Winter arrived at school the next day in a measurably perplexed mood. She could not stop her mind from circling around the thumbdrive given by her brother; why had he given it to her? Why had he run off before she even had the chance to ask him any questions about it? It was definitely a childish act by an evil, mean-spirited fourteen-year-old teenager, and Winter had been on the receiving end of too many of his tricks to know otherwise. She knew it in her veins that her brother had done that purposefully to spite her, to demean her lousy dancing skills. But Winter had not deleted that file or threw the thumb drive away despite that. Inside she hoped—wished—that this would be the only evidence of her true dancing abilities; a side of her that no one had yet to discover. Maybe all those hours she spent dancing were not acts to drive away her stress; maybe she really was talented in dancing, and had slight passion in it too… She held it in her palms as she entered the familiar classroom and was not surprised to see that it was in a mess as usual.

              “Hey, could you get out of the way, Miss Romantic?” said a girl Winter recognised to be Ye Eun, holding onto a roll of sticky tape. “Can’t you see that we’re trying to do something here?”

                 Great, Winter thought, now I’ve been branded Miss Romantic. Out loud, she said, “what do you intend to do with the sticky tape?”

              Ye Eun spoke with an air of unconcern, waving her hands in the air dismissively. “Oh, it’s nothing important, really. But I reckon Mr Jeong would highly enjoy it.” She gave Winter a wicked wink that she did not return, and said, “now really get out of the way, unless you prefer to be the mouse stuck in the trap instead?”

            Winter had no clue what she was going on about, but decided it was best to not pursue the matter and hurried to her seat. She had barely sat down and taken out her pencil case when she was disrupted by someone else entirely.

               “Oi, you,” said a cool, menacing voice. “You left school early yesterday, so your bag is the only one I haven’t checked. Take it out now.”

               Winter recognised the owner of the voice. It was Shin Ah, the only girl in the class that Winter had a nickname for: Chameleon. She was the one who acted all humble and obedient in front of teachers, but whose true colours showed impressively behind their backs. Winter could not count the number of times Shin Ah landed herself into trouble because of her anger-management problems, and yet was able to wriggle out of it like a snake by pinning the blame on others or wielding her colour-changing tactics on teachers. All the adults, it seemed, were utterly vulnerable to her beauty and false image, and that was why Winter had disliked Shin Ah from the start. Not that she actually showed her distaste for her; if anything, Winter was quick to not step on her tail and was rewarded by Shin Ah’s lack of interest in her. Winter did not know why Shin Ah would target her now.

                “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Winter said, her voice wavering slightly as she made to push her bag out of the way. But Shin Ah was faster. She snatched Winter’s bag in the speed of lightning and plunged an arm inside, rummaging through its contents. Winter’s eyes enlarged in shock, her voice slightly louder now, “what on earth are you doing?”

          Shin Ah said nothing as she dug inside Winter’s bag, her brows furrowed in concentration. Alas, they relaxed as she finally found what she was looking for. From the depths of Winter’s navy school bag, Shin Ah pulled out a crunched, yellow paper ball, her eyes filled with malice. “I knew it, it was you who stole my invitation brochure!” Shin Ah said heatedly as she pointed a finger at Winter. “You scheming little twit! Did you think y