“As you all know, graduation is in T-minus one month,” the homeroom teacher stated, causing a chorus of cheers from her students. She glared at the class, which instantly shushed them, before continuing. “Take these last few minutes to reflect on life from pre-school ‘til now and think about what you’ve achieved prior to graduation, what you have yet to achieve ‘til graduation, and what you want to achieve after graduation.”

The teacher moved down the rows, placing a small sheet of blank paper on each desk. “If you could have one last high school wish, what would it be?” she asked. “Write it down, fold the paper up, and place all responses on my desk. Whether or not you leave it anonymous is up to you. Begin reflecting.”

As the teacher left the room, she opened into a menacing smile, one that matched her cruel personality. Some of the students who caught sight of that felt a shiver run down their spine. And some--well, one--didn’t see anything because they were too busy snoring through her whole spiel.

“Yah, wake up, pabo,” the class representative said, smacking the only sleeping student on the head. Suspecting his unconscious state, she went to his desk to give him his own personal wake up call.

The boy tossed and turned a little. He then opened his eyes and peeped up to find a very irritated Park Joy eyeing him with such hatred that he immediately shut his eyes and rotated his body to the other side, much to the female’s annoyance.

“YAH, YOOK SUNGJAE,” her voice boomed in the room. Classmates glanced over at the pair hoping to see a fight ensue. Their money was on how long the class representative could keep her cool before throwing fists--you know, the usual happenings of a Friday afternoon in room 3-1.

“Ow, owowowowow,” Sungjae squirmed as Joy yanked his ear. “Okay, okay, I got it. You can leave me alone now.” With a satisfied look on her face, Joy gladly did, leaving the now wide awake boy to massage the area she had pinched.

Joy quickly returned to her seat, eager to get the assignment over with so she could facilitate the class. But when the tip of her pencil touched the blank slip of paper, ready to write her answer, Joy couldn’t come up with anything.

My one last high school wish? she repeated in her head. I could write about studying abroad, but it should be about something I want to happen now, as in before I graduate.

There’s also outranking Min Yoon Gi and becoming number one, but why wish for something that’s destined to happen? Joy smirked.

And with that thought alone, the girl knew what her wish was, blushing as she jotted it down.

Meanwhile, a confused boy glimpsed around, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do without rattling the class representative’s cage, who stood at the front collecting submissions and supervising the class. He wanted to ask the girl next to him for help, but Joy had hearing like a bat, thus catching him if he ever made the attempt.

The bell rang and the people of room 3-1 handed in their responses on their way out the door. They all had acquired the taste of freedom.

Kim Yeri, Joy’s best friend, and Joy were the only other students left in the room.

“What did you write your wish on?” Yeri enthusiastically asked her best friend. At the sound of the question, Sungjae’s ears perked up, eavesdropping on their conversation so he could figure out the prompt.

Joy shook her head, not revealing anything to Yeri. “If I told you my wish, then it won’t come true, right?” She half-believed in that superstition. The other half of why she didn’t want to share her answer with Yeri was because no one else knew about her secret.

Wish? Sungjae voiced in his head. Is that the assignment?

Yeri pouted but understood Joy’s reasoning. “Do you wanna do anything today? It’s the weekend--we can go karaoking!”

Joy returned the pout. “I have work tonight.”

“Darn. Maybe Saturday?”

“For sure,” Joy said, flashing a smile. The girls bade farewells since Yeri had tutoring for an hour, leaving Sungjae alone with the tiger.

“Yah, Yook Sungjae, you’re not done yet? The assignment’s not that hard,” Joy scolded.

Here goes nothing, the boy thought, praying the beast won’t eat him for this. “About that… What was the assignment again?”

Joy’s jaw dropped in disbelief, though she should’ve seen this coming the moment she heard the idiot snoring from the back corner of the room. “You pabo!” she yelled in frustration. “You’re supposed to reflect on life from pre-school to present day and then write down what your last wish would be before you graduate. But we don’t have time for reflections anymore. Just make a wish.”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Sungjae replied after finally understanding the prompt. The girl began massaging her temples to prevent herself from getting any angrier than she already was. Sungjae scribbled down a few words then handed the paper to Joy. “Gotta go, I have places to be!”

The class representative watched him sprint out the door. An eyebrow twitched and her face grew red. As she crumbled up his response, she shrieked at the top of her lungs, “YOOK SUNGJAE, I’M GONNA KILL YOU.”

“I swear, it’s like he exists to ruin my life,” Joy muttered to herself as she hurriedly entered Red Velvet, the cafe where she worked part-time. After dropping off the submissions to her homeroom teacher, the girl changed into a bubblegum pink shirt and khaki trousers. Normally, she would change in the Red Velvet restroom for fear that her classmates would find out about her job, but today she had to toss that concern aside so she wouldn’t be late. With her long brown hair in a ponytail--which Joy only wore for work--she hoped to not come across anyone from her school on the bus ride or during her sprint to the shop.

The good thing about working at Red Velvet was that the cafe suited more of an adult taste with its unique food items and pricey menu, meaning the chances of Joy seeing a high school student were very slim. Used to being the one in charge and giving orders, Joy didn’t like being on the inferior side and taking orders, especially when they were from classmates. And if people knew Joy worked at Red Velvet, the ones that hated her would constantly come in just to --and Joy couldn’t let that happen.

The girl put on her apron and, for extra precaution, a cap with the Red Velvet cupcake logo on it. Even if a classmate supposedly came into the shop, he/she couldn’t possibly recognize Joy...right?

The door jingled, which signaled a customer’s arrival, while Joy wiped down tables. At the sound of a group of guys discussing what they want on the menu, the employee assumed her position at the register.

“Yo, this place is expensive,” Joy heard a familiar voice bluntly say.

“Relax, if you don’t want anything here, we’ll go to a different place, but I really like their boba tea,” another familiar--and more annoying--voice said.

Nonono, the girl silently panicked at the same time she took a peek at the group. Her suspicions were confirmed at the sight of four boys from her school, two of which being classmates. Amidst the pack stood top athlete Minhyuk (who Joy might’ve had a slight crush on in elementary school), heartthrob Hyunsik, classmate Ilhoon, and, unfortunately, Yook. Sung. Jae.

Unlike her usual self, she looked down at the floor and spoke in a deep voice when the boy approached the register. “Welcome to Red Velvet. How can I help you?” she asked.

“Hi, I’d like a taro milk tea with boba,” Sungjae answered, keeping his eyes on the menu to avoid messing up his order.

“Will that be it?” Joy glanced at the customer. Noticing how unnatural her voice sounded, Sungjae shifted his gaze to the employee, who immediately turned around to grab a cup for his drink.

“Yeaaah,” he said, sensing something awfully suspicious about this girl.

After he paid, Sungjae joined the rest of his friends at a table while Joy prepared his beverage. Once she finished making the tea, she called over a co-worker and requested for her to serve it to Sungjae rather than Joy being the one to do it, telling the other employee that she’d be going on break a little early tonight (and by a little, she meant two hours earlier than scheduled).

“Enjoy!” the co-worker said as she placed the order on the boys’ table.

Sungjae took a sip and felt instantly satisfied with his beverage. “See, guys. That’s why I wanted to come here--for their quality boba teas.”

He continued drinking the milk tea, occasionally chewing on tapioca pearls. When the older employee passed by again, he asked her, “Excuse me, miss, but did you make this? It tastes a lot better today than usual.”

“Oh, no, it was the other girl,” the woman said, referring to Joy.

Sungjae scanned the room for his classmate, but couldn’t spot her as she was too busy hiding out in the back room. She didn’t return to the main area until the boys had finally left the premises.

When Joy saw that the group was gone, she sighed in relief. “Thank goodness he never recognized me.”

Meanwhile, Sungjae, Minhyuk, Hyunsik, and Ilhoon were all entering a noodle shop one block away from the cafe. A bowl of noodles there costed the same price as a cup of coffee at Red Velvet so of course that made the four high school students happy.

As they enjoyed a helping of ramen, Sungjae finished the remnants of his drink. Staring at the empty cup with the Red Velvet cupcake logo printed around it, he thought, for a monster, the class rep makes one hell of a taro boba tea.

“Ooh, this is interesting, Boba,” a middle-aged woman commented to her plump cat, Boba. The woman and her companion were lounging comfortably on the couch watching reruns of Running Man. A pile of folded papers laid on the coffee table before them.

“Today I asked my students to write their final high school wishes,” she told Boba. She raised two different sheets of paper with two very identical responses. “Look at this, Boba. I wonder if these people were thinking about each other when they wrote their wishes.”

“Oh, snap!” the woman interrupted her own thoughts, diverting her attention to the TV screen where Yoo Jae Suk and Kim Jong Kook battled it off in the well-known name tag race. As her eyes remained fixated on the action of Running Man, she accidentally dropped the two pieces of paper. Boba watched them land on the ground and then faced away to take a nap.

On both anonymous submissions, they read, to find love.

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Author's Note:

Yay, first chapter's out! Hope you enjoyed it ^.^ By the way, all characters are out-of-character so some actions in the story may not reflect their real personality. The next chapter should be out soon! Stay tuned~

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Preview:

“No, I don’t like him,” Joy stated sternly. “And you don’t know anything. Seriously, Yook Sungjae, if you tell anyone what happened just now, I will end your life.” Even though Sungjae stood twenty centimeters taller than Joy, he suddenly felt so much smaller in the presence of her wrath, especially as she bore her dark brown-almost-black eyes straight into his soul. He gulped in fear, and the class representative stormed off.

Before she disappeared from his sight, Sungjae ran up to the girl. “Wait, wait, Park Joy. I have something to tell you.”

“What?” she hissed, crossing her arms.

Scary, Sungjae thought. “I saw you with Bae Irene this morning.”

An expression of shock and disgust came across Joy’s face. “That’s kinda creepy.”

“Oh, really, Joy? You’re telling me what’s creepy, Miss I-Watch-Boys-Through-Windows?” he retorted.