Day 10

"Key hyung!" Taemin yelled from the other end of the cafeteria. Key looked up at his little friend. He smiled and waved him over to his table. Taemin ran full speed, almost bumping into a few people. "Hey, happy to finally get to talk to you guys again" Taemin said to Key and the rest of the kids at the table. "Good to see you again too, Taeminnie" Onew laughed and popped an orange slice in his mouth. "You know I don't like that name" Taemin hissed. "But it fits you so well!" Jonghyun objected. Taemin rolled his eyes. "I have a question" Taemin said pulling out his digital camera and showing them the picture of the mystery girl. "Have you ever seen this girl? Be honest" Taemin bit his lip "Please say yes, please say yes" he screamed in his mind. "She's in my fourth period class" Minho announced. "Really? Do you know her name?" Taemin asked. "I'm finally on to something" he thought. "Uuhh. I don't think so. The teacher calls the roll everyday outloud. But I never pay attention to anyone's name but mine" Minho frowned. "I'm sorry Taeminnie. I wish I could help you out" he sighed, patting Taemin's shoulder. "You can! By not calling me Taeminnie" he hissed and stood up. "I guess I'll have to put my search on hold" Taemin sighed "Thanks anyway" then he finally walked away. Key, Minho, Onew, and Jonghyun just sat at the table to talk, since classes were over. Key got bored with the conversation and put his head down. He was about to fall asleep when he started to hear yelling coming from behind him. He looked back and saw the two boys and a girl were pushing Zuri around, again. "Damn it. Why can't you stay out of trouble?" Key thought. Again, he thought of getting up to help her, but he just couldn't. Zuri looked around the cafeteria and her eyes landed on Key. She smiled and waved at him. Key just gave her a sympathetic look. Zuri continued to wave until her attention was back on the kids when one of them shoved her. Key watched as Zuri made a mad dash for the hallways. The kids started to chase after her, but stopped "Aish, she's too fast" one boy said. "Just leave her alone. You don't wanna look like a creep. She'll be fine"

Zuri walked up and down the hallways for an hour, thinking about what to do that day. "I wanna talk to Key.. But I don't wanna seem weird.. He's a friend. But I shouldn't take up his time" she debated in her mind. She mentally slapped herself when she looked down at a boy reading one of her favorite books. "I love that book!" she blurted out, then covered "Oh god. Good going". The boy looked up to see her and smiled. "You like this book too?" he asked. "Yeah. You speak good english" Zuri smiled down at him. "Yeah. It's kinda my best subject" he smiled and rubbed the back on his neck. "What chapter are you on?" she asked while sitting down next to him. "Chapter 11" he said and showed her exactly where he was. "Nice. Oh, I'm Zuri" she said holding out her hand. The boy smiled and took her hand. "I'm Ryeowook. Nice to meet you" he smiled and looked into her eyes. "You have really pretty eyes". "I do?" she asked blushing. "Yeah.. I've never seen green eyes before? What are you? French? English?" Ryeowook asked. "American" she simply replied. Ryeowook nodded his head and continued reading. "Well, since you want to read, I guess I'll leave you be" Zuri said while getting up. "Wait, don't go.. I actually like it better when I have company" he smiled and pulled her back down. "Oh.. Well, I'm a total chatter box, so I hope you can keep up with me" Zuri laughed. "Bring it on. I love to talk" Ryeowook smiled and closed the book. While they were talking, Key was heading their direction. He looked down and saw Zuri sitting on the ground and automatically hid himself behind the wall. "Why am I hiding?" he thought. Key saw that Zuri was talking to someone, so he looked closer. "Isn't that that kid that Taemin likes to hang out with?". Key watched them talk and smile. "Why do I want that to be me?" Key frowned. He decided to walk past them and see what Zuri would do. While he walked past, Zuri looked up at him. Key just looked down and smiled. Zuri gave him a blank look. It seemed that Key and Zuri tended to communicate with their eyes. Ryeowook saw that she was looking at him and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, do you know him?" he whispered in her ear. Zuri looked back at Ryeowook when Key was out of sight. "Sorta.. I want to know him better.. But I'm still debating on approaching" she explained. Ryeowook smiled. "Well, I say, go to him and talk to him. You're good at talking, that's for sure" he laughed. "Do you know him?" Zuri asked. "He's a friend of my friend's. I've never really officially met him. But you should go talk to him" Ryeowook said. "Okay, I think I will tomorrow" she nodded her head and smiled. "No! Now!" Ryeowook beamed and picked her up off the ground. "What? Now? But we were reading" she tried to protest. "Let's take a break from reading. Go talk to him. Now, before you lose him in this huge boat" he laughed and pushed her forward "SHIP! Not boat" she snapped.. "Whatever. Just go" Ryeowook said giving her one more push. Then she started running. Ryeowook smiled and sat back to down to read again. 

Zuri turned the corner and saw that nobody was there. "Did I seriously lose him that easily?" she thought. "That can't be!". She spun around one more time and saw that Key was standing behind her. "So you followed me" he smiled and started to approach her. "My friend told me to do it!" Zuri blurted out. "Yeah sure" he giggled. "I'm serious!" she snapped. Key smiled. "Your korean has gotten a lot better" he softened. "Yeah. I had to learn" Zuri frowned. "Well for now, until you're a pro, I'll speak to you like this. Okay? My english is very good" Key patted her on the shoulder. "That's very nice of you" she smiled. "I've.. been wanting to talk to you for a few days.. Like, actual talk" Zuri confessed. "Me too" he said with his head down. "So why didn't we?" Zuri asked. Key looked up at her and smiled. "Do you wanna get a coffee with me?" he asked.

Later that day, Taemin and Jungsu sit at a table watching Ryeowook play card games with one of their friends. "So Taemin, how's your chase gone?" Ryeowook asked, not even looking up from his cards. "Yeah, I haven't even asked yet today" Jungsu looked over at his little cousin. "You need to ask him everyday?" the other card player, Kim Heechul smirked at Jungsu. "Uhm, yeah. That's what cousins do for each other" Jungsu argued. Taemin just listened in on their arguement without making a sound. "I bet Taemin feels like you've been invading his privacy" Heechul hissed. Jungsu and Heechul had a tendency to fight about the stupidest things. "You guys.. It's okay. I think I'm just gunna give up" Taemin pouted. "So, now what?" Ryeowook asked puzzled. "I think I'll just wait for a time when I see her in the hallways and go up to her and say hi" he shrugged. "That might get more difficult as time passes. We're making more stops in other places and picking up more students. Sooner or later, we'll have too many kids and she'll always be hidden" Heechul said. "Yeah, she's probably a really shy person. Why do you think you haven't been able to talk to her yet?" Jungsu agreed. Taemin shook his head angrily and grabbed his hair. "Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy" he groaned. Heechul, Jungsu, and Ryeowook looked at each other and sighed. "You're too young to fall in love, Taemin" Heechul said, putting one hand on his shoulder. "Speaking of foreign girls, I made a friend today" Ryeowook smiled and looked back down at his cards. Jungsu looked up at him. "Was her name Zuri?" he asked. Ryeowook looked up amazed. "Yeah, how'd you know?" he asked, pushing up his glasses. "Everyone knows who she is.. I want to say hi to her, but for some reason, I'm nervous. She's in my first period class" Jungsu explained. "At least you have her in one of your classes" Taemin mumbled. "Out of all of us, the nerd gets the girl" Heechul cackled. 

"How do you like the ship life?" Key giggled. Zuri looked up at him from her drink with an amused look on her face. "Ship life?" she laughed out loud. Key waited for her response patiently. "It's been... Tough.. Actually. The school part isn't really a problem, but the part with making friends is.. Really hard to do" she explained. Her face started to form a worried look when she remembered the bullying she had been going through for the past week. "I don't understand why people have to be so cruel" Key sighed and looked down at his shoes. Zuri and Key looked out at the sunset on the top story of the ship. "So.. Why did you come to this school anyway?" Key asked her. She paused, remembering her family. "Well, a couple years ago, my mom died in a plane crash" Zuri started. Key looked shocked. "I'm sorry for your loss" he blurted out. "Yeah, well about a year ago, my dad remarried a korean woman. And my dad wanted me to learn more about her culture since she was my new mom. So... When they heard a school that was teaching kids on korean culture, he signed me up in a heartbeat" Zuri ranted. Key looked down at the floor and sighed "Wow, she must have been through a lot" he thought. She looked over at Key and asked him the same question. "I came... to learn.. I told my mom and dad that I wanted to travel, and they brought me here" he explained. "Seems simple enough" Zuri thought. They both sat in silence for a while when the wind picked up once again. "I think it's time to go back inside" Key suggested. He stood up and held out his hand. Zuri looked up and smiled. She took his hand and started walking back to her cabin. "Thank you" Zuri blurted out. Key looked over at her and giggled. "For what?". She looked in his eyes and smiled again. "For being my friend" she sighed. The smile refusing to leave her face. Key smiled back. He wanted to give her a hug, but convinced himself that that was being too fast. Zuri and Key stopped at Zuri's door and said goodnight. When Zuri shut her door, she flatened herself against it and slid down to the ground and hugged herself. "Good job, Zuri. You're good at making friends.. Now if I could just make a female friend" she thought out loud. While Key walked down the hall and headed towards his dorm, he thought hard about what had just happened. "What if I just made a mistake?" he thought while he bit his lip. 

"Trust me, it's just one more night, hyung" Taemin said trying to defend himself. "You say that now" Jungsu laughed while he read his book. "No, I'm being serious. This is the last time" he argued. "What if I don't want you to go? The captain said we might be heading into a storm tonight" Jungsu got up. 'If it starts to rain, I'll head straight back here. Like I keep saying, you really don't have to worry" Taemin said one last time, grabbed his coat, and headed out the door, without his cousin's approval. While Taemin made it towards the girl's storage unit, he looked up at the stars. But to his surprise, there were no stars because they were being covered by clouds. "Better make this fast" he thought and started to pick up the pace. Taemin stood in the middle of the top story to feel the wind. While he had his eyes closed and had his face up towards the sky, he felt a small raindrop. His eyes snapped open and he felt another raindrop. Then another, then another. Taemin quickly made it to shelter as he watched the rain fall harder and harder. The rain was accompanied by thunder. Taemin was about the turn when he bumped into someone. Taemin and the stranger fell to the ground in unison. "Sorry. I was just making it back to my cabin" the person said, but Taemin recognized the voice. "M-Minho hyung?" Taemin gasped. He looked up at Minho. "Oh.. Hey. What are you doing up so late?" Minho said having to raise his voice over the loud thunder. "It's sorta personal' Taemin yelled over the loud weather. Minho sighed and shook his head. "Is it about that girl?" Minho asked. Taemin's mind wondered. "How did he know?" he asked himself. The two friends started to see lightening. "Let's go back to our rooms. I'm sure she's not out here. She'd be crazy if she was" Minho said and dragged Taemin the opposite direction of the storage room. He didn't complain, but only let his hyung bring him back to his room where his cousin was worried sick about him.