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ᓚᘏᗢ
ᴇꜱᴄᴀᴘɪɴɢ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴍɪᴊɪɴ had been a struggle, as well as a lost fight. Aeri had only been able to flee after handing over her number.
Already well-versed in the art of skipping gross classes, Aeri hid behind a corner near her classroom, waiting for Mr. Lee to leave, and Mrs. Park (who always waits for him at the door) to enter. Once she does, Aeri trails in after her.
"I asked Mr. Lee to go to the bathroom near the end of his lesson." Is her answer to Mrs. Park's inquisitive, quirked, brow.
Mrs. Park accepts the excuse easily and Aeri tries to ignore her classmates' entertained snickers and incredulous gazes. As she takes her seat, Aeri hopes no one will tattle. Mrs. Park, thankfully, does not give anyone the chance to snitch, and promptly starts the lesson. The buzz of Aeri's blatant lie quickly dissipates and the class falls into a heavy silence once again.
Namra, Aeri's seatmate, is of the rare minority of students who actively tune in and engage with the teacher and the lesson. Her pen scrawls the points Mrs. Park says with practiced ease, and it only halts for a moment when Namra turns to look at her. She stares at Aeri silently for a moment, before tossing another, green-colored, notebook on her desk.
"Science notes," Namra says simply.
Aeri takes it with a smile, mouthing a sincere thank you to the girl. "I'll return it to you tomorrow."
Sadly, that chance would never come.
ᓚᘏᗢ
The bell for lunch rings, and Aeri is the first to bolt out of the room. She knows, had she waited for her friends, they would have dragged her with them to the cafeteria. The cafeteria is much too noisy and crowded for her liking, and while Aeri knows if she were to express her dislike for the environment her friend group would not hesitate to find a quieter place to eat – she would rather not. For one, she did not want to burden them. Secondly, she did not want to be with them. She sincerely likes her friends, but at times being constantly around them becomes tiring. Especially when they're the type of loud people she usually tries to avoid.
Instead of the cafeteria, Aeri heads to her favorite place in the school; the library. She fully intends to spend the entire lunch period in a secluded nook in the library, hunched over a nice romance novel.
And she does just that.
Submerged within the fantastical world of the novel, Aeri becomes oblivious to the passage of time. She hardly notices the approaching conclusion of her lunch break, too engrossed in chintzy dialogue. Aeri only looks up from the book when a loud sound suddenly booms throughout the library. She is quick to jump up from her chair. She notices a crowd of students rushing into the library, and she reluctantly gets pulled along with them. When she finally manages to push her way out of the agitated group, she presses her body against a bookshelf, slowly shuffling towards the exit.
