Dork.

third.

The next day I arrive at school again, walking silently down the hallway, unnoticed. I sit down in the middle of the classroom next to a random person per usual (luckily she's another girl who also keeps quiet), At this point people in my classmates stopped talking to me altogether. Once they figured out I had no interest talking to them- nonetheless dating any of them, they stopped reaching out.

I hear the home room teacher come in to take attendance, but I continue beading secretly in my desk. I've been making small beaded and stringed bracelets for years now to cope with my mental health, and I'm pretty good. I can even do it inside my desk where there's no light in there. People always think I'm on my phone, but actually I have a whole collection of bracelets, necklaces and rings in my desk.

The class stops talking, and I hear quite a bit of whispering, the home room teacher claps her hands to get silence.

"Hello class, I'm sure you are all wondering who the new student is. Please introduce yourself," she says.

"Hi everyone, I come from Canada, my name is Kevin Moon."

my head snaps up, and I am shocked to see the boy I met after school yesterday standing in my very own classroom. Great. Just great. now everyone will know I have to go to the peer first responders after school everyday. Not that I care what they think- but still that's embarrassing.

The kids in my class wave and smile, and Kevin smiles back, scanning the room, until he meets my eyes. He smiles wider at me but I just look down instead.

"You may go sit next to Jacob in the back corner by the window," the home room teacher tells Kevin. He walks down the rows of desks, still sporting his tight black turtleneck and slightly grunge looks. The whispers I hear behind and in front of me are: He's cute, ooo a foreigner, we're a lucky class, blah blah blah.

I just shake my head, how do all of these girls express interest in boys so easily? Not my problem.

I hear Kevin and Jacob (the class president) hitting it off immediately in the back of the class, laughing loudly.

"Oh boy, is this going to be a problem?" My home room teacher laughs slightly. "In that case...." she looks around the room. Please don't say my name, please don't same my name.

"Sunhee Lee." I grimace at her word. "You and Jacob please switch seats."

The girls around me look at me in awe, as if I've won the lottery or something. Reluctantly I swiftly sweep my beads and string into a pocket in my red backpack, standing up shakily.

My legs are wobbly as I walk to the back of the classroom, Jacob gives me a smile as he walks to my old seat, which I don't return.  I walk to the very back row, where Jacob used to sit, and I plop down quietly by the window, next to him. Kevin moon.

I try to avoid contact, but it's nearly impossible because Kevin is looking right at me. When I finally turn my head slightly to him, he says "hey!" and holds out his hand for me to shake it.

Everyone in the classroom is turned around in their chairs, even the home room teacher, wondering how this will play out. The new cute boy and the cold possibly mean weird girl??

It seems like forever he's holding out his hand as I ponder what to do. but the peer pressure gets to me so I slowly and gently reach out my hand to his. Kevin takes it softly and gives a small friendly shake, but it feels like a jolt of electricity pulses through both of us, and we pull our hands away. That was weird  i think, and Kevin seems to think so too.

The whole day I feel like I can barely move in my seat because I'm sitting next to him. A boy. I'm even trapped because the only desks in front of us are occupied with two more boys. Choi Chanhee and Ji Changmin introduce themselves to Kevin and they all make friends immediately. Those two boys have never talked to me before, but I could hear them laughing and arguing from all the way across the classroom where I used to sit.