“My name is Kim Minseok, but I go by Xiumin. Just. Xiumin.” He bowed in front of his new peers who kept their stoic expressions planted on their faces. The mood was sullen. The fashion wasn’t as “livelier” or as colorful compared to the lower years in his homeroom class. Xiumin figured the third year students, being seniors and whatnot, were done with their impressions and just trying to get through their last year as high school students. Xiumin studied the faces of his classmates. He didn’t see the faces of the girls he met earlier in the courtyard. Perhaps they were in a different class or grade. They did look younger.

“Xiumin you can sit in that empty back row seat, next to Nana.” The teacher directed his hand at a slender girl raising hers with an airy smile. Something about her enthusiastic wave gave Xiumin the impression that she was friendly. She was also incredibly pretty. He took his new seat and noticed that everyone was giving him a glance-over look, but he pretended like he didn’t. Nana made a “oohing” sound when she did her glance-over. The teacher officially began his lesson but Nana slightly leaned over in her chair and whisper to Xiumin,

“You need a lot of work done.”

His brows furrowed, still looking towards the front to appear he was still listening to the lecture but he responded with a whisper as well, “Work?”

Nana nodded, practically away from her desk making it obvious she wasn’t listening to the teacher, “They are going to want you assigned to her. Kwon. So. Hyun.”

“Who?” He didn’t say it in a whisper this time so everyone heard. The teacher cleared his throat and asked if he could continue. Xiumin apologized grimly while Nana shrugged, still smiling.

The cafeteria hardly came off as a surprise to Xiumin. He already gathered that he was attending a school on a league far beyond anything he ever imagined so with every new location he journeyed into he anticipated grandeur.  

“You’re in our class, right?”

Before Xiumin could even find a seat in the cafeteria, three females approached him with sour expressions. He stood dumbly with his tray of the least expensive food he could find, which was only bread and milk. One of the girls crossed her arms and repeated herself. Xiumin finally nodded.

“Yeah, I’m in 3-1.”

They threw their heads back and scoffed, as if it were their worst fears coming true. They didn’t try to hide their disgust when they made eye contact with him.

“You,” One of the girls started loudly, “Your outer appearance alone tells us how poor you are.”

“Nevermind that boring expression you always have planted on your face.” Another one blurted.

“If you can’t brush up your style then you’ll have to be categorized into the Reject Party.”

Xiumin began to ask what the Reject Party was but they cut him off.

“We’re officially assigning you to The Doll Maker. She sees the potential in everyone and you, my dear, need a miracle.”

Xiumin looked down at his uniform to see if he could judge. He couldn’t, and by the time he looked back up the three girls were gone, like witches who used a spell to vanish. Xiumin looked around and then spotted Nana sitting by herself. He found it odd that the prettiest girl he has seen so far wasn’t surrounded by a flock of students. He then wondered if it was because something was off about her. She did have that airy character about herself during class. He was standing at her table without even realizing that he subconsciously walked over to it. She pointed at the seat next to her but he decided to sit across instead.

“I told you they were going to make you see her.”

He gave up on trying to eat the bread he was aiming at his mouth. He set his food aside and asked Nana seriously just who in the world was everyone talking about when they referred to a girl called “The Doll Maker”.

“Here in Chronicle, fashion dictates student life. It wasn’t always like this of course. Chronicle used to be a regular school that brought all grades into one building, but fashion became a trend just a few years ago when the first celebrity was molded from this very school. She always had style, but someone highlighted her best parts. That’s how “the process” works. We have to find that one thing that sets us apart from the others and it becomes our trend.”

“It sounds pretty pointless to me.” Xiumin admitted, “Why was a caste system placed? Why couldn’t fashion be by choice since it’s impossible for everyone to become a celebrity?”

“Everyone wants to be successful. What’s the point of trying if you’ve already written yourself off? That’s why we have the Reject division. The individuals who refuse to better themselves within the school. Like myself!” That explained it. Nana, though oddly chipper about it, was a Reject and didn’t have any friends because of it. Xiumin still couldn’t figure it out, but he didn’t care to become a trend or to impress anyone. He just wanted to get through his last year quietly.

Nana continued, “The first person to become a celebrity was my older sister, Kahi.” Xiumin spat out his milk. “It happened, hmm, five years ago? She was a highschooler, like us! The person that helped her transformation was just in middle school at the time. She’s even younger than us. She is who they call,” She looked around cautiously and put her hand up to slowly mouthing out the words, “Doll Maker”.

“The Doll Maker?” Xiumin clarified. Someone kicked their table.

“What did you just call her?” A taller boy with a strong build and mean expression hovered over them like a menacing dark cloud. He leaned in closely to Xiumin and grabbed his bread. “Don’t ever let me catch you referring to my sister as that again.” He bit the bread and chewed in front of Xiumin for a long while. Xiumin got the message and nodded until the boy left. Nana sighed and Xiumin pointed with his thumb asking frantically,

“Who was that?”

“Bang Yonguk. Or sometimes just Bang. The older brother. He’s also in our class, he’s very nice but he has a bad temper when people talk bad about his sister…which is almost all the time.”

Xiumin failed to see the "nice" aspect in the boy's character at all. “I don’t understand, I thought this girl is supposed to be popular and well liked.”

Nana tilted her head and shook it. “You’ll understand…or not.”