As expected, Jessica was not very happy at having been told off so publicly by Amber. She cornered me the next afternoon in the locker room before our physical education class. She waited until Amber, who was also in the class, had gone up to the gym with her friends. Then Jessica, along with a handful of her friends, approached me by my locker.

“I guess you think you’re hot stuff now that you’re friends with Amber, don’t you?” Jessica sneered, crossing her arms over her school-issued t-shirt. The way she practically spat Amber’s name told me how very much she disliked the other.

I chose not to answer, preferring to finish tying my laces in silence. If I could just get out of there and up to the gymnasium, maybe nothing would happen.

Of course nothing could ever go smoothly for me. Jessica wasn’t the type of girl who liked being ignored; rather she felt the need to always be at the center of attention. She grabbed my ponytail and yanked on it, hard, forcing me to look up to meet her hardened gaze. “You better look at me when I’m talking to you, you filthy piece of trash,” she hissed, pulling so hard on my hair that tears sprang to the corners of my eyes.

My body reacted instinctively before my brain could catch up, putting my hands on her shoulders and giving her a hard shove. She was surprised; I’d never fought back before. She stumbled over a gym bag that someone had left lying on the floor and went down, hard. I didn’t wait to see if she was injured or not. I ducked between Yuri and Hyoyeon, two of her little clones, and escaped up the stairs into the gym.

Amber glanced over at me, giving me a questioning look, but I quickly looked the other way and smoothed down my hair, my scalp stinging from where Jessica had attacked me.

I was in deep now and I knew it. It wasn’t that I wasn’t capable of fighting back. Growing up the way I did, with gang members for big brothers, I knew I could kick Jessica and the rest of the Bimbo Brigade’s asses. Hell, I could probably even take on the boys that tried to get in my way. But I was a scholarship student. Any wrongdoing, even if it was fighting back to protect myself, would result in my immediate expulsion and I needed this scholarship. And, unlike the rest of my classmates, I didn’t have a rich daddy that could pay off the school board. If Jessica went to a teacher and told them I pushed her, even if it was to get her to let go of my hair, I would be kicked out of Seol Chong just like that.

Luckily for me, Jessica Jung was a ing idiot. It never crossed her mind to try and get me expelled for fighting, for which I was grateful. Instead she decided to be petty. I discovered this when I got out of the shower after class was over and discovered that my gym bag, along with all of my clothes, was missing. She’d taken everything: my school uniform, my gym uniform, even my underclothes. There was literally nothing for me to put on, leaving me standing in the locker room in nothing but a towel.

Amber finished tying her tie and walked over. “Is everything alright, Narae-ssi?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I lied, forcing myself to sound bright and cheerful even though I felt anything but. “Everything is fine.”

“Then why aren’t you getting dressed?” she asked, arching one eyebrow in question. “The bell is going to ring in a few minutes and you’re still in nothing but a towel.”

“I’m just a little shy,” I lied. “I’m just going to get dressed in the restroom.”

She watched me walk out of the main part of the locker room with a strange expression on her face.

I went into one of the lavatory stalls and leaned against the closed door, holding my towel up with one hand. How on earth was I going to get out of this one? I was going to get in trouble for skipping class, but even if I skipped class it wasn’t like I could go home. I couldn’t ride the bus home in nothing but a towel. The bell rang, signaling the end of gym class. I remained where I was, hidden in the stall. After a bit, the rang again, signaling the start of sixth period. Still I didn’t move.

I nearly screamed out loud when a hand suddenly appeared beneath the stall door, holding my gym bag.

“Relax,” I heard Amber say, and she gave the bag in her hand a shake. “I just brought you your clothes.”

My face turned crimson and I was grateful that there was a door between us so she couldn’t see it. “T-thanks,” I mumbled, accepting the bag. I got dressed slowly in hopes that she would be gone by the time I got done, but she waited for me.

“You should’ve told me those stupid s stole your clothes,” she reprimanded, falling into step beside me as we left the locker room. “I would’ve gotten them back sooner if I had known.”

I shrugged. The whole situation was humiliating.

“They’re just jealous of you, you know,” Amber declared calmly as we made our way back to the main part of the school.

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at that one. “Yeah, sure. Jealous. What on earth do girls like Jessica Jung and her idiotic little clones have to be jealous of?”

Amber shrugged. “Unlike them, you’re pretty without having to buy new noses and expensive makeup. Plus you’re smart and you’re getting where you’re going without relying on mommy and daddy.”

I laughed, but it was forced and awkward. It was nice of Amber to say to try and cheer me up, but I didn’t really believe it. The thought of Jessica and her fellow bimbos being jealous of me wasn’t very realistic.

We reached our social sciences classroom, a good twenty minutes after the bell had rung. Amber pulled open the door and motioned me in first, so I shouldered my bag and stepped into the classroom. It was the first time I’d ever been late to a class.

“Miss Song,” Ms. Lee snapped, glaring at me and then pointedly checking the time on the clock hanging above the door. “Class began twenty minutes ago and-”

“It’s my fault, Ms. Lee,” Amber interrupted smoothly, stepping into the room behind me and allowing the door to shut loudly. “Narae-ssi would’ve been on time but she stopped to help me. She’s been a real life-saver.”

Ms. Lee opened and closed a few times while she figured out what to say. While she’d been more than willing to tell me, a mere scholarship student, off, she seemed reluctant to do the same to Amber. Perhaps it was because of Amber’s well-to-do parents or maybe because she presented such an intimidating figure, but in the end Ms. Lee just shrugged. “Very well, then. Please take your seats.”

Although I usually sat at the front of the classroom, hoping to avoid the popular kids and also to pay attention to the lesson, Amber dragged me to the empty desk beside hers at the back of the classroom and gestured for me to sit down. I could feel every eye in the room on me as I slid into the chair, but I stared straight ahead at the dry erase board and took out my textbook, pretending not to notice.

Ms. Lee resumed her lesson and after a while everyone seemed to lose interest in me for the most part and returned to whatever they were doing before Amber and I had caused a scene; painting their fingernails, writing notes, playing on their mobiles.

I sighed and tapped my pencil against my notebook, where I’d been trying to take notes on Ms. Lee’s incredibly boring lecture on social patterns in the Congo. I allowed my eyes to wander, and they automatically landed on the familiar dark-haired, tanned figure of my project partner. Jonghyun was looking back at me, an unreadable expression on his face. We made eye contact and he held my gaze for what seemed like forever. In the end I blushed and looked back down at my notebook.

I was the first one out of the classroom that day.