Mantis Stalking Cicada

As the bell for the first lecture rang, the busy corridor started to look somewhat abandoned and empty. The time for self study before the lectures was over and the chatter of students before the teacher arrives was locked behind the shut doors.

A girl could be seen standing near the window outside a class, with her school bag, staring at nothing in general. The sky was beautiful blue, decorated with the fluffy white clouds of different shapes and shining as the sunlight made them glow. No wonder the girl was lost in her thoughts while staring at such a beautiful scene.

She must be wondering, the sky... is the sky introvert like herself? The one that is always present but no one notices it. It's always around us quietly following us, making no noise and barely having any sense of existence for the majority of people. The one that feels unreachable from far away and no one would ever have the stupid idea of reaching it because they feels it's out of reach or maybe it's just the sky who has distanced itself from everyone? Unapproachable, in the world of it's own, unnoticeable, lonely, neglected and what not? Is the sky really as introvert as Ari, who is staring at it is?

The clicking sound of the medium heels of class teacher as well as Korean language teacher brought Ari back from her thoughts. She also noticed that the other classes seems to have started a long time ago.

The teacher, Mrs. Boram Choi walked straight to her and said, "You are the new transfer student right?" Ari just replied back with a nervous "yes".

" What's your name again? " teacher Boram said while checking something on the book in her hand with some papers.

"I'm Kim Ari teacher." Ari answered as she was asked. It was a no brainer that Ari was anxious and nervous as it was her first day at this high school. She had thought about it a hundred times before deciding on coming to this school and she didn't want to repeat the mistakes she had done in her previous high school. She is going to make good friends and enjoy the way that a normal high schooler would do. She is going to socialize with everyone and live her high school life to it's fullest. This is the promise she had made to herself after getting up early this morning.

With a gulp of confidence Ari tried to calm her nerves and followed after the teacher as the teacher finished checking what she wanted to check. As the teacher first went inside, Ari was about to follow when she suddenly felt peculiar in a bad way, like a feeling of dread crossing her at the speed of lightening. It immediately made the previous nervousness raise it's head in her heart. It made her sweat all over but she has no choice other than following the teacher and no second chance of preparing herself to be calm again.

The teacher announced about the new student joining their class as soon as she reached the center table and the whole class was looking at Ari curiously when the teacher asked her to introduce herself. Looking at their judgemental eyes made Ari's heart race and she forced the words to come out of her mouth.

"Hello, I'm Ar-Ari Kim and... I hope we get along with each other in future." with these words she bowed a bit and glanced at everyone to see how they react but she only found some students becoming disinterested, some whispering and some started to study opening the book. Though there were still many students mostly boys who were paying attention to her and also complimenting her good looks but those activities didn't reach Ari's eyes and ears. She was too focused on thinking about what some people are whispering about her.

"Now find a seat for yourself" Mrs. Boram instructed.

Ari choose the empty last seat near the window. As she was walking by she looked at everyone as if memorising the faces of her classmates. There was nothing really special about the facial features of her classmates, everyone was average except a girl who looked clean and innocent. She looked really beautiful and also a few girls at the back were noticeable but the boys were average and some even below average. There was a boy in the middle of second row whose thick bangs were covering most of his eyes and he looked extremely lean. Ari wasn't able to see his face clearly as she was stealing subtle glances at everyone. She just ignored him as it felt like he had the worst visuals among the boys.

The facecon Ari took her seat at the back and took her notebook out to take notes. There's this thing about the people in this world, everyone judges and gives their favorability rating after looking at the other person's appearance at the first meeting. Ari is no different than those people and favours handsome men mostly, it's a different thing that the impression can change after getting to know most of the people but that's out of question right now.

The whole class was listening quietly while some of the students were sleeping. Ari have always been diligent in studies and also a topper of her pervious highschool so she gave her full attention to the teacher.

After the class, it was a time for a short break. There were two girls who were sitting in front of her and one of them kept glancing at her as if hesitating about something but the second girl immediately striked up a chat about whats and wheres of yesterday with that hesitating girl and they became busy chatting by themself. Seeing this Ari felt a bit disappointed. It would have been nice if there was someone who initiated a conversation with her.

It was very lively in the class, Ari felt the envy rising in her as she looked at everyone interacting and having fun. It's still a mystery to her about how making friends comes naturally to everyone. What Ari doesn't know is that her passive expressions are the biggest reason why people find her unapproachable.

It was decided by her earlier to socialise in this school but Ari didn't feel like it anymore and decided to be just an observer for now and decided to take a nap as she got up pretty early in the morning. But before she could rest her head, she heard a commotion and whispers around her became too loud.

The only thing she could hear was, " What is Ha-ri doing here?"

She too then wondered, 'Yeah, what's my younger sister doing here?'