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a month ago
"Annyeonhasaeyo, my name is Felix," a 15-year-old boy with a deep voice introduced. "I hope we get along well!" Everyone clapped routinely and the new boy bowed.
Their teacher, Mrs. Lee, smiled at the boy before saying, "I hope you settle here in Korea comfortably, Felix. Meanwhile, you can sit next to Ms. Kim at the back during class."
Felix followed his teacher's gaze to the empty seat next to a girl who was sitting in the back row as she stared out of the window, daydreaming about what it would be like to have friends. She barely registered the new boy walking towards her, focusing only on the birds flying outside and Fine by Taeyeon blasting through her headphones.
To be free like those birds, she thought to herself. Seems like a dream.
Beside her, Felix sat down hesitantly as Mrs. Lee left the classroom for lunch. "Um, hello?" He whispered awkwardly, waving to her in what he hoped seemed like a nice way. The girl ignored both him and the teacher, paying attention only to the birds soaring through the sky outside.
Felix, however, was determined to get to know the mysterious girl in long sleeves beside her, so he did the most logical thing he could think of. He poked her arm.
"Why are you touching me?" The girl screamed, yanking out one of her earbuds as she jumped backwards, looking Felix up and down. "Wait," she said in a much quieter voice. "Who are you?"
Felix cheered himself on, proud that he got the girl's attention. "My name is Lee Felix," he said. "And I'm new. What's your name?"
The girl rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she muttered, going to put her earbud back in before Felix stopped her.
"Wait, I..." he trailed off under her threatening glare. "I don't know anyone here, so could I maybe eat with you?" He looked at the ground, embarrassed that he had to ask the question.
She rolled her eyes. "Fuck off," she told him before shoving her earbud back into her ear and sitting back down on her table.
Felix shrugged and sat back down, too. It wasn't a no. He pulled out his sandwich and smiled when he read the sticky note on it.
Mom asked me to write something for you here since she's scared you won't have any friends again, so here I am, trying my best to be caring. Have fun Lixxie and make some friends <3 Love from Olivia :)
He carefully placed the sticky note into the front zipper of his backpack where he kept all of his important belongings, including hand sanitiser, a few granola bars, and sticky notes given to him by his sister, like the one he had just read.
Felix bit into his sandwich, delighted at the familiar flavour of PB&J. It reminded him of his family back in Australia and never failed to cheer him up. After quickly devouring it, he tossed the empty ziploc back into his lunch box before pulling out a granola bar. He glanced at the time to see that lunch was almost over. He looked at his seatmate and furrowed his eyebrows.
Why didn't she eat anything?
The reason his seatmate— Kim Yeona, although he didn't know her name— hadn't eaten was because she wasn't given any food. Earlier that day, her single father had told her that she was too useless to be given food and that feeding her was only a waste of the valuable resource. Thus, poor Yeona had come to school on an empty stomach and had nothing to fill it but water.
That hadn't been the first time it had happened. Yeona quite frequently spent the entire day consuming only water, which often resulted in her puking up whatever was in her system. That was the reason she was so unnaturally skinny. It was also one of the reasons she was simply done with everything.
Although he didn't know any of this, Felix quickly pulled out a sticky note and scribbled on it eating is good for you :) make sure you eat, mystery girl! before sticking it to the granola bar. He passed it slowly toward his seatmate, not wanting to frighten her again.
Yeona's stomach grumbled when she caught sight of the granola bar that the boy had placed on her desk, and although she craved anything to fill her empty stomach, she angrily pushed it back to him. "I don't need your pity," she hissed at him before looking away again.
Felix wasn't ready to admit defeat. After school that day, he slipped the granola bar into Yeona's bag before getting ready to leave class. "Do you want to hang out?" He called out after her as she walked out of the school building. "I'll treat you!"
The girl simply rolled her eyes. I bet he's just going to make fun of me like the others, she bitterly thought to herself, too scarred from the past to trust him this easily.
Felix ran to catch up with her, and although he didn't know it, Yeona turned down the volume of her music the tiniest bit, just so she could hear if he said anything important.
"You know," Felix started, walking next to her. "I heard some of the other kids saying some really mean things about you. But I don't believe it."
If Yeona were a dog, her ears would have perked up. Is he being for real? She wondered.
"They say you're really mean and that you hate everyone, but I don't think any of that's true. You seem like a good person who just loves music!" He seemed so excited about wanting to get to know her that Yeona had to bit back a smile; something that she hadn't felt on her face for a long time. "I like music, too," Felix continued. "I really like Twice— do you know them?" He asked before diving into a passionate monologue about them.
Although Yeona didn't know exactly who Twice was, she had a feeling that she would be hearing quite a bit about them if this boy hung out with her.
