It stormed over the weekend, raining just about eighty percent of the time and leaving no room for anyone to go out and enjoy themselves. Not that I really had any plans to, but I got to hear a million complaints from Jaeeun and her voice was about to drive me up the wall when Monday finally decided to show up, greeting me with cold blasts of wind as I left my house on time.

Tuesday was the same. Having expected the weather to be a bit more forgiving, people on the bus were more than disgruntled and kids were snot-nosed all over the place. It was rather unfortunate, but I was perfectly content in my ginormous coat and scarf, with mittens covering my hands. I had a favorable feeling towards cold weather and it was of no bother to me when I had to bundle up, only when my school uniform didn’t help. Today I wore a pair of leggings underneath my skirt, solving the problem pretty well.

At school, my fellow students didn’t look too pleased to be dealing with such cold weather. I didn’t see the big deal, as it had been quite chilly the previous Friday, but the girls were constantly fussing that they were freezing. I almost told them to stop being stupid and wear leggings. Common sense, people. But I decided not to put myself in a compromising situation, especially not when I being ignored fairly well lately, and proceeded to my locker.

Luhan and Tao were standing around, talking animatedly in Chinese, but no one else seemed to be there. It was relatively quiet until someone came passing by and Tao began screeching in his mother tongue, almost causing me to go into cardiac arrest.

After picking up the books I had dropped, I turned to see it was the third Chinese student our school had. Zhang Yixing: he was in the dance club with Kai and Sehun. I almost laughed when he cautiously bowed and continued walking by, casting me a weirded-out glance before disappearing around the corner. I shortly wondered what Tao had said to him before Luhan turned his eyes to me.

“What are you looking at?” he snapped.

Apparently it was a crime to see why someone was yelling. Suppressing the urge to roll my eyes, I turned back to my locker just as the warning bell rang. Tao took off, spitting out Chinese so fast I questioned if it really was a human language, and I grimaced, realizing I was now alone with Luhan. To no big surprise, he planted himself next to me, against Sehun’s locker.

He clicked his tongue, crossing his arms. “Choi Eunhui . . .”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I fumbled with my books, trying to hurry up and get out of the uncomfortable situation.

“You know it’s rude to visit someone’s house and then leave without a proper goodbye, right?” he asked, eyeing me.

My movements stilled and bit down on my tongue. He did know I had been to his house.

“Tao told me,” he said, grinning. “Little brat gossips like an old grandma.” He sighed, clicking his tongue again as he gazed at the ceiling. “Anyway, I hope you enjoyed riding in my car. Maybe next time I can be the one driving you, eh?”

He skipped off just as the bell began ringing, sending me a cheesy wink before turning around and leaving for class. I felt repulsed and began angrily slamming things around in my locker. My train of thought had been completely interrupted and now I couldn’t remember which books I needed for my first classes, my mind too preoccupied with how much of a creep Luhan was. And if he knew, who else knew? How much longer would my calm streak last before rumors went flying once again? Obviously, some people had yet to let go of my latest advertisement.

Pulling myself together, I decided on which textbook I needed and gazed at my stack of books as I thought about what Luhan had said about Tao. If he’d told Luhan about Sehun bringing me to his house, had he spilled anything else? Had he told anyone about seeing me in the locker room with Sehun the week before, about my bruises? I absolutely hoped not. The bruises were now yellowing and fading and if she came after me again, I wasn’t sure I could take it without bashing her face in.

A series of stomps met my ears and I jumped to attention with a sudden jolt and snatched at my books and notebooks, destroying my organized shelf. Even though I was probably already about to get detention again, since I figured it was a teacher, I made haste and gathered my things. Only with a great amount of surprise did it strike me that it was not a teacher as I noticed the person throwing open the broken locker next to mine.

It hadn’t completely escaped me that Sehun hadn’t been there earlier with the rest of them, but I hadn’t considered that he was late; he was known to disappear before classes were even close to starting (as now all of the school knew one of the reasons why after I tattled). That was why