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Coming into your bedroom, you dropped your bag on the floor beside your bed and kicked off your shoes. You moved to your desk, grabbing a paper clip and then moving to the wall over your bed. Carefully and making sure not to knock any of the other ones down, you carefully clipped the newest paper star to the thread that ran along you wall. There was an assortment of stars in all different colors that you had been collecting for months now. You smiled to yourself as you saw how big your collection was getting.
You had been getting them from the girl on the train. She was small and cute and usually wore her hair in pigtails with varying ribbons or headbands. You knew that she was in high school, the same as you, but her uniform was different. She always got off the train a few stops before you did but the two of you always ended up somewhat close to each other on the ride to school every morning.
You and this girl (Son Chaeyoung is what was inscribed on her uniform) had never actually talked to one another. But ever since she had started riding you train, you had been getting these stars.
The first time you noticed her she had been sitting in between two older women while you stood holding onto the railing near the door. She was noticeably nervous and, at first, she had been messing with her hair. First day jitters. But she had pulled a piece of paper from her backpack and started folding it. By the time the train got to her stop, she had finished a neatly folded star which she accidentally dropped on the way out.
You hadn't been keeping it but you had seen had much work she had put into it so you didn't want it to get lost or thrown away so you stooped down and picked it up, sliding it into your own bag. She continued to do this for her entire first week of school and she lost them every time. So your collection started.
Once Chaeyoung had gotten settled at her new school, she stopped making them for a few days. Without really thinking about, you had clipped the one she did in your favorite color to your backpack. She noticed this one the ride to school but didn't say anything about it when she got off. Instead, she just started making them again, this time dating them.
As you were hanging your newest one up, though you realized that you had closed to 100. That meant that had been keeping up this silent arrangement for at least 100 days. And yet you had never talked to her. So you decided that the next time the two of you rode the train together you would say something to her.
You were determined. Slightly self-conscious, you were ready to get on the train and become friends with the cute girl from the high school a few stops away from yours. But when you actually got onto the train, you were suddenly too nervous. The two of you exchanged a few looks and she smiled softly at you, but between the lack of seats beside her and the people who pressed their way between you when they were trying to get off, you never got a chance to actually say anything.
There was still a star waiting for you that day but on the edge were the words, "Open me." Inside there was a note from Chaeyoung.
Hi! It's been 100 of these? That's exciting, right? I hope you've been keeping all of them! ^^ Our schools are close by, right? Meet me at the café by the train station? I'll buy! <3 Son Chaeyoung
