4 years later

Aileen was running around the house getting her things ready for school. It was already 6 months into her Senior year. She already got early acceptance letter to Spelman College, a place she was honored and so happy about going. Her great grandmother went to Spelman, her grandmother and mom went to Spelman. It was one of oldest black colleges in Atlanta. Another thing she was happy about, it was an all-women’s college, so no men. Hallelujah!

Aileen kissed her Mom and Dad as she left the house. When she got to school she was greeted by her two best friends: Chloe and Natalie.

“Good morning sunshine,” said Natalie

“Why are you out of breath?” asked Chloe

“I don’t want to be late for my first day of office duty,”

“Oh yea I forgot. Oh here,” Chloe gave her a piece of paper, “Read it,”

“I don’t have time Chloe,” she went to her locker to get her books for class

“You have time. Just open it,”

Aileen sighed as she opened the letter.

“Read it out loud,”

“Will you go to prom with me? Check yes, no or maybe? Are we 12,” she gave the letter back to Chloe

“Girl mark yes,” said Natalie

“You don’t even know who wrote it Aileen,” said Chloe

“I know who wrote it. And you can tell your boyfriend Henry to tell his friend Luhan that I’m not interested,” she slammed her locker, “As I’ve forgiven Henry for his past because he has changed his ways, how he’s able to stay friends with Luhan the dirt bag I don’t understand. He’s still cocky and conceded as ever and I don’t like him,”

“So angry,” whispered Natalie to Chloe

“I heard that,”

“Luhan is class president…”

“Still don’t know how he beat me,”

“Well you’re Vice President,” reassured Chloe

“Luhan won because the people like him. He’s y and popular and one hell of a lacrosse player and his GPA is 4.0. He’s smart and…”

“Damn Natalie are you sure you didn’t vote for him,” she eyed her friend who raised her hands in defeat,

“Do you know how many girls would kill to have Luhan ask them to prom? You can’t pass this up. You can’t go to prom alone,”

“And why can’t I go stag. Females do it all the time,”

“It would be dreamy if the class president and vice president would go together,”

“Out of the freaking question. Look I have to do announcements,” she didn’t look where she was going to bumped into hard rock abs that knocked her on the floor

“I’m sorry,” said a deep voice as the hand reached down and picked her up

Natalie and Chloe were in awe as this handsome boy helped Aileen. She of course wasn’t really paying attention as she picked up her books.

“It’s ok. I wasn’t looking where I was going,” she finally looked at the boy

He seemed familiar but she had never seen him before in her life. Maybe he was a new student.

“It’s ok,” he smiled at her

“Um are you new here?”

“Yes I just transferred from California. Can you tell me where the main office is?”

“Sure I have to go there myself. I’m Aileen,”

He knew it. He noticed her anywhere but she didn’t recognize him which made him realize he had changed so much. No one would probably know who he was.

“I’m Xiumin,”

“Do you have a last name?” she smiled, he melted

“Nope just Xiumin, you know like Usher and Madonna,”

“Got it. Let’s go,” she turned to her friends who were still in shock, “What is wrong with you two?”

“HE IS HOT!” they both mouthed to her as they spazzed

Aileen and Xiumin walked down the hall in silence. She was ahead of him as she had to focus on her task and he was behind her checking her out. Aileen was still the same except she seemed harder. She didn’t give him a second look like most girls he came in contact with. It was strange. He knew he was good looking. He chuckled as he noticed all the girls in the hallway were looking at him. Yup he knew it.

“Good morning Aileen. And who is your new friend?” asked Regina, the receptionist

“We aren’t friends. He’s a new student,” she went in the back before Xiumin could speak to her

Regina stared him down for a moment before giving him his schedule.

“I’ll set you up with Luhan, so you can get a tour of the school,”

That name rang a bell for Xiumin but he just smirked. He couldn’t wait to see Luhan and see the look on his face. Unfortunately Luhan didn’t recognize Xiumin either but he embraced the good looking boy and showed him around the campus.

By lunchtime it seemed as if they were old friends.

“So Xiumin I know it’s your first day but the ladies are loving you. Tell me your secret,” Henry rolled his eyes

“It’s the abs,” Xiumin stood up and lifted his shirt and some of the girls at the nearby table saw and quickly took pictures. He laughed as he sat down

“So see any girls that have caught your eye?”

“There’s one in particular but I’m not feeling the love from her,”

Xiumin turned his attention to Aileen. Luhan couldn’t believe it. The one girl he liked the new kid liked too. She was difficult to get but that was half the fun. He had to make his presence known and he had to let Xiumin know that she was off limits.

“You like Aileen Banks?”

Xiumin had always liked Aileen. She was his first friend.

“Yea,”

“Well tough, she’s mine,”

Henry spit out his drink as Xiumin patted his back.

“You are guys are together?”

Xiumin couldn’t believe it. They hated each other in middle school. Well Luhan always liked Aileen, she hated Luhan.

“I can see you don’t believe it,”

“I mean I don’t know you guys so why wouldn’t I believe it,” he took a sip of his drink and looked at Aileen. Wow things have changed.

“But hey man, don’t give up on love. There are plenty of fine girls that go to our school,”

The girls were sitting a few tables from Xiumin who kept staring at Aileen.

“Why does Xiumin keep staring at you?” asked Chloe

“I don’t know,” she continued eating her lunch

“I don’t get you. 2 hot guys both like you and you blow both off,” Natalie

“Are you forgetting something? I will never ever like Luhan that way or any kind of way,”

“Don’t you think you should forgive him? He was only in 8^th grade,”

“He drove Minseok away. I never saw him again. No letters or phone calls, nothing. And he still picks on kids. Maybe not as opened as he used to but he has his ways and he has his followers and just you wait, in a weeks’ time, Xiumin is going to be his little lap dog as well,” she got up to leave

“He could be different,” Natalie shouted at her friend                              

But Xiumin wasn’t different. He didn’t verbally abuse the kids that Luhan picked on but he didn’t do anything to help them either. One would think after his bullying days that he would stand up for them but while he was in California and he changed his eating habits, joined a gym and lost all that weight, his ego started to grow big. Suddenly he wasn’t the fat kid anymore. He actually had friends and had girls come up to him. His new body gave him a new self; something he had always dreamed of.

Aileen on the other hand was disgusted. Here is this good looking guy who is actually sometimes likeable but he hangs with Luhan, who is no prize.

One day while they were on the quad she decided to confront Xiumin who was reading a book. She snatched the book from him and stared at him hard.

“Can I have my book back?” he reached for it

“I have a question,”

“Do you want to sit down? You seem serious,”

“No I’ll stand. What is so great about Luhan? He verbally and sometimes physically bullies kids that are younger than him and then I see you just stand by and watch, like nothing is going on,”

“It’s not my place. I don’t know those kids. And why are you saying these horrible things about your boyfriend?” he snatches the book back

“What?”

“Luhan told me you guys were together,”

“EW I almost threw up in my mouth. I’m not dating nor will I ever date that lowlife,” Xiumin was relieved about hearing that, “It’s funny. What you just said is giving me déjà vu. There was a kid I knew once who was getting bullied and the kids said why are you protecting? You don’t know him. And do you know what I told them? He doesn’t deserve this because he hasn’t done anything wrong. So instead of me just ignoring the problem I befriended him and he was one of my dearest friends,”

“So where is he now?”

“I don’t know. One day I couldn’t protect him and he got bullied real badly this time. He left the school and I never saw him again,”

“That must have hurt,”

“It did. It still does. Till this day I can never get the look he gave me before he left out of my head. It was hurt and worry and just plain sadness. Those kids that Luhan bullies don’t deserve it and you just sitting back and watching it makes you just as bad as him. I guess you can tell by now that I’ve never cared about being popular or fitting in. You know what you guys don’t realize is once we graduate it won’t matter if we score the winning touchdown or the A we got on that science project or even the girl who said yes to prom. We are about to be adults in the real world and it what really matters is how true we are to ourselves and how we treat people,”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I see something good in you Xiumin. You actually remind me of someone. But I would hate for that something good to go away because you want to be with the in crowd. That would really ,” she walked away giving Xiumin something to think about

“What am I doing?” he said to himself

That day Aileen had office duty with Regina.

“You look sad Aileen,” the older woman said to her

“My generation ,”

The older lady laughed, “It’s not all bad,” her phone rang

Her daughter was going into labor and she needed her mom. Regina kindly asked Aileen to file the folders for all the new students that came this semester. Aileen jokily promised she wouldn’t look in the files as Regina gave her the key and left.

As Aileen was filing she got to Xiumin’s folder. Curiosity killed the cat because she totally opened his file. As she read his information her eyes got big as she snapped the file closed. She quickly filed the rest as she ran to look for Xiumin. He was leaving the school when she finally caught up to him.

“How could you?” she was pissed

“What did I do now?” he was confused

Aileen finally really looked at Xiumin and wanted to punch herself because he totally looked like Minseok except for the muscular frame and new attitude.

“Kim Minseok,”

Xiumin looked dead at her with a scared expression. He started walking away from her when she grabbed his arm but he yanked from her. He had tears in his eyes as did she.

“Why did you lie? After school I ran to your house and you were gone. You never wrote or called or anything. Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”

“Because unlike you, I’ve always wanted to fit in. I want to have tons of friends and people like me. I’m not like you Aileen. You’re confident and brave and you stand up for what you believe in, always have,”

“You did too. You did. I saw a change in you,” she was crying

“But those kids were never going to change. To them I would always be the fat kid. That day was the worst day in my life. The worst; so my parents packed us up and we left,” he was crying as well

“So you got a 6 pack and came back and now you’re a totally different person. Instead of moving forward you came back and became a jerk just to fit in with Luhan of all people,”

Xiumin felt really low by now. Aileen was right. He was willing to sell his soul for popularity. He was forgetting who he was. Yes he lost the weight but that doesn’t mean he needed to be like Luhan on top of that.

“I’m sorry," he chuckled as he thought about how stupid he was being, "You're right. Thanks for knocking some sense into me,"

“Sorry to sound like your mother. I guess I’m an old soul,”

“I like your old soul,” he smiled at her

“Well you do look good, not that you didn’t look good before,”

“How could you like the fat kid?”

“When I saw you I didn’t see a fat kid. I saw a wonderful boy who just needed a friend. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she smiled at him as she left the parking lot

The next day Xiumin walked into the school with his head held high. He realized this whole time he was trying to be someone else and that was not cool. Aileen was right, in the end it didn’t matter if you were popular or not. All that mattered was how true you were to yourself and how you treated people. He knew what he had to do.

Lunch came around and Xiumin acted like nothing had changed with him and Luhan. Luhan had kept it pretty tamed today until there was a young sophomore who was supposed to get Luhan’s lunch for him. The poor kid was shaking in his boots as he walked carefully towards the group of seniors.

“Here’s your lunch,” the young kid placed the tray in front of him

“What’s this? Where’s the meat?”

“They ran out. You know Mrs. Gray famous fried chicken is popular…”

“Well why don’t go to someone and get it for me,”

“I don’t think…”

“What?” Luhan got in the kid’s face

“I…I mean…I guess…”

“Yeah I think you should,” Luhan shoved the young kid

“Hey man, cool it,” Xiumin stepped in, “Why are you being like this? It’s just chicken. No need for shoving,”

“I have to show him who is boss. The little nerd needs to learn his place,”

“But you’re not the boss of him. He doesn’t owe you anything and he doesn’t deserve being treated this way. No one does,”

“Whoa what’s with the new Xiumin? You never had a problem before,”

“Because I thought I wanted to be like you but now I know what’s really important and a bullying person is not it. People should be allowed to look, dress or act however they want. They should be free to able to walk down the halls without having to worry about people teasing them. Bullying someone because they are different from you is so wrong,”

“And you know all of this, why?”

 “I know what it’s like to be bullied because I was bullied…by you,”

“What are you talking about?”

By then the whole cafeteria including Aileen was witnessing this intense scene.

“My name isn’t Xiumin. It’s Kim Minseok,”

Gasped were heard throughout the room because some the of kids remembered fat Minseok but the fact that he was so fit and good looking they were definitely not expecting it.

“Bao Zi, I can’t believe it. What a loser who pretends to be someone else,”

“I know I’m a loser but unlike you I’m willing to change and learn from my mistakes. You on the other hand will continue to be a bully because for some reason it makes you feel important when in reality it makes you look pathetic,”

“So what you’re big man on campus now,”

“Yeah I am because unlike you again…I get the girl,” Minseok smirked as he looked at Aileen who was flustered, “Who by the way was super surprised she was in a relationship with you,”

“Screw you man,” Luhan walked off totally embarrassed

Everyone cheered at Xiumin and the exit of Luhan. He felt good about himself that he revealed the truth. Aileen was very proud of him.

“Good job,”

“Thanks, so what’s next?”

“Whatever you want it to be,” she smiled at him, “I’m curious though. What was the surprised you had for me 4 years ago?”

Xiumin smiled at her as he took a note out of his pocket. It was wrinkled and old looking. She furrowed her brows. Then he took out another note.

“Read this one first,”

“I like you. Do you like me? Check yes, no or maybe,” she smiled as she checked yes

“Really?”

“Really,” she started reading the other note, “Will you go to prom with me. Check yes, no or maybe,” she continued to smile at him, “Wow two yeses in one day. You’re on a roll Mr. Kim,”

Xiumin wrapped his arms around Aileen as they smiled like silly kids at each other.