M02

After the first day of the new term ended, Reina rocketed back to her apartment like a gold medal Olympian. What is so urgent for her to sprint like that you were asking?

Her job. On the way home from school, Reina got a call from her junk mail employer to collect the KFC coupon sheets at the store two streets down. To add up to her frustration, she had to be there in a span of thirty minutes. Whizzing as fast as she could was futile, for her snail-slow stamina could never beat against time.

Huffing and puffing hardly, Reina finally reached the lobby of her shabby apartment building. She pushed the button for the elevator vigorously, only to come in sight with a mounteen (A/N: XD) of luggage and a human buried under all those weight. 

After much observation, Reina could conclude that the stranger, whose face she could not see, was heartless. He was yelling for her to take the next elevator when she was in the need for speed! "Get on the next elevator! It's full!" the man yelled gruffly and started to push the 'close' button... only to be stopped by a skinny leg that forced itself between the rusty elevator doors.

"Excuse me! This is the only elevator in the building! Can I please squeeze in?" Reina protested and her voice unexpectedly rose a few decibels. Immediately after blurting, Reina slapped her hand to and she gulped in flabbergast.

This was a first. 

Reina had never, ever, ever voiced out her thoughts without stuttering continuously, nor without contemplating her choice of words wisely before she had them released out of her barely open mouth.

The person, seemingly a middle-aged man judging from his husky voice, mumbled an insincere apology in English; the English apology consisting of a single word: sorry, as of Justin Bieber's hit song title. Is it too late now to say sorry?

The doors swooped close in front of her doe eyes and this left her dumbfounded. She stood there, rooted to her spot. When she came back to her senses, Reina muttered the lone word, "Heartless", under her breath and without realising, her mind flew to the knives kept in the shelf and how they would be of fantastic use if fate allowed her to meet the merciless man again. 

I would slice him, dress him up in a salt and pepper marinade and fry him like how KFC fries millions of chickens a day—omo why am I thinking like this and wait a minute... KFC... MY JOB! Reina's train of evil thoughts halted as realisation punched her. She was late for her job! Without any second thoughts, she sped up the ten flights of stairs like a mad, headless chicken.

Who is this uncle* and which storey is he moving to? Why is this uncle* infecting her mind?

She brushed those useless thoughts aside because she had more prioritised tasks to do:
1) Change out off her uniform. Why? Reputation maintainer Mr. Lee could explain and list out the many reasons why.
2) Get the coupon sheets and chuck them in mailboxes. Why? The word to explain all is 'money'.

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*uncle is the direct translation of ahjussi, meaning a middle-aged man
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On the second day of the second term, students seemed to have finally gotten the gist that school was happening and the school holidays were gone... for good.

The shocking thing was, the competitive PHS students were not back in topic with their studies.

They were talking about a new boy transferring over.

"Hey have you heard? A new kid will be transferring today!"

"Yeah, yeah! I heard he's an American K-pop star part of the famous group Gourd6 or something..."

"Pfft, HAHA! Gourd6?! It's GOT7 you dumbo! Well, from a reliable source, I heard he was mistakenly caught and thrown into juvie so the authorities sent him here as an apology—"

"No! My source is more accurate! My cousin's uncle's friend's cousin is a relative of Principal and according to my cousin, he heard from his uncle who heard from his friend who heard from his cousin that the new kid is the Principal's son!"

"Woah, the last one actually is legitimate!" The Gossip Club nodded in approval and it wasn't long before the rumours spread around the school like a bushfire.

Even Reina somehow manage to know that the new kid was a 'transgender', 'Japanese-Jamaican', 'part of the ape fam', 'drag queen' and lastly, as the Gossip Club spread, the 'precious son of Principal Han'. 

Reina didn't mean to eavesdrop, but everybody was so loud about his or her 'reliable' and 'interesting' information on the new kid. For the first time in forever, Reina let herself laugh at the ridiculousness of the rumours.

Although countless intelligent students might attend PHS, their idiocy is not so proudly competable with other lower-end schools.

Basically, rumours are man-made and tailored to result in vast disappointment.

And that was exactly what happened when the new kid walked into Reina's classroom. 

The mighty high expectations plummeted into great disappointment. 

The boy in front of the class looked normal in Reina's eyes but for her other classmates, she was sure that they thought of the new kid as their new 'soccer ball' to 'kick and mess around with'. He was non-native and hung closer to the Caucasian side, unlike his hairstyle being similar to any random Korean boy you pick out on the streets—except only a few hues lighter.

With all honesty, Reina took a quick judgement of the boy and came into conclusion that his face looked sinisterly similar to an antagonist of a typical Korean drama.

His name fits the bill too.

"I am Vernon Chwe," he flashed a crooked-toothy grin and continued, “and you can call me either Vernon or Hansol.”

Everyone seemed confused by the normality of the boy so he laughed and repeated his introduction, adding, “You can ask me five questions about me to get to know me!”

“Are you the Principal's son?" the drama king of the class vociferated, earning a smack from the girl next to him.

“You just wasted a question chance! He's a Chwe not a Han, you dolt!”

This earned him snickers and Vernon simply laughed it off with an obvious “No!”

The next three questions drowned Reina's mind into zone-out land.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” “No...?” [insert squeals of some girls]

“Did you get a scholarship?” “Yes!” [insert teacher's nod of approval]

“Wanna hang out with my clique at lunch? You seem cool!” “Sure, thanks!”

“Where are you from?” the Chinese boy who rarely spoke actually popped the million-dollar question many dreaded to ask but yearned to know. 

“Korea.”

“You don't look fully Korean to me. Where exactly are your parents from?” 

Reina her breath in. Lee Jihoon asked the question above. Oh my, Reina actually knows a classmate's name?! Let's say, if you were Reina, would you ever forget the name of the boy who bothered you in your first week of school? It's a 'no' I assume and that was the answer Reina provided with us.

Vernon seemed to have flinched at the mention of his parents but he maintained his composure and shot back his fire, "Does it exactly matter where my parents come from? I've been living in Korea for 90% of my life and being Korean in heart is what truly matters."

“Ooh get roasted woozy Jihoonie!” the same drama king cackled and the other students joined in too, making the short guy redden like an apple.

Everyone started to look up at Vernon Chwe Hansol, both physically and mentally. Even the homeroom teacher had the word 'Impressed' painted all over his face. 

Vernon gave a polite nod towards his new classmates and teacher before moving towards his assigned seat next to the Chinese boy.

I had already mentioned above that the Chinese boy rarely spoke, yet weird enough, the cold igloo around the Chinese boy melted in barely a blink of an eye. The reason for the melting goes to the radiant heat given out by the sunshiny boy who goes by the name of Vernon.

Sitting two seats away from Vernon, Reina couldn't help but envy and wish that she was in the Chinese boy's position, having the chance to be able to finally converse with someone so carefreely.

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By lunchtime, all of the classmates, even Jihoon, became friends with the new kid.

Yes, everyone, if Reina was considered to be part of the gas composition instead of being a person with life. Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen and uh, Reina makes up the gas composition.

Readers shall temporarily treat Reina as thin air while I introduce you to Vernon Chwe Hansol, the first and only halfer in PHS who was popularly outgoing, accompanied with the capability of charming girls with his acceptable good looks. Someone like that wouldn't be sporty or smart right?

Nope, not right, 200% wrong. He is smart—no actually, intelligent is the word. These statistics are purely based on the simple fact that he got a scholarship here in PHS. In the whole of PHS, only three students in the year got the scholarship, one being Vernon, the other currently getting counseling sessions for his depression, and the last, well, was in a gaseous state—if you remember what I mentioned earlier of Reina being part of the gas composition.

Sports-wise, Vernon could legitimately join the Olympics and win lots of gold medals. He might even outrun Usain Bolt! (Hyperbole, but you get what I mean) Physical education was the one and only subject Reina couldn't ace. She, well, was in a gaseous state anyways.

Readers can turn Reina back from her gaseous state to her solid-human state at this point. 

The protagonist's start-of-the-term mindset sort of wavered around; she wished to crack a conversation with Vernon but being a shy girl like she was, she shook the thought off. To distract herself, she chanted in her head, "Who cares about their judgement? Who cares about making friends? All I care now is good grades and nothing else!" Reina repeated the chant over and over again like a loop and closed her empty lunchbox shut.

Through this process, Reina also shut herself out.

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A/N

I'm sorry 'cause there obviously wasn't any progress in this chapter... 

Anyhow, let's welcome the male lead, Chwe Hansol! 

Thanks for staying with me till this far (two chapters is far for me haha) and I hope you have enjoyed your read. Do comment any improvements I can make~