Chapter 1 - A new beginning, or so she thought

“Listen up, class; the new student starts today, and I want all of you to behave,” Mr. Kim roared over the noisy students who were yet to find their seats.

That announcement seemed to have caught their attention, and it barely took the students five seconds to find their seats and eagerly look at the front of the classroom. Mr. Kim walked over to the classroom entrance and opened the door wider, motioning for the new girl to step inside. “Students, meet Ara, your new classmate.”

Ara entered the classroom, head bowed slightly in nervousness, but she managed to gather some courage and looked up at the student body.

Some of the students were openly staring, not used to getting new students in the middle of the year, a few of the boys at the back were shamelessly checking Ara out, and the poor girl felt her cheeks burn in embarrassment, quickly averting her gaze again.

“I’m Ara, nice to meet you.” She made a 90-degree bow, before slowly straightening up and looking back at the students. A few of the girls were smiling at her, others glaring or boredly staring.

Ara tried not to let it faze her, quickly raking her eyes over the last few students she had yet to see, and she blinked, eyes widening slightly when she locked gazes with a student sitting at the back.

He was surrounded by three boys, those who had openly checked Ara out, and he was looking directly into her eyes, his eyebrows slowly furrowing as if she had asked him the solution to an equation.

“Just take that empty seat over there, next to Mina,” Mr. Kim said, breaking the tense silence that had filled the classroom. Ara nodded, finally breaking eye contact with the strange boy before making her way to the only empty seat in the classroom, located on the third row next to the window. The classroom had four rows of tables, and Ara’s location was adjacent to that of the strange boy’s.

“I’m Mina, nice to meet you.” Ara sat down in her seat and turned towards her seatmate, smiling and shaking her hand. The class flew by in the matter of what felt like seconds, and before Ara knew it, she was walking out of the classroom with Mina’s arm linked with hers.

“We both have calculus now, it’s with Miss Han who’s like really strict, it’s probably because she lives alone with her cats and it’s driven her mad.” Mina giggled when Ara gave her an incredulous look, not expecting the blunt comment. “Whoops, I come with a warning sign; I don’t really think before I speak.”

“I noticed,” Ara mumbled, giving Mina a small smile, and the girl returned it with a huge one of her own. They passed by some girls who greeted both Mina and Ara, and the latter soon came to find out that this school was different than what she expected.

She used to attend an all girl’s school before, and the only time she had heard about mixed schools was when she was watching TV dramas with her friends. It didn’t seem like they had a popular/loser cliché going on at this school, and Ara mentally heaved a sigh in relief. With everything going on in her life, she couldn’t afford more drama.

“And here we are.” Mina let Ara enter the calculus classroom first before following her inside. “I have a seatmate in this class, unfortunately, but there’s an empty seat all the way at the front, so don’t worry about having to create a scene and make Miss Han bring a new chair and desk to the classroom.” Ara dropped her bag on her desk and Mina rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Honestly, she’s such a drama-queen, you make one small mistake and she’ll never be off your back.”

“Who’ll never be off your back?” Mina’s eyes widened, and Ara didn’t have to turn around to know who it