"SONG MARU!!!!!"

Maru pulled off her headphones and waited, hoping it came from the TV and not her Grandmtoher calling. She glanced at her wristwatch: ten fifteen, which meant Happy Together was on and Grandma should have been occupied.

But it came again, this time from the hall outside of her room. "Maru, there's someone here to see you."

Music blasted through the headphones, and she leaned over to turn down her ancient silver CD player. Maru found it strange when her Grandma already knew Yebin and besides that girl can practically waltz around the house unannounced any time of the day. So she said:

"Grandma just let her in like she always used to." 

"It's not Yebin, you idiot, come out for a second, please?" Surely she had misheard Grandma. Someone to see her? Song Maru, the incredible oddball in class? No way.

Maru threw her bedroom door open, expecting to see her four-foot-tall grandmother entertaining a neighbor's cat in their living room. Instead, a pair of well-dressed strangers sitting on the couch turned towards her in unison, got to their feet, and smiled.

It took all of her self-control not to slam her door back. On the right, stood a teenage guy with thick chestnut hair, chocolaty brown sprakling doe eyes and the kind of perfectly shaped face Maru thought it makes him look pretty, rather than handsome. He was wearing a dark blue jeans and a white shirt— simple classic preppy gear, though on him it looked incredibly hot.

The man on the left, however, towered over pretty boy with his golden hair and perfect sharp jawline she thought only existed in models and he got this unbelievable deep and cold gaze, Maru shuddered as soon as their eyes met for a brief moment and wondered what colors they were. She couldn't quite figure out since she couldn't even meet his eyes any longer two seconds.

Meanwhile, she looked like someone who didn't know how to operate a washing machine. Her gym shorts had a glob of strawberry jelly on them from breakfast, her wrinkled gray T-shirt looked like it had been slept in (which it had), and her Red Devil's baseball hat had a dark ring around the brim.

Grandma practically winced as her gaze traveled up and down her grandaughter's outfit and moved quickly, snatching the hat off of Maru's head. The long waves fell over her shoulder in a tangled mess. She blew out a heavy breath and pushed her hair away from her face abruptly— a weak attempt to look, at least, presentable in the meantime.

While flattening them back down with her hands, Grandma dragged her out ten feet from her bedroom to the couch. "This is my granddaughter, Song Maru,"she said proudly.

"Miss Song, so nice to meet you. I'm Wu Yi Fan, chief student recruiter for Crux Academy." The giant blonde steped forward and bowed. His voice deep and smooth, like a politician's or TV newscaster's.

Maru scoffed and thought, They sent another recruiter? They can't make me go just because they're young and cute, geez, they're so dumb—

Maru stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she got closer to them, 

"Wu Fan wha?" she repeated like an idiot, completely baffled by this guy's incredible height upclose. Her five-foot-three only made her want to stand up straighter only that she already was, she should've known it was a lost cause. There was nothing she can really do about her height. 

"Kris. You can call me Kris, instead." He offered and Maru reluctantly bowed back, about to offer her name when she realized they already know. 

Kris then gestured towards his sidekick, "This is Xi Lu Han, he's also a part of the student recruiter team. We will be seniors this fall. We work together as partners over the summer to identify the incoming freshmen and tell them about the school."

"Call me Luhan." They bowed at each other and Luhan stuck out his hand for her to shake.

Unconsciously, Maru tried to wipe her hand surreptitously on her shorts, because it suddenly became damp, and the last thing she wanted was for him to think she's one of those people who always had sweaty palms. She couldn't avoid meeting his eyes, and instantly, there's this fluttery feeling in her chest. Even though she knew it was impossible for a guy as attractive as Luhan to ever notice a girl like Maru, his gaze feels so warm and inviting. He had an air of athletic outdorsyness, like he could run a marathon or climb a mountain and look gorgeous doing it. 

She extended her hand. "Glad to finally meet you, Miss Song." He closed his palm over hers, and she could barely keep from jumping when an electric shock rippled through her arm. Literally.

Startled, she jerked her hand away and dropped her eyes to Grandma, but not before she caught him smiling at her. 

Luhan sent a comforting smile at her, as he too, felt the shock and he wanted to tell her it's alright. Kris smiled triumphantly as well,  looking like he just won a lottery or something.

Grandma asked the boys to sit down on the couch and grabbed a wooden chair for Maru to sit. She was about to open in protest when Granny pinched her side and told her to shut up and listen to what the boys have to say in a whisper-scold manner.

"But I don't want to." Maru turned around and whispered back, pouting at her Grandmother.

"Aigoo, this punk. What do I do with you, you hard headed kid," She knocked her on the head, just lightly, and consciously glanced at the boys who, thankfully, was too busy looking around at their middle class living room. "Just give them a chance." She said and nodded towards the direction of the boys.

Maru scratched her head, wincing at the pain before looking back to see both Luhan and Kris were waiting for her to sit. While Grandma excused herself and announced she'll make cookies and refreshments for the guests. 

"My grandmother's cookies are the best." she said awkwardly as she slowly sat down.

"I love cookies." Pretty boy Luhan said happily and a blush spread over his papery smooth cheeks.  "I mean, it's an honor. I've never really had homemade cookies before."

Maru  basked for a moment in his appreciative gaze and childishness before she finally regained her senses and said, "Ahaha.. Then today must be your lucky day.. So.. what can I do for you?" 

Kris snapped his fingers, "Great. Let me congratualate you first. I'm sure this is unexpected but the decision made by the board of judges was unanimous. Crux constructed this what we call an invitation-only program, we select each student carefully and it is exclusive only for the very elite and diverse student body. We come from different families and all have different talents, but we have one thing in common: after we graduate, they expect us to do amazing things to better humanity, and it's true. Our students go on to be senators, CEOs, principal ballerinas, and even our former President. And we'd like you to be a part of our school."

Kris said, leaning forward as if he intended to use his entire giant body to convince her of his sincerity. "We think you're something special, Ms. Song."

She snorted. Unattractive, sure, but she couldn't help herself. The whole thing was just absurd. She was not someone special at all.

Truthfully speaking, she believed her father was the one behind all of this crazy fiasco. If not for him, none of this would've happened and she might have spent her last two weeks at school peacefully without two men in black chasing her everyday. 

Since her mother died when she was four, Grandma's been taking care of her. Maru was the illegitimate child of the most famous and powerful CEO of the vastly growing and developing company, Crux. Being born as a mistress' child, her existence was kept secret and even though they pretty much live on her Grandma's social security, her father's been sending them help and supporting them financially somehow but Maru didn't want any of his money. In fact, she had never seen him, not even once. Even on her mother's funeral where she waited all night for him to come.

That was when she started to get mad. Not at Kris, of course, but at her father. Because it was obvious she doesn't belong, I mean, who were they kidding? The kids who went to Crux lived in mansions and had servants. They weren't like Grandma and her. Also this was not the kind of apology she yearned for for so long, it wasn't fair at all. 

“Special?” Maru said, putting as much acid in her voice. “I think perhaps you’ve mistaken me for someone else. I’m the one with the B average and mediocre ball-handling skills.” she spat.

Kris was a little taken aback but he held his ground and said with a voice that could have soothed an angry pit bull. “You are special, Maru.”

He was good. She found her shoulders relaxing even though she wanted to keep them tense.

"We wouldn't be here otherwise." Luhan joined. "In fact, I've heard you were hand picked by one of the board of judges." Luhan almost jumped up from his seat and stopped himself when realized he was getting a little carried away by the excitement and he cleared his throat.

"What I want to say is, we'd like you to join the incoming freshman class at Crux, Ms. Song." His voice practically purred with warmth. 

"Cost won't be an issue, someof the selected students attend under a full scholarship, in fact. You would have all your expenses paid in full, Ms. Song." Luhan said to her.

"Give it a thought, please."

"So.. you're rejecting Crux because you're scared of students bullying you for being in a schoalarship at a rich student's school?" Yebin threw another punch and Maru managed to escape another blow. 

Just as she was about to answer. Yebin lunged towards her, Maru just barely had enough time to side-stepped that one, causing Yebin's blow to glance off her shoulder. Maru's body immediately reacted to the threat, drawing her right leg back so that she was in a stable fighting position.

"What the hell are you thinking? The Song Maru I know will never be afraid of bullies! Heck, she could win them out in a goddamn fistfight." Yebin didn't miss a beat, and her punches just kept on coming while Maru continued to dodge her blows.

"I'm not.. it's not about that.." Maru gritted out. Her breathing was harsh and sweat matted their foreheads, she stepped back and without missing a beat, she planted a hard kick to Yebin's stomach and sent her flying backwards.

Yebin raised an eyebrow at this. "Then what is it?"

They began circling each other, Yebin was still clutching her stomach, it was a feeling both girls were quite familiar with. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell.

"I don't know... it's just that I can't seem to put the pieces together." And millions of questions bugged her mind; why now of all the time? Why was he so desprate? What if she'll get caught and people find out about her father's affair?

"I don't belong there." She whispered almost to herself.

Seeing that Maru had let her guard down, Yebin then mirrored Maru's stance and lunged again at her hitting her in the chest and knocking a breath out of her, Maru's head spun for just a second, she almost fell on the ground but she was back on her feet. The girls then stopped talking and focused on their punches and kicks.

And after a couple more exchanges on both their parts, the two ended up lying on the ground, facing up towards the familiar blue ceiling of their judo room, both panting heavily for air. 

"Why not?" Yebin started.

Why not? Maru thought. Because she wasn't rich. Because she wasn't special. Because she was just Song Maru, the ungrateful mistress' child.

It was as simple as that. But she was also his daughter, by blood.  She was also just a girl who wanted love and family. 

It was as simple as that. But then she asked herself yet again, 'Why not?'

           "I don't know."

AUTHOR'S NOTES 
I'm so sloooooow sorrysorrysorry

I felt really happy (as what i've read thru the comments) that the first chapter turned out good and I recieved good feedbacks even though I felt that everything was a mess at that time. As you can see, I'm quite insecure with my writing and huhu, it really lifted up my spirits. so thank you a lot and i hope you enjoy this update. 

**SPECIAL CHAPTER NOTE: FIRST IMPRESSIONS MIGHT BE DIFFERENT FROM THEIR REAL CHARACTERS . BECAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE A CHARACTER CHART FOR EACH MEMBER SOME OF YOU MIGHT GET CONFUSE. DON'T WORRY. PROPER INTRODUCTIONS WILL HAPPEN LATER ON.**

Don't hesistate to leave a comment or two after reading. Thank you. 

Love from the winter cat, 

Frost.