“You failed again?” his father screeched. “Tell me, what am I going to do with you? This is the third time you’ve failed the exams!”

Dong Ju shrugged absent-mindedly at his father, not caring about a word he was saying.

“Yah, father, give it a rest already!” he whined, scratching the back of his head as he always did when he was irritated.

“Look here, Park Dong Ju! Your principal personally called me this time, saying that there are no exceptions, that such students are unacceptable. This is the last move, Dong Ju, this time; I am enrolling you in a public high school. Principle Hyung Wong is kind enough to take you in and you will start in a week’s time,” his father jabbed a finger at him.

Dong Ju recoiled. Park Dong Ju, in a neighborhood school? What would his friends think? And Hye Sung? What will happen to her when he transfers to a neighborhood school.

“Yah, but father—”

“Save it. I have already warned you, Dong Ju. Don’t think that I wouldn’t keep my word,” his father said sternly and resumed reading the morning papers, putting a fierce full stop on the matter.

Seeing that his father could no longer be convinced, Dong Ju stormed up the stairs and slammed his bedroom door. He punched the punching bag hanging from the wall in his room in frustration, sighing angrily, and tossed his phone on the bed.

“What’s wrong with father? What’s the old man’s problem? Aish…hmm? My phone is ringing,” he picked up the phone, surprised to be getting a call from Hye Sung.

“Yoboseyo,” he greeted her.

He received no greeting in return. “Hye Sung-ah?”

“Dong Ju-ah, is it true? You got kicked out of school?” Hye Sung asked nervously.

Dong Ju faltered, staring at the phone stupidly.

“Yes, I got kicked out of school,” he said slowly.

“Dong Ju-ah!” she yelled into the phone and he recoiled away from the gadget, wincing at Hye Sung’s shrill voice. “What am I going to do here without you? This is your entire fault, Park Dong Ju! You just had to fail the exam, didn’t you?”

She cussed a little more and screamed a lot more before finally hanging up. Dong Ju frowned at the phone and threw it on the bed again. Closing his eyes and sighing, he fell onto the bed.

“Park Dong Ju,” the teacher called in his monotone voice.

Slouching and dragging his feet, he got up to the front of the class. He felt all their eyes on him, but this never made him nervous. If anything, it only made him more annoyed.

“Anyong hasaeyo, I am Park Dong Ju,” he said lazily.

The teacher looked at him expectantly, as if he was expecting more, but Dong Ju only stared on until the teacher cleared his throat and told Dong Ju to take a seat next to a girl with long brown hair covering her face as she scribbled on a piece of paper. He fell onto the seat and just stared at the whiteboard blankly.

“Is that how you study?” a female voice asked.

Dong Ju turned his head to look at the girl, but her face was still covered. Her hair created a curtain between them and it made Dong Ju impossibly irritated. He scratched the back of his head.

“I’ll study the way I want to,” he retorted. “And what is it you are scribbling anyway? The teacher had barely even started the lesson.”

The girl did not answer and Dong Ju gave up, sighing exasperatedly.

“Is that how you treat people?” the girl asked again halfway during the lesson.

“Yah, are you slow? I talked to you so long ago,” he said loud enough for her to hear, but soft enough so that the teacher would not hear him.

“Is that how you talk to people? Is that what your parents taught you?”

“As if your parents taught you right,” Dong Ju chuckled darkly to himself at his comeback when the girl flipped her brown hair to look at him and he froze.

She had large, chocolate brown eyes and a pale, porcelain face. Her lips were a lovely shade of red and her eyelashes were curled up so that she always looks as if she was challenging you to a fight; a fight she knew that she would win. Dong Ju would calmly accept her challenge. Her expression was stony and even though there were no traces of anger in her expressions, Dong Ju could feel it reverberating in her. Her voice was calm, but Dong Ju could almost hear the storm brewing beneath it.

“My parents died a long time ago,” she said.

Dong Ju found himself taken aback by her answer and her appearance.

“I—I’m sorry to hear that. Mianhe,” he put on a sympathetic face.

“Don’t give me your sympathy. I don’t need it, Park Dong Ju. I’ve heard all about you, and if you came here looking for trouble, you’re in the wrong school,” she continued to scribble on her notebook and her hair fell, creating a curtain between them.

Dong Ju frowned slightly in amusement and confusion, and sank back into his seat, sneaking glances at her here and there.  

“RING!” the bell rang and students cleared out from the class immediately. Even Dong Ju did not want to stay long in the classroom and quickly filed out.

He caught a glimpse of the brown-haired girl and chased after her.

“Wait! Yah, wait!” he yelled and the girl stopped and looked at him with what he thought were apprehensive eyes.

“What do you want, Park Dong Ju?” she asked, cradling the notepad in her arms as if it were a baby.

“I think we got off the wrong foot,” he offered her his hand, “hello, my name is Park Dong Ju. What’s yours?”

She only stared at his outstretched hand. “I don’t like rude people.”

She turned and stalked off; leaving Dong Ju standing there, hand outstretched and staring after her like an idiot.

“Fine, fine!” he said aloud so that the girl could hear him. “I didn’t like you either!”

Several students looked at him as if he was a lunatic.