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Holding a long pointer, Miss Shapiro began her explanation, gesturing to various parts of the anatomical model. Meanwhile, Mr. Hawkins walked around, distributing handouts and pencils to each row. Only after the handout reached her did Sienna finally take her eyes off her.
Phew. Jiyu let out a quiet sigh of relief. She had no relationship with Hunter and didn't want to invite unnecessary suspicion that would turn school into a living hell.
Last winter term, Sienna had put an end to her eight-year friendship with her best friend, Beatrice.
Beatrice, who attended the same tennis academy as Hunter, had committed the reckless act of secretly inviting Hunter to a 'Secret Party' while on the shuttle bus that transported the children to the tennis courts after school.
Beatrice's parents were often away from home for days due to work, and the secret parties held spontaneously during those times were notorious among the private school children.
Since these were exclusive parties where only the popular kids from each school in the 7th grade were invited through word-of-mouth, they were objects of subtle envy. However, contrary to the name 'Secret Party,' colorful gossip spread throughout the Upper East Side the very next day.
Who French-kissed whom as a game penalty.
Or, who locked themselves in an empty room with whose boyfriend and didn't come out for a long time.
Inside the shuttle bus, stopped due to traffic congestion on the bridge leading to Randall's Island, Beatrice, sitting next to Hunter, had whispered a secret invitation to him. While the other children pretended not to notice but kept their ears pricked to eavesdrop, Hunter rejected the invitation immediately.
[Secret Party? Sorry, but I'm too busy to go. There's a tournament this weekend, so I have to practice all week.]
The incident—inviting Hunter, who was publicly known as Sienna's crush, to a party behind her back, only to be rejected in front of everyone—was the most humiliating scandal of the last term.
The fingers of the children clutching their phones became busy all at once, and by the time they arrived at the tennis academy, the news had already spread to the entire 7th grade.
Chloe, who was exceptionally interested in the gossip leaking from the Popular Clique, analyzed that Beatrice, the perennial number two, had tried to solidify her position through the Secret Party and had overplayed her hand while fighting for the 'Queen Bee' spot against Sienna.
Beatrice was branded a traitor and suffered Sienna's merciless persecution. Eventually, she was cast out of the Popular Clique. Even the 'wannabe' clique, who used to hover around and flatter her just to get in, refused to take her in.
Even now, a term later, she wandered around with a gloomy face, clinging to the 'loser' clique—people she wouldn't have even acknowledged with a greeting in the past.
These days, it was Sienna, not Beatrice, who hosted the secret parties. Her parents also tended to be away from home frequently, and the parties held secretly in the basement of a luxury townhouse between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue were given a new name: 'Underground Parties.'
Beatrice had become a sort of cautionary tale for the 7th graders at Aster School. No child now had the guts or courage to flirt with Hunter, even if it meant enduring Sienna's cruel revenge and a hellish school life.
Jiyu clicked her tongue softly. Since she likes him that much, she could have been a bit kinder. Regardless of Sienna, Hunter had no interest in anyone other than tennis. It was actually for the best.
If Hunter were to date someone other than Sienna...
Jiyu shuddered and slowly edged away from him. Whoever that person might be, she felt sorry for the future girlfriend.
Just then, Miss Shapiro posed a question to the students.
[If you need to check the vital signs of an unconscious person, where on the body would be the most efficient place to measure the pulse?]
About twenty children shot their hands up. Jiyu hugged her knees and answered only in her head, watching the other children actively participate.
The students poured out answers without hesitation, ranging from plausible areas like the wrist, chest, and temple, to bizarre ones like the sole of the foot or the eyelid. Miss Shapiro never belittled the children, no matter how foolish their answers were. After listening to every silly response, she nodded.
[Since blood flows everywhere in the human body, there are no wrong answers. However, in an emergency, areas exposed outside of clothing are usually easier to find, right? Among those, the points where the artery is close to the skin and easy to measure are the wrist, the side of the neck, and the inside of the upper arm. These are called the Radial Pulse, Brachial Pulse, and Carotid Pulse, respectively.]
Miss Shapiro and Mr. Hawkins personally demonstrated how to measure the pulse at these three locations.
[Now, please pair up with the person next to you. You will spend some time recording the pulse measured for one minute at each pulse point on the handouts provided.]
The gym, where children from the two schools were sitting mixed together, instantly became as noisy as Times Square in midsummer. A flustered Jiyu opened and closed her mouth, screaming internally.
'I... I have to do this with Hunter?'
[Olivia!]
As Jiyu was tentatively picking up her handout, she looked up at the urgent voice of Chloe calling her in a low tone. Chloe and Sienna, who were sitting side-by-side in the second row, waved to her simultaneously.
[Sienna says she'll switch seats!]
Chloe, with her hair in pigtails, smiled broadly, revealing her braces decorated with rainbow-colored O-rings. Sienna, glancing stealthily at the teacher, half-rose from her seat and motioned for Jiyu to get up quickly. Just as Jiyu rose with a look of delight, Hunter raised his hand high.
[Mr. Hawkins, are we allowed to change partners during class?]
For a moment, the buzzing noise stopped as if time had frozen.
Miss Shapiro gave a stern warning in place of Mr. Hawkins.
[Sienna, and Olivia! Sit back down.]
Then she emphasized once more.
[Partner changes are forbidden during the practical. Now, we don't have much time, so please start quickly. For the next 15 minutes, record the pulses measured at the three pulse points on the paper and check if they are within the normal pulse range. Don't forget to record whether the pulse is strong or weak, and regular or irregular.]
Biting her lip, Jiyu sat back down awkwardly and glared at Hunter with a pout. She tried to fill her gaze with resentment and accusation, but he looked at the handout with an annoyingly indifferent expression before suddenly speaking.
[Do you want to go first?]
[......]
When Jiyu only glared without answering, he shrugged.
[If you don't want to, I'll go first, so give me your wrist.]
[Why did you do that?]
[Do what?]
Hunter asked back nonchalantly.
[Sienna said she'd switch partners. You probably prefer her over—]
[She's annoying.]
Hunter cut her off abruptly.
[......]
Does that mean I'm not annoying?
[Stop being annoying too and just give me your wrist.]
I thought so.
Jiyu let out a loud sigh for him to hear and reluctantly held out her wrist. The blue veins were clearly visible beneath the translucently white skin of her wrist. When they were younger, Hunter used to tease her, saying her skin was like a spring roll that you could see right through.
The arms she had slightly tanned by secretly washing off sunscreen in Cancun, Mexico, during spring break, had returned to their original color in less than a month. Ae-jeong was serious about keeping her skin white. Even when Jiyu sincerely pleaded that too pale skin looked tacky, Ae-jeong didn't even pretend to listen.
Whenever they went on vacation to a hot country, Ae-jeong would reapply sunscreen over and over until the skin turned white and flaky. To make matters worse, she forced Jiyu to wear a strange hat with flaps like elephant ears covering her shoulders and carried an umbrella even when it wasn't raining. Every time, Jiyu was so embarrassed she couldn't even lift her head.
In contrast, Hunter, who had spent two weeks of spring break on a Hamilton family-owned island in the Caribbean, was tanned to a color more wonderful than summer. Though she had never said it aloud, she envied his healthy skin tone, which looked like melted caramel. It somehow made him look relaxed and sophisticated.
Hunter straightened three of his calloused fingers and pressed firmly into the center of her wrist. Then, tilting his head, he moved his position slightly higher than before.
After about three seconds.
He frowned and snapped his head up.
[Jewel Parker, is your heart even beating?]
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