Kim Taeyeon lowered her head, closed her eyes and pressed her lips together to the point it almost hurt. She also put her hood up, covering her messy brown hair. She completely covered herself in her black hoodie, her face was barely visible, and she slowly entered the school gate. Her mind was filled with the oh-so-well-known prayer that she never said aloud.

Please may they not notice me; please may they not notice me…

She wished she was invisible. At least for today. They probably already spotted her, but she didn’t dare to lift her head to make sure. Her sight remained fixed on the ground, but she felt, literally felt, their dirty looks all over her body. But she was determined not to lift her head. Maybe she was a coward, but maybe she just wanted to keep that last tiny bit of hope that maybe she could get inside the school without any harm this time. She was afraid to know the truth. She still had hope.

A little bump into her shoulder crashed the little last hope she had into zillion of little pieces that immediately disappeared.

“Where are you going, our little Gay-yeon?” a voice said mockingly.

Taeyeon gritted her teeth at the obvious insult. She didn’t have any strength left. She didn’t have any strength to fight, any strength to somehow oppose. She just lifted her head and with no expression looked into the girl’s eyes.

“Thirteen thousand won and you’re free to go today.”

Taeyeon’s eyes widened. That was a lot of money to her standard. Sunmi raised her demands. She gulped and took out a few grubby bills. Sunmi harshly took them out of Taeyeon’s hand and straightened them, before counting. She looked at her two servants, I apologize, two best friends, with a sleek smile. “Little Gay-yeon is generous today, she gave me fifteen, how nice of her,” she stated.

Taeyeon regretted being so careless. She stupidly lost more money she desperately needed.

“Now get off my sight, if I see you one more time today, it’ll be another ten thousand or bye bye this school, is this clear enough to you?” Sunmi ordered and mockingly smacked Taeyeon’s right cheek a few times. Taeyeon swallowed all the insults that she was dying to tell that mean girl and just nodded. Her hands were forming a fist when she looked at Yenny, one of the serv- best friends. Yenny was expressionless, just blankly staring at Taeyeon. A glimpse of sadness appeared in Taeyeon’s eyes for a second before she turned around and started to walk away, hoping it was really all for today. She needed to be invisible. Badly. She and that ing bully had three classes together that day. How can she make sure Sunmi won’t see her? She checked the content of her pockets and took out a few coins. She sighed. That wasn’t even enough for the bus. She will have to walk home after the school ends. She cursed Sunmi before entering the right classroom…

Taeyeon survived the day. She skipped Math; that was one of the classes she had together with Sunmi. Unfortunately, she couldn’t skip two hours of English. Her marks in that ing subject were too bad and she needed the classes. She sat to the very back, her head hidden under the hoodie, hoping Sunmi wouldn’t notice her. It was lame and she felt like the biggest coward ever, but she would like to finish high school. Luckily, Sunmi decided to ignore her for the rest of the day, just like everybody else. Well, except for Yenny who bothered only long enough to spit on Taeyeon’s old cheap sneakers. Lovely.

Taeyeon was on her way home. The sun was already about to set and she was hungry, cold and tired. Not to mention extremely grumpy. Thank god it’s her senior year. She had six months to go. She believed she can survive the reign of the queen Sunmi, who also happens to be the school principal’s daughter.

She took her old cell phone out of her pocket and pressed the number two. Speed dial. Number one was a voice mail by the way. The person on the other side wasn’t picking up. Taeyeon sighed and was about to hung up, but then suddenly, an answer. Breathless one. “Yeah, Taeyeon-ah? I’m sorry, what’s up?”

“Why do you sound so breathless?” Taeyeon asked, suspicious. Her voice sounded quite hoarse. Partly because she was grumpy, partly because she was cold and partly because she didn’t say a single word for the entire day.

“Ah, well, Amber’s here and you know-“

“Ugh, stop right there, I don’t wanna know anything about your es, Kwon Yuri,” Taeyeon said quickly and her voice cracked a bit.

“Calm down, Taeng, it’s not like that. We’re gym buddies, remember?” The girl on the other side finally managed to catch her breath a bit. “We exercise together.”

“And you occasionally , I know,”

“Well, that just happens from time to time, you can’t blame me… Uhm, why are you calling anyways?”

“Nothing actually, just needed to talk with like… anybody.”

“So I’m anybody to you?” Yuri said, faking being insulted.

“No, sorry, Yuri, you know I didn’t mean it like that,” Taeyeon answered simply. “You know… go back to… exercising or whatever you were doing. I’m home already,” Taeyeon said as she stopped in front of the smallest and shabbiest house in the neighborhood surrounded by rusty fence.

“Okay… be strong, Taeyeon, I promise I will go to school tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay… bye,” Taeyeon hung up and put the phone back to her pocked. She took off her backpack and looked for keys. She fought with the freaking rusty lock for a minute or two. It was stuck. She groaned and gave up. She took her backpack and threw it over the fence. Then she climbed up herself. The fence wasn’t that high and hard to climb over. She climbed over and jumped. She sprained her ankle as she messed up the jump. She didn’t lose her balance, but her palms buried into the grass. She hissed in pain and touched her ankle. It went back into the joint immediately, so it was okay, she thought. She looked around. The garden was empty, not even the dog was outside. No wonder, it was already dark and cold.

Taeyeon entered the house. Even the house was quiet. She found her mother in the living room, lap top in front of her. She was playing Farmville. Seriously.

“Hi,” Taeyeon said quite coldly.

“You’re late,” her mom said.

“I was with Yuri,” Taeyeon lied quickly before going to her room. Their house had just one floor, so she didn’t have to go up the stairs. She found a little black puppy lying on her bed. She joined him there and petted him. The puppy her hand gratefully.

Taeyeon sadly smiled. “At least somebody cares…”

Even the following day, Taeyeon didn’t rush to school. She never did. She knew what was coming and she wanted to delay it as long as possible. She let out a bitter laugh as she realized she pays tuition even though she attends a ing public school. And she pays it to a ing retarded mean girl who thinks she’s a boss. She shook her head a bit and put on her hood. This time not because she wanted to hide from all the despising looks, but simply because snowflakes started to fall from the sky. Winter was here. She dragged her legs, looking at them, thinking. When did everything mess up so much? It was that one time, over a year ago, when she decided to come out. Yuri was an openly gay since the high school started. And nobody seemed to care. Then Taeyeon came out. And suddenly everybody started to have a problem with it. She was always considered the weird one, she was reserved, quiet, not as friendly as Yuri, not as funny as Yuri, not as rich as Yuri. Not that Yuri was a chaebol or something, but hey sure didn’t suffer from the lack of money. And of course, she wasn’t as strong as Yuri and was easy to bully. She wished she could take it all back. But it was too late.

She never told her mother. She didn’t want to make her even more worried. She can manage, it was her last year. Taeyeon was keeping it secret. The fact that Sunmi was taking her money. Even Yuri did not know. It was quite easy to hide from her, since she was never at school. Taeyeon was always wondering how is it possible that she still manages to pass all the tests.

Anyways, Taeyeon wasn’t that type who would talk about their feelings and stuff and she didn’t see any reason why she should start doing it. She can manage. That was her life motto. I can manage.

She was late for physics. She didn’t care. She just wanted to survive, she didn’t want to have perfect attendance or grades.

She was still looking down, thinking, as she entered the school. She sure didn’t expect anybody to push her. She hissed and almost fell on the floor, but managed to remain on her feet. Her hood fell of her head.

“The hell?!” she yelled, angry, looking up. It was Sunmi, of course, who else.

“You’re late, stupid dyke,” she spat.

Taeyeon just snorted. For some reason all the thinking she had done before gave her more courage. “None of your business,” she said.

She earned a slap.

For a second a hurt expression crossed her face, but soon she was staring firmly at Sunmi again. Sunmi was alone. Her two servants- I mean, best friends, Yenny and Yubin, weren’t around. They were kind of equal at the moment.

“It’s totally my business. Totally,” Sunmi growled. “Now give me today’s money. Now.”

“No.”

Sunmi snorted. “So little Gay-yeon refuses to obey, I see. It’s not gonna work like this.”

Taeyeon didn’t move and remained quiet. She just waited for Sunmi’s next step. She was ready to fight and/or run away if needed. Sunmi kept watching her for a while and then took something out of her pocket, pressing it against Taeyeon’s stomach through the hoodie.

Taeyeon immediately looked down and automatically wanted to take a few steps back. It was a knife. “Da hell, Sunmi?!” she yelped, but didn’t move. She knew that a single bad move could be enough for Sunmi to really hurt her.

“Firstly, who allowed you to say my name? Secondly… give me your money you little dirty gay .”

Taeyeon slowly took her money out of her pocket. Sunmi withdrew her hand so she could count all the money. She didn’t seem very satisfied. “Is that supposed to be all?”

Taeyeon just nodded. She brought little money to school on purpose. Sunmi pouted, unhappy. “This ain’t gonna work, gurl, this ain’t gonna work.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Taeyeon asked.

“Well, the midterm exams are coming,” Sunmi started.

“Yes, they indeed are. So?”

“Daddy has them locked in his office. I want you to get them,” Sunmi said with a smirk.

“What? Are you insane?!“ Taeyeon raised her voice a bit and earned yet another slap. She hissed. “What?!” she asked again. “It’s impossible!”

“I don’t care. Just get them. You’re a smart girl, you can do it,” Sunmi smiled and ruffled Taeyeon’s hair. Taeyeon frowned. She hated this girl so much. “In case you need some kind of motivation, let’s say not being kicked out of this school should be enough.”

Taeyeon opened , but for a long time, there were no sounds coming out. She’s so going to get kicked out of the school for doing this if she gets caught. And she’s so going to get kicked out of the school for not doing this. For Sunmi, it’s damn easy to get her kicked out of school. She could just made up some kind of a lie, like Taeyeon bullies her and bye bye Taeyeon. How ironic. Sunmi is such a little spoiled b*tch.

Taeyeon snorted out. “Okay, no problem,” she said. “Anything else you need or is that all?” she asked nonchalantly.

“That’s all. For now,” Sunmi said, her face dark and walked away.

Taeyeon let out a desperate groan as soon as she was left alone.

She. Is. So. Doomed.

Taeyeon was very surprised that Yuri came to school during. She came late, even more late than Taeyeon, but she actually did arrive.

“Yuri-yahh! Long time no see you!” she said, excited as soon as she spotted her friend.

“Oh god, calm down, it’s not like we haven’t seen each other for ages!” the tall girl laughed.

“Uhm, Yuri, it’s been a week, since you were to school last time,” Taeyeon reminded.

“Oh, really?” Yuri wondered, surprised.

“Yes, really,” Taeyeon answered grumpily.

“It doesn’t seem that long,” Yuri mumbled and then smiled at Taeyeon brightly.

“Time always passes more quickly when you are not at school, Yul.”

“That sounds… convincing,” Yuri said after a few seconds of thinking about it. Then she sat on the always-empty-chair right next to Taeyeon’s. Taeyeon sat down as well.

“I assume you’ve been great,” Taeyeon said then.

“Yes, of course! And oh my gosh, so many things happening at school!” Yuri said, excited.

“Wait, what? What is happening? How come you know what’s happening at school even though you’re not even here and I don’t?” Taeyeon said, puzzled. “I never know all the good stuff!”

 “Ho ho! You better brace yourself then!” Yuri said, excited. She looked around the classroom. There weren’t many people around. Just Sooyoung, doing her homework she forgot to do at home, Jessica, as always sleeping at the very back, Changmin and Yoochun talking at the very back.

Yuri lowered her voice. “You know who Tiffany Hwang is, am I right?”

Taeyeon frowned. “What’s up with the stupid question? Of course I do, everybody knows her. Plus we talked about her several times and I have a few classes with her.”

“I know, I know, it’s just you seem a bit… like you don’t follow the most important things, you know. Like you said. You never know all the good stuff.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, just tell me what’s up with her.”

“I’ve heard she had slept with Donghae,” Yuri whispered into Taeyeon’s ear. It tickled, so Taeyeon scratched it.

“What?! Su-…” she realized she’s talking too loudly and lowered her voice too. “Sunmi’s boyfriend?!”

“Yes, Sunmi’s boyfriend. But Sunmi doesn’t know about it. Yet. Of course… we all know the scenario. The Hwang s a boy and because she is oh-so-beautiful, the boy brags and tadah! The entire school knows.”

“Isn’t calling her a bit harsh?” Taeyeon asked.

“Ahem, name me one boy she . One. And I’ll get you a cookie,” Yuri said.

“Uhm….” Taeyeon thought about it for a while and then answered. “Yoochun and Changmin,” she said then.

Yuri looked at the two boys and looked back at Taeyeon like she just said something totally stupid. “Okay, I meant boys who actually aren’t complete weirdos. These two don’t count.”

“It’s gonna be interesting once Sunmi finds out,” Taeyeon breathed out. She just hoped this situation won’t make Sunmi too angry to take all the anger out on her. That would be a very unpleasant thing. Then she remembered she still has tests to steal. How is she going to do that? She wished she knew.

“Yes, it definitely is,” Yuri said.

Then a school bell announced the beginning of the lesson and students slowly started to invade the classroom. They had a lesson of Korean literature, aka the most boring class ever.

Taeyeon wanted to sleep, but she never slept in class. On the other hand, Yuri had no problems with that. Sometimes Taeyeon felt like she’s the only one awake. She also tried to reply to teacher’s questions from time to time. But not too often.

She spaced out, trying to figure out any possible way to successfully accomplish the task she got from Sunmi.

She nudged Yuri in the middle of the lesson, waking her up.

“Hey, Yuri-yah, do you still have those old keys you stole last year?”

”What keys?” Yuri asked, still half asleep, not lifting her head.

“Janitor’s spare keys,” Taeyeon reminded, rolling her eyes. Why does Yuri always need to be reminded of everything?

That caught Yuri’s attention. “You want my spare keys? You? Kim Taeyeon? The good girl?” she asked, finally lifting her head and looking at Taeyeon, obviously quite surprised. Taeyeon was the type who was too scared to take a bus without a ticket and now she’s here, asking for stolen keys to school.

“Yes, I do, is it a problem?” Taeyeon said.

“No, not at all, I keep them in my locker, just in case. But…. Why the do you need them?”

“Don’t ask, just please, lend me them,” Taeyeon begged.

“Okay, sure, no problem, just whatever you’re up to, don’t get caught, the keys are important for me,” Yuri warned.

“Okay, sure.”

“KIM! KWON!” the teacher yelled and threw a piece of chalk, making the two girls jerk and look at her. “Stop talking. Otherwise you’re more than welcomed to leave and never come back.”

Taeyeon and Yuri both didn’t say anything, just bowed their heads in an apology.

Yuri smirked at Taeyeon and mouthed: “After the lesson.”

Taeyeon didn’t bother to come home that afternoon. She just decided to wait nearby till the last person leaves. She was pretty sure nobody stays at school overnight. The school wasn’t that prestigious to have some kind of night guard or something and the teachers weren’t that thorough to stay overnight, working.

Taeyeon was sitting on a bench near the parking lot, watching all of her rich schoolmates driving home by their cars. She waited for one particular car to leave. The principal’s one.

She waited for two hours and then she saw Sunmi’s beloved daddy coming out of the school.

He was a kind man with tired looking eyes. A polar opposite of his spoiled daughter. Taeyeon watched him entering his blue Mercedes and driving away. She looked at school. It was already dark outside and the night made the school look scary. She took Yuri’s keys and slowly headed towards the side entrance. It took her a while to figure out which one out of the bunch of keys is the right one and her hands were freezing, but she managed to enter the school.

Everything looked kind of creepy with the lights off. Taeyeon wasn’t exactly happy about the whole situation, she was very scared, but she also her adrenal glands producing a lot of adrenaline and noradrenaline. She felt a weird sensation running through her body.

 She didn’t lose any time, just directly headed towards the principal’s office. She knew Yuri had the fitting key, Yuri had key to every classroom and office. Taeyeon couldn’t find the right one. Her fingers were trembling as she tried to fit every single key into the hole. Then finally, the key fit in. She unlocked the door and froze.

Was it her brain messing with her or did she just hear a sound? A sound that she herself didn’t do? it sounded like it came from the nearest classroom. She quickly slipped into the office and closed the door, leaning against it for a second. She needed to pee. One more thing that would scare her and she was pretty sure she would pee her pants.

She went directly to the table and tried to open the drawers. Of course. It was locked.

Taeyeon sat on the principal’s chair and thought. She came already this far, locked drawer can’t stop her now. She could break the drawer, but that wouldn’t be any useful. The principal would figure out somebody broke in and he would use different tests. Taeyeon frowned and touched the drawer from below. The bottom was loose. An idea crossed her mind. She was pressing the bottom for long enough till it was completely free from the table. But how to get the bottom out so she could get the content of that stupid drawer?

She tried to tilt the bottom somehow, so a hole would appear and she could take the tests, but the drawer was too narrow for that.

“Ouch!” she hissed as she pinched her finger. She withdrew her hand and helplessly looked around. Then she noticed key on the chest of drawers.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Taeyeon breathed out and immediately took the keys. Already the second key she tried fit the drawer. “You gotta be kidding me…” she repeated as she took the tests and looked at them. They indeed were inside, Sunmi was correct. Just one copy though. She can’t take this, the principal would notice. She looked at the printer and smiled. She’s just gonna make a copy and leave. She did it… she could barely believe it, but she indeed did succeed in this stupid task!

Taeyeon made a copy, quickly hid it into her backpack, safely locked the drawer and left the office. Her heart was beating like crazy. She did it!

She wanted to run out of the school and run home as quickly as possible, but she remembered the sound she heard from the classroom next to the office. Her curiosity was bigger than her fear. She slowly walked closed, trying hard not to make a sound. She could hear some weird things. What the…? She peeked inside.

Her eyes widened as she realized it’s a boy and a girl getting… intimate. They were half and basically about to on a school desk. Eww. Poor the person, who sits there during lessons.

She couldn’t see their faces clearly, but oh my god, who has at school? How did they even get inside?

Another shock followed shortly after. “Ah… Donghae...” the girl moaned.

Donghae??!!

Sunmi’s boyfriend??!

Does this mean the girl is Tiffany Hwang?

But Tiffany Hwang lives in a penthouse, supposedly alone. Why not just hang out there? Why having at school?

It didn’t make sense to Taeyeon at all. She tried to spot the girl’s face, but it was too dark. She only saw a dark hair, it could have been anybody. Their little session was getting more and more passionate and Taeyeon decided it would be better to leave before she gets caught and accused of voyeurism. She sure didn’t need that. She fought her curiosity to find out if the girl indeed was Tiffany Hwang or not, turned around and quickly, but quietly walked away.

Mission accomplished. But the thing she saw… was just weird.

Taeyeon arrived home quite late, around 9PM. She decided to turn her laptop on and at least check Facebook. She had two new messages.

One from Jiwoong, her brother and one from Sunny, her… well... pen friend.

At first she checked the message from her brother. He lived at the other side of the planet, he studied abroad, in France, and barely came home. He was like Taeyeon’s best friend, he understood her, he always listened and always had a piece of advice for her. They talked about everything. He was the only person who knew about Taeyeon’s problems with Sunmi, but Taeyeon made it sound like she can handle it. Which she believed she could. And he believed her as well. That day he, as usually, just sent her a few links he thought she would like. He liked to spam her with cute, funny or y things. Seeing he was still online, Taeyeon sent him a message, asking about his day.

Meanwhile she checked the message from Sunny. Sunny was a girl she met online and they instantly became friends. They’ve never met, but Taeyeon really liked the girl. She was trying to be very badass, but almost always ended up being cute. Though sometimes she creeped Taeyeon out because of her love for scary stuff like zombies and… dead… things in general.

“Oh god! Letter!” Taeyeon slapped her forehead. It completely slipped her mind. She and Sunny send each other letters every week and the next day was the day she was supposed to send it. But she had nothing written. “Gotta write it now…” she mumbled.

She took a pen and a piece of paper and started to write. During that, she kept chatting with her bro about various things. He felt sick. Again. Taeyeon hated it. But she had to get used to it, her brother was often sick. She simply needs to get over it. She kind of missed him. And hoped she would see him soon. He already told her he’s not coming for Christmas or New year… so hopefully in summer.

“Oh…” Taeyeon smiled as she realized that even though her brother won’t make it this winter, Sunny promised her to visit her. She couldn’t wait. There was something over a month left till the New Year’s. “Can’t wait…” she mumbled.

A/N: So, that was the first chapter :)

It's quite long, but since I made a poll and more people voted for longer chapters & slower updates, I've decided to go with it :) (It doesn't seem long, but it's 4000+ words and I usually go with 2000-3000, so it is long for me :D)

Expect another chapter in 2 weeks or so :) Maybe sooner :)

Thanks for reading & don't forget to comment, I need some feedback! :)