Prologue

What I have to do is simple. It’s something I’ve 
been doing since junior high, although there’s rarely been 
a time I’ve completely succeeded.

Okay, I admit. I at it.

But it’s the price I have to pay to try to get into 
the club that I’ve been dying to since the age of fourteen: 
the Rose Club. It’s for girls who are in high school, and 
they’re picked by only the most elite seniors who decided 
whether or not the applicants have what it takes. For me, 
well, I’ve always applied at the start of every new year, 
and now I was a senior myself. I had to get in—I had to. 
And each year, they give out a simple test: a packet 
containing a single name. It’s the name of the guy we have 
to seduce in order to pass.

And this year, the name is: Kim Jaejoong. No 
picture, no extra information; only the name and the school 
of attendance. Myong Ko high school. All I had to do was 
wait for this guy in front of the high school and get him 
to love my guts.

And believe me, that was exactly what I was trying 
to do.

There I was, wearing my second-hand dress that was 
laced at the bottom and had fake diamonds all along the 
chest area. My mom’s oversized heels were clicking beneath 
my feet, and trust me, my makeup was on the verge of 
closing shut my already tired eyes. I have to admit, I 
didn’t look my best. But seeing as it was one of my last 
chances to apply for the Rose Club, I didn’t give much of a 
damn at the moment. Let’s just say today I was going for 
the motto: desperation. Maybe if the guy saw me like this, 
he’d think I was a weirdo and fall in love with me. I hear 
Korean guys are into weird these days.

I watched as students piled out of Myong Ko, 
giggling without a single care in the world. Now all I had 
to do was ask one of them where…

“Look, there’s Jaejoong!”

Well, to my relief, I had no need to hold onto a 
total stranger and ask for my mystery guy. Apparently, he 
was already quite popular. I watched as a group of girls 
rushed after the so-called Jaejoong. Okay, so maybe this 
year’s mission was not as easy as I’d suspected. Being so 
popular, perhaps desperation wouldn’t work…

But then again, I was very, very desperate.

And so in my oversized heels, I began to run after 
the guy whom all the girls were chasing after themselves. 
Trying not to get stepped on by the crowd, I ran as fast as 
mother nature ever meant for female homo sapiens to run. 
That is, until I heard a huge crack and looked down in 
despair to find one of my heels had broken.

Damnit!

“Look, he’s getting away!”

As if I didn’t already know, the girl with the 
streaks of highlights who had first so thankfully pointed 
out Jaejoong to me shouted, almost as if she wanted me to 
know. Okay, okay. I knew he was getting away, and I knew 
this was my one and only chance to get into the Rose Club. 
It’s the club where all your fantasies come true; and trust 
me, for a girl who’s never been in love—let alone been 
loved—I definitely wanted my fantasies to come true.

And so, in the true desperation that I was now in, 
I spotted a lonely guy standing—or rather hiding—in the 
corner of the school walls. He looked perfectly normal; in 
fact, he was rather cute—but for some reason, he was in an 
awkwardly crouched position. Not that I should care at the 
moment.

“Hey!” I called, limping after him.

He looked up for a second, and then said, “.”

Yeah, that’s what he said. .

“Excuse me?”

“Just shut up, okay?” he said, giving me that look. 
I just got brushed off without even knowing it. “Don’t 
scream…”

Okay, let me tell you this. For a girl who was 
wearing her mom’s oversized heels—which had just been 
broken, by the way, and so I had no clue what hell my mom 
would put me through—I was pretty pissed off at a guy for 
saying ‘’ the complete first time he had laid eyes on 
me. I mean, did I look that ? All I could think of was 
kicking his when I remembered…

“Hey, can you do me a favor?” I said.

“I won’t be your boyfriend,” he hissed, getting up. 
“I’m so sick of people like you.”

What the hell was this guy on about? “Whatever,” I 
said, too busy to care. I needed to catch Jaejoong. 
“Anyways, I’m really sorry for what’s about to happen.”

And in a split second, I unleashed the Tae Kwon Do 
skills that had been hidden in me for so long. Well, at 
least from the last time I went to the Tae Kwon Do gym.

Careful not to flash my undergarments, I slipped 
him a knee kick and knocked him back over. Then, with speed 
as fast as light—okay, I am exaggerating—I slipped off his 
sneaker and put it on my foot. Then I threw on of my moms’ 
broken heels at him and ran for it.

Of course, I was stupid to not have gotten both of 
his sneakers, so I was more like limping with one foot in 
way oversized sneakers, and one in oversized heels. And I 
was running with all my might until I heard, from that 
damned highlight girl again…

“Hey, that’s not Jaejoong. Jaejoong’s right over 
there!”

And I saw her fingers point way behind me, to the 
spot I’d been at. She was pointing at the corner where the 
wall of Myong Ko met the gate. She was pointing at the 
direction where…

“.”

This time, the person saying was me.

Because from the corners of my eyes, I looked at 
where the highlight girl was pointing at. And trust me, the 
real Jaejoong who was standing there did not look very 
happy.

Because quite frankly, Jaejoong was one foot 
shoeless and holding on to an oversized, broken heel.

Oh, .