A/N: 4k words for chapter 1? im kinda proud ngl ;)

Yeji frowns as she yet again casts a sharp glare at the student who bumped into her, the shorter junior immediately shrinking under her gaze, muttering a soft “I’m sorry” before dashing away. Yeji clicks her tongue in distaste, sending more side glares to the onlookers before stomping away to the classroom. 

Bloody hell, they need to stop bumping into me. 

Yeji’s frown deepens as her furious steps slow to a stop, a crowd blocking her route to her classroom. Letting out a huff, Yeji pushes her way through, all the while clenching her jaw angrily. 

Yeji feels a hard grip on her wrist, tugging her back. 

“Damn- what’s your problem?!” 

Yeji immediately jerks her head to the voice, anger boiling within her — no one talks to her that way. Bringing up her fist at incredible speed, she grabs the boy’s collar, swiftly bringing him down to her eye level. 

“I’m telling you this once. Don’t talk to me that way. Got it?” 

To her surprise, the boy scoffed, shoving her before dusting himself off. 

“Pft, sure. I’m so scared.” He mocks, waving his hands in the air in mock surrender. 

The boy steps forward to grab her collar, but Yeji growls and catches his hand midway, twisting it behind his back, causing him to let out a loud groan. 

“I don’t think you understand. Ask anyone in this school, you don’t try to mess with me.” 

The boy tries to yank his hand out of her possession, only to spur Yeji on to stretch his hand further, gaining her a loud yelp from the boy. Flushing red at the involuntary sound that he released, the boy growled lowly, but stood his ground knowing better than to test her again. 

“Oh my god!” 

Before Yeji could react to the english words, she felt a warm palm on her forearm, a panicked girl coming into view. 

“I’m so sorry! We just transferred to this school today, and we literally don’t know anyone here. I’m sorry if my brother offended you!” 

Yeji’s eyes turned into slits, recognising the girl’s accent behind her korean words. The girl seemed unfazed, sending Yeji a bright smile, eyes turning into cute crescents. Seeing how Yeji had no intent of releasing her iron grip on her brother, the girl continues, “I’m Julia, you can call me Lia. That’s Jacob, and again, I’m sorry if he offended you. Can you let him go on my behalf? Please?”

Yeji frowns, feeling Lia’s hand trail down from her forearm to her wrist, gently prying her fingers from her hold on Jacob. Letting out a huff, Yeji releases her grip on Jacob, shoving him towards Lia before straightening out her uniform. 

“Count yourself lucky.”

Jacob was about to retaliate when Lia elbowed him in his ribs, causing him to hunch over with a soft whine. 

“Thank you!”

Yeji clenches her jaw, pushing past the crowd and finally reaching her class. That Jacob better thank his lucky stars. Yeji almost never lets anyone go without acknowledging her presence, or an apology. But judging by his pain-stricken face, and his sister’s apology, Yeji guesses she can be nicer for once. Never happening again though. 

At least she won’t have to see them again. 

Yeji hears the familiar clicking of high heels against the concrete floor, letting out a sigh before placing her bag on the empty seat next to her. 

Chemistry class. 

Ms Choo places her computer down on the table before ushering two students into the class. “Good morning everyone. As you can see, there are two new students joining us today. I’ll get them to introduce themselves.” 

Yeji lifts her head, only to let out a loud sigh when she sees them again. 

Great. 

“Hello everyone, I’m Julia, but you can call me Lia.” 

“I’m Jacob.”

Yeji rolls her eyes as she hears mumurring in front of her, the two girls gushing over the new boy. Jamming her airpods into her case, Yeji dumps it into her bag before burying her head in her newly borrowed book.

“Lia, you can sit next to Jungkook. Jacob, you can sit next to Seunghoon.” 

Yeji lets out a relieved exhale when she hears Ms Choo’s words, her teacher being smart enough to know not to place them beside her. 

Yeji’s eyes watched as she skips her way to Jungkook, the boy already having stars in his eyes. Lia sends him a bright smile, sitting down and continuing her introduction, which the guy didn’t seem to mind. 

Yeji takes out her textbook, flipping to the page they had left off the previous lesson, waiting for Ms Choo to start the lesson. Shifting her gaze, Yeji sees as Ms Choo fumbles with her computer, a sharp frown on her features. Ms Choo would take a while. She was never a tech savvy person anyway. 

Reaching in to grab her partially completed worksheet, Yeji quickly starts off where she had left it, scribbling notes and equations at the empty spaces around the questions. 

On the contrary of what everyone thinks, Yeji actually studies. Everyone only knows her as the scary year two senior who could choke anyone at anytime she wanted, anywhere, and sometimes for no reason at all. Yeji begs to differ; she was by no means an unreasonable person, and yes she may be moody most of the time but she makes an effort to not punch someone in the first five minutes of waking up. 

Count her older brother lucky. 

“Okay class, we can start now. Sorry for the delay.” 

Yeji flips to the first few pages where Ms Choo had left off, the partially marked question coming into view. 

“Continuing where I had left off, anyone wants to solve this question on the board?” 

Yeji ignores her teacher’s question, opting to skim through her answer to check for any careless mistakes. 

“Then i’ll just pick register numbers, since no one is volunteering.” 

Yeji sighs, she does feel bad for Ms Choo - occasionally. It isn’t easy being a teacher, but at the same time Yeji absolutely hates being the centre of attention, so there’s no way she’d go up. 

“Number 23?” 

Yeji swears she almost crushed her pen. 

What bloody luck. 

“Number 23?” 

Yeji feels the world spin around her, Ms Choo’s voice echoing in her ears. 

Okay. Breathe in and out. Easy. Yeji you got this. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. 

“Ah! Hwang Yeji, would you like to help us solve this question?” 

Yeji grits her teeth before giving Ms Choo a curt nod, clasping her worksheet tightly in her hands as she walks up to the whiteboard. The journey to the board felt excruciatingly long, the eyes boring into her back only making her spine shiver. Hearing soft snickers behind her, Yeji bites back a growl before snatching a marker from the table. 

Yeji furiously scribbled her working against the board, the poor board letting out various high pitched squeaks at Yeji’s urgency. 

She finishes her question with a loud clang, the marker being slammed against the metal marker holder. Ms Choo jumps a little at the sudden sound, but quickly gains back her cool, casting Yeji a small smile. 

“Thank you Yeji, you may go back to your seat now.” 

Yeji barely registered her teacher’s voice, already halfway to her seat before Ms Choo had given her the green light. Beads of perspiration forming on her forehead, Yeji clicks her tongue in distaste before wiping them away, combing her sweaty fringe to the side. 

“Wow, fantastic job Yeji! It was a tricky question but you managed to write out all the equations and go through it carefully. Good job!” 

Yeji winces at the enthusiasm Ms Choo sent her way, her eyes twitching at the judging stares her classmates sent her. 

So much for seeming dumb i guess. 

“Pft, probably just a lucky guess.” 

Yeji’s ears perk up at the comment, lifting her head to cast Jimin a dirty look. 

Don’t get her wrong, she didn’t care that people assumed she was dumb, but having someone outrightly tell that to her face was disrespectful on another level.

“Ms Choo, I’m a little confused for part two. Why did Yeji divide the number of moles by two?” 

Yeji’s ears registered the girl’s voice before her eyes did, the new girl Choi Lia coming into view. Yeji’s eyebrows furrowed slightly; did she not understand the working at all? 

Expecting Ms Choo to ask her to explain, Yeji’s eyes scrambled to skim through the question, having to refresh her memory after having done this assignment almost a week ago. To her surprise, Ms Choo lets out a small hum. 

“Good question Lia! Now, Jimin, would you mind explaining that to her?” 

Jimin jerks just head up from the table, the boy quickly hiding his phone in his pocket. 

“I’m sorry what?” 

Ms Choo’s eyes formed slits, boring holes into the poor boy. 

“Jimin, place your phone here. You can get it after class.” 

Jimin makes a noise of disagreement, but quickly followed suit when Ms Choo raised a brow, eyes sparing no sympathy. 

“Lia asked a question. Would you mind answering why Yeji divide the number of moles by two.” 

Jimin’s eyes widened in surprise, quickly scanning his paper, only to find out he had got the wrong answer. 

“I- got the wrong answer.” 

“And you didn’t think of paying attention? And don’t think i didn't hear that comment you made just now. If you don’t have anything nice to say in this class, keep it in. Got it?” 

The class quietens down at Ms Choo’s sudden outburst. The seemingly always calm and friendly teacher could really be a beast when she was angry. 

Yeji bites back a laugh, watching as Jimin tries to find his words to retaliate back, before the boy’s rational side overcomes his pride and he apologises. 

“Yeji, would you care to explain this to Lia?” 

Yeji tried to calm her heart, ignoring the stares her classmates were sending her