When I bumped into Jonghyun outside my English class on Monday, he didn’t even look at me or acknowledge me. He was walking with a group of his popular friends, so of course I didn’t expect him to act like we were friends. We weren’t by any means. Still, it sort of hurt that he completely ignored me like that.

There was a group of girls walking not far behind Jonghyun and his friends, ogling them, and if I hadn’t been distracted by the way Jonghyun blatantly ignored me I would have noticed them and made a mad dash in the opposite direction. These particular girls were the pseudo-popular group. They were pretty, rich, and fashionable – just not quite up to par with the really popular girls, the girls Jonghyun and his friends hung out with. They were vapid and arrogant, downright cruel on more than one occasion. I called them the Bimbo Brigade and they were my most fervent tormentors.

Their leader was a girl in my grade named Jessica Jung. She thought she was a lot prettier than she was, though who could say what she really looked like underneath the makeup she caked on for school every day. She was walking in between her two best friends, Taeyeon and Soonkyu, the rest of the group trailing dutifully after them like the lemmings they were.

If I hadn’t been staring after Kim Jonghyun, I would have noticed them early enough to make an escape. If I hadn’t been looking at Kim Jonghyun, they might not even have noticed me.

As it was, Jessica easily saw me and sauntered up, swaying her hips in a practiced manner, slinging around her perfectly-coifed hair. Taeyeon and Soonkyu followed, snickering, smirking. They knew a good round of poor-kid-bashing was on the way. “Narae-yah,” Jessica drawled, making my name sound exceptionally long and derogatory. Her eyes flickered over to Jonghyun, who was laughing at something his friend had said, his eyes crinkling up in a pleasant sort of way. “And just what are you looking at?” She waggled her eyebrows as she glanced from me to Jonghyun and back again, smirking in a suggestive sort of way.

I met her gaze head on; I had nothing to be embarrassed about. “Nothing.”

“That’s right, nothing,” Jessica purred, her velvety voice dripping with venom. “You better ing watch the way you look at your betters.”

My eyes flashed with anger. I may have been poor but that didn’t make any of these snobby es better than me. My pride didn’t want me to take the insult so passively but my desire to keep my scholarship kept me from punching her right in the face.

She laughed, and the sound grated on my nerves even more. Her friends chuckled too, even the ones that were too far away to really hear the insults being thrown. “Don’t tell me you’ve gotten ideas in your head,” Jessica continued, loudly enough now that a few people around us stopped to enjoy the spectacle. “You and Kim Jonghyun? Don’t be ridiculous, Narae. Just because you’re partners for a stupid social sciences project doesn’t mean that you’re friends.” She stopped suddenly, pretending to think of something. “Or maybe you think there’s something more? Could it be that you like him?”

The thought of me having a crush on Kim Jonghyun was so preposterous that it didn’t even warrant an answer. I simply rolled my eyes and turned to walk away; I had class to get to, after all.

Jessica didn’t like me ignoring her, not one bit. Her lips drew back in a very unflattering snarl and she raised her hand as if to hit me. I knew from experience that her punches lacked power, so I simply waited for the blow.

It never came. Instead, strong fingers wrapped around Jessica’s slender wrist, stopping her before she could hit me. The hand gripped so tightly that the knuckles were white.

I hardly dared look up at the person who had stepped in on my behalf; it was the first time anyone had done so since I’d started school at Seol Chong. I recognized her as a girl in my grade; we had a few classes together, though I didn’t know much about her. All I knew was that her name was Amber and that she was an exchange student from overseas. I also knew that she was part of the popular group, the group that hung out with Kim Jonghyun.

“Stop being such a , Jessica,” Amber said in fluent Korean. I knew it wasn’t her native language but she spoke it well. Her eyes were harsh and cold as she glared at Jessica. “Get a move on already. Quit stinking up the hallway.”

Jessica glared at Amber, but the short-haired girl seemed the type you really didn’t want to cross, especially if you were as much of a wuss as Jessica was. Amber had an aggressive, tomboyish demeanor and strong arms; she could probably do some real damage if she wanted to. Plus she was a part of the popular group Jessica wanted so badly to join, so the leader of the Bimbo Brigade rolled her eyes, motioned to her pack of friends, and disappeared down the hallway. The crowd that had gathered around us slowly dispersed, heading to their next classes, disappointed that no blood had been shed. I saw Jonghyun shoot a completely unreadable look in my direction before following his friends to his next class.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I mumbled, realizing that it was almost just Amber and myself in the hallway now.

She brushed back her stylishly short hair. “Of course I did,” she snapped, cracking her knuckles. “You sure as hell weren’t going to stand up for yourself. I’m sick and tired of those stupid es walking all over you. And that Jessica Jung…god, I want to take her down a notch or two.” She paused and took a deep, calming breath. Then she turned to look at me with an apologetic smile. “Where’s your next class? I’ll walk you.”

“I have linguistics with Ms. Jo,” I mumbled, falling into step beside her. “But you don’t have to. You’ll be late to class.”

She shrugged, hands shoved deep in the pockets of her blazer. “It’s cool. I don’t mind. I’m Amber, by the way.”

“I know,” I said before I could stop myself. “I’m Narae.”

She grinned. “I know.”

We walked in silence until we reached Ms. Jo’s linguistics classroom. The hallway was deserted by then since the bell was about to ring. We stopped outside the classroom door, me holding my books awkwardly to my chest. I didn’t really know what to say; I had never been in this position before.

“Thanks, I guess,” I finally mumbled. “For sticking up for me. And for walking me to class.”

She smiled. Though she came across as a total tomboy, boyish and everything, she was naturally really pretty. It was easy to see why she was a part of the popular group. “It’s no problem,” she assured me. “If Jessica and her little es give you any more trouble, come tell me, okay? It’s not right for them to keep bullying you like that.”

I nodded, though I knew that I would never be a tattler. That would just piss Jessica and the rest of the Bimbo Brigade off even more.

Amber hesitated, then pulled a scrap of paper out of her bag, scribbling her phone number down in handwriting that was almost as messy as Jonghyun’s and handing it to me. “You should give me a call or text sometime if you want to hang out or something,” she offered with a smile.

I accepted the piece of paper, a little suspiciously. No one had been nice to me in two months, so I didn’t understand why somebody suddenly was. “Okay,” I said, though I doubted I would ever make use of the number. I was a girl from the bad part of town and I was automatically on my guard.

The bell rang, saving me from having to pretend to be friendly any longer.

“Oops,” Amber grinned sheepishly. “Guess we’re late. See you later!” And she was off down the hall to her own class. 

Okay so basically SNSD are es in this. (no worries, I like them in real life.)

Also, Amber to the rescue! I'm not gay, but Amber is totally my girl crush ^^