“Yaa, aren’t you listening to me?”

“Miyeon-ah, are you day dreaming again?”

I blinked once. Then twice. I stared at my friends and let out a light chuckle.

“I’m sorry; I was a little bit distracted.” I smiled, yawning with my mouth opened.

“Are you that sleepy? What time did you sleep last night?” Nana asked, giving me a concerned look.

“Ten.”

“Well, that’s early. Then why do you keep yawning?” Ara prodded at my shoulder.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s my habit to yawn.” I started laughing and got up from my seat. “I’m going to the toilet.”

“I can come with you if you want to…” Nana volunteered.

“It’s okay; I don’t need someone to accompany me.” I gave her an assuring smile and held up a hand to wave at both of them.

I could see Nana pouting at me—obviously upset that I had turned down her offer, again. I felt a little guilty doing that to her but I kept repeating the same thing over and over again everytime she volunteered to accompany me anywhere. It wasn’t because I hated her. It wasn’t because something was wrong with her. Instead it was me, I was the problem. I didn’t like clingy people. I was the type of person who liked walking alone without other people clinging to me. Everything could be done faster when you’re alone.

Well, I’m not saying that I preferred to be a loner but I guess I was more comfortable when I was alone. I did have a lot of friends in school but I just didn’t like hanging around in a large crowd. It would only attract other people and the crowd would only become bigger and noisier.

After washing my hands at the sink in the toilet, I stared at my own reflection in the mirror and let out a deep sigh. I was finally in my senior year. Soon I would graduate from my school. There was only one thing left to do before I could graduate; college entrance exam. After sitting for the exam, I would be able to graduate and leave the school. Well, I wanted to leave the school and enter my dream university but a part of me wanted to stay here forever.

I admit that becoming an adult is hard and scary but somehow the urge to step into the adult world kept lingering in my mind everytime I went to sleep.

~~v~~

“Are you crying?” A familiar voice swept me out of my thoughts. I looked to my left and saw Lee Sungyeol, the student from next door walking towards me with a big grin on his face.

I’d never seen him frown before. He was always cheerful and talkative. Sometimes he could be so childish that he ended up hurting someone’s feelings with his absurd pranks and jokes. He was obviously not a sensitive guy but sometimes I wished he was so he would understand how the others felt when they got pranked by him.

“I’m not crying.” I replied as I yawned once again. At school, I tend to yawn frequently although I wasn’t sleepy. I wasn’t sure why but I would only yawn that often when I was in school. It was like an allergy reaction—like I was allergic to the school or something.

“You’re alone again.” he stated as he grabbed a nearby chair and sat opposite my desk. “It’s PE right now; don’t you want to play outside?”

“Nope,” I shook my head and grabbed my pencil, staring down at my exercise book. “I have a lot of homework to do. Mathematics can be so difficult.”

“Why are you always alone?”

I stopped writing and gave him a quizzical look. Instead of repeating the question, he took the pencil in my hand and started scribbling on the desk.

“Just because.” I finally answered.

“Oh.” He nodded. There was a moment of silence between us until he spoke out once again. “Song Miyeon, you should get yourself some friends.”

“Why should I? I already have lots of them.” I let out a short laugh.

“No, I mean real friends.” He stood up and straightened his yellow sweater. Then he placed my pencil on my desk and jogged towards his friends who were on their way to the basketball court.

I looked down at my desk and read what he’d scribbled down on it:

Your laugh lacks emotion. Can’t you be more sincere? :P