Chapter 3

My eyes flew open, disturbed by the irritating glare of the sun. My gaze befell on Xiyan's tall figure. She was to busy scribbling on her notebook to be paying attention to the teacher's thorough discussion about the Choseon Period.

I didnt blame her for not listening. After all, what was the point of talking about the past when you could do nothing to relive it?

Disgusted, I stole a glance at the door and was about to raise my hand to make an excuse so I could get out of class, when Sir Dae, the History Teacher, suddenly cleared his throat.

"Now that I've finished discussing all the chapters for this semester, I expect everyone to now have a complete understanding of our lesson. Now, for your project, I want you all to group yourselves into 3, and next week, I expect each group to discuss what you've learned from the lesson. In other words, your going to have a comprehensive reporting by next week. Consider it as preperation for the mid terms. Thats all. Class dismissed."

With that, he picked up his things and walked out of the room. Following a chorus of sighs from the exhausted students, they all got up to fine their desired groupmates. I was attempting to leave when I noticed Xiyan was silently looking for someone to team up with. But unfortunately, everyone she approached had already found someone to be with. Feeling dissapointed, she quietly sat back on her chair, silently waiting for someone to approach her. I really wanted to leave the room now, trying to ignore her. But the sight of her straying eyes back and forth across the room as she sat in silence bothered me somehow. I was in so much thought that I hadnt realize I had been staring at her for a while now. She must've felt my gaze on her since she suddenly turned to me and met my eye.

I froze and stared at her. And, to my horror, she stood up and walked towards me.

"Hi!" She smiled at me. "Do you already have a group?"

I shook my head.

"That's great, cause I still dont have either. You wanna team up??"

I shrugged reluctantly and nodded. "Sure, I guess I dont mind," I said quietly.

"Thanks. Now we still we need one mo--"

Just as she was about to finish, one of our classmates unintentionally interrupted her.

It was Jong Jiyung, one of her male friends. He was walking towards us as he waved cheerfully to Xiyan.

"Hey, mind if I join you??" He asked her.

"Yeh, we were just looking for one more member, anyways. So, now that we're complete, how about lets decide on our presentation."

As she spoke, Jiyung nodded dutifully, but his eyes were fixed on me as he did.

"Your Xam right? The transferee from Russia?" He asked extending a hand towards me out of courtesy. Not wanting to be rude, I nodded and shooked his hand.

"Since tommorrow's a weekend, you mind meeting at the cafe across from school? Maybe around 12:00 A.M.?" Xiyan suggested, glancing at me.

"...Yeah..." Saying so, I realized that this was the first conversation I've had in a while.

"I'll give you my number and Jiyung's too, so we could contact each other later tonight, and also in case there are changes in our plans. " She took a piece of paper from her desk and wrote her number on it. Then, Jiyung did the same before handing it to me.

"Alright. Is that all?"

She nodded and I immediately took my leave, waving them goodbye. As I walked through the crowded hallway, I started to think about the mess I got myself into. The thought of having to put effort onto something I had no interest on aroused my laziness. But, as I thought again, I decided I'd do it just this once. Atleast, for her, I would.