The chatter in class 2-B died down abruptly as Miss Ryu entered the class looking more flustered than usual.
In the last two weeks the woman had been their homeroom teacher, class 2-B had come to love Miss Ryu. Maybe it was because she was the youngest of the faculty. It could also be the fact that she didn’t really teach the whole class. She taught Sociology to the students who had opted for the subject, so she was with the entire class only during homeroom.
She talked quite a bit and told a lot of stories about her school and college life, sometimes to the point of oversharing.
Whatever the reason, Patricia Ryu was loved.
However, when the woman stopped to stand before her class with a suddenly expressionless face, Patricia Ryu was feared.

The smiles fell off the students’ faces one by one as they watched their teacher clutch the attendance register tighter to her chest. Silently, they waited for the teacher to tell them to sit.

The woman’s face was flushed. Whether out of anger or embarrassment, no one could tell and no one dared ask. An underserved scolding on a Monday morning was on no one’s wish list.
After about two minutes of pin drop silence, Kim Iseul cleared .

The small noise seemed to prompt Miss Ryu to speak.
“Sit.”
Everyone did as they were told.
The teacher seemed to make eye contact with the entire class before speaking again, “I got told off by the Vice Principal because I didn’t submit the names of the two class representatives of 2-B. Apparently the deadline was on Friday. I didn’t know.”

Miss Ryu was unusually candid for a teacher and the class didn’t know how to react to that.
Which teacher told students about getting scolded by the Vice Principal?

Soonyoung straightened in his chair.
Was it just him or was Miss Ryu really accusing them of not telling her?
Before he could stop himself, he blurted, “We thought you knew.”
He heard Wonwoo sigh in disappointment, but Soonyoung couldn’t only stare ahead, eyes widening as Miss Ryu’s narrowed.

“Since Soonyoung is so aware of everything, he’ll be one of the class representatives.”
All the other boys collectively seemed to sigh in relief.
“Come up here and help me pick your partner. You must know your classmates well.”

Eunmi watched as the boy sadly dragged himself to the front of the classroom. Once there, he stood awkwardly beside the teacher, eyes going from one female classmate’s face to another.
Eunmi tried to avoid eye contact with Soonyoung, because in all honesty, this didn’t look good for her. From what she knew, even though Soonyoung was liked by the entire class, he wasn’t especially close to any one of the girls. He made a few jokes with someone or the other every now and then but he wasn’t that close to any of the girls. So there was a very high chance that he’d choose Eunmi to be his partner.

If there was one thing Eunmi didn’t want to do, it was to be in charge of the entire class. And that too with Soonyoung.
There were a lot of things that could go wrong.

Her stomach did a flip when Soonyoung’s eyes landed on her, his expression hopeful. Eunmi could almost feel the blood drain from her face. She frowned.
If only Soonyoung would get the message.
Would shaking her head be too obvious?
Miss Ryu was pretty good at reading unspoken exchanges between her students.

Eunmi watched as Soonyoung’s face lit up. He wasn’t getting the message.
Apparently, their friendship hadn’t reached the stage where they could communicate with just their eyes.

“Eunmi!” “I volunteer.”
Soonyoung and Iseul spoke at the same time.

With a face that had heated up suddenly, Eunmi turned to her right to look at Iseul.
To her surprise, Iseul was looking at her too. She had a smile on her face but Eunmi noticed that the other girl’s ears were very red. When Eunmi’s eyes wandered down, she noticed Iseul’s grip on her skirt was rather tight. In fact, her knuckles had turned white.
Kim Iseul, for whatever reason, wanted this very, very badly.

Eunmi wanted to hide under her desk.
Iseul was kind of scary. She didn’t want to cross her. She just wanted a peaceful life at her new high school.

Miss Ryu in the front also looked like she was in a dilemma.
Eunmi was irritated, almost angry at the woman. Why had she thought that giving Soonyoung the freedom to choose his partner would be a good idea?
Didn’t CRs get chosen through elections? That was how things worked at her old school.

Slowly, Eunmi raised her hand. The teacher motioned for her to speak.
With rather warm cheeks, the girl stood up stiffly. She gathered the courage to look Miss Ryu in the eyes. Hopefully, she didn’t look too defiant or anything.
“I don’t think I will do a good job as a CR. I’m new here and I don’t know how things work and where things are.”

The teacher crossed her arms over her chest.
Why did it feel like she didn’t approve of what Eunmi was saying?
Still standing, Eunmi waited for the teacher to speak.

Finally, she spoke, “Don’t you think being CR could be a way to learn how things work around here? You could also get to know your classmates better.”

Eunmi felt like this was dragging way too long than was necessary. She also did not know what to say. It felt like all the eyes in class were on her. Well, all eyes except Jeon Wonwoo’s. She knew for a fact that he was sitting in his usual manner: arms on his desk, functioning as pillows as he laid his head down.
Somehow Miss Ryu even let him get away with it.
How did she know what he was doing?
She just did.
She was awfully aware of every move the boy behind her made.
For the first time though, she was grateful for exactly that.

At least Wonwoo wasn’t staring her down, hoping for her to accept the position.
Half the class didn’t like Iseul, she’d noticed.
Maybe it was because the girl seemed to hold herself above others, or because she was so proper, they didn’t know how to act around her.
Whatever the reason, Eunmi knew that a lot of her classmates wouldn’t be happy if Iseul had some kind of authority over them.

Eunmi’s ears felt like they were on fire when she finally spoke.
“I think Iseul will do a better job,” she said, wincing as someone from the other side of the room huffed in anger.
She was barely two weeks into her life at Daeryun, she hoped her classmates didn’t already dislike her.

Miss Ryu nodded, “If you don’t want it then I won’t force you. Especially since someone has already volunteered. Sit.”

With still flaming cheeks and ears, the girl sat down as Miss Ryu called Iseul to the front of the class.
There was some applause as the CRs were made official.
For some reason, however, Eunmi couldn’t relax. She resorted to staring at the random writings on her desk that students from long ago had left behind.

When the bell finally rang, their teacher took the CRs to the staff room to give them their badges or something. Eunmi’s shoulders sagged but she couldn’t relax completely. And she was right not to.

“Hey, Seoul!” Choi Minsoo called from across the room, “I can’t believe you let Kim Iseul win. She’ll boss the hell out of us now.”

Eunmi turned to face the otherwise playful boy.
There was no competition, she wanted to say, but kept shut. She must have taken too long to come up with another reply because from the corner of her eye, she saw Wonwoo slowly sit up, his gaze on Minsoo.
“Then you should have volunteered,” he said simply, his voice calm and his manner nonchalant.
Eunmi could only watch his speak.

For a moment, Minsoo seemed to formulate his answer.
Suddenly, he yelled, “Do I look like a girl to you, Jeon?”
There were a few giggles around the classroom.

Wonwoo remained unbothered. He only shrugged.

The other boy’s temper seemed to flare, “You think I’m scared of you?”
Before Wonwoo replied however, Kiseok grabbed Minsoo’s shoulders from behind, whispering something that seemed to calm the smaller boy down.

When Wonwoo turned to meet her eyes, Eunmi internally let out a sigh of relief.
He said nothing, only let his gaze travel to the girl’s hand that had somehow ended up on his arm.
Her eyes followed his. With a gasp, she pulled way, averting her eyes and apologising in a tiny voice.

A soft chuckle made her look back at him.
“It’s okay,” there was a pause, “…and earlier…you did well.”

Eunmi couldn’t fathom what she had done well, but for the first time in what felt like hours, she smiled.

*

Eunmi had a problem.
She seemed to run into problems quite often these days. And they all seemed to have something to do with the fact that she was the new girl.
Her latest problem was Mr. Kang and the announcement he had made a minute ago.

The class was supposed to do an assignment–a presentation rather, in groups.
It wouldn’t be a problem if their History class was just 2-B. However, that wasn’t the case.
Everyone was not required to take up History so not many people did. Their class consisted of about thirty people, from different sections.
Class 2-B seemed to be the least interested in the subject, with only three people willing to go through the torture that was Mr. Kang’s class.

Wonwoo for some reason had decided to skip class today and Chanshik had his own group of friends in the class.
Eunmi felt alone.
She had only started to learn the names of her History classmates, there was no way she could just nudge her way into a group.
She sighed. There was a sinking feeling in her chest.
It was at times like this that she missed her old friends, her old school. Back there a teacher would only have to mention a group project and within seconds gazes would be exchanged and wordlessly, she’d form a group with her friends.

A loud thud startled the girl from her thoughts. She looked up, knowing what it was. Mr. Kang slapped his desk at least five times every class to stop the class from talking. As effective as it was, there had to be a better way to do that.
Trying to look calm, Eunmi sat up.

“Divide yourselves into groups of five and inform me in the next class. Assign a group leader yourselves, then I’ll assign the topics. You all claim to have grown up, about time you act like it.”
Mr. Kang was incapable of ending his classes without at least one scathing remark.

The old Daeryun students acted like they never heard his remarks. They only stood up when the teacher headed towards the door, Eunmi followed suit. Once the irritable man was out of the door, the class burst into conversation.
A bunch of boys hurried over to the girl who, Eunmi had noticed, gave the most answers in class. Eunmi supposed she was the one who usually scored the highest. Others too had started walking over to their friends as Eunmi watched, the groups seemed to have already formed.

She tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her chest as she stood up, slung her backpack over her should and hurried out the door. She hoped nobody would notice the new girl who didn’t have friends that were willing to be in a group with her.
She suddenly found herself missing the familiar chatter of 2-B. At least there she knew everyone and everyone knew her.
The class had gotten over the Iseul thing pretty quickly, although Kiseok was still shooting Wonwoo glares every now and then. Wonwoo seemed unfazed because that was the way he was but Eunmi couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty. Wonwoo had been trying to defend her and now their classmate was mad at him.
Eunmi was not sure why he had intervened out of nowhere but somehow she was grateful.

It was as if her missing the place had inspired her feet to move faster, because in a few minutes she was standing at the door of her classroom.
She entered and Hyeran smiled at her. The sinking feeling in her chest subsided a bit. She didn’t feel so lonely anymore. She smiled back.

Heading towards her desk she was greeted by the sight of none other than Jeon Wonwoo. Gazing out of the window with his chin resting on his palm, he didn’t pay attention to what was happening in class, or so she supposed.
Eunmi didn’t know him well enough.
That is why, even she was very tempted to do so, she didn’t ask him why he had skipped History class. She just hung her backpack on the hook at the side of her desk and sat down.
They would have to suffer through one more class.

Author's Note:
I don't know how enyone read the unedited chapter three. It was a mess.
Anyhoo. Now that my midterms are over, there will be more regular updates.
I am really grateful to anyone who reads this :))
Feedback is always appreciated.

xx Hoonie