One corner was dedicated entirely to art supplies.

Another contained gaming equipment.

A third was filled with abandoned hobbies that had lasted anywhere from two days to two weeks.

Yet another section resembled a miniature library overflowing with books and novels.

Aeryun's mother shook her head.

"How does one person collect this much stuff?"

Muttering to herself, she began sorting everything into separate boxes.

Eventually, she lifted one of the cartons filled with art supplies and carried it toward Aeryun's room.

The moment she opened the door, she nearly dropped it.

Aeryun was asleep.

Still.

Her sleeping position somehow looked even worse than before.

Half her body hung off the bed.

One leg rested on the floor.

Her hair dangled upside down like something out of a horror movie.

Her blanket had disappeared entirely.

She looked less like a sleeping student and more like a mountain climber who had collapsed halfway through an expedition.

"AERYUN!"

The entire house seemed to shake.

Aeryun jolted awake.

"Wha—?"

"What are you still doing here?!"

Aeryun blinked repeatedly.

"Huh?"

"If you're here, then who left the house earlier?"

Aeryun rubbed her eyes.

"Oh."

She yawned.

"That was Chaerin."

Her mother stared.

"When did she get here?"

"This morning."

Aeryun suddenly sat upright.

"What time is it?"

"7:30 AM."

The answer hit her like a truck.

"What?!"

She launched herself out of bed.

"Oh no. Oh no, no, no."

Her mother quickly stepped aside as Aeryun sprinted toward her wardrobe.

"Out."

"What?"

"Out! I need to change!"

A few moments later, Aeryun emerged in her Daehan Academy uniform.

Not properly dressed.

Just dressed enough.

She grabbed every book she could find from her desk without checking her timetable and stuffed them into her bag.

Then she spotted her socks.

Unfortunately, they were still damp.

She stared at them.

The socks stared back.

There was no time for negotiation.

She put them on anyway.

Then she sprinted out of the house.

A block away, disaster struck.

While trying to put on her shoe properly and run at the same time, Aeryun tripped.

Hard.

She crashed onto the pavement.

Her forehead slammed into the ground.

Her knee scraped painfully against the concrete.

"Ow!"

For a moment, she simply sat there in shock.

Then she heard a vehicle slow down behind her.

A small Kei truck rolled to a stop.

Inside were two people.

One was the Kwon family's driver, Choi Mansu.

The other was Tae.

They were on their way to the wholesale market to purchase tangerines, nuts, dried fruits, and milk for Qyena Kwon's chocolates, along with several types of flour for one of Zeon's latest fortune-cookie experiments.

Both Choi Mansu and Tae immediately climbed out of the truck.

"Are you alright?" Tae asked.

Aeryun looked up.

Without his baseball cap, she didn't recognize him at first.

"I'm fine."

She wasn't.

Her forehead hurt.

Her knee hurt.

Everything hurt.

But she immediately stood up and attempted to limp away.

Choi Mansu folded his arms.

"You don't look fine."

Aeryun froze.

"And unless I'm mistaken," he continued, glancing at her uniform, "you're very late for school."

She blinked.

"How did you know?"

He pointed at her uniform.

"Just a wild guess."

"Oh."

"Get in."

"What?"

"We'll drop you off."

Aeryun looked toward the truck.

"Really?"

"It's on the way."

Before she could refuse, Choi Mansu opened the rear gate.

The back of the truck was packed with wooden crates filled with apples.

They were supposed to deliver them to a local store before continuing to the wholesale market.

Choi Mansu moved several crates to the passenger seat to create space.

Then he pointed toward the truck bed.

"Hop in."

Aeryun stared.

"You make it sound easy."

Tae stepped forward.

"I'll help."

As he offered his hand, Aeryun squinted at him.

"Have we met before?"

Tae smiled.

"Maybe."

Aeryun narrowed her eyes.

"Maybe?"

"Maybe not."

His expression remained perfectly serious.

Aeryun stared for another second.

Then realization hit her.

"Wait."

She pointed dramatically.

"You're the guy from Mr. Park's noodle shop!"

Tae laughed.

"And the winner of yesterday's contest!"

"There it is."

"You remembered."

"Of course I remembered!"

Tae shook his head, amused.

Since there wasn't enough room for both of them to sit comfortably in the back of the truck, Tae grabbed onto the side railing of the truck and remained standing. He leaned against the stacked apple crates, using them to support part of his weight.

Aeryun looked at him in disbelief.

"That's dangerous."

"I'll be fine."

Choi Mansu glanced at him through the rearview mirror.

"You're going to fall."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"I'm not."

Aeryun sighed.

"Please sit down before you die."

"I'm not going to die."

Neither Aeryun nor Choi Mansu looked convinced.

The truck continued down the road.

Then it hit a pothole.

A very large pothole.

A loud crash echoed through the truck.

Three wooden crates shattered instantly.

Apples flew in every direction.

And Tae disappeared.

Tae's head landed dangerously close to Aeryun's shoes.

For a moment, everything was silent.

Then he sat up.

Almost immediately, his expression changed.

Aeryun froze.

The smell had reached him.

The wet socks.

Tae looked like he was fighting for his life.

He quickly covered his nose and turned away, looking as though he was about to throw up.

Mortified, Aeryun buried her face in her hands.

"I can explain."

Tae looked genuinely traumatized.

"It's usually not like this."

That somehow made everything worse.

Choi Mansu immediately pulled the truck over.

The moment he saw the shattered crates and the apples scattered everywhere, he burst into laughter.

"I told you!"

Tae pointed at him.

"Not helping."

Still laughing, Choi Mansu shook his head.

"After dropping her off at school, you're helping me repair those crates."

Tae sighed.

"Fair enough."

Choi Mansu was so pleased about being proven right that he reached into his pocket and pulled out a chocolate Qyena Kwon had given him earlier.

The chocolate was called Cheonsaeng-yeonbun — Match Made in Heaven.

He handed it to the two of them.

"Share."

Tae accepted it immediately, offering it to Aeryun.

"You can keep it."

Aeryun blinked.

"What?"

"You skipped breakfast, didn't you?"

"...Maybe."

"Then take it."

"But he asked us to share."

Tae shrugged.

"You need it more."

Aeryun looked at the chocolate and smiled.

"Thank you."

Then she sighed dramatically.

"And I'm sorry you had to go through the traumatic experience of smelling my socks."

That too in the morning, Tae laughed.

"It's alright."

Aeryun smiled back.

Then she suddenly realized something.

"Wait."

"What?"

"I haven't even asked your name."

"Tae Minwoo."

Aeryun pointed at herself.

"I’m Aeryun Han. Oh yes, now, I remember Hannah, your sister, told us your name yesterday!"

"I know you’re Aeryun."

She blinked.

"You know?"

Before Tae could answer, the truck slowed to a stop.

Daehan Academy stood before them.

They had arrived.

As soon as Aeryun climbed out of the back of the truck, students began staring.

Some giggled.

Others whispered among themselves while glancing in her direction.

The attention was immediate and impossible to miss.

Aeryun, Tae, and Choi Mansu assumed the reason was obvious.

After all, it wasn't every day someone arrived at Daehan Academy in the back of an apple truck.

Choi Mansu scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Maybe you're the first student in history to arrive at school in an apple truck. That's probably why everyone looks so surprised."

Aeryun nodded.

"That would explain a lot."

She bowed slightly.

"Thank you for saving me today."

She thanked Choi Mansu first before turning to Tae.

"And thank you too."

Then she immediately started running toward the school building with a noticeable limp.

Before climbing into the passenger seat, Tae and Choi Mansu moved the crates back to where they belonged. The apples scattered across the truck bed were gathered into a large sack for the time being. They would repair the broken crates later.

Once everything was secured, Tae was in the passenger seat, and Choi Mansu started the truck again.

After a few moments, he glanced at Tae.

"Isn't this the same school Zeon attends?"

Tae nodded.

"Yeah."

"So when are you joining?"

"Next week, hopefully."

Choi Mansu raised an eyebrow.

"Hopefully?"

"There are still a few things left to sort out. My parents haven't arrived yet, and we're still settling in."

He looked out the window.

"Once everything is figured out, I'll transfer."

The morning sunlight streamed through the windshield and fell across his face.

Tae reached up and put on his denim baseball cap.

A small smile appeared on his face.

"I wonder what lies ahead."

The two members of Medusa's group, Lee Liora and Kang Kyuri, immediately recognized Tae's denim baseball cap as they walked toward Daehan Academy.

Without wasting a second, they texted Myeora.

We just saw him sitting in the passenger seat of an apple truck.

Myeora replied almost instantly.

Seriously?

Yep.

There was a brief pause before another message appeared.

Maybe he's helping his father with deliveries.

Another followed.

That's so tacky.

And then:

Keep me informed, girls. At least now we know he's poor.

Meanwhile, Aeryun had problems of her own.

As she hurried toward her classroom, the number of heads turning to look at her was impossible to count.

Everywhere she went, students stared.

Some whispered.

Others giggled.

A few openly pointed.

Aeryun slowed down.

Why is everyone looking at me?

Before she could think about it any further, a group of girls suddenly swarmed her.

"Aeryun!"

"Take this!"

"We brought these for you!"

Before she could react, someone shoved a banana into her hands.

Another girl offered two more.

Aeryun stared at them.

"What?"

"Please take them."

"No, thank you. I'm already running late."

"Please."

"We insist."

The girls continued holding the bananas out toward her.

Completely baffled, Aeryun eventually accepted them.

They were asking so politely that refusing felt rude.

Besides, it wasn't their fault she was late.

Still...

Why bananas?

As she continued walking, several students suddenly began making monkey noises at her.

Aeryun stopped.

Slowly.

Very slowly.

She turned around.

The students immediately looked away and pretended nothing had happened.

Aeryun narrowed her eyes.

Have people completely lost their minds?

Maybe there was some upcoming event.

Maybe there was a sports festival.

Maybe Daehan Academy had collectively decided to descend into chaos.

At this point, every possibility felt equally reasonable.

Still confused, she continued toward her classroom.

The moment she stepped inside, everything finally made sense.

A video was playing on the projector.

A very familiar incident.

It showed Aeryun desperately trying to retrieve her notebook from two members of Medusa's group.

The footage had been heavily edited with cartoonish graphics.

Every time she jumped to grab the notebook, someone had added a monkey sound effect.

A cartoon tail had been edited onto the back of her skirt.

A giant banana emoji floated above the notebook.

The edits somehow made the entire thing even more ridiculous.

The classroom erupted into laughter.

Someone pointed dramatically toward the door.

"Aeryun's here!"

Another student stood up.

"Our famous viral monkey has arrived!"

The entire classroom exploded into cheers, laughter, and more monkey noises.

Aeryun stood frozen in the doorway.

Bananas still in hand.

She looked at the projector.

Then at the bananas.

Then back at the projector.

A long silence followed.

Finally, she looked up at the ceiling.

"...I should've stayed in bed."