I think I’m ugly
And nobody wants to love me
Just like her I wanna be pretty

Dara slowly walked with her hands trying to balance the trays. Jiyong told her to take his food along with her before he come later. She tried hard not to stumble with the food or else, both of them could not eat later.

As usual, her hard work went to waste. Someone purposely pushed her shoulder, making the tray on her left hand fell to the ground. The sound of bowl and cutlery echoed through the canteen along with some waves of laughter. The attention was on Dara for a while but then the students continued eating as if nothing had happened.

She stared at the wasted food on the floor, trying to suppress her tears. What should she eat then? She could not eat the food in the other tray or Jiyong would not have his food.

Should I buy bread?

She glanced to the counter but found the ahjumma already pulled the baskets into the kitchen. That meant that all the bread had already been sold.

Before she could walk to the table near the vending machine, someone hold her shoulder. She turned around and found Jiyong staring at her with an annoyed face. He suddenly bent down and picked up the bowl that was still had some noodles and soup inside it. Without any warning, Jiyong threw the bowl across the canteen, and it landed on the head of the boy who pushed her earlier. The bowl successfully covered his head like a hat.

"What the f-"

He quickly looked back to Dara. His face showed anger but turned anxious when he saw Jiyong standing beside her.

"K-Kwon." He stuttered. Again, the attention was on them. Although Dara was on the attention of everyone every single day, she could never get used to it.

"I'm pretty sure that I made it clear before." He hissed. "If anyone touches her, I'll make you live in hell."

Dara saw the boy harshly gulp. He bowed down and dashed from there with his friends trying to remove the noodle from his hair. Dara didn't know what to feel. Ashamed? Happy? Because she was sure it made everyone hate her more.

Jiyong took the tray from her hand and balanced it with one hand while the other gripping to her wrist. He pulled her along with him, taking a seat at the only table that was empty. He started eating the noodle while Dara watched him quietly. She flinched when Jiyong suddenly look straight into her eyes.

"Here." He offered some noodles in the spoon, trying to feed her.

"Ah no. I'm not hungry." As she said that, her stomach growled loudly. She put her hand onto her stomach, quickly looked down in ashamed. There's no way Jiyong didn't hear that.

"Eat this or I make you run around the field later." He said, his hand still in the air with a spoon of noodles. Hesitantly, Dara let him feed her with her eyes looking everywhere but him. She could feel how hot her face was, and the stares that they got didn't make it any better.

"Ignore them. It's not like you used their money for this food."

Dara nodded. It went on with Jiyong kept feeding her, ignoring the other students and their whispers.

"I can't let you starve since you are my puppy."

That's what he said. It sounded harsh but somehow, it made Dara happy.

...



Not knowing what to do, Dara opened the windows as wide as possible. She put a bucket of water on a small table and chucked a towel into them. After squeezing the towel, she started to work. She made sure to wipe every part of the windows, not leaving any trace of dust. Dara continued her work to wipe the old piano and clean the tables there. She arranged them so they could be used by whoever come to the music room. Well, it was not like anybody could come there since it was Jiyong's territory.

"Wow."

Dara whipped around when a voice startled her.

"Finally, someone realizes how messed up this room is." Taeyang huffed.

She saw Taeyang and Seungri making their way into the room. In Taeyang's hand was a bag of watercolor. She glanced at the canvas that she put near the wall.

Ah. It's him.

When she looked back at the boys, she has met eyes to eyes with Seungri who was looking at her with an unreadable expression. Feeling afraid, she tried to distract herself by continuing to clean the music room.

"Oi, ugly," Seungri said. Dara didn't look back at him but she knew it was her that he calling. She could hear Taeyang trying to shush him up but Seungri ignored him. He called her again with a name that Dara was uncomfortable with.

"Yah, ugly. I'm talking to you. Didn't Ji teach you that it's rude if you're acting deaf when someone calls you?"

"Bu-but my.."

"Shhh." He put a finger on his lips, hinting her to not talk. "Shut up. Go and buy me something cold."

She frowned, dumbfounded. It was always Jiyong who asked her to buy something. Was Seungri taking her for granted because of Jiyong?

"Why are you standing there like an idiot? Go!"

...

The same thing happened until days later. Dara sighed when she took out her wallet and found that her money was only enough to buy her food for two days. Most of it had been used to buy Seungri's food.

She wondered if Jiyong found out about Seungri's attitude to her. Would he be mad like how he had been to other people? But Seungri was his friend, there was no way Jiyong would scold him just for her.

"Dara!" 

Minzy tapped her shoulder and smile sweetly at her. "You haven't been to the canteen lately. Why?" She peered into Dara's wallet and then look up at her. "You have