Back to High School
After finishing my meal at Sia’s house, I left like a fugitive. Nothing out of the ordinary happened on the way back. The only exception was that Sia’s phone calls had come quite often while I waited for high school entrance. That was it. So we finally reached the day of the entrance ceremony.
I dressed in my school uniform early in the morning and straightened it out. Back in middle school, the uniform had always felt a little too big, so I’d been a bit uncomfortable. Now it fit me perfectly, and moving around felt no problem at all. Once everything was ready, I stepped out of the house. That’s when a message popped up from Sia. [I’m right in front of your building!]
Coming out to the apartment lobby, I spotted Sia waiting right in front of me. “Siu, let’s go together.” “Sure.”
We took the same bus side by side and headed to school. Now that I was used to the route, we entered the school gate. A teacher who looked like the principal was there, greeting everyone warmly. Sia and I gave a quick bow and walked inside together. Our class for the first year was the same—3-B—and we entered the classroom. The noise around us suddenly vanished. “Eh?” “What?”
We didn’t pay it much mind, though. After we sat down in the remaining two seats, I asked if we’d brought our textbooks. “Um… ah… I left the history book at home…” “Ugh, it’s the first day, so probably no lessons today. If you need anything, I’ll show you.” “Thanks.” “Did you bring anything else?” “Yeah. I have everything else too, including a notebook.”
While we were chatting, I felt eyes staring at us from all sides. More precisely, they were fixed on Sia rather than me. The girls whispered, “How did she even get like that?” “Is she wearing makeup?” “She can’t look like that even with makeup.” and stared at Sia. The guys just stared wide-eyed or stole quick glances. The stares were a little annoying, but Sia seemed completely unfazed. She was just looking at me, ignoring everything else. Because of that, I turned my body a bit more toward Sia to block the other boys’ view. The chatter kept going until the morning assembly bell rang. Exactly on time, a female teacher walked in through the door. “Welcome, everyone! I’m your class teacher, Hwang Su-bin. Nice to meet you all!” The whole class clapped. Sia and I joined in quietly. “You guys really know how to respond! I’m so grateful. I’m in charge of math, so if you have any questions, bring them anytime.” “Yes!” “Our class reactions are pretty good.” At that moment, one boy shouted, “What about last year?” “Last year, our seniors were so unresponsive that I didn’t feel like doing anything. But seeing this warm welcome makes me so happy.” The teacher wiped a fake tear. We chatted lightly until the bell rang again. “Let’s head to the auditorium for the entrance ceremony.” She led us to the hall. Sia and I walked side by side. The high school auditorium was enormous compared to the middle school one. Even the whole student body could fit if we stood two rows deep. There were basketball hoops on the walls and a volleyball net too. We found our seats and watched the stage. Sia turned to me first. “Is there a dance club here too, like in middle school?” “Um… probably not. We’re not in the arts department and it’s just an ordinary school.” “That makes sense. It looked kinda fun.” Sia had been interested in the dance club back then, but she never joined. I never asked why, and I didn’t know the rumor that something had happened… I decided to leave it alone. Sia had acted like it was no big deal. She was flipping through the schedule we’d been given at school. “Alright, let’s begin the entrance ceremony of Noya High School. Please focus.” The ceremony started. Honestly, it was just boring. The principal and vice principal spoke, the national anthem played, the usual stuff. While we sat through the tedious time, the announcement came. “Next, the dance club will perform a welcome show for the new students!” Clapping exploded across the auditorium—completely different from the polite applause earlier. Who wouldn’t love free entertainment like this? At first, the girls’ dance club came on stage. I turned to Sia. “The dance club is here?” “Yeah.” “Are you joining?” “Um… not sure.” “Really?” “Yeah…” Sia’s expression was a little ambiguous. She looked slightly uneasy, like something was bothering her. I wondered if one of those people was making her feel that way. The song started and the girls began dancing. I wanted to ask why, but I decided to focus on the performance. Their movements were impressive. After the girls finished, the boys came up on stage in order and lined up. The leader stepped forward. Sia’s face suddenly crumpled. This was the first time I’d seen her react so obviously to someone she disliked, so I looked over. Her expression instantly smoothed out again. “Is something wrong?” Instead, she asked me what was wrong. “Didn’t you wrinkle your face just now…?” “Um? No. Nothing like that.” “Really?” “Yeah…” Her face was the same as usual, so I couldn’t tell if she was lying or if I’d misread. I turned away thinking I must have been wrong, but Sia’s expression was still bad. She stayed a little annoyed until the boys’ dance club finished. Then the girls came out and her face relaxed. But when the boys stepped up again, her expression crumpled slightly. There was definitely something between Sia and those boys in the club. I wanted to ask what happened, but I couldn’t say a word. After all, I only liked Sia—I hadn’t even confessed yet. All the performances ended, and finally the scholarship awards for top students. It turned out they were giving scholarships to students with high grades from middle school. I’d been looking forward to it because I was good at academics too, but my name wasn’t called. Sia was also strong in academics… she should have been on the list, but neither of us was called. The entrance ceremony ended. This year, parents weren’t allowed to attend. Originally it was fine, but now it wasn’t. Sia looked more disappointed than I did, saying she wanted to take the photo together but couldn’t. I asked if graduation was worse, but she said she liked both ceremonies. That made me careful not to overthink it. After all, except for kindergarten, I’d taken photos with her at every elementary and middle school entrance. Her words felt like they meant our photos together were special. I somehow calmed my heart and stood up to leave, when Min-seong approached. “Found you. Both of you are here.” Min-seong was in 7-B. He came all the way over. A good idea popped into my head. “Hey, you’re just in time.” “Eh?” “Can you take a photo with Sia and me?” “Suddenly?” “I wanted to take one at the entrance but couldn’t, so I’m asking you to.” “No… it’s annoying… but sure, I’ll take it.” I sent him a desperate signal and he understood, stepping up. We moved to a quiet corner so no one would bother us. With the welcome banner in the background, we took the photo. “Wow, phone cameras are really good nowadays.” “Yeah…” Sia smiled while flipping through the album. I watched her happily until I felt eyes on us and looked around. No one was staring. It was probably just my imagination. Sia and I headed back to our class.