35 Back to her Real Self...
"Never be like that anymore."
His ice-cold gaze made all the girls stand stiff.
"B...But…why do you..care so much about..her..?", one of them asked hesitantly and when she looked at his face, she regretted why she asked.
"I said, don't you try to bully ANYONE again like that. ANYONE!"
He turned back to go.
"It won't be good." He said without even looking at them.
And then he walked away.
~
A couple of days later.
Mia was walking out from the library with some books in her hands.
'I've got a lot of new books today. Yayy!'
She was happy.
From the day of the incident, when some girls had tried to bully her, Mia had decided to herself that she won't let anyone else affect her life anymore.
She realized she was much clearer and a sorted out person before, but the things went really crazy after—
She understood that she had given importance to the things; she hadn't even cared about much before. So she decided that she'll be back to her real self again.
From that day on, she submerged herself in her studies, her school activities and she'd spend hours in the library.
.
Humming happily to herself, she was walking towards her classroom.
Suddenly, she saw two familiar figures walking in her direction.
It was Ray and Hyun Tae.
Mia's face darkened a bit as she saw him.
'Hold yourself together!' She said to herself.
"Hey, Hyun Tae!" Mia greeted him with a bright smile as ever.
"Hello, Mia. Where are you these days?
I don't see you much in our classroom. You don't even come to meet Gyuri.
Did you guys fight or something?"
"Oh, No. Not at all. That's never gonna happen.
I was just busy with something.
Are you going to the library?"
"Yeah, he is helping me to get there.", Hyun Tae pointed at Ray, who was standing there quietly looking to the other side.
But Mia didn't even look at him.
"Oh, okay. See you then." Mia smiled again and started to walk away.
'Pheww….Good job, Mia! You did great.' She said to herself as she walked past them.
~
As the days passed, the rumor about Mia and Ray also disappeared, as no one saw them together again.
And if they did, they would act like strangers, like they've never met each other.
Some people thought that the rumor wasn't true, while others thought, she gave up on him.
But in the end, everyone started to forget about it.
~
~
The School bell rang and everyone got out of the classroom.
Mia was also packing her bag as she heard someone calling her name.
"Mia?"
Mia turned back and found Gyuri standing at the door.
"Yeah, wait. I'll be right there.", Mia said hurriedly packing her things.
"No. No. Actually, I came here to tell you that I won't be able to come with you today."
Mia stopped what she was doing and looked at Gyuri.
"I told you about the project we are doing, right?"
"Yeah. The project you are doing with 3 more classmates of yours.
Because of which, you couldn't come to have lunch with me for the past days…"
The sadness in Mia's voice was noticeable.
"Sorry, Mia. But you know, I have to do this. We are gonna work on it today also.
So….."
"That's fine, Gyuri. Go ahead and do your project.
I am actually happy seeing you taking interest in such things...", Mia smiled gently.
"...Don't worry about me and do your work."
"Thanks, Mia. You are the best!" Gyuri smiled happily.
"Bye, then," Gyuri said as she walked away.
"Bye….", Mia said to the empty classroom.
~
Mia was walking through the hallways when she saw someone sitting in the middle and gathering some papers, which were spread all over the way.
Mia hurriedly went near the girl to help her.
Picking up as many papers as she could, she went near the girl.
"Here," Mia said.
The girl looked at her and fixed her glasses, which had slid down on her nose.
"Oh, Thank you so much." The girl said as she smiled with her eyes.
'Her smile is so cute!' Mia thought as she handed her the papers.
"We are in the same class, right?", Mia said as she remembered her.
"Yeah. I took the admission in this school, this year only. And I came a week after school started, so people don't know me that much."
"Oh. That's okay. You'll get to know everyone soon.
Like, you got to know me today.
By the way, I am Lee Mia.", Mia said with a bright smile of hers.
"Yeah, I know your name. You are the topper of our class right?"
Mia didn't say anything but just smiled gently.
"I am Tae Hana.", she introduced herself as she smiled back.
"Hana, that's a cute name!
…What are those papers, Hana?" Mia asked her.
"Oh, these? This is the homework for the first week. The teacher just gave me all this.
Now, I have to do all this. I donno, how I'm gonna finish this." Hana said as she looked at the stack of the papers in her hands.
"If you need any help, you can ask me," Mia said.
"Really?"
She nodded firmly.
"Thanks, Mia. You are such a nice person. But then why girls talk about you like that?"
Mia's smile disappeared as she heard her.
Hana noticed it.
"People are really stupid to spread such rumors about you," Hana said hurriedly to cheer her up.
"Don't worry Mia, if anyone talks about you anything again, I'll teach them a lesson," Hana said as she pushed her glasses on her eyes again.
Looking at her cute actions like that Mia laughed.
"That's really sweet of you!" she said.
Hana looked at her surprised.
"Let's go now," Mia said.
Hana nodded and then both the girls came out of the school building.
"I have to get my bike," Mia said as she pointed at the Bicycle stand.
"Oh, okay. Actually, my car is also here." Hana looked towards the school gate where a black coloured, shiny car was standing.
Soon, a person in uniform came out from the driver seat and opened the back door of the car looking at Hana.
'Huh?' Mia kept looking at it.
Hana walked towards the car.
The driver bowed to her and she went inside the car.
Opening her window glass she shouted again, "Bye Mia, see you tomorrow."
"Bye, bye." Mia waved at her.
And soon the car started and moved away before Mia's eyes.
'So…Let's go. We've got lots of books today also.' Mia said as she tightened her grip on her bag and walked towards the bicycle stand.
~
