Jinri feels like she’s only been asleep for a few minutes when her alarm goes off the next morning. Groaning, she switches the alarm off. She’s only been in bed for a few hours and her head is throbbing. She’s pretty sure that she’s still a bit drunk.

It takes all her willpower to drag herself out of her comfortable bed and down the hall to the nursery, bleary-eyed and half-asleep. Jinah is standing quietly in her crib, not crying because she hardly ever cries. Her little face splits into a broad grin at Jinri’s appearance, and she reaches out her pudgy little arms. Jinri lifts the toddler onto her hip, planting a loving kiss on her forehead. “Did you sleep well?” she coos, showering the baby’s face with more tender kisses.

Jinah nods seriously. She is far too serious for a toddler, Jinri often finds herself thinking.

The elder takes the baby into the bathroom with her and turns the taps on in the shower, stripping the both of them and climbing in. Jinah loves when they take showers together so, even though it would be far more efficient and time-saving for Jinri to shower alone in the mornings, she lets Jinah play in the water by her feet while she washes off the grime of the club, the scent of alcohol and would-be . It washes away down the drain, as if it never even happened.

When she feels they’re both sufficiently clean, Jinri turns off the taps and dries them both with fluffy towels from the linen closet. They go to Jinri’s messy room first, where she puts on her new school uniform. It’s classier than the uniform at her last school, she finds herself thinking as she does up the tie expertly. At least that’s something her new school has going for it. When she’s dressed, she takes the still- toddler back to the nursery and selects an outfit for her for the day.

Once hair has been combed and teeth brushed, the two go down to the kitchen together. Jinri’s stepfather has already left for work and her mother has yet to get out of bed, but that is typical. Jinri puts Jinah in her booster seat at the table and sets about making breakfast for the two of them. She never has much of an appetite in the mornings – especially on mornings like this where she’s still a little drunk and definitely well on her way to being hungover – but since she’s already making something for Jinah she figures she may as well eat something too.

Jinri is sitting on the countertop, half-heartedly crunching her way through a bowl of sugary cereal, when her mother stumbles into the kitchen, a bathrobe draped negligently over an all-too-revealing nightie. She glances at Jinah in her booster seat, solemnly eating her breakfast, and then at Jinri.

“You fed the baby,” she comments stupidly. She always seems surprised by this even though Jinri does this routine every morning.

“I bathed her too,” Jinri mutters shortly, taking her bowl to the sink and pouring what’s left of her milk down the drain. “All you have to do is change her diaper on a regular basis. Remember that she goes down for her nap at noon.”

Mrs. Kwang rolls her eyes, going to pour herself a cup of coffee. “I’m not an idiot, Jinri. This isn’t my first rodeo.”

Jinri doesn’t say anything out loud; her silence is answer enough anyway. “I’m going to school,” she mutters, slinging her messenger bag over her shoulder.

“Try and behave at this one,” her mother says, rather irritably. “I’m not dealing with another expulsion.”

Again Jinri doesn’t answer, just storms out of the kitchen. It’s no secret that she can’t stand her mother; being in the same room with her for more than a few minutes is just asking for World War III to break out.

Her mother’s words do ring true, though. Jinri doesn’t really want to get expelled from another school. This makes the third school she’s gone to this year. This might actually be her last chance, as most of the schools in the district refused to accept her after her second expulsion.

This school is further away from her house than she’s used to, so she has to catch the subway to a busier part of town. She’s only been to the school once before, when she came with her mother to register as a new student and hear lecture after lecture about the importance of rules and boundaries and all that other . The whole trip had been a disaster, but it always was when she went anywhere with her mother.

The secretary in the office is helpful when she arrives, giving Jinri her class schedule and her textbooks and showing her to her classroom with a friendly smile. The teacher, a middle-aged woman who has clearly already been filled in on Jinri’s academic past, makes her stand at the front of the class and introduce herself to her new peers, which she does with a clear voice and a steady gaze. It’s not like this is the first time she’s introduced herself to people she’s pretty sure won’t like her. She knows she’s already got a reputation around this school when a majority of the girls in the class give her death glares. It’s not like she’s selective when it comes to targets, after all, so she’s bound of have something of a reputation.

Finally, after what seems like an eternity of staring, Jinri is allowed to take her seat, one in the back beside a blonde-haired boy with big eyes and dimples. He gives her a friendly smile but she ignores it; he’s too much of a pretty-boy to interest her ually and that’s the only interest that is important to her. So, instead of returning the smile or even really acknowledging it, she pulls out her blank notebook and stares at it determinedly. She’s not at this school to make friends, in any case.

That’s her strategy for getting through school – not just this school, but any school she’s been shoved in. She tries to keep to herself for the most part. Except when she finds someone she wants to sleep with. That’s usually what gets her in trouble. She can’t seem to keep her legs shut, especially when she finds a target who already has a girlfriend. Those are the types Jinri likes the most. She gets off on knowing that she can steal them away. It’s a superiority complex she’s suffered from for years now.

She’s walking through the crowded hallways at the start of the lunch hour, looking for a place to eat her homemade lunch alone. She knows she could eat in the cafeteria or in her classroom, but both of those places are noisy and crowded and she really just wants to be alone for an hour. That’s when she sees him.

He’s standing with a group of people at the end of the same hallway, wearing the classy uniform of the school. He looks a bit tired but otherwise no worse for wear after their evening together. Jinri freezes for a moment, something that is incredibly out of character for her. When she picks up strangers at bars, she doesn’t expect to see them at her school. She’s got a fake ID, of course, but it still surprises her that others do too.

She wants to run away or hide but he looks up and their eyes meet before she can make a graceful escape. His face splits into a wide and genuine smile. “Jinri-yah!” he calls to her familiarly.

Her eyes narrow and she turns on her heel, stalking off in the other direction. She doesn’t exactly know how to handle this unexpected situation. Something like this has never actually happened to her before. One-night-stands – or would-be ones anyway – aren’t supposed to show up at her school. Here at school, her y, alluring façade is gone and she hates him being able to see her plain like this.

He catches up to her easily, his long legs eating up the distance between them, and he drags her to a stop by a firm hand on her elbow. “Jinri-yah,” he repeats, still grinning despite her obvious attempt to get away from him. “I didn’t know you went to this school.”

“It’s my first day,” she admits reluctantly, prying his hand off her arm. “If I had known you went here, I wouldn’t have…” She trails off and doesn’t finish the thought, because, honestly, who’s to say what she would and wouldn’t do under the influence of alcohol. She’s been known to do much stupider things, after all.

Himchan chuckles lightly; he has a nice laugh, she finds herself admitting. “It’s okay. It’s not like anything really happened between us anyway. Since you’re new here, you probably don’t know many people. Why don’t you eat lunch my friends and I?” He gestures to the group of boys still waiting at the other end of the hallway. She glances over them briefly, only allowing herself to note the fact that they’re all pretty much drop-dead gorgeous.

“No thanks,” she says curtly, and when she turns to leave this time, he doesn’t stop her.

She doesn’t make it much further before there is a hand fisted in the starched material of her uniform shirt and she’s being slammed back into the cinderblock wall. She is faced with three fierce girls, all looking quite bent out of shape.

“Ha Jinri, right?” the one whose hand is still clenched around Jinri’s shirt spits nastily, her dark eyes narrowed to nothing more than slits. “You must be that nasty little everyone is talking about.”

Jinri doesn’t even bother to answer that. Though the insult is obviously intended to hurt her, she’s been called worse so it doesn’t phase her. It’s more or less true anyway. So she just gives the girl a flat, bored stare.

“You’d better stay away from the B.A.P,” the second girl hisses in what she probably intends to be an intimidating manner. “If you so much as go near them, we can’t be held responsible for what might happen to you.”

Jinri slaps away the hand on her shirt, rubbing her neck where the collar had rubbed harshly. “I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” she mutters. “Seeing as I don’t even know who the B.A.P. are.”

“Don’t lie,” the third girl snarls. “You were just talking to Himchan-oppa. He’s part of the B.A.P. Everyone knows that.”

“It’s only my first day,” Jinri says, finding herself getting annoyed. It usually doesn’t take much interacting with other girls for her to get that way; she doesn’t have much patience. “I don’t know anyone here.”

“Everyone knows the B.A.P,” the first girl insists vehemently. “They’re the most popular guys in the entire school. So you better stay away from them.”

Jinri is past done with this confrontation so she simply rolls her eyes and pushes past the three girls. It’s definitely not worth getting into a fight on her first day. When she glances over her shoulder, however, she sees that Himchan is still watching her. An unfamiliar blush creeps into her cheeks and she hurries around the corner, away from the steaming trio of fangirls and out of Himchan’s line of sight.