The journey Sooyoung has assumed to peak in that summer that feels surreal, is proven to be wrong in high school.

Of course, being tackled by Jungwoo to be grabbed by the neck in the morning on their first day is already outrageous enough. It still baffles her how throughout their meeting, he never changes. He still keeps the same stillness of light emanating from his very presence.

Even when his team didn't pass to the nationals a few months later. Sooyoung lies a bit as she saw him weeping on his way home, passing in front of her home when she was about to go out. She stood by the fence, her eyes trail at him as he dragged his feet through the concrete floor. On moments like these, she knows her silence works best, even without him knowing. 

It would be very humane of him to cry. It used to terrify her how someone can be so happy all the time. Now, she knows Jungwoo is just like any other people. 

"Look at you hair, it's already so long!" he exaggerates, measuring her hair with his fingers. This feels embarrassing for her but somehow she has gotten used to the attention. 

She shrugs it off coolly, looking ahead to the gate of the school already b with students rushing in. "I'm planning to cut it."

"No! Don't, I like your hair like this," he begs, ready to wrap his arms around her so she won't be able to resist him. A nudge in his side is enough to push him away, annoyed brows creasing in. 

"Bugger off," she hisses under her breath, saving the piece of her mind to not cause herself a headache so early in the morning. 

He recovers fast enough to flash a goofy grin to her. "Whatever. I know you are going to keep it for me."

"If you keep saying that, I"ll cut it off just to prove you wrong."

With a sense of finality in her voice, it is enough to silence him, him already taller than her by a few inches, hands buried fown to his pockets fiddling wildly. "Okay, I'll shut up."

The first day of school still feels lonely for her even with Jungwoo around in her class. Yeri sadly attends another school as she moves out of town due to her parents' financial difficulties. It feels emptier with less sound to fill her life. It feels so strange to feel the silence when so many lively sounds used to surround you.

"Hello there, is the seat beside you available?"

She turns around to the sight of a girl with eyes reminding her of a feline, with almost elven like ears. She snaps out of her trance quickly. "Yeah. It's empty."

"Okay! So, I'm Kang Seulgi. Nice to meet you, my seatmate!" She stretches out her hand for a handshake and she politely grabs it.

"Hi there, I'm Park Sooyoung. You can call me Sooyoung," she smiles softly, feeling warm by the occurence of getting a new friend. Perhaps. She hopes it is.

"And hi, I'm Kim Jungwoo!" A runt she is familiar with pops out of nowhere, propping his arm on her desk, giving a little wave to her new friend. This isn't something new to her.

"Yeah, this is Jungwoo. Please bear with him," giving a straight forward introduction of him, he only gives her an incredulous stare. Seulgi bursts out laughing at this.

"Well, that's an interesting entrance. As you have probably heard before, I'm Seulgi-"

Before she stretches out her hand, a stranger walks in and plops on a seat behind Seulgi, immediately catching her attention. "Hey, I didn't know you were in this class."

A boy with slated eyes and bedhead kind of hair only shrugs her off, pulling off his earphones. "I know you'd fuss over it."

A chuckle bubbles out of her lips adorably, forming her eyes into crescent moons. Seulgi instantly looks so bright, as if the storm won't ever come to her life. She approaches the boy and grabs him by the arm, pulling him over the the front of her seat. 

"Guys, this is Jeon Wonwoo. My boyfriend!" she beams, and the boy beside her becomes flustered, covering his mouth with his hand. A shade of rouge even colours Sooyoung's cheeks because how puerile she sounds. 

"I'm sorry. She likes to claim people like this," then the introduction goes on and soon, the morning settles for the class as a beginning of a school year full of responsibilities and twists.

Occasionally, she'd gaze out of the window and recall last year's competition when she didn't make it into the nationals. She didn't feel sad, at all. Sometimes, she longs to feel that vehement emotion of struggling to achieve something, that feeling to strive for something impossible. As far as she knows, she has not yet known of that thing. It felt strange to feel indifferent for something so impactful. 

That day, they are walking home from school with Jungwoo by her side whilst Seulgi and Wonwoo are walking hand in hand in the front. Under the setting sun, for the first time ever, Sooyoung asks him a question.

"How does it feel when you lost last year?"

He stops dead in his tracks along with his whistling. Sooyoung does also. Except the two in the front who is so into their o