Just You and I

une. Rooftop

"Attention class! I have an announcement. We have a new student and I want you guys to be nice to her. Understand?" my new teacher announced in front of the whole class. I'm really nervous and  introducing myself is one of the things I hate the most. The teacher opened the door and asked me to come in.

"Alright, please introduce yourself," said the teacher, who was smiling sheepishly. I lifted my head and I heard the students whispering to each other.

"Whoa, she's pretty"

"You think she's smart?" 

However, I was too nervous to even think about them.

"Hello, I'm Lee Seol. I'm from Daegu and my parents moved here in Seoul cause of business. Uh, please help me since I'm new to the school." I bowed to them. Everyone was just staring at me, making me even more nervous.

"Okay, everyone be nice to her. And Seol you may sit at the empty seat over there," she pointed somewhere and my eyes followed to where it was leading, and it was all the way at the back the second row next to the window. I greeted the girl that sat next to me and she looked away. I looked to my right; the guy was looking out the window so I didn't greet him or anything.

"Class representative, please give Seol a tour of our school," the teacher commanded. It was totally unnecessary, now I felt like a burden.

"Yes ma'am," the class rep replied. Two hours passed with boring class lectures and all I wanted to do was eat.

Ding~ Ding~

Finally it's lunchtime! Everybody got up and left. The guy that sat next to me stood up, he's pretty cute, but I can feel that he's probably one of those trouble makers in class. His hands were on his pocket and he walked coolly out of the door.

The class representative walked over to me, "Hi, I'm Hanae. We should start walking, I'll show you around."

"Uh, what about our lunch?" I asked, "Oh yeah, well we could just eat while walking? I'm sorry if I'm rushing its cause I have a draft due tomorrow for the school newspaper and I kind of wanted to work on it..."

"Oh, okay. Let's just go." I grabbed my juice bottle and the kimbap wrapped around the foil that I made. Hanae and I walked around, sharing my kimbap. She showed me what rooms are which and where to go to at certain time. So far I like the school, it's big and people seem nice. We sat down on the stairs near the field.

"What about the art department?" I asked

"It's on the 3rd floor. Why? You're interested in art?" she asked.

"Yeah, kind of," I replied.

"We have a good art program here, you'll really like it. There's a new college intern and he's really good looking. I wish I was good in art, but I'm more of a writer," she pouted.

"Ah, I wish I was a good writer," I said trying to encourage her. I was looking around and saw the guy I sit next to in class.

"What are you looking at?" Hanae asked following the direction of my gaze, "that's Seungho. He was our class president from elementary to middle school and halfway of freshmen year of high school, but he quit being the class rep. I was always number two, so they just passed the leadership to me," she explained.

"Why did he quit?" I was curious.

"Well, no one really knows, but ever since then, he started failing tests and always gets in trouble. People say it's cause he's in a gang or he does drugs, but those are just rumors so no one really knows," she explained, while moving her hair off her face.

I wonder why he gave up on it, I mean wouldn't it be nice to be the class president?

"I don't think he would just quit like that just cause. There's probably a deep reason on why he changed so much. Then again, I don't have the right to say anything," I replied, while brushing the crumbs of our lunch off my skirt.

"That's true. No one really bothers him, so you should stay away cause you don't want to be involved with him. He's rebellious and has a lot of FAN GIRLS." she warned.

"Whoa, fan girls?" I was taken aback.

"Well, as you can see, he's really cute. Girls are all over him, but he doesn't pay attention to them whatsoever. So, those girls are just wasting their time. Anyway, we should probably go back to the classroom," Hanae and I both got up and headed back to our classroom.

...

While waiting around for the teacher to come in, two girls came up to me while I was sitting on my desk.

"Hi, I'm Minnie and she's Jei," they both smiled at me. "So, you're from Daegu? Are you full Korean?" Minnie asked while looking at herself in the mirror.

"Yeah I'm from Daegu. I'm 75% Korean. My Dad's half Australian and my mom's full Korean. So yeah, I consider myself Korean" I replied. Not to be a stereotype, but these two are probably those really girly girls that only cared about looking pretty.

"No wonder your eyes are that color. I wish my eyes are naturally light brown, but I have to wear contacts to have that. You have a pretty nose, too. And is your hair naturally brown?" Jei asked.

"Uh, thanks, but your pretty yourself. Yeah it's natural, but sometimes I wish my hair was jet black like yours," I answered trying to keep the conversation flowing. They kept asking me questions about Daegu and my physical appearance.

"You're so lucky you sit next to Seungho! I wish I sat there." Jei pouted.

"You have already. But he shoo'd you," Minnie stated and laughed.

"Yah! Shut up! Didn't I tell you not to mention it at all?!" Jei glared at Minnie, who wasn't wavering from her laughter.

"Wait, so he makes people move?! By force?!" I was in shock, and deeply scared.

"Uh...Well, you're not all over him like how Jei was, so he's not going to. Unless you become one, then you will have to be a rival of Jei and pretty much the whole female population of the school," Minnie replied. I looked at her, still in shock and kind of scared...

"Are you serious?!" I asked, my eyes widen.

"Oh gosh. Shut up Minnie. No, don't worry bout it. You can like him too. He already dislikes me..." Jei said, but I was still scared.

Right then, Seungho entered the room. Jei, Minnie and I shut our mouths. Minnie immediately asked, "So, are you gonna stay for after school studying?"

"Uhm, probably not today since I still have to do so many things in our house since we barely moved 3 days ago," I answered. Seungho sat down and put his head down.

"Hey, it's already 2pm. I have to go to the teacher's office, so I'll talk to you guys later," I got up and rushed to the door, grabbing my phone and my wallet so I can grab a snack from the snack machine on the way.

After a long talk of persuading my teacher to put me in the advance art class, she finally agreed, but with so many conditions! First, I have to maintain good grades or aim higher. Second, if she finds out that I'm struggling with all my classes or whatever, she's gonna pull me out of art class.

I hurried out of the room. I saw a stair sign that leads to the rooftop. Great, now I can finally have a place to breathe. I climbed up the stairs and turned the knob of the door. I could feel the breeze on my face and stood there with my hands spread out.

"Wow, it feels good up here!" I exclaimed to myself. Suddenly I felt movements behind me. I turned around and saw a guy sitting with his right leg straight out and his left leg bent up resting his arm on his knee. He was looking at me and I could already imagine what he was thinking. I turned my back on him again and I felt my blood rush up to my face, I was so embarrassed!

And then it hit me, the guy... it's Seungho.