3 Chapter 3: An Eventful First Encounter

Tsukiko sat, staring in silence at Jae-sung and he stared right back at her, feeling at a loss for words. They continued to do so in stalemate for some time before Tsukiko snapped out of it and turned her head to the side while squeezing out a feeble 'Hello'. Although confused, Jae-sung took that hello as a response and also turned to the side, facing the teacher's direction. Tsukiko, who hadn't been paying attention to the introduction made be Jae-sung was just experiencing inner turmoil and her mind was a mess. "Who is he?, why is he here??, why is he sitting next to me???, when did he even come in??, I didn't even notice when a living, breathing human was right next to me?!. Tsukiko, you fool!". She covered her face with her hand as if to say, 'I can't face anyone anymore!', and continued to do so until the teacher suddenly cleared her throat, signalling for Tsukiko to stop covering her face. This grabbed Tsukiko's attention and she removed her hand from her face almost immediately, only to see that everybody else had been staring at both her and Jae-sung. They had watched the entire thing in silence and even looked a bit disappointed when it was over. Tsukiko felt even more embarrassed and felt the urge to cover her face again. Luckily for her the teacher began to teach and Tsukiko breathed a sigh of relief. From that point on she would definitely pay more attention to what was going on around her to prevent any more happy little accidents in the future. 

Feeling motivated, Tsukiko immersed herself into the lesson and she was in the zone, and when Tsukiko was in the zone, getting her out would be impossible. There was even a bounty placed on her saying that if anyone was able to get her out of her zone, then there would be a cash prize. Many tried, but all have failed. This happened so many times until everyone just gave up and forgot about the entire thing.

So, Tsukiko stayed in this zone of hers all the way to the last period of the day. From potion making to wand waving and from there to lunch then to gym, she stayed in tis hyper-focused, extremely concentrated state and she was happy as a student at TMS (The Maho Seminary) could be. Tsukiko absolutely loved learning and being in this state really helped her achieve that. Not even Miyuki, her best friend could do anything to make her lose focus, not that Miyuki ever tried to.

During the last period, Tsukiko was ready to finish off her first day back in school by focusing even more than she did in all the other classes. She was so motivated that you could practically see two burning flames in her eyes. Unfortunately, her very ambitious aspiration was destroyed by the same person who had caused her to go into this state in the first place. It was Kim Jae-sung. He had unintentionally ruined Tsukiko's scholastic streak by simply pulling out a chair from a table and sitting in it, he did it so quietly too. You may be wondering how this was even possible, it's just a seat right, he didn't do anything wrong did he? Yes, he did. Kim Jae-sung had chosen not just some random seat in some corner, he had chosen a seat, right next to Tsukiko. Once Tsukiko had heard the sound of the chair being dragged against the floor, she turned her head slowly to the direction of the noise and saw that it was the same new boy from this morning. She froze in place and stared blankly at him with her mouth agape. The same questions she asked herself in the morning had flown into her head once more and she immediately lost focus. Feeling like he had eyes on him, Jae-sung turned his head to face Tsukiko and once he saw her expression, he felt the same confusion from this morning once more, only this time, he decided to break the stalemate first. "Um, why?", he said in a quiet voice whilst scratching the back of his head, "Why do you keep looking at me like that? Did I do something wrong?". Hearing his inquiry, Tsukiko realized how rude she was being and hurriedly apologized. "No, you didn't do anything wrong, I'm sorry for gawking at you like that. Please don't be offended". Tsukiko felt genuinely sorry for the she had been acting and even added a really deep bow showing that she was very serious about making amends. She looked up to see that the person she was bowing for was...smiling, a very beautiful smile at that, like the sun shining over snow as spring came. "It's okay", he said, "I wasn't offended in the slightest, just a bit confused that's all". Tsukiko was relieved and returned the smile while saying, "Thank goodness, I thought I had made you angry". Both smiling at each other now, Tsukiko had completely forgotten the awkward tension she had felt before and felt like the person in front of her had become a bit more approachable to her. Reaching out a hand, Tsukiko said in a very friendly voice, 'Hi, my name's Tsukiko Kurosawa, let's be friends!". Jae-sung shook the outstretched hand and said while smiling, "My name's Kim Jae-sung, it's nice to meet you and it'd be my pleasure to be your friend". Tsukiko felt even happier. She had an introverted nature and was never really able to make friends as much as she'd like to, so this could be considered as her second successful attempt at making her friend since Miyuki. 

They simultaneously released their hands from the handshake and they both smiled at each other. All of a sudden, the pair felt heated gazes coming from all directions, so they whipped their heads around only to realize that their classmates had become a group of melon-eaters and stared at Tsukiko and Jae-sung like they were watching a good show. They both hurriedly ducked their heads, feeling embarrassed from all the attention they were getting. Luckily for Tsukiko, Miyuki only had first period with her and wasn't in the same class as her otherwise, she probably would have said something that would double the effect of the situation.

Both Tsukiko and Jae-sung could only duck their heads while trying to pay attention to the class and then proceed to hurriedly run out. Jae-sung ran out first after seeing a message on his phone screen and seemed to be in a hurry. Tsukiko payed it no mind and also made her way out of class. She caught up with Miyuki and offered to walk her to the subway station she usually used to go home. Miyuki felt gratified and made sure Tsukiko knew she was grateful by talking her ear off about how she was the greatest person a friend could ask her. Tsukiko didn't know whether to laugh or not as she felt she wasn't really doing something that would warrant such praise, but of course, Miyuki is Miyuki after all ,and she loves doing this. 

They both reached the train station and Tsukiko bade Miyuki farewell and also began to go home. She was humming a tune when all of a sudden she saw someone crouching down next to something. This someone looked familiar. She got closer and closer until she figured out it was Jae-sung. Feeling excited and a little confused as to why he was even here in the first place, Tsukiko tried to call out to Jae-sung, but she hadn't even done so when all of a sudden, the thing on the ground next to Jae-sung hurled itself at him. 

"JAE-SUNG, WATCH OUT!!"