Uploaded by CosaNostraPrincess on May 14, 2009

The students will be investigating Yong Hwa's background very soon. That should help with some of the curiousity. To the story...

“And now!  Give a warm welcome to the final speaker at our debate!  It’s Park Shin Hye from the Hibari dorm!”

A ripple of giggles and jeers broke out through the audience of boys and girls as she walked onto the stage.  Hibari refused to clap and turned her gaze away.  The Hibari Four followed their leader’s example.  They could not do anything else.  Shin Hye was a traitor.

“Why don’t you give up now and join the Jocks, Shin Hye-ssi!” teased one student.  “You have a great swinging arm!”

Another student jumped to her feet and shouted: “Come join the Arts dorm Shin Hye!  We don’t waste our time worshipping boys.  If you live with us, you can beat up as many boys as you like!”

“Horrible girl!” hissed some of the girls from Hibari dorm.  “Get the traitor off the stage!”

Shin Hye cleared .

“You’re right.  I didn’t want to be in Hibari at all,” she admitted.  The mike carried her words throughout the entire room, and the students laughed at her answer.

In the back row, Min Hyuk stopped watching Secret Garden and gaped at his sister.  Their eyes met and she cleared again.

“I thought Hibari was ridiculous,” she continued.  “What self-respecting girl wants to join a school dorm that values good-looking boys above anything else?  It teaches girls to put their bodies above their minds, and to think that they are worth less than boys, right?”

“Right!” cheered the girls from the Arts and Jocks dorms.

“But...and it is a huge but!  Last night I learned that the Hibari dorm teaches one very hard lesson through having these superficial values.”

“Which is?” asked Jung Shin, unable to help his curiosity.

“Loving someone more than ourselves is the most important thing we can do with our lives.  Caring about them and seeing them change and be happy is the best thing in the world.  Winning sports doesn’t teach that, and neither does performing in Arts.  Only the experience itself can show us the way.”

In the audience, Hibari had turned her head back to the stage.  She looked interested.

Shin Hye nodded.  “Teaching us how to take care of someone else is not easy, but Hibari dorm does it.  So what if they have chosen to worship good-looking erts who don’t know how to keep their hands to themselves?”

She turned her head to the right and glared at Lee Seung Gi who was standing behind the stage curtains.  He shrugged meekly.

“Maybe we can help the boys to become better people.  If we can do that, then we can do the same thing for our families and our friends; the people we should actually be caring about more than anything else.  Maybe then we won’t ever have to know what letting them down feels like.”

Sensing tears coming on, Shin Hye ducked her head to the left, and caught sight of someone else standing back stage and watching her from behind the curtains.

To her surprise, it was Yong Hwa.  His worried expression seemed to be directed at her, but she knew that couldn’t be right.  She blinked back the tears and looked at him properly.

“Quiet everyone!”  It was Hibari who spoke.  She was still seated in her chair, yet the audience went as silent as if she was the one standing on stage.  “I think that Shin Hye-chan has captured a different side of the Hibari dorm’s goals that we’ve never considered before.  We may not all agree with it, but it definitely means something to her.”

There was no applause, but many of the students nodded thoughtfully.  Others looked confused and turned to their friends for an explanation.

With dignity and grace, Hibari stood up on the seat of her chair so that everyone could see her.  “Shin Hye-chan.  Look at me.”

Back stage, Yong Hwa lifted his brows at Shin Hye and nodded in the direction of the audience.

“Huh?”  Shin Hye was still dazed by his worried expression.

“Shin Hye-Chan!!!” Hibari screeched.

Everyone jumped.

“Sorry, Hibari-ssi,” apologised Shin Hye as she turned to face the students.  “I am listening now.”

The girl from Osaka lifted her chin.  “I have decided...to give you another chance at being a Hibari girl.  It seems that you may have a sort of understanding of the dorm’s values after all.”

“Thank you, but my sister...”

“Because of how you’ve interpreted the Hibari values, your sister is welcome to stay in the dorm too...as long as you can set a good example for her.”

“Yay, Unni!” cheered Min Hyuk, knocking Jong Hyun’s head to one side as he lifted his arms.  “She can do that, Hibari-Unni!  Say yes, Shin Hye!  Say it!”

“Say yes, Shin Hye!  I miss my roommate!” added Komari, earning death stares from the Hibari Three.

Shin Hye smiled at the two, and then turned her attention back to hidden Yong Hwa.  He still looked worried...for her.  The idea made her heart go all warm and fuzzy, and she glanced away before she really did get a school-girl crush on him.

“I accept!” she announced.

Most of the Hibari dorm cheered while the Jocks and Arts students watched on in disgruntled silence.  The boys from Seoul High laughed and then cheered along with the girls.

“Well done, Park Shin Hye!” shouted Seung Gi, coming out from behind the curtains.  The clapping and cheering magnified as he appeared on stage to congratulate her.  “That was the worst speech I have ever heard, but it was also honest.  Congratulations on becoming a Hibari girl once again!”

“Don’t touch me!” she warned as he came nearer.

His dimple appeared.  “I won’t.”

Instead, he grabbed the microphone and winked at the audience, which was received with appreciative cheers and claps.

“Now that Shin Hye-ssi has proven herself to be a true Hibari girl, I have an important secret to tell you all about her.”

“Secret?” squeaked Shin Hye, hoping it didn’t have anything to do with her real age, or the fact that her brother was pretending to be a girl.

“Shin Hye doesn’t like me very much, but from the moment she swung that bat at me, I started to like Shin Hye-ssi a lot.”

“Ehhhhhh?” replied the audience as one.

He nodded.  “I’m terribly sorry to break so many hearts, but it’s better to tell you all early on rather than dragging out the inevitable.  The truth is that I think I will grow to like her a lot more in the future.  So from now on, if anyone tries to hurt her or her sister, they will have to answer to me.  That includes you, Hibari.  Furthermore, if anyone tries to like her behind my back, they will have to answer to me.  Consider this a pre-emptive strike from me in the competition for her heart, because I mean to win it!”

The entire room went into uproar.

“Oppa!  You can’t do this to me!  Our love is supposed to last forever!  We’re supposed to be like Romeo and Juliet!” screamed Hibari, pulling a pink hanky out of her pocket before fainting to the floor in a dramatic heap.

Shin Hye gritted her teeth and fumed in silence.  She had just fixed things so that she and Min Hyuk could go back to Yong Hwa’s dorm, and now Seung Gi had swept in and ruined everything.

“Phew!”  Seung Gi adjusted his collar points and beamed at her.  “I feel so much better getting that off my chest.  Secret love is so tragic and very bad for one’s health.  Don’t you think, Shin Hye-ssi?  Now that I’ve said it, we can be completely open and honest with each other from the very beginning.  Great, isn’t it?”

“Great,” she answered.  “Because we’re now in a situation where I can box your ears in front of everyone without getting punished for it you selfish, arrogant, erted punk!”

“Aaah!”  He ducked as Shin Hye started slapping him on the back of the head.  “O-over to you, Teacher Lee!  Ouch!  Stop that!  You’ll regret this moment when you start liking me.  No!  Not the ears!”

Jung Shin pulled apart the bickering pair using his long thin arms.  “Omo!  Shin Hye, what did I tell you about expressing your feelings in a non-violent way?  Why don’t you try holding hands with him instead?  No?  Well then I think someone needs to watch a certain video again.  Don’t grumble at me, young lady!  Seung Gi’s rules don’t apply to teachers, so just let go of his ear.  No, not later...now!”

Once Shin Hye had let go of the ear, Jung Shin turned to speak into the microphone: “A joint school lunch will be served in the hall downstairs.  Judges will announce the winner in half an hour.  Dismissed!”

Meanwhile, still hidden behind the shadows of the curtains, Yong Hwa watched her with mixed emotions.

“Shin Hye,” he muttered, leaning his head against the cool wall.  “Don’t show me tears.  I can’t push you away if you cry.”