Chapter 1

Lee Yuri, a second-year in high school who explains her contradictory feelings about school sheepishly: She doesn’t like going, but not going makes her nervous. And if she weren’t able to go, she’d want to.

Yuri lives in the southern province of Gyeongsamnam-do, in the city of Tongyeong. She works multiple part-time jobs and aspires to be a teacher—one who understands her students, their lies, and what they’re hiding.

Yuri has a cheerful way of speaking, but once we she`s goes to her school, the reason for her answers becomes clear, because she’s the target of some vicious bullying.

Well, a girl name, Krystal, is led by her friends to the special “birthday present” they’ve prepared for her. They’ve cornered Yuri and proceed to make a “birthday cake” of her, flinging eggs, flour, and fish sauce over her head. Krystal and her posse laugh maliciously while Yuri chokes back tears.

After that horrible scene

Yuri has to dress in her gym clothes for the rest of the  school day , and everybody makes a big show of recoiling at her stink from the fish sauce. Her teacher pulls her aside to ask why she’s always in gym clothes and whether she’s being bothered, but doesn’t press when Yuri lies that nobody’s doing anything.

So she’s left completely adrift while everyone gawks and laughs at her openly, enjoying her misery.

Her home life is more pleasant, and her bright personality show`s through as she acts as a mother hen at the orphanage, Love’s House, where she’s spent most of her life. She’s the eldest and makes the kid`s eat their vegetables and is lovingly naggy.

Yuri  notices ripped clothing in the wash machine and checks on one of the other girls,Aleyna, who’s hiding a large bruise on her side. She lies that she just fell while playing with the other kids, but Yuri gently pries the story out of her—and then marches over to the home of the boy who did this to her.

While 

The bully’s mother dismisses Yuri huffily, but Yuri stands up to her boldly, unwilling to be turned aside. She doesn’t accept the “they were just playing” excuse, pointing out that both sides ought to be having fun for that to qualify. She refuses to leave until Aleyna gets an apology and a promise not to pick on her again, and they get it.

As they leave, Yuri urges aleyna to speak up when things like this happen, and to assert herself so the bully recognizes she won’t just be pushed around. Aleyna, who already looks up to Yuri as her shining role model, thank her and says, “Unni, you’re a present God gave me in place of a mother.”

Yuri receives a gift in the mail, from a woman who appears to have been sending her gifts for some time. This note is signed with the name Song Mi-kyung and says that she bought a Teddy bear for Yuri while she was out buying one for her own daughter.

The orphanage director wonders at this generous benefactor, and Yuri marvels at how perfectly the gifts fit her size and her taste.

While, Megan

has a healthy, affectionate relationship, with her mother and Megan good-naturedly groans at her mother’s overzealous packing for her upcoming school trip to a famous temple that’ll have them in Tongyeong for four days. But interestingly, when Megan`s Mom sees the matching sweatshirt in Megan’s suitcase, she doesn’t recognize it—it’s Megan who must have sent it down using her mother’s name. 

Unlike Yuri,Megan is stylish and popular at school, and has an inner circle of friends with two girls, Sooyoung and Yoona. She’s extra-tight with Sooyoung; the two have matched their outfits to a tee, and third wheel Yoona looks a little wistful to be left out.

(Ignore sunny sorry that`s the only pic i found that they are matching kekeke.)

The class heads down to Tongyeong in buses, Missing 2 more boys. One of those two is Nichkhun, who’s missing the trip because of he’s swimming at a national meet.

While, Megan listens to a live sports broadcast as Nichkhun`s race unfolds, and lights up when she hears that he won. 

While,Nichkhun’s bashful text-flirting with Megan, crushing is mutual, and dates back to their childhood. Megan was admiring Nichkhun’s swimming medals and asking for one of his many.Nichkhun refuses but promise Megan the first medal he wins at the national level. She huffs that she doesn’t believe he’d do that when he won’t even give her a trivial medal like the one he has .Nichkhun retorts that Megan’s a dummy—he’s not giving this one to her because it’s trivial; as in, he’ll give her one that’s important. 

Megan’s mom does a favor for another mother by introducing her to an exclusive clique of moms. The leader barely hides her disdain for the newcomer (Yoona’s mother), doling out some passive-aggressive barbs before deigning to give her card and number out.

The girls hear about Nichkhun’s gold medal, though Megan plays it cool and doesn’t show much excitement. Megan says that they grew up knowing everything about each other, as though Nichkhun is nothing more than a sometimes-annoying buddy.

But then Megan gets a text that darkens her mood immediately. It’s from a girl named Park Gyuri, and says, “Just because it’s in the past doesn’t mean it never happened.” Megan seizes up in shock—definitely scared, maybe even guilty.

So for the rest of the day, she’s withdrawn and quiet, despite her friends’ attempts to draw her out. When Sooyoung prods her to talk or eat, she snaps and yells at her loudly, to everyone’s surprise.

The high school students moms, who talk in vague terms about some incident last year involving Gyuri, who had moved away but is now apparently back. It must be a scandalous incident, because when the other moms recall that Gyuri and Megan were friends, Megan’s mother is quick to say that no, they weren’t really friends, just casual acquaintances.

As the school trip arrives in Tongyeong,  We see Yuri at Love the House. While, Yuri assures a worried Aleyna that she’s okay despite not feeling well, and Aleyna says `that although unni is popular and has lots of friends at school, she only has unni. To comfort her,` promising her that her unni won’t get sick anymore.

While Love’s House is a least safe place for Yuri, but her tormentors show up for more bullying. Wearing beatific smiles, explaining to the director that they were concerned about Yuri, and that they wanted to help out by doing their community service project here.

But once they`re alone with Yuri, it’s back to sneering and malevolent threats. Krystal`s friends are not enough but it’s the  leader Krystal who drives the evil train, telling Yuri to do their work since she’s living off her parents’ taxes.

Aleyna witnesses the scene and looks upset to see her unni being pushed around. But, nYuri doesn’t want her to see the true situation either, so she lies and agrees with Krystal and Krystal`s friends that this was all a fun joke, and that she’s fine.

While, Krystal sees her powerful father as a shield from any possible blowback, and even tells the orphanage director that her father is on a scholarship committee and would like to help out Love’s House. Yuri sits there in nervous confusion, trying to see what Krsytal is talking about.

Meanwhile, the high school students settle into their hotel rooms, playing games and having fun. While Megan remains in her seat,  reading a clipp featuring Love’s House with a photo of Yuri in it.

Afterwards, she gets a phone call that prompts her to slip away secretly, ignoring her friends again. A little while later, Yoona steps out for her own call and catches a glimpse of Megan in the distance with confused face that she doesn’t quite know what’s going on, but it looks like a tense encounter between Megan and a boy.

Later that night, Yuri calls Krystal out to ask her about the scholarship. She isn’t in a position to refuse the chance just because she dislikes Krystal, and asks for her help in getting it. Krystal says she’ll try talking to her father, and asks Yuri for her phone number.

Yuri waits anxiously.While Krystal send texts…  While, Krystal snickers to herself while sending fake threats to her friends under Yuri’s name like: (I’m going to crush you… I’ll burn your house down…). She laughs about the scholarship, While, Yuri is pushed to her limits. She grabs a nearby wooden stick and challenges her wildly, calling Krystal the worst—and moreover, she’s pitiful.

That sparks Krystal’s anger, and sees the CCTV above them before goading to Yuri to hit her. She makes a grab for the stick, and in the scuffle she gets knocked into a pile of debris. Yuri sees the stack of beams and pipes heading for them and leaps in to shield Krystal as they’re both hit and knocked out.

n        

The next day, the girls are still at a standoff, with Megan preoccupied with her secret problem and her friends reacting in kindly. Yoona finds herself in the middle (literally) of the spat—and then catches a glimpse of the bruise on Megan’s neck. It makes her think of that brief scene she saw the night before, but she doesn’t quite know what to do with that information.

One of Megan’s objectives for this trip is getting in touch with Yuri, and calls Love’s House under a false name, saying she’s an old friend of Yuri’s. She then calls Yuri’s cell phone number—and not realizes that ten feet away, Yuri works at the register of the cafe and sees her phone ringing. But Yuri hesitates to answer, and the call cuts out before she does.

Megan trudges into a bathroom stall and sits there glumly, ignoring her two friends who figure they’ll leave her to her moodiness. The bathroom light flicks off as everybody leaves, but footsteps sound, and as they get closer and closer to her stall, Megan gets nervous. She calls out, and then yells scaredly, “Is it you again? How long are you going to do this?!”

Megan looks upward over the stall, and her eyes widen in fear. Screams could be heard.

While, The rest of the class is gathered for a group photo, and the photo catches Yuri as she walks by. The class was ready to leave, but the head count comes up short and they soon realize that Megan is missing.

  (ignore yuri eyes and also sooyoung can't find anymore pic that yuri is terrified and scared and also yuri in the group picture.)

The school group organizes into search parties to scour the grounds, anxiety mounting the longer time passes and Megan remains missing. The teachers ask Megan friends for information, and now Yoona sharers what she saw last night, which looked like Megan was fighting with a guy.

At Nichkhun’s swim meet, Nichkhun gets a call from a friend just before his big race. News of Megan’s disappearance rattles him so much that when the race kicks off, just as all the commentators speculate that Nichkhun is all set to skyrocket to fame, he did not even go. Nichkhun remains poised on the starting block, wondering, “Megan, where are you?”

Megan’s Mom hears from Megan’s friends and drives down to Tongyeong immediately. Mega’s  Teacher Kim can only tell her that they’re awaiting more news, and Megan’s mom distraught breaks down in tears, both accusing and pleading. But there’s nothing that can be done.

Meanwhile, Yuri doesn’t appear to have been very injured in the accident, but Krystal is milking the situation, playing the part of traumatized victim. Krystal’s mother accuses Yuri of being the aggressor and demands justice from the school.

The teachers prod Yuri to apologize, but she’s tired of being the wronged party and stands up to defend herself. She says that she’s thought it over and over, and the only conclusion she can come to is that she’s done nothing wrong.

But Krystal is the daughter of a respected prosecutor,While, Yuri is a nobody, and was expelled from the school. Yuri asks to attend her last day of school through the end, not wanting to act as though that she’s being run off, and heads back to class to finish her day.

Yuri’s desk has been graffiti’d and Krystal’s posse rounds on her immediately. Yuri asks Krystal why she hates her so much, and why she’s bulliying her.

Krystal sneers, “Just. Because.” Krystal says that she hates everything about Yuri, as though that explains everything.

Yuri asks how many times Krystal means to go, because you’d think she couldn’t get much lower: “You’re already the worst.” And this time when So-young steps up to face her, Yuri doesn’t even flinch.

Except she’s outnumbered and overpowered, and Krystal friends pull her behind the curtains. saying that "And if there’s anything more ignorable than the school outcast, it’s the expelled school outcast", and everyone ignores as Yuri begs them to stop.
 

A distinct eerieness as we see the struggle through the sheer curtains and the students blithely go about their day just feet away. Krystal films on camera as her friends rip Yuri’s clothes, threatening her that they will post the video the next time she does anything they don’t like.

Yuri breaks free and runs out—still clothed, thank goodness—and despite her best intentions, Yuri’s run out of school, without completing her last day.  dropping her nametag in the yard and leaves the grounds.

Meanwhile, a body splashes into the water. To our suprised, it is  Yuri, as her body sinks, still wearing her twins’ matching sweatshirt, In the end, it lingers on her schooldesk, where Yur’s carved her parting message: “Goodbye. Friends.”

Author Note: 

Annyeonghaseyo readers, long chapter isn`t, it was hard to write cuz of my computer so slow, it`s okay i manage to fix it u guys i hope u guys enjoy it. subcribe and comment kamsamnida...

-Yumi21