"How was your first day, my baby?"
It was close to midnight when Jang-Mi's mother came back from work. Though they lived in Incheon, her mother worked on the other side of Seoul. She always worked overtime, and there were office dinners almost every week. Today, she staggered in, reeking of alcohol.
"Eomma, you shouldn't be drinking so much."
"It's okay, it's okay. That's just how it is. Once you start working too, you'll know. Besides, it better to drink than listen to the manager talking his tongue off."
She kicked off her slippers and dropped on to the couch. "Baby, listen. I want you to promise me something. Don't live life like your mother did. Live in a way that makes you happy. Okay?"
"Okay."
Jang-Mi tucked her in with a blanket. She knew her mother wasn't happy with the way they were living now, changing jobs and schools so frequently, being threatened by their landlords to move out after not being able to pay the rent. It was hard. She had never thought about how hard it was for her mother too. Did she too hate the first day of introductions, of being dragged here and there, not knowing where to go, or what to do? At least Jang-Mi had a class and a timetable she had to follow. How bad would it be in an office where everyone was out to get you fired so that they could have the next promotion?
"You're not going to go to sleep?"
"I'm going now," said Jang-Mi.
Her mother snuggled into the blanket and was immediately asleep. Jang-Mi went to bed as well. There was no second where she felt at peace. Was it what her mother had said, or was it that strange feeling she had been having since lunch break? In the morning, listening to the birds chirp outside her window, she threw off her blankets. There was no point rolling around in bed when she wasn't going to fall asleep. Her body felt shivery, as if she had been running for a long, long time without a break. Her legs wobbled, and her knee hit the bedframe. She had better sleep tonight, or she was going to be in big trouble.
"Jang-Mi ah, are you alright?"
"Yes, yes, nothing to worry about."
She sat on the bed and rubbed her knee. There was going to be a bruise. She could see the skin turning brownish-purple already. Should she just leave it be and hope it would be alright, or did she risk drawing attention by wearing a bandage? She looked bad enough from lack of sleep as it was. She sighed. This was just the second day of school. How much worse was it going to be before she settled down here?
"Ahjussi, wait!"
The green bus with the yellow stripe passed her by. She barely managed a thump on the side with her fist as it sped away.
"Student, you should be careful! You can get hit." The man sitting at the bus stop looked at her disapprovingly.
Jang-Mi bowed her head in apology. "Sorry, I shall be more careful next time."
"You should be sorry to your parents for putting yourself in danger. How will they feel if they get a call saying that their daughter got hurt because of a bus accident?"
Properly admonished, Jang-Mi sat down on the other end of the seat until the man had boarded his bus. When was the next one going to come? At this rate, she was going to be late. Yesterday, the teacher had excused her, but she had a feeling he wasn't going to do that again. She didn't want a reputation among her classmates as a person who was unpunctual. Not that it mattered a lot. It wasn't like she was going to meet any of them ever again after this year.
"Oi, you there."
The voice caught her attention. She had heard it somewhere before.
The speaker was a boy sitting on a motorbike. With the helmet on, she couldn't recognize him. He was athletic and well-built, with just enough muscles to emphasize his lean frame. The veins on his forearm stood out through his pale skin, as he gripped the handlebar of his bike. There was no doubt he was from her new school. The tie had the emblem of the school embroidered on it. Did she meet someone yesterday who looked as good as this?
He pushed up the visor of his helmet.
"Are you coming or not?"
Belatedly, she realized it was the classmate who had been sleeping through the lecture. What was his name? Sung Joon?
"Coming," she said, and hopped on the back of his bike.
"Hold on."
She had just enough time to gather her hair on to one shoulder to prevent it from flying in the wind. The morning air was soothing. It was a pleasant day, and the breeze was velvety on her cheeks. "It's such a nice day," she said.
He abruptly came to a stop in front of a red signal.
"Did you get hurt running for the bus?"
"No."
"Why is your knee like that?" he asked.
She straightened out her leg and took a look at it. Perhaps she should have put on a bandage after all. It was an ugly shade of discomfort.
"I got hurt at home before I left," she said.
The signal turned green, and she tucked her leg back in not a moment too soon before they were on the way again.
"Buses this way are once in half an hour. If you miss it, I can pick you up."
"Why?" she asked.
"What why?"
"You don't even know me. Why would you be this nice to me? Do you do this for all of your classmates because you're a nice person?"
"I'm not nice. Don't get any ideas into your head that I'm singling you out for special attention. I'm only being considerate to a fellow classmate taking a bus with limited service."
"Sung-Joon ssi, that was rude."
"It's Sung Hwan. You're the one who's being rude right now, Shin Jang-Mi. You haven't even thanked me for the ride."
A direct hit. He wasn't wrong.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. Make sure you walk slowly. Don't enter with me. I don't want the kids to know that we came together. I have no desire to be involved in strange rumours with you."
Hmmph. She had no desire to be involved in strange rumours with him either. Even if he looked handsome, and was considerate to her, in spite of being a rude person. Those things didn't matter at all.
Jang-Mi sat down before the teacher entered. The class was almost full, with people busy studying.
"Why is everyone here already?" she asked.
"They're preparing for the test."
"Test?" What test? She hadn't heard about any test. Had they announced one yesterday?
"You're new, so you don't know. We have tests twice a week. We stay back after class to write exams. You better prepare during the break at least."
"Which subjects?" Jang-Mi was beginning to really regret coming here.
"All of them."
It was only the start of the second day and she was already screwed. She took back her words from this morning. Things could definitely get much more worse than she had imagined.
If she only knew that this was the beginning of it all. Things had not yet begun to happen. But they would, one after the other. At that point, she would look back and think about how happy she was at the start of the year, when she really did not have anything that troubled her. Not as much as what was going on with her, when events finally came to pass.