I.

"Today we are going to dance hip hop." says Mrs. Joon. The students look at her excitedly because they love hip hop and when someone says hip hop, they automatically think break dancing, popping, locking, waving, liquid dancing, and krumping. Their favorite type of dance. "I know most of you are very familiar with this dance and most of you really dance hip hop so I expect your full cooperation and active participation in the days to come." the class agrees but Yuri's agreement can be read without her nodding her head or saying anything. The look in her eyes says she's game for anything when it comes to dancing. Since Mrs. Joon really loved Yuri's dancing on the first day, she calls for a demonstration from all the students.

"I want each and every one of you here to do a demo dance. Show us what you've got. Show us that you deserve to be here in this class." Park Gahee, the eldest and the best dancer flips her hair to the side and confidently stands up. She walks toward Mrs. Joon and introduces herself.

"To all of you, "she looks at Yuri and gives her the evil eye. Yuri notices this and slightly moves backward. "I am Park Ga-hee. I am the best dancer here. I've been a dancer since I was 12. I trained in all fields be it ballet, jazz, hip-hop. You name it, I can dance it. Cheerdance? Bring it on. I'm not going to dance alone, nuh-uh! I have a real tight crew with me. My real tight crew, please come up here in front and introduce yourselves!" Three other girls stand up and walk toward Gahee. Gahee pulls her iPod out of her pocket and plugs it into the speakers. They wait for the music to play. Yuri tilts her head and stares at them with serious eyes and a pokerface.

[song: "Hero" by Kim Sori]

Soo Young, Minzy, Hyun Ah, and leader Gahee position in a straight horizontal line. The begin to grind their bodies to the music, striking poses before stepping forward to demonstrate the first few steps that they have come up with. The boys are going nuts while the girls are shaking their booties to the music.

Minzy and Hyun Ah step forward in time for the chorus. They strike a few more poses before going back to their original position. Gahee then shoves Minzy and Hyun Ah aside so that she could shine in time for the chorus.

The four lovely ladies begin to demonstrate dirty dancing, sitting on the floor or lying on their stomachs posing ily. Since most of their admirers are guys, they don't really care whether they copied the steps or what. All they're after is the rush. The y part is about to come and it's an opportunity for Gahee to arouse the guys and hopefully make the other girls jealous.

Gahee slowly lifts her shirt and grinds to the y and naughty part of the song. The guys go woah as the three other girls pose at the back. Gahee also demonstrates some jazz with some gymnastics by flaunting her flexibility. She stretches her legs and even splits for the class. Yuri has no reaction and only keeps thinking about her goal instead of distracting and downing herself by focusing on Gahee's legs and dance steps.

Gahee moves backward and allows her friends to take the stage. Minzy, Hyun Ah, and Soo Young show the class the steps that they thought of before the start of the semester. Minzy's popping is impressive, showcasing fluidity in her body. Hyun Ah's y dancing which is much like what Gahee has shown, is equally titillating as the leader's and Soo Young's heavy legwork and fast movements just make the boys dizzy but it is still worth the thrill of watching four hot girls demonstrate their dance.

For the chorus, the girls line up once more and do their dance. Since Gahee is the iest amongst the four, she is the one who flaunts the most skin and does the iest movements. The four girls pull chairs, one for each girl, and sit on them. The boys know what's coming next.

The four girls ily danced while sitting on their chairs. Chair dance as it is known. They toss their hair around, gyrate, grind, kick their legs up and make some y hand gestures. Yuri is not the least bit afraid of them although you can see doubt forming in her eyes.

The bridge of the song comes next. Since the bridge mainly consists of chanting and hollering, Gahee and the girls decide to give it a hip hop feel by showing off their final weapon: the hard, hip hop part. They kick their chairs aside and begin to move heavily to the bridge part. Their steps are hard and fast and very difficult to follow. Gahee steps forward and sharpens her moves even more in an effort to intimidate Yuri and hopefully scare her into leaving the school. Gahee shows some heavy handwork and gyration; Hyun Ah does some dirty dancing; Minzy flaunts her hip-hop skills; and Soo Young puts her legs to good use by showing off her legwork skills. Yuri could only stare at them.

Their presentation has ended with a pose and they are being applauded by their classmates, surprisingly, including Yuri. Gahee is quite surprised that Yuri is clapping for them whereas they gave her evil eyes when she demonstrated.

"Very well presented Ms. Park Gahee." comments Mrs. Joon. "Now for the rest of you, come forward and show us what you've got. Group or solo, you're welcome to dance." The other students go to the front with their iPods to play their music and show their moves. Hip hop, jazz, y dancing, whatever. You name it, they showed it. All the students have presented except for one. Yuri. Yuri remains seated in one corner with her bag on her chest. Nobody wants to talk to her, still. Finally, Mrs. Joon notices Yuri's silences and cajoles her to dance in front.

"Ms. Kwon Yuri. You haven't shown your dance yet. Would you like to come to the front to show us your talent." Yuri looks at Mrs. Joon surprised and stands up. She takes her iPod out of her pocket and plugs it in. Gahee and Hyun Ah who are fixing their hair, look her way and begin to laugh and murmur. Yuri notices this and shakes her head lightly. She tries to stand still but somehow can't stop fidgeting. Yuri waits for her music to come up. Finally, it does.

[song: "Hurricane Venus" by BoA]

Yuri starts off with some light motions and later progresses into heavy, hip-hop oriented movements. The class is amazed with what Yuri has done. Gahee tilts her head arrogantly and stares meanly at Yuri. She then shows cheerleading oriented movements. She makes use of heavy handwork, flipping, bending, splitting, and heavy legwork, too. Her gymnastics movements are impressive and she even gives it a hip-hop touch.

For the bridge, Yuri turns y. Gyrations, grinding, leg touching, body touching, she did it all. The guys start to stare at Yuri's body and forget that they even watched Gahee. Yuri begins to feel the energy and decides to end her demonstration explosively.

By showing to the class that she can do heavy hip hop. That's just up to you to imagine how.

And pose. Yuri's y pose stuns all the students, including Gahee. Gahee angrily drops her makeup bag and walks over to the front with hopes of confronting Yuri. Yuri walks away quickly at the sight of Gahee and her violent eyes. Gahee doesn't let her slip away and walks (not runs) after her. Gahee reaches her and taps her on the shoulder, forcing her to face her.

"Look! I don't care if your dance was better than mine, I'm still the best dancer here, do you understand?" Gahee starts to squeeze Yuri's arm but Yuri pulls away quickly.

"Hey! What's your problem? I ain't doing nothing to you!" Yuri defends. Gahee grits her teeth at Yuri and pushes her, nearly knocking her down.

"To be honest with you," she points at Yuri's collarbone. "Your dance was nothing special. All you did were cheerleading moves. Your hip-hop wasn't even that remarkable!" Gahee insults Yuri but Yuri bites back.

"Well to be perfectly honest with you Ms. Park Ga-hee, your dance was very dirty! Very filthy and very cheap! The four of you looked like strippers desperate for money!" Yuri says. Gahee is taken aback by what she said and slaps Yuri.

"You !" Gahee yells. Yuri scrambles and tries to stand up, her hair all messy and her right cheek blushing red. Everyone looks their way, including Gahee's friends. Of course, Gahee's allies rush to her side and try to help her terrorize Yuri.

"What did this say?" asks the deep-voiced Minzy.

"She said our dance was dirty and we looked like es!" Yuri is sitting helplessly on the floor with her right hand on her burning red cheek. Gahee's slap really made Yuri collapse on the floor.

"Ha! Well who looks dirty and wasted now, huh?" Soo Young taunts. She grabs Yuri by the hair, Yuri struggles in vain to break free from Soo Young's tight grasp. It's her second day in school and things have already gone bad.

Until rescue comes.

"Hey! Hey Soo Old! Leave her alone!" yells a voice from the back. Soo Young violently releases Yuri, making her collapse on the floor once more. She and her friends look towards the direction of the voice.

Who came to Yuri's rescue?

Nicole Jung.

Gahee, Minzy, Hyun Ah, and Soo Young approach Nicole Jung who is bravely standing in front of them.

"Hey Nikki!" teases Hyun Ah. "Didn't your mama ever tell you not in to other people's business?" Nicole crosses her arms in front of her chest and just waits for them to make their move.

"She did, Hyun Ah. She surely did. But that girl's safety is something that shouldn't be neglected. You could've killed her!"

"Ha! Killed? , she started it!" Gahee defends her side.

"Oh yeah? So the new girl started everything huh? Gahee, I think you should shift to the writing department because really, you're so good at making things up! Who knows the rumors that you spread could become a best seller one day!" Nicole wittily replies. Thanks, but no thanks Nicole. I'm not really interested in having Gahee as my classmate in the Writing Department.

"Shut up, Nikki Jung! You're really getting into my nerves!" Gahee answers back.

"Gahee, we've been classmates for years. Call me Nicole. And what? I'm to believe that the new girl brought the fight in? Please! She's here two days! She doesn't know you girls! How could she possibly start a fight?"

"She called us dirty! There's your answer Ms. Pesky Pants!" Minzy snaps.

"Well actually your dance was dirty. You could've done something better but you opted to seduce the guys and disgust the girls. Because reality check, not all the students here are testosterone-driven! You have female classmates who just found your performance distasteful." Nicole hits back.

"I think you're really looking for a fight, huh?" Soo Young, the bully in the class, steps forward and clutches the collar of Nicole's blouse. Two girls emerge from the back.

"Now you step backward Princess Goliath! Don't you ing dare touch Nicole like that!" A girl with hair similar to Nicole's steps forward and tries to confront Soo Young. Another one comes out with wavy, brown hair and a beautiful pair of eyes.

They are Min and Hyo Yeon, Nicole's best friends.

"Hah! And what are you gonna do? Step on us?" the four girls erupt laughing.

"No." answers Min. "I'll do better than that!" Min swiftly takes a hold of the garter of Gahee's shorts and pulls them downwards, exposing her . The studio erupts in laughter and the guys…well you know how guys are, right? Gahee screams in humiliation as her friends try to cover her up. Soo Young rushes to chase Min who tags Hyo Yeon and Nicole with her. Terrified, flattered, relieved, but still scared, Yuri runs along with them.

Hyo Yeon, Min, Nicole, and Yuri hide in the janitor's storage room. There they laugh silently and cackle at the four girls.

"Bull, Min! That was some ed up pulling down!" Hyo Yeon laughs.

"I know right? Well, they were asking for it so I gave it to them!" Yuri is hyperventilating, caused by running, laughing, and extreme fear.

"…" she starts out of breath "How can I ever thank you girls for saving me! Without you, I would've been dead!"

"That's no . They do that all the time." Nicole says. "They like to think that they're better than everyone else. But you really showed them. Your performance was better than theirs."

"Yeah!" agrees Min. "You really showed your talent without being too trashy or what. Congratulations! Welcome to the class!"

"Thanks."

"By the way, what is your name?" asks Nicole.

"Oh. My name is Kwon Yuri. Say, didn't I introduce myself yesterday?"

"We weren't around yesterday. We had to take care of some things. We came in just today. Nice to meet you Yuri!" explains Nicole.

"Nice to meet you too! But I don't really feel like socializing in the janitor's closet. Can we go out?"

"Okay. Let's check first if the girls are still there. Then we can go out. Hyo Yeon, step out and check." Hyo Yeon exits the janitor's closet and carefully scans the campus. Nope. No sign of Gahee and her clique. All is safe.

"Coast is clear ladies! We can go out!" the four girls emerge from the janitor's closet and confidently walk together.

"Just when I thought this day was gonna be the worst day in my life," Yuri says "You girls showed up and defended me. Thanks. Oh and by the way, I don't know your names yet."

"Nicole Jung." says the girl with short hair.

"Lee Min Young. But call me Min." says the other girl with short hair.

"Kim Hyo Yeon." says the girl with long, brown, wavy hair.

"Kwon Yuri." introduces Yuri once again.

"Welcome to the school, Kwon Yuri. Say, why don't we eat lunch together and maybe we can get to know one another even better?" invites Nicole while playfully shaking Yuri's hand. The girls burst out laughing at Nicole's funniness.

"Sure. I don't have any friends yet so thanks guys for volunteering to be the first friends." Yuri says sweetly.

The four walk back to the dance studio talking and laughing. This is the start of a beautiful friendship.

II.

Raina is walking down the hallway the following day with a bunch of music books in her hand. She heads for her locker and is surprised to see Minho standing by her locker with his hand resting on it.

"What are you doing here?" asks Raina. Minho removes his hand from the locker and places his hands in his pockets.

"Well I came here to see my beautiful girlfriend Raina." for some reason, Raina feels awkward around Minho.

"Uhm. That's nice, Minho. But I kinda need to be alone right now." Raina sweetly pleads with him. Minho smirks and follows her as she walks away from him.

"Why? Don't you love me anymore?" Minho asks with a cute voice and an even cuter facial expression. This makes Raina giggle lightly.

"Of course I love you. It's just that I need to be alone. Just for today. I really need to do something. Kindly not follow me around. Please, Minho." Raina carefully, sweetly, and nicely pleaded. Minho is now irritated. His eyes irk and his brow raises at the sound of her voice.

"Hey Oh Hye Rin!" he hollers angrily. Raina looks back at Minho with a scared look on her face. She knows what's coming next. She knows better than to test Minho's patience. She knows that whatever Minho wants, Minho gets and if Minho wants to spend time with Raina, Oh Hye Rin better give it to him. "How long has it been since we last bonded? Since we last spent time together? Huh?" Raina walks towards Minho shaking. Minho crosses his arms in front of his chest.

"We haven't…havent' bonded for quite some time…" Raina stutters. Minho takes her wrist and pulls her towards him.

"If you have no desire whatsoever to spend time with the only guy that cares about you, then I suggest you go leave me alone and find another boyfriend who's willing to submit to your petty needs." Minho grunts. Raina takes his hands into hers and begs him not to leave her.

"Please Minho. Don't leave me. I just need to do something. I have a class-"

"Shut up!" Minho breaks free from her grasp. Raina wraps her hands around Minho but he pushes her away. "I don't want to have anything to do with that stupid project of yours. All I'm asking for is a little bit of your time and you still can't give me some. You're a good singer! We get it! There's no need for you to practice!"

"But Minho, this is our assignment. We have to compose something. At least have some concern for your girlfriend's performance. Plus, we have a class after this. If you really love me then you'd let me pursue-" Minho hit Raina and sends her things scrambling on the floor. Raina backs away shocked with her hand on her face and her hair disheveled. The other guys on the campus look on. Minho doesn't care about their stares. He is frustrated that his girlfriend won't spend time with him. Once more, Raina runs in humiliation. Minho looks at the other people staring at him.

"What?" he throws his hands up in the air arrogantly. "Is it your first time to see a guy get angry with his girl?" Minho walks away angrily and slams Raina's locker. Raina hears this and runs faster. The others look away from Minho and follow Raina with their eyes.

Raina runs past her friends Sun Ye and Hye Rim with her hands over her face. Sun Ye and Hye Rim run after her but Raina runs to the bathroom and locks herself in. Hye Rim bangs on the door, begging Raina to open it.

"Raina, please! Open the door! It's Hye Rim!" Sun Ye knocks next and calls her out.

"Raina. What are you doing! Please don't lock yourself in there!" Sun Ye begs. Raina leans on the door to block it and cries out loud. So loud her friends can hear it. Raina reaches for the door knob and opens the bathroom door, letting her friends in while still sitting helplessly on the floor crying her eyes out. Hye Rim and Sun Ye enter the bathroom and try their best to comfort Raina.

"What the hell happened to you?" Sun Ye asks. "What is it about this time?"

"You've been crying and crying for days! What's happening?"

"Minho…" Raina says. "Minho slapped me this morning!" Raina continues to cry. Her friends look at her shocked and embrace her.

"He did that to you?" Sun Ye asks angrily. "And what did you do next?"

"I ran all the way here!" Raina replies.

"Well why did you allow him to? Honey, if you think he's actions violate your rights you better step up to him and tell him to stop!" Sun Ye reprimands her friend. Raina just won't stop crying. Not because of the pain Minho gave her by slapping her but because of the emotional pain that Minho is putting her through.

"I just can't. You don't understand." Raina sobs. Hye Rim holds her close and lets her lean on her shoulder.

"We understand."

"How can you?" Raina pushes Hye Rim away and looks at Sun Ye with piercing, angry, scorned eyes. "You girls never had boyfriends, how could you say that?" Raina stands up and pushes her friends away, leaving them in the bathroom. The two are dumbfounded at how Raina could make a fool out of herself just for a guy who treats her like chicken .

"Raina is a weak, weak, pitiful girl." Hye Rim utters without blinking or taking her gaze off of Raina.

"I know. She's such an idiot. I can't believe she's that way." Sun Ye agrees. The two girls step out and try to look for Raina.

Look what she's doing.

The two girls see Raina trying her hardest to make Minho forgive her. They know-because they're her classmates in voice class-that Raina has to do something. They all have to do something. But look at what Raina's doing. Sticking to Minho after what he just did to her.

"Minho! Minho! Okay. I'm not gonna do my homework anymore. I'll just go wherever you will go." Raina says in between sobs.

"Finally! You've come to your senses. Wow! All it takes is a hit across the face. Maybe I should hit you often." this scared Raina, but she nonetheless doesn't mind. She'd rather be hit by Minho than to be alone.

"I'm really sorry Minho. I should've never argued with you." Raina says sheepishly. "Come on, I'll tell Mr. Lee that I'm sick so we can hang out together."

"You better be sorry. Because you're really gonna regret it the next time you around with me. Come on! I'mma take you somewhere!" Minho grabs her wrist and pulls her with him. Sun Ye and Hye Rim look on, shaking their heads.

"I'll give her 4 weeks to live." Hye Rim walks away.

"Screw you! I'll give her 4 minutes!" Sun Ye replies.

III.

If you're really curious about my life, then I'm going to write it here for you. I'm a loner. Well not really because I have Ji Yeon but as I've said, Ji Yeon is NOT my best friend. I see her as a mere acquaintance. Someone I just met and will forget later on. I don't really know if she sees me that way but the thing is, I don't see her as someone special. To me, nobody's special. We're all the same. Now, if you're curious about the things we talk about, well wonder no more.

"Tiffany! Tiffany!" Ji Yeon calls. I find the way she pronounces my name funny. She went like 'Tiff-eny. Tiff-eny." Well who am I to judge? Ji Yeon's accent is different from mine. I wasn't born here. Anyways, I hear her call and look her way. I knew it was Ji Yeon calling because the voice doesn't lie. The sweet, childish, soft voice that can either irritate or please someone, depending on who that someone is. I walk towards her and ask her what she wants.

"What now?" I ask. Ji Yeon smiles excitedly with her hands clasped together on her chest, as though she was praying.

"I have some good news for you! I'm sure you'll love it!" Ji Yeon says.

"What is it?"

"I swear you're gonna love it!" she squeals once more. I get impatient and semi-yell at her.

"Okay I'm gonna love it. But I won't be able to love it unless you tell me, right? So what is it?"

"I signed you up for the essay writing contest! That'll be in 3 weeks."

My brain went dead. My heart stopped beating. My breathing ceased. My blood stopped flowing.

Bull. .

Pause. Rewind. Stop. Play.

What did Ji Yeon just say?

"You did what?"

"I signed you up for the essay writing contest. You've always wanted to write an essay and enter it in a contest ,right? So I signed you up."

"And…"

"And! And the theme is about Gender Equality. You're a good writer, Tiffany. You can manage that."

I fake a smile. Ji Yeon thinks I'm happy as but if she could only hear the words in my head, I think she wouldn't think that way.

"You are the best person that has ever come to my life." I'm in a daze. I don't know what I'm saying.

"I know! Isn't it great?" I snap out of my stupor and place a hand on Ji Yeon's shoulder. I lead her to the bench next to the lockers.

"Ji Yeon, do you know the word "consent"?" I ask her.

"Sure. That's when-" I raise my hand, gesturing her to not explain it.

"Of course you do. There's no need to define it for me. Well, when you signed me up, where was I?"

"I think you were busy roaming around the campus looking for subjects to write about. Am I right?"

"I suppose." I place a hand on my chin. Silence reigns for a minute. Then the talking resumes.

"Let us say that I was roaming around at the time." I continue "Did you ask for my consent?"

"Uhm…no." Ji Yeon's voice softens.

"You. Have you ever joined a contest?" Ji Yeon nods.

"Right. And how would you feel if I entered you name without your consent and told you that you would be competing in two, three weeks, painting with a theme you're not familiar with. How would you feel?"

"I think I'd feel bad."

"There you go! So why did you sign me up without asking for my consent?"

"Because I thought of your desire. I knew you always wanted to compete in an essay writing contest so the moment I saw it, I jotted your name down. And you're competitor number 1."

"See the bull that comes when you don't think?" I grit my teeth at her. I can see the terrified look on Ji Yeon's face. Let's face it. Ji Yeon's afraid of me. "Not only am I going to compete. Not only am I going to compete in three weeks. Not only am I going to write with a theme that I don't give two pieces of about. I'm the first one to compete."

"I'm really sorry. I just-"

"Is there a way to back out?"

"I read the rules there. No."

"Thanks a lot!"

"But it's worth the-"

"Ji Yeon." I take her by the shoulders and shake her. "When you're the number 1 writer in your class, people are going to expect from you. And if their expectations are not met, you're dead meat. Plus, I'm not like you. I'm not the kind of person who's content with losing and just accepting defeat gracefully llike the crap you showed when you competed in the painting contest. You see, we're two different people, Park Jee. I have a winner's mentality. You….you're a scatterbrain."

Proof that Ji Yeon's not my friend.

"I'm sorry. I just thought you-"

"You find a way to get me out of that competition. If you have to cut my head off and throw it in the ocean, do so. Just get me out of that thing. I'm too stressed to do research on gender equality…"

"But gender equality is an easy topic. You can do it."

"If it's really that easy, why don't you enter yourself. You should've just done that if you think the topic's really a piece of cake!" I stand up and walk away from Ji Yeon, my mind a mess.

"Tiffany-"

" you!" I say without looking back. I leave Ji Yeon sitting on the bench confused and nervous.

Proof that Ji Yeon is not my friend.

IV.

After the hellish incident with Ji Yeon, I try to cool myself down by going to the bathroom and washing my very pale face that paled because of Ji Yeon's stupidity. As soon as I finish, I walk to my locker when my eye catches a glimpse of Hyun Joong walking toward Ji Yeon with his canvas under his arm. Ji Yeon is also an art student so I think they'd have much to talk about considering the fact that they like the same things. Hyun Joong sits next to her and Ji Yeon takes notice but is too shy I guess to strike a conversation with him. So she just sits prettily and waits for him to make the first move.

And he does.

"Hi! You're Ji Yeon, right?" Ji Yeon looks at him and brushes some strands of hair away from her face.

"Yeah. You're Hyun Joong. The best artist in our class." Ji Yeon says. Hyun Joong blushes at her compliment.

"Thanks. You're not a bad artist yourself. I've seen your works and they're pretty remarkable." Hyun Joong says with a soft voice. Ji Yeon could only blush. You can really see the sparks in Ji Yeon's eyes. Hyun Joong, I don't know but it's in Ji Yeon's eyes, definitely.

Is my vision deteriorating or am I seeing my best friend fall in love? It's kinda awkward because Ji Yeon never fell in love before and like me, she's really awkward with boys and she hates boys but I think Hyun Joong is a different story.

"So. You're Kim Hyun Joong, huh?" Ji Yeon asks stupidly. She twirls her hair in her finger, a very obvious sign that she's checking Hyun Joong out and is liking what she is seeing.

"Uhm. I already introduced myself to you. You're Ji Yeon Park. I mean, Park Ji Yeon." Ji Yeon smiles at him. He smiles back.

"Say, where's your best friend, what's her name?" Hyun Joong doesn't even know me.

"Tiffany."

"Yeah, Tiffany. Where is she?"

"I don't know. She went away or so." Ji Yeon is lost. I told her where I was going.

"Wanna take a walk around the campus?" Hyun Joong invites. Ji Yeon giggles and blushes and agrees. The two stand up and walk away.

I stand there and watch them with my mouth half open.

V.

The same day, I see Key walking down the hall with a bruised face. I feel the urge to approach him and ask him what happened but since Key and I aren't really friends, I choose not to. Key angrily makes his way to the classroom with his notebooks and things in hand. The furious expression on his face doesn't lie. Someone ed around with him last night. And I'm guessing it was his parents.

Key opens the door and slams it, shocking everyone inside. The professor sees a battered-looking Key sit down and glare at him.

"Mr. Kim Kibum, is everything alright?" asks Mr. Lee, the professor.

"Yeah. I'm okay." Key says. "What does it look like to you? Do you think I look okay?" he swears under his breath.

Hye Rim, who is seated next to Key, feels the urge to ask him about last night. She bites her lip and plays with her fingernails and finally, when she has summoned the courage to ask the badass rapper about his hellish ordeal, she taps him on the shoulder.

"Key, are you okay? What happened?" Hye Rim asks with concern. Key turns his head to her direction and glares evilly at her.

"Where's Raina?" he digresses from the question. Since Hye Rim knows better than to piss off an angry Key, she just answers his question.

"She skipped. She went with Minho. Why do you ask."

"I need to talk to Raina. It's about Minho. He's the reason why."

"What? What did he do?" Hye Rim asks worried.

"It's not for you to know. I just need Raina right now. Where is she and why did she skip? How?"

"She told Mr. Lee that she's sick and her mom's about to pick her up. Her unbelievable acting forced Mr. Lee to allow her to go home. Guess being with Minho has benefits too, huh?"

"I need to talk to Raina."

"Raina's been emotionally distressed recently." butts Sun Ye. "With Minho's manipulative behavior and all. Raina can't help but feel stressed. Earlier he forced her to skip the second class so they could hang out. I think Minho skipped, too."

"Bull!" Key half-yells. Mr. Lee doesn't hear him.

"Just tell us, Key. I swear this won't get past the three of us, make the four including Raina." Hye Rim persuades.

"Alright. It's like this…" Key takes around "You know my parents are conservative, right? They're religious and idealistic. I'm the opposite of my parents. I'm rebellious and liberal. So Minho and I were chatting last night on the Net. We were talking about nothing in particular when a dirty thought popped up in Minho's head. He told me to visit a certain ography site. I said I didn't want to but he kept on forcing me. I was about to log off when he spammed me with tons of pictures. Non-stop. Minho was like a monster. He even bragged about replacing Raina with those girls. He also bragged about his parents not caring about his escapades and his collection stuffed in the nooks and crannies of his locker. He just bombarded me with and it was late then, around 12:00 midnight and my parents were wondering why my lights were still on. Minho kept on spamming and as soon as I sensed them entering, I tried to log off but the computer was too slow…"

"Woah. Brain jog." Sun Ye says.

"What happened next?" Hye Rim asks.

"My parents saw the . And as devout Christians, you know how they are towards . I tried to explain but they wouldn't listen. They just grabbed me and beat me up, hence the bruises."

"Devout? What the-" Sun Ye exclaims. "If they're really that religious they wouldn't hurt you."

"I know. But I guess some people are just too religious."

". I can't believe you got bruised and beaten because of !"

"I can't believe it either. But what's more unbelievable is what Minho said. His parents don't care about his escapades. Bull!"

"Bull indeed. For all Raina knows, Minho could be doing some nasty things behind her back. You know what I mean, right?"

"There. Now you know. Tell Raina…"

"Okay."

"And another…"

"What?" the two girls ask.

"My parents might pull me out of this school. They don't really see anything good in what I'm doing. They think rapping is evil."

"No!" Sun Ye says. "Don't drop out. You've got potential, Key. Don't let your talent go to waste! Besides, what'll they do or where'll you go after they've pulled you out?"

"A devout Christian school." Key answers. "Not that it's bad. Well it is but it's not bad because it's Christian. It's bad because you're right. My talent and dreams will go to waste if I spend my life in boarding school. What's the use of my talent in rapping and writing rhymes if I can't use it?"