My name is Park Jinyoung, 18 years old, a senior in Inki High School in Seoul. My daily routine is simple. Eat, study, sleep, and repeat. For me, being a senior student is not a big issue. I don’t need to worry whether or not I will be accepted at any universities in Seoul after I graduate. My nickname at school is “Top 1”, and that alone says a lot about me. Maybe it was God’s way of making it up to me by making me smart, it’s because I’m surrounded with dumb people nowadays.

I don’t do much besides studying. I’m not a nerd though. I prefer books over people. Books tell you more things than people do, it has more feelings than most people I know. One would tell you that to be able to live, you have to actually experience what’s out there, but to me, what’s out there are just a bunch of problematic situations. You live just by breathing to be honest. For me, I prefer to be alone, I love being alone. Though sometimes, there are situations where I’m not.

“Jinyoung hyung!”

I turn around, and at the rooftop door I saw Doyoung panting. He was still catching his breath when he started walking towards me.

Kim Doyoung, 16 years old, a junior. We have been friends since birth, I think. I can’t remember how our friendship started. Well if you grew up in the same neighborhood, you’re bound to be friends because mothers hang out a lot, especially in the afternoon. Doyoung is a total opposite of me. He’s dumb, but very popular at school.

“What are you doing tonight? Want to go on a blind date with me? My girl says she’s going to bring her friend along on our date this time, I told her I hate it when someone is third wheeling but she said her friend’s down nowadays,” He paused to put his arms on my shoulders, “When she said down, I immediately thought about you.”

“Pass,” I continued to read my book. There are times when I prefer reading at the rooftop than at our school library.

“Aww hyung… you know I hate it when you say no all the time.”

Doyoung can be cocky at times, but the reason why we’re still friends after so many years is that he respects my space. We don’t need to hang out together a lot, sometimes we don’t even see each other in a week, but he knows where to find me. He also knows how much I love being just by myself, so if he purposely comes to me just like this, he must’ve missed hanging out with me. Still, he also knows that I hate stuffs like dating so he must’ve missed annoying the hell out of me.

You should be studying for your next class Doyoung-ah,” he doesn’t like it when I mention the study part.

“Aish studying, I’d rather skip class.”

“Hang on, a week ago you said you were single.”

“I was,” he answered with a sly smile, “Life is too short to stay single hyung.”

I closed my book, held it with my one hand and slightly punched Doyoung on his ribs with the other, “Bastard.”

After our short sparring session, we headed straight to our classrooms. I accompanied him to his just to make sure he won’t skip class. He can be a bad influence sometimes. His other friends are not that mean I think.

“See you around hyung,” that was his parting words to me, always.
 

Class ended earlier than expected. When I was about to storm out our classroom door, one of my schoolmates disrupted my plan. He’s at the door, looking straight towards me, eyes full of intent.

“Kim Jinyoung, Teacher Park wants to see you before you go home.”

Teacher Park Jinyoung, our homeroom teacher. Yes, we have the same names. It’s no big deal for a homeroom teacher to call the class president to the faculty every once in a while. I sighed, and obliged. I didn’t want to be class president, but my grades and my classmates made me. Good thing my VP is so eager to assist me most of the time.

Our faculty room is not that big, our school is not one of the biggest in Seoul, but it is known for being one of the best. There were many famous people who graduated here, but I don’t plan on continuing their footsteps.

I knocked first before opening. Most of the teachers have gone home already except for Teacher Park and my homeroom teacher last year, who was busy talking to a student. I went immediately to Teacher Park’s desk with hopes that this talk will be over soon.

“Jinyoung-ah thank goodness you haven’t left yet,” he tidied up his desk while taking, “I just wanted to tell you that you’ll be one of the school’s representative for the National Quiz Contest next month.”

That’s it? He could tell me that at his class tomorrow morning though, “I know that already Sir.”

He looked surprised, “How did you know? One of the in charge of the contest just texted me a few minutes ago.”

“I’ve been the school representative fo