Chapter 3
"Morning, everyone! I’m your TA for this semester. For those without lab partners, sit tight. I'll come around and assign one to you." the teacher's assistant had announced.
Yuri sat at her bench and noticed that around her had already formed pairs, reaping the benefits of the orientation activities that she had shunned. Strumming her fingers against the table, she pondered on the possibility of getting assigned to a difficult partner. "I should be pretty easy to work with..." she muttered under her breath.
"Good to hear!" the TA suddenly exclaimed, scaring her a little. “Last name?" he ran his eyes through the clipboard in his hands.
"Kwon."
"Kwon Yuri. Okay, there’s just one other person who hasn’t been paired up, but she’s late."
Late. Already leaving a bad impression.
Yuri sighed inwardly. "Okay. Her name?"
"Jessica Jung. You can start first if you can handle it. If you need help, I’ll be right over there.”
Yuri pouted as she took a glimpse at her watch. 10:40am.
Might as well start prepping.
Referring to the lab manual, Yuri scanned the checklist of items that she needed. "Let's see, heating mantle, temperature probe, condenser..." she muttered as she retrieved the apparatus from the cabinet and began setting them up. Within minutes, Yuri had switched into over-focused mode; with nothing but the upcoming experiment on her mind. It was very typical of Yuri; bad at multi-tasking.
"Sorry I'm late. You're Yuri?"
However, Yuri had been too distracted to respond to the girl behind her. "Hmm, 10mL of solution A into the round-bottom flask..."
"Uhh, hello?"
"Some boiling chips--"
"YA."
"Maintain a cold water flow through the condenser..."
Irritated, the girl had leaned forward on tiptoes, and then spoke in her ear; "Pervert."
And that had finally caught Yuri's attention. She turned around, half-dazed.
Mickey Mouse! were the two words that had popped up in her head as soon as she had recognized the girl, who was still donning the “I can’t be bothered with you” face.
Yuri had immediately plastered a big smile across her face, hopeful of friendly relations. "Hello."
"Hi." she answered, plopping her recognizable leopard print bag on the table.
Yikes. One syllable is all it takes to send shivers down my spine. Brushing it off, Yuri extended a hand and introduced herself; "I'm Kwon--"
"Pervert."
That wretched word had now been officially entered into Yuri’s mental burn book. The taller girl shut her eyes and inhaled deeply to digest the negativity, but it didn’t really help. The entire laboratory was overflowing with corrosive gases.
"Actually, the name is Kwon Yuri.” she said, still sounding as friendly as possible. “I know we got off on the wrong foot yesterday, but since we're gonna be lab partners for the whole semester, let's start again shall we, Jessica Jung?"
Jessica looked up at the taller girl, unthreatened and unimpressed. "Jessica will do. Where are you at?"
"I just started the distillation. I've already got everything set up. You could collect the data."
