The morning started off rather badly.

It was raining heavily, which meant I'd have to carry an umbrella with me, and it would be really troublesome. The time I'd take to get to school would also be longer, which meant I needed to hurry if I didn't want to be late. Streaks of lightning cut through the dark clouds and the fog, booms of thunder following afterwards.

I ate my breakfast of scrambled eggs and milk unhappily, staring at the rain pelting on the wet and slippery ground. Cars zoomed by, splashing water onto the sidewalk. There was no sign of the rain stopping, at least not now.

Taking a small bite of the scrambled eggs, I took another drink of the milk. The more I thought about what might happen in school later, the more I started to dread it. I was a transfer student in the high school I was attending. Our family was from Gwangju, but my father had to move to Busan because of his business, so my mother followed him and brought me along. As a new student, I'd been picked on by some mean bullies in my class, but I really didn't understand why they should be so nosy about my own business.

It had been a week since I first transferred to that school. The first few weeks were always the worst.

My mother, a middle-aged housewife, was sitting opposite me on the dining table, observing me. "Are you alright, Chaewon? You look a bit troubled." She was the typical Korean parent: strict and had high standards for me. But still, she could be quite caring sometimes.

I didn't reply. Secretly, there was something I hoped I didn't need to do today, but I figured the result of asking my mother wouldn't be very desirable. I had a thought: Maybe, just maybe, if my mother was concerned over me, and I asked her, she might actually agree.

"Omma, there's actually something I'd like to ask you," I said, picking my scrambled eggs. My mother stared at me. "What is it?"

"Can I not go to school?"

My mother looked like someone had just given her a slap to the face. Her face turned a shade of red, and I knew I'd crossed the line.

"Not go to school, Ahn Chaewon? Since when have you become so insolent?" my mother scolded, frowning deeply, her forehead creased. She seemed to be really shocked that her daughter, one of the top students in her class back in Gwangju, would even have such a ridiculous thought of not to go to school.

"Omma, you see-"

"I don't care about what you want me to see. You have to go today, gwenchana? (Okay?) That's a must." With that, she fell silent, a permanent frown on her face.

I decided I should do something nice for my mother. I didn't feel that angry at her for not listening to my explanation, because either way I still doubted she'd allow me to skip school for the whole day. Korean parents are like that. I collected the dishes and placed them into the sink for my mother to wash, and carried my schoolbag.

"Omma, I'm leaving for school," I said, staring at her from the door. She only replied a few seconds later. "Yeah, go."

Casting one last meaningful look at my mother, I left my slippers in the house and tramped with my socks worn outside, where I changed into my black school shoes with a Velcro strap. The rain had made the porch of our house wet, but the shoes were still alright, or else my homeroom teacher, Teacher Nam, known for her ruthlessness when it came to punishing students, were going to question. Sometimes, I wondered if she was even human. Whatever the case, her punishments were not.

The rain had somewhat subsided by then, but it was still quite big. Opening my umbrella, I stepped into the rain.

A cold wind blew, making me shiver. The blazer of the school uniform wasn't thick enough to keep me warm. Squeezing as close to the middle of the umbrella as possible, I carefully traipsed on the waterlogged ground, I tried not to splatter the dirty water onto my white leggings.

I stopped at a traffic light. My wrist watch now said 5.50am. There was only ten more minutes till the start of morning self study, and I didn't think I could make it, not with the rain.

It was green light for the horizontal direction of the traffic from my view. One of the cars whizzed past me with such speed, its wheels caused water to be splashed onto me from the build up water at the side of the road. I took a few steps back, falling right onto my on the damp floor.

"Curse this," I mumbled, slowly standing up and trying to brush the water off my skirt, but to no avail. The huge spot of water on my leggings and skirt was too obvious to hide, and I didn't think Teacher Nam would just let me go. I was dead later.

"Oh gods..." someone said from beh