I wake up to the lunch bell. I stretch a bit and yawn. Wait….something is different. Usually during this time I wake up to Chin Ho’s snobby insults. He’s not anywhere near me today.

I survey the room with half lidded eyes. The whole class is circled around something. Or should I say someone. I move a little to get a better look at the center of the attention. It’s that new girl. She’s standing next to Chin Ho. He says something, she giggles. The rest of the class follows along.

He’s looking at her with this disgustingly tender look. It makes me want to laugh. Never thought such a evil person could produce such a expression. Yep, he definitely likes her.

Su Min’s POV

My first day at this new school, everything is going great. This class is so nice, especially Chin Ho. He’s so kind and funny and just plain perfect. Well, of course he is….what do you expect from the class president, right?

But there is something that seems kind of off. There’s this one kid….I don’t know what his name is. He doesn’t interact with the class at all. He sits two seats behind me. I don’t think he noticed me though seeing that he slept through the entire class.

He’s extremely pretty, even though he has a bunch of bruises on his face. If it weren’t for the fact that he had the boy’s school uniform on I would have thought he was a girl.

Once the lunch bell rang everyone got up and started talking. Everyone except for that one boy…. He had just woken form his nap and I could feel him staring. I wanted to include him.

“Su Min?” I snap back from my thoughts. Chin Ho was looking down at me smiling.

From the look of the classmates around us I assume he had just told a joke. Not knowing what to do, I giggle. The people around us do the same. Good, I made the right move.

I look back and the boy isn’t there anymore. I wonder where he went.

“Let’s go to lunch.” Chin Ho offered. I nod in agreement. I had completely forgotten my grumbling stomach.

“Sure! I just need……” I look through my bag. Weird, why isn’t my lunch here…?

I suddenly remember causing me to drop my bag. Chin Ho looks at me questioning.

“Is something wrong?”

“Nope, I just remembered I left my lunch somewhere. I’ll meet you at the cafeteria.”

I leave before he can respond. I feel kind of bad….but It’ll only take a few minutes for me to get it.

I run outside. I came to school earlier this morning but the building was locked. So I sat under this tree that was kind of far from the school. I have a feeling not many people know about it. The tree itself was big, and isolated. The grass around it grew long and dark. It’s a really nice place. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep. The school bell woke me up. I had gathered my stuff in a hurry, and most likely left my lunch behind………I’m positive I left my lunch there.

I’m at the tree now, I see my lunch bag! I run over. Just as I reach down to pick my bag up something falls from the sky and hits me on the head. I scratch my head, it was a balled up thing of tin foil. Weird, where did it come from? I look up. It was the boy from class, the cute one. He doesn’t see me. He’s looking up at the sky.

“Hello!” I yell.

I guess I startled him a little. He jumped slightly but remained on the tree. He looks down at me with little to no interest, taking a slow bite out of his sandwich.

“Sorry for intruding, I left my lunch here by accident.” He still doesn’t say anything. It’s kind of awkward.

“You’re in my class, right?” I say, trying to create some sort of conversation.

“………yes” I smile, he finally said something!

“What’s your name?”

“………..Ren” he continues eating his sandwich but his eyes aren’t looking at me anymore. They return to the sky.

For some reason, I feel the need to talk to him. I put my lunch bag in my mouth and climb up the tree. He turns his head towards me and looks at me weird.

“What are you doing?”

“Mind if I have lunch with you?”  I heave myself up and plop down next to him on the branch and take out my own sandwich.

I feel his eyes on me the entire time. I turn my head and smile.

“I’m Su Min-”

“The new girl” he finishes my sentence.

So he did notice me. For some reason it made my cheeks pink a little. I felt kind of giddy.

“Yeah”, I reach out a hand. “Nice to meet you, Ren”

He looks down at my hand for a moment as if questioning my motives, and then he looks back at me. I give him a reassuring smile. He takes my hand and shakes it. Though he looked feminine, his hand was a good deal larger than mine. It was warm and strong with a hint of sadness….probably just my mind playing tricks.

“Nice to meet you too, Su min” he says softly. His voice is lower than what you might expect, but it carried a certain soft pleasantness to it.  

I smile even wider. Maybe it’s just me, but I think I saw his lips curve up just a little.

 We spend the rest of the lunch period eating in silence, listening to the birds chirp and the soft breeze.