Chapter 3

Rose had to blink a couple of times and rub her eyes. Am I imagining things??? She thought.

The girl had to be at least a whole head taller than Rose. She had a perfect slim figure with long legs and everything. Rose’s gaze went up and she was met with a face that looked like it had just walked out of a k-drama. She looks even better than Jennie! Rose thought, in utter amazement and a bit of envy.

The girl closed the door and gracefully walked across the room. She placed her luggage at the foot of the bed and turned to face Rose, who was still sitting in the armchair, looking as if she had seen…I dunno…something so god-like.

‘Er…Hi!’ the girl said, smiling and revealing a full set of beautiful pearl white teeth. ‘I’m Jiyeon!‘ (A/N: btw, she’s a made-up character)

Rose finally fell back to earth and spoke.

‘Oh, um, hello! I’m Chaeyoung, but you can call me Rose.’

‘Oh, ok Chaeyoung!’ replied Jiyeon.

Ok, er, I just said you can call me Rose, but – um – okay? thought Rose, suddenly thinking if maybe Jiyeon was a bit hard on hearing.

‘So…are you excited to be on this exchange trip?’ Jiyeon asked, flipping her hair back and looking at Rose, almost as if she was trying to – somehow – seduce her, or pose for a photoshoot or something.

‘Yeah I am. I have some family over here that I haven’t seen for a while, so I’m gonna hopefully go see them sometime next week after school…maybe,’ replied Rose.

‘Oh how exciting!’ cried Jiyeon, causing Rose to raise an eyebrow.

It’s really not that exciting, but – er – ok? Damn this girl is a bit strange…why does she keep twirling her hair and smiling at me like that? It’s starting to get a bit creepy…maybe she’s just trying to be nice and make a new friend…thought Rose.

After their little conversation, Rose got up to go to the bathroom. She closed the door and locked it and was about to sit on the toilet, when she saw a pair of feet standing outside, from the gap underneath the door. Rose felt her heart accelerate. What’s Jiyeon doing standing outside the bathroom door while I’m trying to do my business??? She literally saw me go in!!! thought Rose. She waited until Jiyeon walked away, before finally using the toilet. By now, her thoughts on Jiyeon had gone from really good, to “ok she’s kinda strange and a bit freaky…”

Er, let’s fast forward a bit with this story.

So, Jennie ended up coming back to the dorm really late at night, and Rose was a bit surprised to that she didn’t get called out for it, as they had had a roll check at a meeting after dinner, and the instructors didn’t say a thing about Jennie’s absence. Jiyeon was still acting a bit strange towards Rose, and it had caused a few eyebrow raises from Jennie, who, by the way, completely ignored Rose for the entire two days before school started.

Right, now we’re a bit more on schedule with this story.

It was the morning of the day they were to go to the school that they would be attending. All the exchange students had gotten ready, and they all wore the school’s uniform, which Rose found rather uncomfortable. Maybe it was the tie. Jiyeon had already complemented Rose and how good she looked in the uniform so many times that Rose thought her ears might bleed from hearing the same thing so many times. Rose had also found out that Jiyeon was a very clingy person, and for some reason, it was only with her. Jiyeon didn’t seem to like socialising with Jennie, or any other student for that matter. Obviously, a lot of the boys were head-over-heels for her, and some asked for her number, but Jiyeon just shook her head and turned them down.

Ok, getting a bit carried away again, sorry.

They took the private coach to the school, and the first thing Rose thought when she saw it was: Wow, this a damn rich looking school! Maybe that’s why the fee for this trip was so expensive…I reckon Jennie wouldn’t have had any problem paying it though…speaking of, how come she’s still ignoring me? Did I…did I say something or do something to offend her or something??? I don’t think I did…Ahr!! Why is it so hard for me to maintain a friendship with someone???

Her mind was still buzzing with negative thoughts when they were split into separate classes. Rose was relieved when she found out that Jiyeon wasn’t in her class. For some reason, that girl drove Rose crazy. And not in a good way.

Rose’s class was on the top level of one of the many extravagant looking buildings. She had thought that a teacher or student of the school would guide her to the classroom like most schools did, but this school must’ve been different. Making a mental note to hate stairs for the rest of her life, she finally reached the top and searched for the correct classroom that she had been assigned to. She eventually located the classroom, which was hidden away behind a block of wall jutting out from the – er – wall (sorry, that was a bit repetitive…). The moment she opened the door of the classroom and looked inside, her heart dropped into her shoes.

The classroom was a nightmare.

Ok, maybe not a nightmare. More like some of the kids in the class were mucking around, jumping on the tables, drawing stupid stuff on the chalkboards, and a whole bunch of other stuff that made Rose gulp in nervousness.

Yup, this class was a complete zoo house.

Rose wasn’t used to wild classes like these, as most of her classes back in Australia were fairly well-behaved, and it was very rare in her school, for students to act so…er…wild. She timidly stepped into the classroom and the class suddenly went dead silent, every single pair of eyes on her.

For 3 seconds.

Then everyone returned to what they were doing, paying absolutely no attention to the new-comer. Rose let out a breath of relief anyway, as she really did not want to be the centre of attention. In fact, that was the last thing she would ever want. She scanned the available seats – well, there were a few because most of the students were out of their chairs and standing on tables, so….yeah. Umm, anyways, Rose looked to the back of the classroom and found a girl sitting in one of the seats waving to her. Rose made her way over to the girl who was waving, and gave her a small smile. The girl immediately stood up and bowed to Rose, and Rose awkwardly bowed back to her. She was still getting used to bowing every time someone bowed at her, as her parents had told her that it was a sign of respect.

‘Um, hello. My name’s Chaeyoung, but you can call me Rose.’

‘Hello Rose! I’m Kim Jisoo, and I’m your – er – I guess you could call, “buddy”, for your stay here at our school,’ said Jisoo, who Rose found to be rather formal, and seemed like a sensible person, compared to the other students in the class.

And she was also pretty.

Very pretty.

Why is everyone here so damn pretty??!! Rose thought, feeling so envious of every girl she had met since she had agreed to participate in the exchange program.

Jisoo gave Rose a full run-through of the school rules and everything, as well as the bell times and all that what-not, in under 5 minutes. Jisoo was halfway through explaining another topic (that Rose was only half listening to, because she could barely understand anything the older girl was saying as she was speaking way too fast), when all of a sudden, all the students who were horsing around, immediately scrambled to their desks, rubbed off anything on the board, and were all seated at their desk in 5 seconds flat.

5.1 seconds later, the form teacher walked into the class.

Damn! These guys are good with their timing, I’ll give them that, thought Rose, impressed by what she had just seen.

The morning went off to a smooth but boring start, and Rose was trying really hard to understand everything the teacher was saying, as her Korean was still not the best.

Morning break came around, and Jisoo took Rose to the cafeteria. They were fairly early so there wasn’t much of a line-up for the food. The school had a huge variety of different foods, another possible reason why the exchange program fee cost so much, Rose had thought.

After 10 minutes of Rose choosing all types of small snacks to have and Jisoo patiently waiting for her to hurry up and finish, they were finally able to head back to class. As they were walking out of the cafeteria, Rose noticed a large group of students had formed near one of the lunch tables.

‘Hey Jisoo-unnie? What’s going on over there?’ asked Rose, remembering that Jisoo had told her before that it was fine to call her “unnie”.

Jisoo took one look in the direction of the large group of kids, and turned her attention back straight away.

‘Oh nothing much,’ she stated quite bluntly. ‘They’re just a bunch of students who’s heads are much too high up their arses.’

Rose held back a gasp, as it was the first time she had heard Jisoo use such language. She didn’t know that such words could come out of such a responsible, innocent-looking student.

‘Oh,’ replied Rose, seeing that Jisoo was clenching her fists..

Just before they went out of the door, Rose snuck a quick look back at the group, and caught a glimpse of a slender girl sitting on the table. She had a beanie on, wore street-style clothes, and, well, basically her entire attire was a school rule violator. The girl turned her head and her eyes fell upon Rose’s gaze. The moment lasted less than a second, but to Rose, it felt like forever. She felt like her soul had suddenly been out of her body and was sent to some love island place.

If it hadn’t been for Jisoo, Rose would’ve walked straight into the door.

At that moment, something changed inside Rose. She felt different. She didn’t know how to put it. She wasn’t exactly in love with this person, whom she hasn’t even spoken to yet, but for some reason, she felt this instant connection with this rebel-looking girl.

Was it love at first sight?

Nah, probably not.

But if it wasn’t love, then why was her heart racing a bajillion miles a second?