LOVE:ZERO

“There are several pulse points on the human body where the pulse can be measured. These are the places where the arteries pass just under the skin…”

Ms. Shapiro, holding a long pointer, began to explain, pointing the various parts of the dummy while Mr. Hawkins walked around and distributed printouts and pencils to each line. Only after the printouts were handed over did Sienna look away from her.

Phew—

Jiyu let out a quiet sigh of relief. She had no relationship with Hunter, so she didn’t want to arouse unnecessary suspicion and turn school into a living hell.

Last winter semester, Sienna ended her eight-year friendship with her best friend Beatrice.

Beatrice, who attended the same tennis academy as Hunter, committed the foolhardy act of inviting Hunter to a ‘secret party’ without Sienna’s knowledge while on the shuttle bus that transported students to the tennis courts after school.

Beatrice’s parents were often away from home for days on end for work, and the secret parties they would throw during these times were notorious among the kids at the private school.

Since it was an exclusive party where only the popular kids from each school were invited one by one among the 7th graders, it was also an object of secret envy. However, despite the name ‘Secret Party’, the day after the party  colorful gossip spread throughout the Upper East Side.

I heard that a French kiss was used as a game penalty.

Or, someone looked at themselves in an empty room with their boyfriend and didn’t come out for a long time.

On the shuttle bus stopped in traffic on the bridge leading to Randall’s Island, Beatrice, sitting next to Hunter, whispered a secret invitation to him. Hunter immediately declined the invitation while the children pretended not to notice and listened with their ears perked up.

“Secret party? Sorry, I can’t go because I’m busy. I have a tournament this weekend and I have to practice all week.”

The most embarrassing scandal of last semester was when Sienna secretly invited Hunter, known as her crush, to a party and had him rejected in front of other children.

The fingers of the children holding their cellphones became busy at the same time, and by the time they arrived at the tennis academy, the news had already spread throughout the 7th grade.

Chloe, who is particularly interested in the gossip flowing out of Popular Clique, analyzed that Beatrice, who was the perennial number two, seemed to have taken desperate measures in a war of nerves with Sienna over the queen bee position by consolidating her position through secret parties.

Beatrice was branded a traitor and was mercilessly persecuted by Sienna. She eventually fell out of the popular clique. Even the ‘wannabe’ cliques that she had been wooing and flattering in order to get into it would not accept her.

Even after a semester had passed, she was still wandering around with a gloomy face, clinging to the ‘loser’ cliques that she would not have even greeted before.

These days, the secret parties are hosted by Sienna instead of Beatrice. Her parents are also often away from home, and the parties they throw in the basement of their luxury townhouse between Fifth and Madison Avenues have been given a new name: “underground parties.”

Beatrice became something of an example to the seventh graders at Astor School. No one had the guts and courage to flirt with Hunter, despite Sienna’s brutal revenge and the hellish school life.

Jiyu clicked her tongue slightly. If you’re that good, why don’t you be a little more friendly? Sienna and all, Hunter wasn’t interested in anyone but tennis. It was a good thing.

Jiyu shivered and slowly moved away from him. She felt sorry for his future girlfriend, whoever that might be.

Then Ms. Shapiro asked the students a question.

“If you need to check the vital signs of an unconscious person, where on the body is it most effective to take the pulse?”

About 20 students raised their hands in a flash. Jiyu hugged her knees and answered only in her head, watching the other students actively participate.

The students answered without hesitation, from plausible parts like the wrist, chest, and temples to outrageous parts like the soles of the feet and eyelids. Ms. Shapiro never gave the students a hard time, no matter how stupid their stories were. After listening to all the answers, even the most ridiculous ones, she nodded.

“There is no wrong answer because blood flows everywhere in the human body. However, in an emergency, it is easier to find a part that is exposed outside of clothing, right? Among them, the points where the arteries are close to the skin and easy to check the pulse are the wrist, the side of the neck, and the inside of the forearm. They are called the radial pulse, brachial pulse, and carotid pulse, respectively.”

Ms. Shapiro and Mr. Hawkins demonstrated how to take the pulse in three places.

“Now, pair up with someone next to you. We’ll take a minute to record your pulse at each pulse point on the printouts provided.”

The place where the kids from the two schools were sitting together became noisy like Time Square in the middle of a simmer in an instant. Jiyu opened her mouth in embarrassment and screamed internally.

“Hey, you want me to do this with Hunter?”

“Olivia”

Jiyu, who was picking up the prints one by one, raised her head at the sound of Chloe’s urgent voice calling her in a low voice. Chloe and Sienna, who were sitting side by side in the second row, waved to her at the same time.

“Sienna is switching seats!”

Chloe, with her hair in two pigtails, smiled, revealing her braces decorated with rainbow-colored O-rings. Sienna, who had been glancing at the teacher, half-raised her body and motioned for Jiyu to get up quickly as well. As she quietly got up, Hunter raised his hand.

“Mr. Hawkins, can I change partners during class?”

For a moment, the roaring noise suddenly stopped as if time had stopped.

Ms. Shapiro gave a stern warning on behalf of Mr. Hawkins.

“Sienna and Olivia! Take your seats.”

And then he emphasized it again.

“Partner changes are prohibited during the practice. Okay, we don’t have much time, so let’s get started quickly. We’ll record your pulse at three pulse points for 15 minutes on the paper we’ve given you and check if it’s within the normal pulse range. Don’t forget to record whether your pulse is strong or weak, regular or irregular.”

Jiyu bit her lip and sat back down awkwardly, glaring at Hunter with a blank expression. Her eyes were filled with resentment and accusation, but he looked at the print with an annoyingly indifferent expression and then suddenly opened his mouth.

“Will you go first?”

“…”

When Jiyu glared at him without answering, he shrugged his shoulders.

“If you don’t like it, I’ll do it first, so hold out your wrist.”

“Why did you do that?”

“What am I?”

Hunter asked back indifferently.

“Sienna said she would change partners. You too, better than me~”

“She’s annoying.”

Hunter cut her off.

“…”

So you’re saying I’m not annoyed?

“You too,  being a bother and just quickly hold out your wrist.”

Well then, that’s right.

Jiyu reluctantly held out her wrist, sighing heavily as if to be heard. The blue veins were clearly visible beneath the skin of her wrist, which was almost transparent. When she was young, Hunter used to tease her, saying that her skin was like a spring roll that you could see through.

The arms that I had secretly washed off the sunscreen and slightly tanned while I was on vacation in Cancun, Mexico, came back in less than a month. Ae-jeong was serious about keeping her skin white. She didn’t even listen when I earnestly complained that everyone thought my skin was too pale.

When going on vacation to a hot country, she would reapply sunscreen several times until her skin turned pale. She would even force herself to wear a strange hat with flaps like elephant ears that covered her shoulders, and she would even carry an umbrella when it wasn’t raining. Jiyu would feel embarrassed every time that happened, so she couldn’t even raise her head.

Hunter, on the other hand, had spent two weeks of spring break on the Hamilton family’s Island in the Caribbean and was tanned even more beautifully than in the summer. He had never said it out, but he envied his skin, which looked as healthy as melted caramel. It made him look relaxed and sophisticated.

Hunter straightened three callused fingers and pressed hard against the center of his wrist. Then he tilted his head and moved slightly higher than before.

About three seconds passed.

He frowned and shook his head.

“Ju Parker, isn’t your heart beating?”