole interaction and curiously asked.

“Not just a friend. That’s my new bro,” Siyeon exclaimed proudly.

Kyungwon just stared at her and wondered if she should stop letting Siyeon watch all the hip-hop music videos she sends to her every week.