I looked everywhere for the cheque, even going as far as forgoing lunch in favour of searching for it. I decided to start at the courtyard first before slowly making my way towards the building. I checked everywhere that I could have possibly gone to within the course of the day, including the large tree that Hyunji, Yixing and I usually hung out under ,and also the fountain even though I hadn’t been there for quite some time. Then, I searched the area surrounding the vending machine, scanning the floors and even getting on my knees once to check if the cheque had somehow slipped into the small space at the bottom of the machine. When none of this yielded any results, I shoved myself off the floor and began tracing my steps around the school instead.

By the time I managed to make my way towards the library, the bell hand rung and lunch had passed. I trudged back to class with a heavy heart, my thoughts flying in every possible direction as I tried to think back on everything that I did to have lost the cheque.

It had been a fruit of my labour, Donghae’s token of appreciation that he had so graciously handed to me. I couldn’t believe that I lost it so easily!

My frazzled state in class had alerted Hyunji of my problems. She casted a questioning look at my direction when we were all pulling out our textbooks, asking with her eyes what couldn’t. I shook my head and mouthed to her that I would tell her about it later.

I couldn’t concentrate in class; my thoughts kept going to my missing cheque. However, a glance at Jonghyun made me remember about the card and the pen that I had bought for him as a parting gift. Discreetly, I tried to bury them deep into my bag, fearing that I might forget about them if I left them under the desk.

Jonghyun was called to make a speech in front of the class not long before the final bell rang. Stunned, he stood, accidentally knocking back his chair in his haste. His eyes had assumed the look of a startled deer caught in the headlights; clearly he had not expected –and had not prepared –for this moment.

On his way to the front, he shot nervous glances at Hyunji and me, mouthing the word ‘help’ over and over again. I smiled meekly, and attempted to quell his anxiety by mouthing a few assurances that I hoped he could catch. Hyunji cheered him on, giving him a quick thumbs up.

Jonghyun’s speech was short and curt, just long enough for him to express his appreciation to the teacher and class for ‘helping’ him get through the program. He said that he learned a lot from this time here, and meekly attempted a joke on the legendary ghost in a hopeless attempt to try and ease the hard, expressionless gazes he was receiving from all the corners of the room. Hyunji and I smiled at him though, and perhaps it was this that made him conclude his speech in one heartfelt sentence.

“I made a lot of memories here, and almost all of them are good really, but the friends that came to me along the way, I’ll miss you when I get back.”

He bowed his head when everyone clapped, and quickly darted back to his seat the minute the teacher nodded at him. Hyunji leaned back when he was burying his face in his desk, trying to recover from the embarrassment.

“I’ll never forget you too,” she said softly to him, just loud enough for me and Jonghyun to hear, before silently turning around to face the board.

Slowly, Jonghyun lifted his head to stare at her back, at the auburn tresses that brushed the edges of his table every time she leaned back, and softly smiled at her. “And I you,” he murmured, voice tinged with the gentility of the whispering summer breeze.

“Honestly, Jonghyun, everything here would be a loss without you,” I told him in an attempt to reassure.

Jonghyun smiled, running his fingers through his dark brown hair before he heaved a long sigh that bespoke of exhaustion and defeat. “I don’t know. Everybody else seems eager to get rid of me.” He cast a pointed glance around the courtyard, at the whispering students whose sharp gazes followed our every move.

Hyunji rolled her eyes. “Since when did their opinion matter? Like you told me, the world is large, but our world is what matters.”

Jonghyun chuckled, before letting his defences down and allowing himself to laugh. “And so I did. Didn’t think you’d remember that.”

“For someone who acts like a clown on several notable occasions, you do have your moments of wisdom. I think they deserve to be documented and remembered.” She smiled teasingly at him.

Jonghyun grinned. “Funny. A friend of mine said the exact same thing. But then again, I don’t really take his word for it. After all, he once ran face on into a basketball pole when he was walking in a straight line. Who’s he to call me the clown?”

Hyunji and I laughed, glad that the atmosphere had lightened. Students were casting glances at our way, wondering how we could have betrayed our alliances to fraternise with the ‘enemy’.

“Anyway,” Jonghyun said, sticking his hand out for us to shake. “Good luck. We’ll see each other again someday.”

Hyunji stared at the hand with raised brows, before rolling her eyes and folding her arms around him in an embrace instead. “Good luck,” she whispered into his shoulder, before grinning as she pulled back.

Jonghyun looked stunned, his ears tinged pink, but he smiled and said, “I don’t think Yixing would appreciate you hugging other guys.”

Hyunji rolled her eyes. “He’s got to live with it then. I don’t give close friends half-hearted goodbyes.”

I chuckled, before stepping forward and giving Jonghyun a hug too. “And besides,” I whispered in his ear. “He gets to hold her all the time anyway.”

We pulled away laughing with Hyunji glaring daggers at us. “What did she say to you?” she barked at him.

“It’s a private joke,” Jonghyun replied with a wink.

“And one more thing,” I said, reaching into my bag and handing him the card and the pen. “Here. A little something to remember us by.”

Jonghyun looked surprised, but his eyes were warm and his smile was genuine when he reached out and took them from me. “Thanks. Now you made me feel bad. I didn’t get anything for either of you.”

“We’ll live without the gifts,” she told him with a dismissive wave of her hand. “And don’t feel bad me, because those were all from Aeri. I didn’t even know she bought them.”

“Maybe that because you were too busy on dates,” I said with a sly smirk. She whirled around and whacked me on the arm.

Jonghyun’s smile was wide as he watched us. He checked his watch.

“I have to go. So, I guess I’ll see you... whenever then.” He saluted us and waved, before hoisting his bag up his shoulder and turning to cross the courtyard, off in his own way and in a way, out of our lives. I might not be as close to Jonghyun as Hyunji, but I had to admit that the thought made me tear up a little.

“I’ll miss him,” she told me as we watched his departing back. “Honestly, Aeri. I really will miss him. He’s a good guy –a good friend. I’m sorry I couldn’t see him more than just that.”

“I don’t know where it went,” I told her as we were crossing the courtyard to get to the fountain after the heartfelt goodbye with Jonghyun. “I just... lost it.”

Hyunji frowned at me as she settled on the ledge of the fountain. She scuffed her sneakers against the grass, gazing at me thoughtfully. “Are you sure you didn’t just leave in your books or something?”

“I never took it out in class,” I told her as I settled down next to her, drawing patterns on the green grass with my foot. Hyunji bumped my foot lightly with hers.

“It couldn’t just disappear,” she reassured me. “It should be here somewhere.”

“I’ve looked everywhere,” I complained, throwing my hands up in exasperation. “I even crawled on my knees to peer under the vending machine –which I have to admit, is absolutely disgusting.”

“Crawled?”

I shuddered. “God knows what kind of things people might have left there when they walked.”

Hyunji laughed. “Hey, at least –”

“Lee Donghae. Good name for a good-looking guy, eh?” Minhee sauntered up to us, lips turned up into condensing smile that added to wicked glint she had in her eyes. She was holding up a square piece of paper, its edges fluttering lightly in the weak evening breeze. At the lower right corner was a scrawl that I recognised to be Donghae’s signature.

“Oh, God why didn’t I think of it sooner,” I said with an annoyed roll of my eyes, rising from my seat as I levelled her with a glare. “Give it back.”

She flicked her wrist as I reached a hand out, holding out of my reach. Her eyes held a maniacal glint to them, but it wasn’t enough to send a shiver down my spine. “And why would I do that?” Her fingers curled over the soft paper, creasing Donghae neat handwriting. “You humiliated me in front of Jongin.”

“You did that on your own,” I snapped, taking another step forward to make a second attempt to grab the cheque. She tugged it back at the last minute, dancing out of my reach before I could spin around and grab one of her flailing arms. Hyunji had risen to help me, lips pursed into an irritated frown, but Minhee’s reflexes were worthy of that of an acrobat’s. She ducked under our arms, slipped her wrist out of my grasp, and jumped over the ledge of the fountain, balancing herself precariously over the edge.

“One move I’ll drop it,” she barked at us. “I’m not lying!” she screeched when she saw the wary looks in our eyes.

I exchanged a glance with Hyunji, my eyes pleading. Minhee was taking a step further than her usual endeavours to taunt me now, and I knew that she never had any qualms when it came to destroying my things. I eyed the cheque she dangling between two manicured fingers, my hands curling into fists at my side.

“What exactly do you want from me?” I said through gritted teeth, doing my best to keep my voice level. We were attracting enough attention on ourselves as it was; half of the student population had stopped to watch the drama unfold, and, upon recognising the school queen in the midst of it all, reeled back from offering any help.

“I want you to bow to me,” she said haughtily. I could hear the evil cackle in her voice, the satisfaction that she was going to make me yield to her rule.

“That’s ridiculous!” Hyunji sputtered, as equally livid as I was. “Why the hell would she ever do that?”

“We’ll she can say goodbye to her precious money if she doesn’t,” Minhee retorted, flicking her wrist so that the check swung limply above the water.

I was speechless. This was the lowest blow she had ever attempted on me. All her previous harassments had been done in secret, never with an audience. She must be desperate, I thought. Her casual disdain for me appeared to have matured into downright enmity. It was as if she wanted to prove herself; she wanted to show that there was only one queen in this school, and she didn’t relish anyone attempting to duel her for her crown.

“I won’t,” I said darkly to her, fists clenched at my sides.

Her grin faltered, and I could her expression dissolve from indulgent relish to unmasked fury. “I don’t make half-hearted threats,” she said warningly. She was holding the cheque only by the corner now, and I could see it slipping millimetre by creeping millimetre out of her grasp.

“Do it,” I challenged. “Do it and see if I care.”

Her eyes were ablaze. Her shoulders were shaking, but then she threw back her head and laughed. “Alright then!” she declared, her voice screechy. “I’ll do it, and then we’ll see if you’ll come running to me crying.”

 I tried to arrange my features into an expression of passive indifference as I watched her slowly turn to face the fountain. My heart was hammering in my ribcage, but I refused to allow her the pleasure of the idea that she had claimed victory over me. Her eyes were manic, and she was just about to release the cheque when –

“What the –let go of me!” she screeched as a strong hand grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her off her perch. Stunned, my eyes turned to look at the boy next to her. He was tall and handsome, with the face of a runway model.

Her eyes widened when she saw his face, and the profanities she spouted immediately dissolved into a quite whimper of “Oppa.”

He didn’t appear to be ready to attempt any physical abuse on her (sans the tight grip he still kept on her arm) but his eyes seemed to blaze with unmatched fury. “Mom and Dad won’t be happy when they hear about this.”

For the first time, I saw Minhee cower. The boy (whom I took to be her notorious brother, Minho) didn’t waver but levelled her with a disapproving glare of his own, fingers still clutched on his sister’s hand.

“But then they’d –” she began desperately.

“Put you back in line,” he snapped. “I knew having you expelled from West High is a bad idea, considering that I wouldn’t be able keep an eye on you. Honestly, you’re too much.” Whispers erupted from the growing audience before us. I could see the shock, and on some, glee, plainly on their faces.

With one swift motion, he yanked the cheque out of her hands. I marvelled how, despite the obvious strength it took to wrench it out of her grip, it still came out intact as he returned it back to me, dragging his sister with him by the arm.

“I apologise,” he said, bowing to me deeply, an expression of true discomfort and remorse plain on his features as he continued, “for all the trouble my sister has caused. You have my word that she won’t bother you again.”

He bowed again towards Hyunji and then tugged Minhee away, pulling her through a gap in the quickly dissipating crowd. Everybody couldn’t wait to spread this surprising turn of events to their peers.

I stared at the cheque in my hands, relieved smile slowly spreading across my features, and didn’t even realise it when Hyunji had pulled me into an ecstatic embrace. I could hear her chattering excitedly in my ear, how everything was finally put into justice, and how Minhee was probably going to spend the next eternity under scrutiny after her unceremonious dethronement. Nothing really registered in my head though, because my gaze was trained towards a figure across the courtyard, the corners of his lips turned up in what appeared to be half a smile and half a smirk.

Jonghyun winked at me for one last time before he disappeared.