CHAPTER 1

Right now, Seulgi only wants one thing: peace of mind. You see, it’s not easy to read and comprehend the topics covered by chemistry, hence, she desperately needs peace of mind. Because if not, she’s sure as hell she’ll be failing the damn subject.

"Hey, Seulgi!”

Peace of mind. It's exactly what she needs right now if she ever hopes to improve her chemistry grades. Peace of mind to be able to read and actually understand chemistry.

“Freak!”

But maybe simple things are difficult to attain, because if it isn’t, Seulgi wouldn’t be hearing a certaine cursed voice calling for her, disrupting her desperate attempt at studying, and she has chosen to ignore the infuriating voice of someone so familiar and yet someone she dreads seeing.

“KANG SEULGI!”

Seulgi's eyes shut tightly in annoyance at the sound of her name being screamed viscously for the nth time. Grabbing a fist of her hair and groaning before she looks up and faces the girl who’s become the cause of her recurring headache every single day. “What?!”

“You! I've been calling for you; why won’t you answer?” the blonde exclaims, pointing a belittling finger at Seulgi's sitting form who merely glares at her, too tired to even think of an excuse. The blonde’s judging gaze lands on the papers in front of Seulgi, mockingly scoffing before continuing, “Stop studying. It's pointless, you'll never understand chemistry with that brain of yours.”

“If you're so smart, do me a favor and learn how to shut up.” Seulgi deadpans, wanting nothing more than to be left alone, but the blonde took offense of her words as an offended scoff left her lips.

“You see, I didn’t want to talk to you either, if not for Mr. Lee. He wants you at his office by lunch.” Irene, the girl who’s been in Seulgi’s nerves for as long as she remembers, utters in pure hostility. “Seems like he’s finally failing you, stupid.”

“Great. Just great.” Standing and gathering her belongings, Seulgi shows her displeasure, not forgetting to bump Irene’s shoulder as she walks away, smirking when her classmate mumbled incoherent profanities under her breath.

Irene Bae. The devil incarnate. The witch in every fairytale Seulgi remembered reading as a child. A pain in her . A snob. A brat. Literally the personification of every insult there is.

But if Seulgi had to describe Irene in one word, it would be homophobic. The biggest and cruelest of them all. It's the reason Irene despises Seulgi's existence, and the very reason why they're always at each other's throats.

Seulgi doesn’t hide the fact that she likes girls; she bets that every student at the university knows. She and her (very gay) friends have been very open about it. Time has changed anyway, it’s already the 21st century and people have been more open about the discussion of same- relationships, so she sees absolutely no reason to conceal her uality anymore.

Unfortunately, it's Seulgi's openness about her uality that irritates Irene the most. Irene makes no attempt to hide her homophobia either; she scrunches her nose in disgust when she sees Seulgi and her friends, she cannot and would not stop herself from hurling insults whenever she sees two people of the same flirting and dating, and she expresses her hatred of Seulgi at every opportunity.

This led to their current relationship; they insult each other and bicker whenever and wherever they can. Seulgi’s really soft in front of pretty girls, and she’ll admit that Irene’s one of the prettiest girls she have ever met, but it’s Irene’s mentality that cancels out the prettiness of her face.

Such a waste of a pretty face, actually.

“I'm failing chemistry.” Seulgi drops her weight on the chair, slumping and sighing as her conversation with Mr. Lee repeats itself in her head again and again like a broken record.

Seulgi isn't really the brightest student in the university; she gains average to below average grades in certain subjects, and chemistry is certainly one of those subjects. No amount of staying up late studying would help her understand chemical substances and elements, or whatever chemistry actually is. So she knew she'd fail the subject, but hearing the news of her grades dropping felt like a slap square in her face.

Wendy silently offers her comfort through a sympathetic look and a tap on the shoulder. Seulgi could only sigh once more. “It's fine, Kang.” Wendy tries to console her, but all she did was shake her head and say a defeated, "We both know it's not."

"Nice pet, Wendy." The childish attempt of an insult was followed by small giggles and mocking scoffs. Seulgi doesn't need to look to see who the person is; she can recognize the devilish voice from anywhere; it's the cause of her nightmares, really.

Normally, she would have responded with equal amount of hostility to the insult, but after her conversation with her professor, she didn't have the energy left to engage in another argument with Irene, so she opted for a simple “Shut your mouth.”

“You shut your mouth.”

“Brat.” And it’s the look of pure offense on the blonde’s face that made Seulgi finally break into a smile.

“Freak!”

“Spoiled brat.” Seulgi repeats with a sigh, not putting much effort into arguing with Irene, who seems to be more enraged over a minor, harmless nickname. "Who probably doesn't get laid enough, so you've got a lot of pent up frustrations in you, and you're directing it at me. Do you want me to release those frustrations for you, princess?”

“Okay, listen here, freak.” Irene emphasizes the nickname, as if to remind Seulgi of who she truly is. “Just the fact that you're a disgusting lesbian is enough to make me feel sick; So please spare me and refrain from flirting with me because I am really about to throw up.”

Seulgi's stare hardens at the blonde’s words; she knows she should be used to Irene's insults, but every time it happened, she couldn't help but feel hurt. And it irritates her because she now notices a twinge in her heart that wasn't there before.

“God, I can’t believe I’m even talking to you.” Irene makes a disgusted face before flipping her hair and walking away, Joy and Yeri snickering beside her, following the blonde’s steps. Seulgi's eyes darts downward, biting her lips in an attempt to contain herself. She could suddenly feel this numbing feeling inside her; the feeling of awfulness that bites her whenever she allows Irene to have the satisfaction of seeing her lose.

“Just don't mind her, Seulgi.” Wendy pats her shoulder before urging her to walk with her to their next class.

Walking back to their class in silence means allowing certain thoughts occupy her mind, irritatingly repeating the same hate-filled words the blonde student keeps on telling her, but this time there’s an unshakable prick present in her chest.

Taking her usual seat by the window, Seulgi glanced at the open ground below while Mr. Lee’s monotonous voice fades in the background. She’s failing chemistry anyway, there’s no point in listening to his boring discussions now.

With a small frown on her face, she sighs, places her elbow on her table, and rests her chin on her palm to watch the students walking around the open field right across her window.

Then she sees her.

The girl who became the reason for Seulgi to keep trying to understand the complicated science branch that is chemistry, the girl who fills Seulgi's mind every second of the day, the girl who's always the reason for Seulgi to put on a foolish smile on her face, the girl who causes millions of butterflies to flutter in Seulgi's stomach.

Kim Jisoo.

The girl of her dreams and Seoul University's precious gem.

Kim JIsoo who is nice, sweet and funny. She could be everyone's best friend. Unearthly beautiful and intelligent. A petite girl with a blinding smile and the brightest eyes, as if they contain an entire universe in them. She’s perfect. And even if she has flaws (which Seulgi thinks she doesn’t), Seulgi believes she’s still the most perfect girl she has ever known.

Unfortunately, she's cousins with Satan herself, Irene Bae.

The dreamy image of Jisoo peacefully walking like the goddess that she is was immediately ruined when Seulgi caught sight of Irene walking just behind Jisoo, catching up with her strides, laughing about something Jisoo had said, and Seulgi could only smile as she watched Jisoo laugh heartily. The university’s students seems to think that the two resembled each other, as if they were twins, with faces carved by the Gods. It was no surprise that they were so popular; it wasn't just because they were beautiful; they were also intelligent and came from a rich family.

Their faces were strikingly similar, but their personalities were dramatically different. Seulgi never witnessed Jisoo discriminate against Seulgi and her likes, she never saw Jisoo show disgust whenever two people of the same were clingy with each other, and she never heard Jisoo utter an insult. Irene, on the other hand, was the polar opposite.

When Irene's smile faded, Seulgi snaps back to reality, realizing that the smile Irene once wore had been replaced by an ugly scowl aimed directly at Seulgi. The brunette swore she felt shivers run down the back of her neck when Irene’s glare intensified before she rolled her eyes at her and pulled Jisoo, urging her to walk faster.

Seulgi wonders how such a pretty girl like Irene be so ugly inside.

Seulgi found herself glaring at Irene, who gracefully walked down the open field with her hand looped around the toned arm of her jock boyfriend, Park Bogum, the school's football team's star player.

Many had envied their relationship and labeled them as the perfect couple, The Star Player and the Captain of the cheerleading team, since they had been together for two years. Everyone wants to either date them or be them.

But Seulgi despises them to the bone; she couldn't help but roll her eyes at Irene, who was smiling happily, her gaze fixed on Bogum, and her entire appearance blooming like a beautiful flower. The brunette snorted in disbelief at the obviously phony display of perfection. If she wants to, she could be an incredible actress because right there in the open field isn’t the Irene that Seulgi knows. The real Irene is cruel, brutal, violent, and sadistic, and she relishes insulting Seulgi.

She's astounded by how quickly this girl transforms from a witch to a princess.

“She’s unbelievable.” Seulgi mutters to herself, bitterly looking at the couple who had everyone staring at them as they walked with bright smiles and hearty laughs.