*IMPORTANT*... No need to say that’s it’s been a while, right? I’ve just been so overwhelmed with school and music that any free time I get I either do homework or sleep! And with all of the stress I’ve been taking with school and my personal life; it’s just been way too hectic! The reason why I’ve been so busy with my music study though is because my school’s wind ensemble is playing a huge concert (the biggest I’ve ever played in a band) in Japan! Yeah, that’s right! Eleven days after this is posted, I’ll be on a flight to Japan for the next two weeks. That being said, I need to say two things.

1) I’m not promising that I will be able to write anything since my schedule is packed while I’m there, but I’ll try to write a bit.

2) When I do get back, I have to catch up on a lot of pre-cal, English, and French work that I missed because of the trip.

So please be understanding if the next chapter takes even longer to get written, because I’m trying my best, and it’ll only be tougher from here. Thank you for being so kind, dear readers! Well, on with it!

The entire ride home, HyoYeon was freaking out. And I mean, completely spazzing out. She even followed me home and told my parents. That means that they started freaking out. All night. Annoying.

And even more annoying, at seven in the morning, HyoYeon called me to bug me even more. It was at the twentieth “Gwenchanayo?!” that I snapped. “That’s it, HyoYeon! Shut up!”

She went absolutely silent. I took the moment to calm down. Then I felt guilty. “Yeonie... I’m sorry. But I’m really ok, so stop asking!”

She was still silent for a few minutes. Just as I started getting scared, she said, “I know. I understand that, but do you understand what I felt?! Do you know how frightened I got when I saw you go down?! DO YOU?! HyunSoo, you’re my best friend, my sister! My heart stopped! So even if you’re ok, I’m still not!”

It was my turn to be silent. HyoYeon had never raised her voice before, so I was shocked. And I know that she really cares about me, but I didn’t think about how she’d feel in that kind of situation. I guess when looking through her point of view, I understand. “HyoYeonie... I’m sorry for snapping at you, but please understand that I’m ok. Calm down, and understand that nothing happened, not a scratch! Gwenchana.”

She sighed, and that’s when I knew I won. “Alright, Hyunie. I’ll see you in half an hour, then.”

After I hung up, I smiled to myself. “Victory!”

But... wait... she said half an hour...? I snapped my head to the clock and got a shock. It was 7:15 and the bus leaves at 7:45! Why does this always happen to me?! ‘I need a new alarm!’

I rushed through all of my morning routine and right before I opened the door, something strange happened. A strange sensation, similar to nervousness yet having a slight stinging feeling to it hit me hard. It resonated in my chest and left a ringing in my ears. The alien feeling left me paralyzed for a moment. As soon as it hit though, it vanished.

I stood in shock for a moment before remembering that I still have to get to the bus stop. ‘Aish!’

 I sprinted to the bus stop where HyoYeonie was waiting for me, just as the bus pulled up. She and I got on and sat down. Yeonie waited for me to stop panting to speak. “You know, one day you’ll miss the bus, and I won’t feel sorry for you at all.”

I just gave her a glare (though it was admittedly weak) and leaned on her shoulder. We sat like that for a while until we got to the school. We walked toward the entrance before the feeling from before came back again, but stronger. It frightened me and surprised me so much that I felt the breath leave my body. It lingered a bit in my body for a second longer than the last time but vanished as suddenly as before, leaving me feeling lightly hollow.

HyoYeon’s voice pulled me back to reality. “Will you quit lagging behind? We have to go!”

I snapped out of my dazed state and raced to catch up. “Sorry!”

We took the pieces of paper that had our homeroom class number and advisor’s name on it. Since we were in different rooms, we split up after bidding each other good luck. On to our first day of the next three years of our lives.

‘So... Room 227, huh? Ok, that’ll be upstairs...’ I made my way up the staircase to the second floor. Looking to the right I saw a small sign saying ‘Room 201-211’ and an arrow pointing to the right. Deciding not to go that way, I made a left. Walking down the hallway, I came to a fork but continued right. I immediately came to a door labelled 227. ‘Well, here I go...’

I opened the door and stood in what looked like a computer room. There were about five other people there so far, and I took a quick look around. The others occupying the chairs consisted of four boys and a girl, one in each row of tables that the computers rested on. The guys were all pimply-faced and it looked as though they weren’t in the mood for conversation. I walked to the third row where the only other girl was and sat down beside her. We were both silent until I finally broke the awkward air. “So... I’m HyunSoo. What’s your name?”

The girl turned to me and I could see all of her features clearly. She had light cinnamon coloured skin with a couple of small, barely noticeable scars from adolescent acne that were quickly fading. Her eyes were extremely dark, yet warm, and captured the light as she smiled at me. She has long, straight black hair that was cut into layers (one being shoulder length and the other going down to her waist) with some purple streaks on the bottom layer. Her eyes twinkled with a bit of mischief as she replied to me, “I’m Hasina Prem. Nice to meet you, HyunSoo.”

When I heard her name, I felt as though I knew her. Almost like we were supposed to meet each other, and I relaxed. The next thing she said to me embarrassed me, though. “I remember that you’re the one who ran into me the other day.”

I felt my cheeks burn, and I could tell by Hasina’s amused smile that I most likely had turned a bright red colour. I stuttered out in a rush, “No, I mean yes, but I mean... I didn’t mean to and-““It’s alright! It’s fine! Accidents happen all the time, just breathe HyunSoo!”

Somehow after she said that, I immediately calmed down. My face felt as though refreshing, cool water had touched my cheeks and I relaxed. Hasina smiled softly at me, and I could have sworn it looked like as though she knew something I didn’t before a teacher interrupted us. “Hello class. It seems as though everyone will be coming late today, so shall we begin? Firstly, my name is Mrs. Thomas, and I’ll be advising you throughout the next three years.”

I looked at her features closely. She was a quite young-looking, skinny woman (how did she have internal organs?!). Her shoulder length blonde hair was straight with a slight curl at the end. This flattered her pale, soft angled face, and softened her bright blue eyes. She was dressed in a straight-ironed, dark gray pencil skirt and dark purple sweater, all the while balancing perfectly on her five inch heeled, knee-high black leather boot. Even though to some her attire may almost seem strict looking, she gave off an air of warmth to her.

Suddenly, a huge rush of late students came in rather loudly, but she only smiled kindly before continuing. “You may not be aware of this, but I’m actually the grade 10 band teacher. We met here in the lab today because the bad room is being set up for instrument registration, but for the rest of the year, we’ll be meeting in the band room.”

Soon, she called us up to get our schedules. After we all got seated again, Mrs. Thomas started to speak again. “I noticed that you are all band students! That’s great, because now I can take you down to the band room together! No one can get lost! Just get your things and follow me.”

She paused and looked as though she was forgetting something. Then she snapped her fingers, shocking us. “Oh yeah! Welcome to high school, by the way!”

Because Mrs. Thomas wanted us to all go downstairs together, everyone got up and gathered their things to go. As we were doing so, Mrs. Thomas walked up to Hasina and I. “Why hello, Hasina! How was your summer?” “Good, yours?” “Pretty good!”

Mrs. Thomas paused for a moment before looking directly into Hasina’s eyes. Hasina only nodded back. “So you noticed as well, right?”

I looked at them questioningly, and Mrs. Thomas noticed. “Ah, HyunSoo, don’t worry.”

Hasina nodded in agreement. “Yeah! We just think that this year will be... interesting.”

What she said was very odd to me. Interesting? What could she mean by that? Just the way she said it sent cold shivers down my spine. Before I could comment on what she said, her hand grabbed my wrist. I had barely been able to grab my bag as she pulled me with the class to go downstairs. The moment she grabbed my hand, the calming feeling had returned, though the air remained awkward. Trying to clear the air, I asked her, “What instrument do you play? Y’know, since we’re in band and all.”

Hasina glanced over at me and replied in her warm, cheery voice, “I play the flute!”

This didn’t really surprise me. Though she was a couple of inches taller than I was, she still had a small build, which reminded me of a stereotypical flute player. I decided to keep the conversation going a bit further. “Same here! I’m alright at it, you?”

At this point we were at a staircase, about to go down. It was then that she let go of my wrist. Hasina glanced back at me again to reply, “Well, I’m not the best, but I try.”

We continued walking down to the first floor where the band room was. Stepping through the doors, we sat in our sections and watched as the other band students walked in one by one. By about 8:30 am, the bell rang and we were all seated. I looked quickly to my left to see Hasina beside me, sitting at the very end of the row with her own flute case sitting on her lap. To my right was the rest of the row, looking to the conductor’s stand, watching Mrs. Thomas with anticipation and a small hint of fear in their eyes. I followed in suit as Mrs. Thomas greeted the class. “Hello everyone! I’m Mrs. Thomas. Welcome to band class, and high school, subsequently. This year we have a band of about 60 people, which is quite large.

“I’m not going to ask you to be absolutely silent, but please try to keep it down. Also, I won’t ask you to practice for an hour a day, but you will need to practice parts that you know you need help on. We all need to work together and balance each other to make a successful band.

“Right now, I’ll start the instrument rental process. When I call your name you’ll come up to sign your name and get your instrument.”

Everyone sat in an awkward silence as names were being called. No one really knew each other, so we all just sat there. I was slightly worried because I couldn’t even hear people breathing.

After the last name had been called, we were told that we could put our instruments away in the cupboards at the back of the room and were allowed to leave. Our new conductor had told us that since we wouldn’t be doing anything for that class today that it should be fine to let us go, but to not expect this to happen again. Everyone happily exited the room, but just as I was about to leave, Mrs. Thomas called out, “HyunSoo, can you stay for a minute?”

I turned around slightly puzzled. “Ne?”

“Come over here, I wanted to speak more with you.”

Though the request was strange, I still nodded and walked over to her. I took notice that Hasina was standing beside her. Both of their faces were still kind looking, though something seemed a bit off about both of them. Hidden beneath their kind gaze was a hint of seriousness and solemness. It was odd and made me slightly nervous, but I ignored it and stood in front of them. Mrs. Thomas looked at me for a moment, then turned to Hasina. She said in a quiet voice, “It really is her...” “But she still doesn’t know, Mrs. Thomas. It might scare her!”

Um. Yeah. I was still standing right here, I can hear you!!! What are you talking about? What don’t I know?! I cleared my throat, slightly annoyed, so as to remind them of my presence in the room.

“Oh, sorry HyunSoo. Don’t worry, we remembered you were here, we just...” Hasina cut off Mrs. Thomas and said something that was probably the strangest thing I’ve ever heard and would change my life forever (though at the time, I didn’t know how). “HyunSoo, you’re not human.”

update! comment on what you think! ^^