Son Chaeyoung opened her eyes to the blaring alarm. It’s 4 am in the morning but she needed to wake up for the damn orientation program. She was finally starting high school. She was quite excited for today, except for the waking up early part.

The school required students to arrive at school as early as 5.30 am for the orientation program. It was just too early!

She got up lazily and made up her bed. She proceeded to take a bath, changed to her old middle-school uniform, and went to the dining room.

“Chaeyoungie! Here, halmeoni made you some egg,” her halmeoni greeted her good morning.

Chaeyoung strode fast to the stove and helped her halmeoni with the utensils, “Halmeoni! You didn’t have to wake up this early for me.”

“It’s okay, I want to look at my oldest grandchildren wearing her high school uniform. Eh, why aren’t you wearing that new yellow blazer?”

“No, halmeoni, I will only be starting to wear the blazer after the 3-day orientation program. I am still wearing my middle-school uniform now.” Chaeyoung finished her breakfast quickly. She didn’t want to be late and this will be her first time taking the subway route to her high school, things might go wrong in every first time. Chaeyoung said her good bye and fastened her jacket before she went outside.

***

She saw crowd of tense-looking students gathered in the school field. They were sitting on the ground in rows with several yellow-blazer-wearing students overseeing the new students. Chaeyoung looked for the sign for her class and sat on the available spot.

She was sitting quietly minding her own business when they were told to stand up and went to the auditorium. Chaeyoung was glad that the seniors were thinking straight, finally, a heated room!

“Hi, is anybody sitting here?” a tall gorgeous-looking girl was looking at Chaeyoung.

“Oh, no, sorry,” Chaeyoung took her bags from the seat beside her. She looked at the girl’s uniform, “You didn’t go to Korean middle school?”

“Ah yes. I went to middle school in Taiwan.” “But you.. You speak Korean?” “I lived in Korea during middle school. I am Chou Tzuyu, by the way,” Tzuyu held her hand. “Hi, I am Son Chaeyoung.”

She was only starting to converse with her new friends when suddenly the event started.

“Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming here on time. We are starting our first orientation program now. My name is Park Jihyo and I am the head committee, so you will see me often. Before we start, let’s hear a word or two from our student president, Myoui Mina.” Uninterested and sleepy claps can be heard after the girl with sunny smile stopped her short greeting. She gave the mic to a girl who was supposedly the said student president.

Chaeyoung could hear the boys chattered and the other shushed. Chaeyoung herself was in silenced awe. The student president was seriously beautiful. She was wondering why all the girls she just met today were all gorgeous and pretty, but this one took the cake.

She literally looked like superstar! It’s hard to believe she was a high-school student. Her jet-black hair was elegantly wavy with every strode she took.

“Good morning, everyone.”

Wow, her voice sounds like honey!

It’s hard to notice what Mina was saying because Chaeyoung was too focused on how nice her voice sounded to her ears. All she knew was that suddenly Jihyo-unnie was talking again with all the rules and details of the orientation program.

***

“Wow, we’re gonna be so busy for the next three days!” Chaeyoung whined to her new friend.

“This is nothing compared to Taiwanese high schools.” “So, you moved here only to ditch that?” Chaeyoung looked at Tzuyu increduluously. “Of couse no, duh.. Let’s go shortie, our class mentor is waiting.” Chaeyoung couldn’t believe that she already got a nick name from this new friend, but she followed her anyway.

A super-white girl was already waiting for them. It seemed like she’s the mentor Tzuyu talked about.

“Hi, everyone! How are you today?” the mentor greeted them. Too cheerful, it’s still 6.30 in the morning. As expected, everyone only answered in mumble.

Fortunately, the mentor didn’t take it to heart. “Hello. My name is Kim Dahyun and I will be your mentor for the rest of the orientation program. You can ask me anything related but not limited to your orientation tasks. Now, let’s gather here before you started your class.”

Dahyun-unnie was a fun and informative person. Chaeyoung and Tzuyu also immediately clicked to her. It was almost like meeting childhood friends. “If you don’t have anything else to ask, good luck for your first class! We will meet again after school hours for the orientation program in this auditorium. Just chat whatever questions you have today on our group chat, see you!”

Chaeyoung liked first days. It was the day she wouldn’t want to skip because first days means fresh meeting and basically no-studying activities. Almost all classes today only talked about introduction and yadda-yadda-yadda. She felt like she hit the jackpot because she knew Tzuyu first. Her alluring beauty had made her popular so people took the initiative to get to know her. Because Chaeyoung and Tzuyu were now a package, Chaeyoung automatically got bits of the spotlight too.

It was finally 2 pm and damn, Chaeyoung was exhausted! She woke up super early today but she couldn’t go home yet because of the orientation program.

“Oh my God, I just want to go home!!!!” she whined a little bit too loud on her way to the auditorium because people were turning heads to them. She yelped because the person who turned her heads in front of her was the beautiful student president. Mina, however, said nothing though she looked at her displeasingly.

“Wow, someone grabbed the attention of Mina unnie,” Tzuyu whistled. Chaeyoung knew she was teasing her, it was in no way a good kind of attention. “Sshhh shut your mouth! What if she hears you!”

A day in the school has made aware of the school gossip. Myoui Mina was beautiful and smart and all, a perfect formula as a student president if only she wasn’t such a cold person. People feared Mina but they knew that Mina got the job done.

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter