{ prologue }

“AHHHH I’m going crazy!” Ahn Chaeyoung exclaimed as she stared at the new email in her phone. She angrily stomped her feet on the floor, causing her two friends to look at her.

“What’s wrong?” Jung Krystal questioned, staring at the still frowning girl.

Chaeyoung’s eyes flitted to them, annoyance enveloping her whole body. She halted from walking before speaking. “Yah, you guys remember that I was a total nerd when I was a kid, right?” She began, and both Krystal and their other friend, Park Luna, nodded while laughing.

“You look like a total dork back then, Chae,” Luna teased but Chaeyoung’s glare shut her up.

“Yah, I look totally different now!” Chaeyoung defended herself; silently cursing at being sidetracked. “Anyway, that’s not what’s important. The thing is that, I had an equally nerdy friend when I was a kid and now he’s asking me to meet up! What if he gets ideas because I’m really hot now?! Ahhh, you guys know how hard I tried to bury that part of me, right?!” The girl whined, her face contorted in obvious displeasure as she tried to imagine how the meeting could go. Ahn Chaeyoung had gone a long way since that time in their fourth grade, and she would do anything to have that phase of her forgotten. She was a total hotshot in their campus now, and she won’t let anything or anyone pull her popularity down, regardless if it was an old nerd friend.

Krystal and Luna stared at each other before shrugging. “If you really don’t want to meet him, why don’t you just say so?” Krystal suggested.

However, to the two other girls’ surprise, Chaeyoung sighed. “It’s true that I don’t want to meet him now because I know he’s still going to be the same nerd kid in the past, but… I did care about him, you know? I don’t want to show him my y side even after all these years.” She pouted. After all, she and Kim Jiwon had fond memories in their past, too.

Since the both of them were nerds, they were always bullied at school. Still, even though the bullying happened every day, neither Jiwon nor Chaeyoung were deterred from going to school. They were still joyous every day because they can rely on each other, and no matter how sappy it may sound to other people, Chaeyoung wanted to protect those memories.

Luna snickered at her response. “If that’s how you’re gonna be, then just go!” She teased. “It seems like that guy’s still precious to you~”

Chaeyoung frowned. “Of course not! I don’t want to, okay?!”

“Then…” Krystal suddenly chimed in, staring somewhere far off. “Why not find someone who’d fit this guy’s description of the past Ahn Chaeyoung?”

Luna and Chaeyoung blinked in confusion. “What… are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying–” Krystal began before trailing off, her lips pointing towards something. Luna and Chaeyoung followed the trail and their eyes found Park Chaeyoung, Ilsung University’s College of Arts and Letters’ resident nerdy girl a.k.a. errand girl for the popular ones. She was wearing huge glasses which almost covered half of her face and her clothes always look like they were sold in a bargain sale. She had always been the quiet girl with no friends, and whenever anyone teases or bullies her, she never even tilts her head up, which was why others (even Ahn Chaeyoung’s group) found her too easy to bully.

“What, you want Park Chaeyoung to pretend to be me? Yah, isn’t it enough that I have to share my name with that nerd?!” Chaeyoung’s voice went down a notch in disbelief.

Krystal huffed before crossing her arms across her torso. “Can you think of any other way, then? That’s your best shot! We can command Park Chaeyoung to pretend for one time and have this nerd guy of yours to get lost! Besides, you guys having the same name is a bonus!”

Chaeyoung bit her lip, lost in thought as she stared at Park Chaeyoung who was being teased again by some seniors. As usual, Park Chaeyoung only had her head bowed, not even sparing a glance to the bullies.

Krystal and Luna were impatiently waiting for her answer when she looked at them. “Fine, let’s ask her.” Ahn Chaeyoung stated with resolve.

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A/N: This is loosely based on the 2015 Korean drama entitled She Was Pretty! ;D

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