CHAPTER 003

As I headed back into the school facilites, the scent of the cherry blossoms still hung on me. This was real, not fake. I sighed. What was happening with my life? One day, I'm a normal school girl, the next? A girl with information that apparently no one else knows on the planet. Stepping up the cracking cement staircase, the bell promptly rung. Time for art activities, the last class.

I hurried my way up, turning once to the right, arriving at the 'Creative Write & Art Room'. As usual, the class was filled with hyperventilating girls who all were fawning over the clueless Kai. He was sketching on his canvas, and with every furrow of his brow, the girls sighed.

"Look how perfect he is..." 
"He's like a piece of artwork himself!"
"I know, right? Ugh, why does he have to hang around HyoJin all the time?"
"Shh! She's coming."

I started to approach Kai and the hoard of girls gasped. Go figure.

"New sketch?" I asked, and Kai looked up at me with his frazzled hair and sparkling eyes.

"Yeah," Kai smiled deviously. "Help me with this, though." What a joke--he knows I can't draw for anything in the world. 

I took his pencil and with feigned concentration, purposefully drew a very, VERY, ugly flower. It was the type that first graders drew: one circle in the center, five petals on the sides, a line for the stem. It looked horrible. And that was exactly what I wanted, heh.

"Beautiful," Kai started to chuckle, his body shaking with laugher. "I'm totally going to keep that there." Then, suddenly, he leaned forward and planted a light, fleeting kiss on my cheek. He looked at me, and his eyes laughed at me. He was so making fun of me.

Kai seemed unknowing to the situation around us. The girls gasped, one even screamed. But I didn't react that way. This kiss meant nothing, it was just a remnant of a childhood tradition. But we were in high schoolers; he should cut that out. I glared at him. Now the girls were going to kill me the moment Kai stepped away from me.

"Ok, ok!" Kai put both his hands up as if he was surrendering. "Forgive me, your highness!"

I smacked him, and walked to my desk right as our teacher, Mrs. Song came in.  

"Class, today the prompt is treasure," she called out. "So, artists, take your canvas and draw whatever is precious to you. Express yourselves. Take this prompt into a deeper meaning! Writers, it's time for you to be imaginative. Write a creative piece on what this means to you. This is the project of the month." Mrs. Song concluded, taking a seat at the front of the room. 

I slowly took out a lined sheet of paper as the class started to get to work. What was precious to me? What mattered? I had absolutely no idea. 

Sighing, I looked out the window, and saw the courtyard. The perimeter was marked with "DO NOT CROSS" yellow tape. The tape fluttered in the wind, and one piece flew away. My eyes trailed the broken branches from cut-down trees, and focused on the large, cherry blossom. The only one that was left.

And I saw Chen. On the ground, hands outstreached to the sky. As he brought his hands down, rain started to fall, as if he beckoned the weather to change. Rain started to pour, like arrows coming down. Yet Chen did not move. 

Wasn't he cold? He needed to get out of the rain. And before I knew it, I grabbed my umbrella and started running down the cement steps and into the courtyard, with my teacher yelling, "HyoJin! Where are you going?"

I paid no attention to her.