"He's the top in our class! The only person who got rewarded with The Talent Award of Korea in our school, Bomi-ah! He's that Byun Baekhyun!" Eunji enthusiastically exclaimed.

 

Bomi cocked her head to the side, arching he eyebrows in confusion. 

 

"Haven't you heard about the award?" Hayoung interrupted as she saw Bomi's blank face. 

 

Of course she had heard about the award before. She just thought it wasn't something that important to pay close attention to since it wasn't her who received it. It was some other nerd who probably should be rewarded with another award for his full attendance. 

 

Bomi winced at the thought. He doesn't seem to be a nerd. Yes, he wore glasses. But, that doesn't mean he should fall into the categorise, right? Isn't it quite a trend to wear one nowadays? 

 

Although to be fair, with that huge backpack hanging on his back, he did have this image of someone who would fall head over heels for books. But then again, who wouldn't? Even a popular girl like her loves book. It was just her book preference might be slightly difference from those kids for she favour manga better. 

 

"So, Bomi?" Eunji lifted her eyebrows, impatiently waiting for her answer. 

 

"Yes... it's just... I don't think I ever saw him before." She said, still furrowing her eyebrows. 

 

"Or maybe you never chose to see him." Eunji smirked. 

 

"You only remember those who you wanted to anyway. And, you feigned ignorance to others." 

 

Eunji has this tone and the way she addressing things that will sound quite inappropriate and rude to others, more to a mock sometimes. But, being her friend for almost 3 years taught Bomi something. Eunji is definitely better than those pretentious snake, kisser. And, that's the reason why she loves Eunji as a companion. That girl can be quite a nuisance, but she's also a miracle god sent for Bomi. 

 

If only, the girl had the same sentiment as her, they could've become a great pair. A best buddy. But, things happened anyway. And, Bomi had to accept with an open heart. She smiled faintly as the girls stared at her like pair of hawks.  

 

"No, I didn't mean something like that. It's just I really haven't seen him around-" Bomi said in her soft voice, trying to clarified herself before a voice cut her off. 

 

"Hey girls!!!" 

 

A shriek was heard from a distance, and all of them turned with a big smile plastered on their face. 

 

"Namjoo!" They chimed in. 

 

Namjoo who was across the hall ran to them with her utmost speed as the students are being dispersed to each groups. 

 

"I miss you guys soooo muchhhh!!!" She exclaimed with her loud voice, all eyes were practically on them. 

 

She approached the girls and clamped Bomi's hands, holding into them dearly. Causing Bomi to giggle as Namjoo swayed her hands side to side. 

 

"We miss you too, Namjoo." Hayoung smiled sweetly. 

 

"And, who missed me?" Bomi eyes glistened with shine of joy as she directed her attention to the voice. 

 

"Chorong-ah!" They called her in unison. 

 

Chorong walked toward them with a wide smile on her beautiful face. 

 

"So, how's it going, girl?" Hayoung wiggled her eyebrows as she pointed to Chorong's group name list on the announcement board.  The others let out a silent laugh, as Chorong smile turned into an awkward one. 

 

"Good luck with that." Eunji sincerely cheered her. 

 

Chorong nervously laugh at the situation as she eyed the name. She smacked herself internally as she questioned why does fate had to be so cruel for her. 

 

"Oh. You'll be fine. Kim Suho is a great guy. He's in my team last year, and he's quite good." Namjoo being the clueless one, trying to interrupt, which earned a chuckle from all of them. 

 

"No one ever said he's not, Namjoo. Don't you see? The rumours will spread like wildfire soon when the whole class noticed the arrangement." Eunji grinned wickedly over the thought. 

 

Bomi's mind then flew about a year ago when the shocking story circulated around their school. Something about Chorong the Vice President who is having a secret relationship with the school's President himself, Kim Suho. 

 

She wouldn't said the claim was a total baseless accusation though, for she herself saw how Suho eyes brightened every single time Chorong was in the same room. But, of course he would never admitted it. 

 

Bomi and Suho were quite close since he is the school's skipper and she is the cheerleader. Yet, every single time she tried to probe him, asking about his feeling for her friend, he will just shrugged the question away, acted nonchalantly.

 

"It's okay. You have our blessing, Chorong. Besides, Suho is a great guy." Bomi smiled warmly. 

 

"Eww what?" Hayoung opposed the idea of seeing Chorong and Suho together, holding hand around the campus. 

 

"Noooo, Bomi. Not Suho. Chorong deserves someone better. Don't you think so?" She added. 

 

"Well, I think Suho is pretty decent. It's tough to find a good man nowadays. All that left were jerks-"

"Guys, we don't have time for this." Eunji pointed at her watch. 

 

"We're getting late for our first group meeting." 

 

The others nodded in agreement as they sprinted to their small group meeting room. 

 

***

 

All students have been allocated to their own respective group's room that look more like a small conference room with the layout. There is a small u-shaped table in the middle, built to sit 10 people with one white board, a laptop and a LCD projector. 

 

Bomi, Hayoung and Eunji were just in time as they entered the room. There are already 4 people who had arrived earlier, and they flashed a polite smile to them as they apologised for their tardiness.

 

"It's fine." Said a lad with a sparkling eyes. Bomi unknowingly curved a quick smile over the sight of an attractive, fine guy in front of them. 

 

Kim Min Seok.

 

He was between two girls, one stood out the other with her gorgeous features and beautiful sweet smile. 

 

"Hey." The gorgeous one said. 

 

Bomi bowed slightly at her as she took a seat on her side while the other two girl, Hayoung and Eunji went across the room, and sat alongside the Baekhyun guy.  

 

"I'm Irene." She said with her soft, gentle voice.

 

Bomi was in awe as she saw how fascinating the girl in front of her was. Her lips curved a friendly smile as she tried to introduce herself. 

 

"Oh hello. Nice to meet you, Irene. I'm-"

"Oh! Look at who we have here." A voice cut Bomi off. 

 

"It's Bom Bom~ Bomi waneyo~" another one sang with a rhythm of Roy Kim's Bom song which then shortly followed by a snort by the other two. 

 

They turned curiously toward the door to see three faces that Bomi earnestly hoped was just another nightmare of her. 

 

Except the sun is still up, the sky is bright and she pretty sure it hurts a lot when she slightly pinched her arm to prove that this is not a dream. 

 

She sighed wistfully as she faced the most popular, cool jocks in their school, 'The Summer Boys'. 

 

Bomi honestly disagree with the claim as she couldn't understand what is so great about a few school athletes who are hanging out together, sort of flashing their so-called charm to people especially girls. Well, if she had to be precise, she didn't think they were that amazing at all. They were just a few dude who are quite good looking with their features but not to the point of being able to create such a commotion whenever they were around. Hell, they're not boy band or quarterback or something equivalent to that. Bomi thought that they rather look pretty normal, not too handsome, nor ugly. They were just okay. 

 

They were just a goofy kind of good looking kid who ended up together with other goofy good looking kid. 

 

"Hello." She flatly greeted. She fake a smile as the guys approached her closer. 

 

"How I wish to be in this group as well. There are a lot of pretty girl here." The one that sang uttered with his deep voice.

 

"Well, shame on you then, Kyungsoo. Hey. You should move to your group before your mentor arrived." The most sane among them shooed him and Kyungsoo rolled his eyes out of annoyance as he walked to his room. 

 

Both of them then took a seat in front of Bomi. 

 

"Hello." The one that shooed Kyungsoo winked while smiling seductively at her. 

 

Bomi made a blank face, unsure of how to react with the situation. She could hear the others were crackling over the sight. She cleared , trying to ignore the awkward moment. 

 

"Hey, Chen." She tried hard to curve her radiant smile. 

 

"Hey, Bomi. It's nice to have you in the same group." The other guy then smiled cheekily at her. 

 

"Yeah... you too, Sehun." She said, still exerting her smile. 

 

And, just when she thought it couldn't get any worse, the universe decided to betrayed her even more as the only seat that left on her right was then occupied by a person who suddenly appear out of nowhere. 

 

'Park Chanyeol?' She gasped as she recollected her memories over the figure. 

 

Chanyeol ran his finger through his hair as he gazed at her. 

 

"I'm glad I made it on time. And, yeah. Hey there Bomi. Nice to meet you." 

 

He stared directly onto her perplexed eyes.

 

"Again." 

 

Bomi swallowed hard upon those word. The guy that she thought she would never encountered again was on her right side, eyeing her with his predatory gaze and sly smile. 

 

It was still fresh on her mind how she regretted her first year. Everything went great at first. As she basically had nothing to worry about. All she needed to do is to strive her hardest, ensuring that she got to be in the top 50, so that she could easily conquered her spot as a second year architecture student. Or else, she ought to attend several other viva exams with the professors and deans to be legally entitled as one. 

 

That's how Sungkyunkwan works. 

 

Unfortunately, things start to change when her undivided attention towards the professor during the lectures was suddenly averted to the adorable guy across the room, Xi Luhan. 

 

Xi Luhan was none other than a total next door sweetheart. The one that melted others with his beautiful heart and his charming features. The one that Bomi wordlessly had to reason out over her clumsy behaviour around him, the one that caught her eyes whenever they were in the same room and the one that cause her legs to wobble just upon seeing his stunning smile. 

 

Bomi had fallen deep into him, without the guy even noticing her feelings. 

 

Unfortunately, while Bomi was admiring her group mate from afar, a pair of eyes was intently staring her hidden gesture with his evil grin. And, on one particular day, as Bomi was bashfully smiling over Luhan's lame jokes, a despicable voice whispered from her side, 

 

"You like him don't you? Don't worry, I won't tell a soul." 

 

And, that was three years ago. When she was immature and not good in concealing her feeling. She did pretty well now though. She even had moved on from the guy, abandoning her one sided crush. 

 

Well, kind of. 

 

Part of her was still hoping that one day Luhan would come and confessed to her, considering people used to thought they look cute together. But, another part of her was hoping otherwise. As she would hate for the guy to be with a hypocrite girl like her. He's too good for her and she didn't want to take an advantage over his kindheartedness. 

 

But, that is certainly not the main concern now. There is something else she should be worrying about, other than Luhan who she used to fall head over heels for. It's, him. The one who nearly announce to the whole world regarding her silly crush. Park Chanyeol. 

 

***

 

"My brain is so packed with all the new assignments that we had to finish before the year ends. I mean it is just the first day, and I'm already exhausted." Eunji whined. 

 

Hayoung nodded vigorously, making a face as the thought of the assignments filled her with dread. 

 

"Well, let's try our utmost best then. Most of them are group work, so we will be fine as long as we supported each other." Min Seok consoled them with his adorable smile. 

 

"Yes, we'll do well as long as we have each other." Wendy then enthusiastically interrupted. 

 

Bomi nodded in agreement, genuinely smiling at them. Maybe the group arrangement wasn't that bad after all. The others are fairly brilliant and all are very nice people. Bomi found it fascinating on how they keep on coming with fresh new ideas and suggestions for their group project, enlightening the discussion more. 

 

Except for those two though. Chen and Chanyeol. She just felt like it is a need to exclude Sehun in the classification as  that guy unexpectedly made a very good contribution to the team. 

 

But, the two others were just indescribable. It's as if they lose in their own world, they won't even tried to participate. Chen was busy with his phone with Chanyeol occasionally trying to create a joke out of everything. 

 

She sighed at thought. 

 

There are at least 100+ student in their batch, how come of all people, she was destined to stick with these guys that she hated the most? 

 

"Hey Bomibomimi~" 

 

A voice suddenly emerged from afar. Bomi immediately turned to the voice to see Kyungsoo is wriggling his eyebrows at invisible souls, somewhat trying to woo all the girls around. 

 

Kyungsoo approached the crowd and waved vigorously toward Hayoung, his ex-group mate. 

 

"Well, hello there Hayoung. How's it going?"

 

Bomi almost snickers upon seeing Hayoung stone-faced. The girl  probably cursing him on the inside as he took a step closer, leaning into her. 

 

And, Bomi was right. Internally, Hayoung was smacking his head several time to shoo him away from all these eyes that keenly staring at them.  'Better than with you.' She wanted to answer. But, she cancelled the intention anyway, for she remembered the guy had done nothing to deserve it. 

 

It was just those other students who keep on gossiping both of them that she couldn't stand for. 

 

When Hayoung and Kyungsoo was assigned into the same group for last two years, they thought everything is fine when it comes to girl and boy friendship. However, as the time goes by, they grew closer and to be honest, Hayoung didn't mind him being around at all. She used to think that the relationship was sort of comfortable. Him and her. Just a pure friendship with no feeling involved. Plus, he has already set his eyes on the most popular girl in the school, the queenka Park Chae Young. Though it was actually a mere one sided crush and he had been rejected several times before. 

 

Until, there is one day when someone actually ask her if she liked the guy since they keep spending their time together. Hayoung tried to deny it at first for she absolutely had no whatsoever romantic feeling for the boy. Kyungsoo on the other hand, was too lazy to clarify everyone on the subject. Probably trying to shut those mouth regarding him being turned down instead. 

 

Thus, consequently igniting the flame of the rumour more. Hayoung shuddered upon the thought. Kyungsoo and her? YUCKS. Never in the world would she find her settling down with that silly, goofy looking guy. 

 

"Mind joining us for the lunch?"

 

Bomi then averted her gazed toward Chen who was standing at her side. 

 

"Yeah, you should be honoured to spend your time with hot guys like us." Kyungsoo smirked. 

 

Bomi almost made a gagging face, baffled out by the dumb remark. Nonetheless, she still manage to smile brightly at them as she politely rejected the offer. 

 

"No thanks, guys. I'll go with Hayoung and Eunji." 

"Well, it's your loss then." Kyungsoo shrugged his shoulders and walked away with both his hands in his pockets, acting vain. The other two follow him close behind, after Sehun flashed a smile at her, waving her goodbye.

 

"I'll get going first, Hayoung. Bye, Eunji."

"Oh okay. See you after lunch, Baek." 

 

Bomi twitched her head instantly to their direction as she heard the way they addressed each other sounded more intimate then ever. 

 

Wait. 

 

Eunji knows this kid? She mean, of course she did but Bomi didn't know that Eunji knew him on personal level. Since when was Eunji in hi-hello status with Baekhyun? And, what's up with the nickname? Baek? That sounds so tacky she almost rolled her eyes out of disbelief.

 

"See you guys later." He then walked passed Bomi as if she was not there, non-existent in his eyes. 

 

Bomi could feel her heart sank with the gesture. People always acknowledge her before. She's the dazzling Yoon Bomi. The one that shines other through her smiles. Most people in their batch, even in the school would know her by now. But, why does this one guy had to act so mighty, portraying his indifference toward her every time she's around? That's when Bomi came with a solution. If that guy can be so nice and friendly with Hayoung and Eunji, then why can't he did the same with her? She'll tried her best to make efforts then, to assure that he can finally smile at her, talk to her and even called her nicknames. She'll be his friend. 

 

'Just wait. Byun Baekhyun. You'll be putty in my hands soon.'