I looked in the mirror, and the mirror looked back at me. I was crying. Every time a tear dropped on the floor, there was an echo of her voice in the room. My head was sore. How am I so stupid. I could've prevented this. I failed. Now she's gone, and I'll never see her again.

Chapter 1 - The Meet

Monday. That one word makes me go insane. As the alarm clock kept beeping like crazy, I dragged myself out of my bed and did my routine that I've done for the past five years I'd say. Get up, shower, dress, eat, brush teeth and get out of the house, nothing special you see.

When I went downstairs, I saw my grandma making my breakfast and lunch. She noticed me and smiled.

"Did you sleep well, dear?"

"Yeah, I did" Which was a lie, as I only slept for two hours max as I stayed up all night watching.

"That's great to hear, and I made you some eggs for breakfast and some curry for lunch."

I gave a slight smile to her and thanked her. She's the only person in this world that cares about me. She puts so much effort in the meals she makes me. I ate it up and did the boring the routine and said my goodbye as I left the house. The day was quite lovely, it was cloudy and dripping a bit, which is a relief from the heatwave we had a week ago. All of a sudden, I got a tap on my shoulder. I looked behind me and saw it was Ace.

"How's it going man?" he bumped me on the shoulder with a smile on his face.

"The same old stuff, what about you?"

"Doing great! I heard there's going to be a new student today. Hopefully, it's a girl" he grinned in a smug look.

"What you're hoping to get with her or something?"

"Well, maybe if she's hot or something" he laughs as he scratched his head.

Ace is the only friend I have, he hangs out mostly with the other students, but he always has time for me. We usually walk and leave school together, or we go to each other's houses. I got some good memories with him.

When we made it to the school, Ace said his goodbye and went to join his other friends. I don't mind that as I know, I'm probably the lowest ranked out of all his friends. At least if I have someone to talk to that's not my grandma, it makes me want to live on this Earth for just a bit longer. As usual, I was the first one in the classroom. I rested my bag down on the floor and sat on the chair, and I put my head on the table to try to catch up on some sleep, but that wasn't successful as the bell rang and most of the students came storming in. When the class settled down the teacher came in with a girl behind him. Is that the new girl Ace mentioned? She had her head down, trying not to get any attention.

"Good morning" he looked at everyone as he tapped his pen on the desk.

Everyone responded with a good morning.

"As you may know by now there's a new student. Lilly is not from here, but in fact, from South Korea. Her English isn't good, so please give her time to learn how to speak it properly" as he finished his sentence, she raised her head, showing her face. You could hear whispering and a bit of giggle throughout the room.

She had white hair and black eyes. Her lips were the colour of pink cotton candy. She is slim, and her body is overall pretty perfect. Lilly is also a nice name.

She sat down on the other side of the room when the teacher left, some girl tapped on the shoulder and started talking to her, but the new girl didn't respond with words but instead nodded. I didn't give it too much attention, and I began to fidget with my pen. The next teacher came in, and we started our work, the classes went quite fast, which is surprising as it had my least favourite subjects, History, Biology and Geography. After the class ended, I went to Ace's classroom and waited as he got out of his classroom. He finally came out with his face and clothes covered in paint.

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"Art class?"

"Yeah! It was so much fun!"

We walked to the vending machine to get a quick drink as we usually do on a Monday, I usually get orange juice while he gets Dr Pepper.

"So, did you get the new person in your class?"

"Yeah, she's in our class."

"It's a girl?!" he's voice went to a higher pitch, and his face got all red, "Is she hot?"

"She's pretty, I guess."

"Do you sit next to her?"

"Nope, she's actually on the opposite side of the classroom" I got a coin from my wallet and put it in the vending machine, and pressing the buttons 'B' and '2', orange juice dropped, I picked it up and punched the straw through the hole.

"That sucks..." he's face dropped. "Now you guys can't be a romantic classroom couple" he groaned.

I spit out my orange juice with a shocked expression on my face.

"What are you talking about? I thought you wanted to go out with a girl!"

"Well, now that is true, but I thought of it in class you never had a girlfriend, did you now?" he gave a cheeky smile as he poked me on the chest couple of times.

"Well...that is true, but don't ever mention that again, please. You know I'm horrible talking to new people and especially girls."

"Come on now, buddy! I know your shy, but you got to burst out the bubble of yours" he scratched my head like I was his younger brother.

"Fine, I'll try...but not go out with her! Just friends" I puffed.

All of a sudden, someone tapped me from behind. I looked who it was, and it was the one and only the new girl.

"Uhm, sorry. I want to get a drink" she smiled as she said the sentence with a robotic-like voice. As the teacher mentioned, her English wasn't the best, but it had a charm to it.

"Oh sorry of course" I moved out of the way, and looked back at Ace, but I saw him run across the hallway and then turn around gave me a thumbs up for good luck. I felt a shiver all around my body as I had no idea what to do. I looked at the new girl as she was looking at the drinks. She was biting her bottom lip and was thinking about what drink she wants.

"무엇을 선택해야 할지 모르겠어요.(I don't know what to choose)" she mumbled underneath her breath. I had no idea what she was saying. All I knew it was in Korean most likely.

I turned around ready to go, to see where Ace went but suddenly my phone vibrated. It was a text from Ace.

To: Kairi

Subject: Empty

You better not run away! This is your chance to talk to her. !! I SACRIFICED MY DR PEPPER FOR THIS !!

I took a deep breath and did another 180 degrees and walked up to her.

"Hey, I recommend the orange juice."

She looked over to me, and I looked at her. Our eyes were connected.

"Orange juice?" she said it in a soft voice.

"Yeah, it's healthy for you. It has Vitamin C."

"Orange juice..." she got her change from her frog wallet and put it in the vending machine. She punched the straw through and started sipping.

"So, how is it?"

"Hmm..." she kept drinking the juice with her eyes being closed, as she was thinking. "Very good!"

"Sweet"

She finished the orange juice and threw into the trash. I asked her if she wants to go and hang out for the break, and she agreed, but before we could go anywhere, the bell rang, and I tried to laugh it off. We agreed to hang out at lunch.

Next came English, when it came around the teacher asked can someone help her out for a couple of weeks. The person beside her wasn't interested at all.

"Anyone?" asked the teacher.

I started to sweat. It's the best way to get closer. Those seconds of thought felt like minutes. Even the clock was ticking slower. What's the worst that can happen...I raised my hand slowly.

"Ah, finally Kairi" the teacher he told me to sit down next to her.

I switched places with the girl that was sitting beside her and, the lesson began. We whispered as the teacher was reading a book. I thought her some basic introductions like presenting herself, what you want, and all that stuff. It was mostly fixing the grammar bit. After the 40 minutes passed, the class ended. She thanked me, and I went back to my seat. The next class was mathematics, and that flew by. This was followed up by Spanish, which felt the same.

When the bell rang, Lilly and I went outside, but it was still raining. I gave her a school tour. While we were going from class to class, there was a long awkward gap of silence, with her limited English and me just being a non-talkative person. We went back to the classroom to get our lunches, and we sat beside together. The curse of the silence was still upon us. It's almost like it, ripped my voice box and I wasn't going to get it back anytime soon. Lunch ended.

After lunch, we did the rest of the subjects. The last bell rang, and it was finally time to go home. Everyone was starting head out. I grabbed my bag, and I was about to head out when someone grabbed my hand. After the sudden shock, I looked over, and it was Lilly. My heart started to race a tiny bit.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Do...do you...want...want...want-" her sentence couldn't string together, and she was clearly nervous. "Do you want to hang out today!?" she finally shouted out.

A sudden wave of emotions hit my body. I'm surprised that Lilly wants to hang out with me, even though we had such awkward moments. All I had to do is to fight this curse of silence that has been with me for most of my life. Apart from Ace, nobody asked me to hang out with them. There's one thing for sure that today was a rollercoaster of emotions, and it's going to be a fight with my inner self. . .