Jaera finds out that the school they are designing for is the one and only Chungdam High School. The fact that it is her own school makes her want to do better than ever.

She hasn’t been there in years, but she can still visualize the old covered pathway which is next to the field. The basketball court should be on the other side as well. Memories of herself walking home after school, watching the older boys play football resurface. She would stand at the covered pathway, shaded from the sun, watching football matches under the pretense of waiting for her bus.

She sinks lower into her massage chair. It technically isn’t hers, since it’s in her parents’ room, but the tenderness in her back is way too much.

Biting her lip in frustration, she groans. It is just so difficult to come up with something that fits in a normal high school, yet looks impressive. The screen of the iPad on her lap has already turned to black, and when she turns it on, the screen tells her that it is already half past midnight.

She is thankful that her parents are on vacation, because if they were home, she would’ve earned a long lecture about sleep and time management. Being twenty-two doesn’t stop them from babying her.

Long after the massage chair has stopped vibrating, Jaera continues to stare at the blank space on her iPad. She has to come up with something, at least. She thinks long and hard, imagining herself walking through the covered pathway in her school. However, all she can associate the structure with is her watching football matches and boys playing football.

The idea hits her so suddenly that her eyes shoot wide open. She sketches a V-shaped roof, because she has seen the boys get their footballs stuck on there before, and she remembers how difficult it was for them to get it back. Maybe a higher grill so balls don’t fly into the faces of innocent passers-by. (Jaera is a victim herself.)

Her ideas begin to stem from there, and soon enough she has the basics down. Just a little bit more, she tells herself. The more she does, the more she can ask Mr Lee about, and the more corrections she can make to produce an impressive piece of work.

Before she knows it, her eyes fall shut and light snoring fills her parents’ bedroom.

-

It’s a stressful morning.

Jaera wakes up to a sore neck instead of a sore back thirty minutes later than her usual time. That means she has to choose between forgoing her makeup routine or breakfast if she doesn’t want to be late. She chooses to skip breakfast because she needs to look presentable at work, at least.

She breezes through everything; showering, throwing on an outfit, placing her beloved iPad in her bag, and driving a little over the speed limit. Her heart feels like it is beating at a thousand times a minute the entire time. Why, oh why, did this have to happen on her second day of work?

 She only checks her appearance once in the reflection of her car window before running towards the entrance. Her heels do the click-clack sound, making her realize that she had worn the noisy heels again.

She spots her team leader speaking to a group of guys at the lobby and they make eye contact when the door closes behind her.

“Good morning!” she greets, throwing her body into a right-angled bow.

“Hello, Park Jaera. You’re ten minutes early today.”

She’s early? In between all the rushing, she didn’t even bother to check the time. She could’ve spent five minutes making a sandwich.

Some of Mr Lee’s friends chuckle. One of them speaks up. “You look like you just ran a marathon.”

Her hands immediately reach for her hair, patting it down. Is her shirt wrinkly? Is her skirt riding up? She looks utterly scruffy in front of her superiors and she hates it.

“You look fine, Jaera.” She only now notices Junmyeon among the group and her face pales. His gaze falls to her heels. “So, you wore these shoes again? You were so worried about them being too loud, though.”

She hopes the mortification doesn’t show on her face. “Sunbae! Good morning! Yes, I hope I wasn’t too loud with the heels. It completely slipped my mind to wear a different pair.”

“Don’t worry about it. I told you, your shoes look fine,” he says with an easy smile. “How’s your back? Better now?”

Jaera glances quickly at her team leader before nodding enthusiastically. “It didn’t hurt that much to begin with.”

“Because I remembered how bad it was yesterday,” he continues, as if he didn’t hear her. “Then you said that your team leader gave you so much to do.”

She knows that he’s just teasing, because the tone of his voice is so playful. However, she instinctively tries to defend herself. “Sunbae, I-”

“Stop teasing her, Junmyeon.” The friend who made a comment about her running a marathon hits him on the shoulder. “You’re scaring the poor girl.”

Junmyeon chuckles. “I was just kidding.”

Mr Lee has a small smile on his face when he addresses her. “Go up to the office first, Jaera. Sooyoung is already there. I’ll be up in a moment as well.”

With one final bow, she leaves the group of superiors. It is a stressful morning indeed. However, she can still hear snippets of their conversation when she waits for the elevator to reach the ground floor. She knows it’s bad to eavesdrop, but they are sort of talking about her, so she feels like she has the right to listen in.

“We’re from the same high school,” Junmyeon explains. “It was a coincidence that we ended up in the same company.”

“Why do you keep teasing her though? Were you guys close last time?” One of the guys ask him, and though she can’t see his face, she knows by his voice that it is suggestive.

“I don’t know.” The elevator bell dings. “It’s just really fun to see how flustered she gets sometimes. It’s cute.”

Cute? Kim Junmyeon thinks her reactions are cute? The morning becomes ten times more stressful because she doesn’t know what to make of that comment. Did he mean it in an older brother sort of way, or a love interest sort of way, or- who is she kidding? What would a handsome, smart, professional guy like him see in a girl who likes to think too much?

She reaches the first floor in no time. Like Mr Lee said, Sooyoung is already there and she is working on her sketch.

“Good morning,” Jaera greets. “You’re early today.”

Sooyoung looks up from her tablet. “Oh, hi. I just reached a few minutes ago. Where are the others?”

“They’re not here yet, but work starts in five minutes so they should be here soon.”

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

Jaera’s eyes widen as Sooyoung approaches her slowly. “Uh, okay?”

Before her brain can come up with wacky theories of what Sooyoung is going to do, the girl in question speaks. “What’s the name of the boy on our team? I really don’t know, and it’s too embarrassing to ask. He kept his tag in his pocket the entire time we were sorting out the documents yesterday too.”

“I don’t know either,” Jaera says, heat forming on her cheeks. “He keeps moving whenever I want to check his name tag. All I know is that his surname is Oh.”

Sooyoung groans. “Hopefully Yerim knows.”

Suddenly, the door opens and in strolls the only male member of their team. He waves to them with a grin. “Good morning, Jaera. Morning, Sooyoung.”

Jaera cringes when she waves back as Sooyoung settles for a polite nod. “Hi! Uh, good morning.”

Mr Lee appears right after that. “Hello, everyone. Today, there’ll be no more file arranging as I’m going to allow you some time to work on your sketches. After lunch, we’ll go on a little excursion to Chungdam High School with another team for you to get the vibe of the place.”

“Could you look over my sketch, please?” Sooyoung asks.

He nods, though he looks distracted as he scans the room. “Where’s your other teammate?”

“She hasn’t arrived yet, sir.”

He merely purses his lips as he shakes his head, heading to his own desk. Is he always this lenient? Or is he just lenient to her?

Jaera takes her iPad out, wanting to be the next in line to receive advice from Mr Lee. She makes a few touch-ups here and there while waiting. However, the more she stares at her own design, the weirder it looks. Maybe she should’ve just gone with a simpler look.

“Wow,” No-Name breathes, eyes sp