pit-a-pat

   

"The air in Nizho is very cool this morning."

Serena was currently listening to the weather forecast as she didn't feel like putting on her bluetooth to find a song on her phone to play. She was headed over to some address that Poo had sent her that was way on the other side of town of where she lived. She just hoped this job paid her heavily though. She needed it.

"The weather will be good today. There's no haze because there were no cloud. We're also surrounded by blocking anticyclones."

Serena wasn't sure what that meant, but as long as the weather was good for a photoshoot, then she was fine with that. Good day meant just one day of shooting. If not, then she'll have to do it all over again.

"When the sun gets higher a little bit more the haze will disappear. It will become sunny in the afternoon. Now the weather forecast for the whole country."

"The whole country?" Serena said skeptically, but then shook her head indifferently. "Well it's different."

"Excluding Sulkaeng it will become mostly sunny in the rest of the country. As..."

When Jisoo neared her school she noticed at least four police cruisers parked outside the school's entrance. When she actually entered the gates the whole school including the faculty themselves were buzzing with erratic talks here and there. Jisoo suddenly recalled the conversation she had with the police officer earlier and wondered if something did happen. While heading to her math class, Jisoo couldn't help but overhear what the school's Gossip Girls were saying along the way.

"I knew Ms. Nagai's affair with that loser of a drama teacher was totally bad news from the very start." Coral stated with a smirk. "Mr. Ryder probably pushed her off from the lighting area and disguised her body as a prop he'll be using in his next play."

"No way." Miseol disagreed. "I heard that she took her own life because Mr. Ryder wouldn't leave his wife for her." She then scoffed. "Talk about pathetic. Ms. Nagai was such a hag and Mr. Ryder is so uncool."

"Ms. Nagai definitely was an old, ugly hag for sure." Nessie agreed with a roll of her eyes before they lit up with malicious intention.

"I heard that the old witch even made some of the students whether male or female stay after class so that she could intimidate them with failing grades if they didn't allow her a feel or two. Heck, she tried to do that to me, but I wouldn't let that dirty woman touch me even if I was gay."

"Maybe that's why Mr. Ryder killed her because he thought that she thought that he wasn't enough for her. I mean if he cheated on his wife with Ms. Nagai, that's gotta mean something." Coral laughed as Miseol agreed this time. "Like it's the truth though because I would know. Seriously, Mr. Ryder ain't packing . His littl-"

Jisoo immediately blocked the trio's conversation as she didn't want to hear anything about Mr. Ryder and his anatomy. In fact, she didn't want to hear any more buzz about what was going on at all. There was no way that Ms. Nagai was dead. Or could she actually be dead? Jisoo shoo the thought away as she remembered talking to her after school yesterday about making up a math quiz she had scored poorly on with extra credit.

Could it be for sure though? No way this could be a prank by some vengeful student. It would be a seriously messed up prank if she was alive and not dead at all. Still Jisoo's mind wander to the officer she had spoken with before coming to school. Jisoo hoped that it wasn't true. She prayed that it was just something else that had occurred. Ms. Nagai was actually a nice lady once you got through the rumors.

Jisoo shook the thoughts away and tried to think of other things while drowning out the gossip as she picked up pace. In her hurried state Jisoo turned the corner and accidentally bumped into the school's bullies. In particular the leader, Minjae, who was the nasiest of the three bullies. Before Jisoo could make her way past the trio, Minjae snatched the ends of Jisoo's ponytail and harshly yanked her back towards them.

"Where do you think you're going, Little Red Not So Hot Stuff?" Minjae asked while tugging on Jisoo's hair. "Isn't there something you're supposed to say to me? Now."

Jisoo was about to respond, but Minjae tugged on her hair again and Jisoo let out a yelp instead. Jisoo made to take a hold of her own hair and yank it out of Minjae's grip, but her hand was knocked away by Rowoon.

"Know your place, loser." Rowoon reminded her with a smirk. "Say that you're sorry and we might, might, just let you go. Keyword being might if you didn't get it."

"Who is she, anyways?" Kijung asked while staring at Jisoo's face. "I usually remember all of the redheads, but this one ain't coming to mind at all."

"Does it matter?" Minjae remarked. "Just add her to your list and she'll remember next time not to run into people without saying sorry, especially to me."

Soon enough it was drawing a small crowd, but none of the students tried to help Jisoo in fear of being the next target. Or simply enjoying what was going on like the Gossip Girls since they love drama as much as the next person which was the school's bullies. All the while that was happening Jisoo was fumbling to find something in her bag when she felt the bag of rice cakes a moment later.

Not sure what the consequences would be if she tried something different with making wishes upon these, but she was getting pretty fed up with dealing with Minjae and the gang on a weekly basis. Plus her hair being yanked was starting to hurt. So Jisoo quickly broke off a piece of rice cake and instantly stuffed it into a second later.

While she chewed on the bits and pieces of it it all the while wishing for something or anything to happen that would make Minjae let go of her hair as fast as possible. Once she swallowed the food did something start to happen in an instant compare to what she had wished the night before. Jisoo was amazed at that as it kind of didn't backfire and gave her close to what she had wished for to happen.

Minjae let out a harsh hiss as she huriedly pulled her hand away from Jisoo's hair while looking down at her reddening palm. To Minjae it appeared pretty red and slightly swollen, but to everyone else it seemed nothing out of the norm. Jisoo instantly backed away and Minjae reached out to take Jisoo's hair in her other hand, but she automatically let go again while letting out another hissing sound.

"What the actual is going on?" Minjae snarled while staring at her reddening palms. "Why does it burn every time I touch it?"

"What are you talking about, Minjae?" Kijung asked while giving her a weird look. "Your palms are fine."

Rowoon took a hold of Jisoo's hair and yanked on it, but Jisoo found the unconscious confident to knock her hand away freeing her hair from Rowoon's grasp.

"Are you messing with us, Minjae, because it's not burning at all and I just grabbed it." Rowoon stated also giving her friend a look. "There's nothing wrong with your hands."

"I swear. Her hair feels like fire and it burns whenever I grab on to it. Don't you see how red my palms look?" Minjae asked while showing them her normal looking palms. "Look at how friggin' red they are. I think they're beginning to blister."

Rowoon and Kijung just looked at one another wondering if their friend was alright while the other students started whispering amongst one another that Minjae was most likely on crack this morning.

"It's red and it hurts. Why can't you see it? Believe me, dammit!" Minjae demanded, but nobody was paying any attention to her words. "I'm not going crazy. I'm telling you the truth here."

Jisoo took this moment and ran off while she still had the chance. She didn't slow down until she had reached her math class. Her pace instantly dropped to a cautious walk when she spotted two police officers with the principal just outside of her math class. Ms. Nagai wasn't standing with them as she was usually early for class and was hardly ever late. Jisoo swallowed down a lump while making her way pass them and her eyes immediately scanned the classroom and noticed a majority of the students weren't even presence.

She sat at her desk and turned to face Chan after settling in. His face appeared much calmer than usual, but Jisoo noticed a pensive look upon his face. She wondered what he was thinking about so deeply this morning. She wondered if the gossip about Ms. Nagai was bothering him as much as it was bothering her. Anyways, Chan caught her looking at him a second later and shot her a smile while tilting his head as he gave her hair a once over.

"Your hair looks very fiery this morning, Jisoo. Very vibrant and bold."

Upon hearing 'fiery', Jisoo instantly took a hold of her hair and ran her fingers through it. They felt normal to her and she wondered if the wish she had made with the little piece of rice cake was the caused for Minjae's outburst about being burned. Jisoo hadn't noticed anything wrong with her palms when Minjae had shown it to everyone. Jisoo wondered if it was all in Minjae's mind.

"Did you dye it after school or just last night?" Chan asked bringing Jisoo's attention back onto him as his words reminded her of  what the cute male stranger had said about her hair.

"Uh, thanks, Chan, and um last night I dyed it."

She awkwardly answered him while thinking that it was magically done and casually, but carefuly running her fingers through a few strands of her newly colored hair. She couldn't tell him the truth that she wished upon her hair to change color due to a rice cake. She knows that she's weird, but she didn't need more reasons for others to think of why she was weird even further.

Anyways, Jisoo continued to play with her hair and admired the red color as she suddenly felt a fluttering and tingling feeling inside of her as her mind began roaming about if she'll ever see him again. As fast as it came she then shoo the thought away and wondered why she was all of a sudden thinking of this random person. It wasn't like she was in love or anything. Or was she? Her mind remembered that she drank a bit of the elixir earlier this morning and wondered if that was the caused of it. Was it?

"It's going to be a sunny day today and for the next three days before it becomes like the one from last night on the third day." Chan commented while looking outside as it snapped Jisoo out of her thoughts. "Hmm?"

"I said it's going to be a sunny day today." Chan repeated as Jisoo also looked outside and noticed how bright and shining the sun was. "Wow, it is pretty sunny out."

Jisoo turned to face Chan with a  curious look.

"How do you know how the weather's going to be when the forecaster usually says something else?"

Chan smiled at her.

"The weather is unpredictable and can change at any given moment. Plus, I just really like being outside and feeling mother nature surround me. It's a drag when I'm cooped up inside."

Jisoo smiled at his words as she never really heard him speak about his personal interests like this and looked outside again.

"I agree. Being outside is really nice than being cooped up inside."

Just then the principal entered the classroom and Mr. Schlarlach announced that school was cancelled for the rest of the day. Everyone's parents would be informed about the cancellation and its reason. It would resume once again the following Monday. Mr. Schlarlach dismissed the class before leaving shortly. Jisoo just stared at her desk blankly upon hearing the announcement. She didn't know why, but Jisoo felt a sense of dread and knew that Ms. Nagai wasn't coming back to class at all.

Jisoo found herself accompanying Chan to Diamond Boba that was just a little over an hour and a half away by bus. She wasn't sure what made her tag along with Chan as the two never really hung out at school or outside of it. Well, Jisoo never really hung out with anyone after school as she normally just kept to herself more often than not. She would just go straight home or kill time by herself somewhere along the way home.

Anyways, when Chan had asked her what she was gonna do since school was cancelled until next Monday. Jisoo told him that she wasn't really gonna do anything and just kind of let life play out on its own. Chan instantly smiled and invited her to join him at this cafe where they served great bubble teas and there was always at least a dog or cat you could play with while chilling there.

Jisoo then remembered it was because of hearing there would be animals at the cafe that drew her in as she has never visited such a place that allowed animals in a food establishment before. As they rode the bus, the duo made small talk that eventually turned into comfortable conversations where they got to know one another better than what they knew of each other from school and the diaries.

So by the time they stepped off of the bus and made their way towards the cafe, Jisoo's awkwardness wore off and she was smiling brightly and seemed more relax and carefree at the moment. This later caught the attention of a certain boy from earlier that morning to notice her right away when she and Chan entered the cafe. Jisoo was startled by the loud welcome that Chan received.

Or well she assumed it was for him as she heard various names being thrown out like 'Dino', 'Side Dish', and 'Mr. Bagpack' and none of them sounded familiar to her at all except 'Channie', but then again she wasn't too sure. Jisoo's shyness returned and she unconsciously hid herself behind Chan as she quietly followed him to the table of five others and was thankful for her short height for once.

"Hey guys." Chan greeted happily to the group of males while looking to his left, but saw no sign of Jisoo beside him as he thought she would be standing there.

He looked to his right before actually looking behind him.

"There you are. Are you okay?"

Jisoo unconsicouly shook her head to show her hesitation of meeting his friend as Chan smile.

"Don't worry, they don't bite maybe except  for Jihoon because he's talkative and random."

"Hey!" Jihoon exclaimed as Jisoo smiled at Chan upon hearing the playful banter of the two friends.

Chan smiled back as he faced forward and stepped aside to introduce Jisoo.

"This is Jisoo. She's in the same grade as me and also goes to Viboon Suri."

Jisoo was about to wave at them out of politeness while moving closer to the group yet somehow Jisoo ended up tripping over air and stumbled forward. She braced herself to catch herself against one of the other tables to the side of her, but she ended up being steadied by Jihoon instead who instantly launched out of his seat to help her out.

"Um sorry about that, but than-"

Jisoo's thanks got caught in when her eyes met the same boy from earlier this morning. Her heart slammed against her chest and she wasn't sure if she was gonna faint or not right then and there. She hoped for the latter. Jihoon chuckled as he righted Jisoo and let her go with a warm smile.

"We gotta stop meeting like this."

Jisoo felt her cheeks heat up with her heart still pou