Taehyun seemed rather pleased with having Seulgi has his personal "assistant." He was often seen smiling more often, not to mention that he looked more relaxed. Some people started to compliment his healthier skin tone while others noticed that he seemed to have more time playing around with the girls in (or not in) his class.

On the other hand, Seulgi felt like she was living in hell. She would spend all night trying to finish her homework and Taehyun's homework, not to mention that Taehyun's homework was extra difficult since he kept telling to do the work in his handwriting. In the mornings, she would come to school with several hair products in her arms with both backpacks swung on each of her sore shoulder. She was often seen combing or brushing up Taehyun's hair, making sure that it was flawless and appealing to women's eyes. During the rest of the day, Taehyun would keep telling her to follow and to take random notes on whatever he did. He was dramatic with every movement he made—even putting coins in the vending machine required careful observation.

News soon started to spread that Taehyun had found an unusual little "pet" named Kang Seulgi. A few people recognized her from the lunch incident with Hyeri, but most didn't realize who she was. In fact, the people who didn't know who she was declared that she was just another girl who was clinging onto Taehyun in hopes of getting popular. Seulgi didn't really have much to say about this. Besides, they were right, and Soojung had told her not to speak a word of the popularity plan to any living soul.

A week after Seulgi agreed to be Taehyun's slave, Seulgi fell asleep in class, completely worn out. She was hiding her face behind her textbook, pretending as if she was reading.

"Now, who wants to read this passage?" the English teacher asked. He skimmed around and caught sight of Seulgi. "Kang Seulgi! Get up and read the paragraph."

Youngji and Soojung both glanced at Seulgi. Youngji tried to wake her by whispering, while Soojung just watched in silence.

"Kang Seulgi? Seulgi," the teacher repeated.

Youngji bit her bottom lip. "Pst! Seulgi! Kang Seulgi, wake up!"

"I'll read it."

Everyone looked to the front, where they saw Minzy getting up from her seat. The whole class was pleasantly shocked, but Minzy read the passage without flaw. Once she was done reading the paragraph, she sat back down.

Soojung raised her eyebrows in amusement. Looks like Minzy and Yezy are officially on Seulgi's side. They might be pretty useful later on. I should keep note of this.

"Very good, uh, Lee Yezy," the teacher murmured. He was about to call Seulgi's name again, but the bell had rang. The teacher grumbled, disappointed that he wasn't able to catch his student sleeping in time. "It's lunch time. Enjoy your lunch."

The teacher left and the students started to leave or rearrange the table. A few minutes later, Jackson popped into Youngji's classroom. He smiled at his girlfriend before giving her a quick peck on her cheek.

"There's my favorite sunflower," Jackson said.

"Sunflower? Is that a new nickname you came up with?" Youngji asked. She snorted. "Please stop with the cheesy nicknames."

"What? I thought girls like these sort of stuff." Jackson looked down at Seulgi. "Woah, is she dead?"

Youngji slapped his arm. "Rude!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he muttered quickly.

"She's been really tired. Give her a break," Youngji said.

"Why?"

"I don't know, but she's exhausted. Let her sleep."

Soojung looked around. From the door, she saw Taehyun poking his head in the classroom. She frowned, but quickly knew that he was looking for Seulgi. Eventually, he caught sight of Seulgi sleeping with her eyes open. He stepped into the classroom, causing the whole class to stop what they were doing and just stare at her.

Oh boy, Soojung thought. What an entrance.

Taehyun stopped in front of Seulgi's desk. He waved his hand in front of her face, but she didn't react. Youngji gave him a hard stare, carefully observing his motives. He snapped his fingers in front of Seulgi's face, but once again, she didn't move. She remained motionless, then started to snore with her eyes open. Startled, Taehyun looked at her with wide eyes, shocked to see someone like her sleep in such an unusual way. He snickered and pulled out his phone to take a picture.

Right when pointed his phone in front of Seulgi's foolish face, Youngji grabbed his wrist firmly, preventing him from raising his phone any further. He gave her a disgusted look while she shot him a glare.

"Um, let go?" Taehyun said.

"Who are you?" Youngji asked him cautiously. "I don't appreciate you taking pictures of my friend like this."

"Relax. I know Seulgi," Taehyun said. He shoved away her hand while preparing to take a picture. He was about to take a picture, but this time, Jackson prevented him from taking a photo. Taehyun tried to pry off his hand, but the athlete was far too strong for someone thin like Taehyun to push away. He only glared at Jackson. "What do you want?"

"Don't shove my girlfriend like that," Jackson said in a warning tone. "Also, don't ignore her. She asked you a question." He narrowed his eyes. "Should I repeat it for you? She was asking who the you are. Now answer."

Taehyun scoffed. "Do you seriously not know who I am?"

"Yeah, I don't know who the hell you are. All I know about you is that you're an obnoxious ert who's taking pictures of an unconscious girl."

"P-ert?" Taehyun cried out, completely in dismay. He scoffed and laughed. "You seriously don't know who I am! I'm shocked!"

"Jackson, don't hurt him," Youngji said.

"Why? He's being disrespectful," Jackson pointed out.

"Hurt me, I dare you. I'll sue you," Taehyun threatened.

Soojung only took notes of Taehyun's behavior. This is good stuff. Really, really good stuff.

A few seconds later, Seulgi snapped out of her dream. She blinked her eyes and arched forward as if she had been falling. She quickly rubbed her eyes, remembering that she was in the middle of class. When she finally gained consciousness, she noticed that Jackson and Taehyun were glowering at each other while Youngji stood worriedly near Jackson.

"What's going on?" Seulgi asked, completely shocked.

"This ert was going to take a picture of you sleeping with your eyes open," Youngji said. "Do you know him?"

"Yeah, yeah! I know him!" Seulgi exclaimed. "Jackson, let go! He's harmless!"

Jackson paused. Then, with a bitter disappointment, he released his grip on Taehyun's arm and looked away. Taehyun smirked in victory while putting his phone back in his pocket.

"Where's my homework?" Taehyun asked.

"Ah, right," Seulgi muttered. She reached into the second backpack and started to pull out a few worksheets. Youngji and Jackson widened their eyes, completely shocked as she handed the assignments to him. "Biology is your next period, so the lab assignment is on the top of the stack. Let's see… Oh, I couldn't quite solve question 45 for math so you might want to look over that with someone."

As Seulgi continued to inform him about his assignments, Youngji and Jackson widened their eyes and gaped at the load of homework that their friend was just giving out. Taehyun smiled, pleased that she had put so much effort into doing his work. 

"Good, good," Taehyun said, skimming through the assignment. "You'll be rewarded by joining me for lunch. I'll wait outside. I'll give you three minutes. If you aren't out by then, then I'll leave. We're eating outside, too, so bring anything you need."

He turned around and walked out of the classroom. Right when he left, Seulgi quickly started to pack anything that was on her desk. She swung both backpacks on her shoulder while reaching for her lunch box. She glanced at Soojung, who gestured her that she'd be out first to observe. Soojung got up and walked away as Seulgi continued to grab her belongings.

Just before Seulgi left, Youngji grabbed her wrist.

"What? I need to go," Seulgi said impatiently.

"Are you being…bullied?" Youngji asked.

"What? No. It's Taehyun," Seulgi said. "Look, I need to g—"

"If you need help, I can help you!" Youngji insisted.

"Youngji, I'm fine," Seulgi insisted. She jerked her wrist away from Youngji's grip. "I'm really busy these days, Youngji. I understand that you're worried for me, but you don't need to look for me. Besides, you got him." Seulgi glanced at Jackson. "You got your boyfriend here to worry about."

"Seulgi, my boyfriend has nothing to do with—"

"Seulgi!" The three looked up and noticed that Taehyun came back into the classroom while tapping his wristwatch. "Tick, tock!"

"I need to go," Seulgi said. She paused. "Sorry that I snapped at you. I'm just busy."

With that, she left Youngji and Jackson alone in the classroom. Jackson cautiously glanced at Youngji, wondering what was going in his girlfriend's mind. He wasn't sure if he was taking Youngji's side just because she was his girlfriend, but in his opinion, he felt that Seulgi was being inconsiderate and rude.

"Let's eat," Youngji finally said. She grabbed her desk and connected with Seulgi's desk. "Want to sit in Seulgi's seat or mine? I think I should sit in Seulgi's spot since you always spill something on the tables."

"I think Seulgi needs to apologize," Jackson blurted out. "That was a half-assed apology."

He turned to leave but Youngji grabbed on his jacket. He looked down at her while she forced a small smile.

"She said that she was sorry," Youngji mentioned. "It's fine, let it go."

"You call that an apology? 'Busy' isn't a reasonable excuse, either," Jackson countered.

"I'm sure she had her own reasons. I can't expect her to do everything that I want her to do, am I right?" she pointed out. She faked a small laugh before gesturing Jackson to take a seat across from her.

Giving her a look of uncertainty, he regretfully sat down on Youngji's seat and took out his lunch to spend the rest of the break eating food and chatting up with his girlfriend.

/ / / / /

Obnoxious.

If Seulgi had one word to describe Nam-ing-Taehyun, it'd be that he was extremely obnoxious.

"…nd guess what happened when I reviewed my homework? Seulgi here made tons of mistake! She's so incompetent that she can't even solve a basic math problem! At first I thought she was stupid, but it turns out that it's just me who's highly intelligent."

you, Seulgi muttered in her head as she glared at Taehyun, who laughed arrogantly with high self-esteem and pride.

"That is so interesting," Subin said, gently placing her hand on his thigh.

"Tell it again!" Haeryung pleaded, cuddling up to him.

Seulgi watched the two girls sandwich Taehyun in complete disgust. She couldn't understand what these girls could see in Taehyun. What made him so "interesting" that just had to make them beg for their lives to listen to his conceited words? Perhaps it was because she was the one being ridiculed in Taehyun's concept, but she didn't care. She just wanted to grab duck tape and slap it on his lips.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell it again," Taehyun said, smirking. He briefly looked at Seulgi. "Hey, are you writing this all down?"

"What?" she asked.

"My eloquence. Can you not hear the silver bells chiming when I speak?" Taehyun asked, cupping his ear. The two other girls followed, frowning in confusion for a second—just for one measly second—then sighing dreamily as if they heard a holy voice.

Seulgi blinked her eyes. Again, she couldn't understand why these girls were following Taehyun's lead.

"I prefer observing rather than writing," Seulgi coldly stated. She raised up her right hand. "As you can see, I've been doing double the homework, which causes me to use double the effort when it comes to writing with this hand."

"Write with the other hand," Taehyun ordered. "You need to take notes. If you're not taking notes, then what's the point of having you around?"

Seulgi groaned quietly to herself. At the corner of her eyes, she could see the two girls give her a haughty grin. Without a moment of hesitation, she grabbed her notepad and a pen from her bag and started to write about Taehyun's "greatness."

If Taehyun was Jongin, then I'd have to problem writing about how "amazing" he is. Seulgi grumbled. Why couldn't my mission be to observe Jongin? That would've been epic!

"Well, this looks like an interesting scene, now doesn't it, Jongin?"

Seulgi jolted up. She could recognize that sarcastic tone anywhere. Making a glare, she whirled around and saw Sehun hovering over her while Jongin stood behind Sehun with a princely smile. For a moment, Seulgi's heart melted when she met Jongin's eyes, but hardened once she saw Sehun's foolish grin.

"What the do you want?" Seulgi muttered at him.

"Oh my gosh, it's Sehun and Jongin!" Haeryung whispered to Subin.

"The rumors are true!" Subin breathed. "Getting close to Taehyun was the best decision we made!"

Taehyun frowned as his voice got small. "Ru…mor?"

"The rumor that if we hang out with you, then we'll be guaranteed pop—"

Seulgi lunged forward and covered Subin's mouth. Subin frowned, obviously confused, but Seulgi gave her a threatening look to not spoil anything to Taehyun.

Don't you dare tell Taehyun! I still need to make use of him! Seulgi screamed in her head.

As Seulgi became distracted with Subin, Sehun took this chance and snatched away Seulgi's notepad. Seulgi gasped and tried to retrieve her notepad, but Sehun held it up high in the air and flipped through the pages. He raised an eyebrow, clearly amused with her note-taking skills, while Seulgi spat out curses and slapped his back to get her precious work back.

"All of this is about Taehyun," Sehun said.

"Give it back!" Seulgi shouted.

"No way," he said, grinning. "I'm going to read all of this. It's interesting."

"God damn it, Oh Sehun!" Seulgi shouted. She kicked his shoes, but he didn't budge. She continued to kick him, trying to fight for her notepad. "Give it back or I'll kill you!"

"This is very interesting!" Sehun said loudly, making it clear for everyone to hear. "Hey, Jongin, do you want to read it? Reading this makes it sound she has a huge crush on Taehyun!"

Seulgi froze. Oh no he ing didn't.

"Here," Sehun said. He tossed the notepad to Jongin, who caught it with both of his hand.

Jongin stared down at the cover of the notepad, then looked over at Seulgi, who gave him a desperate look. Without a second thought, Jongin handed the notepad back to Seulgi. She sighed in relief and held it close to her heart while Sehun frowned.

"Why'd you do that?" Sehun asked. "That's no fun."

"Well, I don't want to pry into her personal diary," Jongin said. Seulgi widened her eyes while Sehun's smile grew bigger. "If she wrote things about her crush in a secret journal, then it should be kept a secret."

Seulgi tried to speak up. "U-Um, J-J-Jongin! T-This isn't my diary, and I-I don't really like Tae—"

"That's exactly right!" Sehun exclaimed, ignoring whatever Seulgi was saying. He placed his hands on Jongin's shoulder, grabbing his full attention. "Seulgi likes Taehyun! Damn right you are!"

He happily glanced at Seulgi, who gave him a brutal glare.

"," she muttered.

"You're very welcome," he said humbly, ticking her off even more.

My god! Where's Soojung when you need her? Seulgi wondered desperately. 

As if on cue, Soojung came walking into the scene, pretending as if she had been looking for someone. Seulgi had no clue about where she came from, but she was just glad to see her casually walking into the group. Soojung faked a gasp and waved her hand at Seulgi, who excitedly waved her hand back. Everyone looked up to see who Seulgi was waving to.

Jongin felt his heart stop as Soojung came even closer. He quickly turned around and stiffened while giving Sehun a look that he didn't really want to talk to her. Sehun only gave him a small nod, as he planned on doing all the talking in the first place.

"Seulgi! There you are!" Soojung exclaimed, grabbing Seulgi's hand. "I was looking all over for you!"

"More like you were looking all the time," Sehun mumbled.

Soojung whirled around and beamed at Sehun. "What would that mean, Sehun?"

"I wonder, Soojung," Sehun replied quickly, exchanging smiles with her. "What did I ever mean?"

"Well, you shouldn't talk to yourself too much. People will think that you're a weirdo!" Soojung exclaimed happily.

"A weirdo? Well, I'll have pride in being one," Sehun said, trying to counter. "After all, they say that being normal isn't something you should be proud of."

"Only a person in denial would say such a thing," Soojung responded, waving him off. She turned to Seulgi, then gasped at the notepad. "Oh? Is this what you've been doing all this time?"

"What?" Sehun asked. The moment the question slipped out of his mouth, he knew that he had messed up.

Soojung grinned widely, knowing that she had turned the tables. She looked at Jongin, who had been staring at her the entire time.

"This," Soojung said, taking Seulgi's notepad and showing it to Jongin, "is Seulgi's research! You see, she's been wanting to get insight on Taehyun's lifestyle. After all, she's part of the journalism club, and they wanted to do an exclusive on one of the most unique boys in school."

"She's in the journalism club?" Haeryung asked.

"I'm in the journalism club?" Seulgi whispered to Soojung.

"Yes, she is in the journalism club," Soojung lied. She casually shrugged her shoulders. "This notepad simply has no meaning of love. It's just hard work and effort. Do you understand?"

Jongin nodded his head. "Y-Yeah. Seulgi doesn't have a crush on Taehyun. It's no big deal."

Soojung stretched her lips. "Precisely."

Well played, Sehun said mentally.

Indeed, Soojung replied. She turned to the group. "Well, I should go. I'll leave you all alone."

"What happened to 'looking all over for you'?" Sehun said, mimicking the tone of her voice.

"I was just looking for her," Soojung pointed out. "Is it so bad that I just want to see someone?"

"Yeah, there's something fishy about looking for someone and just leaving the second you see them," Sehun tried to argue. He turned to Jongin. "Right?"

Jongin paused. He carefully thought about the situation. In all honesty, he would be pretty happy if Soojung was just looking for him for no reason. He wasn't quite sure why he'd be happy, but he knew that his heart would flutter.

The boy shrugged. "I don't know, Sehun. I don't see anything wrong with it."

Sehun dropped his jaws, shocked to know that his friend wasn't taking his side. With a smug smile, Soojung excused herself and walked away, blending with the outdoor crowd.

Sehun planned on staying, but Jongin seemed to grow bored of the situation. He quickly looked at Seulgi, who stuck out her tongue in victory. Annoyed, Sehun grabbed Seulgi's hair and started to ruffle it up. Seulgi cried out in terror as she tried to pry off Sehun's hand, but he continued to mess up her hair until it became frizzy.

"Are you serious?" Seulgi exclaimed, fixing her hair once Sehun stepped away. "Oh my god, I can't believe you! You know how long it takes for me to do my hair?"

Sehun grinned. "I feel a lot better now. Thanks."

He walked away, whistling a tune while Jongin followed. Seulgi scoffed and grunted as she ran her fingers through her hair, trying to straighten it. As she tried to make her hair perfect again, Haeryung and Subin quickly jumped on her, blowing up questions on how close she was to the two boys and how she knew them.

"What's your secret for getting close with them?" Haeryung asked.

"What? I'm not close," Seulgi said.

"Lies! We saw how they looked at you!" Subin said.

"Seriously, nothing is going on," Seulgi told them. However, the two girls started to chat up to her, asking the same questions over and over again.

While Seulgi listened and tried to deny any of their statements, she couldn't help but realize how quiet Taehyun became when the two boys came, and how unconfident he looked after they had left.