So now, just because you’re pretty, it was safe for people to assume that you've already had your first love? Ke Xin shook her head to herself, thinking that Mrs. Song was really clueless.

She was not like normal teens. She was nowhere near the children who can go anywhere without consulting a parent or having body guards right outside the building. A lot of other girls would kill to be her but being "special" came with disadvantages too.

Even though her Saturdays were taken up by piano and ballet lessons, it was better than being cooped up in the house. Instead of learning history by herself with a teacher who seemed to be older than time itself, on Saturdays, she got to learn with other girls, well, only for ballet. But that was enough for her.

As she excitedly speed walked towards her dance studio, near the southern end of the building, she knew that something must have been wrong. The doorway to the dance studio was blocked and crowded with hordes of girls, a mix of her fellow ballerina classmates and some other girls from different extracurricular classes. Most of the ballerinas were already in their leotards, with their hair up in buns, but they weren't warming up in the dance studio like they were supposed to. The other girls shouldn't have been there either.

Judging from their excited chatter, giggles, and the urge to be coy, there must have been something far from wrong in the dance studio. Curious, she quickly made her way through the crowd without much difficulty, seeing that all the girls parted way for her as she passed. They lowered their eyes as Ke Xin glanced around for answers. She sighed inwardly, wishing they wouldn't be so timid with her just because of her lineage.

In the front of the crowd, she saw her friends, the Wang Twins in their matching maroon leopards, with their arms crossed over their chest. There was a furious look on their faces, and they looked like they were about to rip someone's hair out.

Whereas, the girl near them, MiMi was clapping with elation. She was grinning widely, staring at the dance floor. Ke Xin swerved her attention there, her eyes widening. There were about seven guys who looked around her age, maybe a little older, in a dance formation. The leader, who had dark brown hair, counted off and the dance routine began.

At first, the music felt a bit foreign to her, a mix of pop and the beat was very precise and sharp. The dance would require some very good synchronization, perfect timing, and moves that didn't become too choppy because of the rhythm. She thought the dancers were quite decent, missing a beat here and there, but overall, they were okay. The only ones really knowing what they were doing were the leader and some other very tall, black-haired guy. Their moves were perfect, on time, and had a less dead feeling than the others.

"Tsk!" Jia Li, stomped her foot, “Who do they think they are, taking up our practice time?"

"Yeah! Our parents paid for every second! They only rented the studio for an hour!" Jia Yi backed up her sister. Ke Xin giggled to herself. The twins' parents didn't pay a cent, they owned the Beijing Performing Arts Academy. They had full right to kick these guys out, but Ke Xin guessed they weren't as diva-ish as half of the other wealthy daughters in their class. That was why she was friends with them in the first place.

"Reh-lax, will you? They're good and hot!" MiMi rolled her eyes so dramatically, Ke Xin grimaced, wondering how bad that must of hurt.

"Wow," Jia Li scoffed, “You care about these boys more than your ballet lessons?" Jia Yi rolled her eyes too, hatred shooting out of them. A complete idiot could tell that the twins and MiMi detested each other. No, wait, detest wouldn't even come close to how they felt about each other. If MiMi fell off a cliff, the Wangs would be the first suspects, and vice versa.

"I could ask them to leave." Ke Xin quickly suggested, seeing that a bloodbath was about to happen between the twins and MiMi if no one was there to stop them. "I'm sure they just got caught up in their practice."

Though, it did ease some tension, the twins and MiMi kept staring each other down, static passing through their glares. The twins smiled smugly, seeing as they won this one. MiMi never defied Ke Xin. She kissed the ground that she walked on, and could pass as a Ke Xin knockoff. From the same pastel violet leotard, to amount of eyeliner MiMi packed on to imitate Ke Xin's natural mysterious eyes, one could tell that Ke Xin was Mimi’s ultimate role model. Or she just wanted to be her (as the twins put it).

“I'll be back." She sighed as she told the three. Her hands gripped her gym bag strap with disbelief that she actually volunteered herself to do this.

The boys were now huddled together, sweat dripping down from their faces, gulping down water. Even though she had a very quiet tread, they immediately noticed one of the small, thin ballerinas approaching them. The rest of the girls watched with wonder, murmuring amongst themselves. While other boys looked confused, some of them got a cocky smile the moment they saw her coming. Ke Xin mentally slapped herself; these guys probably thought she was going to make a confession to one of them or something of that sort. Keep dreaming boys, she thought.

"I'm sorry but fans have to stay over there." A boy with obnoxious blonde hair snickered and pointed over to where the rest of the girls were tittering with excitement. Ke Xin was quite offended by the way he was speaking, as if he looked down on her.

"I'm quite sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm not a fan." She lifted her head, an insincere smile plastered on her face. The conceited smile quickly disappeared from many of their faces, seeing that this girl was definitely not the submissive types.

"You're taking up more time than your party may have rented." She gestured to the clock above the iPod deck, where their dance music always came from. "The rest of us," Ke Xin chin-point to the ballerinas at the door, “Have parents who paid for our dance lessons as well. I'm sure they wouldn't want someone stealing their daughters’ time."

"Stealing?" One of the boys screeched at her. Many of the other boys got a defiant look in their eyes as well. "Why you little —."

But before he could finish, a voice, that wasn't exactly the loudest or deepest, but definitely held a lot of authority, spoke out.

"Leave her alone. She's right."

It was the leader, who was emerging from the back of the group made his way towards the front. All sounds of protest ceased at his command, showing that he was fit to be the leader. At first, when she saw him, Ke Xin spaced out. She felt a weird, spark pass between them. She didn't believe in love at first sight but she swore the spark did happen.

He wasn’t much taller than her, but she still had to tilt her head to look at him. His somewhat long hair framed around his face, almost swallowing it up. His eyes were gentle and he had a cute piggy nose, completed with a smile that could weaken the knees of many girls. But of course not her. Well, at least she didn’t show it.

“Sorry about that.” He apologized, pushing his bangs out of his face. “We just lost track of time. We’ll leave.”

He was still smiling, no hostility in his words. Ke Xin found him a bit strange, in a good way of course.

“Lu Han da ge*!” Ke Xin heard MiMi cry out behind them. She didn’t have to turn around to see that MiMi was running towards them. Her loud and ungraceful steps were already enough proof. Ke Xin shivered at how Miss Lu Hee would have reacted to the sight of that.  

The leader, who Ke Xin guessed was Lu Han, looked startled at the sight of MiMi. It wasn’t that he was scared of her because he didn’t look frightened when she jumped on him for a hug. He looked around, almost like he was expecting that thing he was afraid of to pop out because she was around. Yep, he was definitely a strange one.

“MiMi, w-what are you doing here?’

“I have lessons here, da ge,” MiMi giggled and playfully slapped his arm, “Are you here to see me?”

Ke Xin winced at MiMi’s shameless flirting. This girl really didn’t feel embarrassed at all acting like this? But Lu Han didn’t seem to notice her flirting, her question, and actually, it seem like he didn’t notice MiMi at all. He looked distracted as he dazed off in thought, a worried look crossed his face but he quickly composed himself.

Lu Han politely pried MiMi’s hands off of him as he apologized to her that they had to leave. While his crew grumbled, he seemed relieved getting away from MiMi. The ballerinas began pouring in, some of them still not in their leotards, Ke Xin included. While the boys passed by, the ballerinas giggled and coyly looked away, covering their mouths with their hands.

As Ke Xin came out of the changing rooms, with the twins on both sides of her, she witnessed MiMi giving Lu Han one last suffocating hug. He looked extremely uncomfortable but Ke Xin could tell he had too much of a heart to push her away. As they left, Lu Han looked back. She didn’t expect his gaze to find hers, she had been caught staring but he had been caught looking back. With one last crooked smile from him, they were gone.

“Hey, hey, hey, hey!” Jia Yi pointed her finger accusingly at where Lu Han had been. ”Did you see that? He was totally staring!”

“Ke Xin! Did you see that? I think he’s into you!” Jia Li continued to titter excitedly with her twin. Ke Xin just ignored them as they warmed up, seeing that they were making a spill seem like a tsunami. She’ll admit, he was cute and his smile was adorable. But it seems like today people kept forgetting who she was. Not that she was trying to emphasize how much more “special” she was but, she was the daughter and heiress of Cai Yi Lin, a son less chairman of one of China’s biggest companies, and one of the “old moneys”.

In movies, they made it seem so easy for the princesses to throw away their crowns and gowns to be with their lovers. But reality is reality. Love never lasts, and she was born with a duty and power. And with power comes responsibility. It was not going to happen.

*Da ge is the romanization of 大哥 which is the Chinese equivalent of oppa in Korean.

If you're wondering why the names are Chinese, please note that this is around Lu Han's (and Lay's) predebut time. 

Gah, you don't know how happy I am to be updating. This whole week I've been trying to perfect this chapter, I even wrote three drafts until I was satified with the results. Just a question, did I make the OC, Ke Xin, likeable? I tried to make her as down-to-earth as possible, yet I also tried to maintain a "noble" daughter feel to her too to be realistic. 

Also, since this phrase of the story is taking place in China, and our characters are Chinese (and so am I), this song has been on replay. Oh and this too.