CHAPTER 1

 

Seoul looks glamorous with all the neon lights and bright posters. It shines on everyone's eyes as they look at it, its beauty is priceless, Seoul at night it's a different kind of beautiful. During the day it shows its gentle beauty and at night it's a wild beauty which exhibits. She prefers the warm air blowing through the cherry trees and sitting in a quiet place, away from the lights, where you can see the sky and stars. But it is difficult in a place like Seoul. Back in the place where she used to live –a small town far from Seoul – the stars and moon were all that lit up the night. That was before when everything was as simple as making a wish on a wishing star.

 

Her life before being surrounded by neon lights and pretentious people.

 

All started six months ago, the day her mother died and she soon found out that her father was a wealthy man who lived in Seoul. She could remember all her friends, saying how lucky she was, because the dream of every girl back there was to go out of that little hole everyone called home and venture into the concrete jungle of Seoul. Not for her, because Yubi always liked the quietness and brightness of the field and stars. And because she hated that man who dropped everything to go and fulfill his dreams. A selfish man, a painfully selfish man.

 

List of things I dislike in men:

• Selfishness

 

The Seoul air was different, but obviously the countryside and the city were like the sun and moon, water and oil, heat and cold. An infinite number of things that could be different beginning with the Stars, the long gone stars in the sky, she was starting a new life without stars. Probably, the meaning of a new her, dull.

 

“Dinner is ready, miss” The maid said and she only smiled at her nodding her head before closing the window, the air in Seoul was cold and lonely.

 

It was a long way to the dining room, hallways, stairs, paintings, porcelain, fancy rugs and polished wood. Her old house consisted in turns right and finds the kitchen, turns left and finds the living room, looks back and finds her room. This was a labyrinth and she wanted to get lost hopefully she would die of starvation before anyone even noticed her absence.

 

“Tomorrow is your first day of school, am I right?” Her new mother was a beautiful young woman and the complete opposite of her real mother, this woman was maybe ten or fifteen years younger and even prettier than Junseo herself. She could be mistaken by Junseo’s sister.

 

“Yes,” The last two weeks where full of etiquette classes, language, fashion, new clothes, new shoes, new hairstyle, new room, new house, new city, new mom, the same unknown dad and the cherry over the cake, a new life.

 

This was all a poor girl living in a poky old town would ask for. Sadly, Junseo never asked for this. Yet it was thrown at her face as if she had been desperately asking for this her whole life.

 

“The driver will take you to school and pick you up when you’re done” There was a long silence and her new mother looked at her like expecting another answer besides ‘yes’.

 

“Okay.” Junseo also wanted to have some variety in their conversations.

 

The dinner ended after two hours. His father was not present at dinner but is not as if she had been waiting for him.

 

At least the house was quiet just like Junseo liked it.

 

 

The sun was hidden behind heavy clouds that were announcing a still unnoticed rain, she left his new house at six a.m. before her new mother woke up, there’s no need to pretend they’re the perfect family. There’s no need to be a family, she used to have one and she doesn’t need a new one, not even a fake one. Is not a long way to the school that is probably the size of the town she used to live in. She’s greeted by a short male with trustworthy smile; he calls himself the student council president.

 

“My name is Kim Joonmyun,” He’s a few inches taller than her, which is rather comfortable because she hates when she’s standing next to towers of human beings “Your class room is actually far from the front gate but close to the back which is perfect because at the end of your shift you don’t have to be stuck in the middle of traffic,” He’s at first sight a boy with a happy personality, they walk through long corridors and even pass by a font of water pouring and flying along the sides and over a small statute with a woman’s face on the middle even though it’s winter “That’s new,” He says “It was constructed like, two weeks ago courtesy of Kim Hana’s family.”

 

The class room goes quiet once the door opens and she remembers why she hates being in the spotlight so much, everyone starts to point out her flaws as soon as she walks in followed by Joonmyun, he’s nice but she won’t find a lot of his kind in this school or worse in this life. Joonmyun has a short exchange of words with the teacher before leaving he tells the students to be nice and not to forget the winter break journey to skiing.

She gulps and fists her hands inside her pockets.

 

“Quiet,” The teacher says a long legged woman with a tall pony tail made of her dark brown hair, her glasses holding onto dear life on the bridge of her nose, she walks slowly and hits the front desk with a steel stick “We have a new student she’s coming from America, please be nice to Kang Junseo” Junseo’s eyes widen as she looks at her teacher, she never even left Korea, she didn’t even knew Seoul until not so long ago.

 

She hears whispers and clapping hands but she’s too dizzy to properly pay attention to what’s happening around her, she finds a place to sit in the midst of the class room. They are dismissed and just as the teacher disappears behind the door she’s surrounded by crowds of students, people that aren’t even in this class room are standing in front of her in a blink of eyes.

 

“So, are you Kang as in Kang Corporation?” A girl asks and she supposes that’s her father’s company, she nods slowly.

 

“Daebak, I didn’t knew Kang Myungyeol had a daughter,” Another girl appears and to Junseo they all look alike but that’s probably because they’ve all gone through surgeries, the same surgeries, the ones her step-mother suggested to her the first time they saw each other.

 

“I know some great surgeons,” She had said like it was something normal and common, Junseo figured that actually it was, among this kind of people, rich people.

 

She feels like a product in exhibition, being observed through large glasses, with a spotlight and an bright arrow over his head in the middle of a dark room, her hands are sweaty but she remains with her expressionless face, there are many whispers and questions that she does not respond the bell rings and the teacher comes next, the subject English, the language she is supposed dominate because, oh right, she lived in America all her life and not in a small town outside of Seoul.

 

 

During lunch she’s dragged around by skinny arms and pretty faces, they want her to sit with them because there are still a lot of questions that she hasn’t answered yet. The mixture of perfumes and colognes make her dizzy.

 

“So, I’ve been looking up on the Internet and it says you went aboard when you were like five years old” One of them says.

 

“Your English is probably amazing, right?”A boy asks in perfect English, Junseo wants to throw up because she doesn’t quite understand.

 

“Stop it, you’re going to scare her away” A girl with a perfect smile and long hair comes to sit next to her, everyone moves away to let her sit “Hi, my name’s Hana.” She takes Junseo’s hand in a soft handshake “She’s Miso,” And points towards another girl, who doesn’t look happy at all.

 

“N-Nice to meet you” Junseo’s voice is low toned and soft almost like a whisper because it’s not like she wants to talk right now.

 

“You are really lucky, you know,” She says eating a piece of watermelon “Your father is the CEO of a great corporation and your mother is, you know, a ,” Junseo freezes for a moment, not being able to respond, is this girl referring to her step-mother?

 

“Maybe, she is” Junseo responds getting up and walking away, the untouched food still on her plate.

 

School ends and Junseo just wants to go home. Her real home, not the mansion in Seoul.

 

---

Okay, first chapter, please let me know if this is somehow working! :3 Bye and thank you for reading :)