Sakura didn’t talk or even glance at Chaeyeon for the rest of the day, she kept pushing up her glasses, doodling on her already ruined desk. It wasn’t until one of the teachers scolded the girl that Chaeyeon realised that Sakura was possibly a passive delinquent. Afterall, she was held back two years for poor attendance.

The day was ending, when the bell rang signalling, everyone poured out of the classrooms. Chaeyeon stayed behind because she hated walking in big crowds, it made her uncomfortable to no ends. She wasn’t the only one like that though, Sakura stayed at her desk sitting, casually trying to spin her pen around her finger. Though she didn’t acknowledge the dancer’s presence.

‘’I’m going to get going now, I’ll see you tomorrow, make sure to clean up your space!’’ Eunbi said after she wiped the whiteboard clean, waving to the two outcasts.

And then came the awkward silence. Neither of them knew how to start a conversation. One girl was used to being quiet around others and the other had no social skills because she was shunned her whole life.

Someone came to save the day, well, Sakura’s day. A small girl came through the door and started spouting Japanese, luckily Chaeyeon knew the language decently.

‘’Come on slowpoke! Sana forgot the key again and we have to go open the door for her.’’ The small girl started dragging the lazy girl out of her chair.

Chaeyeon was sure the small girl would’ve been in elementary school if it wasn’t the fact that she wore the same uniform and same coloured bow tie.

Sakura was by the door when she threw one last look that Chaeyeon couldn’t decipher over her shoulder. Then she was left alone in the classroom. There were still a bunch of people out front, she had no intention of walking past them just yet.

‘I’ll wait until only a couple are left.’

The dancer got bored quickly, an idea came to her and she started walking towards Sakura’s desk. She studied the weird little characters that the owner had sprawled across the desk, one of the characters she thought was insanely cute. Bear in mind that these drawings were very hard to make out, the one that resembled a cat was her favourite.

‘’She has friends…I wonder why shes so quiet.’’ Chaeyeon mumbled. She looked outside again and thankfully most of the students were gone, leaving only the caretakers.

‘I’ll get better at this, I promise.’ She internally promised herself.

When she got home, her youngest sister was playing joyfully in front of the television, which was playing some Kdrama.

‘’Chaemin, you really should stop watching it so close.’’ She warned.

‘’Yeah but look how handsome the Goblin is! And the girl is so pretty, I want to marry her!’’

Chaeyeon rolled her eyes and left her sister to fangirl over the fictional characters.

Her room was her haven, no one bothered her in here. The bullies couldn’t get to her, none of the harsh realities could seep in and most importantly she had the teddy bear her father had left her before he went away to work oversees. It’s been 4 years since she saw her dad in person, they facetime once a week whenever he wasn’t busy. But she knew he had to work away if they wanted to keep this luxurious home.

Chaeyeon changed into her house-wear, unconsciously pulling up one leg of her jogging bottoms, it was one her weird habits she got from her dad. She sat at her desk for the next hour, blitzing through all her homework she got today so she could relax for the rest of the week. She wouldn’t admit it, but her mind often drifted to the thought of Sakura.

Sakura was fascinating to her. She’s never met someone as introverted as she was. Even though she hid behind those outdated glasses, Chaeyeon could tell that the girl was very pretty. But she didn’t think anyone had noticed it past the unique way Sakura carries herself.

‘’I should stop thinking about her-‘’

‘’Thinking about who?’’ Asked Chaeryeong as she came into her sister’s room, fiddling with her phone.

Chaeyeon sighed, she didn’t mind her sister coming out to hang in her room, they were only one year apart.

‘’No one. Have you won that guy’s heart yet?’’

Her younger sister flopped onto her bed and started giggling. ‘’Oh my god! Yes, he said I looked very pretty today and that we should go on a date tomorrow. Do you think mum will let me?’’

The dancer shrugged, she had never dated so she didn’t know how their mother would react to this. Their mother was fairly laid-back, always telling them stories about her days when their dad was still courting her.

‘’I’m sure it’ll be fine…..’’ She trailed off. She looked at Chaeryeong, who was busy tapping away at her phone. ‘’Just be careful, I don’t want him to hurt you.’’

Her sister snorted and scoffed. ‘’How would you know, you don’t even know him, and you already think hes gonna leave me.’’ She left the room after that, leaving Chaeyeon a little hurt inside because all she wanted was Chaeryeong’s happiness.

She tried not to dwell on it too much, instead she spent the rest of the night practicing her new dance routine until her mother called her for dinner.

……………………………………..

‘’So, what kind of dance do you do? Ballet?’’ Eunbi asked, they were having lunch together again, this time with two other girls.

‘’I do all sorts, I like wacking though.’’

Yena, a short girl with very prominent duck lips leaned forward to ask more. ‘’Woah, whats wacking? Can you show us?’’

The last girl, Yuri, smacked Yena around the head and scolded her. ‘’Ya, stop it, shes shy as she is.’’

Chaeyeon muttered a thanks as she really didn’t want to show off to people she didn’t really know. She liked Yuri and Yena though, they were friendly and if Eunbi was close to them, they must be good people.

Yuri was a sensible person, very touchy feely, Chaeyeon wasn’t sure if she liked th