{ 02 }

Rosé instantly dropped dead on her bed as soon as she entered her room. She never thought that lying could be so taxing. The girl heaved a deep breath before grabbing her phone to send Ahn Chaeyoung a text message.

To: Ahn Chaeyoung

I’ve met him.

The reply came in an instant, as if the popular girl had been waiting for her message the whole time.

From: Ahn Chaeyoung

Did you tell him to go away?

To: Ahn Chaeyoung

I made up an excuse on why I can’t see him.

From: Ahn Chaeyoung

That’s okay, I guess. Thanks for your help.

P.S. Delete my number now.

It took an incredible effort for Rosé not to roll her eyes. Well, Ahn Chaeyoung thanking me is already a miracle in itself, I guess, she thought before deleting the other girl’s contact information and their whole message thread from her phone. After all, she was sure that she would have no reason whatsoever to interact with the girl again. It was just a one-time thing, Rosé, she comforted herself. It’s a one-time thing.

After some thought, she deleted Kim Bobby’s contact number and messages too.

She didn’t know how wrong she was about the “one-time” thing.

--

Five days after meeting Bobby, she received a message from an unknown number.

From: 010-xxxx-xxx

Hey, you doing okay? :)

She instantly frowned. To be honest, she had no one in her contact list apart from her family. She also doesn’t have any friends from school who would text her in that manner. It also couldn’t have been a group mate from a school project because if that was so, the person would just tell her to finish up the project by herself.

To: 010-xxxx-xxx

Who is this?

It didn’t take long before the person replied. She was in her class when she felt her phone buzz. She anxiously took it from her back pocket, forgetting about the fact that her professor at the time was terror and notorious for confiscating phones, thinking that it was an emergency text from her family only to see the unregistered number once more.

From: 010-xxxx-xxx

Heol, did you delete my number?! ㅠㅠ

Rosé was just about to type in a reply when her professor’s thick voice reverberated in the whole classroom. “Miss Park Chaeyoung, am I really seeing you texting or is my mind playing tricks on me?” The old woman stated while walking towards her seat.

She instantly dropped her phone on her desk, but it was too late. The nerdy girl was already trembling when Professor Moon reached her seat. The professor adjusted her cat eye-shaped spectacles before speaking. “I’m surprised, Miss Park. I didn’t know you had it in you to break rules.” The elder woman laid out her palm in front of Rosé. “Phone.”

Rosé’s fingers were shaking when she handed the phone to Professor Moon.

“Come to my office later at 5 if you want to get this back,” the professor last stated before walking back to the podium and resuming her class.

Aish! Who was that, anyway?! Now I even got into trouble when all I wanted was to live quietly, she silently fretted, obviously frustrated at how things turned out for her.

Half an hour later, the class came to an end. As she was placing her things inside her backpack, she heard her classmates’ laughter.

“Omo, look at Park Chaeyoung being rebellious!”

“I wonder who she was texting?”

“I wasn’t even aware that she has someone to text at all!”

Rosé only sighed at their mockery before heading out of the classroom. It was only 3 PM, and normally she would have been on her way home now since her last class was with Professor Moon, but now she still has two hours to kill since she needs to get her phone back. Her phone doesn’t really have much, if it would be compared to the contents of her classmates’ phone, but some of her precious memories were stored in there.

She was four years old when their family moved to Melbourne, Australia, where she managed to at least live a normal life– well, as normal as it gets for her. She didn’t have any friends, but she was treated decently there as an acquaintance and a classmate. For Rosé, her family’s affections were more than enough to keep her going. However, six years later when their family decided to move back to Korea, her elder sister Chaeri decided to stay in Australia to pursue a career in art. Rosé was devastated at that time, since the only person she considers as her best friend was her sister. Still though, she didn’t want to hinder her sister’s happiness and decided to support her.

Since then, things had been particularly harder for her when they went back to Korea. Both of her parents were working, which is why she was usually alone at home. She even went further back into her cocoon ever since she had been alone on her own. Rosé had always been a shy child and her sister was the only one who was helping her cope, which was why it was such a huge blow for her to deal with when the elder girl decided to pursue something else in life.

She spared a glance at her wristwatch and saw that only fifteen minutes had passed since she had mulled over her life. She shook her head before deciding that it would be better to let her time pass in the library. She gathered her scattered hair in a ponytail and adjusted her round spectacles. She was already stepping towards the general direction of the library when three boys whom she recognized as her seniors blocked her from leaving.

“Ohhh, we heard what happened at Professor Moon’s class, Park!” The obese senior clapped her back, causing her to stumble on her feet and giving the three boys a material to laugh at.

“Maybe she’s rebelling now, Shinwoo,” the other boy said. “Yah Park, are you tired being our errand girl, huh?” He said before pushing her shoulder.

Rosé just wanted them to go away, but she was unsure how. After all, she had always tolerated them and she never fought back for herself. The third senior was about to talk when someone yelled her name, “CHAEYOUNG-AH!!!”

Her body went rigid with surprise, with only one word flashing on her mind: .

A/N: Thanks to all the subbers~! ^^

-X