Much to my dismay, Her continued to sit next to and harass me the next day.

By the time lunch came around, I fully expected her to sit with me. I didn't want her to, but I'd grin and bear it (for lack of a better turn of phrase) this time because there was something I felt like I had to say to her anyway. Besides, she'd sit there whether I liked it or not.

Unsurprisingly, she headed my way and sat down with her lunch. "Hi!" she chirped, as though she hadn't just been trying her best to get a rise out of me in our class before lunch.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"You heard me."

I could tell that she immediately understood that I was thanking her for her help the previous day. She met my eyes and nodded once, and I understood that to mean 'you're welcome'.

"It doesn't change anything, though."

She nodded again. "I didn't expect that it would."

"You still annoy the fuck out of me."

"Okay."

"I still don't want to talk to you or sit next to you or have to put up with you in any way, shape or form."

"Oh, those things are still going to happen. But, understood that you don't want them to."

I slumped in my seat. "Why?!"

"Because I think you and I could be good friends."

"I don't want any friends!" I almost shouted, sitting back up and slapping my hands onto the table.

She stared at me. "Everyone wants friends."

I narrowed my eyes. "No. Not everyone."

She shrugged and started eating. I stared at her. "That means you can go sit with your friends now," I hissed.

"I doubt they were able to hold onto a chair for me. Especially once they saw me sitting here. So, I'll stay."

I threw my hands in the air out of frustration, but she just ignored me. I watched as she pulled a folder out of her backpack. It held many papers, but the first ones I saw when she opened it was a group of sheet music. This piqued my curiosity, but before I could observe the music any further, the tips of her fingers flicked past it as she looked through the papers behind it. She eventually pulled out a paper covered in math problems. As she placed it in front of the sheet music, I noticed her name at the top of it.

Song Mirae

Hmm. I kinda prefer the ambiguous Her.

"If you don't want anything to do with me, why are you staring at me?" she suddenly spoke, shaking me out of my thoughts. I unwittingly met her eyes, and she smiled one of her annoying cheeky smiles.

"Just hoping to make you uncomfortable enough to leave."

She chuckled lightly. "You'll have to do better than that."

"Yeah, I was afraid of that."

~~~~~~~~~~

Two Weeks Later

Every day after those first two consisted of the same bullshit with Mirae. I'd only been at the school for two weeks, and I was already utterly exhausted by her persistence and just her presence in general.

When she wasn't following me around, inserting herself into my business, trying to get a rise out of me, acting smug, or generally making my life hell, she was always with one or more of a group of six guys. They all seemed to be very close, so I couldn't understand why she wanted to ditch them just to antagonize me. I wanted to ask her, and thought that doing so might make her realize that she shouldn't just disregard them like that. And maybe that would persuade her to go back to them and leave me alone. But I also didn't want her to think that I actually cared about her or her personal life. My situation in this regard was truly a double-edged sword.

Mirae generally only bothered me during class when she could and always during lunch, but she did leave me alone the majority of the time during passing periods between classes. I relished in the blissfulness of these times. But, they were always so maddeningly short. Passing periods only lasted about eight minutes or so, which was not nearly enough time to recover from Mirae and her antics. I craved these eight minute breaks, however. They were better than nothing.

Our lockers weren't far from each other, and it was impossible for me to get to most of my classes without passing hers. But I think she hadn't yet realized that. Because if she had, I just knew that she would've waited by her locker every single damn time for me to pass by, and then follow me around from there. I prayed she wouldn't ever realize it because then I'd lose my precious eight minute reprieves.

It was during one of these brief yet joyous increments of time that I first observed Mirae talking to three guys I didn't recognize as any of her friends at her locker. I was doing my best to avoid being seen by her so I wasn't close enough to hear what was being said, but based on the look on her face, she was not very happy with their conversation. I'm not sure why, but I paused to watch what was transpiring. She seemed to hurl an insult at one of them as she shoved a piece of paper into his chest before pushing her way past them and walking away.

The guy crumpled up the paper into a ball and threw it at her retreating form. It hit her on the back of the head, and she froze. After a moment, without ever turning around, she bent down and picked up the ball of paper, then continued walking. The three guys began laughing as they strode off in the opposite direction she had gone – my direction. They were almost completely past me when one of them elbowed another and gestured at me with his chin.

All three turned to look at me, and all three burst into laughter. "Watch out for that one," one of them sneered gesturing in the direction Mirae had gone. "Trust me," he continued. "You'll definitely want to use protection."

My eyebrows damn near reached my hairline, and I had to clench my jaw to keep it from falling open. They all laughed again at my reaction. "Sorry if I burst your bubble," he said smugly. They continued snickering as they walked away.

Before I had any time to further contemplate his words, the bell rang. "Shit," I muttered, realizing I was now late for class. I jogged all the way to the music room, then stood outside for a moment to catch my breath. When I did enter the room, every single person turned to look at me...except Mirae. Her head was down, but I could still see the miserable expression on her face.

"Mr. Min." Mr. Kang's frustrated statement pulled my attention from Mirae. I looked over at him. "Care to explain why you're late?"

"I'm sorry," I mumbled as I bowed slightly. "I – I got lost."

"Mm-hmm," Mr. Kang look unconvinced.

"I'm still learning where all of my classes are," I lied. "Again, I apologize."

Mr. Kang's expression hardened a bit. "Mm-hmm. One would think two weeks would be a sufficient amount of time to learn the layout of the school." There were snickers all throughout the classroom. "If you continue to have a hard time, however, please ask a teacher or another student for directions if you can't find where you need to be."

It took everything in me not to scowl at him. "Yes, sir," I said as I took my seat, not exactly appreciating the public humiliation.

Later, as I was collecting my backpack at the end of class, I saw a couple of Mirae's friends approaching her. As she looked up at them, I noticed for the first time that her eyes were red and puffy. She handed the ball of paper that had hit her to a blonde with broad shoulders. He furrowed his brow as he uncrumpled it and his eyes scanned it. A furious look flashed across his handsome face, and he immediately crushed the paper into a ball again in his fist before pulling her into a hug. She didn't return the hug but did seem to slump against him. And he didn't let her go even though she just stood there, limp in his arms.

I admit I was curious to know what was on the paper, but I was distracted by the mystifying scene before me now.

This whole group seemed to have really weird relationships with each other. Or maybe I'm just weird because I can't comprehend the kind of closeness Mirae seemed to have with these guys. I wondered if any of them had feelings for her. Maybe that could explain some aspects of their, what appeared to be, really intense connections? As someone who rejected all kinds of relationships - friendship or otherwise - it felt very foreign to me. Not that I'd never experienced that kind of thing on some level, but I was disillusioned to all that now. And it just seemed...bizarre.

It suddenly occurred to me that, as I had gotten lost in my thoughts, it appeared that I was practically gawking at them. I quickly turned around to walk away, and it was then that I realized I myself was being watched. Mirae's tall blonde friend was behind me and it was obvious by the look on his face and in his eyes that he'd been observing me as I stared at her with her other friends.

I averted my gaze from his, but not before I saw him frown suspiciously at me. I hurried past him, not wanting to be late to my next class as well.

Just before the bell rang, Mirae appeared in the doorway of our last class. She grinned widely as her eyes fell upon the open desk next to me. I scowled as she rushed over to it.

"Hi!" she chirped. Her voice was cheerful, but her eyes betrayed it. Her smile didn't quite reach them, and though they weren't nearly as puffy as they'd been just five or six minutes ago, the redness around her lower eyelids was still fairly obvious.

I decided that my previous scowl and current observation of her face was enough to acknowledge her presence, so it was unnecessary to verbally reply. Even if I'd wanted to (Ha!), there was no time as the teacher suddenly appeared and began class.

I turned my head toward the front of the room, but in my peripheral, I saw her face fall. Then, strangely enough, she didn't whisper any obnoxious comments, attempt to pass stupid notes, or try to capture my attention in any way during class. And then, once it was over, she simply got up and walked away without saying anything else to me.

I mean, I'm by no means complaining!

But...what the hell?