01 ~ Best Friend? Not Yours!

"Hey, wanna catch a movie with me tonight?"

I furrowed my brow and stared strangely at the guy who was leaning against my locker, effectively taking up much of my precious time that I could have been using instead to go home to my nice, soft, comfortably inviting bed.

But before I go any further, I should probably introduce myself.

Hi, I'm Lee Sora. I'm 16 years old and have recently started my second year of high school. This school runs by an escalator program from middle school to university, although the campuses are separate, so basically everyone here has already known each other for a long time.

I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I guess I have always been something of a people's person. People always seem to crowd around me, but it's not like I'm complaining or anything. Basically everyone is nice to me and it's nice having a lot of friends too. But it's because of this characteristic of mine that ever since the first year of middle school, I have been dubbed by everyone as "Everybody's Best Friend".

It's not a bad thing, but honestly -- I would've preferred it if they had never called me that to begin with. Sometimes it makes me feel as if people only became friends with me because they thought it was the most natural thing to do at our school.

Weird thought there, I know. My group of close friends had constantly talked my head off about not holding that kind of mindset.

I guess you can say that my school life has been smooth sailing so far. There have been a few bumps along the road, but patching things up have always been pretty easy, from problems with family to friends to school work, and so on.

But this time, things were different. And in a bad way.

They say that when life throws you lemons, you make lemonade out of it. But looking at this arrogant new kid leaning against my locker right now, I don't really know how I'm even supposed to do that. Never before in my life have I had to deal with such a troublesome character, and I really hope I'll never have to encounter something like this again -- that is, if I can ever get over this hurdle blocking my way to a pleasantly uneventful life.

This annoying person here is Jung Daehyun, who is also a second year high school student. He first arrived at our school during spring at the beginning of the year as a new transfer student, and back then he was nothing like the Daehyun that I see today. Surprisingly enough, it has only been a month since then as well.

I can still remember, as clear as day, the very first time I had come across him on the first day of school this semester.

And I can remember it because it wasn't even all that long ago.

That just shows how bipolar this guy really is.

Anyway, I was running late to homeroom that day -- yes I know, I was late on the very first day, alright? -- and nobody else was still in the corridors, so I easily spotted him wandering around being all lost and clueless. I figured he was a new student, so I went up to him and asked him if he was.

He had turned around and stared at me with wide eyes, looking both innocently timid and surprised, and I had to hold back a grin to myself at the time. To be honest, I really thought that he would be one of those quietly sweet guys at the time, but who knew he would actually turn out to be the devil of my nightmares.

The guy thanked me profusely after I showed him the way to the reception, and that was the very last time he had ever talked to me nicely. It wasn't like he turned to this smirky-jerky, arrogant little kid overnight, but he was definitely bipolar.

Well, not like clinically bipolar or anything, I don't think, but you know what I mean.

The days following our first meeting, I caught him staring at me from afar. It wasn't in the weird kind of way or anything, but more in the "Ah, is she the one who helped me on the first day?" kind of way. Like he was curious or something.

That went on for about a week or so before the stares started taking a turn to the weird side. He wasn't shy or timid anymore by then and he just constantly looked at me, which made me uncomfortable. He was considered a really good-looking guy by all the other girls so they all kind of envied me when they started to notice that he looked at me a lot. They were all going on about how sweet it was, but I really didn't see how.

I just found it creepy.

And from then on, things just kept getting worse and worse and worse. Especially when he started talking to me in the most infuriating way possible.

The very first thing he said to me after the influx of thank yous on the first day was a very much unwelcomed insult.

I didn't even notice I was walking past him in the corridors until he stuck his foot out and almost tripped me over. Almost.

I stumbled over his outstretched leg but luckily landed on my two feet. I turned around to glare at him.

"Hey, what was that for?"

He cocked his head to the side and sent me a smirk. Other girls in the corridor swooned at his apparent "good looks and charm". Notice the speech marks there. I'm just quoting other people 'cause they're not my words.

Daehyun looked me up and down for a split second before staring me straight in the eyes again, mine filled with irritation and his filled with amusement.

"Do you really think leaving your skirt that long will attract anyone? You look like a nun."

I unconsciously looked down at my skirt and saw that it reached down to my knees, which was the original length of an unaltered school skirt. Unlike me, everybody else rolled them up or cut them short, which I never bothered to do.

I rolled my eyes at him in disinterest. Oh yeah, and did I mention that I was a very impatient person who was very easily annoyed? Although I'm grateful that everyone is so nice to me, sometimes it makes me wonder why they all liked me so much when I didn't have the greatest personality out there. I wasn't even particularly great at anything that I did either.

"What's it to you?" I had replied. "Because I for sure don't care. At least nuns are morally virtuous and are always willing to help people."

I my heels at that point and walked away, not even waiting to hear his response. Honestly I had wanted to swear at him, but it would have just given him something more to use against me if a teacher was walking past at the time hearing me say it. I could hear his boisterous laughter from behind me as he stopped to say, "And that's why you've never had a boyfriend!"

I lifted my head into the air and snorted. Like I care. Because honestly, I didn't.

Like, come on, I was only 16. It doesn't hurt to have one, but it's not like I needed one either. And besides, I haven't come across anyone I looked at in that way either. I thought of everyone as friends, so it was weird to think of anyone I knew in that way.

But putting that aside, let's bring you all back to the present time. Here I am, standing by the row of lockers trying to get to my own while a big blob of a jerk-face embodiment stood right in the way.

You may think that I'm just overreacting over a petty one-time incident, but I'll have you know right now that he has done a lot more than just that since then. From insults to pranks to even getting me a detention last week, he has done a lot more than just get on my nerves. And I didn't even know how he managed to get me a detention.

Questions, questions everywhere, but no answers. Typical.

In response to his stupid question from earlier about catching a movie with him, I replied with a deadpan "NO." First he tries to make an enemy out of me, which was very successful must I say, and now he's asking me out? What the hell is wrong with this guy?

Daehyun didn't flinch even the slightest from my words. I mean "word", since I only said a no.

"Oh come on," he coaxed in a voice that made me want to punch his lights out. "You know you want to."

Oh my god, did he just wink at me? Get me a trash bag, 'cause I want to vomit. I didn't, of course, but I did stare at him most distastefully to match how I was feeling on the inside.

"Don't wink at me," I snapped in the most disgusted way possible. Why couldn't he just go away already? I want to go home and take a nap.

He got up off of my locker and raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Why so fierce? Aren't you supposed to be everybody's best friend?"

Funny that he'd bring this up now, because I have always wanted to break out of that image. I mean, who wants to be caged forever inside a role that others put onto you? There had to be some exceptions one way or another.

I mustered up all of my strength and dislike for this guy and glared at him straight in the face with everything I had.

I gulped in a lungful of air before screeching, "NOT YOURS!"

The piercing volume of my voice must have shocked him a bit because he looked just the slightest bit taken aback as he stumbled back a few steps. This action of his led to the most priceless thing on the face of the earth to happen next.

Someone must have eaten a banana and dumped the peel on the ground, because Daehyun stepped right on top of the slippery, yellow thing and flipped backwards hilariously, head first, into a plastic trash can that innocently stood behind him.

Yep. No other word would best describe the moment that had just unfolded right before my eyes.

Priceless.

Hi everyone, it's Mistlea here with a new story ^^

I wasn't really planning on working on this story until I got my graphics done, seeing as how I also have two other on-going stories, but I just couldn't help it :)

Hope you all like this chapter and let me know what you think of it down in the comments section below. Thanks for reading and subscribing :D