It was a chilly morning and birds were chirping away happily. It was the start of a spring season, and soft, pinkish-white cherry blossom flowers bloomed everywhere, cheering up the streets colourfully. A melodious song, “I” by Tae-Yeon could be heard playing somewhere within the orphanage dorms.

He grunted as he stretched his hand out, blindly reaching left and right to grab the white coloured device that was vibrating along with the song. “Hm, yeah?”

“Yeah?” an angelic voice could be heard from the other side of the phone, impatiently repeating after him. “Wow, hyung, you’re a genius. You're smart enough to know who’s on the line, but you don’t know what's the time now. Bravo!”

“Yah, Yoon Jeong-Han,” he lightly laughed at Jeong-Han’s sarcasm. “What are you talking about? I’m still in my sleep mood, so can you please explain it to me a little more simpler?”

He heard ruffling from the other side and assumed that Vernon must have snatched the phone away from the angel-like Jeong-Han. “Choi Seung-Cheol! You think it’s funny, huh? Please get a good look at the time first, and then you can start laughing at your miserable timing.”

Seung-Cheol frowned at what Vernon said. He knew that whenever Vernon got angry, he would address his full name instead of politely calling him ‘hyung’ like how he usually does, with a crinkling smile on his face. What could possibly be so serious? He parted his phone away from his ear to look at the time. His eyes doubled to the size of saucers and he looked and felt ready enough to scream his left lung out, if only his croaky voice allowed. "Hansol Vernon Choi!"

"He's late," Vernon rolled his eyes as he deftly ended the call. “Again.”

Jeong-Han chuckled at Vernon's angry expression, a hint of annoyance found within, looking like a hissy cat. "Yah, he called you by your full name." Vernon gave Jeong-Han a clear glare that silently said 'I know, so stop making me pissed.' “Okay, I’ll erase what I just said.”

Little petals from the cherry blossom trees lining the sides of the street softly descended onto the pavement. It made the entire surrounding look as if it was raining candies. Song Na-Eun stretched her arms as she saw a petal falling from her side. “I wish, today can be as good as yesterday.” She beamed after saying those words to herself.

A sudden smack hit her head from the back, and she almost tripped over her foot. “Oh no! What do you do? You just had a bad luck!”

“Oppa!” Song Na-Eun glared fiercely at her older brother who had just got out from their house. She saw her brother grinning cheerily and she just knew how her brother always found merciless happiness in bullying her. I won’t let him beat me this time! “Oppa, good morning!”

Song Joo-Hyuk was pretty taken aback by his little sister’s sudden change of character. “Yah, are you okay? You sound creepy.”

“Of course, I would sound creepy,” Na-Eun smirked, making her brother take a step backward. “Oppa, we once learned a word in elementary school, do you remember? We use it to make an apology, if we ever do something wrong. What was the word again-?”

“I’m sorry!” Joo-Hyuk said it in an instant, knowing that his little sister’s strength was not to be counted as a joke.

“Every morning couldn’t be better morning without a lovely siblings’ fight,” a guy who looked very much gentlemen-like with charming looks and bright copper hair grinned. “Right, Seung-Kwan?”

“Couldn’t agree more with that statement, Joshua-hyung,” Boo Seung-Kwan laughed at the two Song siblings. He had been friends with Joo-Hyuk along with Joshua since middle school and both of them knew Joo-Hyuk always found innocent pleasure in teasing and mocking his sister for he was smarter than his sister in terms of IQ and EQ. “Guys, we’re going to be late!”

He usually didn’t care about things that transpired around him. Even if someone were to be dying and asking him for some help, he just wouldn’t care less. His reaction was the absolute same when he saw a girl with long, sleek auburn brown hair, carrying a cat-faced backpack tightly around her shoulders.

She was reaching her hand out as she tried to grab something from the drainage. There were a bunch of junior kids crowding around her messily, as if they were anticipating a miracle in the middle of the month. He stopped his tracks out of mild curiosity, wanting to know what the early morning fuss was about.

“Hyung, something wrong?” Jeong-Han trained his eyes at where Seung-Cheol was looking at. He knew Seung-Cheol could care less about other people's business for he concluded it a waste of time. He knew though, Seung-Cheol wasn’t a bad guy either. He would drop everything and rush to help his friends without any hesitations if he were to find them in trouble.

“Huh?” Seung-Cheol finally returned back to his senses when Vernon slightly shook him by the shoulder. “Oh, it’s nothing. It’s just… today’s an annoying kind of day for me.” 

“Every day is an annoying day for you, hyung,” Lee Chan, better known as Dino, chuckled. He stopped immediately as the three much taller, and older guys stared straight at him. “I-I’m just saying.”

Seung-Cheol glared at Jeong-Han for an explanation, but Jeong-Han just shook his head, saying he knew nothing. “Why the hell is Lee Chan here?”

“He just tagged along,” Vernon tried explaining. He knew Seung-Cheol disliked Dino to a considerably great extent. Dino was a cheerful and happy-go-lucky kind of guy, and that made Seung-Cheol find him annoying. On the contrary though, Dino liked Seung-Cheol a little more than lot. He'd always wanted to join the trio gang, though knowing he wasn’t exactly welcomed to the group. “I don’t know anything, so please don’t put the blame on me.”

“Okay, since you guys know nothing,” Seung-Cheol looked ahead and spotted something while smiling to himself. “Dump him in that garbage bin. I can see that the car that collects garbage coming this way.”

“Ah, hyung!” Dino whined as he showed Seung-Cheol his ‘puss in boots’ face.

Jeong-Han, Vernon, and Dino all grew up from the same orphanage. Seung-Cheol arrived at Angel House Orphanage when he was at the measly age of five. Many mocked and whispered behind his back, ridiculing him for not having parents. Seung-Cheol was smart enough to ignore the whispers, and he instead stood up strongly against them as he prioritized his focus on his studies.

Loud screams were heard from far in front as the boys were walking into Sung-Soo High School. He didn’t need to peek to see what the commotion was about. It had always been the same since middle school. The girls’ screams could be heard incessantly, without fail, every single morning.

“Choi Seung-Cheol.”

Seung-Cheol stopped as he heard the all too familiar voice. He scowled at the voice and reluctantly faced said person. The person who called him stepped out of an expensive foreign car and portrayed a wicked grin. “Aren’t you being a little rude, when a person is calling out your name?”

“What?” Seung-Cheol turned and faced him with a glare that could kill within seconds. 

“Whoa,” the person laughed at Seung-Cheol’s disgusted look. “It’s only been, what, months and you've gotten even more arrogant than before. Shouldn’t you at least greet a ‘hello’ to the principal’s only grandson?”

Jeong-Han patted Seung-Cheol’s shoulder, a signal for him to ignore Kim Min-Gyu and just walk away.

“Annyeonghaseyo,” Seung-Cheol slightly bowed. “How are you? I’m fine, thank you. Goodbye.” Seung-Cheol replied in one go and walked away, leaving Min-Gyu dumbfounded.

“Wah,” Min-Gyu heaved a sigh of disbelief. “He really got more arrogant.”

The classrooms were filled with student’s laughter and chatter, as they all had just returned to school after the winter break. Teacher Nam entered the classroom and introduced himself formally as their homeroom teacher.

“So, how was your holiday?” Teacher Nam beamed excitedly. “Alright, wrong question. I’m sure many of you have a billion things to say so I’m just going to delete what I just asked. A new semester signals a new year so I hope you kids can continue to do well in your studies and make me proud, alright?” The students replied ‘yes’ in unison and Teacher Nam started opening the class' file. “I’m going to mark your attendance so please raise your hand and shout ‘yes’ when your name is called.”

Teacher Nam called names one by one and stopped as a particular name wasn't being replied. “Song Na-Eun, are you here? Song Na-Eun!”

“I’m here,” the same long, auburn brown haired girl with her cat-faced backpack barged into the classroom in a hurried mess. She looked as if she had ran all the way to school. She was sweating and panting at the same time, struggling to catch her breath.

“What’s your name?” Teacher Nam eyed her curiously. 

The whole class paid their whole attention to the girl who just came in, waiting boredly for a reply. The girl brushed her skirt properly and took a deep breath. “Annyeonghaseyo, the surname is Song, name Na-Eun. I’m so sorry for being late. Nice to meet you, I’m Song Na-Eun.”
​

AUTHOR'S BLABBER;
Hey there to all Seventeen fans!
Thank you for subscribing to my story. I hope that this chapter doesn’t make you feel bored as I typed really fast without going through the storyline again.
Since many of you requested to update soon (and I didn’t want to disappoint you guys), I just typed what popped into my mind.
Hope you guys liked this chapter and hope to see you all anticipate the next one!