Chapter One

Chapter One

“The only one who's able to see the world in black and white 

is only a truly honest person or a child, however I don't know which should I put them in”

The green dress she’s wearing become more troublesome than she anticipated. Her eyes slightly squinted because of the flashing lights those are coming towards her direction. Never actually enjoyed to be in the centre of attention, Kang Seuk Ri, a young talented painter is in a verge of running away.

Obviously since her newest piece of art hung behind her, she was needed to stay. Her eyes sometimes took a sight of her painting. A painting of a tree standing alone on a hill, the warm color of the sunset peeked through behind it.

It wasn’t that wonderful in her opinion. Wasn’t much realistic than she hoped it would be. Her imagination pictured it better than the canvas. Inside her heart she always though she doesn’t need this kind of attention. Someone out there might be better. She thought to herself as she straightened her already petite figure.

She took a deep breath.

All what’s matter now, matters now. Beside the day she finally able to found the missing piece of her pictures. Something that will make it more real, more touchable, and indeed more live.

~//~

Risa, half Japanese and half Korean, watched the ID one student showed her. She nodded affirmatively at the student who then walked through the half entrance door of the school. It was just like normal days. Students entered the school and have their ID checked to make sure of their attendance.

Not class attendance. If that was the case she wouldn’t needed to do this bothersome activity. Another student came towards her and showed his ID card. After reading the affiliation of the person she told the guy to immediately go to his class.

“Wait, White Rep” he called Risa who was annoyed when her rank being mentioned. “What?”

“Um… my friend couldn’t go to school because he’s sick” the male student told her and she received the sick student’s absent letter and ID. After scanning thoroughly the content of the letter she gave back the letter and the ID.

“Please report to the Student Council President – I mean, the White Leader” Risa fixed her own words and the student left her alone. Dutifully she continued her job with the other fellow ‘Whites’.

She silently thanked as no more student is on the sight. Risa flicked her hair before looking through today’s attendance. “Today from total 200 – including me and the leader – ‘Whites’, ten of them is absent” she sighed. Did the weather turn that bad? Of course it has gotten colder these days, but still.

“How many absent today?” an oh-so familiar voice broke her thoughts. She turned her head towards a taller figure. A slight tanned 180 cm something – since she doesn’t bother herself to exactly measure his height – boy standing beside her, making their obvious height difference more apparent. Risa stared at him for a time before realizing he had peered towards the attendance papers on her possession.

Aggressively she clamped the papers to her chest. “This is confidential, Blacks!” she shot him with a dark glare and the boy just shrugged at her actions.

“It’s not that I care Risa” the boy told her nonchalantly. “I just wanted to tease you about the Whites’ low metabolism” his ‘reason’ only triggered Risa making a punch move towards his face – missing by few millimeters.

“We’re humans Kim Jong In” she emphasized the Black Representative’s name coated with poison on her voice.

“But still, with us on the same amount of people doesn’t actually helping on figuring who has more effect of the school population” Kim Jong In stated.

“Averting previous topic doesn’t work”

“I’m serious White Rep!” the boy sounded a bit offended. “Seriously, it might sound out of place, but it is the second year for both leaders. One year and it was an out” Risa nodded her head about the Black Representative words.

“So maybe if your leader would just lay off the business everything would be alright then” Risa told Jong In who instantly cried a huge dismissal of such an absurd thing.

“My leader won’t stop! That’s the final” Jong In clearly made his line after he just shouted his own thoughts in a fast-rap like tone, and some of his words are just incoherent to understand. However he did clarify one thing that no one messes with his leader and his loyalty is absolute.

“I was joking you know” Risa pouted clearly infuriated by the serious ‘answer’ she received. Of course the answer would be that, if anyone ever asked her about her leader, Risa herself might put herself on a rampage.

“I thought ‘Blacks’ don’t mind jokes” she said nonetheless and her statement brought another heated argument between both representatives. However someone’s present broke the never-ending banter of teasing, smart sentences, or simply mocks.

“Excuse me”

“What!?” both of them yelled and the girl in front of them yelped, afraid of the huge scary aura that floating above their heads like clouds in the sky. After realizing there’s a student both Jong In and Risa parted and stood in front of their respective doors. “Please go to your faction representative” they shouted their daily morning instruction.

But after a full minute the girl just stared at the representatives with questions. Risa took the opportunity to ask her first. “Umm… why don’t you go either of us? Since I never see you before maybe you’re a Black, so you should go to that direction” she pointed the towering Jong In.

“Don’t jump into the conclusion Pop Star” Risa’s eyebrow slightly twitched of the name Jong In called her. “I don’t know this girl either”

“Maybe that’s because I’m a new transfer student” the nameless girl finally spoke again. She gave them an awkward smile before waving her hand slowly as a small nervous greeting. “My name is Kang Seuk Ri, it’s nice to meet you” Seuk Ri bowed her head but then only found Risa and Jong In stared at her.

“D-did I say something wrong?” but either the two people pay any attention.

“New student it means…” Risa muttered in disbelief.

“Odd numbered population, which also means…” Jong In continued her fading sentence.

In another second, Risa grabbed Seuk Ri’s right arm while Jong In took the other one. The young painter was too surprised to say anything at the moment as both representative dragged her inside.

With determined face they continued their task – dragging the poor girl to the headmaster’s room – and they shouted in unison without actually planning on it before. But it doesn’t matter because…

“IT’S A CHANCE!”

~//~

The headmaster shuffled his paper works into a neat stack. He heaved a sigh. Works get different thanks to the two kings. How much he kind of dislike how his job changed, there’s nothing that can’t deny he’s happy for few changes.

Good changes indeed, if just the students’ conflict doesn’t happened so frequently. And by the sound of feet marching restlessly just proved how right he was in the matter.

His door barged opened, revealed two reps and a new transfer student – as he recalled reading the papers about a new female student will attending Seoul Art High. He sweat dropped, he should expect it beforehand. At least send a teacher that willingly escorting the new student safe and sound. Not like now.

Seuk Ri’s hair slightly disheveled, and she looked both afraid and confused. But Jong In and Risa seem to having something else in mind.

“She will be in the ‘Whites’!”

“This girl stays with ‘Blacks’!”

Both the headmaster and Seuk Ri glanced at the pair of stubborn representative. Seuk Ri sent SOS code to the headmaster, begging him for helping her. The headmaster able to decipher her code and signed her with a nod, that he will help her – how, he wasn’t fully sure. “Wasn’t it depends on what she wanted to be with?” the headmaster asked both representatives.

Risa and Jong In stared to each other before stubbornly answered this inquiry with: “She will stay with me!” both in the same time, same words, and same exact persistence.

“Still, it’s her decision” the headmaster’s words averted the Black and White representative’s towards Seuk Ri. She flinched at their gazes. Although they didn’t say anything they demanded her with their electrifying stare.

She backed out slowly as she raised her hand in defense. “Ah… I d-don’t know” Seuk Ri finally managed to say. And for sure her answer upset both Jong In and Risa. The White representative grabbed Seuk Ri’s shoulders.

“Please, just choose… I don’t care if it’s only your favorite color, your preference, heck, I don’t care if you just pick randomly, just choose” Risa begged with puppy eyes, making Seuk Ri feels worsen. From the edge of her vision, she could also see Jong In forced smile himself to persuade the confused girl to give an actual answer, and hoping she would join him eventually.

Seuk Ri changed her confused gaze towards the ceiling, wondering what she will choose. Silence filled the room, the birds’ chirping outside barely audible.

“I’M REALLY SORRY!” Seuk Ri bowed deeply, both her arms glued to her side. “I- I can’t give you my answer now!”

How she will regret her answer later on.

~//~

“What should I do now?” the whine full of misery and desperation echoed on the female restroom. Kang Seuk Ri, seventeen in Korean age, an amateur painter, new student of Seoul Art High, just realized how wrong she answered the two she met before.

Sat on top the lid of the toilet she messed her hair. “Why can I just make one decision that moment?” she asked herself pitiful of her current condition.

To make it easy to understand her abstract like mood, her feeling isn’t something pleasing. She was first extremely confused. Unlike the school she’s been into in the past years, there’s like this imaginative line – or maybe more like a barrier – dividing the whole place. Dividing them perfectly like the equator line. And it wasn’t something she happy to accept.

Every time she tried to talk to anyone they would look at them weirdly but talked to her anyway. But she noticed how awkward the conversation is. Taking the treatment as a way to fit in the school, Seuk Ri merely shrugged it off.

The first class wasn’t that bad. Since most painters are less talkative it was normal. She sat next to a guy who’s seems to be a better artist than her. Not that she’s jealous, actually she feels a bit happy. Signing up in this school is what she needed to improve her skills. But then the time sitting of that guy inside of a class filled with tranquility of sound of brush softly caressed the blank canvas might be the last thing she appreciated in the whole day.

The moment she walked out her less eventful first class a broadcast definitely sending her bad news all over her. Although reluctantly, she remembered the undeniably good-sounded voice with fine articulation spoke her name. As the name resonance through each class, each room, every hallways in the building, Seuk Ri could feel the prying gaze of the other student.

A second after the broadcast ended, the girl found herself surrounded by students. They surely just talked but there’s something more persistence and pushiness from each voice. And it’s truly, undeniably intimidated her to the deepest part of her bone.

Unable to process the whole words those thrown towards her direction, she couldn’t recalled what exactly they wanted to say. She was first immobilized by surge of panic before finally ran for her dear life.

And that’s how she ended up like now – hiding inside one of the cubicle in the restroom. “What should I do? What should I do?” Seuk Ri muttered endlessly under her breath. Her eyes restlessly glanced around, afraid of the possibility someone heard her here. After fully convinced herself that she’s safe and still in one piece, slowly she stalked out of her hiding.

But then the sound of the restroom door opened startled her to death and she quickly returned to her escape room. Two female student entered as Seuk Ri peeked from slight – very slight – opened cubicle’s door.

“Ah, the Black leader’s voice is so charming, I got into a trance” one of them said with a tone that made the painter flinched. For some reason she has the feeling she won’t like where the conversation led if that girl keeps her daydreams.

“Stop it, he wouldn’t like it if you worship him you know” the other scolded to Seuk Ri’s inner relieve. The other one seem slumped a bit although she finally talked something else, something that Seuk Ri might need – not want – to hear.

“Haven’t you heard of the new student?” the girl said while leaning towards the mirror. By her hand’s gestures, Seuk Ri assumed the girl is applying a lip-gloss or some kind. “Ah, you mean the petite painter?”

Imaginary arrow stabbed to Seuk Ri’s head, ‘petite’ – instead of small, to her glad – was printed on the body of the arrow. And that’s must be me… she thought glumly.

“Ah,” the girl returned her lip-gloss back to a pink pouch of hers. “It says that if either she joins the Black or the White, the side she joined will have greater advantage to the school’s body” she explained. “Well Representative Kim, said that”

“Then it must be correct information then, beside the leader did do the broadcast” the other one pointed out. Shortly after, both girls left the restroom. The door clicked closed, alarmed the currently hiding girl about their leave.

Hesitantly, Seuk Ri got out of her hiding again. Her eyes are looking around if someone is still there, and none to her relieve.

“So if I join the White or the Black then everything will be fine?” she questioned himself. As she remembered how people reacted to her the whole day, it might be the best logical answer. Seuk Ri glanced at a piece a paper from her school uniform blazer’s pocket. She read the small content, consist where the ‘King’s Hallway’ located.

“Risa told me that if I wanted to be one of the Whites I should go to the student council’s office” she read the neat writing on the paper. Her vision averted to the messy written one. “While Kim Jong In said if I wanted to join the Blacks I should go to the broadcast room, across the student council’s office”

She played with the paper for awhile as she muttered her thought. “So I just need to go to this hallway, and either chose one of them” Seuk Ri concluded. She glared at the paper, silently blaming the innocent piece of paper for the whole situation.

“That doesn’t give me the answer, you know that?” she said spitefully. But again, she startled as the knob of the restroom twisted – told her of someone else’s presence. Hastily, Seuk Ri evaded yet another possible confrontation with any student by return to her hiding spot.

She closed the cubicle’s door tightly this time. Seuk Ri heard the girls’ chattering – making her existence in this place into minimum. Although she also hope they won’t go to this exact place where she’s at. Her hair slightly whipped as she shook her head in dismay.

“No, there’s still a LOT of things I should be worried about” she told to herself. She took out the paper again and stared at it before sighed. “I just hope this was easier…”

~//~

His focused eyes slightly narrowed at the monitor as he began typing. His fingers harshly hit the keyboard. Luhan, the passionate, hot-blooded and certainly not a White was beyond pissed. Well although he’s easy to set off but that doesn’t make him a bomb of vengeance or anything close to that.

As he finished his reply to certain someone, his features slightly brighten. “Let’s see if you can outsmart me this time” he said proudly to his laptop. As he waited for a reply, Luhan hummed his own tone. He laid his back to his comfort and of course, stylish black couch that he insisted to be brought to his headquarter – the broadcast room.

Without a full minute a beep sound came from his laptop. His attention returned to the laptop screen. The screen showed a school community page where members could contact each other, and in Luhan and his case, their conversation is private. Luhan read the answer loudly.

“I don’t even know if it could be said as logic. But I guess everything is logical to your head. Next time please use your c-common s-sense” Luhan’s tone trembled in anger. “…S-sincerely, D-Do Kyung Soo” he finished the whole infuriating as hell sentence. He took a deep breath, trying desperately to calm his ego. His fingers are clutching the edge of the table in front of him.

The door opened and Kim Jong In, the Black Rep, entered the room. “Leader, I brought today’s attendance and the rest… What are you doing, Luhan?” the honorific gone instantly when Jong In witnessed the angry Black Leader who’s holding his anger like his life depend on it.

“Luhan?” Jong In stepped closer carefully but then he screamed in shock as suddenly Luhan shot from his seat with murderous aura coffined him.

“That White, I will speak my mind to him today!” Luhan raced towards the door, but when his halfway to open the student council’s room, Jong In held his leader tightly. Both his arms strapped to Luhan’s, holding him before he could actually make a commotion.

 “Let me go! I got enough of his stupid, spiteful remarks!” Luhan shouted on top of his lungs. Jong In merely sweat dropped at this act.

“Leader, although most people already left, it doesn’t mean you are allowed to make any uproar, let alone something that involved the White Leader” the representative reminded him. “Please, control yourself” Jong In’s choose of words only make Luhan redirect his anger to Jong In.

“Are you implying that I couldn’t control myself?” he glared at the taller man who just raised both of his hands in defense. “Of course I’m not questioning your ability to take care of yourself, Leader. Well despite your constant sudden eruption-“

“You did it again!” Luhan accused as he pointed himself, charisma started to burst from the teen. “For your information, how much I hate to admit it, I am still the Blacks’ leader”

~//~

“I’m very, very sorry Leader Luhan!”

“Bow then!”

Kyung Soo just smiled slightly, hiding a round of laughter. His eyes still glued with his laptop screen. With his nimble fingers, he continued typing his report. For some minutes straight the dark room only lit by the light came from his laptop’s screen, and all that audible was sound of keyboards being hit. And of course, don’t leave the loud and obvious voices from outside.

His focus to his job was incredible indeed as he finally altered his attention when the sound of his rival outside became louder as the student council room’s door opened. A person entered and before she closed it shut, she yelled towards people outside.

After she took a desperate sigh, she closed the door and clutched the paper in her hands tighter. She walked towards Kyung Soo who’s only spared her a glance. The girl peeked at the screen from behind the White Leader’s back before finally she has full of his attention.

“So what’s today’s report?” he asked rather uninterested. His eyes looked at the girl in front of him who just stare. Damn, did I talk in that tone again? He asked himself and he felt burst of panic started to building inside of him. “I-I mean,” he coughed once to clear his throat. “What’s today’s report, Risa?” he said in more gentler tone.

Risa just smiled warmly at her slightly awkward leader. How much reliable he is, he’s just one shy boy. If not counting the sharp comment he gave to people around him – enough to make one angry or simply flinched.

“Okay, here’s the report for today” she placed the papers in her possession to Kyung Soo’s side. She looked at him again before her smile went a little wider. “But of course take your time easily Kyung Soo, you are not a robot” Risa told him.

Kyung Soo simply looked back at his laptop and turned it off. He then stood up from his seat and after he neatly cleaned his desk and took his laptop with him, Kyung Soo looked at Risa. He smiled at her. “Don’t worry I’m done with my job now” he told her before voices of Luhan and Jong In started to boomed from outside.

“And I believe that was yours too” Risa sarcastically referring the hectic on the hallway. Kyung Soo hid his face as he walked to the door.

“I’m just… bored, that’s all” he muttered before he twisted the door handle. As he opened the door, his face met the face of a furious person. “Hi” Kyung Soo merely raised his hand as a greeting. From behind him, Risa peeked.

“Eh, Kim Jong In, why are you clinging on the Black Leader’s leg?” Risa pointed out as one of her eyebrow slightly slanted. Jong In quickly stood up and glare at her. She simply clicked her tongue repeatedly as she slowly shook her head at Jong In flushed face.

“Kyung Soo, how much I try to tolerate you, I just can’t” Luhan quickly made his point. “And since you suppose to be the smart one between us, I believe you clearly aware of that” he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “So, to minimize this, please refrain your way to talk to others”

Luhan’s words silently stabbed the White Leader’s chest comically. Kyung Soo coughed a bit as his hand fixed his already neat tie. “I will refrain my way of talk if you insist, Luhan” Kyung Soo told him nonchalantly and the Black Leader’s eyes slightly twitched at the same exact tone he hates so much.

Before Luhan could retort, Kyung Soo pushed him slightly. “And remember we still in two meters radius interaction” he pointed out. “However, I do thank you for the compliment. I am the smartest between us”

“Yah, White Leader, you said you will change your way to talk” Luhan half shouted at Kyung Soo. Right now either the representative was too preoccupied with their leaders’ act respectively.

“Change needs time, like how you should reflect on your anger management, Black Leader” Kyung Soo said coldly. Then everything was silence as both their eyes sent electrifying stares that might kill you if you are trying to stand between those two gazes.

However someone did almost die when the person saw them exchanging death glares. Her yelps alarmed the four people of her presence. She was half turned around when Jong In and Risa pointed at her, acknowledging her by calling her name. And for some reason she hate it when her name was being mentioned in this place – a place she started to believe as a hell, indeed.

author's note--

author's note--