Gossip at Seol Chong traveled like wildfire, but the truth traveled even faster. By the time I got to school the following morning – I’d insisted on taking the bus so Zelo wouldn’t skin me alive – everyone knew that Jonghyun and I were officially dating. I don’t know how – as I had only given in to him after everyone else had gone for the day – but everyone knew. All the students and teachers. Even the maintenance staff snickered behind their hands as I made my way into the building.

I didn’t even make it to my locker before Jessica popped up in front of me, her bimbos closing in on me so I couldn’t make an escape. I’d seen Jessica mad before – on plenty of occasions, actually – but this was the first time I’d seen her this mad.

At first it seemed like she was too mad to actually form sentences, but eventually she found her voice, and it absolutely dripped with venom when she did. “Just who the hell do you think you are?” she demanded in a voice trembling with undisguised rage. If she could’ve torn me limb from limb with those fake fingernails she was sporting, she would’ve done it in a heartbeat.

I cocked my head to the side, giving her my best confused look. “I’m Song Narae, unnie,” I answered innocently. “But I thought you already knew who I was. You’re always calling my name, after all.”

Her hand flashed out as quick as lightning, leaving a stinging print on my cheek that was clearly overshadowed by the satisfaction I felt at having gotten a rise out of her. I’d been shot before, for god’s sake; a wimpy little slap like that wasn’t going to do much damage.

“How dare you?” she hissed, eyes flashing dangerously. God, if looks could kill I would be dead a thousand times over. “How dare you think that you’re good enough to even look at Jonghyun-oppa-”

She’s cut off as someone grabs her arm from behind. Though it doesn’t really surprise me all that much anymore, Jessica is absolutely flabbergasted to see that it’s Jonghyun holding her wrist in a death grip. “How dare you think that you’re good enough to even look at my girlfriend?” he demanded coldly, fingers digging into her wrist so that his knuckles turned white.

Jessica stumbled over her words for a moment before wrenching her arm away from Jonghyun and fleeing, her posse of lemmings trailing after her like the little shadows that they were.

“You’ve got to stop doing that,” I grumble, going to my locker and opening it up. “I can take care of myself, you know.”

“Why don’t you just kick her ?” Jonghyun suggested, leaning against the locker beside mine and crossing his arms casually over his blazer. For some reason it seemed that he had gotten even more attractive overnight. Stupid dinoface. “We both know you could take her.”

“And we both know that I’d get expelled without a second thought,” I retorted, collecting the books I needed and closing my locker door again.

Jonghyun pursed his lips thoughtfully, automatically falling into step with me and lacing our fingers together even though he had linguistics first and I had Korean, which were on opposite sides of the main school building. “I could always beat her up for you,” he offered with a grin. “They’re not going to expel me.”

I wrinkled my nose and gave him a playful shove, trying to ignore all the stares and whispers as the two of us walked down the hallway together. “Don’t be ridiculous, Jonghyun. You’re not going to beat up a girl. As much as I think she needs a good beating.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed with a dramatic sigh. “Besides, Krystal would be mad at me if I beat up her sister.”

I splutter and nearly trip over something invisible. “Krystal and Jessica are sisters?” I repeat incredulously. This was certainly news to me. “How can sweet little Krystal be related to someone as monstrous as Jessica?”

Jonghyun chuckled, bringing our clasped hands up to his lips and pressing a tender kiss to my knuckles. “Blood doesn’t mean much around here, I’m afraid,” he said. Then he patted me gently on the head. “Now go to class before you’re late.”

“Yah, why are you acting so high and mighty all of a sudden?” I demanded sullenly. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m the good student here. You’re the one that barely scrapes by.”

He laughed and patted my head again. “Go on, Kitten. We don’t want to ruin what’s left of your good-girl image, now would we?” And with that, he left me spluttering outside my homeroom class.

Morning classes were torture, of course. The rumors that had been circulating around school had been bad enough, but it seemed like not many people actually believed them. Now, however, now that the evidence of the truth was staring them blatantly in the eye, they had no choice but to believe it. I was a sudden celebrity, and definitely not in the good sense.

I had been naïve enough to think that, after the news came out that Jonghyun and I were really dating, Jessica and the Bimbo Brigade would be my biggest tormentors. While it was true that they hated my guts more than ever and they would corner me whenever they were able, they didn’t dare make a move while Jonghyun or Amber was with me, and those two were almost always with me now. And if they weren’t, there was always someone else around – Jinki or Minho or even Victoria and Sunyoung – who would make sure that no harm came to me.

What I hadn’t counted on was such hostility from Key, Jonghyun’s best friend.

I had known going in that I wasn’t going to be accepted right away, or maybe even not at all. It was a relief that so many of Jonghyun’s friends were open-minded and willing to befriend me. I knew that Key and Jinri still hated me, but I figured that they would tone it down a bit out of respect for Jonghyun. But, boy had I been wrong about Key.

Key was a diva, pure and simple. I found out from Jinki and Minho over the next few days that he was the only child of a major fashion designer who traveled around the world debuting the latest fashions. As such, he was an entitled little most of the time. For the life of me I couldn’t see why Jonghyun would hang out with him, but apparently they were as thick as thieves.

Also just as apparent was Key’s dislike for me. Dislike might not even be a strong enough word for it. Total and utter loathing was probably more accurate. I could drop dead any minute and Key would be as happy as a clam.

And, unlike the Bimbo Brigade, Key wasn’t an idiot or afraid. I had to begrudgingly admit that he was of above average intelligence, and this showed in the creative and cruel ways he found to insult me. And he would insult me no matter who was around: teachers, Amber, even Jonghyun. It was as if he was giving the world a giant you.

“Ugh, I see that the janitors have been lax in their duties again lately,” he said with a sneer as he sat down in his usual chair at the table in the cafeteria that I was slowly being absorbed into courtesy of Amber and Jonghyun. “They missed the smelliest trash again.”

“Key,” Jonghyun said warningly, but he may as well have been whistling a nursery rhyme for all the attention Key paid to him.

The diva just shrugged his shoulders and unwrapped a lunch that was obviously made by one of the finest chefs Paris had to offer. “What? It’s not wrong of me to expect the janitors to do their job, is it? That’s what they’re getting paid for.” He looked me up and down with a sneer. “Besides, they’d have to be blind to miss the rubbish in a field full of roses.”

There was a retort hovering on the tip of my tongue – how I longed to give this stuck-up a piece of my mind – but in the end I didn’t. There was no point starting an argument with him. It would be one-sided, at any rate, and I couldn’t afford to cause a scene. Any unwanted attention from the faculty and staff could result in my expulsion, and I couldn’t risk that. Not even to tell off this jerk.

So I just took my lunch – my pathetic, homemade lunch that I had thrown together in five minutes that morning with what was left in our pantry – and left the lunchroom.

To my surprise, it was Sunyoung who followed me and not Jonghyun or Amber. “Narae!” she called. “Don’t be like this. Come back to lunch.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t particularly feel like sitting around and being insulted day after day,” I answered heatedly, throwing my rubbish away in a nearby bin.

Sunyoung gave me a sympathetic look. “That’s the way he wants you to feel, you know. He knows that nobody is going to make you leave, and so he wants you to go on your own.”

“But why?” I demanded, groaning. “Why does he hate me so much? Because I’m poor? Because I don’t know anything about fashion? Because I’m the highest in our class?”

“Because you’re dating Jonghyun,” Sunyoung interrupted bluntly. “Jonghyun is Key’s best friend and, now that you’ve come along, Jonghyun wants to spend more time with you and less with Key. He’s jealous, Narae. That’s all it is.”

I felt myself lose a little bit of steam. I guess I hadn’t thought about it like that before, but it was sort of like I was coming in and stealing his best friend. “He still doesn’t have to be a total about it.”

She laughed lightly. “That’s just how Key is. You get used to it after a while. Just stick with it for a little bit and he’ll realize that you’re here to stay and he’ll back off a little.”

“I’ve been eating lunch with you guys for over a week now,” I pointed out. “And he doesn’t seem like he’s going to lighten up any time soon.”

“I’m sure you’ve been through worse,” Sunyoung pointed out. “I thought you were made of stronger stuff. Surely a little bit of bullying isn’t going to make you run in the opposite direction. I thought you liked Jonghyun more than that.”

I wrinkled my nose at her. “I know that we’re not that good of friends yet or anything, but you’re disgustingly optimistic.”

She laughed and linked arms with me. “I’ve been told that on occasion. Now let’s go back to the cafeteria.”