Chapter 1: Her Life

“Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude.
It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.” ― Jodi Picoult

Her name is Park Ahri, a nineteen-year old, junior college girl who loves coffee. She has an overprotective brother named Park Chanyeol, who is a senior at Seoul University – they attend the same classes. She's beautiful, stunning – the typical “perfect, ‘it’ girl” if you must presume – though her usual stone-faced expression had always ruined that assumption. As stunning as she was, most of the guys from her school were scared of her hawk-eyes, most especially with her poker-faced expression. It was like all emotions were void from her face. It showed no pain, no boredom, no sadness, and even happiness -- there was none.

On the other hand, her brother was her polar opposite. He was really charming to most people, and very friendly at that. Heck, he would lay off very lame jokes for Ahri's liking yet he'd have the laughs of the people listening to him. His very tall stature helps attract a lot of people's attention as well. It was one of the things that the siblings had in common -- their height. Their heights had been a mystery since then as their parents weren’t even gifted of such tall statures. Nonetheless, they were both tall, but in terms of personalities, they were polar opposites.

When you hear somebody sigh, “Life is hard,” you should always ask, “Compared to what?” Indeed, life is hard. It is not too short; it is too long. However, you have to learn how to live; you have to have a sense of humor.

Humor. Ahri had almost scoffed as soon as the word crossed her mind. She had given up on that word and erased it from her dictionary from that very day.

Despite being a junior, she was a loner. There she was, sitting at her favorite spot in her favorite coffee shop, Starbucks, that was clearly a block away from her university. She was looking outside the window, her long brown hair, kissable lips and beautiful hazel eyes were highlighted by the way the sun glistened on her, making the boys near her to awe at her appearance. She couldn’t help but remember her past – how she couldn’t laugh like the others – as she studied the people walking outside the coffee shop.

They must think that there’s nothing better than laughing in life. It must be nice… to be thought of as someone who can make somebody laugh.

Ahri had long noticed the stared that had bored through her soul. She glanced at the boys, who were mostly students from her university; they immediately looked away and pretended to be busy as soon as Ahri turned towards them, although some of them were tough enough to send her winks and continue staring. She groaned.

‘This always happens. Ugh.’ She thought.

It wasn’t like she was loathing herself for looking beautiful. She knows herself that she was, but she just doesn’t want to admit it