▬ Chapter 1: Locked Doors ▬

I groggily fluttered my eyes open as I heard my alarm clock ringing. The moment I sat up to hit the snooze button, I immediately remembered the special event that would take place today which made me groan, close my eyes, and slump right back down on my bed. I quickly burrowed myself inside the warm blanket as I tried to get a few more minutes of sleep.

“Bom~”

I heard my mother’s voice a few seconds after two knocks on my door were made. She gradually peeled off the blanket and chuckled which I believe was due to my apparent change in expression and possibly slovenly appearance. I groaned again as I grabbed the blanket for warmth only to be greeted by the cold air moments later.

“It’s time for you to wake up.”

“I don’t want to,” I shut my eyes tight and mumbled my reply, snuggling myself for comfort.

“But didn’t you always love to go to school?”

Not really. I made good grades and all but the one thing I hated most about school was because of the people. Random people, even those whom I have never even met before, liked to play games with me. No, I’m not talking about monopoly or chess; I’m talking about bullying. I mean, who still does that in this era? Don’t they have better things to do? No matter how much I loved learning, I can’t concentrate when people interfere with my work. I don’t do anything to them but why do they do those things to me?

Sometimes I just want to jump into a book of fairytales where there are always happy endings but let’s face it, those are never real.

“Come on, it’s your first day as a junior in high school. Aren’t you excited?”

I finally gave up the moment my mother took the last straw whenever she tries to wake up someone – opening the darn curtains. After a few minutes of mumbling and grumbling, I finally decided to go take a shower and get ready for school.

I put on a plain, white, long-sleeved shirt with horizontal black stripes and some pair of black jeans. I quickly braided my long hair and hastily put on the black-rimmed glasses that sat lifelessly beside my bed. Finally, I grabbed my backpack that was sitting on my chair and headed downstairs to start heading my way to school.

“Bom, come have breakfast,” my father called from the kitchen as I went down the flight of stairs.

“I’m going to be late.”

“Just have a sandwich. You shouldn’t go to school with an empty stomach.”

I went to the kitchen and grabbed a chicken sandwich from the counter. I greeted my dad and the kitchen staff a good morning followed by a goodbye and was on my way out of the house.

“Do you want a ride to school, Ms. Bom?” Henry, our chauffeur, asked when he saw me walk by the garden.

“No thanks,” I gave him a smile. “I can manage.”

Oh, did I mention to you that my family is rich? Well, not to brag or anything but we’re the owners of the Seoul International Hotel chains here in Korea. I never bragged about my status in school since I just wanted to be treated normally. I didn’t want to be popular solely because I was the only heiress of some big company. That’s why I try to keep the spotlight away from me, hence my usual getup. I guess it backfired because even though I’m out of the spotlight as a rich heiress, I’m in the limelight as a bullied nerd. But I really need my glasses though, that’s for sure.

Even though things ended up this way, for me it’s definitely better. I don’t get bombarded with fake people trying to be my friend and aside from the bullying, I get treated like a normal student.

As I round the corner of the block, I finally arrived at Gyeonghwan High School, one of the most prestigious schools in Seoul. So, I guess this marks the start of my career as a high school junior student.

Well, wish me luck. I just hope that the people here would be nicer than those in my other school.

To my luck, most of the people in my first few classes were in the same class with me the previous year.

Great. Now I have to deal with them again.

If you’re wondering who I’m referring to, it’s those three blabber mouths – Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Seohyun – that always chase around guys and are always bragging about how much money they had. They