Chapter 1

Minju

“So hear me out, we put the water slide in the hallway…” Yujin started.

Eunbi didn’t even look up from her papers, “No.”

“I said hear me out, you old woman!”

She shook her head at the excited girl and began to doodle at the edge of her paper. It was another one of their chaotic daily meetings inside the Student Council room. She had no idea how the students had voted the most dysfunctional group of girls but they had done it. They had their president Eunbi who was the only senior in the council and despite her older age could be just as immature as any of them and Yujin the Director of School Activities.

“What about that gaming center we talked about last week?” Sakura interrupted.

Hyewon raised her head from her sleeping position on her desk, “I second that.”

“Same.” Yena grinned.

Then there was Sakura the vice president along with Chaewon who was the only one out of all of them actually working. Hyewon was the Director of Public Relations and Yena was the historian.

“We’re not going to get into this argument again.” Nako whined. “We had to hear you all arguing for hours last week, Hitomi almost missed her daily bread run and cried.”

Hitomi whined, “No I didn’t.”

Nako and Hitomi were the general representatives voted by the school as a whole.

Wonyoung squeezed Hitomi’s pillowy cheeks, “Aww sure you didn’t Hii-chan!”

“Leave our peach Hitomi alone.” Yuri chastised.

Wonyoung was the Director of Fundraising and Yuri was the treasurer. She herself was the secretary of the council.

Yujin slammed her hands down, “Can we get back to this water slide idea?”

“No, the last time we listened to one of your ideas you set off a bouncy castle in one of the classrooms and we almost lost Chaewon in there because you measured wrong!” Eunbi yelled.

Chaewon looked off into the distance, “So many rubber balls, so much bounciness.”

That had been a fun predicament. The bouncy castle had burst inside a classroom making it almost virtually impossible to get in or out because the only exit was facing a wall. Somehow (probably Yujin’s fault) Chaewon had gotten stuck inside the bouncy castle and it had taken hours for the girl to get out.

“Some might say that the bouncy castle was a great idea with some lacking execution.” Yujin said diplomatically.

Wonyoung bluntly commented, “Everything you do is lacking.”

“Eunbi, she’s being mean to me again.” Yujin whined.

The president ignored her, “On a more serious note we have exciting news. The principal told me that we’ll be getting a transfer student tomorrow.”

“Ooh we never get transfer students.” Yena commented.

Which was true. Seoul Academy was a school for the 1% of Korea but had the additional pressure of being a specialty school that required auditions and testing. Each student along with having great academics had to participate in an extra program such as dancing, singing, or sports. What that meant was that not many people got into the school and everyone who did had to be pretty capable.

She was personally at the school due to lucking out and being a model since she was young. Her work in various fashion shows, pictorials, and CFs helped her get in on scholarship. While at the academy she got to pursue her interests in dance and singing as well. Unlike some of her friends she wasn’t super rich and was raised by a hardworking single mom.

Actually though, Hyewon and Sakura were also a part of the school’s modeling specialty. To a lot of the students they were known as the visual trio of Seoul Academy.

“This is the first time we’re getting a transfer student in almost twenty years so let’s make it a good event.” Eunbi said.

Yena perked up, “Did I hear welcoming party?”

“No welcoming party, you’ll scare the poor girl away.” Chaewon didn’t look up from her laptop.

Yujin tried, “Welcoming event?”

“No.” this time she answered.

Wonyoung sighed, “You got so much less fun since becoming secretary.”

“Don’t be silly she was never that fun.” Yujin snickered.

She stood, “Yah!”

Before she could begin to yell the loud sound of the bell interrupted them and the girls immediately all ran out of the room with only Eunbi left.

“You have to yell at them quickly or you’ll never get the opportunity.” Eunbi advised.

She looked like a goldfish with open as the president patted her back before walking out.

Sheesh she had bad luck.

Sakura

When her driver pulled into view of her house she was surprised to see the house next door was bustling with multiple moving vans. Movers were carrying in furniture and boxes with measured efficiency.

“When did they start moving in?” she asked her driver.

Mr. Cho looked in the mirror, “The family started at around 10 AM, seems to be a family. I think one of the girls may be the same age as you, Miss Sakura.”

Almost on cue a girl jumped out of one of the moving vans. She was wearing large noise cancelling headphones and nodding her head along to the beat. The girl was beautiful with ash blonde hair and a lean body of a dancer or athlete. More than that, there was something incredibly warm about the girl. Maybe it was the fact that she looked kind of like an adorable bear or maybe it was her innocent eyes.

“Would you like me to stop so you can introduce yourself?” Mr. Cho asked.

She stared, still mesmerized at the sight of the girl, “It’s fine, I’ll meet her eventually.”

“Alright Miss Sakura.”

They pulled into the winding driveway of her home and she gave a quiet thanks when her car door was opened for her. She walked into her large home and couldn’t help thinking that it felt empty.

That was why she liked being in the student council, not only were they working together as officers for the school but they were all friends. Whenever they were all together it was fun chaos and there was never a moment of silence.

Her parents were always off working and her brother was off at boarding school so even if she lived in a mansion sometimes she dreaded going home.

“Miss Sakura, do you want a snack before dinner?” the friendly housekeeper Miss Choi asked.

She shook her head, “I’m fine.”

With that she ran up the stairs to her room and dropped into her bed almost immediately. She slipped into a comfortable hoodie and took a second to relax. When some time passed she jumped to her feet and walked to the large window that faced the house next door. To her surprise the girl she had seen in the driveway was in the room across from hers.

The girls room was decorated simply but she noticed that there were several pictures and trophies displayed. When the girl set a box down she began to dance easily with her eyes shut. She watched absolutely mesmerized as the ash haired girl began to move fluidly to the beat. Watching her dance was like watching art in motion, as cheesy as that sounded.

She felt herself grow taken aback when the girl suddenly opened her eyes and they locked gazes. Her face burned up instantly at getting caught and her neighbor seemed equally as embarrassed. To her surprise the girl approached her large windows and opened them up and gestured for her to do the same. She reluctantly followed and shyly tucked her hair in.

“Hi I’m Lee Chaeyeon.”

“Miyawaki Sakura.”

Chaeyeon……she liked that name.

She hesitated, “Sorry for staring, it’s just the old neighbors of your house kept your room as a storage space so I guess I was just caught off guard seeing someone in it.”

“It’s no problem.” Chaeyeon laughed.

She blurted out, “Your dancing is really beautiful.”

“Thank you, you’re really beautiful too.” her neighbor replied quickly.

Chaeyeon seemed to realize what she said and turned an adorable shade of pink that made her want to just reach over and squeeze her cheeks if the distance wasn’t so far. Weirdly enough, people had called her beautiful her whole life but hearing it slip out of Chaeyeon’s mouth it seemed so much more genuine.

The girl cleared , “Anyways, I have to finish getting the boxes but it was nice meeting you Sakura.”

“You too.”

Chaeyeon shot her one last shy smile before shutting the window. After letting the warm feeling in her stomach calm down a bit, she shut her own window.

For some reason, her home didn’t seem as cold as before.

Hyewon

There was a truth un