Abby and her classmate walked by the street side by side and talked about school and how hot was it that night. The warm breeze blew through them as they walk.

“Um… why did you want to walk home together?” Abby asked as she glanced at him. His figure was over towering her. He smelled of sweet perfume. It was kind of weird to her because boys usually wear strong scent of perfumes.

“My house is just nearby yours,”

A car passed by them and he quickly pulled Abby closer to him. He changed their positions. Now, he was just by the street. Abby was too shocked to react.

“Well… Uh… How did you know?”

“I see you walking to school every morning,” he smiled down at her.

“Ah… I see,”

His phone rang and he quickly answered it. It must be one of the dancers as he was talking about tomorrow’s performance. Abby looked at his face when he was talking to the phone. His eyes were glittering. She looked at his eyes carefully and it was makeup. He hung up the phone and put it in his pocket.

“Are you wearing makeup?” Abby asked.

He looked at her, quite surprised but then he smiled, “You noticed that?”

“Yes,”

He stopped in front of her and leaned down until he met her eyes, “Does it look good on me?”

“Uh… You look fine,” Abby looked down, feeling embarrassed by the sudden action of him. She was lying. He looked perfectly fine. Or hot, for short.

He stood up straight again and pouted, “I guess not,”

“Just think what you want,” Abby said. She was surprised because she said it out loud. Her real self are slowly slipping out.

“Ouch,”

“Sorry,” Abby apologized and she walked away thinking that it was the end of the small interaction. He followed her from behind, catching up beside her.

“It’s okay,” he laughed, “I know I don’t look good with this smeared makeup,”

Abby wanted to tell that he looked good but words aren’t coming out. She is not a good complimenter. She rarely do that.

They arrived at the alley to Abby’s house. There was a stair in the alley to her house. It was a small house enough for her mother and herself.

“Thanks for walking me home,” she said as she stood in front of the alley.

“It’s okay but,” he stretched out his neck, looking inside the dark alley, “Are you okay to walk alone there?”

“I’ve done it more than 100 times. I’m fine,” Abby shrugged.

“If you say so,” he put his hands in his pockets.

“What’s your name again?”

He smiled, “Shin Jiho,”

Abby thought she saw him shine when he said that. But of course, she was just delusioning.

“Ok then. I’ll go now,” she turned around but a hand caught her wrist. She faced him once more. “What is it?”

“Let’s walk together to school tomorrow,” he said, not letting her go.

“Okay,” she glanced at her wrist. His hand was pale and firm on her wrist.

He let go, “Oops… Sorry ‘bout that,”

She nodded and walked away from him. She climbed the stairs and turned around slightly. He was already gone. She smiled after a long time. She never felt happier ever since her father’s death.

That night, she could not stop thinking about him. She was excited because she is going to have a friend after a long time. But then she realized that he is not going to last long as her friend. She was boring and dull. And mean.

She shook her head, “Wake up, Abby. You’re not going to have any friend,” She sighed as she plopped again on to her bed, facing the ceiling.

“Shin Jiho,” she whispered and closed her eyes to sleep.

Abby woke up, struggling with her heavy eyelids. She finally got up after a few struggles and got ready to go to school. She sat in front of the mirror with her black school uniform. She tied up her hair in a ponytail as usual. She took her backpack and went out of her room.

As the door closed, she suddenly remembered about last night. Shin Jiho. She remembered his name. That was unexpected. She shrugged it off and went to the kitchen to eat her breakfast. Her mother was probably still in the bedroom after a long day at work yesterday. She made herself a sandwich and eat it quickly.

Before going out, she checked on her mother who was still sleeping in the bedroom. She looked really tired and she still had her makeup on. Abby sighed, “Bye, mom,”

Abby walked down the stairs and her eyes wandered around, expecting to see her classmate, Jiho. But he was nowhere around. She laughed at herself for expecting him. She walked away and tried to forget about Jiho. She put on her earphones and listened to one of her work.

Abby composed songs. It happened when one day, she mixed up melodies from her  keyboard,  guitar and an application in her phone. She played many types of musical instruments but she never learned it. She just played what she hears in her head.

Suddenly, a hand pulled her arm to a halt. She was ready to curse at the person for disturbing her private time of her own. She pulled out her earphones, “The do you want?!”

“Whoa there, girl. Calm down,”

Abby froze as she saw Jiho in front of her, laughing. His appearance was clearer under the morning sunlight. There was no makeup, it was just his bare face. Handsome bare face.

“Oh my god you are so scary for a girl,” he laughed again.

“You shouldn’t have do that,” Finally, she could talk.

“You were too fast. I thought I asked you to walk together with me last night,” he crossed his arms to his chest.

“I waited for you but you didn’t come,” she said that and turned around to continue her walk.

He walked beside her, “I woke up late this morning. Sorry,”

She looked up at him, “That explains why your hair is messy,”

He raised his eyebrows, “Really?” his fingers ran through his hair. Abby noticed that he had a long blonde hair that passed his ears. He placed his other side of his hair behind his ear.

“Is it still messy?”

Abby smirked, “I lied,”

“How did this little girl changed in just one night?”

“I never did,” she smiled. Delighted to see him. He was still fixing his hair as she turned to look at him. “You dyed your hair?”

“Yep,”

“Our school allowed that?”

“Our school doesn’t care about our appearance as long as we produce good results,”

“Since when did that rule exists?”

“I lied,” he smiled in satisfaction.

“Of course you are,”

“Seriously though, the school doesn’t really care about it,”

They were near to the school gate. There was a teacher in front of it holding a stick, scolding students with slacky uniforms.

“Where is your blazer, boy? Come here!”

“You better tuck in your shirt, Jaehwan!”

“Short skirt is not allowed here!”

He was swinging his stick every time a student passed by. Abby smirked and looked at Jiho, “Good luck,”

“Yah! What’s with that blonde hair—“ the teacher stopped halfway as his eyes met with Jiho’s. “Oh… Uh… Shin Jiho,”

“Yes, sir?”

“Oh nothing! Go on now or you’ll be late,” The teacher was smiling at him.

“Thank you,” Jiho pushed Abby to walk forward as he bowed to the teacher. Abby’s eyes was still on the teacher who was still smiling even when Jiho turned his back. She looked at Jiho, raising her eyebrows.

“What was that?”

“You don’t need to know that,” he placed his hands on her shoulders, dragging her to class.

While he was talking to her, other students were glaring at them. Glaring at Abby, to be exact. Abby glared back. They entered the class and all of their classmates watched them, weirdly. It was a very rare occasion  especially for Abby whom had always been alone in her life.

Abby felt that her life will be turned upside down after all of this.

Damn,what am I doing? she thought.