Apart from the squeaking of the janitor's cart down the hallway, Kwon Minju sits in silence, chin in hand, watching a pair of crows battle it out over a shiny piece of wrapper on the school field.

The air is crisp and cool, carrying their calls up to her window as well as if they were right by her ear. One of them jabs the other in the eye, snatches up the wrapper, whacking her with a wing as he takes off - Crow Two flashes off after him, squawking indignantly. The corner of her mouth quirks up against her will.

"Done." Unaware of this unfolding drama, the girl next to her slams down her pencil with an air of finality, then catches Minju smiling to herself. "What is it?"

She quickly schools her expression back into its typical poker face. "Nothing. Sorry."

"Okay. Well." Taemin pushes her exercise book towards her, unconcerned; as she was about most things that didn't concern her. "Help me check?"

Minju hums and thumbs open the answer key. Taemin had a feverish need to be the best at math in their cohort, as well as the need to show off her boyfriend, a senior just a year above them - both of which she was equally infuriating about and capable at.

Taemin could be a lot, Minju knew, but her rigorous demands only extended up till checking her practice papers and nodding appropriately at the tales of her dates. Minju didn't mind doing either as long as she wouldn't have to look like a loner, and so they'd fallen into a businesslike sort of friendship.

"I don't know why you have me check these. They're going to be right anyway." Minju runs down the answers with a finger, then pauses. "Oh. Maybe not this one."

"What?" Taemin grabs the book back and sets to scribbling.

And there she goes. Minju replaces her chin in her hand, resuming her staring.

The school building casts geometric shadows over the yard outside - artificial, of course, remaining a fresh spring green even while the leaves on the trees were beginning to shrivel and yellow.

She fiddles absently with the sleeve of her sweater, watching a thin stream of students pass from the autumn sunlight into the shade. Soon the stream would widen into a river, then the rapids as they raced against the bell, and narrow to a trickle once again as the tardy ones crept in. One tended to see interesting things happening when one arrived at school much earlier than needed.

...Like, for example, the girl attempting to sneak into their classroom through the back door, discreetly cradling a lunch box under her sweater. Their eyes met over Taemin's head for a brief second, and the girl's face reddened, hesitating in the doorway.

Minju looked away first. From the number of stripes on her sleeve, this was a junior, clearly here for one and only one reason. And disinterested as she was, she did know how to read a room.

At the patter of shoes receding down the hallway, she glanced back. The bento rested innocuously on the table in the furthest corner of the classroom, as so many bentos had over the past year. And flowers. And chocolates.

She shook her head, rising from her seat and heading over. Really. You could at least close the door properly.

Neatly wrapped in blue cloth, a note was tucked in a fold, Lee Jinsang written in careful penmanship along the edge. She didn't like to admit it, but Minju had always wanted to know what people wrote in confession letters. Consider it a scientific curiosity, maybe, seeing as how she'd never been sender nor recipient of such notes.

But she shook her head, snorting quietly at her own foolishness. The girl must have been torturing herself as it was at having been caught. She couldn't do that to the poor thing in good conscience.

"And, you know-!"

A hand reaches for the door the same time Minju does. Startled, she looks up, tensing under the very real, and very crimson gaze of Lee Jinsang, surrounded by his group of friends (sometimes, she finds posse might be a better term for them).

The words come before Minju can run them through. "Speak of the devil. Someone left you a bento."

Jinsang's mouth widens into a silent O, staring back with an unfocused gaze as if he wasn't sure who he was looking at.

In that moment, Dae - the one who was speaking so loud she was sure the entire corridor could hear him - pushes his way into the classroom, letting the other boys in. Minju snatches her hand back to avoid getting her fingers pinched as he leans over her, leering his infamous leer. "And you're sure that someone wasn't you?"

Everyone called Dae just that - even the teachers. Something about his sloppiness, unironed shirt, and manner of speech inspired people to treat him like a rowdy, rabid mutt; Minju included.

"My memory isn't as bad as yours, unfortunately," she replies coolly, stepping around him to return to her seat. "And I recommend some mouthwash with your breakfast, seeing as you don't know how to brush your teeth."

Minju can feel the leer twist into a snarl without looking, but the other boys howl with amusement, crowding Jinsang's table to tear at the lunch box. Promptly forgotten, she slips back to her table unharassed.

Lee Jinsang. Minju peers at him carefully, under the guise of looking over Taemin's work. She could see why so many girls liked confessing without knowing the least of him. Neat fingernails, the prettiest shade of blonde she had ever seen, coupled with his distinct vampire glow, made for quite the killer combination. And though every vampire had red eyes, his, well, just had something about them. Minju would know. She'd just looked into them.

But the saying "see, don't touch" was an apt one to apply to Jinsang. Not a single successful confession would last longer than a week, and stories of what happened then were few and far between. Not that she thought he was a criminal - Jinsang seemed too high-profile in their area for that - but someone like that surely had to have secrets, right?

Minju gives Taemin a long, hard look. It wasn't just about having different shades of red eyes, right?

"What?" Feeling her gaze, Taemin glances up from digging old squeeze bottles from out under her desk.

"Nothing." Minju shrugs, and they yelp as a moth comes fluttering out, startling them both.

next part out on friday!