(Nia's POV)

I sat up, gasping hard. My entire body was drenched from head to toe. I couldn't open my eyes with the continuous running of water down my face, with my hair. I slowly began to wipe my face.

"Omo! Yah! Why are you so damn clumsy?"

I stopped.

"This isn't a birdbath." 

I quickly swept my hair back and wiped my eyes once more. I looked down to see myself in my school uniform.

"Have you never seen a water fountain before?" 

I was sitting in the fountain, again. I slowly looked over. It was the girls from yesterday.

"She needed a soak, anyways." 

A look of utter confusion and frustration swept across my face, as I looked at them.

"Don't forget to scrub some of that di-

"You've got to be kidding me.", I mumbled as I looked at the floor.

The leader of the group raised her eyebrow.

"What did you just say to me, you burnt ?"

She plopped the basket down, and slowly squated down in front me. I sat, looking at the ground, urgently trying to put the pieces together, mumbling to myself.

"This can't be happening. I was just at the ball. Then asleep. In a dream? Am I sick?"

They all looked at each other and at me, in confusion.

"Unni, I think you kicked her too hard." one of the girls said to her. She chuckled under her breath.

"It's okay. I'll slap some sense back into her."

Looking up at her, with a startled look, I realized my near future. They all began to giggle. She quickly brought her hand up.

Her sidekicks quickly stopped laughing, dropped to their knees and put their arms up in the air.

"U-U-Unni.", one said while tapping her shoulder. She rolled her eyes turning around to them.

"What the hell is it? Get the up." They both shakingly, pointed forwards. She turned around, with her eyes closed, unaware of who exactly she was talking to.

"Ya. I can have you fired in a heartbeat. You didn't see anything. Get lo-" Once she opened them, she quickly dropped into a folded, begging position. I looked over to see shiny, black dress shoes. I followed up from cuffs of the blue jeans, to see a teacher. A very handsome one. He looked kind of familiar.

He held a wooden stick under his arm. The leader was speaking gibberish as she sobbed, shaking. He slowly walked over to them, stopping in front of the oldest. He quickly tapped the stick on the floor, hard; making an echo. We all jumped. He slowly squatted down in front of her.

"Get Lost. Don't forget the basket.", he whispered.

They quickly scrammed, sobbing in the distance.

He slowly got up, then looked at me directly in the eyes. I quickly looked away. He let out a soft sigh, walking towards me, and held his hands out.

"Come on."

I gently put mine in his, pulling me up.

"Are you okay?"

I stepped out looking, elsewhere, embarrassed.

"mhm.."

He looked at me for a while then at my knee.

"Well, that's nasty cut on your knee and bruise on your head say otherwise."

I looked at him confused, then looked down at my knees. There was a thin red line on my right knee. The cut wasn't too deep, but bleeding badly. I felt around my head. There was a small knot, resting next to my left ear. I wasn't in pain, but looking at my knee and feeling the bump, made me hiss.

"Come on. Let's take you to the nurse's office." He took his blazer off and put it on me as we walked to our destiation.

"Thank you, Sir."

He let a tiny smile. "Mr. Z. Will Suffice."

"Okay..Mr. Z."

"And you are, Miss?"

"Ni-ah. Lee Ni-ah."

"Well, It's nice to meet you, Ms. Lee. I wish we didn't have to meet like this."

"Same to you."

We walked into the Nurse's office. A woman in a doctor's coat and a white face mask was sitting in her cubical playing away on her phone. We sat in silence for a second then he loudly cleared his voice. She quickly put her phone away and sat up.

"How may I -"

She looked at me with the concerned eyes of a mother.

"OMO! Aren't you that new student? What happened to you, dear?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but I was cut off by Mr. Z.

"The faucet in the restroom went haywire. She slipped. Bumped her head and cut her knee pretty good."

She looked down at my knee, wide-eyed.

"Oh lord. I'd let you change first but this cuts needs some attention. So, pop a squat for me."

I sat down on the checkup table.

"Give me one second."

Mr. Z stood across from me while the nurse went into the supplies closet.

"How was your first day at KPA, besides from..you know?"

I sigh closing my eyes for a second, then looking at him.

"Far from expectations. I expected to stand out, of course. But I didn't expect to get this much attention, and if so, not the bad kind. I already have to watch over my shoulder. I thi-"

"Did you make any friends?"

"Yeah."

"How many?"

"13."

He nodded with a sympathetic smirk of approval.

"You're already popular."

The nurse came back in with a cart of medical supplies, towels, and a replacement uniform.

"I'll be back.", Mr. Ahn said as he walked towards the door, leaving.

She quickly aidded to my knee with Peroxide, Gauze, and Bandages.

"And~ Part 1 is done!"

She turned to the cart, digging through.

"Shoot. Forgot about that. I'll be right back."

Once she left, Mr. Ahn walked back in with a little brown bottle.

"Here", he said holding out the tiny bottle.

I looked at it confused, then up at him.

"What is this?"

"It's not beer. It's a vitamin drink. Now, drink it before you catch a cold."

I gave a short bow and took it. I took the cap off then stopped.

"What's in it?"

He rolled his eyes.

"Vitamins. Now drink."

I quickly threw back the drink and pulled away from the bottle gagging. He then gave me a water bottle. I began to drink. The nurse then came in with the medicine in a cup. After taking it, She handed me the towels and uniform. "The bathroom is on the right." I got up and made my way down the hallway into the bathroom.

Flick!

I turned the lights on, and closed the door behind me, locking it. I sat everything on top of the toilet and looked at myself in the mirror.

"What is going on...?"

I closed my eyes, and took off my gloves, squeezing them dry, place them on the sink. I proceeded to strip down, dry myself off and get dressed. The uniform was somewhat tighter than expected. But at least it wasn't soaking wet. After rubbing my hair dry with the towel. I reached for my gloves. But I stopped halfway. My hands... I pulled them back and flipped them palm up. My eyes became wider the universe. The dark veins that sat on my palms..They were gone.