… So maybe Chaewon wasn’t as ready as she thought…

There was no way in hell that she could’ve even slightly guessed how hectic the fair would be.  There was a line going across the school. The doors to the main gymnasium had only just opened but all the students were pushing and shoving to get first spots on the email lists.

With her small frame, Chaewon did not go long without getting pushed to the floor, and after the third time kissing the tile, she decided to crawl to the front.

Being tiny had its ups and downs, but the ability to weave through the legs of a sea of jumpy girls was a definite perk.  Chaewon was at the front in no time.

Making sure that she still had her notebook, Chaewon stood up unnoticed, brushing off her surprisingly unharmed uniform.  She looked around before continuing her mission, briskly walking past the ‘Sign In’ table-

A hand gently grabbed her wrist, making Chaewon jump.

“Um… hello?  I’ve never seen you around before, which is weird because I know everyone.”

Chaewon turned to the side where a wavy haired brunette was staring at her with curious eyes, her head tilted like a puppy.  She didn’t seem mad at all, just genuinely confused, making Chaewon sigh with relief.

“Now, I have heard that there’s a new transfer, so I’m gonna guess that’s you.” The girl’s mouth flashed the biggest smile as she went from grabbing Chaewon’s wrist to violently shaking her hand.

“I’m Choi Yerim, nice to meet you.” Yerim released her hand and moved to point it at the sign in front of the table, giving Chaewon time to grab her, now limp, wrist while trying hard not to wince in front of the happy girl.

“Now, before anyone can go in they have to sign in- Hey! That rhymed! Write that one down Hyejoo-” Yerim turned to an empty chair next to her before smacking her head playfully and chuckling.

“Oops.  My bad. Hyejoo stepped out for a little bit.  Silly me.” Chaewon couldn’t help but to grin and the cheery girl’s goofy dialogue.  She must have so many friends.

“Like I was saying, Principal Lee has everyone sign in before attending the fair so the missed classes aren’t unexcused.  It’s like a free pass to not get detention for doing something fun, you know?” Chaewon nodded her head.

“Good.  Oh- I see you haven’t gotten a name tag yet so-”

“WHAT?” Chaewon looked down, feeling where the sticker name tag should’ve been, before grunting in frustration.  It probably came off when you were crawling through legs like a frickin spider.  This is like the eighth time you lost your name tag man, get it together.

Chaewon looked guiltily at Yerim.

“Um… I actually had one given to me by Principal Lee but it fell off when I was getting bumped around in the crowd-”

Yerim stopped her with a reassuring pat.

“That’s okay, I totally get it.  Quick tip, though: the only rule that’s actually enforced here is that you have to have some sort of name tag on at all times, just for general safety stuff.  Of course, I’m fine with it, but there are some people who get really sensitive about it.”  Yerim pushed a clipboard and pen towards Chaewon.  “Just sign here and I’ll take care of it-”

“Who are you and where’s your name tag.”

Chaewon, who had put her notebook down on the table and was signing her name on the clipboard at the moment, was hit with the strong scent of-

Watermelon.

Chaewon’s cheeks burned.  Slowly but surely, she shakily looked up at the girl from the garden.

She was standing in front of the empty chair that was next to Yerim, holding a big plate of freshly cut watermelon, presumably the one she handpicked from the garden.  Chaewon then realized that she was the Hyejoo Yerim was fake talking to earlier.

Already red from embarrassment, Chaewon’s cheeks went full firetruck after encountering the girl’s full face.

Hyejoo had taken the farmer’s hat off, so it was dangling from her neck behind her.  Her shiny, soft black hair fluffed down her shoulders, but the tiniest ponytail emerged from the top of her head which created, what Chaewon could only describe as, an apple-like effect with the ponytail being like a stem peeking out of an apple.  Whatever it was, it was cute as hell.

Her face looked both smushy but cold at the same time.  Her eyes had the fierceness of a hungry wolf but her cheeks were so pokeable.  And of course, the iconic triangular mouth and pillowy lips that were currently pressed together with anger-

Wait… anger?

Chaewon, now smacked out of dreamland, looked at the reality in front of her.

Hyejoo was raging mad, her face was bright red, and the plate of freshly cut watermelon slices was shaking, threatening to fall on the floor.   

“Hey, you.  Why are you signing in when you don’t have a name tag-”

“Deep breaths, Hye.  She’s new-”

“New or old, you can’t go to the fair without a name tag- you can’t-”    

“Can’t you let her go in just this once?  Let’s let one slide, huh?-”

“NO.  I’m not letting her in without a name tag.  No one goes in without a name tag.”

Chaewon, didn’t know what to do.  The girl who she just saw and basically already gave her heart to was going to murder her in the next few seconds over a stupid name tag.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was that important.  I’ll go get one now.”

“Yeah, go-”

“Hye, it’s all good, she’s getting one…” Yerim’s voice got softer. “What did I say to you about-”

Chaewon couldn’t manage to catch the end of the sentence because of the impatient (well she couldn’t even say they were impatient because they had been waiting for a while)- loud students eventually knocking her aside, making her get pushed away from the table and out into the hallway.

Chaewon was usually one to hold a cool head, but she was feeling a mix of some really negative emotions.

Tears were threatening to fall from her eyes as she walked down the hall towards the school store, where Sooyoung had guessed name tags were sold earlier.

“What could I have possibly done to make her so mad?” Chaewon sniffled, trying to keep her head on straight…

It wasn’t working.

The tiny new student didn’t know how to feel.

She was mad at herself for crushing so hard on someone who she never exchanged a word with and she was mad at Hyejoo for being so unreasonable.  But she was sad that her little watermelon crush got totally decimated after less than five seconds. And then in some dark place she was even happy that Hyejoo talked to her.

This made Chaewon chuckle a little.  “I’m insane.”

Being the definition of an overthinker, Chaewon tried to playback the moment to try and figure out what she did wrong… but found nothing.

I guess it was really just the name tag.  This relaxed her.  Unless I just out and said something extremely offensive it was the name tag… And Chaewon was sure that she didn’t have a blacking out problem… or at least last time she checked.

Not wanting to go down another rabbit hole, Chaewon kept her thinking on the main problem.

“Then why did she get so mad?”  No high school student could ever care about the rules enough to freak out when teachers weren’t around.  Even at her old school, Chaewon was a stickler for the rules, but she would never react like that. And, now that she remembered, Hyejoo was shaking so much that she looked… almost like she was close to crying.

Is it that big of a rule?... No way, Yerim even said it was nothing… but I really can’t take anyone’s word… I don’t know anyone… Yerim might be one of the more rebellious students- OH MY GOSH IS YERIM THE SCHOOL GANG LEADER? They did say that things are a little different here.  Is smiling an initiation? Oh crap, Yerim smiled at me… Does she want me to be in the gang now?

Sweat trickled down Chaewon’s forehead as she was making plans to escape the grasp of Polaris Prep’s allegedly most violent gang leader, Choi Yerim.

Thankfully for Chaewon’s brain cells, or however many were left after that ordeal, another obstacle was brought to light.

Chaewon had been wandering around school for the past ten minutes or so, without knowing where the heck the school store was.

“Damn.”

Chaewon looked around.  She was in a hallway that was far away enough from the gym that she could barely hear the students.  This was a bad sign.

Chaewon slumped down in front of a door that kind of looked like a farm door: it was larger than a regular door but was split in half sideways, making two square doors on top of each other.

The tired girl sighed.  She’s only been at this school for a couple of hours and she already has a crush that hates her guts, no name tag, new friends that she can’t even reach because of no name tag and the angry crush-

“And I’m lost.  And it’s not like I can ask anyone for help because everyone’s at the fair-”

“Everyone’s at the fair?  Damn, then why am I in here?”

Chaewon’s hair almost bleached itself from shock.  She whipped her head around to look at the segmented doors, where a muffled voice spoke again.

“... Unless I’m having an out of body experience and I am at the fair.  WOAH. Cool. I’m gonna go scare Lippie- OOMPF!!!”

Chaewon felt a vibration on the door behind her as a sound, that could only be categorized as a smack, was heard.

“Ow.”

Chaewon stood up and opened the top door.  She couldn’t see anyone but when she looked on the interior side of the door, she saw the words ‘SCHOOL STORE’ in bright blue letters.

Oh, so this is the school store.  That’s convenient.

The sound of shuffling reminded Chaewon of her task at hand.  

She slowly opened the bottom section of the door, where a long, blonde haired girl spilled out, laying down like a fish out of water.  Her hair was all over her face, but she could see that the girl was in pain. She also had on a blue skirt, like Chaewon’s, but judging from her height, she looked much older.

Chaewon crouched down beside the girl.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“No, silly, I’m Jinsoul.  Who would name their kid Okay?”

Silence cut between them as Chaewon desperately waited for the girl to say ‘just kidding’ or something.

It didn’t happen.

Wow.  This is gonna be interesting.  Chaewon gathered all her might to keep herself from judging.  She just banged her head.  She must be out of it.

“I mean I heard you hit your head against the door.  Are you hurt?-”

“No, silly, I’m Jinso-”

“NO.  I mean is your head hurt… Your HEAD.”

Jinsoul finally turned to the trying-to-be-worried-but-slowly-getting-annoyed Chaewon, brushing her hair out of the way in order to reveal a stunning face.

Albeit her face was covered by a big red lump on her forehead from the door damage and a white eye patch over her left eye (right eye from Chaewon’s perspective) but Jinsoul’s features were amazing.

Starting with a very unique, acorn-like face shape with thick cheekbones that were balanced out by a delicate nose and thin, but prominent, eyebrows.  Her lips were sharp, having strong angles on the top lip to accompany the plump lower lip. Finished off with a tiny, round chin, fair skin, and a wavy, platinum blonde mane that spread out on the floor around her.  When Chaewon looked close enough she could even notice a tiny scar in between her eyebrows. I’m not surprised.  She seems like she gets injured A LOT.

“So, while we’re here.  Do you need anything from the store?” Jinsoul smiled as she rolled her body towards Chaewon, who eventually helped her sit up.

“Um, actually, yeah.  I got yelled at for not having a name tag so I was wondering if you sold any here-”

“Oh no, sorry.  We don’t sell them-”

“Oh.” Ch