Kim Jang-Mi had been a high school girl for exactly two years. This was her last year, and her last chance to make friends. She had already blown it. Who transferred schools in their senior year, and that too, to a rumoured academically high-pressure environment like Seongchwi High School? She must have been mad when she suggested it. What could possibly happen in one year, when everyone already had their friends and their goals set for the future? What was she hoping to accomplish? She smacked herself on the head with her lunchbox.
A group of girls passing her paused and giggled. "Look at that psycho."
"Does she go to our school?"
"No way. She's wearing our uniform."
For a place whose name meant achievement, the students didn't look very bright. Not when they were debating if she belonged in their school or not, when she was actually wearing their uniform. How much more obvious could it be? She had the same sailor-style shirt, short black skirt with a white line an inch above the hem, and a backpack. The only thing missing was the name tag, which she would probably get at the administration office.
After that came the part which she hated the most. Introducing herself. For each year of her academic life, she had been in a different school. That was more than a decade of experience introducing herself, and yet, she had not got over the fear that the kids were going to laugh at her as soon as they saw her.
It had happened before, which was probably a contributing factor. But that was probably because she had fallen asleep on her sandwich, not being used to the early hours her new elementary school kept, and hadn't noticed the bit of cucumber pickle stuck to her head. The kids had all pointed and laughed, and for the rest of the year, she had been called Oi-Kimchi. The year before, she had been able to transfer twice during the academic year. Her mom's company had closed down and they had to go back to the countryside till she could find a job in the city again. Now that they were back, Jang-Mi hadn't enjoyed it for a single moment. In fact, she wanted to go back. She couldn't, because she knew the reason why, even then.
She had always wanted to go back, but that was the one thing she couldn't do. Her mother liked working in the city. She had told Jang-Mi once, that in the city, she could be invisible, and not pointed out, as the 'single mother' who had to go to work instead of looking after her child. After a whole year of being pointed at, and called names, she could understand her mother's dislike of being put in such a situation.
That was still not why she was transferring to Seongchwi.
This transfer was not because of her mom's situation at work, but her own fault and no one else's. Last year she had got tired of all of these changes of schools, and asked to have a stable education. Pleased, she decided to make the best of her last two years of high school.Nothing could get in her way now - not mean girls in her class, or classes that were too hard to pass. She didn't know then that she would be the one to blow the whole thing up, all by herself, without anyone's help. Quite literally.
The fire that she started had been regarded as the greatest tragedy to befall a school in the last hundred years. Newspapers were thankful that it was during the break and that no one was harmed. Jang-Mi couldn't even remember why or how she was in the lab in the first place. She felt, at the back of her mind, that there had been someone else with her there, but for the life of her, she couldn't recollect who it was.
No one else knew. No one suspected her. Why would they? It was summer break. She didn't have any reason to be there. No student did. No student in their right mind, with a summer full of holidays in front of them would want to spend it studying in school, after being trapped there from morning to night during the academic year. No teacher called up to ask her anything, nor did the police. The fire raged for hours before they could put it out, and by then the lab had been reduced to cinders.
Her mother had returned late that night. Jang-Mi didn't say a word. The next morning, her mother woke her up, and thrust the newspaper in front of her face.
"Your school!" she exclaimed, and pointed to the article.
There was no way that she, or any of the other few hundreds of students were going to continue there next year. And so, the nearest place she could be relocated to was Seongchwi. Unfortunately, none of her other classmates wanted to go there. She did not have a close bond with her old teachers like they did, and so, when it came to making the difficult decision of which of their students would be sent to the slaughterhouse, it was no surprise that her name was the first to come up in the discussion.
"Student, are you Kim Jang-Mi?"
"Yes."
"This way please. Quickly. Class starts in ten minutes."
Weren't they supposed to be cut some slack on the first day of school? Especially a new student?
No, supposedly not, not here at least. She was given her plastic name tag at lightning speed, and directions to her new class. Noticing the corridors were emptying, she followed the makeshift map to her corridor. Year 3 class 3. Not bad, her grades hadn't landed her in a bad section, had it? 3-3, she could work with that. Her last school had six classes for every year, 6 being the worst at academics, and 1 being the best. It was the complete opposite when it came to extracurriculars. Of course, that meant that class 3 was average at absolutely everything. Not that it mattered here, she supposed. There were no club posters anywhere she could see, only blank grey walls, and empty notice boards. It was then that she noted there was no class 3-4. She also noted that there was absolutely no one in the corridor and that the door was now closed.
She slid it open, and the heads of the students turned as one to face her. It was as if they were robots, programmed to be in sync with each other, like soldiers' legs during a march. She looked at the seats while the teacher introducing her, her eye immediately going to the right hand side corner, next to the windows. That was a prime piece of real estate. Of course there wouldn't be an empty seat there. Animes had given her unrealistic expectations. She knew that, and yet, at each school she went to, it didn't stop her from hoping. When would her main character era arrive? She had no idea, but she hoped it would be soon. She was almost done being a school student. In a year, she would be too old for at least three genres.
She took her seat in the middle of the class, one of the worst places to be, right under the watchful eye of every teacher who passed through the class. She did not need to share someone else's textbooks, because, like every year, she had come prepared with her own. There was no mysterious brooding guy sitting on the last bench, nor was there a class nerd in the first row. What kind of mediocrity had she mired herself in?
For the first time in a long while, Kim Jang-Mi was conscious of what was going on around her. Her life was boring. Exactly like a million other highschoolers around her, preparing for the national exams at the end of the year. There was nothing to do except study, graduate and find a job. There was nothing that differentiated her from anyone else in their final year of high school. Except -
"Have I seen you before?" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.
They were directed at a brown-haired, wide-eyed guy who finally decided to raise his head from the desk at break.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing." Jang-Mi buried her head in her book.
But it was of no use. Her new classmates heard the exchange.
"Oooh, you two know each other?"
"Sung Hwan, how do you know the transfer student?"
"Did you hit on her already? Before we had a chance to get to know her? That's too greedy of you."
"Or was it you, transfer student? Did you see the map and then think you could hook yourself a boyfriend pretending to be helpless with directions?" The boy who said this pretended to faint, and his friend caught him. "Oh, what a lovely maiden in distress! I must help her." They mimed making kissy faces at each other.
"Cut it out, you guys. She just got here." The girl who spoke didn't seem to be one of the tough types. She had hello kitty rubber bands holding up her two high-ponytails. She didn't seem to be mean either, but the two boys immediately snapped to attention and left Jang-Mi alone.
"My name is Yoon Mi-Rae," she said.
"Oh, like the singer?" asked Jang-Mi.
The girl's face went a little dark, instantly. "I don't prefer being compared to anyone. Even if she's a star."
"Okay."
Had she blown her chance at making even a single friendship on the first day. That was something everyone knew. The first friendship that you made on entering a new school determined the quality of your life there for the whole of the year.
"So, Jang-Mi, why did you transfer in your senior year?"
"My old school burnt down."
That attracted a lot of attention.
"Oh, you're from there!"
"That must have been sad."
"Too bad, you could have had a nice high school experience with your friend gang!"
The wave of sympathy lasted until the end of break, and Jang-Mi was introduced to more people than whose names she could remember. But as the teacher entered the class, and the students settled down in their seats, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong. There was something she had seen, or the strange way someone had behaved, when she talked about her old school. Try as she might, she couldn't remember it. She was forgetting something important - and it had happened right here in this very classroom.