The bright, shiny morning sun greeted Jieun as she stepped out of her house. Squinting her eyes, she briefly scanned her surroundings, a small frown appearing on the corner of her lips afterwards. Chanyeol was nowhere to be seen. It was the first time in a while—he would always come early in the morning to walk with her to school, no matter how much she protested against it.   “So much for a see you tomorrow,” Jieun murmured under her breath, moving in the direction of the school. “Good riddance, anyway. It’s a good way to start the morning.” Good riddance or not, however, she couldn’t help but think of him the entire walk to school. The last time he didn’t show up at her doorstep was about a year or so ago—he’d gotten very, very sick and was admitted to the hospital for three days. She shook her head. He’ll be fine, she thought. He has to. Or else I might catch something from him too, and he’d hate for that to happen.   Once the bells rang and classes begun, Jieun found that Chanyeol hadn’t shown up to school at all. His two friends, Baekhyun and Jongin, were also absent, and knowing this, Jieun was almost upset. She felt dumb for having worried for him in the slightest earlier in the day; she scolded herself, saying she should’ve known that Chanyeol was just ditching school to hang around with his even bigger idiots of friends. “Pathetic,” she told herself, returning to her classroom to her designated seat in the back corner. She didn’t know if the remark was directed towards Chanyeol or herself, but it was clear that at least one of them more than deserved to be called as so.   The rest of the day flowed by meaninglessly and uneventfully. Having stayed up during most of the previous night, Literature class was enough to lull Jieun to sleep, using her books as pillows. When she awoke, she found that the school had already come to an end. There was only one of her classmates—the class president, Minseok—remaining in the room, in which he, too, was getting ready to leave.   “Oh, you’re up,” he said upon seeing Jieun rub her eyes. “That’s good. I wasn’t sure if I should’ve woken you up. I tried to wait, but I have to go to cram school.” With a bright grin, he came over and handed her a Chocopie. “Here, since you missed lunch. I just had one left over from the store, and—” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I tried to get most of the cleaning done after the cleaning team bailed out on you, but I couldn’t get to the third floor girls’ restroom.”   Finally regaining her senses, Jieun nodded. Minseok was always a considerate one. She didn’t know if it was his personality or his way of keeping up with his class president duties, but Minseok never looked at Jieun with the stares that the rest of her classmates did, and for that, she was grateful. She just never expressed it. “Thank you,” she told him quietly, trying the best to not make her smile awkward. “I’ll take care of the restroom. Sorry for making you do all the work.”   His face flushed. “It’s not a problem, really. The kids were irresponsible for ditching you behind, that’s all.” Just then, his cell phone began to ring. Scurrying to gather his stuff, he gave her a final greeting before leaving the classroom. “And that’s my mom here to pick me up. See you tomorrow, Jieun!”   A moment or two after his leave, Jieun began to get moving as well. Normally she would have skipped cleaning but the dean checking the halls the day after was rumored to be scary with punishments, and she didn’t want to make more trouble for herself. From the back cabinet of the classroom, she pulled out the mop, and with a sigh, headed up to the third floor. Because there was no yaja, the halls were basically deserted; most students probably had long gone to th