Part One: Flight

"Good morning," the whole class said in unison as our homeroom teacher walked into the classroom. After our unsynchronized bowing, the scratching of chair echoed throughout the room as everyone took their seat. Slipping into my own chair, a yawn escaped my lips and I quickly covered my mouth to not let anyone know of how late I had been staying up last night. With a sigh, I lean forward and prop an arm onto the desk, placing my chin atop of the palm of my hand and watch as our teacher called roll.
Just as the teacher was about to call out my name the slam of the door sounded, catching everyone's attention, except mine. It didn't take a genius to figure out who it was at the door since there was only one person in this class who would turn up late. Impatient, I raised a hand and said my name, catching the teacher's attention. She nodded and turned her attention back to the person who had disrupted class. Her voice raised and she used her position as a teacher to ask why the student was late.
In a monotone voice, the student simply answered, "Just because,"
"Park Kyung, your tardiness is becoming too much of a habit. If you cannot cease to being tardy, I will have to find a way to make sure you come to class early." The teacher threatened, which didn't really do much because the student shrugged at her comment and walked to his desk—which was a desk next to me. I didn't dare to turn my head and look his way. I knew how he looked—what with his bright rust-colored hair—but I've never seen the details in his face. Rumor had it that the guy always had a scowl on his face, and the only time he smiled was when he was ready to fight someone.
With a sigh, the teacher returned back to roll calling.

As soon as she was done with roll calling, we jumped right into math—a subject that I found myself indulged with. Math gave me reassurance because if the result of a problem goes wrong, you can always go back and check what you did wrong, then the result will come out right. Scribbling letters and numbers onto my paper, I could feel a pair of eyes watching me from the side. Though I tried my best to ignore the eyes, I couldn't help but be bothered. With a slight glance to the side, I see that he was staring right at me with brows creasing towards the middle. He chuckled and smirked at me as if what I was writing down was just a bunch of nonsense. Clearing my throat, I moved my right arm up and placed my elbow onto the desk; my chin molded itself onto my palm and I ignore the male sitting a desk next to me.

"When the exponent is odd and negative, the positive whole number will remain positive because the negative makes the odd number have an even amount." The teacher explained, "Now then, who would like to come up and show us how to work number one?"

No hands are raised up at the question. I could feel eyes dart at me after a second of the small pause from the class. Everyone was counting on me to go up and do the problem, which actually doesn't surprise me since it was usually (and always) me. With a sigh, I raised my arm up but before my hand was above my head, another name is heard in the classroom.
"Kyung," The teacher questioned with furrowing brows, "You want to show us how to solve number one?" My head turned to the side, surprised to see this. Kyung nodded and stood up from his desk.
"Well no one else was going to go up and do it, so I might as well." He simply commented and walked up to the front of the classroom. As he stood before the chalkboard, Kyung placed a hand on his hip and he thought out loud, "Let's see, in order to make this positive we'll have to..." The next few sounds are the scratching of the chalk against the board. Within seconds, the scratching stopped and Kyung turned around to face the classroom, "That should be it."

I narrowed my eyes, looking at what he wrote on the board. My brows furrowed, surprised to see that Kyung had written the right answer. It’s not that I didn’t think he was stupid, I just never thought he would be bright in math. The teacher paused for a couple of seconds, looking hard at the board almost as if she was trying to see if he did something wrong.
A sigh escaped her lips and she nodded at his answer, “It seems that your classmates shouldn’t underestimate you in this subject,” she commented, “go take your seat now.” Kyung plastered a wide smile onto his lips and as he walked back to his seat I could feel his eyes staring at me in a mocking way.


After class was done with, I gathered my books and put them into my bag. I quickly glanced up at the clock on the wall to check the time. I should have enough time before I have to be at work, I think to myself as I stood up from my desk. Exiting the classroom, I ignore the many students who had decided to stop in the hallway and chat with their friends. As soon as I am outside of the school building, I quickly walk towards the gates, ignoring any distractions from students. Then again, it wasn’t like as if anyone would acknowledge my presence, which was a good thing for me when I had better things to worry about than having friends.
The minute I step foot out of the school gates, my name is called from the side. My brain quickly processed whose voice it was, which surprised me since I rarely hear this voice. Though I wanted to stop and turn to see who it was, I didn’t. Time didn’t have a pause button for me, so I shouldn’t waste it. Taking longer strides forward, I ignored the voice that kept calling out my name. He doesn’t have any business with me, so why is he calling out my name? I asked myself. Unless all those look he kept giving me this morning meant something. I shake my head and hurried along to work. There’s not time to be thinking about these kinds of things!

-

“I’m home,” I called out. There wasn’t a response back to my greeting, but I didn’t mind since it was expected. I sighed and slipped off my shoes. Walking towards a small compartment of our apartment, I set my bag down and settled myself on the ground. My eyes ached for sleep, but I couldn’t call it a day because I had to do homework. Exhaling, I reached for my bag and ped the top. I grabbed my notebook and textbook and placed them onto the ground. Flipping open my notes to the page that I had stopped on at school, I found myself staring blankly at my writing. I could hear Kyung’s snicker echo throughout my head, which ticked me off. Why was he even laughing at my notes? Did I write something wrong? I squinted at my notes and tried to find whatever it was that had made Kyung snicker joyfully.
My finger scanned each line; as soon as I reached the bottom of the page, I quickly noticed a mistake I had written down. My brow furrowed in disbelief that I would have written something wrong into my notes. It wasn’t like me to do this. I clenched my jaw and erased what I had written and blew the eraser crumbs away. Before I could begin my process, I thought about how Kyung had known that I wrote it wrong. I probably shouldn’t have stereotyped him as quickly as everyone had, since he had answered that question on the board correctly today. Maybe he’s like one those guys who have a tough-looking image on the outside, but on the inside, he’s super smart? I frowned in thought, if he keeps up the image of being smart in class, I could lose my title as the smartest student in class. I mean, the problem on the board today was a difficult one that would have taken me more than a minute or two to do, yet Kyung had it done within the one or two minute mark.

I narrowed my eyes, “I need to start studying more so he doesn’t surpass me!”

-

On my way to school, I heard voices shouting from afar. Though this would never catch my attention any other day, this time I decided to turn my head to see what was happening. Just a couple of feet away from me were a group of boys with metal rods in their hands. Before glancing away, I managed to see someone familiar within the group. Though it doesn’t surprise me that I would see him around these kinds of people, I was taken off guard when I saw him swing the metal rod in his hand in the air. He swung it carelessly—almost gracefully—at a person standing before him and the other boys. Suddenly, his eyes had flickered towards me. I could feel my skin jump at his look and I quickly diverted my attention away from the group of boys. I fastened my walk and hoped that he didn’t figure out who I was.