Day 2

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I woke up to someone’s foot in my face. I swear my eyes were beginning to tear up because of the putrid smell. I slapped the ankle and I scream erupted from the head. (No, not the head of the ankle. That’s gross.) The person sat up, glaring at me with their chinky eyes. Oh, hey, it’s Kang Daesung. He grabbed his pillow, er, jacket, and stomped off.

I shrugged my shoulders and lay back down. But something was bothering me. There was some weird light shining on my face. I opened my eyes and tried to wave it away. Then I heard a loud burst of laughter. Son Dongwoon and Yoon Doojoon. I sent them a glare before pouncing over to attack them. They cursed and ran off. Losers.

I yawned, my eyes tearing up again. Trying to wipe away the useless tears, I felt something suddenly stand above me. Or maybe it was because their overwhelming shadow covered the light. Where was the light coming from? Then I noticed the gym lights were working again.

“Aw, little Miss Sunshine’s crying!” Eunhyuk said mockingly. His friends laughed along and I raised a fist. They were smart enough to back off, leaving me alone in my desolate corner.

“Breakfast time!” Mr. Rain called, clanking on a cowbell. I sniffed the air for any food scents but there was some putrid smell coming from the matt. Somebody farted on my matt.

I jumped up, running towards the running crowd. Everyone was yapping like a hungry pack of dogs. Mr. Kim sighed, took out his loudspeaker, and screamed. Really, he did.

“Ahhhh!” It sounded like a high-pitched girly scream you hear in a horror movie. Everyone tried to suppress their laughter, some just snorted up their snot.

“Everybody, please. It will be faster if you’re all quiet,” Mr. Xiah said calmly.

“How?!” Sulli exclaimed. This shut all the teachers up. Mr. Kim glared at us all with his hand on the loudspeaker. Sulli grew quiet too.

The food was passed out as evenly as possible (with the exception of Mr. Xiah giving slightly more to Ms. Choi). It was canned beans.

“I heard beans make you fart a lot,” someone mumbled from behind me. I widened my eyes in terror as I watched everyone hungrily take a bite. Tonight’s going to be interesting…And then I remembered: we still have the A building halls! I felt like a light was shining down on me. Then I realized Mr. Rain was holding a flashlight at my head.

“Er, Ms. Park? You gonna eat that?” He said gruffly, eying my plate. I slowly nodded and he walked away with his head down.

I didn’t eat a single bite yet. I was planning to save it for later when I re-explored the school. I got up to ask Ms. Kwon if the A building halls were dangerous. She shook her head and announced to everyone the halls were free. No one moved—everyone was still busy eating.

I felt like a secret agent. The sound of my backpack bouncing against my back was the only sound that echoed through the halls and I clutched it against me to silence it.

I decided to drop it off at my locker. All the halls looked the same. I rounded corners, leaped down stairwells, popped my head into empty classrooms (I don’t know why), but everything felt like a maze. And I still couldn’t find my locker.

“Oh. My locker’s in the C building,” I said aloud. The silence was broken at last! I pumped my fist in the air but something draped across my knuckles. I pulled my hand back and shrieked. Let’s just say, it wasn’t a feminine scream. It was more of a…wild boar type. Yeah.

I looked up to see a golden star, a bunch, really, dangling from the ceiling on light pieces of string. They were sparkling. Where’s the light coming from? Then I heard the footsteps from behind me. Out of instinct, I snapped my body around and jumped on the person. Everyone has to learn to fend for themselves at this school, or it and the students will just eat you up.

“Ow, ah, what the hell are you doing?!” He exclaimed. I noticed his eyes first. There were dark circles under his eyes and I jumped back.

”Do I know you?” I said with a hint of attitude. He shook his head. “Haha, you look like a panda!” I giggled. He scowled.

“The name’s Seunghyun! But call me Seungri. Just do not call me Panda,” he said, his eyes glaring at me for the last part. I stifled a laugh.

“But panda’s are so cute…” I frowned.

“I don’t wanna be cute! I am manly,” he said, lifting up an arm and flexing it. I snorted in laughter.

“Whatever~” I sang. My eyes wandered up to the golden stars again. They weren’t sparkling anymore. I grabbed Seungri’s flashlight and pointed it upward.

“Ooh, cool, what are those?” He peered up curiously.

“Stars,” I said. And these would probably be the only stars I’d see in a while, well, not counting the dull ‘stars’ out in the gym.

“Hey, how come I’ve never seen you around?” Seungri suddenly said, breaking the silence. I looked at him weirdly. Everyone has seen me around. But they just chose to ignore me. I’m like a pole in the middle of the street. I stand there awkwardly and everyone sees me, but no one bothers to come closer. Haha…a pole. So pathetic, I laughed at myself.

“You haven’t?” My voice came out high-pitched. But hey, I’ve never seen him around either.

“Nope,” he replied simply. I bit back a frown.

“Oh well,” I simply said. And then we returned to stargazing.

The halls seemed less lonely with him. He was outgoing and talkative, always trying to spark up a conversation about the smallest of things. I, on the other hand, nodded when needed, laughed when necessary, and shook my head when absolutely desperate.

Soon, other students had begun flooding the wide halls. I suffocated under the tight hold Seungri had around my shoulders to keep me in sight. But it was a nice suffocation…if that was possible. Never have I had someone hold me like this, to stop me from going anywhere without them. And it was nice under his arm, even if his armpit stunk.

We slowly returned to the gym, where I hoped there were less people and no Mr. Kim with the loudspeaker. I guess you can’t really say I was met with a disappointing sight as we practically stormed in, the doors banging shut behind us and the gust of air blowing into our hair. There were definitely a little amount of students and Mr. Kim now had a bullhorn, not a loudspeaker. Phew!

“Ah, you two!” Mr. Rain called us over. I tried to slow Seungri down. After all, I still had the beans wrapped up in my pocket, uneaten.

“What’s up?” We both greeted.

A few more teachers crowded around and gave us a list of ‘assignments’, which basically meant chores. I groaned in complaint. But at least I have a friend to endure the torture with. Yes, I have already decided he is a friend. After all, life’s too short for me to wait around deciding whether each person that steps into my life is a friend or foe. I had already decided at first sight all the male teachers (except Mr. Jung Yunho) were foes.

Seungri and I cleaned out the lockers in the changing rooms. The stinky, sweaty, moldy lockers of the guys’ locker room. I decided to quickly get over it and sprinted out as soon as I could, running into the supply closet for the next chore. There, I found some…undergarments that I’m pretty sure the janitor couldn’t ever in a million years fit in.

“Rawr, I am a dinosaur!” I heard from outside. I froze on the spot. That didn’t sound like Seungri…

The door suddenly flung open and a deformed body walked in. It looked like Siamese twins! But then I got a better view and noticed it was none other than Kim Jonghyun and Jessica Jung. Their everything was crushing against each other. I suppressed a gag, but then I had a crazy idea.

“Hehe, huhu, I am the dinosaur eater…” I whispered, brushing my fingertips against Jonghyun’s ankle. He let out a girly scream and ran out as fast as lightning, leaving Jessica dumbfounded. She lifted the fabric I was hiding under and raised an eyebrow.

“Nice,” she commented and we burst out in a fit of giggles. I collected my rags and spray and left as Jessica gave me a small wave. I returned it, rags and bottle of spray in hand.

By the time I met up with Seungri again, it was slightly after the usual lunchtime at school. Slightly meaning three hours. The students were all too hungry to move or run around. I remembered my beans and dragged Seungri to a corner, secretly sharing with him.

“I feel like we’re prisoners with extra food!” Seungri giggled delightfully. I laughed too, and it was 100% genuine. Promise.

When we were all done, I threw the wrapper away. It wasn’t in a very secretive way though. I suddenly realized my mistake when my pal grabbed my arm and dashed out the gym door. An angry mob was chasing after us, pitchforks and all. Whoa, wait, pitchforks?! Oh, they were only their scrawny little arms.

Out of nowhere, Seungri stopped, pulling me behind him. I guess some random supernatural force took over and made a barrier because all the students stopped abruptly. One skidded to a stop and fell into the crowd. He was pushed into the far back.

“Y-yah! I demand you all to go away!” Seungri shouted out to everyone. I blinked.

“That’s all you could think—“ I whispered harshly into his ears but stopped. The crowd had dispersed. “Er, never mind. Good job!” I said, giving him a thumbs up. He grinned.

“Yup, that’s the panda power for you!” He winked. Then he paused. “Er, I mean, the victory power for you!” He quickly tried to correct. But I shook my head.

“Haha! Panda admits to his panda powers!” I sang, skipping down the hall. I could hear his footsteps coming after me. But I didn’t care. Now I have someone to run after me.

We walked cautiously back to the gym, which I felt like calling the headquarters. Seungri snorted in laughter but quickly agreed. We even made up secret codenames. He was Panda (of course) and I was Pikachu. (Because Pikachu was on my socks and I felt like it.)

It suddenly seemed warmer all around and I kept taking side glances at Seungri. Just to make sure this wasn’t all a crazy dream. My first friend in high school and it’s when we’re snowed in.

We ate dinner around a ‘campfire’. It was basically a flashlight covered in a thin red fabric because Mr. Rain was afraid of fire. We had stale cookies that the teachers said had been baked by Mrs. Ahn JiKyoung. Mr. Xiah told us that the staff stashed her cookies in the emergency supplies storage whenever she brought them to work.

The matts were pulled out again and this time, I had someone to keep me warm.

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Mr. Bi/Mr. Rain=same teacher. I just felt it was weird to call him MR. BI XD