Him.

searching

^^^ Rei

I stare at the boy's fingers.

His rings, each and everyone of them.

Then I stare at his face.

Each and every eyelash.

Then back to her fingers.

I can feel the boys stare.

I open my mouth to speak, but get interrupted - once again - by Rei.

"She's fine! Perfectly fine!" she says for me, and guides my hand to his, letting him pull me up.

JS is confused, but he nods.

"Right," he says, drawing out the word. He blinks, shakes his head, and nods again. "Right. Good, I'm sorry about that."

He turns and walks away as Rei places her hands on my shoulders and spins me around.

"Eunbi! What was that?"

"I was-"

The tardy bell rings, and my eyes widen as I remember that my class is on the other side of the school.

"Whatever, let's just go."

Our school is huge, so me and Rei break-out into a sprint as we race to the History wing.

Both of our classes are at the far end, so the final bell rings just as we reach the entrance.

I chew on my lip, knowing that Mr. Kim is strict with timings. I glance at Rei, she glances back at me.

She sighs.

"Fine. I was saving this for later, but I'll say that we were thinking of my mom. You know they're flexible with these kinds of issues, right?"

I nod grimly. "Yeah."

Rei's mother died three years ago in a car crash, and all of our teachers have always been kind to us about it, especially the few weeks after she passed.

She was like a mom to me too, and Rei took it harshly. Still, she's gotten over it, and now we're at the stage where we can talk about her without flinching in memory.

Rei follows me to Mr. Kim's class and we both tell Mr. Kim that we were mourning.

Obviously, I feel bad lying to Mr. Kim and using Rei's mother as an excuse, but Rei's mother would've wanted that.

Quite the opposite of mine.

Mr. Kim's eyes widen, but he remembers that he's supposed to act casual. He gives us a forced smile and his eyes seem empty as he nods and writes Rei a pass in his doctor's handwriting.

History whizzes by, along with Trigonometry (just a little more tediously), and soon I'm at study hall.

I have about 3 tons of homework on my back, but I tend to more important matters, like discovering the pretty boy's name.

I raise my hand, and the teacher watching us raises an eyebrow expectantly at me.

"Yes?"

I don't know who the teacher is, but her aged wrinkles and hazel eyes send me shivering.

"Um, can I go to the library? I'd like to work on the computer for my Language Arts essay."

Partially true.

I do have a Language Arts essay that I need to do on the computer, I'm just taking care of some business before I do so.

I practically burst out of the room as I rush over to the library and spin myself in one of the tall wooden chairs.

The library is filled with students studying books, eating food, and working on the computers. I can even see a few elementary classrooms getting taught the Dewey Decimal System.

I open a new tab and log on to the school website.

In the find members section, I pull my hand of the mouse and chew my lip.

What do I search?

JS won't get me any results, and 'J' is too specific.

I can't really describe him either, so I'm stuck at a stalemate.

And that's when I know.

Leila.