Song Suggestion: Secrets- One Republic

Right after Hyuna walked out of class, Mrs. Lee assigned the students to read individually and went out to discipline the girl.

"Did you think about what you did wrong Hyuna?"

"Achm." The man stood with his arms behind his back, his pose indicated a prideful demand for honor.

"Oh, Principal Kim? What are you doing here?"

"Already having trouble on the first day of work, I see. Just put her back in the classroom and stop making such a big fuss about it, the child has already explained everything to me."

"But-"

"Let's just leave it at that, okay Mrs. Lee?" He briskly walked away.

"Told you not to mess with me~ What a shame." Hyuna walked back into the classroom without a care in the world.

Mrs. Lee rubbed her head and went into the classroom to continue teaching. It's only the first day, Bo Young, you'll do fine when time goes on.

"Okay class, I hope you guys finished reading that short passage."

Right after school, Eunji and Chorong went into their assigned halls to clean up. Scholarships students didn't really get to stay at school without doing anything. In exchange for the free education, they were required to clean up the classrooms, restrooms, while consistently keeping up with their grades. They basically acted as the janitors of the school. Failure to do all of the following led to a cut from the scholarship fund list. No scholarship, no money for school.

Chorong walked to hall A, while Eunji was assigned to hall G, which was in the second building next door. 

Chorong carefully started wiping down the whiteboards, windows, and desks of all ten rooms in hall A. She then moved onto the restrooms and started scrubbing everything clean. She made sure to keep her phone in her pocket at all times. 

All of the sudden, she heard he click of the bathroom door. Most students would only use the restroom in building four after school, which was where the school library was located at. She clutched onto her phone and prepared herself for the worst.

"...Umm, excuse me, but could I borrow your mop? Mine broke..." A nerdy girl poked her head through the door and looked at Chorong.

Relieved, she handed the girl the mop and went back to cleaning.

"My name's Naeun, you?"

Chorong just looked at her and pointed at the notebook.

"Oh, you're the mute girl." Naeun covered at the words. "I'm sorry... if that came off wrong. It's just, you're the only scholarship student I haven't met yet. I'm a sophomore, I just recently transferred here."

They shooks hands and smiled at each other. Chorong took off her gloves and wrote to Naeun, "My name's Chorong. Just remember, be careful around here..."

Naeun smiled bitterly and nodded. "I know. The other kids told me. But it'll be worth it down the road when I graduate from such a prestigious school as this... You definitely have it the worst though from what I've heard...I'm sorry about that. Well I better get going to my hall before they notice I'm gone. Hwaiting unnie!"

Chorong forced a weak smile as Naeun left, with her footsteps sounding farther and farther away until she was gone.

Status was everything in Seoul High School. You'd have parents who were huge business owners, stockholders, political leaders, lawyers, basically, the best of the best. Politically and socially powerful, and economically wealthy were key parts into being able to get into Seoul High, as well as being exceptionally talented in one way or another. Unless you were that great of a lower-class genius, you'd be guaranteed a rejection letter from the school. Power and money played huge roles.

It was extremely difficult, almost impossible to be accepted into Seoul High unless you were rich and smart or a prodigy. Out of the 1,500 students, only 25 are currently scholarship students. With that huge ratio of rich/ high class to the lower class, no doubt the scholarship students had to stick together. They shared similiar types backgrounds and hardships in the school. However, Chorong was bullied her whole life, whereas the rest had only begun to experience half the horrors she had.

After she finished up cleaning the restrooms, Chorong gathered all of the supplies and was about to leave. After three years of having to clean, the fourth year was nothing. 

She struggled as she pushed her cart full of supplies out the door. Here we go...

A foot kicked the cart and stopped it from moving. 

"What are going to do about this morning, huh?" Hyuna walked up to Chorong, pushing her to the corner of the restroom, and lifted up her chin. Chorong quickly turned her head away from the frozen touch.

"Hyunseung ah, what should we do?"

He smirked. "Well she's a dirty girl isn't she. Cleaning in exchange for an education. How pathetic all of you scholarship students are. Absolutely repulsive."

You're just mad we're smarter than all of you guys... combined, douche.

Hyuna swung at Chorong, who cleanly dodged the hit. All those years of hapkido had certainly come in handy although she quit right before high school. Not to mention she took enough beatings in middle school and high school to know how to dodge anyways

"This . You aren't supposed to move. You take the hit. Simple as that. Someone as smart as you can't even understand that?" Chorong continued to glare at Hyuna, hand in pocket, touching her phone.

"Well, if you are so smart, you know six against one means you have a 0% chance right?"

. 6?

Hyuna's posse gathered around Chorong and cornered her. They all swung at once and Chorong was swiftly able to dodge some hits, but avoiding hits from a total of 12 different directions was practically impossible. She got up and tried to push her way out of the suffocating circle, but multiple hands grabbed a firm hold of her and shoved her back down. Chorong quickly grabbed her phone out of her pocket, but Hyunseung pulled it from her hand

"Well well well. Trying to tattle on us again? That's no fun." He pushed his face towards hers and threw the phone aside. "You know, for a little piece of like you, you're a pretty little thing." He cupped his hand on her cheek as disgusting images ran through his pea brain.

Chorong couldn't take it and spit on his face.

"THIS ING !" Angry, he wiped off the spit with his sleeve and slapped her across the cheek. A noticeable red mark was imprinted upon her pale face.

"We'll take care of it." Hyuna pushed Hyunseung aside and punched Chorong in the face. "Poor girl, you can't even cry, yell, or even scream for help. No one can hear you, mute girl. It's been like this for 3 years kid." She carressed Chorong's face and repeatedly slapped her mockingly on the cheek.

"Be thankful I'm letting you off so easily. It's only the first day after all, there are still plenty of more days to go~ All you scholarship students just piss me off. Who do you guys think you are, especially YOU, someone who can't even talk? You should have learned your lessons from your mommy and daddy- Wait, they're dead aren't they? Ha, in fact, heard your mom didn't even want you. She killed herself, probably just couldn't stand the thought of raising a piece of like you."

The group cackled like witches as their heels clacked away.

Chorong quickly got up and observed her face the restroom mirror, turning her head from cheek to cheek. She smirked to herself. Damn, you still punch like a little , Hyuna. It's been three years. Other than a bloody lip and red cheek, everything else was okay.

After so many years of being physically and mentally tortured, this was nothing. She had grown numb to the pain. Sure, she was still scared and jumpy, but the pain grew to be bearable after a while. It was only one more year after all. One more year until she'd be free... 

She stared at her arms, deep in thought. She shook her head and snapped back into reality. Ignore everything, the world and its lies.

Chorong quickly pushed the cart back into the supply room and made a last minute check to make sure everything was clean. The hall was spotless, so she decided to go to the school library to study for a bit.  

As soon as she entered the libary, everyone turned to stare at her. Not everyone bullied Chorong, but there were just so many groundless rumors spread that some eventually believed them to be the truth. Apparently, her tongue was cut off because her gang was defeated by an enemy gang, she's a prositute, etc.

She took a seat on the computer station table and took out her books to finish up homework and read some books. Suho was in the library with his friends as well, and they were reading at a group table around the corner.

"Why are people so mean to her and some other certain kids?" Suho whispered to his friends, puzzled.

Sehun shook his head. "What do our parents do and how much money do we have? And how much do they have?"

Suho observed Chorong and a male senior in the other class who he had seen being verbally slandered by a mere freshman. "That's it? Just status differences?"

Kyungsoo nodded. "We have no idea why though. Everyone has different motives. It's quite weird though, the school hasn't done anything about it."

"Quite mysterious actually." added Chanyeol.

Baekhyun nodded. "Either the school's never done anything about it or they've just never seen the mistreatment happen.

"Then that goes against all of the school's beliefs doesn't it?" Suho stared at the others in disbelief. He looked back at Chorong and noticed the the people sitting in that area had evacuated.

He sighed and got up from his seat.

"Umm, hey. I'm Joon Myun, but most people call me Suho." He held out his hand, expecting a warm response and a handshake.

Chorong looked at Suho like he was a psycho and then placed her attention back on the homework, ignoring his presence.

Popular kid doesn't seem trustworthy... he's just like the others. Fake and two-faced.

Awkward, his hand pulled back to his side but he tried to carry on a conversation anyway. The students in the library gaped in disbelief.

"Yah, didn't anyone update him on what goes on here?"

"Yeah, I know. How could he talk to her? She's bottom of the ocean low."

Unlike Suho, Chorong's hearing was exceptional since she always had to listen to the world; no one would listen to her anyways. She couldn't speak herself so she was very observant with sounds. Jerks...

Suho heard the whispering but couldn't make out what they were saying.

"Students, calm down. This is a library, not a jungle gym." The librarian glared at the sudden commotion and returned to her work.

"Oh, your lip is bleeding. Are you okay?" Suho noticed the smudged red around , and it definitely wasn't a shade of lipstick. Her painfully red cheek didn't go unnoticed either.

Crap, it didn't stop bleeding yet? She wiped her lip gently with her thumb only to find it stained blood red. Continuing to ignore the boy, she picked up her stuff and walked off to the restroom.

"She's so rude, especially to someone like Suho. Who does she think she is? What a stuck up when she doesn't even have anything good to show." 

"Dirt poor, a , and she earns her grades through the most revolting ways from what I've heard. She probably just gave service and ended up looking like that mess. The guy probably slapped her for how terrible she was."

The girls got very defensive and started spreading as many possible drama scenarios as they could think of. They couldn't believe she treated their oppa like he was invisible... then again, they wouldn't believe it if she had interacted with him.

Suho, not noticing the back chatter, walked back to his friends.

"I know it's mean to believe rumors, but she's kind of scary." Jongin shivered. "She only looked up once throughout the entire conversation. Plus her bangs practically cover her eyes, is she a ghost or something?"

"That's rude Jongin." Suho sighed. The girl from this morning and the girl just now seemed like polar opposites. One was just shy and unsociable; the other, cold, just completely dejected from the world. She was at peace and carefree when walking, with nothing to bother her but music. At school, she became an emotionless and passive person. 

He pulled out the crumpled paper ball from his backpack, smoothed it out, and stared at it mindlessly before an idea popped in his head. He took out a pen and began to write on the paper.

"What are you doing with an ugly paper ball?" asked Chanyeol. The others looked at him with intent.

"Something..." He smiled to himself and threw the ball back into his backpack, satisfied with his plan.

Eunji and Chorong walked home together after studying in the public library instead. 

"You should have called me. Aghh. Just be more careful next time . You're the only one they actually physically hurt, what a bunch of crazy es, including Hyunseung. He's such a drama queen."

Chorong just shook it off. She couldn't always rely on Eunji to help her bring the scholarship students for her defense.  It was typical for the scholarship students to defend any victim, but lately, Chorong was the only one who actually needed the support. She didn't want to be a burden upon the others.

"Want to eat over at my house?" Eunji approached the entrance to her home and expected Chorong to follow with.

Instead, she shook her head and wrote, "I'm fine, I was just there yesterday. I'll just text you."

"Remember to call if it's an emergency."

"I know."

Eunji took care of Chorong extremely well. They both used the GPS locator app for each other. If Chorong ever called Eunji, it signalled that something was urgent and Eunji would just use the GPS locator to find her. If it was a text, it was just for a conversation.

Chorong entered into her house and plopped onto her bed. She opened her nightstand drawer and stared at the object in dread. She took in a deep breath and sighed. I'm never going back there ever again... 

A/N: Updated! Phew~ Takes so much time just to write one chapter for this fanfic. >< I might update on Monday or Tuesday as well, so look forward to it! Comment and subscribe. ^^