In class, Nana's teacher attempts to exert some authority over her sluggish pupils, but this ain't the last-place class without a reason. Students nap, zone out, and generally slack off. Nana and her friends aren't worried about their latest grades, though — they're always at the bottom, so what else is new?
While Nana, Xiao Min, Xiao Yu, and JaeBomi, hang out in the lounge, a student comes by and loses a coin in the soda machine. She's Geumdal, who's basically a Mean Girl, despite being younger than Nana.
With a flourish, Nana steps in and kicks the machine to get the soda to pop out, and enjoys basking in the moment. Particularly since it momentarily puts a cork in Geumdal superior act.
Nana moons all over Bam Bam, which seems to be a pretty common occurrence. Her friends are used to it, and only shake their heads when Nana shares her daydream and calls him a spirit of the forest. She goes into raptures over his perfection, saying that now she understands how vampires feel — such is his beauty that it makes her want to bite right into him.
Speak of the devil: Bam Bam makes his appearance, calm and cool as you please, blithely ignoring the squealing of girls who ooh over his entrance.
Nana freezes as Bam Bam approaches, victim to the vicissitudes of adolescent infatuation, and her heart thumps wildly. Geumdal flutters over to him offers her soda instead, chattering on as though they're close friends. Apparently their mothers are friends, and Geumdal tries to use this to ingratiate herself, fawning all over him.
Bam Bam ignores her, but when his coin also gets stuck in the machine, Geumdal calls out to Nana to employ her fix again. She particularly enjoys putting Nana on the spot, making the latter reluctant to comply but also reluctant to refuse.
So Nana goes up to the machine, studiously avoiding his gaze, and delivers a kick. Afterward she cringes in embarrassment, not wanting this to be his impression of her, but I say there's something satisfying in the way Bam Bam gapes; he's not exactly impressed, but eliciting any reaction at all from his stone-faced demeanor is probably an accomplishment.
Bam Bam turns to leave, and Xiao Yu, trying to help her friend, calls out her name loudly so that he'll hear it. Bam Bam turns and starts walking back toward them, and Nana readies herself in anticipation — surely he'll thank her, or say something? But no, he retrieves his change from the machine.
Her friends urge Nana to confess her feelings, since they'll graduate soon enough. Despite her earlier embarrassment, Nana bounces right back and clings to the new hope that perhaps Bam Bam isn't expressing his feelings for her because he doesn't know hers, and decides a confession is just the thing. But how?
To prove her utter lack of common sense, Nana likes Xiao Yu's joke suggestion about dressing as "Cinderella"and addressing Bam Bam as "The prince." Xiao Min's suggestion is better, but not by much: a mating dance, like animals.And JaeBomi just sat there laughing.
This leads us into another fantasy, wherein Nana dances in Swan Lake, joined by Bam Bam. Bam Bam partners Nana, lifts her in the air, and then tosses her aside.
(So sad, even in her dreams she can't have a nice time with him.😭😭)
Next up is drawing class, and Mark is tapped as figure model. Anyone with half a brain would be totally onto how very much he's in love with Nana(or at least in grand infatuation), but I suppose half her brain is perpetually fixated on Nana, so she brushes his attentions aside.
That means all his efforts to look cool are wasted, although he doesn't know it. As the pose becomes harder and harder to maintain, sweat beads drip from his forehead but Mark vows to stick with it, since Nana is looking at him.
Nana does draw, but in a mechanical way as she doodles the words "Confess... mating dance... Cinderella..."
Adding salt to the wound is when Mark peers at the drawing at the end of class — to see that she has drawn his body with Bam Bam's face.
Nana becomes engrossed in thought, trying to figure out how to confess her feelings to Bam Bam. Dad picks up on it, and understands that she's got a crush on a boy even though she describes it as the situation of "a friend," and shares how he made his confession to her mother.
So that launches Nana into another dream wherein she corners Bam Bam with her motorcycle gang, looking like a bad girl. (Gah, these extended fantasies that never end!)
Badass Nana confronts Bam Bam, who backs away meekly, and she recites her line, which offers him the choice to either be with her or die.
And even in her fantasy, Bam Bam picks the coffin. Aw! There's something really endearing about Nana in this.
Thankfully Dad has more practical advice than her friends, and suggests that a sincere love letter might just work best. Nana decides he's right, and delivers a letter to his locker, then waits nervously for his response.
When he walks by the lounge and shows Nana no recognition at all, Jaebomi shouts her name loudly, determined to make her friend known. Xiao Yu and Xiao Min joins her, and this time, they have a reaction.
Bam Bam asks, "Are you Kim Nana?" He makes his way back to them, and holds out a letter to her. Students gather round curiously, and Nana barely contains her excitement as she opens it, telling him she hadn't dared hope for a reply.
Geumdal has to live up to her designation as Mean Girl, so she swipes the letter from Nana's grasp, then crows about its contents. Bam Bam hadn't written her a reply — he'd graded hers! The letter has been marked up in red pen, and he'd given her a D-.
Yet as soon as she starts to read, her excitement fades, replaced by crushing disappointment.
Geumdal positively exults and talks about it loudly for all to hear, while Nana can only stand there, humiliated. Meanwhile, Bam Bam just stands there and tells her, "I'm sorry to say this, but I hate dumb girls."
Mark — bless him — comes late to the party but has sized up the situation, and confronts Bam Bam for his rudeness. He demands that Bam Bam apologize, to which Bam Bam smirks, "For what, correcting her mistakes?"
Mark retorts, "Do you only see the mistakes? Don't look at the letters, look at the contents!"
He challenges Bam Bam to fight and takes a swing, but the latter swiftly evades the punch — cool as you please, his hands not even moving from his pockets.
The vice principal interrupts, and as Bam Bam is the golden child, he is dismissed while Mark is called in for disciplining.
Finally, Bam Bam deigns to speak and levels a finger at the board that has been posted of the recent test results — Nana and her friends occupy the lowest status of the school. He points to a second sign, which marks the 50 top students who are admitted to a special study hall each month.
Turning his scorn to Nana, he calls her thoughtless for choosing to waste her time rather than caring about more important things: "I hate thoughtless, impudent girls."
Nana is devastated. Worst of all is probably the fact that he's not wrong — she IS the lowest scoring student. Still, she hardly deserves such a drubbing from him.
She takes out her frustration by running around the school, exhausted and stumbling by the time she reaches lap 34. Her friends urge her to stop, but she insists on running two more laps. In a lovely moment of solidarity, they stand up to give her a hand (literally) and support her through her last lap.
Word of Nana's encounter with Bam Bam spreads through the school, making her the laughingstock. Is it worse to be mocked by your peers, or pitied by the cafeteria and cleaning ladies? Thankfully we'll probably never have to know, but Nana has to endure.
