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Chapter 1

"Saranghae, Araya." Sung-Woo's warm words travel through my ears straight to my heart. Involuntarily, my lips curl into a smile, and his lips touch mine. I can't believe Sung-Woo is kissing me. Kim Freaking Sung-Woo is kissing me! I wanted to glee with happiness, jump up and down and relive this moment every day. His hot breath touches my cheeks and I wonder if this is real. Sung-Woo pulls back and we gaze into each other's eyes. My smile still stays intact.

 "Wake up, Araya." He mouths. My forehead creases, "What?" 

"Wake up Araya, you're going to be late," he whispers. 

"Wait, What?"

The next minute I gasp woke up only to find myself on the couch of my living room and my dad yelling from the kitchen. I try to open my eyes when I see a flying pillow coming my way. 

"N-No." I barely utter before it hits my face.

 "Wake up Araya, you're going to be late for your class," he says as he sets the table for breakfast.

 "Were you having a dream?" he asks. I let out a sharp breath " Yeah, I was dreaming."

 "Was it good?" He questions after breaking an egg on the hot pan. 

"Mol-la" I answer with my raspy voice. 

"Honey, Haven't I told you to learn the formal way of speaking Korean?" He says and chuckles after pouring some orange juice into a glass and keeping it on the coffee table for me to drink.

 "Appa, Ughhh." I am irate, I bury myself in the pillow and shriek.

"You do know what day today is right, Araya?" Appa asks while I get washed up. 

I turn around and look at the wall behind me. There she was, luscious locks of hair with the prettiest eyes, and I wished that it was really her and not just a picture hanging from the wall.

 "Ne, Appa," I say as I walk towards the dining table.

" So will you be going to the cemetery today?" He asks."Mmhmm," I respond as I take a bite of my toast. "Do you want me to come with you?""No, I will go alone."

"al-ass-eo" He pats me on my shoulder and walks away to do the dishes.

It's 9 am and I am officially late for my class. I pick a random t-shirt and a pair of jeans to pair it up with. I step into my converse shoes and grab my laptop along with my bag from the study. I rush to head out with the messiest hair with unironed clothes. 

"Araya, you are going to university like that?" Appa questions as soon as I reach to unlock the door.

 "I know, Appa. I am late--I'll comb my hair on the way, annyeonghaseyo." I wave goodbye.

"It's annyeong, Araya. *tsk*" "Yeah, whatever."

I rush through the stairs and I could only imagine my father laughing at my pronunciation.

"Araya eonni!" I turn around as I hear my name.

"Ugh... Sung-Hoon I don't really have time, I am already late." I speak without missing a breath and hurry to the cab waiting for me.

"Eonni, I won't take long. TWICE is having a concert in Seoul and you won't believe i got two tickets after waiting for 5 hours." He speaks with excitement as he walks with me. "Great!" I mock him waving my arms in the air.

"Why aren't you excited?" Sung-Hoon questions and stops mid-way but unlike him, I keep rushing to the main gate.

"No I am excited-- see" I put my arms in the air and give another wave. "Why are you being mean?" Sung-Hoon starts walking behind me. 

I exhale a sharp sigh and turn around.

"Look, I don't give a crap about your concerts okay. You want me to go, I'll go but right now I have to go to the university, the REAL world, Got it?" I spit out the words I've been holding and then I regret it immediately as my sharp words hit Sung-Hoon. 

I could see his face filled with disappointment.

"You know what, you don't have to come. I'll take someone else." He says with utter disappointment and heads to High School.

"Sung-Hoon." I shout his name but I knew there is no way he would turn around. " I'll deal with him later," I whisper to myself and jump into the cab.

I left 20 messages to Sung-Hoon but he didn't reply to any of them. I feel bad for being so mean to him. I shouldn't have said what I said to him.

"What you slept in a barn or something, Araya?" I hear Nam-Jo teasing me along with her clique as I walk through the hallway of the University as I think about ways to apologize to Sung-Hoon.

 It's even meaningless to respond to her little mockery. I ignore her after giving her a stare and stack books from my locker in my hand.

"Oh wait, doesn't she live in a barn-like apartment? Just to be close to her mother's culture." and the whole clique bursts into laughter.

I grip my locker door so tight after listening to them bring my mother into their daily episode of mockery. "Hey, Yuna! Her mother is dead, so stop with those jokes." I hear Jennifer putting some sense to them even though she is a part of the same group. 

I never understand her. Why become a part of something that ruins other people's life just because they don't have any fun thing to do?

"Yeah, whatever. ban pumjong.'' Yuna spits out the last thing of her daily session.

"Half-Breed? seriously," I whisper to myself and head to my class after letting out a sharp breath I didn't know I was holding.

I rush to take an empty seat at the back of the auditorium before the second class of the day starts. I've never been a front-bencher or a back-bencher for that matter. I don't think I'm a geek or really that cool, well not cool at all.

"Okay, everyone take your seats and we shall begin." Mr. Kang enters the class and turns on the projector. Huh. A Projector? I thought today we were doing the theory part of Ocean Currents.  I tuck my uncombed hair and twist it into a low bun and stick a pencil to keep it together. I turn my notes to the very end of the page and gather what was taught in the last lecture. 

OH! 

The world around me stops, all I could hear was my own heart beating inside my body.

Presentation on Oceanic waves on Friday!