{ chapter one }

‘the mayor’s son and mushrooms’

Jin Hee inhaled, calming herself. Not that she’s capable of doing an outburst. It’s just not in her personality.

“Wow, this is new, Byun Baek! Thanks! This is cute!” She said to nowhere as she wiped her face.

Let me break it down to you. The moment she stepped inside their building, the seniors’ building, Jin Hee was greeted by water from above, and no, it’s not holy just because it’s from above, it’s rather dirty because she could smell the rainy and soil-y scent in it. Jin Hee already guessed that whoever did it got the water from the gardening area in their school because they use collected rain water to water the plants and all that crap.

Baek Hyun must’ve thought she was some beautiful flower needed to be watered to blossom.

Boo, Baek Hyun, I’ve already blossomed into something you won’t reach; into a beautiful human-being, inside and out, Jin Hee thought.

Okay, maybe not that ‘inside-and-out’ part. Her inside, which is she’d like to think that her mind, is not beautiful. No. There lie her demons and unspoken words that no one would be able to handle if heard. No, no.

From afar, Jin Hee could hear some snickers and laughter from other students down the hallway as they looked at her.

“Thanks for the help guys! Appreciate it!” She hollered to them and they gave her thumbs up before walking.

Honestly, she doesn’t know those guys, she’s just known in their school to be quite friendly.

Three weeks ago, new academic year started here in Dwight School.

Out of all the things that happened to her for the past eight months, Jin Hee was sure she transferring to this school was the hardest thing to believe. It didn’t sink to her until a car honked behind her, making her jump, like literally jump, in her place.

She bowed to the car and immediately went to the sidewalk. Jin Hee didn’t want her dead body in the headlines and she sure didn’t want to waste her precious blood staining the asphalt road. When she looked to her surroundings, some students were looking weirdly at her like she was high. Well, she looked high. Who the hell wanders in the middle of the road when, obviously, all of the students are walking in the sidewalk? No one but yours truly, Lee Jin Hee.

She’d never imagined herself attending this expensive, exclusive, whatever school. Though, she wished sometimes, but she never really made a move to making it happen.

She has some pretty dramatic and cliché life, all right.

Jin Hee managed not to get lost, after asking some people that looked like a member of the faculty. Her first day went smooth and she found out that most students there are filthy rich. She overheard some students younger than her talking about their vacation in Maldives, the other in Africa, though Jin Hee wasn’t sure why she went there.

She overheard twenty stories just by standing in front of her locker and pretending to be organized and she was sure she took fifteen long minutes before slamming her locker shut and walking away. She would’ve stayed longer, but when she heard the stories were all about boys or boys talking—more like bragging—about them getting laid, she was more than willing to get the out of there.

That’s when you know you’ve had enough.

Her first day went well, as well as the second but when third day came, what happened to her screamed ‘no peace for you the whole academic year’.

With those two well days, she made friends and acquaintances. Actually, she expected these rich kids to be all snobbish and ‘new life bought yesterday hu dis’ on her, but they were kind and neutral. Now all in their class know her as this noisy and carefree girl who got her first warning in her first day of school for being so loud and hyperactive. Fun, eh?

She met one girl and one guy, whom she can be sure to call as her friends here since they really want to know her and they’re tired of their own classmates. Apparently, she was the only new girl in the class.

“So, where do you live?” Stephanie asked her in lunch break. It was her third day in the school.

The cafeteria was packed with students and it was noisy, but it wasn’t the annoying one. It was natural. It’s kind of creepy when a cafeteria with a hundred students is awfully quiet…

Across Jin Hee were Stephanie and Alex.

She shrugged and swallowed the food before answering. Wouldn’t want them to be sprinkled with some graces from now, would we? “Just in some exclusive village that has this big bronze gates and a really strict guard.” She remembered the first time he saw her entering the village, and his eyes basically went from her head to her toe like she was some lost piece of garbage in the land of gold. She did think of herself like that one time. The village was hectares wide and all of the houses there? No joke. No, not just houses, damn mansions.

“Holy , you live in Octavia Village?” Alex dramatically gasped that she wasn’t able to tell if he was joking or just exaggerating being the gay he is.

Yes, Alex is gay.

“Why? What’s the big deal?” Her eyes darted from Stephanie to Alex, both had shocked faces; eyes wide and mouth agape. She was about to speak again when they waved their hands and brought back their normal, blank faces.

“Nah, we live there too. Our house is at Phase Three.” Alex chuckled.

Stephanie raised her hand, “Phase Eight!”

“Phase One.” Jin Hee grinned.

She almost laughed at herself when her own voice rang in her mind. ‘Why? What’s the big deal?’ Yes, Jin Hee, no big deal to live at Octavia when it’s practically the land of riches! Just remember that it’s your father who’s rich! Not you!

Jin Hee’s eyes scanned the crowd of students, their auras screaming ‘I-came-from-a-family-whose-tradition-is-to-make-lots-and-lots-of-money’. And she saw a lot of really good genes, but there are also who are not… fortunate enough, but who cares about that right? Definitely all of us.

The two continued talking about some gossips they knew and Jin Hee really couldn’t care less about those. If those won’t benefit her, she definitely won’t give a flying about it.

See how rude she is? That’s just her mind, don’t be scared.

Holy … in a stick…

Oh boy was he beautiful…

Her eyes stopped at a certain table full of boys (of course, where else would she look?), not just boys, but damn gorgeous boys. There wer