The next few weeks flew by and as each one passed, the end of senior year came closer. Everyone was busy studying for year-end exams, especially the seniors who desperately needed good marks in order to get into the universities they applied for. There was one person missing though among the chrome high students, and that students’ disappearance did not go unnoticed.

“There’s one week left of school and Ellin still hasn’t shown up since that incident at your house” Minsun reminded in a concerned tone. They were all worried about Ellin’s state but none of them had the courage to call her or go to her house. “What is she even thinking? Is she going to redo senior year or something?” Gummi said irately. “She must have some sort of plan…I mean it’s Ellin. There’s no way she would skip while knowing she’d have to redo the whole year” Choa reasoned. “Her parents are awfully powerful, I’m sure she’ll be fine” Gummi reassured.

The girls weren’t the only ones who were worried about Ellin. For the past few weeks during Ellin’s absence Jinyoung went to Ellin’s house almost every day. Ellin would always just ignore him and tell her parents to do so as well, but Ellin had gotten so annoyed that she couldn’t just stay silent anymore.

“Ya, Jung Jinyoung! You better leave before I call the police!” Ellin yelled. “The CCTV shows you here every single day, I bet I have enough evidence to get a restraining order at this point!” Ellin raged.

“Ellin, why aren’t you coming to school?! I wouldn’t be here if you would show up at least once a week! Have you gone crazy?” he yelled.

“Excuse me? Crazy? Yeah Jinyoung, I mean how could I possibly not go crazy in that kind of environment? A toxic environment that you made even worse!” Ellin replied in fury.

“Just please, come back, will you?” he pleaded, desperation filling his eyes.

Ellin looked at him for a moment and suddenly she let out a dry laugh “You’re guilty, aren’t you” she suddenly pointed out, continuing to laugh. “You can’t take the aftermath of your actions, can you? You can’t swallow your food, huh?” Ellin continued. “Well too bad Jinyoung. I’m going to continue not going to school, and leave you in this hell. Seems like I’m the only one that can save you, but I won’t Jinyoung, so stop coming by here” Ellin ordered, her voice turning serious. She left Jinyoung there speechless as she began to walk back to her house, closing the gates behind her.

Jinyoung still went to her house the next day though. Everything Ellin had said was right, Jinyoung felt like he was living in hell. He couldn’t handle the guilt he was feeling and was desperate to see that Ellin was fine, that what he did didn’t ruin her life, that she was happy; but that wasn’t the case, and it made him miserable. But his obsession had got to the point where Jinyoung’s parents had gotten suspicious, so suspicious that they began to have someone follow him wherever he went, making him stop.

“Gongchan-ah” Minsun called as she spotted him in the halls by his locker. Actually Minsun hadn’t talked to Gongchan in weeks and it wasn’t because she didn’t want to, but because every time she tried to he avoided her. She made excuses for him every time, she didn’t know why she was being so pathetic, but she figured it was because she liked him.

Minsun approached him with a pout “What, are you going to run away again?” Minsun said, holding onto his shoulder. “Minsun- I- Umm….”

Minsun had finally reached her limit, she was annoyed now “You what? Just spit it out! I know you’ve been purposely avoiding me, and I want an answer. We use to be so close, the only friend I had amongst these chrome high freaks, and yet now we’re like strangers. You know Gongchan, before I thought you liked me, but I guess it was just me who thought that” Minsun let out. She regretted everything she said as soon as it came out, but she knew she had to say it. Not saying her true feelings was eating her alive.

After a few moments Gongchan decided to speak “Minsun, you’re right” he said, gaining a surprised look from her. “W-what do you mean…?” Minsun asked, curiously. “You’re right; I am avoiding you and I did like you. I still do, but we just can’t be like we were before anymore” Gongchan confessed.

Minsun was frustrated now “and why’s that?” she asked. “Because, Shinwoo is my closest friend and your sister and him aren’t on the best of terms. I can’t ditch him for you” Gongchan revealed.

Minsun was stunned at Gongchan’s explanation. She blinked her eyes a few times, questioning if she heard right “wait so, because Shinwoo and Choa are on bad terms, that means you have to avoid me and pretend like I don’t exist, are you serious Gongchan?” Minsun said, letting out a cold laugh.

“I’m so-”

“Boys are really funny… so if Shinwoo had told you to stop speaking to me during his first fight with Choa, then the avoiding would have started there…amazing” Minsun said sarcastically. “Would you also jump off a cliff if he told you to?” Minsun asked with a laugh, “bye Gongchan” she rolled her eyes at him before she turned around to leave.
“Minsun-ah, wait!” Gongchan said, grabbing her shoulder. Minsun turned around, she sighed in annoyance. “What? Now all of a sudden I exist and my feelings matter? Don’t sweat it Gongchan, boys come and go after all” Minsun spat before shaking his hand off of her shoulder and continuing to walk away.

As she walked to class her eyes gradually got more and more watery, “stupid boys” she grumbled under her breath “who the hell are they to make me feel sad?” she said wiping her face with her sleeve.

“Minsun-ah, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” Choa suddenly said, stepping in front of her sister and blocking her from walking any further.

Minsun looked up and anger began to fill her face “You’re the last person I want to see” she grated. “Huh? Why? What did I do?” Choa asked, confused. “If it wasn’t for you and your damn fight with Shinwoo, none of this would have happened! Things probably would have gone well for me but you just have to ruin everything good that comes my way!” Minsun yelled before running away.

“What the fu-”

“What was that all about?” Gummi asked Choa, concerned at what had happened to her sister. “I… I don’t know. But if my instincts are correct, Gongchan must have dumped her cause of Shinwoo” Choa presumed.

“Dumped her? Were they even dating?” Gummi asked, surprised. “Well… officially, no. But they were close enough to say they were dating. Everyone knows they both liked each other,” Choa explained.

Gummi nodded “True, but what’s up with this school then. Is there really not a single decent guy? I thought Gongchan was different” Gummi sighed. “I can’t believe Shinwoo would tell Gongchan to stop hanging out with her… I just can’t wait to graduate” Choa groaned.

“You and me both” Gummi agreed.

The last day of school quickly arrived, a day that brought much relief to the students of chrome high, but also much anxiety; and that was because final grades would finally be presented to the students. The students eagerly and nervously awaited the end of the school day. As soon as the dismissal bell rang, students immediately jumped out of their seats and sprinted to the grade boards which were located near the entrance of the school.

Gummi, Minsun and Choa had all decided to meet up at Gummi’s locker before they went to go check their grades. “Are you girls ready?” Minsun asked in excitement. “I don’t even care at this point” Choa yawned, but truthfully, she was dreading seeing what her rank was, and what she couldn’t admit to her friends, or even to herself, was that she desperately needed herself to be ranked higher than Shinwoo. She didn’t know why, but she thought it would make her feel an incredible amount of satisfaction to see herself ranked higher than him. The same thoughts roamed through Minsun’s head, except that she wanted to beat Gongchan’s rank instead. Gummi on the other hand wanted to remain first place, because if she wasn’t #1, she knew who would be.

The three girls were now in front of the grade board. All of them scanned to find their names, this time they looked at the top ten list first.

“1 – Park Soyul

 2 – Baek Boram”

Gummi was annoyed. It made her furious seeing Soyul above her name, and it made her more furious for even caring about Soyul beating her. Before Chrome high, Gummi never cares about where her rank was. She didn’t care if she was first or 10^th place, she was just never the type to care about rankings. But now, she couldn’t deny that she did. Both Minsun and Choa looked at Gummi in regret “it’s okay Gummi, she may be first place but she has no friends and no life” Minsun comforted. “I know…you know what, I don’t even care” Gummi tried to convince herself, “so, how did you girls do?” Gummi asked curiously. “My rank didn’t change, I’m still #4 and above Shinwoo so I’m happy- wait I mean-”

Gummi and Minsun started laughing at her “You can’t hide it now, I knew you wanted to beat him!” Minsun laughed “I don’t blame you though, I beat Gongchan’s rank and I feel like I’m flying right now” Minsun said with a satisfied smile.

“Stupid Jinyoung is #3 though, at least he went down a rank I guess?” Choa grumbled “whatever, let’s all get our stuff and get out of this place once and for all” Gummi said, letting out a deep sigh of relief. She felt an enormous amount of satisfaction being able to say those words.

“Wait a second…let me just check one thing” Choa said, looking back at the list. She paced through all the sheets until she stopped at the last one. There laid Ellin’s name “Ellin…” Choa uttered, disappointment rushing over her face. “What is it?” Minsun asked. “She’s last place,” Choa revealed.

Gummi shook her head “she should have came to school, how could she let herself slip like this” Gummi sighed. “If it weren’t for Jinyoung she would probably still be #15” Minsun raged.

“Let’s go girls” Gummi said, but as soon as they turned around they met eyes with someone, making them stop walking. Their faces looked unimpressed and quite irritated; it was Soyul.

“You must be happy, your throne has finally been given back to you. I bet you’ll be able to sleep at night now” Gummi said with a fake smile.

Soyul looked down, unable to look them in the eyes, “you girls don’t even know anything” Soyul let out of “you’re all so cruel” Soyul quickly ran away after she said those words.

The girls were stunned by her words. They looked at each other and shrugged before finally leaving the scene.

Meanwhile, a smile appeared on Shinwoo’s face as he looked at the grades list “she beat me” he said, sounding relieved. “Why are you so happy?” Gongchan asked, confused. “I don’t know…” Shinwoo replied, looking down at his feet. “Minsun beat me too… I can’t believe it. I was higher than her before…how did she do it?” Gongchan said, letting out a chuckle. “Those girls sure are something”

“I honestly can’t even remember how this school was like before they came” Shinwoo realized, letting out a laugh. “Peaceful” Gongchan replied jokingly. “But this school really was boring. I don’t know whether having it this hectic is better though, but it’s definitely been an eye opener” Shinwoo commented.

“Either way, it’s all over now. Senior year has finished and we probably won’t ever see them again.”

Or so they thought.

Now that the flashback chapters have ended, and i'll be soon be writting in present time, you readers need to give me your thoughts about this fic so far, or i'll be sad =( Comments give me motivation and let's me know what i'm doing right/wrong.