Warning! Violence and attempted  startin' out strong ya'll

Also, let me know if you see any typos. I'm horrible at editing my own stuff lol

“Mom, should I put this box in the living room?” I asked, struggling to carry a box filled to the brim with old books.

“That’d be great, sweetie. Thanks!” My mom called from kitchen where she was unpacking our plates and silverware.

I waddled to the living room and nearly dropped the box on my toe in my haste to set it down. I looked around the tiny room and sighed. Mom and I had to move out of our beautiful two-story house in Gangnam into this tiny apartment in a much poorer area of Seoul. I missed our old house already, but I couldn’t complain to mom. She has so much worrying her already. I suppose we can make do with this dingy little place.

A couple hours later, mom and I sat down at the newly unpacked table for a modest dinner of ramen. Our TV wasn’t plugged in yet, so we just chatted amongst ourselves to break the silence.

“How do you like the new place, dear?” Mom asking before slurping up her noodles. One of them hit her square on the nose, making her glare at it.

I giggled at her funny face before replying, “I wasn’t too sure at first, but now that we’ve cleaned it up and decorated a bit, it’s actually kinda cozy.”

She smiled at that. “I’m glad. I know it’s not what you’re used to, but it’s all I can afford right now. Don’t worry, though! Your momma’s gonna write an amazing article that’s gonna get me hired by the best news stations out there! Then we can live in a big, beautiful house again. You’ll see.”

I smiled, “I believe you, mom. But don’t push yourself too hard, okay? I want to see you healthy more than I want to live in a fancy house.”

Mom’s eyes welled up with theatrical tears. “My daughter is so sweet! She’s loves me so much!!” She set her chopsticks down and tackled me while peppering my face with kisses.

“Aaahhhh, mom! Stop it!” I cried. I tried to sound angry but failed and burst out laughing. We laid on the ground trying to catch our breath for a moment.

“Oh,” mom started as we finally sat back up, “I put your new uniform in your room. You start tomorrow.”

The smile on my face faded a little. Right. A new school. I remembered the “tour” mom and I went on before term started.

As soon as I stepped through the front gates I knew my schooling experience here was going to be quite different from my old school. Even though it was summer vacation, trash littered the sparsely-landscaped grounds. The building itself was made of plain bricks and . . . were those bars on the windows? Eyes wide, I tried to come to terms with the fact that I’d be going here in a month.

A balled up piece of paper desolately bounced in front of me, reminding me of the tumbleweeds in old American Western movies. This place is awful. Graffiti stained the walls of the school and I even noticed an old, discarded cigarette behind a prickly brown bush.

It feels more like a prison than a school, I thought, remembering the green lawns of my old school that had rose bushes and other colorful flowers neatly trimmed in flowerbeds. The only flowers I could find here at Joseon High were weeds.

Inside was no better. Trash littered the hallways and several lockers were hanging open on their hinges. There was even graffiti inside, too, and torn pages of schoolbooks were scattered about.

I pulled myself out of the memory and shook my head. No use getting worked up over it. School is school, and I have to go whether I want to or not.

Still, as I went to bed that night, I couldn’t help the nervous butterflies fluttering about in my stomach. What kind of students go to that school, anyway? I hadn’t seen any kids my age since we moved here a couple days ago. In fact, I’ve hardly seen anyone at all. Back in my old neighborhood, there would always be children out playing or couples walking their dogs. Here, people rushed everywhere as if they would be in danger if they stayed in one place for too long.

Trying to calm myself down with thoughts of potential new friends, I slowly drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, the nervous butterflies were back, so I could barely eat breakfast. I waved goodbye as mom dashed out of the house to work. I still had another thirty minutes before I started my walk to school, so I decided to doll myself up a little, since it’s the first day.

I threw on the black and red plaid skirt and the black blouse, some knee-high socks, and tennis shoes. Then I pulled some of my hair back in a pink clip and let the rest fall naturally. Finally, I put on natural makeup with a little blush and dark plum eyeliner. By then, it was time to go, so I grabbed my purple backpack.

Carefully locking the apartment door behind me, I hopped down the stairs and started my ten minute walk.

I knew I was getting close to the school when other students sporting the same uniform as me started appearing. Nervously shifting my backpack, I followed the small crowd of rowdy high schoolers that was forming. None of them paid me any attention, and most were catching up with friends and lamenting over the end of summer break.

The school was already loud and full of students when I arrived. Trying to make my way down the hallway to the office, I ducked as a soccer ball went flying down the hall. It landed on some kid’s head who spun around, eyes angrily searching for the kicker. Not wanting to get involved, I looked down at my feet and hurried along.

I had just reached the office when loud shouts and crashes sounded behind me. Startled I looked around to see what was happening. A very tired-looking woman came out and said, “Already fighting? Must be a new record…” She sighed and then seemed to notice me. “Oh, you must be our new student. Jo Chaeyeon, correct?”

I nodded, wondering what she meant by “already.” She gestured me inside the office. “I’m Miss Park, the secretary. Welcome to Joseon High. Here’s your schedule. Your classroom is down the hall, third door on the left. Good luck,” she said, not leaving me any time to ask her questions before pushing me out the door and back into the noisy hallway.

I stared at the closed door in a confused daze - what a rude secretary! - before I was forced out of my reverie. Screams echoed up and down the hall as girls hurried to the front doors. I hear several of them cry out, “Seventeen is here!” before quickly fixing their makeup and hair.

Who? I curiously followed the crowd of excited girls - not that I had much of a choice as they were all shoving into me. Standing on my tiptoes I barely made out the top of several colorful heads before losing interest and deciding to take advantage of everyone being distracted to find my classroom.

I wandered along the hallway until I found Mr. Yoo’s room and cautiously stepped inside. It was completely empty save for a few broken pencils on the ground. I had my choice of desks so I chose one in the front corner - close enough to see the board well and far enough to the side to be out of sight.

I placed my book for the first class of the day - science - on my desk and waited. Slowly the squeals from outside died down and people finally trickled into the classroom. Laughing and yelling, the students didn’t take their seats right away and instead stood around and sat on the desks.

None of them so much as glanced my way, and I sighed. The loneliness of being the new student was starting to sink in as I watched everyone chat with their friends.

A tall girl with bangs came in and sat down directly behind me. Surprised that she wasn’t catching up with her friends, I turned around just a little to look at her. Unfortunately for me, she caught my eye and frowned. “What?” she said defensively.

My eyes widened and I quickly said, “Nothing. Sorry! I was just wondering if you were new here too.”

“Why would you think that?” she asked, some of the harshness in her tone now replaced with confusion.

I shrugged and gestured at our classmates, “Everyone else is hanging out with their friends, and you just sat here by yourself like me.”

Rather than agreeing with my (rather clever) logic, she cast her eyes down and suddenly looked very sad. “Oh,” she said quietly. “No, I’ve gone here since forever. Well it feels like forever anyway.” She turned her head away from me.

I decided not to question it and instead said, “Hey, I need a friend. Wanna be my first friend here? I’m Jo Chaeyeon.”

“You don’t wanna be friends with me…” mumbled the girl. But she raised her head and said, “I’m Kim Youngmi.”

“Sure I wanna be friends with you!” I said, enraged that she would think otherwise.

“If you say so…” she muttered, but there was a slight smile on her face.

We chatted about other things to get to know each other and pass the time. I failed to notice that the other students had finally started paying attention to me. However, they were all smirking and muttering rude comments under their breath. Youngmi heard them and blushed in embarrassment.

I noticed her cheeks turned red and asked, “What’s wrong?”
 

She shook her head. “I was right. You shouldn’t have become friends with me. No one here likes me, and you’ll only get bullied too.”

I snorted. “Those losers didn’t even pay attention me when they saw I was all by myself. What makes you think I want to be friends with them?” I said it loud enough for everyone in the class to hear.

The room fell silent, and my brain was already scolding me for making enemies on the first day, but I ignored it. Before anything could break out - I saw several girls with murder in their eyes - the teacher came in.

“Sit down!” he barked roughly. Grumbling, the students slowly took their seats. All the seats were filled except four in the very back. The teacher didn’t seem to surprised at this and began to read off the role. Hardly anyone was paying him much attention and instead whispered excitedly amongst themselves.

The girl next to me hardly bothered to lower her voice as she said giddily, “How late do you think they’ll be?”

Her friend behind her answered just as loudly, “It’s only the first day, so they’ll probably try a little, if only to just remind the other guys who’s in charge here.”

The first girl nodded, “Yeah, makes sense. Omg, though. Did you see Woozi’s new hair? Only he could make pink look so manly!” She squealed at the memory.

He friend giggled and said, “And Wonwoo is just so handsome! Ahhh I hope they hurry up. Those guys are the only good part about school.”

I snorted at their fangirling. No wonder this school is so terrible. Everyone here only cares about attractive people and not their education. I should’ve known. At this rate, no college is ever going to want to accept me. I sighed and pulled out my sparkly pencil to take notes.

The teacher finished up role - the missing four were named Jeon Wonwoo, Kwon Soonyoung, Lee Jihoon, and Wen Junhui - and began class. He had just finished explaining the basics of what the class would cover over the year when the door was flung open dramatically.

I jumped at the slam and jerked my head in the direction of the door. Four boys were standing there as if this were a photoshoot and not some dingy high school classroom. They sauntered in and I swear I watched all the girls’ eyes turn into hearts. The two girls next to me were about to fall out of their seats in a faint if those guys came any closer to them.

Deciding already that these boys were not good for a healthy learning environment, I stared grumpily at them. The first boy to walk in was tall with black hair and a neutral expression on his face. He coolly ignored everyone and slouched into his seat, seemingly indifferent to the world.

The second boy was the total opposite: he practically skipped into the room, his blond hair (that I’m sure was against the rules) bouncing with him. Even when he sat down, he couldn’t seem to keep entirely still.  

The third boy practically oozed grease. I didn’t think a single person could wink at an entire room full of people at once but here he was. He sat down in his seat and immediately struck a pose that I wasn’t sure was intentional or not.

The final boy had pastel pink hair that I know is against the rules and looked to be only a few inches taller than me. Even so, I could immediately tell by his glare that he could probably beat up every male in this room, including the teacher. He sat down in his seat, pulled out a notebook, and started scribbling some words down that I’m sure weren’t notes.

“Glad you four decided to join us,” Mr. Yoo said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. The boys ignored him and continued doing their own things.

Mr. Yoo sighed, and I felt a little sorry for him. He had to work in such a crappy school and to top it off, these guys were so rude! But I kept my mouth shut for the time being. After all, it’s only the first day, and I really don’t need any trouble.

At lunch, Youngmi and I grabbed a table together off to the side. People were muttering all around us, but I shook it off. We were cracking up while discussing a funny skit from Gag Concert when the cafeteria doors flew open.

As if they were actors in a drama, people gasped loudly as a large group of guys sauntered inside. Each one of them was charismatic and handsome. I was disgusted.

Girls swooned as several of the guys winked at them, and guys became green with envy. Already bored, I started eating my food again with a disdainful snort.

Youngmi heard me and asked, “What’s wrong?”
 

“Who are these losers anyway?” I said, gesturing at the group now seated at the center table.

“Keep your voice down! They’ll hear you!” Youngmi gasped. “They’re the most popular kids in the school. They call themselves Seventeen, and they’re also the most powerful gang in this part of Seoul. Nobody dares mess with them, so it’s best you stay on their good side.”

I laughed, “These guys are a gang? That’s ridiculous. And what kind of name is Seventeen? I counted and there are only thirteen of them.”

“It’s true!” Youngmi cried, “And don’t ask me why they call themselves that, okay? No one knows and no one cares to ask.”

“Whatever,” I said, losing all interest in them. “Anyway, did you see that one comedian last night? His part cracked me up!”

After school I had to stay late in order to fill out some new student paperwork. When I was finished I said goodbye to the secretary and walked outside. It was still daytime fortunately, but the sun was starting to go down.

I checked my phone to see that I had a text from my mom.

Can you pick up some groceries on the way home? I’m gonna be late. Thanks sweetie! Love you <3

Underneath was a text with some groceries we needed. I checked my wallet to see how much cash I had, then turned in the direction of the store. In the distance I heard shouts, but I barely paid attention to them. I figured it was some kids messing around.

I quickly grabbed the things we needed, paid, and hurried out of the store, eager to get home before dark. I was pretty sure this neighborhood didn’t have a Neighborhood Watch like my old one…

I was about three blocks from my house when I heard footsteps behind me. Nervous, I glanced behind me to see a man dressed in all black trailing a little ways behind. There was no one on the streets, so I sped up. Of course, the man sped up too.

Now, I was freaking out. I broke into an all-out run, but it wasn’t enough. The man easily caught up to me and grabbed my arm. I dropped the groceries I was holding and they spilled out all over the sidewalk.

“Let me go!” I cried, trying in vain to pry his grip off my arm.

He laughed and started dragging me to an alley saying, “Why would I do that? You’re too cute to pass up.”

Tears welled up in my eyes, both from fear and the strong stench of alcohol and cigarette smoke coming from the man. However, I didn’t stop yelling at him, even when his grip tightened painfully.

We reached the alley, and he slammed me against the wall and growled, “You’ll shut up now if you know what’s good for ya.”  

My head pounding, I tried to focus my vision so I could spit in his face. But then I froze in terror when I felt his hand slide up my thigh. All words failed me, and I couldn’t believe what was happening.

However, before the man could go any farther, he was ripped away from me and thrown against the opposite wall. The strength in my legs failed me, and I slid down the wall and curled up in a ball.

A flash of pink dashed across my vision, and when my eyes were finally able to focus, I gasped. My classmate - Jihoon? - was punching the man over and over again, fury in his eyes.

“Don’t. Ever. Come. To. My. Neighborhood. Again!” snarled Jihoon, throwing one last punch at the man who was now a bloody, sobbing heap on the ground.

Jihoon spat on the man for good measure then turned in my direction. When he started walking towards me, I flinched. He stopped walking and frowned. “Can you stand?”

I nodded shakily and pulled myself up. “Um-”

“Come on,” he interrupted.

“Huh?” I said.

Jihoon looked exasperated. “I’m gonna walk you home, idiot.”

“Oh… Oh! Uh, yeah,” I hurried to his side as he walked out of the alley. “Th-this way.”

We turned back in the direction of my house, then walked in a rather awkward silence until we reached the dark apartment complex.

“This is it,” I said quietly, breaking the silence. Jihoon said nothing, so I bowed and dashed up the stairs, eager to be freed from the awkwardness.

When I reached the door, I turned around, but Jihoon was gone. I frowned when I realized I forgot to thank him. I’ll just do it tomorrow at school, I thought, then closed the door behind me and locked it.

Woozi watched from around the corner of a building as Chaeyeon shut the door behind her. Satisfied that she was safe inside, he turned around and walked away, wondering at whose house he should stay tonight…