“Are you okay?” Tao and Chanyeol asked simultaneously the second they caught sight of me on the next day.

I stared at them in surprise. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“We heard about... you know,” Tao whispered, leaning forwards so that I heard him.

I heaved an irritated sigh and turned to glare at Yixing. “Publicise the news to the whole school, why don’t you?” I said through gritted teeth.

“They’re the only ones who knew besides Kris and me,” Yixing said defensively. “And I hardly think it’s much of a problem. In case you haven’t noticed, they’re showing nothing but concern for you, and I happen to know that Chanyeol and Tao know where their loyalties lie. The secret’s safe with them.”

Next to him, Chanyeol and Tao nodded like bobble-head dolls. I sighed and tucked my hair behind my ear. “I’m fine, I guess,” I said in reply to their question.

“That wasn’t a very nice thing for her to do,” Chanyeol commented as all four of us walked down the hallway together.

“‘Not very nice’?” I snorted. “Now that’s an understatement, Park Chanyeol.”

“Nothing that she does is nice,” Tao said darkly.

We glanced at him, surprise at his forceful vehemence. “She stole my report once,” he explained calmly. “And handed it in as hers.”

Chanyeol stared at him in surprise. “That’s why you got detention?”

Tao shrugged and said nothing more. The silence stretched.

“Let’s not mull over the past,” Chanyeol said brightly, trying to lighten up the mood. He turned to address me with a smile. “Aeri, have you checked which bus you’re going in yet?”

I gave him a confused look. “Bus? What bus?”

“For the school trip,” Chanyeol stated, a look of surprise crossing his face. “You didn’t know? I thought you were there the day we checked out the announcement board.”

I smacked my head lightly. “Yeah, I was. There’s just so much going on that I forgot it was this week. I’ll go check it out now. Coming, Yixing?”

Yixing shook his head. “I have to do some last minute tutoring for these two,” he said, jerking a thumb towards both Chanyeol and Tao with an exasperated –albeit affectionate –roll of his eyes. “They have a pop quiz today and they forgot to study yesterday. I’ll look at it later”

Both Chanyeol and Tao grinned sheepishly and waved at me before trailing after Yixing to go to the library. I took a different turn and made my way to the announcement board, eager to know which bus I would be taking.

When I reached the board, there was already a small crowd gathered around it. A group of girls were perusing the list, chattering quietly amongst themselves as they discussed which bus was the better one to take. I waited patiently for my turn, and when they finally dispersed, ran my finger down the first list to read off the names. It was only when I was halfway through the second list that I finally found my name, just below Hyunji’s.

“Hey.”

Startled, I whirled around to face him. Jonghyun stood before me, his hair slightly neater than the usual messy ‘do he always went for in mornings. He smiled at me in greeting. “Found your name?”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“I took a look at it earlier this morning. Looks like we’re on the same bus.”

Surprised, I ran through the list again. Like he said, his name was just a few boxes below mine and Hyunji’s . “You’re going?”

Jonghyun shrugged, running his fingers through his hair. “Yeah. I’ve known since the very beginning. It’s another part of that bonding thing I suppose. West High had also scheduled a trip sometime next week, and your exchange students are obliged to go as well.”

“Okay then, this should be interesting,” I said with a laugh.

“By the way,” Jonghyun leaned forwards, his brows furrowing slightly as he examined my face, “are you alright?”

“Everybody keeps asking me that,” I said lightly, trying to play it off with a shrug.

“You were gone for half of the day yesterday,” Jonghyun said. He hesitated a little. “And your eyes... they look really tired. Did something happen to you?”

I gave him a reassuring smile, glad that Hyunji had kept herself loyal and revealed nothing about the ordeal that I had endured yesterday. “Yeah, I had a bit of a run-in with someone who doesn’t like me.”

“A school bully?”

I shrugged. “Something like that.”

“What’s his name?” He glanced at me, and then backtracked when he saw the expression on my face. “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me,” he said nervously. “I just thought that if I wanted to stay alive in this school, I should at least know whom I’m supposed to avoid. But if you’re not comfortable –”

I waved off his apologies. “Never mind. You’re right. It’s better that you know if you ever want to get out of here unscathed. Her name is Choi Minhee, and she’s the ruling queen of the school.”

Jonghyun stared at me in surprise and my brows furrowed in confusion. “What?” I asked him.

“Minhee? Choi Minhee?” he repeated incredulously.

“Yes, that’s what I said.”

“Is she like, tall for a girl, about my height? And does she happen to have mid-length, dyed brown hair?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Do you know her?”

“I know her brother –twin brother to be exact –and he’s one of my best friends in WH.”

This time, I stared at him in surprise. “She has a brother in West High?”

“Yeah.” Jonghyun shrugged. “He’s a pretty popular guy there, as he’s both athletic and good-looking.”

“I never knew,” I said thoughtfully. “You know, she seems to have an open resentment towards West High in general. She’s been doing nothing but badmouthing you guys ever since you arrived.”

Jonghyun smirked in amusement. “Funny, because she came from West High Middle School.”

My lips spread into a wide and amused grin. “Well I’ll be.”

 “I thought she was pretty sweet when her brother, Choi Minho, introduced her to me once.”

“Sweet?” I snorted. “Don’t be fooled. She’s a devil in disguise.”

Jonghyun chuckled. “I always wondered why she got expelled when she seemed so nice.”

“Expelled?” I exclaimed, both in surprise and in delight. “Now that, my dear friend, is going to be priceless blackmail material.”

Jonghyun grinned. “It’s all yours whenever you need it.”

“We’re all in the same bus together? That’s great!” Hyunji exclaimed when Jonghyun and I relayed the news. We had found her in the classroom, head bent over her textbook as she attempted some early morning studying in class –or at least, she looked like she was studying. Further inspection yielded a gossip magazine hidden within the pages of the book.

“What about Yixing?” she asked me.

I tapped my chin thoughtfully. “First bus, if I’m not mistaken.”

Hyunji pouted a little. “Aw, it would be no fun without him. I don’t have anyone to pester.”

“Not really. I’m available,” Jonghyun said with a grin.

Surprised, Hyunji blushed a little. On behalf of Yixing, I felt slightly discomforted watching their exchange, so I quickly changed the topic. “Hey, did any of you get the answer for that maths question yesterday?”

Ten minutes later, when we were all seated and the excited chatters had died down into lazy attentiveness, our teacher stepped into the class. He spent almost all morning discussing our itinerary for the upcoming trip, answering questions put up by the students and advising us to make sure that we had everything we needed when we packed. Since it was an activity outside of the school grounds, we were allowed come and go in our casual clothes instead of our uniforms. Classes for the rest of the week will be cancelled in conjunction with the trip, but they will proceed once again in the week after.

“Hey,” Hyunji whispered to me while the class was going wild in excitement. “Is he in our bus too?”

“He who?” I whispered back.

Hyunji rolled her eyes. “Do you even have to ask? Joonmyun, of course!”

“No. He’s in the first bus.”

She clucked her tongue. “Damn. Too bad. I wanted to force you to sit next to him and see whether or not he’s going to let you rest your head on his shoulder when you get sleepy.”

In response, I chucked my eraser at her.  Laughing, she easily caught it with her hand. “What? Wouldn’t it be a dream?” she said, pretending to swoon.

My cheeks flaming, I thwacked her on the arm with my ruler. Still chortling, she clasped her hands in front of to keep herself from laughing too loudly.

“Yah, who are you sitting with?” I asked, trying to distract her with something else. I figured that it was safe to ask, since Jonghyun had just excused himself out of class to go to the toilet a few minutes before.

“With you of course,” she replied matter-of-factly.

“What about Jonghyun? I think he wants to sit with you.”

Hyunji hesitated, all the laughter in her eyes draining away. “I guess he can sit across the aisle. It’s still close by for us to talk.”

I opened my mouth to say something more but shut it once again when Mr Park raised his voice to beg the class to be quiet. We settled in our seats, reluctantly pulling out our pens as he began to scribble some notes on the board as the start of our lesson. Hyunji turned away from me and we never addressed the topic of Jonghyun ever again, even when class had ended.