It was a beautiful summer day, the sky a forget me not blue; the kind of day that would make people spend time outside enjoying it while it lasted. But Hana found herself sitting through one of the most important lectures of the day. She stole a quick glance around herself and almost snorted. Apparently, her fellow classmates didn’t share her view on the lecture; otherwise they wouldn’t be sleeping nor would they be doing other works surreptitiously under the table. She turned her attention to the only other student apart from her, who seemed to be paying attention. Hana couldn’t recall her name, but recognized her as someone with whom she exchanges small talks occasionally. The girl had dyed blonde hair swept back into a sloppy ponytail. Her eyes were framed by glasses and she had her pen stuck between her teeth as she tried to make sense of what the professor was saying. Smiling to herself, Hana looked back at her lecture notes and decided to add some more to it so that she can makeup enough material for the assignment for the same subject that was due sometime next week.

Hana kept steadily writing even after the lecture ended and the class had emptied around her. She was alone but that didn’t bother her at all. In fact, she loved being lonely because she didn’t have to fake anything and there was no one around to judge her. She could just be herself. After writing for another couple of minutes, she stretched and flexed her fingers. They were numb from holding the  pen for too long. It felt great feeling the blood rush back into those blood deprived veins. She checked the time and groaned. It was the lunch break and she has already wasted fifteen minutes of her precious time already. It looked like she won’t be able to have lunch today in the cafeteria. By the time she gets there, it’s bound to be teeming with people and she absolutely hated it and her usual spot at the corner of the floor is bound to be occupied and she had no intention of waiting for it to clear up. Yes, she hated being around people. Even though no one in her university paid her any attention, she felt like being suffocated when she was around them.

May be it’s because she grew up alone. Hana’s parents separated when she was a still a kid. Her mother left and never came back. Driven by grief, her father decided that he couldn’t stay at a place that held too many memories of his wife and left to Japan to start afresh, leaving behind his only child under the care of his mother. Hana stayed with her granny until she finished school. But when she got an offer from SNU with full scholarship, she couldn’t let it go and hence she came back to the house in Seoul where she had spent little time with her parents, the place she once called home. Ever since then she had been alone most of the time. She visited her granny once every two weeks, who lived in the outskirts of the city in a peaceful village with a small farmland which was her main source of income.  

One thing Hana learned after going through everything she did was not to get in too deep with anyone. Not even if it was someone related to her by blood. Because there was no guarantee that they would stay by her side till the end. There was no guarantee that they would always give her a support or a helping hand. The less people around her, the better.

Hana sighed as her stomach rumbled pathetically. Now there is no way she can skip lunch because she is beyond hungry and now she has to at least drink something to stop all the growling. She heaved her bag onto her shoulder dragged her feet out of the room.

The sunlight flashed  from between the lush green trees lining the path in a brilliant shade of jade. The air smelled clean and it felt warm on Hana’s cheeks. She breathed in deeply and closed her eyes, enjoying how her eyelids turned red because of the sun. She took her time walking along the path enjoying the weather. There were people around. She recognized some of them but she never acknowledged any of them and neither did they. In the past two years her fellow college mates had learned to stay away from her because in their eyes she was someone not worth their attention.

The cafeteria was located on the other side of the sprawling campus and on a regular day at a normal walking speed, it took ten minutes to reach the cafeteria but today since she was extra slow, it took more than twenty minutes to reach the overly crowded place.  Hana took in a wavery breath at the sight of the place tightly packed with loud people and squeezed herself between them and expertly maneuvered her way to the counter to order a drink for herself. The drink in hand, she made her way back outside the hellish building half running, half walking in search of a deserted place where she could drink it in peace. Her legs automatically took her to the soccer field which usually was uninhibited at this time of the day. She sat herself in the bleachers in content and drank long and deep from her iced peach tea, at the same time, wondering whether she should go shopping in the evening. She was running low on provisions.

She was only half way through her cup when, much to her distaste, she spotted two figures walking towards the field , one of them playing with a soccer ball in their hands. They were still far away from her for her to make out who they were but the gang of girls who were trailing behind the duo trying so hard no to get noticed was enough for Hana to know who they were.

If you ask anyone from SNU about who the most popular guys in the university were, then majority of them would point their fingers to the two men now making their way to the field. Their names were Kim Jongin and Oh Sehun or so they were known among the students and they were in their final year in the uni. Both of them were filthy rich and didn’t like wasting a single chance to show off their wealth by parading around in flashy sports cars and wearing limited edition designer wears. Having sculpted bodies as though god did the calculations himself from each of their  hair strands to the tips of their toes only made them more fanciable. Whenever Hana saw them she always found them surrounded by their admirers though they kept a safe distance from the two. It was hard to explain why but  there was definitely something about them that kept others at bay. May be it’s their intimidating personality, or their towering physique, Hana didn’t know which and didn’t care to know either. Because for her, they were hopeless pushovers who weren’t worth her time or attention. The only reason why she even bothered to remember their names was because they seemed to hate attention just like her. It felt weird. Why would they try to stay away from the spotlight? Is there something they are trying to hide? Even if they actually did, it was none of Hana’s business and it’s going to stay that way.

As the two tall figures neared where Hana was sitting, one of them- she was not sure who since they were still a considerable distance away- looked in her direction. Hana was sure that in that brief moment, their eyes had met. She quickly looked down feeling her hunger vanishing. The peach tea suddenly looked unappetizing. To make matters worse, the gang of girls had started making their way towards the bleachers and Hana decided she should as well clear away before they personally came and kicked her out. She heaved her bag over her shoulders and walked quickly in the opposite di