“I’m so hungry!”

All eyes in the cafeteria shifted over to one of the first year tables. There were two girls sitting at the large round table: one covering her face behind her hands, the other picking up the chopsticks she had furiously thrown onto the floor. Plopping back on her seat, the girl began poking the contents of her bento as if it contained something foreign, “Bee, the insides of my mouth are throbbing!”

The inside of Choyoung's bottom lip was raw from her lips getting caught on the wires. She could feel the previously smooth, now rough, surface of her teeth brushing and often latching on to her lips. Even chapstick wouldn't help. All day yesterday she held ice against to numb , hoping that the pain would go away. It did until she went to sleep; or at least when she tried to sleep. She was tossing and turning on her bed last night because she could feel her braces again. The worst part of her morning was being late for school because she took so long eating. Stupid braces made everything she did look stupid.

Choyoung threw her chopsticks onto the tble only to have them roll onto the floor. Stupid chopsticks. They were just as bad as her braces. To her right, Moon Bi, or Bee as Choyoung called her, peeked from behind her fingers and glared at her loud friend, “Shut up, Choyoung! Everyone is staring!”

“I’m dying!”

A few chuckles came from the nearby upperclassmen tables. This made Bee slide further down into the comforts of the plastic chair. All she wanted to do was eat lunch as normal as she possibly could, nothing else. Choyoung, her best friend for eight years, continued to sob without tears while making ugly noises. Seriously unattractive. Fed up, Bee slid Choyoung’s tray over to the side and placed her bowl of soup in its place, “Here, eat this. All you have to do is drink it. You don’t need to chew or anything.”

Choyoung stared at the bowl in front of her, nose crinkled. It was probably cold by now. She hated all kinds of soup with a burning passion. Don’t ask her why, she just does. Sighing, Chyoung decided that it was for the greater good if she ate it but stopped halfway when she heard a familiar sentence.

“My mouth is so sore!”

Her ears perked up and immediately she turned around. There he was. The second year table. A somewhat wimpy kid with the smallest eyes she had ever seen was clutching the sides of his face and rubbing it in circular motions. Through the tiny crack his mouth made, she could make out a two rows of the horrifying wires – he had braces too. It was obvious that he had just gotten them on recently because of how he kept pulling his lips away from the brackets to keep them from getting caught on the protruding wires. She sympathized with him, knowing how terrible it was to showcase train tracks on your face. Even the blue and pink bands she had chosen weren’t doing their job of making her braces look attractive. Her eyes widened when he stood up, still clutching his face. He was tall. unconsciously hung open and it took Bee a few times of tugging on Choyoung’s shirt to finally get her attention.

“Cho, you’re drooling.” Bee pointed out.

Even though she didn’t believe Bee, Choyoung picked up a napkin and wiped the sides of anyway, “No I’m not. I was just looking at what color his braces were.”

Navy blue. His bands were navy blue, almost black, but they were definitely navy. They matched the blazers, skirts, and ties of the school uniform so maybe there was reasoning behind his color choices. His face was round but his side profile was very defined; evident jawline, small face - he definitely kept in shape. His body was really slender as so were the rest of his boy. From the unflattering uniforms, you couldn't really tell if he had abs either. Not like Choyoung wanted to know anyway. She hated abs. She'd prefer that boys keep their tops on than off, if given the choice. His hair was like that of the other boys in the school - regulation cut. Pretty much every boy in the school rocked the 'Bieber Bangs.'

Bee rolled her eyes playfully knowing Choyoung better than herself, “Right, just checking out the bands. Whatever you say.”

“See, there’s the genius that I knew was in you.” Choyoung said, oblivious to the younger’s sarcasm, “What time is it anyway? We have P.E. after this, right?”

“12:50. We should probably head over to the locker room now if you’re not going to eat.”

“Oh my God, Bee! Help me!” Choyoung’s muffled cries came from the back of the locker room.

One arm in one sleeve and the other frantically pulling at the shirt collar stuck around her head. Her hair was a huge, untied, tangled mess on her head and stuck out in every direction. Her wires had gotten caught in a loose thread of her shirt and wound around the brackets, leaving her to become the bawling mess she was now. The other girls peered over their shoulders as they were changing, some shaking their heads at the fuss she was making. They just didn’t understand what was so hard about changing clothes. Then again, they didn’t wear braces. When Bee untangled Choyoung from the hot mess of threads, she made sure to pull the long thread off to prevent any more episodes.  It was a good thing too. Coach Kim had blown the whistle just then.

The girls and boys poured out of their respective locker rooms and lined up along the foul line. Some fiddled around with the hems of their shirt while others folded up their shorts because of their shorts were too long. Unfortunately for them, they had gym uniforms. Black mesh shorts, a white shorts and white shoes. Their shoes were literally throwing it back old school style with the pure white surface and Velcro. The granny sneakers were to be bought through the school and we all know that school should never be allowed to have a say in fashion.

“Alright troopers, today we’ll be playing basketball.” Coach Kim instructed in her deep, intimidating voice.

She wasn’t the former coach of the South Korean Olympic Basketball team for nothing. Right now it was winter season and of course, the curriculum stated that they play basketball. None of the kids in the class, except for the actual athletes, were any decent in sports so a majority of them didn’t even see the point in putting in effort. The worst part was that the first year girls had physical education the same time the second year boys did. Talk about terrible planning. Coach Kim split the class of twenty four into groups of six and assigned each group to one of the four baskets. Each group was to play a 3v3 game and the winners would ‘travel’ around each time until every team has played each other.

“How original.” Choyoung mumbled to herself as she crossed her arms.

Exhaling, her fringe blew upwards and fell into a messy clump across her forehead. She was disappointed that Coach Kim had put Bee in a different team even though Choyoung knew that Coach Kim knew that they were best friends. I mean, c’mon. They were always being lazy at the back of the line together every time they ran laps. That’s friendship right there.

“Hey you, you’re on our team.”

Choyoung turned around, eyes immediately drawn to the familiar set of navy blue bands in front of her. It was that guy from before. Realizing how close he was standing to her, she took a step back, taking in his height. She was tiny compared to him. He flashed that train tracked smile, turned around and headed to the center of the arch. On the back of his shirt, it said, ‘Kwon Soonyoung.’ Funny, his name sounded a lot like hers. Choyoung shrugged her shoulders and followed him for the jump ball. There was another guy on the other team, Lee Jihoon, who called dibs on throwing it up. No one objected since no one really wanted the responsibility of throwing up the ball anyway.

“So…who’s jumping?” Soonyoung asked, lisp evident because of his braces.

Because no one volunteered, it was a given that Choyoung would have to take one for the team. The other guy, Seokmin, wasn’t even paying attention because he was conversing with Wonwoo, someone from another team on a different court. Great team spirit. The rest of the players got into position, Choyoung jumping against another girl in her class, Hye Rim. Once Jihoon released the ball, it flew right over Choyoung’s head, just barely brushing against her fingertips. She dove after the ball but instead of saving it before going out of bounds she flew right into the face of one of her teammates. The two crashed onto the sleek gym floor.

She felt something soft crash against her lips but then a stinging sensation followed suit. Eyes still closed, she tried to push herself up from the floor only to have her face not move. She opened her eyes and saw another pair staring right back at her.

Jihoon’s laughter broke the silence lingering in the gym, “Hahaha! Soonyoung, you’re stuck together!”