On a semi-cool morning on a wide brick road walked Kim Yura. Her pace was very awkward even though she thought she was doing a good job in acting calm. People passed by her, looking at her with much curiosity; she couldn’t help but bite her lip unconsciously and shove her hands into her pockets. Well, what did she expect? Her sense of fashion was very edgy given that she is a huge Jeremy Scott fanatic therefore, the flower-printed neon green shoes with a bear’s head sticking out at the top she’s currently wearing never failed to lower people heads.

And exactly why am I sent to this school again?

Her dad had forced her into it. Being in an all-girl’s school her entire life wouldn’t help her socialize and explore what the real world has to offer. In her old school, everyone acted the same, looked the same, and even smelled the same—they were all bound by a kind of peer pressure that they themselves created in their minds. Of course, Yura wasn’t affected by that—her strong sense of originality prevailed which made her an acquired taste kind of person in that school; they either liked her or not.

 While she could talk perfectly fine with girls, Yura had repelled herself from men thinking that they’re creepy and scary. She’s not an extreme case, but she always made sure that she kept her distance. In fact, the only guy she talks to is her dad.

She oftentimes glanced from side to side to check if any guys were ogling at her as she entered the building and made her way to the classroom. The halls were spacious so bumping into someone wasn’t going to be a problem. To this, she heaved a sigh of relief.

Paranoia, paranoia, what can I do without it?

Have a better social life.

A short while later after some searching, she found her classroom. As the new girl, the other students had the right to stop whatever they were doing and observe her every move. The mood was rather weird; it reeked with a hint of “you’re in trouble”. Unable to handle the awkwardness and discern the cause of the woozy atmosphere, she dug her hands deeper into her colorful studded jacket’s pockets, took a random seat at the back and began to doodle a detailed picture of the outside scenery—if you can call it a doodle.

“Hey,” said someone behind her. Startled, her hand drew a line so big in the center of the drawing. Frustrated she was and it wasn’t just because of her wasted effort.

“Oh, please no.” The moment Yura turned back, a chicly dressed girl sporting bright ruby red lipstick, a gold jacket, and jet black shades, had her hands glued to her hips. The girl was in fact, wearing the same teddy bear shoes as her. “Just no.”

This is not how I imagined myself at the first day of school.

That girl who raised hell was none other than CL: diva, edgy, badass.

“Take them off,” CL commanded.

Agitated, Yura lashed back in an even sharper tone, “Make me.”

The class had gathered into one circle, expecting that a cat fight would commence. But Yura disappointed their expectations because she was never one to be caught in doing something as shameful as that; she was never the type to begin with.

“Take them off or I swear I’ll—“

“You’ll what? Take your shades off so I can see how disproportionate your eyes could possibly be?”

“OOOH Burn!!!” Out of nowhere, a very cheerful guy tackled CL from behind and gave her a tight back-hug. Truly, his laugh was loud and memorable. “HAHAHAHA!” He rapidly laughed. Forgetting about her anger for a moment, Yura giggled at the two.

CL pulled away from the guy, irritated. “What the hell, Dongwoo. Can’t you see I’m in the middle of a fight?”

Dongwoo laughed his very unique laugh again. “So? You should be less cranky—you’re cuter when you smile anyway.”

She turned her back on him while trying as hard as she could not to be flattered and plomped to her seat which happened to be beside Yura’s. “Whatever.”

Seeing that the fight was over, the crowd dispersed. Squinting at first then identifying her as the new girl, Dongwoo walked over to her in which she slowly took a few steps back instinctively.

He extended his hand and greeted her. “Tchyeah, we have a new girl in here.”

She just stared at his hand, unknowingly tugging her jacket to ease herself. “Uhm.”

“Aw, c’mon! It’s just a hand shake,” said Dongwoo. “Don’t be shy!”

“Well, err.” All the more she was shy. “No.”

Dongwoo pursed his lips to the side then pointed to a random spot. “Oh! Look! A cute kitty!”

“Where?!”

“Gotcha!” And lo, he successfully shook her hand. “I’m Dongwoo by the way and this is CL.”

When he let go of her hand, she was still in shock, and was heavily awkward at that. “I see.”

From outside, a savior came into the room: the homeroom teacher. The students all took their seats as he came into the classroom and dropped all his books to the table. He stood front and center with a very charismatic aura wearing a white polo shirt beneath an expensive-looking maroon vest.

“Welcome back to school,” he said. “For the only person, the new girl, who doesn’t know me, I am Onew. No, don’t call me “sir” or “mister”; just Onew will do, got it?”

Yura nodded.

“Now, this school is quite unique—very unique. We believe that the normal and usual academic subjects like Math and Science are not the only ones that should be stressed in the school curriculum but rather, we add many other random things especially contests, challenges, and missions. Yes, this school’s goal isn’t to produce studying robots but rather, to let everyone discover new things and shine through their own set of skills—whether you love numbers, fooling around productively, or just living life,” he continued, “My name is Lee Jinki. But I give you guys the permission to simply call me by my nickname, Onew, for the reason that I am a prodigy so I end up teaching History to people my age so please spare me from any future awkwardness by calling me as so. Now Yura, please introduce yourself without saying “please take care of me” because that’s clichéd.”

Yura made her way to the front and stood a meter away from the teacher, thinking that that distance was acceptable when in fact, the class found it dumbfounding.

“Why’re you so far? Move a bit closer,” commanded Onew. “I don’t bite.”

To her, every man bites. But still, she timidly moved to closer to him and introduced herself.

“I’m Kim Yura. I like to draw, read, write, and lounge at home.”

“You sound boring,” said Onew bluntly. “But I doubt you are. I mean, your wardrobe explains everything. Any fears?”

And that’s when she bit her lip and lowered her head. “N-none.”

“Ah, but there is.”

“No, there isn’t.”

“Yes, there is so tell me!” he slammed his desk so hard that it echoed throughout the entire classroom. “Or else you’ll get an F!”

“Guys!”

Onew reeled in closer to her. “What?”

“I am scared of guys! I can’t get near em’, I can’t talk to them and heck! I can’t even glance at them properly for more than three seconds so I beg you don’t fail me!”

“Ah, I see,” he replied as if he didn’t even get mad; it was all an act. “Now that my curiosity disturbs me no more, homeroom ends here.”

What kind of introduction was that?

An embarrassing one.

The guys in class giggled at her the moment she went back to her seat. She buried her face in her hands and refused to look at anyone throughout the first three periods.

---

Break time came so she went out of that dreaded classroom to escape to the library and read some books to calm her down. On her way to do so, she came across a guy classmate of hers innocently hiding behind a wall and looking at a cute girl from afar. Interested, she observed him; it wasn’t everyday that she got to see how guys crush over girls. Even if she was scared of them, she secretly wished for a flowery kind of romance once in a while. The dandy guy wasn’t a ert; he was a flower boy who was head over heels attracted to that petite girl with sparkling eyes and perfect skin. Whenever she’d smile, he’d smile too, and whenever she looked his way, he’d hide back behind the wall and press his hand against his chest.

Suddenly, his watch seemed to have rung. Startled, he scampered over to some other place. Yura followed him across the hallway and into a band practice room then hid behind the door and eavesdropped.

 “Yah! Lee Sungjong!” exclaimed a red-haired classmate of hers. “You’re late!”

Sungjong, the dandy guy, entered, “I’m sorry.”

In the room were six guys that formed a band. The hamster-looking one stood holding a microphone. Beside him was Sungjong then Dongwoo. In the corner, two guys were chatting: one tall with a number of piercings on his ear and the other was chic, calm, and collected (not to mention breathe-takingly charming).

“Hey, could you seriously stop doing those fake get-ups and wear your own clothes for once?” whined the tall one in frustration. “You’re making our image unstable.”

“But—“

The hamster-looking one shushed him. “Just talk to her already, wimp.”

Sungjong puffed his cheeks cutely. “But—“

“Not buts, or I’ll kick your out of here,” he warned.

“But you can’t even talk to Hyuna!” argued Sungjong.

“Lee Sungjong, be quiet! People will hear you.” The vocalist’s face flushed pink. “Let’s just start practicing.”

“Tchyeah, let’s just practice,” added Dongwoo as he took hold of his bass.

“Wait,” said the chic one.

“Someone’s been watching us,” added the tall one, very keen on his senses. “We’ve already noticed you so come out.”

Yura shot up and timidly showed herself to the five guys.

“Ah, it’s our boy-fearing new classmate,” said the tall one.

“Hey Yura, wassup?” Dongwoo, being the friendly guy that he is, walked over to her and raised his hand at an attempt to give her a high-five. She just lightly tapped her hand against his and timidly stepped far back.

“So she really is scared of us,” concluded the hamster until he realized that she could have heard about his liking for Hyuna. “Wait! How’d you find us? Tell me. And please, don’t tell anyone about this or I swear I’ll—“

Yura was getting scared so Sungjong pushed the hamster away and asked her nicely the same question.

“I was following him… because he looked amusing being crazy over that girl,” she replied. “I’m no stalker.”

After finding out that Yura knew, he too became like Sunggyu. “Please, please, please don’t tell or I swear I’ll—“

“Okay, pipe down,” the chic one cautioned, ruffling both Sungjong’s and the vocalist’s hair. “We don’t want to give a bad impression on her, right? Why don’t we just introduce ourselves one by one, alright?”

“Alright,” replied the two.

“Our band’s called 60 Seconds.” Sungjong began to introduce himself by cutely smiling. “I’m Sungjong and I play the keyboard or the guitar—it depends on the song actually.”

“Sunggyu,” said the hamster. “Leader and vocalist.”

“You already know me, but I play the bass,” said Dongwoo.

“Myungsoo. Image control. Guitar,” simply said the chic one.

“Sungyeol. Drummer. Tall. y. Handsome. The Piercing King. Myungsoo’s lover—”

Myungsoo turned red and strangled Sungyeol all of a sudden, shaking him maniacally. “What the hell, man?!”

“But its—true,” said Sungyeol between breaths. “We’re lovers.”

Yura giggled watching them.

“You have a good smile,” Sungjong complimented and winked at her. She blushed and covered her face.

“Ah,” she said. “Thanks.”

“Player!” Dongwoo teased.

“Jieun’s still the best,” remarked Sungjong.

The bell rang indicating the start of their next class so the six went back to class together. But Yura, as usual, was still quite quiet and followed them from behind.

---

“Okay class,” said Onew. “Since I made the first three periods into free period, it’s activity time. “

“Aw,” the class whined.

“Oh, chill. It’s just an introduce yourself kind of thing. Sit in two circles, one inner and one outer. Once formed, you will talk to the person in front of you for two minutes. When I give the signal, the people in the inner circle will move one person to their right. The process will continue for roughly four rounds. Got it?”

“Got it,” everyone responded and did as they were told. Yura sat in between two random girl classmates and in front of her was a really beautiful girl. She had beautiful brown-red hair that complimented her semi-smoky eyeliner and blue-gray contact lenses. Even though she had makeup on, it was clear that she was a natural beauty.

Holding his stopwatch, Onew said, “And begin.”

“I’m Hyuna,” said Hyuna. “I like your style.”

The first thing that Yura thought was, Damn, this girl’s the best freaking person ever. That Sunggyu guy has very good taste; she’s y, cute, and adorable.

“Thanks,” she replied casually. “I like how you put your makeup on. Care to tell me the brand?”

“Ah, my eyeliner’s from Etude, my lipstick’s from YSL, and my BB cream’s from Tony Moly,” she replied with a smile, glancing upwards from time to time whenever she tried to recall a certain brand name.

“Y’know, I like you. We use the same brands aside from YSL which is too expensive for me.” Yura rubbed the back of her neck and chuckled. “I’m not much of a lipstick person anyway.”

“True, your lips have this naturally nice color already,” commented Hyuna. “Your simple eyeliner right now fits your cute face perfectly.”

“No kidding?”

“Time’s up! Next people.”

Hyuna waved goodbye only to be replaced by gum-smiling Dongwoo.

“Tchyeah, it’s Yura again. Hey, friend! Let’s make this high-five a successful one this time, okay?” He extended his hand once again to Yura. This time, she gave him a sort of legit high-five. Thinking positively, he said, “That’s a good start.”

“Yeah.”

“Aw, cmon! You talked to Hyuna so well. Are you really that scared of guys?”

Yura nodded.

“Well, let’s just do it this way,” he said, “ask me a question and I’ll answer it in a really long way, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Shoot.”

“Are you and CL together?”

Unlike Sungjong or Sunggyu, he didn’t blush in a panic but rather, sighed while smiling. “Oh, I wish. We’d been friends for a very long time now and y’know, I know you are annoyed at her right now and vice versa but I promise you, once you get to know her more, she won’t appear like such a . She’s awesome and cool and pretty, too. I tell her that everyday even if I may not be the one she’ll decide to be with in the end; I don’t even know if she knows about my feelings despite my obvious acts of expressing them. I think that she just thinks I’m a pest but regardless, I doubt that she’d shun me away. Someday, I hope she’d at least appreciate my efforts to make her less of a sourpuss all the time—“

“Next,” said Onew monotonously.

“Don’t tell.” Dongwoo winked and prepared to scoot over to the next person but then Sunggyu abruptly pushed him away and bombarded Yura with a ton of questions.

“I don’t care if you can’t talk to me, just nod or say a word or something.”

She nodded.

“Did you or did you not tell her about my feelings?”

She shook her head.

“Did she or did she not say anything about me?”

She shook her head again.

He lowered his head in defeat.

Heavily gulping, Yura spoke in a soft tone, “That doesn’t mean she doesn’t like you.”

“That’s the thing; she can’t like me. She has a boyfriend. His name’s Hyunseung and he’s a douchebag.” Sunggyu paused for a moment and balled his fists to calm himself down. “Well, not really but he’s just a bit lacking as a boyfriend and I really don’t like him because he’s with her, okay?”

“But you like her.”

“Yeah, I like her. She’s beautiful.”

“I know.”

“Wait—don’t tell me... Please, no homo ‘cause I have to deal with Myungsoo and Sungyeol already.”

“No,” spat Yura, slightly offended by his insensitive assumption. Still, she felt good that she managed a few words.

“Next.”

Sunggyu moved over to the next person. Sungjong came along and politely waved at her with both hands. “Hey.”

Yura waved back nervously. Something about him made her feel all the more intimidated.

“I see you’ve managed to slowly warm up to guys today,” he said. “Tell you what, I’ll help you get along with them even more.”

Yura made no reply.

“Just to tell you though, a lot of the guys are beginning to crush on you now. They kinda like your ‘charismatic with the girls yet shy and fragile with the guys’ image. Plus, please don’t take this the wrong way but your style’s awesome so yeah, you’re like an uprising star here.”

Her eyes widened at disbelief.

“Oh, you better believe it so be careful.”

She decided to ask him a slightly risky question. “Why that girl?”

Sungjong chuckled, his voice soft and angelic. “She’s cute and nice. Her smile makes my heart melt, and her laugh—her laugh is just music to my ears. I have no idea what kind of guy she likes, so I oftentimes change my image and hope that she’ll somehow notice me.”

Yura thought that that was stupid, but felt that she didn’t know him well enough to give a verdict so she kept quiet.

“Okay, that’s it. Since I’m still lazy, you’re all free to go. Just get your room keys on my desk as you leave. Your names are written there alongside your room number. Your luggages were already brought to your rooms beforehand by your nice parents or guardians. No questions and no complaints about your roommates, got it?’

“Got it,” replied everyone.

After grabbing her room key, Yura just read in the library for a few hours before actually going to her room. By the time she came, it was already past six at night. Slowly, she opened the door, wondering who her roommates might be.

“Yura!”

“Hyuna!”

All excited, Hyuna was so happy that she literally tackled Yura to the bed. The two giggled for a while and started on a pillow fight that eventually became an impromptu gun battle. Those girls will definitely get along.

“This is the start of something awesome,” said Yura.

“Definitely.”

“For me, it definitely won’t be,” said CL the moment she abruptly entered the room. Turns out, she’s also their roommate. And yes, she was still wearing the same teddy bear shoes as Yura.

“Why you—“ groaned Yura and CL, hissing at each other like cats. Quick to take action, Hyuna pouted and stopped that nonsense.

“Think it about it more positively, would you, guys?” she reasoned. “That means you guys have the same taste and could even share clothes,” she came to a realization, “even with me ‘cause I so wanna wear those shoes too. So waddya say, let’s shake hands, grab some instant noodles, chat and then sleep, alright?”

Giving in to Hyuna’s cuteness, CL extended a hand for a handshake in which Yura hesitantly shook. The agreement was signed; they were roommates—nothing to do but live with it.

For the rest of the night, the three ate instant noodles and engaged in a conversation wherein Hyuna spoke 90% of the time with the remaining 10% consisting of cacophonic side mumbles of the other two like “oh” and “ah” but still, it was a start.

Time came that they finally slept. Yura began her new life in a new school that day and she had already made new friends. While her fear of men still remains and will definitely be not easy to overcome, perseverance is the key. From then on, she will be challenged for the better.

So finally we put a kickstart to the story with this probably long chapter. I'm not sure if Sungjong really plays the guitar or not, but I kinda don't think so so let's just say he does in this fic xD.

Thank you for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed it~! :D