Fuzzy. That was one word to describe how I was feeling by the time I was vaguely aware of the bus slowing down to a stop. I could feel my head lolling towards the side- or was I just imagining that from the still half-asleep state I was in? I didn't want to wake up just yet, my back was tense, and my shoulders were tight, and I just wanted to curl up some more because it was really warm, and the slow beating in my ear was- wait, what?

Reluctantly, I willed myself out of that in-between waking and dreaming zone and forced my eyes open. It was warmer than I had remembered, yes, and there really was a beating in my ear, and probably the most striking feature of the situation, was the color pink. Oh hell no.

I jerked my head up so suddenly that I literally saw stars dancing around my eyes. My sense of balance was suddenly off and I watched the world spin a couple of times as I felt a wave of vertigo swoop down on me as my hands anchored themselves on the nearest substrate. Which unfortunately, and never fortunately regardless of anyone's opinion, was Jay Park.

Let's take a moment to look at this from an outsider's point of view. Here I was, or rather, there I was freshly woken up, head (was) and hand (now) on Jay's chest as he leaned against my head while he slept as well. It wouldn't have been so bad, okay it's bad either way, if not for his arm wrapped around my shoulder. This was such a flagrant invasion of personal space, that the best course of action was to slap him silly and hit him where it would hurt the most. But first, I had to make sure no one had seen us- I had to make sure Ian didn't know anything about it. It was imperative that Ian knew nothing about it.

Somehow I had always known Jay Park was a shameless, arrogant-

“Good morning.”

I refused to acknowledge the now bane of my existence's greeting. I don't care if I found pink to actually look good on him, and that I actually felt a warm sense of pride and ugh, even happiness that he received our gift. I don't care that he looked awfully cute and yes, even fluffy, when he's just woken up and his eyes were puffy and were more crescent-like than usual. I don't care that his hair looked adorable tousled on his head, or that his lopsided smile was something rather endearing first thing in the morning.

“Sleep well?”

Hie groggy voice was no, never y how could you- or anyone for that matter even insinuate that this...this insufferable, incorrigible, self-righteous-

I let the derogatory remarks and insults die on my mental tongue as my world began to shift on its axis and turn upside down and start revolving the other way around. I could feel my face pale, and my breath quicken coming as short pants as I tried to contain my tears of frustration. What did the world have against me for all the omnipotent beings out there to unleash Jay Park on me this early in the morning. That wasn't really the kicker.

“You two are up early.”

Ian's voice was an earth shattering rumble of thunder that matched the lightning in his eyes. I suddenly felt a draft rush in, and I was paralyzed on the spot. The numbness was crawling up my legs and my arms and I wanted to pass out then and there. This was one position I did not need Ian to see. A position I did not want him to see.

“Yeah, teach. Early birds,” Jay answered, tugging me closer to him. Was he crazy? I knew he was deranged at some level, but I never realized just how unstable his mental faculties were.

I refused to look at Ian even though I knew his eyes were hard on me. I willed my self to speak up, but I was hyperventilating, and I doubted I could form actual words given the state of mental shock I was in.

“That's sir.” I heard Ian stress, “Mr. Park, do me a favor and wake up the rest of the boys, please.”

Very reluctantly, I could feel it in the way Jay dragged his arm away from my shoulders, he stood up and walked to the back of the bus and prodded the rest of the boys to wake up. I tensed up knowing Ian hadn't left yet. He stood to my side, and I slowly lifted my eyes to gaze up dramatically at him.

Explain later, he mouthed, and I dropped headfirst back to my seat clutching at my temples. I watched his feet move down to the front to be joined by what I can only assume as its feet, and I frowned. Were the heavens hating on me especially today to have brought two banalities to my life?

“Are you okay?”

Junho. Thank you. I nodded without looking up at him, and I sensed him shuffling about my seat. Curious, I sat up properly, and already on Junho's shoulder, was my yellow duffel bag.

“Ready? Everyone's assembling outside.”

Finally I was up on my feet, slinging my backpack on my shoulder and following Junho out. In the indeterminable span of time that I spent mourning my misfortunes, the rest of the class had already gone down and assembled outside. Did Ian scare Jay off permanently? I hoped so. I hopped off the bus after Junho and the two of us got in line. The teachers were assigning rooms and duties, and already I felt the dread of not getting paired with Minji. Not that I wasn't comfortable around the other girls, but Minji was my almost best friend in the sense of it, and I wouldn't have to worry about getting along with the other person in the room. Now if only we weren't an odd numbered set. Usually I'd be the odd one out, being the last girl in the class list, but we couldn't be paired alphabetically now, would we?

“Okay,” Ian started, pacing at the front of the line, clipboard in hand. The sun had yet to rise, and most of us were still groggy and dazed from the midnight bus ride. “Khun and Chansung, 201” Both boys exchanged high-fives and a hug, happy to be in the same room. “Taec and Junsu, you take 203, bunk beds.”

“I call bottom bunk!” Taec immediately declared.

“Aw man! I hate the top bunk,” Junsu complained, but still he moved over to Taec's side to give him a playful slap on the back.

Ian continued, “Kwon, Jinwoon, Seulong, and Changmin, you four take 205, its big enough for four. And in 207, Wooyoung, Junho, and Jay.”

In a sense I knew what Ian was trying to do, rooming the guys together so each group was to be of the least trouble and commotion. We had talked about this the other night, and I had explicitly told him which guys not to put together. I told him to put Taec, Jay, and Khun together because Khun was nice enough, and Jay tolerated Taec enough. Did he listen? No. He decided to put Junho, Wooyoung, and Jay together. What are you trying to do Ian?

“Okay girls, settle down.” Ms. Tran walked to the front this time, and announced who was rooming together. Ian had said that the girls all get pair rooms, so that meant one of us was going to get a solo room. “In order from the room nearest the stair: Sunye and Yeeun, Yoobin and Hyerim, Jia and Fei, Min and Minji, Sohee and Suzy-” then Ms. Tran turned to me, “and you, you get the last room, lucky you.”

I couldn't concentrate on the fact that I have my own room, not when Min and Minji were rooming together, not when Suzy and Sohee were going to be in the same room. Okay, so maybe the former pair wasn't as alarming as the latter, but still- What was Ian thinking?!

I couldn't see Sohee, but I knew she was rolling her eyes and just about to rant while Suzy would have this dead looking expression on her face. Needless to say, they didn't get along- if anything, they didn't even talk or even look at each other anymore. I explicitly told Ian all this, Min and Minji's clashing personalities too, but did he listen? It was like he twisted all my words and decided to play bridge so his class would get along better. I'm surprised he didn't put Sunye with Min- or the whole of the Wonder Girls with Miss A. That would have been mass chaos for sure. Ian was definitely not going to hear the end of this from me.

We were ushered into the building and instructed to meet at the staffhouse that was the connector between the two wings that made up the large pension house. We were given twenty minutes to settle in and freshen up before meeting for breakfast. I trudged the stairs ignoring the incessant chatter around me. We were in the same wing as the other girls from the other classes, and this was sure to be an interesting weekend- I could feel it in my bones. The 3A girls were in the rooms across us, while the 3C girls were on the floor above us in the dormitory- personally, I didn't think it was such a good idea keeping all the 3C girls in one room, but maybe that's just me.

I dumped my bag on one of the beds in the small room, not really intent on unpacking. We were leaving tomorrow afternoon, no need to unpack only to repack soon after. Because there was really nothing more for me to do, I walked right out of the room after washing my face and brushing my teeth. No one seemed to have the same idea as I did, and so I walked down into the courtyard alone. I pulled out my phone hoping to get to meet up with Ian for a moment, but he was already sitting on one of the benches when I stepped out into the garden.

I crossed the cobblestone path only for my sense of elation to quickly plummet down and below the ground. It was there sitting with him, staring up into the mountain sky looking deceptively innocent like she had no plans of world domination up her sleeves. Why was she even here? We had enough faculty, we didn't need volunteer chaperones.

Rolling my eyes, I spun on my heel to wait for the others at the dining hall; I was sure some of the boys would already be there. Just like I had thought, as soon as I pushed the double doors open, Taec, Jay, and Junho were already at one of the round tables seemingly in discussion of a matter I was sure was of no importance to the world in general.

I took one of the vacant seats, still wanting to wring Jay's neck for invading my personal space. Maybe I could get Junho to do it for me? Taec was sure to fanboy over this for absolutely no sane reason at all.

Awkward, that was the word to describe the atmosphere as soon as I sat down. Were they talking about me? Eyebrow quirked, I tilted my head to the side expecting an answer. They, however, remained quiet, which only exponentially increased the questionableness of the scenario. “What,” I demanded for an answer, and I was going to get one.

“Jay thinks Renn is hot, but we told him she's way out of his league because, come on, Ian Choe is his rival here.”

I sent Taec my iciest glare. He knew about my aversion towards it, in hindsight it may have been why he was so reluctant to tell and that demonstrated his loyalty to me, but that was really beside the point. Jay was another issue entirely, was he blind to its inherent malevolence too?! Ugh.

I felt a nudge to my side, and I saw Minji pushing me while mumbling, “Permanent seating arrangements.”

I moved over to the seat next to where I currently sat, but this only brought me closer to Jay. While Minji got her seat in between me and Junho, Taec and Jay were not in their usual seats. I snuck a sidelong glance at Jay, he was already out of the pink hoodie we got him, and though I hated to admit it, I wondered whether Taec had seen him wearing it. I mean, it was still our gift for him, and him wearing it...meant he liked it...right?

“I never said that,” Jay said, defensively, “I was just asking who she was. I said she was pretty, that's it,” he continued rather defensively, raising both his hands in surrender.

This elicited another eye-roll from me. “And who did you say she was?”

“Sunbae,” Taec answered, “Just another upperclassman who volunteered.”. Taec returned my gaze, and I knew he was trying to tell me to calm down. I was very calm.

“So what exactly are we doing this morning?” Minji asked, propping her hand on her palm.

“Well, I'm not actually sure. Didn't Jinwoon say anything?” I answered.

Taec and Jay snickered in reply. “Jinwoon?” Taec laughed, “He's too busy impressing Ms. Fuu with his amazing pro graphics skills.”

“Kwon?”

“Calling Gain-noona.”

“Changmin?”

“Kitchen duty.”

“I'm almost afraid to ask. Seulong?”

“Present!”

We all turned to the direction Seulong's voice came from. He was jogging down the stairs and towards us with a sheet of paper in his hand. “With the lovely schedule in hand.” He slapped the sheet on the middle of the table and beamed at his accomplishment.

“Where did you get this?” Jay asked, pulling the paper towards him, “Breakfast, then field exercise? What the-”

“Where did you get this?” I pressed the question again.

“Oh, Ian-hyung’s room's next to ours. He's rooming with Mr. Jung. I heard them discussing the schedule. Dorm walls are really thin.”

“What's after morning exercise? For real? I hate exercise.” Minji stood from her seat and leaned over, snatching the paper from Jay's hand. Her eyes widened as she read the next set of activities. “Getting to know each other? The-”

“Why do we need to get to know each other?” I interjected before the profanities came sloshing down Jay and Minji's collective mouths.

“Interclass relations.”

We all turned to Seulong. “What? Interclass relations?”

Taec was obviously happy about this as he swiped the paper from Minji's hands. “Interclass? Class A?!”

I slumped further into my seat. This was going to be complicated, didn't Taec learn his lesson from last time's incident with Ms. Perfect's friends? Junho was quiet in his seat, just watching the exchange while Seulong, Jay, Minji, and Taec were huddled together over the alleged schedule of events. Personally, I just wanted to know if we were going to have some presentation, because I was not at all emotionally prepared for that.

A few minutes later the rest of the students came pouring in, and Seulong stashed the sheet into his jeans when the teachers came out as well. Ian, Ms. Jiyeon, and Sir Jungmo (3A's adviser) stepped up front and called our attention.

“After breakfast, assemble outside for the announcement of the activities,” Sir Jungmo announced.

“I expect you all to behave.” The student body visibly paled at Ms. Jiyeon's words. “Our guidance councilor Narsha Park, and our school nurse Jung Joori have graciously accompanied us on this trip, but even then I expect no complications.” She directed those last few words to her class, but 3C didn't even flinch.

Ian just smiled in his side, I guess being a trainee teacher gave him least authority. He only spoke up when the two other class advisers turned to him. “After breakfast, you'll all be split into separate teams for the day's activities.” Groans were the replies he got. “It's for interclass relations. You're seniors now, it's not as if you haven't spent enough time with the other class.”

This was true. I've been in a class with Jiyoung, Seunghyun, and Byunghee since first year- the same went for the others. This was going to get interesting for sure. I just hope there wouldn't be much drama. Especially with 3A involved.