The nagging shrill of the alarm clock was in contrast to the chilly silence of daybreak. Reina gave a lazy stretch, basking in the warm rays of the morning sun. With a sunshine smile spread across her face, Reina pulled back the flowery curtains and opened the windows, unleashing the melodious chirpings of the adorable birds propped comfortably on the nearby orange tree directly next to her window—

 

Nope, no, no, not really. Nothing ever happens like this in real life, realistically speaking. There ain't no birds singing (Do birds even sing?) on a nearby tree... Heck, there wasn't even a plantation in sight! Reina did not wake up with perfectly silky hair nor a smile of bliss. This was what actually happened. REWIND!

 

"BRRING!"The nagging shrill of the alarm clock was in contrast to the chilly silence of daybreak. Underneath the duvet covers, a bony hand was revealed, patting each corner of the bedside table in attempt to karate chop the rackety alarm clock into two halves. With multiple failed attempts, she eventually gave in to fate and sat up groggily, slapping the Hello Kitty alarm clock off. She yawned like a hippopotamus and smoothened down her bed hair that seemed to have resembled a mane of a lion. She then let out a sigh of deflation when reality hit her.

 

The day was finally here—the first day of a new term in school.

 

Yep, yes, yes, really. This morning scenario seemed 17 times more realistic than the previous, cliché, fairy-tale like morning wake ups. And this, is when you readers let out a sigh of relief and think: 'Finally, a fanfic that isn't as predictable as I'd made out to be'...or so you thought.

 

Reina dragged her weary body to the bathroom sink and instead of being productive, she found herself staring at her facial features in the dewy mirror. To be more particular, Reina was directing her eyes at her pale complexion, her almond-shaped, sea-blue eyes, her frizzy blonde hair and basically all that make her an indifferent citizen of South Korea.

 

She forcefully tore her gaze away from the mirror and roughly washed her face with ice-cold water. 

 

The school uniform that had been left unattended for the past two weeks of school holidays was revived to life. Reina picked up the uniform that caught some dust balls and went to the measures of heat-ironing the navy blazer, the bland white collar shirt and the pleated garnet skirt. Despite wearing the uniform for the nth time, it felt velvety to the touch and putting it on seemed to have given her a temporary confidence and self-esteem boost. The emblem on her blazer and shirt symbolises Pledis High School, the reason to her temporary pride and a temporary shimmer of grin decorating her usual poker face. 

 

Keyword on emphasis: 'Temporary'.

 

Attending a prestigious high school might temporarily make her smile, but this reason itself wasn't enough for Reina to fully rip her poker facade away. Reina constantly holds an expressionless face around her surroundings.

 

The weight of her school bag hit her shoulders and after tying up the laces of her navy adidas, she left her apartment with a soft smile of her school pride. This smile did not last for long. The moment she stepped out of the worn down apartment building, her cheekbones loosened and the dainty sweet smile disappeared in thin air.

 

Almost immediately after she took her first step into the public, Reina garnered a couple of curious stares from strangers. She was no celebrity, but being half Asian and half-white has this kind of effect. Shamelessly, people stared openly, some even having the audacity to mutter out loud: "Ooh, never seen a foreigner!"

 

"Wow, she's white!"

 

"Tch, yet another invader..."

 

"Hate people like her; go back to your country!"

 

Let's just say that not everyone was friendly and the last two comments went way too overboard. It was no surprise that strangers thought that Reina couldn't understand Korean language considering how she's 'white' and such, but boy, were they wrong.

 

It wasn't that she didn't understand, she just didn't give two cares about their racist, irrelevant comments based on the cover of the book... Flip through the pages of the book instead of stereotyping it based on its cover yeah? Reina is immune to all these insults and she was taught that regardless of race, language or religion, everyone is equal, that is, unless they despise their shortcomings and flaws, thus bringing their ownselves down.

 

Reina might be blonde, blue-eyed and five foot eight, like the stereotyped 'white' girls portrayed by the media, but she is actually mixed. If you looked closer, you would realise that she has distinct Asian features too. Her eyes are big and double-lidded, but they are the shape of almonds as she has inherited from her Korean mother. Like her mother, Reina has a cute, tiny, button-like nose and a pair of rosy, thin lips. To top it all up, Reina has a Korean name, Yoonbyul. Reina Taylor Yoonbyul. Taking all these into consideration, Reina could have easily blended in with the crowd, but again, Reina was blonde and a blonde headed girl blending into a school sardine-packed with dark haired students was a hard task.

 

"YOU! What did I say about hair dyeing in Pledis High School?" A loud and cranky voice boomed and a meaty hand grabbed Reina in her bag strap. Reina, who was initially blocking everyone out with her headphones in and her head down, let out an internal groan of despair.

 

She was not one to hate but if you were to force her to list out one thing she detested, the only word scrawled messily on that list would definitely be: 'Attention'. At the moment, that was all she was getting. Everyone drew their attention to Reina and the source of the voice. 

 

Mr. Lee is the source of the nasal voice. To give a better description of Mr. Lee, he is a pot-bellied, nosy parker given the role of 'reputation maintainer' of Pledis High School. All those lip piercings, dyed hair and overly rolled skirts never fail to escape from his eagle eyes. Reina is always the victim of his accusations.

 

"I have always emphasised day by day that you aren't allowed to dye your hair—"Mr. Lee started but soon he closed his mouth like a goldfish. Reina looked up from the ground, flashed her face to the 'reputation maintainer' and her mere face seemed to answer his queries.

 

"I'm a halfer; my blonde hair is natural,'' Reina's face appeared to be saying in his face. Reluctantly, Mr. Lee allowed Reina to pass, moving on to the next kid in line with with his mohawk. 

 

Mr. Lee was never convinced that Reina's naturally blonde. Since the first day admitted in Pledis High, countless teachers had stopped Reina in amidst of her tracks, just so they could inspect the natural colour of her hair roots. Stubborn teachers, take example Mr. Lee, even persisted that Reina dyed her hair up to the roots every night and her blue eyes were an illusion with the use of contact lenses. Mr. Lee gave up arguing after two weeks of no hair colour metamorphosing, and this led to his conclusion that the CSI case IV: Reina's Hair Colour was closed. 

 

Ridiculous, I know. Well, let me present to you this thing called the 'cruel life' and one of its characteristics: hard-to-please teachers who always want to win—no matter right or wrong.

 

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Reina drifted past the golden gates and sighed dreamily at the picturesque sight in front of her. A palace—no a kingdom! —is what Reina would compare the marvellous school with. There is no doubt why Pledis High School, otherwise known as PHS, is also known as the best school in the whole wide world. Simply put, there are never enough words to describe how fabulous PHS is. Other than the fact that PHS has the top notch share of technology and facilities, Principal Han Sungsoo hired world famous interior designer, Uee Kim Yujin, to bring some elegance to the school. 

 

Uee is certainly worthy to be called world-famous, for she intelligently picked a colour scheme of grey, beige and white, sending off a cosy feeling simultaneously. As per Principal Han's request, Uee even sculpted a statue of the PHS Founder, Principal Han, holding a trophy given to him for the 'Best School in the World' in a style similar to the Statue of Liberty. The problem about this statue was that Uee let her innovativeness overflow out of the park; she painted the statue to the actual, detailed colours of the actual person with high modality. In other words, the statue is creepy. Reina bowed to the creepy statue with utmost respect like how she did every day and headed off to the beehive of a locker place.

 

The locker place, indeed, was a lively and eventful beehive bustling with excitement. The students were as busy as bees; buzzing around the lockers for their mates, chit-chattering about their awesome vacation they had over term break, their normal computer gameplay over the war-ridden nights, their favourite TV shows that played with their feelings, their favourite Korean Pop idols and their holiday homework. Yes, you did not read wrong. Homework.

 

To cut a long story short, everyone was like monkeys, a simile for their 'un-boring-ness' and bursting happiness, whereas Reina was the lonely tourist sightseeing them monkeys in the zoo. This meant that she was normal, which is also a synonym for being plain and boring.

 

There was an actual reason behind her loneliness; for starters, Reina is extremely shy and reserved to meeting new people. For seconds, Reina moved to Pledis High School seven days after the orientation, with everyone already belonging in their newly formed cliques. 

 

Furthermore, Reina was a halfer, and it was a tradition in Pledis High to bully the halfers by turning a blind eye to them—not in a good way, but in the way of ignoring them.

 

Reina sighed and efficiently twisted and turned the locker combination. She haltingly grabbed her books one by one: Modern History; Mathematics; English, Biolog—

 

"Yoonbyul!"

 

Bam! She lost her grip and the spines of the books came into contact with the concrete, bouncing a bit before fully slamming onto the ground, sending a vibration through her navy adidas.

 

Hallucination, it must be hallucination.

 

"Yoonbyul!" the same voice repeatedly shrieked, this time a few octaves higher.

 

Upturning her previous thoughts, Reina's eyes widened in surprise and she whipped her head around, only to be in line of sight with Im Nayeon. She seemed to be bouncing towards her direction, accompanied with an expression of bliss. Reina was beyond shocked and amazed that someone remembered her mere presence and even more shockingly, her rarely used Korean name. Surprise, surprise.

 

The joy of remembrance lasted for barely two seconds, because Im Nayeon skipped past Reina Taylor Yoonbyul to the girl two lockers down, Im Yoonbyul, Nayeon's younger, chubbier twin sister. 

 

 

Reina willed to dig a hole in the middle of the corridor and hide her embarrassed face there. A pang in her rapid heart was what she felt right there and then. It truly hurts to be smacked in the face with the cold reality that no one remembers your presence.

 

She had always known that she was an outcast whose Korean name wouldn't be keyed into the brain register—let alone her English name—yet every single time someone calls out for Yoonbyul, she'd turn and respond. The thing is, the Yoonbyul people were referring to, is the Im Yoonbyul, popular, outgoing, cute, gorgeous, everything Reina Taylor Yoonbyul was not. 

 

The Im Yoonbyul, constantly called out to, is also the twin of the Im Nayeon—JYP trainee as she brags—and definitely not the halfer, non-existent and unconfident Reina.  

 

The school bell pierced through the students' delicate ears and the monkey-like students grabbed their bulky books, filing out of the locker place. Reina broke out of her trance, squatted down to pick up her pathetic textbooks lying on the floor and followed suit.  

 

Although she was the only loner with no form of friends, or even the least, acquaintance, she didn't give a thing. In point of fact, she even made up her start of the term mindset: "Who cares about their judgement? Who cares about making friends? All I care now is good grades and nothing else."

 

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 Time flew similar to a dove, quick and swift. In a Korean high school, the teachers move classes for higher efficiency, so Reina barely left her seat unless she needed the bathroom. She massaged her legs that seemed to have caught pins and needles before getting up to leave the empty classroom.

 

 "The day is finally over..." Reina whispered to reassure herself, before closing her locker door and taking her leave.

 

 True, the day might be over finally, but tomorrow in the future would finally be the start of Reina's brand new life, in which certain things finally happen and finally change her mindset forever.

 

 Who knows? All Reina Taylor Yoonbyul had to do was wait and see...

 

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A/N

 

Thanks for checking out my first ever published fanfic and I hope you'd stay with me till the end~ I'm sorry if it's boring ahaha, first chappies are always hard to write... Thanks again~