— Chapter 1 —

"Yejun Han, what are you doing?" our math teacher called out to my friend, who was half-standing and half-sitting down in his seat as he had his back to the teacher and his face to mine.

"Math?" Yejun answered back with a question and cleared his throat. "You know, Mr. Johnson, doing math in this position just gives me a clearer mind to concentrate on the equation and become a better student."

Mr. Johnson narrowed his eyes suspiciously at my friend, who was slowly going back to his seat with a nervous laugh on his face. "See me after class."

Everyone started silently laughing as Yejun's facial expression dropped to a panicked face. Since his intention was to talk to me, I could feel some of my classmates' gazes on me. As the teacher fixed his attention on one student who was having difficulties in a question, Yejun turned to me with a sheepish smile on his face.

"Good job," I mouthed at him, patting his shoulder hard enough to cause him to almost yelp.

"That's a great way for him to want your attention, Kiera," I heard Erika, the girl sitting to my right, whispered teasingly.

I nodded my head. "I know. He just knows how to be in the center of attention."

I turned to my left and saw Kai silently snickering and I threw my eraser at him, causing him to jump out of his seat. "Laugh again and I'll tell Mr. Johnson you did the homework literally ten minutes before class started because you stayed up all night playing Minecraft."

My threat successfully made him stop laughing. "Just please don't say that I was playing Minecraft!"

I ignored him and continued doing my own work.

▬▬▬

"Kiera!" I heard someone call my name and I turned my heels to see Tyler Rivera walk to me with a smile on his face.

He is a classmate of mine who is really tall and nice. Not to mention he's really good looking thanks to the good genes and the Canadian and Japanese blood flowing through him.

It's not surprising for him to call my name because everyone in my class gets along with each other as there's only twenty of us opposed to the normal Japanese classes, which has 35 students on average since we're in the international class.

"Yeah?" I asked him, walking slower than before as he caught up to me.

"Nothing," he said sheepishly, looking at me with his hazel eyes, "I just wanted to call you and walk together since we're going to the same class."

I looked up at him for a moment as I lightly laughed at his reasoning and looked away just in case he realized that I looked at him for a little too long.

"Have you finished the essay due tomorrow?" he asked me as we were a few seconds away from the classroom.

"Nope," I said with a laugh. "I've only written two sentences. I'll finish it tonight, and I hope I won't die. Have you finished it?"

"Oh wow," he answered with a laugh. "Yeah, I finished it, but I still need to check the grammar and all. Good luck finishing it."

I nodded my head in understanding. "Thanks," I replied with a smile as I made my way to my assigned seat to find Yejun sitting in my seat with a smile on his face.

"My Kiera is growing up!" Yejun dramatically exclaimed as he patted my head like I was a puppy. "It seemed like it was just yesterday she managed to walk up the stairs without falling."

Kai, who was beside him, continued drinking his banana milk while laughing at Yejun's weirdness while I rolled my eyes.

"What the heck?" I asked as I swatted Yejun's hand away from my head. "And it was literally yesterday."

"You were walking with Tyler and you seemed to be interested in him," he answered, whispering the last part at me.

"Interested? Boy?!" an accented voice interjected, surprising me, Yejun and Kai as the three of us let out shrieks. I turned to my right to see a familiar face with honey brown colored hair.

"God, Marie, my life literally flashed before my eyes," Yejun said, fanning himself as if he was going to faint.

"Oh no, I'm sorry, princess," she answered in a monotone voice.

Marie is another close friend of mine. She isn't in our class, but we met during the orientation camp back when we were first-year students, and since then she somehow still wants to be friends with us, even though we have a Yejun Han. She's in the normal Japanese classes and converses in both English and Japanese with us. She is Brazilian and a quarter Taiwanese, and since her first language isn't English, she tries to improve her English with us.

"What are you doing here?" Kai asked in Japanese, trying to use a non-formal way of speaking, but ended up messing it up in a cute way.

"Kai-kun, kawaiine!" Yejun said in a high-pitched voice as he pinched Kai's freckled cheeks, which I cringed, abruptly changing his expression as he turned to Marie, "Yeah, classes are about to start soon. What brings you here?"

"I missed you guys," she said, in English with her cute Japanese/Brazilian accent, although Yejun asked her in Japanese, again with a lack of enthusiasm. "I was from the cafeteria and passed by here and saw you guys, so I wanted to say hi." She finished the sentence with her native language, Japanese.

I put my arm around her shoulders. "Aw, don't miss us too much."

She rolled her eyes with a ghastly smile appearing on her lips. "I don't have much time." I raised my eyebrow at her. "Who is the lucky guy that has captured your attention?"

"Tha—"

"Thank you for missing us, goodbye, sayonara," I interrupted Yejun as I dragged Marie out of the classroom.

She flashed me her special finger to me and waved at Kai with a smile. I looked at the two boys and Yejun looked at me weirdly while Kai smiled cutely as he waved with his small hands. Kai has an average height, but his hands are about the same size as mine, and my height is way below the average height.

"So you like him, huh?" Yejun asked curiously as I shook my head. "I was just joking. Oh my God, you, Kiera Kawaguchi, actually—aya! Apha!"

People jumped in shock and looked at us when I kicked Yejun in his shin and he accidentally screamed out in his native language. Kai just stood up silently and threw away his banana milk, acting like he didn't know us.

The bell has finally rung and Yejun went back to his seat without a word, which is somehow worrisome because usually he always has something to say.

When the teacher entered the room, Yejun, who sat in front of me, turned his back to me and narrowed his eyes at me, as if he was threatening me, or he's just telling me that my kick was too strong. Either way, I'm glad that he's alright.

▬▬▬

"Where's Marie?" Kai asked as Yejun, he and I walked out of school. The four of us would usually go home together if we all had no plans to stay after school.

I looked at the text Mari sent me. "She has an abrupt meeting with the volleyball club. Maybe it's got something to do with the upcoming match."

"Ah, yeah," Yejun said in realization. "When's the match again?"

"Actually, I'm not sure, maybe like two or three weeks from now?" I answered, kicking a pebble that was on the way.

"We're all going right?" Kai asked, kicked the same pebble as it got in his way.

Yejun nodded his head. "We have to, or else she's going to hunt us down and probably make us as the basketball hoop and she'd do volleyball spikes to us."

Kai looked like he imagined what we would look like as basketball hoops, and shivered. "That's a weirdly explicit answer, but okay."

The wind was a lot cooler than I had expected since it was entering June, and I was wearing the summer uniform which was a white polo shirt with the school logo and a gray pleated skirt. Kai was wearing the navy blue sweater with the red colored mark of the school and grey pants, while Yejun just had his polo shirt and grey pants.

"Today's a really nice day," I said, looking up at the clear blue sky and feeling the breeze. "Do we have anything due tomorrow?"

"I don't think so," Yejun said with a grin, and I mirrored his expression as we looked at each other. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"We have an English essay due tomorrow as well as that math homework," Kai said as he looked at his list from the phone.

"Darn it," Yejun muttered and lightly hopped in realization. "Why don't we hang out somewhere and do our assignments there?"

I nodded my head at his plan. "That's a great idea and in that way I might not procrastinate," I said, hoping that Kai would come with me because if only Yejun and I hung out, we both would end up doing everything else besides the homework. "Can you come, Kai?"

He looked at me with his brown, beautiful double-lid eyes, "Sorry, I can't. I have cram school today."

"What time does it start?" Yejun asked, putting his hands on Kai's shoulder. "We can stay somewhere around here and then you can go right before your lessons."

Kai pursed his lips as he thought about it. "It starts in an hour and my house is about 20 minutes from here, plus the fifteen-minute bicycle ride to the place," he finally said with a sigh. "Sorry guys."

"Are you just gonna leave me with her?" Yejun exclaimed dramatically, receiving a punch in the shoulder from me. "I thought you were my game buddy, my do-homework-last-minute buddy!"

"Sorry buddy," Kai answered, trying to hold his laugh. "I didn't ask my parents to put me in a cram school, but I guess I need to improve my Japanese skills."

"Do they actually have cram schools just to help you with Japanese?" Yejun pondered, looking at me as I did not attend one when I first came to Japan.

Kai came to Japan from Australia in the summer of our first year of high school, so it was understandable since I came to Japan in the summer of my second year of junior high. Things must have changed since.

"It's actually a normal cram school. I'm taking the Japanese literature class, but the teachers there are nice and patient enough to help me understand the context and all even though I'm like this," Kai said with a smile. "You should attend with me, Kiera!"

"Your house is quite far from mine, and I think my Japanese is getting better," I said with a laugh.

"She has a great teacher!" Yejun said, putting his hand on my shoulder as we went down the stairs to the subway. "Born and raised in Japan, speaks fluent Japanese."

I swat his hand away because we might fall down the stairs due to our height difference. "Your first language is Korean."

"But I live in Japan," he reasoned. "I'm equally fluent in both languages."

▬▬▬

Yejun and I somehow ended up in a cafe two minutes away from my house. It's a regular place for the both of us to just chill and talk too when we're too tired of staying at home but too broke to go somewhere else.

It's a small cafe owned by an American couple who have lived here for so long and decided to open a small cafe that reminds them of home. The homey interior is really comforting and the songs being played are just really relaxing to listen, which makes me feel nostalgic at times. You can smell the coffee as soon as you step into the cafe.

It has been an hour since we arrived and I am dying. I needed to write two more pages for my essay and I'm struggling while Yejun was nearly done with his.

I looked at him for a brief moment as he was so focused on the essay and mouthing some words as he typed on his laptop while running his hand through his dark brown hair a few times. Letting out a small smile, I was just amazed at how focused he could be when most of the time he couldn't shut his mouth.

"What are you smiling at?" I felt a pen poking my right cheek. I looked up and saw Yejun with an amused smile. "Were you mesmerized by my handsomeness? Or was it because of Tyler Rivera?"

I was about to tell him my honest thoughts, but I took back my words. "Why Tyler?" He just simply shrugged in response and my mind went back to the small event that happened earlier, although it was not too big of a deal.

Upon realizing what he meant, I crumpled a small piece of paper and flickered it to his face to shut him up.

Needless to say, I succeeded.