"I thought you would be just another face in the crowd, until..." - Yu Ji Min
"You hold the keys to me, and I didn't even know it." - Kim Min Jeong
Where in, Karina and Winter are stuck together, literally!!!
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Karina walked behind Giselle, slow steps making the distance as they went inside the classroom.
Everything seemed different. The usual smile and hellos waiting for them, "Good morning, President!", in unison from all those preceding first-year high school pupils, and the murmured excited whispers, formed an unfamiliar echoes of yesterday. All those faces.
They looked all the same, but these smiles. Today, something wasn't right.
She was furrowing her brows and holding her head in a daze, trying to make sense of what was happening. It all seemed like a dream-that didn't make sense at all.
Was this some sort of joke? She tried to reason through it to herself, but nothing added up. Her head pounded as she reeled back the events of yesterday-or was it today-it was all meshing into this soup of confusion.
Giselle walked ahead and had already passed by some time before noticing anything out of the ordinary. She cast an irritated glance over her shoulder at the still-whimpering students, just as she had done the day before, grumbling, "Honestly, how do you handle all your fans? It's like they worship you."
Normally, Karina would have taken her kidding and reminded her that Giselle also had her own bunch of admirers, but today she said nothing.
Her throat was parched, her chest tight. She could hardly have registered Giselle's words-the knot in her stomach tightening with each passing step.
Exactly like yesterday, she thought, her hands a little trembly. The same comments, the same reactions. Her heart hammered in her chest at the strength of this eerie feeling.
But Giselle was not cognizant, talking cheerfully along as usual, her carefree complaints filling the air as they approached the classroom. Karina walked in silence behind her, trying to grasp it all-the more so the deeper she thought, slipping and evading more like escaping between her fingers.
Karina let herself slump into her chair, gripping the rim of her desk with her hands, trying to find some anchor, something to hold on to, as everything pressed in upon her.
Her head swirled; she couldn't seem to draw breath. The room seemed to spin as her thoughts jumbled together. She could not shake the feeling that something was terribly, horribly wrong.
As she settled in beside her, the thump of her bag against the desk brought Karina back to a true present and helped her avoid Giselle's turning toward her, very concerned.
"Are you okay, Karina?" Giselle asked gently, not just speaking, but also with real concern.
But Karina was overwhelmed, too sensitive to the situation that was spiraling out of control in her mind. Her heart pounded, her belly churned with emotions welling inside. She could not keep it inside anymore, and before she could stop herself, she lashed out.
