The Real Us

. chapter 7 .

A few weeks passed as Sunghoon and Taeryoung continued "dating" and soon enough it was the day of the School Trip. Every first second year student was excitedly anticipating the trip to the famous Korean island of Jeju. Well, almost every student.

Taeryoung was dreading the school trip. Not because of the actual location, but because from Seoul to Jeju, the class would be flying. Even the thought of being strapped into one of those huge, flying machines was enough to make the girl feel nauseous.

But, regardless of her fears, her sister and grandma had insisted she should go as she would miss out just staying at home. Plus, her friends had practically begged on their knees for her to join them as they insisted it wouldn't be as fun without her. So, Kim Taeryoung found herself with a suitcase of a weeks worth of her belongings, waiting in the Square.

All of the first and second year students were present and organized by class. As Ms. Kang Miyoon, Class 2's home room teacher, took a head count, she counted an odd number. That was strange, she thought. She was sure the class had an even number of students.

As the other teachers counted their respective classes' students, Taeryoung tried to take her mind off of the trip ahead by talking with Hyejin who was the only one of her close friends who was also in class 2.

Meanwhile, Park Sunghoon was casually talking with Jake, since the two were both in class 1. "I can't wait," Jake jumped, resembling an excited puppy. "I've only been to Jeju-do once in my entire life, when I was 2." Sunghoon smiled as he thought of little 2 year old Jake in Jeju-do.

"Okay, listen up!" A male teacher shouted over the loud crowd of students. Once they quieted down, he continued, "For safety, we will be pairing everybody up with another student. Most of you will have a partner from your same class, however if a class has an odd number of students, you may have to be paired with a student from another class."

The students grouped up around their teachers, excited to hear who they were paired with. "Fingers crossed that we get paired!" Hyejin whispered to Taeryoung as the two waited for the teacher to call their names.

"Choi Hyejin and Park Jongsung," Ms. Kang called out. Hyejin pouted.

"Park who? There's somebody named that in our class?" she looked around searching for who could possibly be Park Jongsung. Suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder.

She turned to find Jay standing in front of her with his luggage behind him. "You're Park Jongsung?" Hyejin gasped. The girl had never heard her acquaintance's full name before. "This isn't too bad I guess." She shrugged as she used her powered off phone screen to apply some lip tint.

Jay chuckled at her comment, "You're not too bad of a partner yourself."

Taeryoung, who had gotten distracted watching Jay and Hyejin's conversation listened to her teacher once more when she heard her name.

"Kim Taeryoung and.... Joo Yoongi?" Taeryoung looked around for her partner, but everybody seemed to be paired up already. She began weaving her way through the crowd when she bumped into something hard.

"Sunghoon?" She looked up at the male she had just bumped into. The boy ruffled her hair playfully. "Who's your partner?" he asked as he rested his chin on the top of her the girl's head.

"Joo Yoongi? But I can't find her anywhere." The girl searched around once more with her eyes before concluding, "Maybe she's sick and didn't come or something?"

The male shrugged and pointed at Ms. Kang. "Why don't you ask your teacher?"

Taeryoung squeezed her way through the crowd of her classmates and finally reached her teacher. After explaining her situation, the teacher remarked, "Oh, so that's who we're missing."

The girl tilted her head with a puzzled expression. How did Ms. Kang not know who was missing? But before she could think about it any longer, her teacher spoke again.

"Hm. Seems like we're going to have to partner you up with somebody from class 1." Suddenly Taeryoung felt a hand rest on her shoulder.

"I'll be her partner."