(Ae Yi’s POV)

And just like that, I got shunned by the headphones guy. It was certainly unbelievable. I managed to move forward with my day putting that incident behind me. I thought to myself, I will never let what happened to me ruin my day; it’s the first day of school after all.

Somebody covered my eyes from behind me and immaturely asked me, “guess who?” I’m pretty sure it’s Hyojin – that deep voice is incomparable to a man’s awkward voice when undergoing puberty. Yeah, she’s one of my best friends. I basically talk to her anything under the sun – from the clothes I’ll wear to a party, to what color of eye palette I should get from cosmetics stores and to how much sugar I should put on my drink. “Gong. Hyo. Jin.” I shouted while slowly detaching her fingers from my eyes. As my vision adapts to the light from complete darkness when she covered my eyes, I finally saw one of the most important people in my life.

I hugged her like I’ve never hugged her before and gave her a small peck on the cheek to show her how much I missed her. She’s been MIA for the last few weeks since she was out of the country for summer vacation. We went into the classroom when we heard the most anticipated first school bell of the year.

As we walk through the hallways for junior classes, I happen to pass by class C’s classroom. From there, I saw a familiar face that I saw few minutes ago. Do Kyung Soo. I remember his name. He’s sitting by the window on the last row of the class with no one beside him. Everyone in that class is chitchatting about their vacation but there he was, still wearing his headphones and staring blankly at the sun. Hyojin keeps on mumbling about the great sceneries she saw while traveling around Europe and I can’t help but look at Kyungsoo. What makes it even more bizarre, I wasn’t paying attention to her stories. I just found it amazingly exquisite that someone can find happiness in solitude. He is the epitome of introversion.

We arrived in our class, nothing new. No one’s new. Everyone is present. We shared stories again that in reality, we all knew because everyone’s updated with each other’s lives through social media. Our new adviser came in, he’s new. That’s a first. Our old adviser left because she couldn’t put up with the immaturity of the class. Being the class president, I still hold myself responsible for that. I just beg the heavens that our new teacher is equipped with high emotional quotient. He’s supposed to be smart because he’s a teacher, I give him that. He’s pretty cute as well. The name, Mr. Lee Taemin.

We’re almost half done with the day, it was the usual noisy lunch then we went back to our classes. Few more hours later, the day is over. So the supposedly coffee date that Hyojin, Sohyun and I planned didn’t push through because Sohyun had to ditch us for her boyfriend and Hyojin needed to unpack some stuff. I was left alone. I didn’t have anyone I can hitch on with so I had to take a bus.

I waited for bus at the stop near our school and I saw Kyungsoo. Still the usual him, shutting the world off with his headphones. I didn’t know that we live in the same neighborhood so we both waited for the bus. When we rode the bus, there was no room for separate seats aside from the seats for two at the back. It was awkward as hell; to the point that I feel that the grounds are slowly swallowing us up. The bus had to take a detour because of the road widening so instead of arriving at our neighborhood in 30 minutes, it will take more than an hour.

Fifteen minutes after we both settled down on our seats, I suddenly felt a weight on my shoulder. I found Do Kyungsoo resting on my shoulder. I thought to myself that I should move my shoulder but I wasn’t able to do so. I remained calm. I gazed at his face and I figured that he’s probably exhausted from the chatting he did today. Of course, it’s the smell of sarcasm within me. I remained still until we reached our stop.

I poked him to let him know that we’re off to go. His demeanor was indescribable – it had the fusion of archaic shock and uncertainty. He panics as he grabs his bag, turn off his music and stand up from his seat. He pressed the stop button and quickly got off from the bus. I know he didn’t know what to say. He gave me the look of wanting to apologize for his behavior. I understood him so before he was able to open his mouth, “No worries, thank goodness you didn’t drool,” I said.

“Uhh, uhh, I am s-sorry,” he stutters. I eventually grabbed the opportunity to talk to him after what he did to me early this morning. “You still owe me though. I greeted you cheerfully a while ago, yet you just ignored me. That’s so mean, you know? How can you do that to me? We’ve been batchmates for quite some time,” as we walk towards our neighborhood. It’s dark and I am actually scared. It’s my first time going around the neighborhood on my feet so I have to divert my fear.

“Uhh, I, I don’t know what to say. No offense meant but I am not accustomed to greeting people. I am really shocked that you recognize me. I apologize for my behavior a while ago.” “Nah, I’m just kidding.  I didn’t get offended anyway. I actually forgot about it before you used my shoulder as your resting place,” I told him while shaking my shoulders off like what we do in gym class.

In reality, I really got offended. I took it against him. I guess it was fate that brought us back here. Okay, this is too early to make assumptions. Chill out, Ae Yi. Chill the F out.

“This is my place.” We stopped in front my door. “Thank you for walking me home. By the way, are you near my area? I didn’t know we live in the same neighborhood.”

“Yeah, my house is just few blocks away from here,” he timidly responded.

 “Oooh, that’s good to know. Thank you again and take care on your way home. See you tomorrow!”

“Alright then, see you!”

I planned to send him off through my eyes but I realized I’m a dead meat to my parents because I didn’t tell them I won’t get a ride from Hyojin. I became too preoccupied with all the shenanigans that took place today that I totally forgot about my parents.

** Next day **

“I respectfully nominate Kim Ae Yi for the position of president for the class of 3-A” Mijin opened the floor for nominations for this year’s class officers election. “I second that motion!” There you have it, my friends. For the nth time, I am the class A’s president again. These kids really need to have a lesson. They can’t vote me just because I am a pushover for their dirty little tricks. I seriously need to get my together. I have to become the responsible president that I should be.

In our school, there’s a cultural norm by which the presidents of all classes per batch should have their own committee. Our school is pretty big so classes stretch from classes A to J. There are 10 sections, people. 10. With approximately more than 30 students per class. Multiply 10 by 30 = you know the drill. The batch committee is responsible for the logistics of the batch’s events. Name it. Now I got enlightened why my classmates keep on rooting for me as the committee head. I am on my third year as class A’s representative so automatically, I will spearhead the said committee.

This is the first time I’ll be meeting the newly elected presidents and vice presidents so I have to make a good impression. My secretary gave me the list and here it is:

                Presidents: Kim Ae Yi, Oh Jin Ri, Do Kyung Soo, Choi Jeong Won, ….

When I saw the list, I stopped reading. He’s here. Our favorite rare wallflower has appeared on my sight. I had evil thoughts on what I should take him accountable for; but no. I am a professional woman. I secretly grinned.

I immediately called for a meeting and asked if anybody wanted to work side-by-side with me to help me with the logistics for the project proposals. I take these things pretty seriously and almost everyone knows that there are no room for mistakes when I plan something. I gave them the chance to reason out why they wouldn’t be able to work with me and only Kyungsoo didn’t raise any concern. To close off the topic, the members of the committee decided that Kyungsoo will be the one working with me.

The others immediately left the meeting room once I told them it’s settled. They probably want to escape from me delegating the tasks on our first meeting. Still unsure of what’s happening, Kyungsoo asked me something, “do I have to stay or should I go as well?” I cut him off, “Dude, you’re the second in command in this committee, do you plan to flake on me again? Of course you have to help me brainstorm for the batch’s yearly events.”

“I do? When did I? H-how? W-what?” he shyly answered.

“You have got to be kidding me. Don’t tell me you weren’t paying attention when you deliberately didn’t respond to my question earlier; and that you’re here by accident,” I raised my voice on him a little.

I didn’t give him the chance to talk back. “No, you can’t leave. It’s settled. We have to finish everything by 8 in the evening. If we can’t finish it here, let’s go to my place.”