Pulse Points and Secret Whispers

p>The human body has multiple pulse points where you can feel the heartbeat. They are places where an artery runs just beneath the skin....

p>Miss Shapiro, gripping a long pointer, began explaining as she pointed to various spots on the human model. While she spoke, Mr. Hawkins roamed among the students, distributing the printed materials and pencils to each line.

p>Only after the prints arrived did Siena pull her gaze away from her.

p>Hah, Jiyu let out a quiet sigh of relief. She had no interest in dragging Hunter into this just because she wanted to be suspicious of him and turn the school into a living nightmare.

p>Last winter semester, Siena had ended her eight-year friendship with her close friend Beatrice.

p>Beatrice, who attended the same tennis academy as Hunter, had secretly invited him to a “secret party” during the shuttle bus ride home after school, all while Siena watched helplessly.

p>Beatrice’s parents traveled frequently for work and left the house empty for days at a time, creating perfect opportunities for the parties to start on a whim. These events were notorious among private school students.

p>Even among seventh graders, only the popular kids of each school received exclusive invitations, making them the quiet envy of everyone else. Yet, despite the name “secret party,” the gossip that erupted the next day painted the entire Upper East Side in vivid colors.

p>Who had kissed whom as a game forfeit?

p>Or how someone had locked themselves in a room with their boyfriend for hours and refused to come out?

p>Beatrice had whispered the invitation right there in the shuttle bus stuck in traffic near the bridge to Randall’s Island, sitting right beside Hunter while the other kids pretended not to hear, ears perked up. Hunter rejected it instantly.

p>"Secret party? Sorry, but I’m too busy. There’s a tournament this weekend, so I have to practice all week."

p>The incident—Siena, Hunter’s public crush, being turned down while the other kids watched—became the most humiliating scandal of the semester.

p>Fingers flew across phones as the news spread like wildfire. By the time the group reached the tennis academy, it had already reached the entire seventh-grade population.

p>Chloe, who devoured gossip from the popular clique, had analyzed that Beatrice, the perennial runner-up, had tried to carve out her own territory by throwing secret parties, but ended up battling Siena for the queen-bee spot and overreached.

p>Beatrice was now branded a traitor and endured Siena’s merciless persecution. She eventually left the popular clique and, even in the wannabe group where she once fawned around trying to gain entry, she was rejected.

p>Now, a full semester later, she wandered aimlessly among the losers, still wearing that gloomy expression, greeting no one as she used to.

p>Lately the secret parties had been taken over by Siena in Beatrice’s absence. Her parents, like many others, often left the house empty, and the underground parties held secretly in the basement of a luxurious townhouse between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue had earned the new name “Underground Party.”

p>Beatrice had become a cautionary tale for every seventh grader at Astor School. The bold courage and flirting skills that had survived Siena’s cruel revenge and the hellish school life were now a thing of the past.

p>Jiyu clicked her tongue softly. If Hunter was that good, why not treat him a little nicer? Siena could do whatever she wanted, but Hunter had no interest in anyone except tennis. It was for the best.

p>What if Hunter had chosen to date someone other than Siena?

p>Jiyu shivered and instinctively scooted away from him a little. No matter who it was, the future girlfriend would have had a rough time.

p>At that moment, Miss Shapiro posed a question to the class.

p>"When checking a person’s vital signs after they have lost consciousness, which part of the body is the most efficient place to measure the pulse?"

p>About twenty students shot their hands into the air. Jiyu hugged her knees and silently calculated her answer while she watched the others eagerly volunteer.

p>They named plausible spots first—wrist, chest, temple—then surprisingly outrageous ones like the sole of the foot and eyelid. Miss Shapiro never rebuked them, no matter how silly the answers were. After listening to every ridiculous suggestion, she nodded.

p>"Blood flows everywhere in the human body, so there’s no wrong answer. But in an emergency, the easiest places to check will be areas exposed outside clothing. Among them, the points where arteries lie close to the skin and make it easy to find the pulse are the wrist, side of the neck, and inner forearm. They’re called the radial pulse, brachial pulse, and carotid pulse, respectively."

p>Miss Shapiro and Mr. Hawkins demonstrated how to take each of the three pulses themselves.

p>"Now pair up with the person next to you. You’ll also have time to record the one-minute pulse counts from each point on the printed sheet you’ve been handed."

p>The mixed rows of students at Astor erupted in noise like Times Square on a summer afternoon. Startled, Jiyu grumbled and screamed internally.

p>'I, I’m supposed to do this with Hunter?'

p>"Olivia!"

p>As Jiyu reached for the printout, Chloe’s urgent voice calling her name made her look up. Chloe and Siena, sitting side by side in the second row, waved at her at the same time.

p>"Siena says she’ll switch seats!"

p>Chloe, with her twin braids, flashed a rainbow-colored retainer and grinned, showing off her braces. Siena, glancing sideways at the teacher, half-rose from her seat and gestured for Jiyu to hurry up. When Jiyu stood with a start, Hunter raised his hand.

p>"Mr. Hawkins, is it okay to change partners anytime during class?"

p>The entire noisy chatter suddenly froze.

p>Miss Shapiro gave Mr. Hawkins a stern look in his place and warned,

p>"Siena and Olivia, sit down."

p>Then she emphasized it again.

p>"Partner swapping is strictly forbidden during practical exercises. We don’t have much time, so let’s start quickly. For the next fifteen minutes, record the pulse counts from the three points on the sheet, check whether it falls within the normal range, and don’t forget to note if the pulse is strong or weak, regular or irregular."

p>Jiyu bit her lip and awkwardly sat back down, glaring at Hunter with a sullen face full of resentment and accusation. He, however, looked annoyingly calm, staring at the printout for a moment before speaking up abruptly.

p>"You go first?"

p>"......"

p>When Jiyu glared at him without answering, he shrugged.

p>"Fine, then I’ll go first. Put your wrist out."

p>"Why?"

p>"What of it?"

p>Hunter asked with a nonchalant tone.

p>"Siena said she’d switch partners for me. You’re no better than—"

p>"She’s annoying."

p>Hunter cut her off mid-sentence.

p>"......"

p>Then that meant I wasn’t annoying.

p>"Don’t be annoying either. Just put your wrist out."

p>There, that’s better.

p>Jiyu sighed loudly as if in resignation, extending her wrist. Blue veins showed clearly beneath the almost translucent, porcelain skin. Back in her childhood, Hunter had often teased her about how her skin looked like a spring roll you could see straight through.

p>During spring break, the arms she had secretly tanned a little at Cancun, Mexico, after washing off her sunscreen, hadn’t even lasted a month before turning back pale. Hunter had truly intended to keep her skin white. She had pleaded with all her heart that overly pale skin was considered ugly, but he had paid no attention.

p>When she went on vacation to a hot country, she slathered on sunscreen again and again until her skin turned even whiter. She forced herself to wear a strange hat with flaps like elephant ears to cover her shoulders, carried an umbrella even though it never rained, and endured endless shame without ever lifting her head.

p>In contrast, Hunter spent two weeks of spring break on an island owned by the Hamilton family in the Caribbean and emerged with a tan far more impressive than summer. He had never mentioned it openly, but Jiyu envied his glowing, caramel-like skin that looked so healthy and sophisticated.

p>Hunter straightened his three fingers with calluses and pressed firmly into the center of her wrist. Then he tilted his head and shifted his seat a little higher than before.

p>Three seconds later.

p>His brows furrowed and he suddenly jerked his head up.

p>"Jyu Parker, aren’t you supposed to have a heartbeat?"