“Have you seen that Yejin girl? She has two guys at her sides all the time! Dumb .”

“She’s so fake, always trying to be nice and humble. It’s all an act. Such a Barbie doll. She’s lucky she’s somewhat pretty, otherwise she would be nothing.”

“I’ve heard that she’s ed the two of them before. Such a , why do they stick around?”

“God I wish they were remotely close to me, she’s so damn lucky but god I hate her so much!”

“You know, rather than judging her from afar, how about you get to know her?” a voice cut every gossiping girl in the classroom. In such a small space silence had filled every single nook and cranny of the classroom. Neither Kai nor Leo was in this classroom of mine (otherwise all hell would have risen… especially with Kai.) I turned my head to see who the voice of the speaker belonged to. “It’s not fair for Yejin to go through so much because none of you have taken the opportunity to get to know the girl. I don’t know her personally either, so I can’t exactly assume she’s a saint either, but I’m not going to go around talking all this mess about her just because she’s friends with the two most popular kids in school.”

I looked at this girl intensely… not because I was mad or hated her or anything, but because I couldn’t exactly see today. I forgot my glasses at home and I was so rushed today that I forgot to put on my contacts. Once my vision became clearer, I realized it was the rambunctious, spirited Jeong Yujin. I felt so honored, but embarrassed at the same time. I felt great because one of the more popular girls in school stood up for me, but embarrassed because I couldn’t even stand up for myself.

“Now if you little heads want to say anything more about Yejin, I highly recommend you get to know her beforehand. Now please shut the hell up, I’m trying to study” she sat back down and I couldn’t stop squinting around the classroom. I quickly stopped once I realized how bad it would look on my part if anyone caught me doing so. I’m sure I looked as though I was mean mugging everyone.

Class ended and I began to pack all my belongings in my bag slowly, but surely.

“Need a hand?” Yujin’s voice had already become familiar to me. I smiled while trying to look for her face.

“Please” I pleaded. As she began to help me, the process became quicker and I was really thankful for her today.

“What’s your next period?” she asked as I slung my backpack around my shoulder. I grabbed my AP Government book and frowned as I rose my book up to show her.

“Oh cool! We have the class together, how about I walk you?” she offered and I nodded my head. I didn’t have a choice, it was either I ran into every inanimate object in the hallway until I got to my class, or had a quick helpful hand. “Our names are just one letter apart, isn’t that cool?” she could tell I was uncomfortable, so she just asked me random questions like that to begin small conversations. “You know, I’m curious… why haven’t you stood up for yourself yet? And why hasn’t Kai or Leo said anything? I’ve known both of them since forever long ago… and I know Leo isn’t much of a talker, but I’m sure Kai would have said something by now!” My face was burning up and we had been walking for approximately six minutes now. Passing period was 10 minutes, so I had about two minutes to explain to her.

“Well, the thing is… they don’t know. Whenever I’m around them, girls don’t say a thing. They put up this act… they think if they’re supposedly “fake” and “angelic” like me, they will get some sort of attention from the two of them. What they don’t know is that I’m not being fake at all; this is just how I am! I was raised to be well-mannered and humble… I can’t speak up to them about it because I live for moral perfection. Benjamin Franklin is someone I look up to… and so I—” I paused as I got a mini-notepad out of my skirt pocket. “I keep track of his 13 virtues, if there are no check marks in any of these boxes, then that means I’m doing well!”

Yujin began to laugh and I giggled out of awkwardness.

“Yejin, has anyone ever told you how cute you were?” she hooked her arm in mine while I smiled and shook my head and we entered AP Government together. Both Kai and Leo happened to be in this class as well. “Okay, I’ll talk to you later then—oh here’s my number!” she gave me a business card with all her information on it. “Only cool kids get this card, so feel super special!” She walked off and I laughed as I walked across the classroom to find Leo and Kai.

“Yejin, we’re over here. You forgot both your glasses and contacts today didn’t you?” Kai chuckled as Leo got out of his seat to help me sit down. “Hey I could have done that too.”

“Well you didn’t” Leo retorted and sat next to me. “Why’d you come into class with Yujin?”

“Oh… uh, we’re partners for… a project! And she thought it would be nice to walk together, since I’m so vulnerable