Come Back Home

8

LATER THAT MORNING (SUNDAY) – AT McKINLEY – WINTER'S POV

I arrive at McKinley so early that I'm the first one in the choir room. Even Mr. Kang is not here yet! But I couldn't stay in my parents' empty house any longer, it was so quiet over there that I could hear myself think and it was making me nervous.

I have been desperately trying to get Karina out of my head since I left her house this morning, but she's all I can think about...And I'm getting even more anxious now that I'm here, knowing that we'll be in the same room for the whole day!

Oh my God...What if she sits next to me?! Oh no, no, no...I can't have that! Because knowing Rina, she's definitely going to want to talk about last night and that's really the last thing I want to do...I guess I'll just have to make sure she can't sit next to me, unless...Oh my God, what if she doesn't even remember that we had sex? That would not be so crazy considering that she was pretty drunk last night and I was gone by the time she woke up...

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A WHILE LATER – IN THE CHOIR ROOM

Fortunately, it doesn't take long before Mr. Kang and a few Gleeks join me in the room. I eventually decided to sit next to Kim Chaewon, on the far end of the first row. And if that's not a cry for help, I don't know what is...

A minute later, Haechan and Jaemin take the seats right behind me, much to my relief. There is no way Rina could sit anywhere near me now.

"Oh...Winter, I wanted to ask you something!" Chaewon suddenly says, pulling me out of my thoughts. "I was talking to Mr. Kang earlier and he said that, although he will assign a duet number to each of us, we were also free to choose a second duet ourselves!" She adds in her annoying over excited voice. "So, I was wondering if-"

"I'm not singing with you, hobbit." I immediately cut her off.

"But I..."

"Listen to me, Berry." I interrupted her again. "Every year, you ask me to sing with you and every single time, I turn you down. When are you going to get the fucking hint?" I say, looking her straight in the eye.

I've barely finished my sentence when Karina enters the room and as our eyes meet, it only takes me a split second to understand that she remembers everything about last night...Feeling my heart suddenly pounding hard in my chest, I quickly look away, to avoid her gaze.

"Ah, Karina, you're here...Good!" Mr. Kang says with a smile, acknowledging her presence. "Take a seat, we're gonna start."

I discreetly watch Rina from the corner of my eye as she takes the empty seat next to Sakura, on the second row.

"So, this afternoon, we'll focus on duets." Mr. Kang says. "I will randomly assign you one and then you'll sing another duet of your choice. But as I told you yesterday, I also have a surprise for you!" He smirks. "You know that we usually redo old numbers at our reunions, but I thought that this morning, we could sing and improvise on brand new songs!" He suddenly announces, earning enthusiastic clapping from all of us.

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LATER THAT DAY (AFTERNOON) – IN THE CHOIR ROOM

After a very fun morning singing, we all had lunch together in the choir room. Even though it was not easy, I managed to sit with Giselle, Jaehyun, Mark and Lia, successfully keeping Karina away from me.

"Alright, guys...It's time to get started on the duets!" Mr. Kang suddenly says, inviting us to get back to our seats. "To keep it fun, I have written down each of our duet numbers on pieces of paper, which I put in this hat...And I will now randomly pick them, until everyone has one." He adds, plunging the hand in the hat.