"Everyone, please welcome our new friend. She just came back from the US."

The class was suddenly buzzing right after. Students started whispering to each othe, while cold sweat started wetting the hands of the girl standing before the teacher. "Be quiet please! You may now introduce yourself," the teacher asked the nervous girl.

She startled a bit when the teacher asked her. Her nervousness had been distracting her since the start. I haven't done this for a while. Now I get to do this again.

"G-good morning everyone. I'm Park Heeyoung, nice to meet you." She hated herself for stuttering in front of the class. Plus, she couldn't get rid of her english accent yet. The buzzing was getting mad as she ended her introduction.

"Thank you, Heeyoung-ssi. You can go find your seat now." She felt relieved hearing the teacher.

Every student stared at her by the time she walked past them. She could heard some bothering talks about her, but she didn't want to care about it. All she wanted was escaping to her seat as fast as she could. She sighed when she finally reached her seat. you all.

She couldn't focus on the lesson. Her eyes were scanning on the students for the whole lesson. She could see some girls were still whispering to each other while stealing glances at her a few times. That's why I hate being friends with girls. Don't they have another important things to do than gossiping everytime?

Hours passed by. The break time bell had just rang. The kids excitedly went outside. Heeyoung couldn't help noticing some disturbing glance at her, again. She cursed herself for paying attention on those.

She put out her iPod and started listening to it. Minutes had passed. Her classmates started coming back one by one. She was still listening to her iPod, scrolling through the song list when suddenly someone snatched her ipod from her back.

"Ya! What are you doing?!" she shouted at the random boy who snatched her iPod. Her shout had successfully attracted her classmates. Great, now I have their attention on me.

"Woah brand new iPod, eh? Mind if I have fun with it for a sec?" the boy was tossing her iPod in his hand. The students started giggling in satisfaction.

"Give it back! I swear to God if you dropped it you'd be my punchbag!!"

"Punchbag, huh? You're really gonna hit me? Like this?" the boy poked her upper arm lightly. Laughter could be heard again, louder.

"Give. It. Back." Heeyoung emphasized, struggling to hold back her anger.

"So what if I don't give it back to you?" he kept teasing her by waving her iPod in the air where she couldn't reach. The boy was way too tall for Heeyoung to get her iPod back.

"Keep going, Minsoo! Keep going! Hahahaha!" the others started provoking him.

The boy named Minsoo kept teasing Heeyoung. She could feel her anger was burning up bigger that couldn’t be helped. "She's angry now, Minsoo! Look at her fiery face!” the others didn't stop provoking him.

"Woah Princess, are you ang-" Minsoo couldn't finish his sentence. Few gasps could be heard as everyone was stiffened in a flash.

Heeyoung just punched Minsoo's stomach. He grunted as he rubbed his sore abdomen. "I didn't lie that you'll be my punchbag, right? That's for messing up with me." She snatched her iPod back from his hand. She could see Minsoo's burning eyes, but the boy couldn't say anything in shock. Fortunately the bell rang at the right time.

Heeyoung went back to her seat while Minsoo was still frozen in his place. Awkward feelings hanging around as the students scattered back to their own seat. None of them could say a thing. Minsoo purposely went past Heeyoung's desk and kicked it angrily before he went to his own seat.

******

Heeyoung didn't expect much for the next day. And she's right. Nobody dared to stare at her anymore. They pretended like she wasn't even existed. Better, she thought. Heeyoung gave all her best on the lessons, paying off her lacking from the day before by participating actively. Not caring about what her classmates might think.

Heeyoung didn't notice how fast time flew when she's enjoying the lessons. She decided to go to the canteen during the break that day. She accidentally caught Minsoo staring at her through his burning eyes just a moment before she stepped out the class. Are you mad, boy? She gave him her evil smirk before leaving him being mad at himself.

"May I sit here?" a voice distracted Heeyoung's focus from eating. Heeyoung just nodded while munching her burger. "By the way, I'm L. Joe." The boy introduced his self.

"Nice to meet you, L. Joe." She finally recognized that he's one of her classmates.

Silence. Heeyoung didn't want to care. She just couldn't trust anyone from her class. "Well, I'm sorry for what happened yesterday." He bit his lip, clearly hesitating. "I couldn't help much."

"It's okay. I've been through times like that a lot," she replied without even looking at him. "You've been quiet since I came, though. You didn't join the others provoking Minsoo either."

He raised his eyebrows. "How could you know?"

"You can call me a freak, but I saw everything you guys doing in the class. Thanks to my strategic seat I could see them all."

"I know how you felt yesterday. I experienced it before when I was in junior high. The difference is that I didn't have any guts to fight back like what you did yesterday." L. Joe soon started telling his story to Heeyoung. He moved back from the US too and was getting bullied by his friends for a long time because he didn't fight back. "I was a coward, right? You're a girl and you got the guts to fight back. I felt embarassed yesterday."

Heeyoung could see L. Joe's sincerity in his eyes. She started welcoming L. Joe and acted more properly towards him. "My case was nothing, your case was worse. I understood why you didn't fight back. Moreover, it's not that so positive about me. The others could think that I was a gangster back then in the US." Heeyoung's answer brought laughter to L.Joe.

"Are we friends now?" he asked after recovering from the laughter.

"Let me consider it as one."