Another minute passed with Aera’s mouth opening widely like a confused goldfish, blocking any sounds coming from her surroundings as she checked the spelling of her name printed on that white, holy paper of announcement.

TOP 10 STUDENTS

SHIN AERA

OH SEHUN

She only managed to blink as she examined the freaking paper once more,

“I BEAT OH SEHUN?” she guessed, holding her head to avoid the coming headache, brushing off the even nastier looks people threw at her. She walked to the nearest rest room and saw herself in the mirror.

“H-how?” she said, mind still blank, trying to decipher if she was indeed number one or if the whole school’s pulling off a very late April’s Fool –which is seriously not funny.

Aera didn’t even know what to feel.

So when she arrived home after a day passed in a blurry haze, her mother finally asked, “Darling, are you okay? You seem so out of it, you weren’t even singing to your Uptown Funk jam in the car earlier.”

Aera wordlessly fished something from her bag and immediately passed her mother the letter, in which her new achievement is printed to be reported to her parents Mrs. Shin looked at the white envelope curiously as she tore it open.

The next few minutes were spent in silence, then-

“OH MY GOD! AERA, I’M SO PROUD OF YOU, MY LOVABLE DAUGHTER!”

At least she seemed to be taking this surprise quite well.

_

Aera welcomed her freshly cooked lunch happily, with her mother praising her every minute or so by calling everyone in her contact list, especially her father.

“Aera, guess what?” Mrs. Shin said, phone still cradled between her ear and her shoulder as she arranged some cookies inside a jar.

“Whut?” Aera asked, speaking incoherently due to the still on-going chewing.

“Your dad said he’d come home early this weekend to see his daughter!” her mother squealed and Aera nodded. Her father works out of town and is rarely home, Aera misses him and is excited at the thought of meeting him.

A few minutes later, Aera seized the jar of cookies with her and went upstairs to her room.

“Mom, can I read fan fics?”

“Read them all you want, sweetie. That’s your reward for studying so diligently.”

Aera smiled victoriously, giddy at the thought of her life finally falling into place and it’s almost like a drama –but she doesn’t care because she’s got a notification saying her favorite author has an update and that is far more important than life.

_

Her mother’s pancakes helped her starting off the day with an awesome mood, walking around the hallways feeling like a superstar. The murmurs didn’t lessen, if anything, it only got worse but Aera doesn’t ever care about what people have to say, really.