“Students, sit down! Class is about to begin.” The teacher came through the door instructing everyone sit in their assigned seats.

He stood behind his podium and scanned the room searching for any disobedient kids he could possibly put into detention but that wasn’t going to happen today nor tomorrow. These students sitting in front of him were nothing more than programed robots that obeyed your every command. What would you expect from children who have lived their life under total control of their strict parents?

Big Hit Academy has always been known to be one of the best high schools in South Korea. Every person who has graduated from this school has always had a successful outcome. They’d be able to get into Korea’s top universities without any trouble and obtain their desired careers. Of course, every parent would want their children to attend this school if they want their child to become a doctor, lawyer, or to have some sort of high paying job.

It isn’t that easy to get into the school though. Bit Hit Academy only accepts 2% of the highest ranking middle school students across the country. Not only that, but they also look into their family backgrounds, choosing only those who have wealthy families. But there were also those families who didn’t have the scores to get in. The fact that they had money was good enough for them to get accepted.

“Before we start today’s session, I will be introducing a new student joining us today,” Mr. Cho looked out the door. “Come in and introduce yourself.”  

A girl walked in and stood in front of the class. “Hello, I’m Lee Yoojin. My father received a promotion in his work so our family had to move and I had to transfer schools. I hope we can all be friends.” She bowed but when she straightened back up and looked at her classmates, they didn’t have a least bit of interest in her. Some were reading and doing their work, others were in their own little world. *The atmosphere in the room is completely different from my old school.*

“You may sit down now. There’s an empty seat over there.” Mr. Cho pointed to the vacant desk. Yoojin nodded and sat down.

Mr. Cho walked over to his desk and grabbed a stack of papers out of his drawer. “I’m sure you all are all eager to know your test grades from 3 days ago. Remember students, I’ll be meeting with your parents for a parent teacher conference all this week and they’ll be seeing these scores.” She passed out the papers one by one while the students were all nervous and curious for what awaited them.

Jeon Jeongguk started at his paper where a big red D was placed. “My parents are going to kill me.” He slammed his head on his desk.

Class went smoothly. In fact, Yoojin was ahead of the class. The lesson they were learning was already something she had learned in the past. Not at her previous school, but at home.

Her parents have always made her study at home even if the difficulty of the subject was far from where her level was. She was forced every day after school and during weekends to stay home and study. Reason because they have high expectations of her.

When lunch time arrived, students began leaving the room with their friends while Yoojin had no idea where to go. She would ask her teacher for help, but Mr. Cho was busy talking to one of the students.

The hallway was filled with students trying to escape for lunch but by the time she left her classroom, the hallway was empty.  She exited the classroom and walked down the halls hoping to find someone to ask directions from but no one was found. *I guess I’ll have to find the cafeteria myself.*

“Mr. Cho, can you please look over my test. I don’t think it’s possible that I got a D on this. I studied really hard for it!” Jeongguk complained.

The teacher shook his head. “I’m sorry but a D is what you deserve. I’ve went over your answers three times to make sure that I was correcting your test correctly.”

“But is there anything like extra credit? Anything to make up my grade?” he asked desperately.

“Jeongguk I have to leave for my lunch break. There isn’t anything I can do about your test. You’ll just have to try harder next time to bring your grade up.” He packed his bag and left the room.

After 10 minutes of wandering through the abandoned school by herself, Yoojin felt a light tap on her shoulder. “Hey are you lost?”

“Omo.” Startled by the sudden touch, Yoojin placed her hand on her thumping heart. “You scared me.”

She turned to face a red headed girl with long hair and straight bangs. Something gave off a feeling that made her different from the rest of the students and it’s not just because of her red hair. “Sorry for startling you. Do you need help finding your way?”

Yoojin nodded. “I was hoping to find someone I could ask for help from but there wasn’t a body in sight.”

“Yup, that’s how it is here. People just can’t wait to get out of class for lunch, which makes the hallways pretty scary if you’re alone. But I assure you, this building is not haunted.” The girl laughed. “Follow me. I’ll show you where the cafeteria is.”

“Thanks.” Yoojin was glad that someone was there to help her. “I’m Yoojin by the way.”

“I know. I sit two seats behind you in class.” Yoojin followed her to where the cafeteria was. “I’m Hong Jeena, but people call me Cherry. The red color of my hair resembles the color of a cherry,” she cheerfully said.

“We’re here.” She pointed to where the long line of students was. “The lunch line is over there.”

Yoojin lined up and she followed. After getting her food, she went and sat down at an empty table.

Cherry sat across from her.  “You don’t mind if I ate with you today right?”

She shook her head.  “Not at all.” Yoojin didn’t think that Cherry would want to sit with her. Didn’t she have her own friends to eat lunch with? *I guess it would be nice to have some company. We are classmates after all.*

“Oh by the way, since you’re pretty new to Big Hit Academy, why don’t I show you around after school? You wouldn’t want to risk getting lost again would you?” Cherry chuckled.

“That’d be great.” Yoojin smiled at the first friend she could possibly have here.

After school, Yoojin got the tour of the school from Cherry as promised. Yoojin was able to memorize all the hallways and rooms she needed to know for the school year with her help.

The entire time, Cherry had been smiling and it seemed as if she was having fun giving her the tour. Her personality was what made her stand out from everyone else in the school.

“Hey at least you didn’t get an F.” Jeongguk’s friend Jaejoon stole the basketball from Jeongguk’s hands. He did a jump shot and scored. “Yes! 12-9 I’m still in the lead.”

“I’d kill myself if I got a F.” Jeongguk got the ball and went to half court line. “I don’t know what happened. I reviewed all the material in chapter 4 and I actually tried this time.” He dribbled passed Jaejoon and did a layup. “Why didn’t you try to block me?”

“Wait, did you say you studied chapter 4?” Jaejoon questioned. “The test was on chapter 5.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jeongguk cursed at himself. “I feel like a . I don’t feel like playing anymore.” He sat down on the ground and drank from his water bottle.

Jaejoon followed and sat next to him. “How long do you have until your parents find out?”

“They’ll find out when they have the conference with Mr.Cho.” Jeongguk began to feel as if he had forgotten something. He thought about it for a moment until it popped into his mind and he mentally smacked himself because of it.

“CRAP. The conference is today at 5 and I’m supposed to meet up with my parents. What time is it now?” He quickly stood up and packed his bag.

“It’s almost 6. You better go before they really do murder you.” Jaejoon laughed and watched as his friend began running off to his death.

Jeongguk ran into school towards his classroom but when he got there, his mother was standing there waiting for him outside the door.

“Where have you been?” His mother didn’t sound happy. “You’re almost an hour late.”

“I was playing basketball.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. I forgot about the conference.”

“We told you to meet with us here at exactly 5pm and I expected you to come,” she continued.

“Yeobo, him being late is not what we should be most concerned about.” His father came out of the classroom.

“Can you explain to me why you’re behind in your class? I clearly explained to you that if I let you go to LA for that dance workshop last summer you would work hard and get good grades in school.” He held out Jeongguk’s test papers: C, C+, D. “Is this what you call good grades?!”

Jeongguk’s head was down, not daring to say anything back.

“I’m going to have to get you a tutor.” He rubbed his temples. “Every day after school for the next week, you’ll go to the school library. I’ve hired a tutor to meet you there. Got it?”

Jeongguk nodded.

“Good. Now let’s go home,” he commanded. “I had to take off an important day of work because of this.”

The next day at school, there was an assembly where the visual performing arts classes would perform in front of the school in the auditorium.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t wait!” Cherry squealed in the seat next to Yoojin. “I heard Taehyung was going to perform today.”

“Who’s Taehyung?” Yoojin asked.

“He’s a boy who from a grade higher than us and he is just so handsome.” She sighed dreamily. “There are rumors going around that say that he’s an underground artist. But no one has actually found out if it were true or not since no one in this school is actually into that kind of music.” Cherry pouted.

A person came on stage and asked for everyone’s attention. “Thank you for joining us today to see our schools dance and vocal class performances. The first thing on the list, we’ll have Jimin and Taehyung dance to a song that they’ve worked hard on creating the choreography for.”

Two boys came on stage and the music started playing. They began moving their bodies to the music and everyone in the audience were mesmerized by how swiftly and in sync they moved.

“There! That’s Taehyung!” Cherry screamed in Yoojin’s ear.  “The guy with the light brown hair. Isn’t he cute?!”

Yoojin nodded without leave her eyes from the stage. She had to admit, they were pretty good.

Sitting a few rows behind them were Jeongguk and Jaejoon.

“Whoa. Is it just me or is this way better than what they had last year? What do you think?” Jaejoon nudged Jeongguk.

“It’s not just you.” Jeongguk laughed. “They’ve been practicing. I’m impressed but they’re not up to my level yet.”

“Eyy,” Jaejoong pushed him. “Why didn’t you join the class? You’re a hell of a dancer, rapper, and singer.” He sighed. “I wish I had your talent.”

“I would have,” Jeongguk replied. “But I had my reasons.”

At the end of the performance, everyone began cramming through the back doors trying to leave. There were pushing and shoving which made it very difficult to get by.

Jeongguk thought of an idea. “Follow me. We’re never going to get out if we continue to wait here.”

Jaejoong followed him and the two of them snuck to the backstage exit.

“Jeongguk.” A voice called out to him. He turned around and saw the dance teacher of the school, Ms. Park.

“You go ahead.” Jeongguk whispered. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

Jaejoon nodded and went out the door.

“Yes Ms. Park. Erm did you need something?” Jeongguk asked.

“I wanted to ask you if you’d be joining any performing arts classes next year. I know your talent boy. I’ve seen you and you’re a great dancer.” She crossed her arms. “Why didn’t you join this year?”

“It’s because of my parents.” He confessed. “They wouldn’t let me join.”

“Is that why,” she gave him a suspicious look.

“Ms. Park!” A boy called out looking for his teacher.

She turned her head and saw him coming towards her. “Oh Jimin, are you done tidying up everything?”

Jimin nodded. “I’ll be leaving now.”

“Wait, Jimin.” He stopped and turned back around. “Let me introduce you to someone. This is Jeongguk. He’s a year younger than you,” she said. “He’s an excellent dancer and I’m trying to get him to join the class next year. Maybe you two can have practice together sometime or something.”

Ms. Park turned to Jeongguk and smiled. “I’m sure you know that this is Jimin. You guys should become friends.” She patted him on the back before leaving the two of them.

Jimin smiled. “I guess I’ll be seeing you around Jeongguk.”