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Anna
It was no surprise when he caught up to me at lunch in the commissary. Hye gave me the eyes before I heard his smooth voice.
Anna. Anna. Hot boy. Hot boy. Omg.
I refrained from rolling my eyes and looked down to continue eating.
"We sit right next to each other, yet I still haven't been able to hold a proper conversation with you," the persistent boy said to me, sitting on the chair beside me.
"Yes, I've made sure of that," I replied coolly.
He chuckled at that, and I was tempted to stand and walk away again. But Hye, my previous excuse, was already here, drooling over this new boy, whose name I'd yet to learn.
"Come on, I just wanted to greet you. Honestly, I'm a bit nervous about meeting new people," the boy said pitifully. "I've never been that good at making friends."
"You can be our friend!" Hye squealed.
"That would be nice," he replied, still watching me.
"Hye will see you later then. Seeing as you both are friends now," I said.
"Oh? But I want to be your friend too."
I sighed and turned to face him. This new kid was starting to annoy me.
"Sorry, what's your name again?" I asked him, placing my gaze right above his eyes.
He seemed a bit taken aback that I still didn't know.
"Kim Seokjin," he stated. "You can call me Jin."
"Well, Jin, I hate to disappoint you, but I don't want to be acquainted with you in any way. I know what you want," I told him calmly, standing. "So you can give up now, because you're never going to get it."
I turned and walked away from the table in frustration. My lunch had been ruined. I hoped rejecting him before he'd even started would speed things up a bit. I hated having to deal with a boy on the first day of school. Especially boys like him.
Namjoon
The last class of the day was history. It was a subject I'd hated for as long as I could remember. It was the subject that brought me down. The thing that left the bad marks on my otherwise perfect report cards. It was my weakness.
"I'm just going to be giving you a short test to assess what you've learned and what you remember, so I can have an idea where to start with you," Ms. Gim announced to the class.
Immediately, my stomach dropped. She was giving us a quiz on the first day. I wasn't prepared at all. I almost gulped as she handed me the stack of papers. I got up and began to pass them around. When I got to Anna, she gave me a strange look, as if she could sense my tenseness. She, on the other hand, looked as calm and collected as always. I clenched my jaw and returned to my desk. Just as I suspected, I was unsure about all the questions.
☁︎
"I'm home," I called, halfheartedly, as I entered the large house.
"Ah, Namjoon!" My mother called from the kitchen. "You received some letters!"
I sighed. Of course that was the first thing she'd say.
"Any good ones?" I asked as I entered the bright kitchen.
Mom was sitting at the counter with some papers. Ms. Shin, our housekeeper, was making some sort of dish. I assumed it was another foreign recipe that my mother insisted she try out.
"Not really, mostly just international universities," Mother told me with a slight frown.
I nodded and grabbed the pile of letters.
"Well, that's normal," I said quietly.
"They're coming, darling. One of these days your letter will come," she reassured me.
She thought I was acting down because of the college letters I hadn't received, so I decided to just let her think it was because of that. I sighed again and started down the hallway to the staircase.
"I swear, Ms. Shin, if that boy doesn't get his Stanford letter soon..." She went on.
I paused at the foot of the steps, closing my eyes for a second. Trying to remember the last time my mom asked how my day had been.
Anna
"How was your day, honey?" My mom asked as I closed the front door.
"The same," I told her honestly.
She reached over to help me take off my bag, but I gently pulled away.
"Don't worry, mom. I got it," I said with a small smile.
"I was thinking shrimp for dinner. Does that sound delicious?" She asked me, returning to the living room where she'd been sitting when I arrived.
"Yes," I replied. "I'll be upstairs."
"All right. I'll call you down in a little while," my mom replied.
I nodded and slowly made my way to my room. With a sigh, I hopped into the bed and laid back, my eyes making their way to the blue ceiling above me. Peeling, yellow star stickers that I'd stuck up there when I was thirteen stared down at me.
I found myself sighing happily as I recalled the fact that I was almost completely free of my "special ability." Maybe, soon enough, I wouldn't be able to hear thoughts ever again. That was something to look forward to.
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