My Sophomore year had been culminated rather interestingly. I had topped all of my six subjects and had landed, once again, on the highest rank. I must admit I'd been thoroughly pleased, what with Sojin lagging just a few points behind. She had grabbed the second spot but I wondered if she could have fared better if she hadn't missed two full quarters of satisfactory marks that could have raised her average significantly. After all, she only had two quarters for the teachers to average. Nevertheless, she had proven herself beyond excellent.

Junior year greeted us with loads of extra-curricular activities. It was only the second week of classes when we were already tasked to plan for the Founding Anniversary. It was common practice in our school to delegate the responsibility of prepping up for the annual event to the third years since the fourth years would have been too busy to fuss over such social commemoration. Though it wouldn't be until the first week of January, my fellow Juniors were already teaming up to form the necessary committees.

Naturally, I'd been placed in the Governing Committee which was to oversee the entire duration of the preparation up until the Festival Days itself. All of my friends joined the Creative Arts Committee, to nobody's surprise. Sojin, on the other hand - and to everybody's shock if I may say so myself - volunteered to form part of the Program Committee. I couldn't blame Toni's hesitation in letting her join the team. Ruiz Toni, the Committee Head, was another performing foreigner and he'd been automatically appointed Head; his skills in the area were unparalleled. Well, I couldn't say more of the guy who'd been well exposed to the diverse entertainment and musical talents of his home country, the Philippines.

The meanest news yet was that two or three third years cornered Sojin into signing up for the Janitorial Committee. The school had lost four Maintenance people last year; three out of retirement and one from some serious disease that, according to published report, had greatly hampered his health. I learned later on that it had actually been due to some accident that burned a fair amount of the man's face, making him too morbid to be allowed to roam around in school.

Ah, I should probably just admit it - I overheard it from Sojin when she was talking to her brother over the phone one early evening. I couldn't even remember how I ended up eavesdropping. But this I knew; that Sojin had a way of dragging me up close like a magnet. Anyhow, the point was that the Maintenance people wouldn't be enough to clean up after the festivities.

I had to give those coward Juniors ten hours worth of detention in the form of 'washroom clean-up sessions' for bullying Sojin.

Sojin, unsurprisingly, didn't appear rattled by the obvious dissent everybody was expressing. Students, even those who didn't belong to the Junior level, were just too scared that she'd mess up the actual program with her randomness and, well, weirdness. Apparently, her reputation at peculiarity hadn't been exclusive to our year.

But despite this, Sojin didn't settle for passivity nor mediocrity. In a matter of two weeks from the date of announcement, she had already produced two three-day full-length programs, each complete with a unique theme, MC scripts, suggested props and possible presentations. Afterwards, she had showcased them to a group of awestruck Juniors.

"She's.." Toni's expression was split between marvel and unbelief when he told me about it one meeting right after first quarter exams. I knew he felt bad for doubting Sojin and was unnerved that he'd been proven wrong - oh how I'd been acquainted to the feeling when it's Sojin we're talking about.

By mid November, it was down to two choices: Tiara's Medieval Royalty Parties theme and Sojin's Battle-for-Freedom concept. The former, though densely popular to the females, had been frowned upon by the SASD and Faculty; they said students didn't need an alternative to Prom, which our school, in its twelve decades of existence, never practiced. They couldn't blame Tiara though. She was of Western origin after all, from whence the events of Proms and Birthday Debuts were rooted.

Meanwhile, Sojin's concept had been highly commended. A culmination of Asian countries' cries for independence in the colonial era up to the first and second world wars, her idea should stir deeper attachment between students and each of their home countries - I noticed her biased inclination to Asia - but at the same time set a reminder that times had changed and the world had been flattened to a network of interconnected villages. The idea was profoundly unique. And of course, with Sojin as its author, quite unusual.

I guessed the most entertaining part was the setting up of a battle field. Well, for the guys at least. I personally fancied the tanks and cannons and rifles and mines that adorned the main quadrangle by November third week.

I slipped on my coat as I stepped out the warm comfort of our Office. It was a damp and cold Wednesday, the sun veiled behind dark rain clouds at half past three.

The ground floor lobby housed a few Juniors busying over indoor decorations, and stuck in a tangle of wires was a pouting Li Chen. I'd been wanting a word with her since the previous year. I never really got to discover whatever there was within my locker. I just left it to Maintenance who emptied all lockers and disposed abandoned stuff two weeks after Final Grades had been posted.

Talk about paranoia.

"Lichen -"

She jerked at the sound of my voice. "Oh. Luhan. Hi. Sorry I, uh, didn't notice anyone. What's up?"

"Listen." I cleared my throat. How to broach the subject on Sojin that didn't appear stalker-ish. "It's.. I was wondering if Sojin lent you her Biology book?" What the heck was I saying? And Biology book of all! We were already having Chemistry, darn.

Lichen's face contorted in confusion.

"I mean, I just remembered I'd left some Prefect draft reports inserted in her book during our last lab experiment and I needed them back. Sojin said she had lent them to someone, uh, I think it was.. you?"

I was the worst liar to have walked on earth.

"Are you on drugs, Luhan?" She laughed.

On drugs? Great. Now she's laughing at me.

"Sorry," she said. "But if there's anyone to whom she's lent her books to, it would be no other than you. I do remember the main reason why Sojin didn't anymore have her books was that she had lent them all to you."

I frowned. "What d'you -"

"She told me all your books got lost and so she's given you hers since she had soft copies in her phone anyway. She even said, jokingly of course, she didn't want you having excuses if she ever beat you to top rank. Very funny, Sojin is, don't you think? Hang on -" She strived to free herself from a loop around her ankle, almost losing her balance on the process. I realized she was one of the few who didn't mistreat Sojin. But then -

Lent to me all her books? What kind of a joke was that? I didn't recall ever losing one single book, let alone all.

"She exchanged lockers with me last year, did you know that?"

Yes. I suspected. "Really?"

"Said she wanted to keep a close look on her rival," she laughed again but it wasn't to make fun of Sojin. It was in her next statement that I knew why she hadn't protested in the exchange. "I didn't mind, especially if it meant a locker next to.." She threw a quick scan around her. "Zhang Yixing's." She grimaced. "Please don't tell him. Or anybody else for that matter."

"No, don't worry."

So the exchange really did happen. Technically, that wasn't possible since our names would be locked on our assigned lockers at the start of the school year. Unless it was mutual agreement, and you didn't mind a name that wasn't yours blinking at you everytime you unlocked the code, Sojin and Lichen weren't exactly breaking rules.

I left Lichen with the explanation of having returned Sojin's books before the end of second year, to which she believed, and I went on to search for Sojin myself.

Just two minutes later, I spotted her across the soccer field with Baekhyun and Jongdae, drenched in rainwater and intent on marking boundaries all over the grass for the food stalls. Dang, I couldn't talk to her with two of my troll friends around, and abducting her for a private word would all the