“The hardest thing about pretending to be okay is remembering to smile.”
Friday morning.
The classroom door slid open.
Jiwoo walked in.
“Morning!”
Heosok immediately stood up.
“You skipped school yesterday!”
Jiwoo rubbed the back of her neck.
“…Yeah.”
“My alarm betrayed me.”
Heosok narrowed his eyes.
“I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t believe anything.”
“Correct.”
Jisoo sighed.
“You two started arguing before first period.”
“We’re efficient.”
Jiwoo laughed.
“…Fair enough.”
The morning passed peacefully.
Until history class.
The teacher called on Jiwoo.
“Could you read the next paragraph?”
She stood up.
Opened her book.
Looked at the page.
…
Nothing.
The classroom became quiet.
Jiwoo blinked once.
Then again.
“…Jiwoo?”
The teacher asked gently.
She looked as if she had forgotten where she was.
Jisoo slowly looked toward her.
Zaizai tightened her grip on her pencil beneath the desk.
Then…
Jiwoo blinked.
“Oh.”
“Sorry.”
“I lost my place.”
She smiled.
The class moved on.
Most students forgot about it within seconds.
Jeheon didn’t.
Lunch break.
The six gathered beneath the tree.
Heosok happily opened a bag of chips.
“Today’s mission.”
“Protect these from Jiwoo.”
Jiwoo immediately reached for them.
“I wasn’t going to steal any.”
Heosok pulled the bag away.
“You’ve already stolen three.”
“They were samples.”
“They were mine.”
“Sharing is caring.”
“Theft is not sharing.”
Jisoo took one chip.
“Thanks.”
Heosok looked betrayed.
“You too?”
“I support equality.”
Jiwoo laughed so hard she nearly dropped her drink.
Even Jeheon smiled.
After lunch…
The bell rang.
Everyone began walking back.
Jiwoo slowed her pace.
Just slightly.
Nobody noticed.
Except Jeheon.
She wasn’t looking around anymore.
She wasn’t humming like usual.
She simply walked.
Quietly.
“Jiwoo!”
Heosok called from ahead.
“Hurry up!”
She looked up.
For a split second…
Her smile was gone.
Completely gone.
Then…
As if someone had flipped a switch…
She smiled again.
“I’m coming!”
She jogged toward them.
The moment disappeared.
Everyone continued talking.
Except Jeheon.
After school…
The group walked home together.
Heosok was busy complaining about homework.
Jisoo reminded him he’d forgotten to write it down.
Yongi quietly corrected the answers in his notebook.
Zaizai listened more than she spoke.
Jiwoo laughed at another terrible joke.
Everything looked normal.
Perfectly normal.
Jeheon looked at Jiwoo.
Then remembered the classroom.
The empty look in her eyes.
The missing smile.
He didn’t understand it.
But he knew one thing.
That wasn’t the same smile she wore every day.
That evening…
Jeheon sat by his bedroom window.
His homework lay open.
He wasn’t reading it.
Instead…
He remembered one tiny moment.
Just before Heosok called her name…
Jiwoo hadn’t looked happy.
She hadn’t looked sad either.
She had looked…
Tired.
Not physically.
Something else.
Something much heavier.
Jeheon quietly closed his notebook.
“…What happened to you?”
The question disappeared into the silent room.
There was no answer.
Not yet.