With her slippers suddenly feeling heavy, Kwon Jiyu trudged up the stairs to the in-house study hall to fulfill her obligatory after-school academic quota. Truthfully, she wasn't sure what she'd rather be doing: sifting unseeingly through text books for the next four hours or facing her mother's condescending dinner conversation. While signing in, handing her student ID to a very bored-looking Mr. Yoo—usually one of the 3rd year homeroom teachers—she decided that
she'd rather be dead.
She bowed her head in thanks once the middle-aged man finally returned her card, offering a weak smile and half-hearted laugh for one of his usual jokes, before heading to the left where the girls' room was. Pushing open the door to the soundproof room, she grimaced at the bleak atmosphere.
It was dimly lit as usual, the only lights being the ones on the individual walled desks. She walked through the rows of them, stepping over a classmate sleeping on the floor with a dictionary pillow, before sitting at her own desk. After pulling on the hoodie she'd left on her chair—very necessary in the bone-chilling room—something new caught her eye.
On the back wall of her desk, next to her neatly stacked text books, was a printed picture of her favorite actor with "Fighting! You'll pass exams!" written in a messy speech bubble by his mouth. A ghost of a smile grew on her lips and she did a brief glance around to see if anyone was the culprit. When no one stood out, she quietly cleared her throat and began unpacking and organizing her notebooks.
