'Just one more day… just one more day…'

I chanted that over and over in my head from morning till lunch time the whole Friday. I was too excited and couldn't wait until Saturday when I could finally meet with the screenwriter I'd be working with, and be lovey-dovey with Kaiden. So I just really need to get the day to finish earlier than usual.

'Please… time, run faster even just for today.'

To my enormous luck, of course, time didn't cooperate with me. Instead, the day went by slowly—as slow as a sloth, well, at least for me.

What's worse, we had PE today—my most hated class. I had to take one to complete my unit requirements. It's not that the subject itself was horrible, it's just that I had the worst body coordination that ever existed in humanity.

'Yup. I can't dance. I can't even run fast. I can barely swim or ride a bike. I absolutely cannot do any form of gymnastics, or sports, or martial arts—basically anything at all! And most of all, I have almost zero endurance.'

The only thing that was tolerable with this class was that… I shared it with Hora. It was one of those common classes we took. At least Hora was pretty okay with sports.

"Hora, remind me again why I took this class," I asked Hora who was sitting beside me at that moment. The instructor wanted us to do laps in a batch of 4 so we sat at the sides as we waited for our turn.

"Uuuhh… because I'm here?"

"Haaah… Yes, that is indeed my sole reason. When will this day end?"

"You're so impatient today. Are you going on a date with Kaiden later?"

"Haaahh…," I sighed again. "How I wish. He probably has lots to do. I still have lots of homework to do for the weekends, too. Why are our professors becoming more cruel each day? Can't they give us some slack?"

"Ha-ha-ha! Oh wow! Our valedictorian is asking for some slack in studying! This is new."

"Hey, I'm not some studying maniac."

"Say that when you stop using everyday events as references for scenes in your story."

'Ack! I can't refute that.'

"Well… Consider it field research."

"—Hora," the instructor called her name.

"That's my cue. It's my turn now. I'll be back in a sec."

I waved my hands goodbye and Hora sprinted towards the track. When the instructor gave his signal, they all ran around the field. Hora took the lead. She might be petite and smaller in build than the others, but she ran fast. As I predicted in my head, she won and took first place, earning her high points from the instructor.

Next up was me, the clumsy runner. I already knew that I'm gonna be slow but hopefully I wouldn't trip—yup, that's all I'm asking. Luckily, I didn't trip. I finished last though, as I expected with my turtle speed. I wouldn't be surprised if I was the slowest runner in class.

After PE, our bodies were all sweaty and sticky so Hora and I went over to the locker room for shower. I quickly headed to the shower area and took a warm bath. Hora did the same and we finished at the same time.

Walking back to our lockers, wearing bathrobes, I asked her how she's doing with the sly fox Verrill and she said they were still in the courting stage.

"Yeah right. Courting and you already kissed each other. I won't be surprised if you're still smooching when you get the chance."

"Sena!" Hora reprimanded me in a whisper.

She hinted to me with her eyes that others might hear it so I just shut my mouth. I should remind myself to talk about these kinds of stuff at home or in a safer place. We wouldn't want jelly people hating Hora. I'd kill them all if they bully her or even touch a single piece of her hair. Wraaa!

[Music Recommendation: "In Silence" by Janet Suhh (It's Okay Not To Be Okay OST)-available in Youtube or Spotify] ~ Please listen to it in a loop while you read this part to experience the utmost beauty of this chapter ~

Once back to our lockers, I opened up mine and found that my spare clothes were gone. Talk about bullying.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. How childish," I sighed and rolled my eyes.

I already got used to envious stares but I didn't think that anyone would bully in real life. I thought those only happened in dramas. But I guess some of the students here were really just toxic and dramatic people—raising dramas on their own accord.

"What happened?" Hora peeked over my locker to see what made me comment such words. "Oh my goodness! Where are your clothes? What the fudge!"

"It's okay. It's probably here somewhere," I tried to act cool but truly, it wasn't nice. And that spare clothes I brought was the one mom made for me.

I tried to breathe deeply to calm myself but a slow anger rose up within me. The smile on my face was gone and my resting-bi*ch face was back. I walked around the whole locker room trying to search for it while asking myself how in the world did they manage to open my locker. That's a major flaw in their security! What if I had something important in there?

Hora helped me search for my clothes. Turned out, it was on the floor of one of the shower rooms, all wet and dirty. Not only that, harsh words were written on the clothes. I was glad that I at least found it… but it was ruined. I didn't even care what they wrote. My mind's priority was if those writings could be removed in any way so I could still wear mom's clothes. She worked really hard designing and making it for me.

I didn't speak a word. I immediately picked up the clothes and went over to the lavatory to see if I could wash it off with soap and water. But it wasn't coming off. I tried to brush it and rub it as hard as I could, but it remained there.

"Sl*t."

"Wh*re."

"Playing innocent."

"Great Pretender."

"White Lotus."

"You have no talent."

"Your writing sucks."

Those were the words written on the clothes.

Before I knew it, tears were already falling from my eyes. I thought I could play it cool and endure it… but it seemed that my heart was still too weak for it.