Taeyong

            Today is like any other day. I wake up in the morning, peacefully, to the sound of one of the maids vacuuming my room. “Ah, you aren’t doing it right. Let me.” I groan as I take the vacuum from her, which catches her by surprise.

            I have always been particular about how my room is cleaned, but my parents always insist that I let the servants do their job. Believe me, I would let them do their job too, but I absolutely hate seeing even a speck of dirt in my room.

            “Oh no, you should let me do it! It is my job!” The maid tries to reach for the vacuum, but I swing it away from her.

            “Then do your job correctly in the future.” The sharpness of my voice makes her flinch, and she dejectedly leaves my room.

            After finishing the cleaning, I go about the rest of my routine of getting ready. I walk down the long hallway from my room to the staircase. As I go down the stairs I am greeted by the many servants already up and working.

            “Good morning Master Taeyong.” They greet me warmly, but I know that they are all probably cursing me out in their heads.

            Why do I have to serve some young brat like him? They are all thinking, I am sure.

            Well, unlike them I was born into a wealthy family that owns the number one development company in Korea. So, their feelings aren’t my problem. It’s not my fault I am more fortunate them.

            I sit down at the long table in the dining hall. The table has always been too long for its own good. It isn’t like my family ever has enough guests over to fill the entire table, but my parents have always been more about appearances than practicality.

            The maid from the morning places my breakfast in front of me, she avoids making eye contact with me. Today’s meal is eggs benedict on English muffins. The eggs are topped with hollandaise sauce, spinach, avocado, and tomato slices.

            I click my tongue as I eat. The tomato slices are cut too thick.

            When I finish my food, I leave the plate behind for the same maid to clean up after me. She keeps her head down as I brush past her to leave for school. The driver takes me to school in the Jeep today, out of our three travel cars. However, I would prefer if he took me in one of the nicer luxury cars.

            My parents wouldn’t allow that though, they say that I need to show at least a bit of humility in front of my classmates. Whatever that means.

            At the front gates, I am greeted by my friends. Johnny runs up to me as soon as I step out of the car. He wraps his fore arm around my neck and locks my head in between his chest and arm. “Way to make a scene, showing up in such a nice car.”

            I reach my hands up and start swatting at his face. “You’re the one causing a scene.”

            He laughs, but doesn’t release me until the others come over to us. Jaehyun peels Johnny off of me. “I swear, sometimes you’re too much.”

            “It’s called knowing how to have a good time.” Johnny shoves Jaehyun’s shoulder with a smile on his face still.

            Yuta approaches us as well with WinWin in tow. “Hey, you guys are all causing a scene as it is.” WinWin nods his head at us. He has never been the type to be as loud as the rest of us.

            “What do you think WinWin?” Johnny tries to grab onto him, but WinWin swiftly dodges his arm. This makes Johnny pout. “Do you have to react like that?”

            WinWin’s eyes flicker around, but I find it kind of cute how shy he can be even though we all have been friends since Middle School. “You know I don’t really like skin ship!”

            Johnny points at Yuta. “What about him? You’re ok with him.”

            This makes WinWin purse his lips. “That’s different…”

            Since WinWin and Yuta were both transfer students from a different country in middle school, they both bonded quickly. Although, Yuta has always found it easier to make friends compared to WinWin so he made friends with rest of us. And, in the process brought WinWin into our friend group. We all coddle him to some extent, but Yuta always seems to look out for him the most. They both understood each other in a way the rest of us couldn’t.

            Johnny starts to create another rebuttal, but I swoop in to deter the conversation. “Let’s just head inside already.”

            We all start for the classroom, but Jaehyun wouldn’t drop the subject from earlier. “Listen, I know how to have a good time. It’s just life is so boring nowadays.”

            I nod my head. “You’re right, everyday feels the same, doesn’t it?” A girl suddenly appears in front of me. Her hands hide something behind her back.

            Her face has a light blush. “I know this is kind of sudden, but are you free to talk privately?” I recognize her as one of the girls from my class. She is pretty enough, and I can see myself with her. I could probably fit her in during the weekend.

            I lean in to her so only she can hear me. “Let’s talk after class.”

            In response, her eyebrows raise, and she bites her lip. She nods her head quickly before bursting into a smile and running towards the classroom.

            “That’s what I mean.” Jaehyun gestures to the girl running away. “Things like this.”

            Yuta jumps into the conversation. “Yeah, don’t get me wrong. I love girls, but doesn’t it become boring after a while to have all these girls approaching us?”

            Johnny punches Yuta’s arm. He laughs. “You do realize that girl just approached Taeyong right? Not you.”

            “Girls approach me! I mean I’m the captain of the soccer team!” Yuta argues.

            We all disregard him, but WinWin supports Yuta’s words. “Yeah, I see it too. Girls always come up to him after games.”

            Yuta nods his head aggressively and points at WinWin. “Exactly! He’s the only one that sees this though, because he’s the only one that comes to my soccer games.” Yuta sends a glare to the rest of us.

            Jaehyun raises his hands. “Ok, we get it.” He laughs it off. “We’re all popular to some extent, but that’s not where I was going with this. I just mean, isn’t there something we could do to make things more interesting?”

            By this point we have entered the classroom and taken our seats in the back corner of the room. Furthest from the door. I sit in the very corner, and with furrowed eyebrows the idea suddenly hits me.

             “Hey, let’s play a game.” I state.

            Johnny frowns. “Like rock, paper, scissors?”

            “No, idiot.” I shake my head at him. “I mean, what if we chose girls for each other, and we try to get those girls to like us. We could even say that the goal would be to bring the girl to my party at the end of the year.”

            Johnny sits up from his seat. “Woah, actually that sounds pretty interesting.”

            Yuta had already pulled out a manga, but at the sound of my idea he puts the comic book down. “What exactly would we be playing for?”

            I press my lips together in thought. My eyes graze around the room to see people gradually flowing into the classroom. “Rather than play for something, we could say there is a penalty if we don’t succeed.”

            “Woah, hold on!” Jaehyun interrupts. He looks between our friend group. “Don’t you guys think this is going overboard? I know I said that things have been boring, but…”

            His hesitance makes me frown. Jaehyun has always been on my side, so his sudden reluctance makes me disappointed. “It’ll be fun. I swear!”

            When I first entered middle school, many of the students befriended me because they wanted my money. How stereotypical, I thought then. When Jaehyun and Johnny approached me though they never once asked me about anything related to my money.

            Rather than asking if we could hang out at my place, like everyone else did. They invited me to go to their house. Eventually, our friend group continued to grow, and although I was treated differently by many of our classmates, I could always rely on my group to just be my friends.

            I depend on them more than they probably even realize.

            My persistence makes Jaehyun sigh. His eyes shift over to WinWin. “What about you? You haven’t said anything about this yet.”

            WinWin looks up from his desk. He looks at us all staring back at him, then glances to Yuta in the seat next to him. “Well, if Yuta is down to do it. I don’t mind either.”

            “See, even WinWin said he would play!” I continue to badger Jaehyun. Clasping my hands together, I pout at him. “Please.”

            He groans with a roll of his eyes, but he looks back at me with a resigned expression. “Fine, I’ll play too.”

            I clap my hands. “That’s the spirit!” My eyes look to the ceiling. “Now, the penalty…”

            Jaehyun leans back in his seat. “Let’s say whoever can’t bring their girl to the party has to expose themselves to the entire school.”

           “What do you mean by expose ourselves?” Yuta murmurs.

           “Exactly what it sounds like.” Jaehyun goes on. “We have to tell the entire school that we were only pursuing that girl as a game, obviously without revealing those that actually succeeded.”

            The penalty actually makes my heart drop a bit. That is a bit much even for me. “Isn’t that too harsh? Especially if the game is supposed to be more for fun.”

            He stares back at me with a challenge in his eyes, and a smile grows onto his face. “What, are you afraid you won’t succeed?”

            The mention of me being afraid sparks the competitiveness in me. “What? Of course, I can do it.” I scoff. “You can choose anyone, and I for sure will have no problem at all.”

            Johnny laughs at this. “Wow, someone has a lot of confidence.”

            It is easy to be confident when I have my wealth. If there is one thing I know it is that most, if not all, of the people that approach me always want something regarding my money. By accepting that fact, I choose people to be in my life based off how they could benefit me too.

            In business, mutual benefits are a pivotal factor to every relationship.

            Johnny’s eyes glance to the front, then raises his hands with a smug look. “Fine, I choose that girl for you then.” He points to the classroom door.

            I look over there, but try to hide my urgency