When Monday came I was beyond happy. I know, Mondays are supposed to . But I couldn’t wait to get out of the apartment. The tension in the house is as thick as butter. My father was also eager for the start of a new week. He was out of the house before the sun was fully up. My mother packed my brother and I some lunch. I was going to bring Marc to his new Kinder garden, because it was on the way to my bus stop. Mama opened the door for us and wished us a nice day. I grabbed Marc’s little hand and we were off.

            “Lucy, will they like me?” Marc’s sweet voice broke the silent morning as we neared his Kinder garden. I squatted beside him and pinched his chubby cheeks.

            “How could they not?” I asked with a reassuring smile. “Everyone is really nice here. And if you feel homesick, I’ll come right away, okay?” Marc bobbed his head up and down. The uncertainty in his eyes faded. I brought him inside and took his jacket and shoes off for him. Other little children looked at us curiously. A grown woman with a gentle smile walked up towards us and extended a hand.

            “I am Kim Eun Soo. Is this Marc?” she asked, smiling down at my brother. He hid behind my legs as I stood up to greet Mrs. Kim.

            “Yeah, he is a bit nervous,” I said. “Come and say hi, Marc,” I try to coax him from behind me. Mrs. Kim keeps talking to me about how child loving she can be. I nodded, not really paying attention. I was going to miss my bus for school if she talked any longer. I finally interrupted her and squatted down to be eye-level with Marc. “Go make friends now. Noona has to go to school, alright. I’ll leave my phone number with Mrs. Kim, in case you want to talk to me, okay?” Marc nodded uncertainly, but cautiously made his way towards the other little children, They swarmed around him instantly, asking him to be friends. That was all the reassurance I needed. I left my number with Mrs. Kim and quickly made my way towards the bus stop. I had another three minute walk ahead of me. Just then I saw my bus drive past. Taehyung was sitting at the window, and he saw my cry of despair. I began running after the bus. I ran as if a mob of paprika that wanted me to eat them was behind me. And let me tell you, that is a frightening thought. But stupid modern mechanics out mastered my feeble attempt. The bus just seemed to gain momentum, while my feet were being held down with mountain-like stones. Long story short, I missed the bus.

            “Nice of you to join us, Lucy,” I got greeted by my teacher’s sarcastic welcome. I bowed and muttered an apology, before scurrying to my seat. Taehyung was grinning like an evil dwarf. I shot him a bone crunching look and sat down, pulling my math stuff out.

            “Lucy, you have to join a group,” the teacher said. I looked up confused. Just then, everyone began shuffling around, rearranging themselves. “Today will be a group project. You should all help each other, and I want no one falling behind,” the teacher tried to make himself heard over the racket. I noticed Yuri, Nara and Soyou huddled together over two desks they had shoved together. I waved over at them, but they didn’t seem to see me. I made my way over.

            “Hey guys! Can I join your group?” The three stiffened and Nara slowly looked over at me.

            “I think we are kinda full already, sorry,” she glares at me as if I had murdered her new flowerbed or something. She turned back around, dismissing me. I kind of just stood behind them, dumbfounded. What just happened? And then I remembered how I had left them without an explanation on Friday.

            “Listen guys, about Friday,” I begin.

            “Lucy, come over here!” I look over and see Eunji smiling at me. Yuri stiffened and scooted her chair further away from me.

            “Lucy, stop standing around, find a group,” my teacher barked. I jumped in shock and then trudged over towards Eunji. And stopped dead in my tracks. The evil grinning dwarf was beside Eunji. Oh please no. God, put me out of my misery!

            “One way or another I guess you were just meant to help me with Math,” Taehyung grinned. “Some would go so far as to call it fate.” I rolled my eyes and sat down. Jungkook smiled over at me.

            “Hey Lucy,” he said. I smiled over at him uncertainly, knowing that Soyou would feel hurt the more friendly I acted around him. I pulled out my math book and paper, all business-like.

            “Alright guys. Be honest here. How reliable are your math skills?” I watched my three group members squirm around in their seats. “I know math isn’t Taehyung’s cup of tea, so just tell me how good you are compared to him.”

            “Oh yes, I am better than Taehyung,” Eunji says proudly. Jungkook nods.

            “Hey! I am not that terrible, that you need to compare your lack of math skills with me,” Taehyung exclaims. We all share a silent moment, giving Taehyung an ‘are you sure?’ look. I open the math book and scanned the page. Calculus wasn’t so hard… right?

            “Okay, so let’s just start on the first problem and see how you fair. I’ll start explaining once you get stuck,” I shoved the book towards Eunji, the one group member I was hoping would know what to do. She stared down at the problem with eyebrows scrunched together.

            “Let me do this,” Taehyung grabbed the book from her and reads the problem. “Umm…”

I took the book back.

            “Okay, I guess I will just start from the very beginning,” I forced a bright smile on my face.

            “Sorry that we are so bad,” Eunji muttered.

            “No, no. Nothing to worry about. We will finish all of this and not have homework, you’ll see,” I reassured her. I really hope we wouldn’t have homework. I had been planning on bringing my brother to that park with the small playground after school. I got out a pencil and told them to just try and follow my thought process. “So, first of all you need the Intervals to find the area of this graph, f(x),” I pointed at the graph, showing how those points show the high points and what not. Two intense hours later I threw down my pen in exhaustion.

            “This is amazing, I actually understand the logic behind this now,” Taehyung picked up the sheet I made for them with an overview of useful information for Calculus.

            “Try one yourself now. You can help each other,” I point at the last problems with my hand. “I need a small break.” As they threw themselves into another math problem, I observed the other groups. Most were further than us, but there were a few who were struggling as much as my group had at first. Nara, Soyou and Yuri were already done. I caught them looking over at me, and gave a timid smile. They quickly turned their heads away. I heard them murmur something, but was too far away to decipher what.

            “No, no. Now we have to do f(x)=0, remember?” Eunji slapped Taehyung’s hand away and took the pencil. I patted myself on the back. Good job self. Maybe I should become a teacher.

            “How are you guys fairing?” I almost yelped in shock, as our teacher came up behind me. Kinda late for worrying if we were struggling or not. The hour was almost over.

            “We are doing great! Lucy is a big help. I think we already got through two thirds of the problems,” Jungkook gave the teacher his famous eye smile. The teacher smiled back.

            “Great. Once the bell rings, just remember you have to do the rest for homework,” he said. I widened my eyes. Homework?! I grabbed the pencil out of Eunji’s hand.

            “Give me that, I’ll quickly finish the rest,” I hurriedly said, grasping for the book.

            “But then what will we do?” Jungkook asked.

            “Type in the numbers in the calculator,” I muttered. “I really need to finish this if I want to bring my brother to the playground later.”

            “Aw, you have a little brother? How old is he?” Eunji asked. I quickly started writing down formulas.

            “25 times 0.34,” I replied.

            “What?” Eunji asked. “That isn’t an age.”

            “Type it into the calculator!” I whined at Jungkook. He quickly typed it in. The last fifteen minutes were a blur of numbers and graphs.

            “Done,” I threw the pencil down on the paper as a finishing note.

            “I can’t believe you just did all that,” Eunji whispered, her big eyes widened in wonder. Just then the bell rung. I stretched my arms up in the air, satisfied.

            “We did a good job, team,” I said.

            “Yeah, we should work together more often!” Jungkook cheered. We gave each other a high five.

            “What are you doing in the break?” Jungkook asked me. I glanced over at my friends.

            “I… um… I think I need to talk to some people and apologize.”

Jungkook followed my gaze. “Well then, if you change your mind, we could hang out.”

I nodded my thanks and watched him leave with Taehyung and Eunji. Sighing, I got up and walked over to the three girls who were doing the best to ignore me.

            “Hey guys,” I gave an awkward wave. Nara was the first to say something.

            “What?” she began packing away her pencil case.

            “I came to apologize,” I said. Nara rolled her eyes.

            “For what? For making moves on Jungkook? Or for befriending Eunji and not even telling us?” Yuri glowered at me. I winced.

            “It’s a big misunderstanding,” I said.

            “Then help us understand,” Soyou said. I looked over at her, looking for some reassurance. But she averted her eyes rapidly, not daring to really look at me.

            “I did befriend Eunji and didn’t tell you, but it wasn’t intentionally,” I began.

            “You really think we are going to buy that?” Yuri snorted. “If you wanted to join the popular crew, just say so.”

            “No! That isn’t it at all. We just always walked home together and…”  I saw the jealousy in Yuri’s eyes then, and knew this wouldn’t end well.

            “When did you approach her? After my sob story? Were you able to bond with her by hating on me?” Yuri abruptly got up and stuffed her math stuff inside her bag. “I hope the popularity will be worth this, Lucy.” She took off without another word. I sighed.

            “I really am sorry,” I said, turning around to Nara. She got up as well.

            “We don’t need your pity,” she said. “Come on Soyou, let us go.” I looked at Soyou, pleading with my eyes. She kept her eyes cast downwards, and quickly zipped her bag up.

            “Soyou, I wasn’t making moves on Jungkook. I really don’t want you to think that. We are just friends. I would never…” Soyou sighed and made a move to leave. Nara was already out the door, when Soyou turned around towards me.

            “I know you didn’t intentionally hurt us,” she murmured. Before I could reply, she was already out of the classroom, a protective Nara pulling her away. I sighed and trudged after them. They disappeared behind a corner. What have I done? I hit my head repeatedly on the brick wall. Thump, thump, thump.

            “That isn’t that good for your head,” a deep voice said from behind me. I turned around rather slowly.

            “Come to gloat?” I asked. Taehyung frowned.

            “Why should I?”

I looked up at him with pleading eyes. Right now I really couldn’t take his biting sarcasm. He seemed a bit taken aback.

            “Come on,” he grabbed my hand and dragged me with him. He took me to the back of the school, where a small orchid grew.

            “What are we doing?” I asked. He stopped and turned around, engulfing me in his arms. He towered over me and was able to easily rest his head on mine.

            “You can cry now,” he murmured.