Sojin was there when I awoke, gleaming. Her hair was bright crimson, slashed at uneven angles. Her eyes were flashy and they were streaked with specks of blue and gray. They were in deep contrast to her ashen face - the only attribute that remained unchanged.

Everything else about her physicality was alien. She looked unreal.

But that was probably because she was unreal.

I shook my head, my pupils adjusting to the blinding light sifting through the curtains.

Sojin was nowhere in sight.

Huh. I thought so.

The first sensations to grip me were frostiness and dizziness. It was freezing cold! Heck, I almost couldn't feel the tips of my toes and fingers as I cuddled beneath my blanket. And then my head was spinning. Like seriously, I had never seen the world rotate like this! I shut my eyes and the spinning stopped, only to be replaced by queasiness. Aw, man. I hadn't eaten anything the previous night so why did I feel like throwing up? And to throw up meant rising up from my bed and dashing towards the washroom - an act I wasn't even sure I'd succeed on.

I heaved deep breaths, concentrating on nothing. And then, like a flash of angry lightning, the occurences of last night struck my addled brain.

Sojin.

She had picked up, hadn't she? Seeming to forget of my predicament, I rolled to my side to search for my phone. It was a stupid move as I had dived straight into the floor.

Uggh..

A cold, hard object caught my knee. My phone. I reached for it and scrolled instantly down the log. But it wasn't responding; the battery's dead.

I groaned, floundering about my room to search for my charger. I plugged the device to an outlet and my phone glowed to life.

I didn't wait for it to fully register all its features. I skimmed down my log and stared at Sojin's number. My jaw dropped.

The last call duration covered two hours and fifty-two minutes! What the..

I blinked repeatedly and glowered at the register. Nearly three hours.. I immediately suspected the call to have lasted the night if not for my drained battery.

But three hours? Did we even speak to each other? Or, rather, did I even speak to her? I remembered her greeting me and me telling her I loved her - in my head. I wasn't really able to articulate anything, was I?

I sank back in bed, pinching close my lids and massaging my head. I had fainted during the call, that's for sure. But our conversation - if there was even one - was a memory I couldn't seem to recount.

Three hours. Why couldn't I digest that lengthy a time?

The pressing matter, as well as my carking ailments, refused to leave my system in the days that followed.

During exam patrols, I wasted my time troubling over that call. I was torn between and release, and the more I brooded over it, the more extreme my conflicting dispositions stretched. And yet the opposing feelings sprung from one source: my possible confession.

It felt liberating thinking of the possibility of having finally confessed to Sojin. And yet it was also fettering. I didn't know how she took it, my probable confession - if she welcomed it or repelled it. It was probably somewhere in between, indifference perhaps. It was Sojin, after all.

But the question still stood - had I really confessed to her? Did I actually say all those things I vowed I would before the other end clicked?

Days rose and nights passed. And for the first time in all my years of studying, I truly dreaded my quarter results. It must be the Seniors Syndrome.

Yixing and I were coming up the Seniors lounge to check our results. It seemed, as I scanned my classmates, that they shared the mutual unrest.

The first class pupils cluttered restlessly around our respective board.

"It's weird. I'm actually feeling nervous."

I countered Yixing with a dismissive grunt. Even the one guy I knew whose feathers rarely ruffled was fidgety. It was an ominous sign.

Halfway across the lounge, a piercing sound erupted. Yixing and I stopped in our tracks just as the first class instinctively stepped back to create a semi-circular clearing before the glass-covered corkboard, all their heads hung down.

I followed their line of sight to behold the shards of broken glass now dotting the marble floor. No one moved, perhaps in fear of getting pricked.

My Prefect-driven demeanor surfaced. I had to do something.

"I told you not to push!" Lichen cried, attempting to back away from the breakage.

"Sorry!" Baekhyun purred in a whiney tone.

What was going on? Were the results that devastating?

I wedged through the tiny horde, stopping before I totally emerged from it and gaping at the scenery everyone had been fixated on.

The top rank. It still sported a single name.

And it wasn't mine.

My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach.

No.

The identity was hazy from where I stood but I was sure it wasn't mine, because my name only had five letters and two syllables, and it was clutching miserably at the second spot.

No.

I stepped forward, shattered glass crunching in my wake.

How?

I froze.

How?

My eyes expanded.

1st : Yang Sojin 《 4.00 》 Outstanding

My world crumbled, but.. joyfully at that.

Yang Sojin. We, the corkboard and I, were pertaining to the same Yang Sojin, right? My Yang Sojin, right?

I read and reread the name, as though memorizing an information so minute yet so monumental. As though peering at it would somehow wake me from this sweet nightmare.

The girl had finally dislodged me, which meant that she was here - she always had. Why then.. How?

My body disintegrated at the stupefying news, its pa