Chapter 01

 

The beginning of their (her) painful life.

 

 

 

The two youngest in the house finally got themselves ready for the class today after a long journey. 

 

Hwanwoong issued a fierce glare towards Keonhee as they walked leisurely towards their kitchen, most likely to have a quick breakfast since there's only left with 15 minutes before their class started. 

 

They should feel lucky since their house was only a few blocks away from their faculty. It only took a few minutes to reach there by car. 

 

"When can you guys be early for your class?" The first question heed by the boys as soon as they took a step into the kitchen. 

 

Hwanwoong rolled sluggishly his eyes as he promptly secured his seat beside the talked boy, "It's Keonhee today," He complained bitterly. 

 

Earnestly saying, Hwanwoong woke up early today but then he was struggling hopelessly to wake Keonhee up which is a rare scene to see. 

 

Keonhee pouted his lips feeling unfair with the brutal attack, "It's only for today. Finally, you feel how struggle I am to wake you up every single day." 

 

Let's be honest; Hwanwoong never wakes up early, not even once, just let's say he's lucky today. 

 

"Eat your breakfast, or we'll leave without the two of you," The oldest one among the residents appeared behind of them with his car key in hand.

 

"Youngjo, you should eat first," The second oldest invited the boy to have a sit with them. 

 

He jerked his head, politely declined the invitation, "I think I will just grab something at the cafe later. You know I can't eat breakfast," Youngjo reasoned. 

 

"Let me eat all of it, if he refused to eat," Keonhee started to eagerly devour all of the remaining foods on the plate and his same age friend, Hwanwoong just simply looked at him with a really judging expression on his face. 

 

The other boy called Geonhak feels entertain to see the two boys kept quarreling with each other, "Hurry up. We need to get to class in 5 minutes," He told them, and they fastened their pace in eating. 

 

"I'll wait downstairs in the car. Make sure you're on time, or I will really leave you," Youngjo credibly threatened the two boys and they decided to just grab anything they could before they followed him from behind. 

 

"You should stop being so petty," The first thing Keonhee complained as soon as he captured the empty seat beside Hwanwoong. 

 

The small boy had slightly hit his arms, demanding the tall boy to stop defying Youngjo. 

 

Youngjo then looked at the reflection of Keonhee in the mirror while he instantly started to drive, set off on the journey towards their university. 

 

“Lee Keonhee, you should be grateful that Youngjo sent you the class everyday or else you will be extra late for it every single day,” Geonhak scoffed as he merely crossed his arms, “He didn’t even have any class today,” The boy glared at the driver, typically making an annoying expression. 

 

Keonhee mumbled alone as he rolled his eyes, “Kim Geonhak, why are you being so salty towards me today? Did you break up with your girlfriend?” 

 

He stunned, gulping his throat as he awkwardly bobbed his head to look outside the window. 

 

“Wait, what? It’s true?” Keonhee startled as his eyes widened, exchanging a look to Hwanwoong who literally possess a face of ‘I don’t give a ’ to everyone in the car, “Damn, Geonhak. Stay strong, I know---”

 

“How can he break up when he didn’t even have a girlfriend?” Hwanwoong interrupted gently Keonhee’s words, “Apparently his crush rejected her yesterday. Because of someone,” His eyes glared savagely at Youngjo who was trying so hard to not get distracted by the conversation. 

 

Keonhee furrowed his eyebrows, feeling confused with the situation he’s in at the moment, “Wait, I couldn’t understand anything.” 

 

The moment he claimed that, the car stopped, finally they’re in front of the faculty, “That girl, she said she likes Youngjo. That’s why,” Geonhak stated before he left the car. 

 

“Thank you for the ride today too,” Hwanwoong followed Geonhak from behind, leaving Keonhee cluelessly in the car. 

 

Youngjo marked the expression Keonhee had on his face before he lightly chuckled, “Go,” He said, “You will be late for class.” 

 

Keonhee excused himself and there left Youngjo in the car alone, wondering uneasily if it’s really fine for him to keep blatantly ignoring all of the things happened around him.

 

 

♦—♦—♦—♦—♦

 

 

“Can you just please leave me alone, Lee Keonhee?” Hwanwoong started to get annoy as the boy kept bothering him ever since the class started. 

 

Well, Keonhee was really the type to get curious over everything and wouldn’t stop until he gets the answer he wants. So here he is, clinging persistently onto Hwanwoong to answer his curiosity. 

 

Geonhak looked at his two friends from the back seat as he toss back his head, “I’m the one who was getting rejected, why everyone else kept invariably getting the unnecessary attention?” He complained bitterly. 

 

“Okay, guys, we will be having a new batch of students coming this evening. You might want to greet them as a senior or even guide them through the orientation week,” The lecturer began to inform when he had done teaching. 

 

All of the students in the class merely had a boring expression on their face because it’s a normal thing they have been doing for the past two years. There’s only two years left for them to get the certificate they’ve been waiting attentively for, so why should they interact with someone younger? 

 

Extra credit? None of them genuinely really care about that because all they think would be how important it is for them to steadfastly maintain their grades. 

 

It’s already hard to merely maintain their grades, why bother with those useless extra co-curricular activities though? 

 

“Kim Geonhak, Yeo Hwanwoong, and Lee Keonhee,” The three boys flustered when their name being called but could expect it’s going to happen, “I’ve placed your name to be the facilitators for the orientation week, so don’t forget to have a look on them this evening.” 

 

They looked gloomily at each other, before each of them heaving out a really deep sigh, feeling disastrously defeated with their own destiny. 

 

“You put our name again right, Lee Keonhee?” Hwanwoong gently urged with a friendly voice as he didn’t want to scare Keonhee off when probably, it’s scarier when the boy did that. 

 

Keonhee awkwardly scratched the nape of his neck as he gradually reached his bag on the floor, intentionally wanting to run away from the two of them. 

 

“Don’t you dare to run away from us,” The shortest boy among them already had Keonhee’s neck in his grip as he headlock him, “Let’s go die together,” Hwanwoong forcibly dragged the boy with Geonhak faithfully followed them from behind.

 

 

♦—♦—♦—♦—♦

 

 

“Why the hell I need to do all of these?” Jiae was walking alone with abundance of books in her hand. 

 

She had no idea why she needs to enroll in university just because of something she didn’t want to do. 

 

Blame Xion who was forcing her to do this. 

 

Oh wait, he changed his name to look normal right? 

 

Son Dongju. That’s what she should call him now. 

 

“Where the hell the ungrateful boy go?” She justly complained as the books were supposed to be handled by Dongju since the lecturer told them to send it to the library. 

 

They’re supposed to have orientation so why the hell they need to all of these petty things. 

 

If only they know who Jiae is, they wouldn’t ask her to do it, since their life is in Jiae’s hand anyway. 

 

With the girl being clueless on where the library located at, she has been walking aimlessly for the past 5 minutes, “Can I just use my power here?” She whined, spouting it a little bit loud, attracting other’s attention around her. 

 

She gulped, aware of all the odd stare given to her as she carefully lowered her head down and fastened her pace that she didn’t realize she was already bumped into someone. 

 

“Ouch,” She whined with the books scattered on the floor, “Aish,” She’s close to curse when her heart suddenly beats at a more rapid rate. 

 

Jiae frantically grabbed her chest, trying to scarcely suppress the unbearable pain she felt in her heart, “Wh---What is happening to me,” She mumbled incoherently, her shallow breath became short, as if there’s someone suffocate her heart. 

 

“Hwanwoong, I told you to not drag me like that.” All she could merely hear was mumbling beside her as two pair of legs could be seen from her vision. 

 

“I don’t know. Shouldn’t we help her?”

 

“Yah, Yeo Hwanwoong, Lee Keonhee, what the hell are you doing?” The husky deep voice penetrates her ears, but it sounds like a buzz sound, distracting her. 

 

The boy kneeled down, gently placed his hand on the girl’s shoulders, as Jiae elevated her head up, slowly meeting the boy’s eyes. 

 

Upon she looked at him, her eyes began impulsively to teary forming an unexplained clear liquid that eventually, running down her cheeks, dripping onto the floor. 

 

“Are you okay?” He softly asked her but the pain in her chest becomes worst. 

 

She gritted her teeth, looking fearfully at the boy, “I---” Jiae couldn’t continue her words as her world suddenly becomes blurry, she knows precisely something never happen to her will begin to occur starting from today. 

 

“Yah, what the hell are you doing to her?” That’s the last sentence Jiae could heed before she lost her conscious and she was at least sure she will be safe, because that’s Xion’s voice.