Chapter ONE:

...or what seemed like another dreaded year at Loen High

Class had yet to start and fortunately my favourite spot still remained isolated from the entire student body. How such an area was still unknown territory to such a large student body would always defy my logic, but I was not complaining. I investigated very hard to find such a spot where no one would go.

As I swung my legs under the staircase barrier, my eyes fell on the school gates as students pranced their way in. Smiles graced their faces and laughter erupted throughout the school. Not wanting to miss such a joyous expression, I pulled out my camera and slung it around my neck. Not only was this spot a prime hiding location but it gave me the perfect angle to take photos. I had to start now if I wanted to get good shots for the yearbook.

I never really saw the big hype coming back to school for the new year but everyone always seemed so excited to be back. Perhaps it was knowing that we could see our friends again or compare who had the better festive break. I never really was all that keen coming back after break. Then again, school wasn’t exactly my favourite place to be.

The hype seemed to be especially big this time round though. Why? Rumour had it that we were getting another round of transfer students this semester. And one happened to be coming into my class. Now the thing with transfer students at Loen High was it almost always turned into a strange competition of hierarchy within the year levels. Of course, third years always had the upper hand, it was more of a competition of who had the higher popularity within each year level, and more recently class. Me, being the person I am, tried not to partake in such juvenile competitions. I was not popular nor did I have any desire to be. It really made no difference to me whatsoever whether you were popular or a complete wallflower. I just wanted to survive high school. That really was my main goal in life right now.

“And why am I not surprised to see you here?” the voice brought me out of my thoughts and I was greeted with a warm, metal can to the side of my face and a palm to my head.

“Chansung-ah,” I whined as I attempted to fix what was left of my perfectly placed purple headband.

“Hey you cut your hair,” he said as he pulled my headband away. My freshly cut bangs fell across my face and I pouted. “I told you that bangs suited you,” he casually stated.

I had been trying to grow my hair out for most of last year until one Lee Sungyeol thought it’d be funny to dye my hair purple last fall. It wasn’t, contrary to popular belief, and I had to cut my hair back to its mid-length due to the horrible dye job he did. I managed to get most of it out and I had actually thought of dying it all purple. But then my parents were coming back into town that fall and they did not need to see their “perfect” daughter falling into what they would’ve called a “rebellion”. I swear they think I’m some teenage party girl when I really wasn’t, much to their disappointment.

“I didn’t really have a choice after what Yeol did,” I scowled, taking the headband back and fixing my fringe. “I still have that stupid purple in my hair,”

“Explains the purple headband,” he pointed out. Yes because at least the purple headband would draw some of the attention away to the randomly scattered bits of purple that had yet to be washed out.

Ignoring him, I took a sip of that wonderfully warm beverage, placed it down beside me and snapped a picture of Chansung. He casually drunk the hot coffee, one hand on the can and the other propping himself up. Hwang Chansung always had this carefree aura about him. It was rather annoying to be perfectly honest.

His head snapped up at the flash of my camera and he shot me that look he always did when I took a photo of him. A look that was quite on par with a deer caught in the headlights. I only shrugged at him, turning my baby’s attention back to the ground floor.

Chansung muttered something about people watching and how I should really not make that a habit. I couldn’t care less what he thought. I liked taking photos. People watching just happened to be a bonus deal.

“We’re second years now and you’re still spending your time up here,” Chansung said as he shuffled closer to the edge and hung his arms over the stairwell railing.

“Where else would I go? And besides, you’re here too,” I retorted.

Although the third floor stairwell had been well secluded from the rest of the school, Hwang Chansung still managed to find it along with Junho and Sungyeol at the end of last year. Which makes me question whether this place will remain a secret for my remaining time here at Loen?

Tapping his can with mine, he brought it up and toasted, “To ruling second years!”

“Have you been talking to Yeol again?” I clinked my can with his. He denied all too quickly and I could only shake my head.

Lee Sungyeol was our class president last year (how he managed that, I have no idea and I have no intention of finding out) and he had made it very public that he would be the first student to be class president all three years in a row. I didn’t want to be the one to break it to him but there was already a student (well current) who was beating him on that one and he was a third year. Park Jaebeom - or Jay Park as he liked to be called.

The warning bell for form class rung and I sighed. Chansung pulled me up from my very comfortable position and pulled my red backpack over my shoulders. He was about to take my camera too until I swatted his hand away from such precious object. Chansung nudged my head in response and I only stuck my tongue out.

No one touches my baby.

He swung his yellow messenger bag around his left shoulder and steered me towards the exit. I reluctantly let him.

Upon reaching 2-C, my eyes briefly met with the male from 2-B, the class across ours. He repositioned his black backpack before shoving his hands back in his pockets. As often as I had seen Kim Myungsoo (or L as he was referred to around Loen), the look in his eyes always sent this weird sensation down my spine. Three years and I was still not used to L’s infamous stare. And yes three…we happened to be in Junior High together. You think that’d make one immune to L, but no. As I had learnt, no one was. Well maybe one.

Before I could fully freeze at said Death Note character’s stare, a voice called my name and I was pulled into 2-C by the hooks of my bag. Something only one person ever did.

“Did you hear?” Sungyeol said as he pulled me down towards our seats by the window. Our usual 2-C group had gathered at mine and Min’s desk as the group discussed some sort of plan of action.

“Yeah, apparently the new kid’s pretty talented,” Min said as she scrolled through her tablet reading up on the latest “Loen News”.

“Well obviously. How else would he get into Loen?” Junho added.

Lee Junho was right. Loen High was an Arts school after all so evidently everyone was talented, at the risk of quoting Loen, in their own special way.

Yeah, their mission statement made me wanna vomit as well.

Anyway, everyone was known for doing something, whether it be singing and dancing or painting and writing, there was something for everyone.

“No but I hear he’s really good,” Min pressed on. “Like this guy can dance,” she pushed her tablet under our noses and showed us a video of said really talented transfer. And Min was right.

“This guy can dance,” Junho sounded impressed. And such thing was not an easy task.

“Hey, isn’t Wooyoung-hyung looking for another team member?” Chansung mentioned.

Junho shot him a glare and the taller male shrunk back in his seat. Junho had been working on scoring a place on the dance team ever since they announced that before the semester ended last year. He didn’t need some new kid taking that away from him.

Before things could get any more tense, our teacher walked in just as the bell sounded for class. Our teacher for this year was the same as last. Teacher Mikey Kim, or Chance as he liked his students to call him, was quite the heartthrob along with his rumoured band mates, Peter Hyun and Cho Junyoung or Sky, amongst the female students here. Unlike a lot of the things I disagree with, this was one thing I could not. But then again it was hard not to like them.

Chance did his regular admin duties and told us we had free seating choices. Unlike a lot of the other classes, Chance believed that we shouldn’t be seated in rank or by name. I liked that he let us sit anywhere because I don’t know what I’d do if I had to sit next to one Jung Daehyun. His eyes, that voice and everything that he was. I just couldn’t if he--

“And of course, the announcement you’ve all been waiting for,” Chance announced, rather enthusiastically might I add. A few desk drum rolls were rolled around and some wolf whistles. We finally got to see this talented transfer.

“Hello everyone. My name is Lee Howon. Please treat me well,” a boy with a purple backpack walked in and bowed.

His accent was off and I heard Junho mutter “Busan” under his breath.

Lee Howon, despite his language, exuded every bit the confident dancer. He was definitely dressed the part of one too. He wore purple converses, his grey snapback backwards and his white shirt was half buttoned to reveal a black printed tee.

Chance pointed him towards the back of the classroom where Sungyeol was waving manically at the spare seat beside him. Howon bowed again before shuffling his way towards Sungyeol. Dropping his bag to the floor, he leaned back in his desk, gave Sungyeol a nod, completely ignoring the latter’s overly welcoming greeting, and folded his arms. Junho and I both snickered and Sungyeol sent us a scowl.

…

Before I knew it, lunch rolled by and this was how I found myself in the greenhouse. Luckily it was still the middle of January and this was a nice warm place. Nichkhun from 3-B was tending to his flowers with Dongwoo from 3-C while the other seniors were talking about…senior matters. Something regarding SAT scores and girls. Or was it the new kid. What was his name, Bang Yongguk? Apparently he was the, and I quote from Jay, “dopest rapper in his neighbourhood” and they had to recruit him.

Outside, Sungyeol and Junho were arguing over Lee Howon which was not a pretty sight. Sungyeol had been wanting to bring him into our little group but Junho argued that said newcomer would not fit. But we all knew that Junho just didn’t want some Busan kid to steal his thunder.

Usually I would be present for such matters as I was unappointedly Lee Sungyeol’s “right-hand girl” but if there was one thing I were to advise anyone that did not know these two: You did not want to be in an argument with Lee Sungyeol and Lee Junho.

No really. It’s scary.

Instead I chose to flick through my camera to see today’s shots. I managed to get a few of the two blondies at the flower beds and it was amazing how angelic the two looked. Seniors always had a way of looking effortlessly perfect. I wondered if that would happen to us when we reached third year.

“Oh, you cut your hair,” I shadow came into my vision and I looked up to see another perfect senior. He shot me that signature grin as he patted me on the head. The stupid gesture made my heart race and I must’ve been grinning like an idiot. “You’re so much cuter with bangs,”

Said male sat himself beside me and leaned over my shoulder. Cooing over the simple photos I took, I couldn’t even retort as all I could hear was the sound of my heart beating. The close proximity this person was in allowed me full access to his dark chestnut hair, the way his school jacket sat perfectly on his shoulders and that wonderful scent of lavender and lemon with a hint of orange blossoms layered with subtle tones of cedar…

And the fact he called me cute.

Although Nam Woohyun was the “fanservice king” on campus and was known for his rumoured playboy activities, I knew he wasn’t. Well I liked to believe he wasn’t anyway. And as much as I hung around the male population of this school, like all the girls, I turned into complete mush and a bumbling fangirl when it came to one Nam Woohyun.

My stomach rumbled, much to my embarrassment, as I cringed and clutched it. As if that would mute the sound. Woohyun laughed that dorky laugh of his and I could only do the same. He reached for my red backpack and made a clucking sound.

“Yah, did you forget your lunch again?” he said. It wasn’t really new news as I was known to forget…well almost everything but for some reason my lunch would always be neatly packed in my bag.

He must’ve been late again. I guess I did leave before he did today.

“Luckily for you,” he reached into his own bag and pulled out two lunchboxes. “Ta-da~”

“Namu-Sunbae,” I smiled and he only chuckled at his nickname.

Setting out the lunch in front of us, I took a picture of the various kimbap rolls. He placed his hand on the camera and again my heart skipped. I let him take the camera and he snuggled up closer to me. Placing one of the lunchboxes in my palm, he motioned for me to raise it up and he took a photo, the flash almost blinding us in the process. A few complaints were thrown from the blondies’ end and Woohyun just took another picture of them in response.

And like that, lunch went by in a flash. Woohyun walked me to class despite my protests of an angry fangirl riot. He bid me farewell as he threw those hearts of his around to the fangirls and sent me a wink before disappearing around the corner. I walked back into class, keeping my head down, avoiding at all costs any girls who wanted to rip my hair out and slumped back into my window seat.

Three more hours and I could finally go home.