"Could you hurry up?" Seungkwan's taking forever to get dressed.

"Don't make me say it again."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, a legend 17 years in the making can take all the time they wan- OH MY."

I take the tie out of his hand to wrap it round his neck, but as much as I'd like to choke him he needs to be alive for me to bother at lunch.

"There, can we go now?"

"Yeah, just after I eat breakfast and Vernon and Chan still have to get ready." I fall onto my bed in disbelief.

"Why do you need to be so early anyway?"

"I need to meet all my teachers to know what I'm doing and make a good impression."

I walk past him to pick up my backpack. "Guess I'll just go there by myself." He's heartless, so even my sad pouty face doesn't work.

 

I step in the kitchen to grab a breakfast bar from the cupboard before going on my way. Wonwoo and Mingyu are sat on the sofa in the living room area close by.

"You're off this early?" Mingyu turns towards the door to face me.

"Yeah, gotta meet teachers and stuff."

"I can walk you if you want." A kind offer from Wonwoo.

"You don't have to, I'm sure I can find my way."

"Well, we wouldn't want you getting lost." Mingyu does make a good point.

"Okay then, if it's not too much bother, thank you!" Wonwoo slips on a hoodie and some trainers and then we go. 

 

It's slightly chilly outside. Summer has said goodbye and autumn has started to creep on in its place. Wonwoo's hands are in his hoodie pouch, while mine are in my blazer pockets.

He's an interesting guy, Wonwoo. When we first met, I worried about getting along with him the most since he seemed quite reserved. And yeah, he is quiet sometimes but he tells the best jokes, always knows the best books, and can be a voice of reason. There's a lot of interesting things about Wonwoo and I want to know them all.

"Here we are." It's a lot smaller than I'd imagined. Well, it's still pretty big considering there's more students than in my old school. I'm starting to think most of that space back there was for showing off.

"Thank you! See you later." Wonwoo waves goodbye with a tired smile before making his way back. It's a twisty, turny journey, but it's only 5 minutes so I don't feel too bad, knowing he'll get some rest soon. 

 

When I get to the reception, a kind young lady hands me a map and a timetable and then tells me which teachers to see. By the time I've maneuvered through all three buildings with four floors, I'm worn out before the day has even begun. Eventually, I get to homeroom with my satchel full to burst with notebooks and textbooks, before laying my head on the cold wooden desk. 

"Hey." A flick on my forehead accompanied by the voice of torment himself. "No sleeping in class." I leer at Seungkwan while he takes his seat, but he does have a point, so I straighten myself out and rub the sand from my eyes.

Vernon and Chan come along a bit after, but only Hansol comes in as Chan's a junior in a different class. Then Eunwoo, Yebin and Pinky, who sit in the seats surrounding me. The classroom fills even more, with people and with chatter. 

When the bell rings, the talking dies down as our teacher reads announcements. When he's done, he then brings attention to the new student. I stand in front of my classmates and recite the introduction I'd planned in my head. 

 

As I begin, I smell it. That smell. A kind of smelly smell. The smelly smell that smells... smelly.

 

I ignore this warning omen, simply because the likelyhood of ‘her’ being here is very low. But, in the short space of time before the start and end of my speech, I'm interrupted by the door crashing open and I now know why the reek of expensive French perfume was in my nose

"Late again, Delilah." The teacher drones in a monotone voice.

"Sorry, sensei." She apologises in the most broken Korean I've ever heard, and she does know sensei is Japanese, right?

 

Her preppy smile falls flat when she sees my face. Total silence takes over as we stand off. I'm ready for it, waiting for some spiteful comment. "Oh, hi Cami! Nice to see you again."

Nice to see me? Nice to have her favourite victim back in her grasp, more like. The reason I hated that school so much was her. She was the one who united all the students against me. She was the one who reminded me I was common trash every day. For her, it's nice to see me again, but for me the worst possible thing that could have happened, happened.

"I know we weren't exactly friends back at Rutherford, and I know I said and did some things to you that weren't very nice." The understatement of the century. "But let's start over, who knows, maybe we can be friends now?"

She holds her hand out. For me to kick off now would be the opposite of the good impression I want to make. And she does seem genuine. Maybe, just maybe, she has changed.

"It's okay, that's all in the past now." 

 

Everyone is staring because this all just went down in English. I can see Vernon being forced by the whole class to translate.

 

"So, Delilah's that girl who used to pick on you? Talk about bad luck." Seungkwan states the obvious.

"Tell me about it."

Homeroom is over now and classes start. It goes how you think, school is still school. But it's much easier to learn without constant social anxiety and fear.

"Hey, you're Cami right?" Some girls in the year below come to Pinky, Yebin, Eunwoo and I while we're sat talking during break. 

"Yeah, that's me."

"You're the one who has the dance YouTube channel right? You're really good!" One girl exclaims.

"Everyone loves you around here, we can't believe you're going to our school!" Another squeals.

I guess I just found my channel's key demographic. No one knew about my hobby back home, even when I started to get big. The stats told me most people were viewers from Asia, it makes sense that someone dancing to Korean music would be most popular in Korea.

 

I didn't expect anything like this though. Lots more people come to talk to me: at break, in the halls, but not in class. I guess our year already has their fill of idols/trainees, because it's mostly youngsters. It's a surprise, but a happy one. I'm glad doing what I love brings joy to others too.

"Why are you so popular? We're idols too!" Seungkwan huffs.

I shrug my shoulders. "I think it's more my YouTube channel than that. But I'm not complaining." The end bit's just to wind him up.

Maybe I just can't have a normal school life. I'm either public enemy No.1 or shoved in the spotlight.

"Apparently they're making a fan club." Vernon whispers.

"Really? It hasn't even been one day, gosh. What's so special about me?"

"Well when you think about it, it all makes sense." Eunwoo speculates. "You've got a unique appearance, you're a more than decent dancer and you dance to popular music everyone's interested in."

"I just hope this doesn't get out of hand." 

 

But it did.

 

Classes are fine but things are crazier at lunch than they were at break. 

I wait in line for some food with my friends but as soon as the person in front sees it's me, we all get pushed to the front, despite my refusal. Then the lunch lady asks if she can make me anything special, but I'm fine with what's on offer. 

Then some guys us to the nicest table. "Usually Delilah sits here!" Pinky scream-whispers. That can't be good.

There's also a whole line of, for lack of a better word, 'fanboys', standing beside our table as we eat. 

"Does anyone else find this weird?" Everyone nods.

"I don't think Delilah will be too happy about us taking her spot either." Chan looks fearful.

"We didn't take anything! We just got put here!" Yebin makes clear.

"I say we make the best out of this situation, we got the best food and the best spot. That's not too bad a way to start our final year of high school." 

Seungkwan does have a point, but this whole thing is just really odd. So we're the cool kids now? Not too bad. 

 

Everything's going as good as it can, then Delilah walks past and loses grip of her tray, spilling her food all over me.

"Oh my gosh, Cami! I'm so sorry! I don't know what happened!" Her minions pick up what's left of her food while she tries to look shocked. All those guys are giving me handkerchiefs, which is helpful, but I only need one.

I know Delilah and I have had our differences in the past, but I would have believed it was accident despite all that.

Until I heard her snicker when Pinky and I go to the bathroom.

"That was so not an accident." Pinky's not convinced.

"Oh, thank god it's not just me who thought that. I didn't want to seem paranoid." 

 

It's a relief but it's nothing compared for whatever else she'll have in store for me. I experienced Delilah's wrath for years, it was a weight off my shoulders when she left but it always felt like we could never coexist. It was nice being neutral, even if it was for a few hours.

 

"I really don't want an enemy." I sigh, using the ball of handkerchiefs to dab at as many stains possible with tap water.

"She clearly thinks you're coming for her spot, having been the queen around here for so long. She must feel threatened or something."

"But I'm not coming for her! I want peace!"

"Well, she's not going to listen."

"So what do I do?"

"Just don't stoop to her level. We all know she can play dirty, but try your best to keep your head held high."

I'll do just that. The miscellaneous boys ask me if I'm alright and scream when I give them their handkerchiefs back. I stay out of Delilah's way and hang with my friends, (and my new friends who follow me?). So, lunch is alright.

 

The last classes of the day come and go and it's time to go home. I ignore Delilah's death glare when she shoves past me at the school entrance to her chauffeur driven ride home. My new friends don't follow us either, which is a relief. Seungkwan, Vernon, Dino and I say goodbye to the girls when we separate to go to our dorms. 

The four of us plop on the couch and Joshua brings us some strawberry milk from the fridge. "How was your first day?"

"Eventful." That's the best way to sum it up.

After we tell him the whole thing, there's no more time for rest. There's practice to catch up on, then a bunch of homework.

 

The end of the day couldn't come soon enough. Brain and body sore, Seungkwan and I sit on my bed, my head leaning on his shoulder.

"How do you guys live?"

"We kind of don't."

 

-

 

"You think this'll work?"

"Well, it's worth a shot. I can't take this anymore!"

 

Delilah's plot against me has escalated since day one, and it's only been a week. 

First, she tried to copy me by making her own YouTube dance channel, but that was more funny than annoying. Even with a professional choreographer and paid subscribers, it would take too long to get anywhere.

Then, in PE, we were playing hockey. When we came together, she took the chance to whack me hard in the leg with her hockey stick. The teacher did see thankfully, despite her posse calling it an accident, so she was out for the rest of the lesson with a detention on top. That's probably just made her hate me even more.

But the final score was when I got 0% in our first maths test. I had studied so hard and even the teacher thought it was weird since I was understanding the work beforehand. We looked over my test and then I saw that it wasn't my writing at all. The teacher asked me to write a random paragraph so we could compare all the tests. And, would you know, my test was under Delilah's name.

She got called out for it but burst into tears, saying some nonsense about 'I just wanted to do as well as Cami' and 'I didn't want to fail my first test'. So she thinks I want to fail? Messing with me is one thing, but if she thinks she can affect my education, she's thinking wrong.

 

So now, on a Sunday afternoon, Seungkwan and I are sat in a cafe, drinking hot chocolate and scheming.

"So, we make a bunch of anon accounts, spreading hate about you?"

"Yes! Then people think I'm a weirdo or something, lose interest and give all the attention to Delilah. Nothing too bad though, just embarrassing stories, things like that."

We go to an Internet cafe and do just that. If anyone tries to find out who's behind it, it would just get traced back to here.

"I hope this works." Seungkwan and I cross our fingers.

 

It seems to have had some effect by Monday. I hold my grin, hearing everyone talk about the crap Seungkwan and I made up, wondering if it's true.

"So this is all part of the plan?" Pinky doesn't seem convinced.

"Yes, yes! These rumours will stop people being interested in me and they'll go back to Delilah."

 

Two fanboys approach Pinky and I at our lockers.

"Cami, we're so sorry to have heard all this terrible stuff about you."

"But it's okay! We all have embarrassing stuff we don't want anyone to find out!"

"Like how I wet the bed until I was 14."

"Dude, no one asked you to share."

"Sorry."

 

Then a girl joins in. "We all know it's Delilah. That girl has been after you since day one."

 

Um.

 

"Yeah! We won't let her get away with this."

 

But it wasn't her.

 

"Don't worry, Cami, we'll look after you."

 

I don't need looking after.

 

"That's not supposed to happen is it?" Pinky whispers, when we walk to class.

 

I shake my head.

I mean, it can't get that bad.

 

Slam. Our conversation is cut short by the person I least want to see.

"What's all this about me spreading rumours about you?" I keep my mouth shut. "Well whatever loser stuff you're doing, keep me out of it!"

"Hey, you leave her alone!"

"Yeah we all know it was you, Delilah!"

"What are you freaks even saying, don't you know I only speak English?" She tries desperately to get Google Translate up on her phone, but our classmates' vicious words are too fast to keep up.

"Ugh! Forget it I don't care." Delilah tries to storm out of the classroom, but falls when one of the heels on her non-school-uniform shoes breaks.

I try to help her up but she just swats my hand away. 

"Don't touch me. You think you've won? This is what you wanted all along isn't it? Revenge. Now that you're all big, bad and popular, you want to make me pay. Well I'm not that easy to take down. Just you wait, Cami Bae, I'll give you what you deserve."

 

 

"She said that, really?" Jihoon's unimpressed  when I tell the guys what went down, back at the dorm.

"You think she's going to get rid of you?"

"You're not helping, Jun." Minghao scolds his elder.

"But that's what rich people do, they can get away with that kind of stuff!"

 

"If she wanted me dead, she would have done it way before I met you guys. Trust me, she was still worse in Rutherford than she is here."

"Well she'll have to get through us first before she tries anything." I laugh at Soonyoung's words but he's probably being serious.

"I'll be fine, I've dealt with this before."

"But you shouldn't have to." Seokmin states.

I steer the conversation away from revenge plots and we all watch a movie instead.

 

"I'm sorry for dragging you into this, my dumb plan only made things worse." I cuddle into Seungkwan as an apology but he winces, clutching his side.

"It's okay." He doesn't look at me, does he think I'll ignore his actions? Not a chance.

I wait until he's more relaxed to lift up his shirt, and see a nasty bruise on his side.

 

"What's that?"

 

"Nothing."

 

"It doesn't look like nothing."

 

"Can you just leave it!" Out of nowhere he snaps at me, genuinely angry.

 

"Woah okay, no need to lose it." He's never like that, he's never been like that, Seungkwan hardly gets angry, it doesn't suit him.

Something must be up.