“Kang Seul Yi, will you be my girlfriend?”   The girl watched yet another guy kneel down in front of her, head facing the ground, and hands outstretched to give her a heart shaped box of chocolates. Oh, how she hated it.   “Sorry,” came her monotonous reply, barely any guilt in her sweet melodious voice. She did not even try to hide her glare towards the guy shebarely knew when he looked up to meet her eye.   “W- wait, give me a chance. I can really make you happy,” he stammered, quickly getting up when he saw her about to take her leave.   “Make me happy?” Seul Yi repeated as she tucked her long strands of amber dyed hair behind her ear. Her plum lips remained a disinterested thin line. “How are you planning to do that when you don’t even know I hate chocolate?”   Seul Yi did not say a word and turned around to leave the scene and yet another one of her courters. Even as he kept yelling he won’t give up, she did her best to ignore him.   She was getting so tired of having to go through the same process over and over again. How many times did she have to watch random strangers confess to her in the most unoriginal and non creative ways possible?   Honestly, she wasn’t even sure how she came to be at the top of her school. She wasn’t exactly that smart and wasn’t even ranked in the Top 20. She had a lot of friends whom she dearly loved though, and maybe it was her personality that attracted those guys to her. Plus she was always happy, which was very attractive to see, right? A little bit ignorant and blunt at times, but always positive for everyone else’s sake. Okay, who was she kidding? She was beautiful inside and out, and therefore the object of interest to so many men who were visual beings. But they barely even knew her. They were just mere strangers in her eyes, and she in theirs.   The only way to stop all these random infatuation was for her to actually date someone.   “Watch where you’re going, idiot!” A loud boisterous voice interrupted her thought, followed by the thudding sound of a slap. She immediately recognized it as Hoya, one of the notorious bullies at their school.   Seul Yi’s attention was caught as she watched the scene of a typical bullying scenario unfold. The nerd was being shoved against the wall by the jocks and had his bagpack flipped inside out, dirtying the ground with his book, utensils, and messed up lunchbox. The group of jocks took his thick glasses and made him blindly follow after them. He was being abused and thrown against the wall, and she could only watch in pain for the nth time.   If only she could help him stop the abuse. But he was a nobody. No one probably knew him. If she decided to help him out and be nice to him, people could start having the wrong idea about the two of them.   Thus she realized the answer to her problem.   “Hi.” Seul Yi put up her sweetest smile as she approached the semi wounded guy once the coast was clear. She noted him looking up at her from the ground, his face still swollen after being punched several times. She hated the fact they had used violence against him. But more importantly, he did not look at her like she was some divine creature. He probably didn’t even know who she was. Perfect.   “What do you want?” He asked defensively, ignoring her offer to give him a hand. He proceeded to pick up his things from the ground.   Seul Yi was slightly taken aback, never having been rejected by a guy before. Normally, all the guys would’ve been lining up to hold her hand. His lack of interest made her idea much more compelling.   “I want you to be my boyfriend,” she declared.   “What?” The guy was so shocked he dropped everything he had just picked up.   “Sorry, that came off a little too direct.” Seul Yi cleared . Her pretentious smile was gone and she was back to her default poker face. She looked at the way he stared at her with big round eyes and an equally rounded mouth. It was quite adorable for a nerd like him. “Let’s pretend to date each other.”   The shock on the guy’s face slowly turned appalled now and he looked at her like she was some lunatic. “You need to elaborate more on that,” he requested, once again proceeding to take his stuff from the ground.   “I know the other guys are hurting you,” Seul Yi began to say bluntly, seeing the discomfort on his face. “But if we were to start dating, I am sure the others would leave you alone. Because I am-”   “Kang Seul Yi, the most popular girl at school,” the guy finished for her, staring deeply into her eyes with no expression.   “Oh?” She was honestly surprised he knew her identity, and yet remained so unaffected by her popularity. There was something about the way he gazed at her that made her feel nervous. It wasn’t a look of awe, so she quickly avoided his gaze. “Well, in that case you would know that no one would dare to harm you if we got together.”   Myung Soo knew very well who she was—the entire school probably did. She was one of the nicest people around who was always surrounded with numerous friends. Very likeable, cheerful, supportive, and deserving of all the attention. So he found her offer rather odd. “Why me? What benefit does it give you? I am-”   “Kim Myung Soo.” This time it was her turn to finish for him, and she smiled genuinely when he seemed so surprised she knew him by name. “I know who you are.”   “Then… W- why me?” He began to stutter, slightly avoiding eye contact with her as his cheek took on a slight shade of rose pink. “A- are you actually interested in me?”   “What? No!” Seul Yi cried out with a face of horror. Dating someone was actually the last thing on her mind. “I need you to be my fake boyfriend so that all those other guys will stop confessing to me.”   Myung Soo flattened his eyes at her words. “Aah.. So this is more like a business contract then?”   “More like a play act,” Seul Yi shrugged.   “For how long?” He asked, hugging his bagpack in his arm.   “As long as it takes for the guys to stop being interested in me, and for them to stop harming you,” Seul Yi replied. She extended her hand out to him. “Deal or no deal?”   Myung Soo bit his lips together and she could see the frown sinking in his forehead. This was too sudden and too out of the blue. But after several seconds, he did not know what came over him when he grabbed her hand to seal the offer.   “Deal.”     The next day, Seul Yi had all forgotten about this deal if it weren’t for Myung Soo suddenly appearing in front of her big mansion. He still had those thick glasses sitting across his face. His hair was dismantled in a mess, almost as if he hadn’t taken a shower. His uniform wasn’t as tidy as it should and could be. The picture was quite a mismatch with her fancy mansion.   “What are you doing here?” Seul Yi hissed, quickly exiting from the front gate before any of her parents would see him. They probably wouldn’t be too happy if their perfect daughter dated someone as shabby as him. And she was honestly way too lazy to explain her whole plan to them. So she pulled him away into the next corner and gave him a horrendous look.   “We have a deal, I’m just trying to play my part,” Myung Soo answered with zero fault.   She could feel his genuinity and began to laugh. “This is your first time dating someone, isn’t it?” She asked him playfully, a little too close, so she quickly pulled away and cleared . Almost immediately, the red blush appeared on his cheek.   “I.. I have no time to date. Studying is more important,” he said stiffly, making a weird expression as he tried to convince her with his statement.   Such a typical answer coming from someone like him. With the he was dressed and had his eyes hidden behind those thick old fashioned glasses, one could immediately tell he wasn’t out to pick up some girls.   “Well, you don’t have to wait at my house every morning. That is so old school,” Seul Yi said coolly as she began walking ahead of him.   “But what if something happens to you?” He asked like a lost puppy, trailing her from behind.   “Were you planning to protect me? You should learn how to protect yourself first,” she told him with a laugh and he pursed his lips at that.   She had never actually talked to Myung Soo before. He was kind of a nobody whom no one knew about. Despite all that, some of the mean guys still bullied him to no end. Knowing how sweet and pure he could be, she felt even sorrier she didn’t propose this idea sooner.   “Ah, it’s him! It’s him!” Seul Yi panicked when they entered the school grounds. She unconsciously stood closer to Myung Soo, trying to avoid the guy up front who was walking with his friends.   “Who?”   “The one who confessed to me yesterday,” Seul Yi whispered. She realized she didn’t even ask him for his name. “He said he wouldn’t give up on me. Those kind of guys are always the scariest.”   Myung Soo was at a loss for words, seeing the girl suddenly shrinking into a ball out of fear. For someone who usually acted so confident and ignorant, this was an interesting sight to see.   “Oh no… Oh no…” She was chanting to herself in panic, when suddenly, she felt a warm hand wrap itself around her shoulder. With small force, she was now pulled towards Myung Soo and landed softly against his chest. She immediately picked up the scent of his cologne.   “Oh, Kang Seul Yi?” The guy who confessed called out to her.   But Seul Yi had unconsciously muted his voice from her head. All she could hear was the calming sound of Myung Soo’s heartbeat against her ears. Her heart was now beating much faster than his, and she wondered why.   From her peripheral vision, she saw the other guy’s footsteps coming to a halt, along with several others who were probably a part of his gang. She looked up to see his face, and saw him staring at Myung Soo instead.   “Who are you?” He asked, eyes viciously staring at the one in front of him.   “Who are you?” Myung Soo retorted the question back hesitantly. He was never in a position where he had to protect a girl before.   “I am Lee Sung Yeol. I am Seul Yi’s boyfriend,” the guy lied. “So tell me who you are and what you are doing to my girl!”   “Me?” Myung Soo asked unsurely. Suddenly his earlier confidence disappeared. Myung Soo was a mere stranger to everyone; no one knew his identity. Seeing him with the most popular and well known g