Regret. That was the word that filled your mind as you cooked some eggs, bacon, and hash brown for yourself for breakfast. There was that red card just sitting on the counter beside the stove. You knew you had messed up big time. You knew that you would have to face horror when you got to class. You were even thinking about transferring away from this program or switching to different schools. Unfortunately, you read the school policy which said that there would be no refunds allowed after a certain date and you just happened to miss that date by one day. 

As you kept huffing, you thought back to the start of your university days. You were so eager to attend this famous school that you hadn’t slept a wink before the start of your first day of college. Why? After all your hard work which included sleepless nights, countless pots of tea, stuffing your face with chips, Kit Kat bars, and ramen and then erupting with a fault line of pimples by the corner your lips, along with the constant refusal of going out with friends or potential dates, you had at last accomplished one of your parents’ goals and part of yours. You . . . were enrolled in the best university of the country that was known to produce the top scholars, industry experts, professionals, and business owners throughout the world. The icing on top of this cake was that you had also gotten into your first choice for your major: business administration. Of course, good things never came without a catch. The catch here? Well, there were several. 

1. The tuition fee was sky rocket high. The average tuition fee for business majors for other colleges was around at most $8,000 a year. The price to pay here? More than double that: $22,000 a year.

2. You had a few scholarships, but they weren’t enough to cover all of your expenses, meaning that you had to carry a truck load of debt in hopes of paying it off from some high paying job upon graduation. 

3. Compared to other students, you were one of the poorest and knew that you’d have trouble fitting in. Your parents’ business had thrived initially and so you had been enrolled in private school during elementary school. Sure, your family wasn’t the wealthiest at that time, but you still had no money troubles and could spend money without budgeting. You also didn’t find that you were an outcast among your peers. It wasn’t until your family’s business had downsized and gone under when you were about to head into high school were you forced to step down from your pedestal and face the real world. Your parents had tricked you into thinking that everything was going all right financially by making you register for the exam to get into the AP program at a public school. You were no fool though. As your house decreased in size into a small condo located in an average neighbourhood in the outskirts of the city and your parents no longer took you on vacations or bought gifts for no reason for you, you knew that you were no longer in that “entitled” world. 

The loss of your financial status also led you to lose many of your wealthy friends who felt embarrassed to be around you or couldn’t relate to your heavy duty budgeting. The good news was that this situation had made you become more aware of your shallowness back in the day and allowed you to see through people. You had only been concerned with brand names and fine dining. You never had to take public transit and was always driven everywhere by your mother who didn’t work to look after you and your younger brother. You didn’t even know how the real world was and painted everyone with a rosy tint. Thinking back, you were so naive, that you could have easily been lured by people into a van if they told you that there was an injured dog that needed your help.

4. Your parents were banking on you marrying someone rich and were always pressuring you to find someone. That, in their mind, was the easiest way to happiness--becoming a gold digger. You knew that they meant well, but really you had no intention of throwing your dreams away just for marriage. You couldn’t imagine yourself as a homemaker or be caught in those awkward situations where the mother-in-law ended up hating you for being lowly compared to her son.

Your dream then? You wanted to run your own boutique of some sort. You weren’t exactly sure what you wanted to sell or the type of business you wanted to start, but you knew that you wanted to be your own boss. You always had a business mind set. Back in kindergarten, when you wanted to have someone else’s snack, you’d start a trade. Your trading tendencies grew into providing specialized delicacies to your classmates when you became older. Although you didn’t need the extra cash, you just enjoyed knowing that you had made a sale.

Despite the challenges ahead of you, you were still full of fighting spirit and vigour for the first day of school. Someone could have thrown you into a gladiator’s pit to fight a lion and you wouldn’t have been so phased. You had put on a preppy outfit comprised of a cream Victoria blouse with puffed sleeves and a thin black velvet bow, a navy pinafore dress with a deep V, thick straps and an A-line skirt, and a pair of patent leather Mary Jane pumps that had a crystal and pearl embellishment as a button. With your battle armour on, you were ready to conquer the world and to your delight, your best friend from high school, Cho Yuri, was already waiting for you in front of your dorm. Although you were upset that you two hadn’t been paired as roommates, you were still happy that she was going to be attending the same program as you. 

As soon as you opened the door to find Yuri standing there with two drinks in her hand, you smiled at her too happily that she, in turn, grimaced. While handing you your drink, she uttered, “Here. Caffeine to jump start your day . . . though I think I’m regretting that choice.”

“Why? Why? Why?” You repeated as if you were a hyper bunny bouncing around her at all sides. A bit of the liquid even spilled from the tiny hole of the lid and dripped from the side of your hand. “Oh shucks,” you grumbled, scurrying to find a pack of tissues in your backpack. 

“Here,” Yuri handed you a piece of Kleenex that seemed to appear out of nowhere. 

“You’re a damned magician, Yuri!” you exclaimed with a widened grin. 

You knew you could always count on Yuri. She was so prepared with everything that next to her, you really seemed scatterbrained. It was natural for Yuri to be this organized; she was the oldest sister of five children and she came from a poorer family where both of her parents had to work till late at night and she had to take on a role of a secondary parent. She was the one that cooked, did all the household chores for her, and went grocery shopping for the family. In your eyes, she really was like Wonder Woman and you relied on her heavily for advice.

In fact, Yuri was pretty much your only friend from high school, besides Park Jimin who was your childhood friend. Your parents had been close friends with Jimin’s parents since their university days. Ironically when your family wealth declined, theirs increased. Their ancestors’ farmland had been sold off to develop into a new neighbourhood where all the wealthy people were moving off to. Over night, they became very rich. Despite their sudden change in social and financial status, they still remained close to your family. Jimin even chose to stay to study within the country because he didn’t want you to be too lonely at this prestigious university.

Although Jimin said he’d be by your side, he still decided to bail orientation week to vacation with his family in the Maldives. You had to admit that you were kind of jealous that he was probably sitting under a huge tree, sipping on some mojitos. However, as long as Yuri was by your side, you wouldn’t feel so lonely and out of place, so you clung onto her arm after wiping away the sticky tea from your hand.

“St-St-Stop sticking to me,” Yuri grumbled while gawking at the drink that you held with your other hand. You could hear the sound of the beverage splashing back and forth within the paper cup that stored it in place. You didn’t mind, but Yuri certainly did: “You’re gonna make a mess, Y/N!”

Yuri, in your eyes, was no fun, acting more or less like a parent. As you kept squishing beside her to , she pushed against you until you did drop the tea all over your arm and chest. There was no time to go back to change your clothes and you two were already scrambling to arrive on time to the luxurious hotel where the orientation took place. The first impression you gave to others were less than impressive. 

When you found the number you were assigned to your table and took your seat amidst a group of strangers, you felt a few snickers and condescending looks coming from your direction. It didn’t help that Yumi had been separated from you. There were a couple of women all decked in the hottest lines from designer brands; a Louis Vuitton bag was the basic standard to be part of them. As for the men, you took notice of one that reminded you of a runway model. He wasn’t the standard for what most people would consider handsome, but he definitely still caught people’s attention with his tall stature, plump lips and a fierce stare shielded by his round gold glasses that reminded you of the ones Harry Potter wore. By his grey pinstripe blazer pocket was a name tag pinned diagonally which read, “Kim Namjoon”. If you hadn’t been sitting across from him, you wouldn’t have been able to read his messy writing for his name tag. Though he didn’t smile much and held an intense look, he hadn’t laughed at your tea stains. He only glanced at it once before gazing ahead, seemingly for nothing.

As you sat anxiously in your seat and pretended to be busy browsing the Internet on your phone, you heard the announcement coming from the front stage that everyone should take their seats and stay quiet. Within a few minutes, the boisterous crowd was silenced and several rounds of speeches commenced. You were hoping to be inspired, yet you found yourself wishing that this whole ceremony would end so that you could change into a new set of clothing. The stickiness and the smell of the spilt tea were really getting to you. 

You became even more disheartened when you learned that the people at your table would be in your small class of 70 students. This program you attended was weird in that it felt a bit like high school. You would be stuck with the group of 70 students for two years and then the subsequent two years, you were free to choose your own courses. In total, there were eight classes and unfortunately, you were separated from Yuri and you weren’t really sure to which class Jimin belonged. Since no one else from your high school had decided to go to this program and you were from a different state that took four hours by plane to this city, you were pretty much a loner.

Loneliness wasn’t the only source of your problems. Your lack of knowledge in the area of business was telling, even from the first day of class. Most of your peers already had experience at some prestigious internship over the summer due to their parents’ connections or they were very, very interested in business and did some self-studying on their own. You, on the other hand, had never taken a course in commerce and didn’t even know how the business cycle worked. 

To exacerbate the situation, your grades were based on class participation and you were hesitant to voice your thoughts out of fear of being seen as a stupid person. Unlike in high school where the teachers just lectured and you took notes, you were expected to answer whatever question the professor posed. You were graded by the professor on how well you answered a question for every class and your peers also assessed your answers. There were midterms and exams, but they only comprised at most 60% of your grade. Even worse, your grades were bell curved to a 78; if you happened to be in a class of bright peers, you had to work even harder to just stay within the curve. Luck wasn’t on your side for you soon realized that you were placed in a class with the strongest power houses and the richest bunch of the lot. Due to your professor assigning seats to you on the first day, you happened to be forced to sit beside one of the smartest students in your grade: Kim Namjoon. Yes, he was that cool, collected guy who sat across from you during the orientation lunch. Fate just had to make you look foolish and anxious beside him.

Your only sigh of relief was that Jimin was also in your class. The professor had called out his name in class and saved him his name plate. As his last name started with a “P”, you two were on the opposite ends of the classroom. He wasn’t going to be back until a week later though and you really cursed him for that. 

Why? Well, your first week was more than brutal. Not only did your professors force everyone to introduce themselves for each class and play ice breaker games, you also were introduced to your worst nightmare: BTS. You see, you already heard about BTS during that orientation lunch. Some girls were chattering about how hot they were and how they specifically came to this program for them. Within a span of an hour or so, you learned that BTS was comprised of four members: Kim Seokjin aka Jin, Jung Hoseok, Min Yoongi and Kim Taehyung. 

Jin was the resident player who switched girlfriends as often as changing his clothes. Despite his Casa Nova tendencies, he was very charming, funny and direct. All the girls who had dated or slept with him never had any complaints about him because he had been upfront about his relationship status. He would never be taken. He would never be in a long-term relationship. He was only looking for fun. What made him very popular were two things: his prince-like face along with his family background. You met him once while you were just walking down the hallway and he really looked like the male lead of a shoujo manga series. As for his family, they were very traditional and were well-known for designing hanbok and pretty much dominated that niche market in fashion. Their family had been creating hanbok for more than 150 years and many of their designs were even showcased in museums as national treasures. It was no wonder that Jin also carried that traditional, elegant presence.

The second womanizer of this group was Hoseok who pretty much only dated older women, not even caring whether or not they were married. He also did not have long-term relationships, preferring to enjoy flings. Even more so than Jin, Hoseok was a true gentleman. You knew because whenever you came across Hoseok around campus, you noticed how he always held doors for the ladies and how he was the one that noticed little things about women like their new hairstyle or outfit. He seemed like the mother of the group and had a calm demeanour, which didn’t really match his family’s business. It was rumoured that Hoseok’s father was the leader of an infamous gang, which was in charge of several entertainment companies, bars, casinos, clubs, and restaurants. Even the police and government couldn’t get their hands on his father.

Then there was Yoongi who was born to a very wealthy family that dealt with trade, shipping, and manufacturing. Your first impression of Yoongi was that he was very quiet and stern and that he gave you that feeling of a delicate flower. There was a running joke throughout the school that he was like a stone and could sleep for over 24 hours. You heard a few guys complain about how it was a waste for him to carry the “Min” last name because all he was good at were music and sleeping. 

Finally, the last member of BTS was the notorious Kim Taehyung who pretty much ran the school. You remembered watching him give a speech during the orientation and your conclusion was that he was a spoiled arrogant brat who also happened to be a terrible communicator. He tried to use some idioms for his speech but got them wrong all the time; for example, he said, “Every cloud has a grey line” when he meant “every cloud has a silver lining.” You nearly burst out laughing when he said, “Actions hit harder than words” for “actions speak louder than words.” You knew that someone this dumb as him couldn’t have possibly gotten into this program without the help of his family who ran the “Kim Group”. They were a huge conglomerate that dabbled in the areas of real estate, tourism, food and beverage, technology, healthcare and more. Whatever opportunity they saw, they seized it readily. They were known to be like aggressive carnivores who swallowed growing companies whole. It was no surprise that Taehyung turned out to be like that too. 

Taehyung was an uncontrollable tyrant who did whatever he pleased and it didn’t help that he was blessed with a good looking face. He had this system where if someone pissed him off, he or she would be given a red card, which was a signal to everyone else that that person could be bullied or isolated. You hadn’t believed that this sort of craziness could occur in real life. You really thought that this behaviour was only found in movies until Taehyung handed a red card to someone in your class who had spoken ill of Taehyung. After that red card had been given to that classmate, all of your other classmates started to pick on him either by giving him the lowest participation grades or directly calling him names and playing pranks on him. After a week of torture, that classmate had dropped out of the program.

You thought to yourself that you had to keep a low profile and to try to minimize any interaction with Taehyung. Your goal was just to have a quiet university life and to graduate with honours. You didn’t need any sort of drama or chaos. You just wanted good grades and a good career. Nothing else mattered.

All that sort of thinking changed when you let your ego and sense of justice get to you. It all started when you were just joking around with Yuri by the stairwell. She was telling you about how stupid she seemed in class today because she said the wrong word. You were calming her down by revealing how someone in class couldn’t even locate Mexico on a map and thought that Mexico bordered France. Yuri started to laugh along with you, but she accidentally missed a step and slipped forward. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she had landed on the ground. Unfortunately, her foot hit Taehyung’s face and her bottom plopped right on top of him. He was left with a bloody nose and of course, the monster raged. He first pushed her off as if she were garbage, forcing her to land on her hip. Even when she kept apologizing, he still wouldn’t forgive her. 

You were so irritated that you just couldn’t keep your mouth shut. You pointed at Taehyung and roared, “Hold on. She already apologized to you! What more do you want?”

“What did you say?” Taehyung narrowed his busy, thick eyebrows together while glowering at you. “Is this how poor people show their friendship between each other?”

For some reason, his reaction just triggered you more, leading you to yell, “Here’s some wise words for you frog prince!”

“Frog prince?” He raised his eyebrows out of confusion.

“You’re just a frog stuck in a well!” you explained in a forceful tone. With your hands by your waist, you continued to shout, “You’re just riding on your parents’ wealth, hiding behind it! As if you really rule the world and can actually command people around like that when you haven’t even earned a penny of your own!”

That . . . was how you found a red card on top of your chair in the afternoon. You were lucky that you only had two classes at that time, meaning that you still had the rest of the night to figure out your game plan. After a restless night, you woke up with a few options in mind: (a) apologize to Taehyung and ask for him to spare you; (b) challenge Taehyung and his group by giving them red cards; (c) consult Jimin and persuade him to help you; or (d) speak to the headmaster about Taehyung’s behaviour. 

What to do, you kept wondering. What to do? None of these options were great, but they were the best that you could come up with. You didn’t want to say sorry to Taehyung because you felt like you had done nothing wrong; however you knew that if you didn’t, your future would be at stake. Although you wanted to challenge him, you weren’t sure if you really had the guts to follow through with that move. You could consult Jimin, but he often was more wishy washy than you. Speaking to the headmaster about Taehyung’s actions would probably be futile given how Taehyung’s family had donated an entire library and hall to this school. What to do . . . What to do . . . was the only question in your mind.

*Please vote for option a, b, c, or d on my Twitter account (@ citronblue1). The poll is up and it will close within a week. If you don’t have Twitter, then please comment and let me know your pick. If there happens to be no votes by the end of the poll's date, then I’ll probably just leave this story hanging unless interest picks up.