Just wanna have a taste of life.

 A FEW MONTHS EARLIER.

There are times when I feel like I want to be free. Okay, it's less of a feeling and more of a reality. I want to be like the birds, to be able to fly wherever I wish and explore the world because I'm tired…

"Lara!"

"Lara!"

Lara jerked back to reality; her math teacher was staring at her from the front of the class.

"Yes, sir" she stammered, still in shock.

"What was the last thing I said?"

"I don't know," she said quietly.

"How would you know when you don't pay attention when I'm teaching," he scolded.

The whole school knows that Mr. Han is the most boring teacher ever, and unluckily for the 11th-grade students, he had to be their math teacher.

Unfortunately for him, the bell rang, meaning his period was over. Lara smirked at him as he glared back at her, packing his stuff and leaving the class.

Lara sat back down with a sigh of relief, relieved that she didn't have to explain herself to him.

"Wow," Hye-rim said, staring at her. She smiled; she just saved the whole class from getting another assignment. They're pretty much all lazy students.

"There's karaoke after school today, you wanna tag along?" Hye-rim asked Lara.

"No thanks, I have other plans," Lara said, packing her stuff and leaving the class.

As they walked out of class together, Hye-rim told Lara, "You're never not busy."

"That's the life of a high school student," Lara said, smiling.

After a short sigh, Hye-rim joined the other students in class while Lara went to the bus stop.

Despite arriving home early, Minji called Lara for a video chat.

Minji and Lara were great friends for quite a while. They lived in the same area, and people often saw them as sisters until Minji and her family relocated to Seoul for their company.

"I just got back from school," Lara told Minji while lying on her bed.

"I thought you forgot about me, Lara," Minji said, grinning.

"How was school today?" Lara asked, ignoring her comment.

Lara had always dreamed of moving to Seoul with Minji and attending her school. From the way Minji talked about her school, it sounded fun to Lara, but at the very least, there weren't any Mr. Han.

 ***

"LARA!"

Lara's mother yelled her name and slammed her room's door, jolting her awake. She sluggishly got out of bed and opened the door.

"Are you pregnant?" her mom asked.

Lara was used to this question as she tended to oversleep after school. She checked the wall clock in her room; it was already 7:00 p.m. -yep, I overslept.

"Do you need any help in the kitchen?" she asked.

"I already made dinner," her mom replied.

"Then why did you call me?" Lara asked as she walked to the living room.

"Mr. Han called," her mom said.

Lara was surprised. "How did he get her number? Did he go through our class register?" she wondered to herself.

"What did he say?" Lara asked her mom, trying to sound upbeat.

Her mom joined her on the couch and said, "You weren't paying attention in his class."

Lara was taken aback. "What?!!" she exclaimed, accidentally voicing her thoughts.

Seeing her mom's enraged expression, she tried to defend herself. "I mean, everyone knows his class is boring. It's not like I'm failing math."

"That does not mean you won't focus in his class," her mom scolded.

Her mother would talk about him all night long if she left her, telling her not to join the throng of people who lamented about the way their teacher taught.

"How was your day at work today?" Lara chose to switch topics.

Her mom's mood shifts like a chameleon's, and she grinned at Lara.

Lara sometimes genuinely questions how her dad could have married her mother when he saw how easily she got upset, cried, and became pleased. Love has no sight.

"Work was fantastic," she answered.

"Oh really?"

Then she began to swing her legs back and forth while beaming from ear to ear. When her mom gets excited, she has an endearing personality.

"I guess it was pretty awesome," Lara said.

Her mom reached into her bag, took out a brown envelope, and gave it to Lara.

"Open it," she said.

When Lara opened the envelope, she found a piece of paper. Was I expecting something more? She frowned.

She looked at her mother, wondering why she seemed thrilled over a piece of paper.

"Read what's on the paper," her mom said.

She quickly skimmed over the lines, trying to make sense of what was written there. Eventually, she noticed what she had been waiting for… SEOUL.

"Will we be relocating to Seoul?" she asked eagerly.

"Yes," her mom exclaimed.

Lara rushed up and gave her mom a big hug. Finally, we're moving to Seoul.

They were relocating to Seoul because it seems that her mom's boss suggested that she work for someone there.