"What's in the past should be left in the past." - Unknown

C h a p t e r  T w o

"A Pretty Face With An Ugly Heart"

"Jeon Jiyeon." The words escaped abruptly out of my mouth. Jiyeon was there, standing with her envious long legs, S-Line, and perfect face that everyone was jealous of. To be honest, even I was jealous. "Welcome back!" She said once again, and then hugged me. I stood there, frozen. I wasn't surprised though, this was apart of her plan. I could see the glare in her eyes. I've been teased enough by Jiyeon to know. I knew her every move, and I made sure to be careful. "Why are you dressed up so poorly? Did your grandma buy you this outfit?" mocked Jiyeon. And there it was, the start of new insults by Jeon Jiyeon. Did a skunk buy your face because it stinks, was what I wanted to say, but I shook my head. It was a boring and lame comeback. "Yeah, my grandma bought this outfit. Do you have a problem with it? I don't think so because you're wearing the same thing," I said fiercely, and I could hear a few gasps from behind. What did this girl expect before the words were going to come out of ? Did she even think? We're wearing the same things...pabo. Jiyeon closed her eyes and took a few breaths like she was meditating...in front of the whole junior class. "No one messes with Jeon Jiyeon," she warned. Then, she pushed me over onto the floor before sashaying away along with her followers.

I scabbed my elbow pretty bad, and it started bleeding. "Hey...are you okay?" A girl said before walking in front of me. I looked up to see a girl I've never seen before. She held out her hand and she pulled me up after I took it. She had short, brown hair and braces. I dust off the dirt that was on me. "Thanks," I muttered and frowned.

"Jiyeon's a jerk, isn't she?" The girl asked me and looked over to me so see what my answer was.

"Yeah, she is," I replied dimmly, taking a glance at my elbow. The girl said nothing else, so the atmosphere was really awkward and uncomfortable. I turned towards here and held out my head. "My name is Park Seohyun. Thanks for helping me up." The girl seemed surprised that I said something and then grabbed my hand and shook it lightly. "My name's Lee Soohyun. I just re-transferred here."

"Re...transferred?" I asked her confused, tilting my head to the side like a puppy that was begging desperately for food. Soohyun nodded her head. "Yes, re-transferred," repeated Soohyun. "I transferred here in freshman year from Busan South High School, and then my parents decided to transfer me back to BSHS because Jiyeon and this one other girl was bullying me too much, and then this year they decided to transfer me back to Seoul Hope High because my brother, Lee Chanhyuk, graduated here and they want me to have a good future so you know..." Soohyun trailed off.

"That's a lot of transferring," I giggled. Soohyun chuckled a bit, and nodded her head. "This other girl...who was she?" I asked, out of curiousity. Soohyun kind of gave me an odd look, and I immediately regretted what had came out of my mouth. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude in your bui-"

"No, it's fine. I'm not concerned. What's in the past should be left in the past. Her name started with a 'C' or 'K'...Katherine, Christine, Caroline..." Before she could list any more names, I interrupted her. "K-Krystal?" I inquired, shocked.

"Oh, yeah! Park Krystal! She was the bully along with Jiyeon, but she didn't bully me too much. Mostly, it was just Jiyeon. I can't believe you guessed it right! Do you know this...Krystal?" I started to panic. My sister...? I know that Krystal has ignored me for all of my life, but to bully someone else? I never thought that Krystal would do such a thing because she was all against bullying...after my freshman year. I didn't want to actually lie to Soohyun.  "She's..." I started. "She's my sister."

"Oh!" Soohyun seemed alarmed. "Really?"

"I'm sorry, I really didn't know. I never thought that Krystal would ever do such a thing." Soohyun just shook her head and smiled warmly. "Nah, I'm over it. What's in the past-"

"...should be left in the past," I finished, and smiled.

❣

Mrs. Kang, our vice principal, finished all of her speeches, rules, and expectations like us like she did every other year. They were strict, uptight, and everything that Jiyeon was not at all. I figured out that Soohyun and I had every single class with each other except for science and math. It was very nice to have a friend that didn't treat me like trash. And Soohyun was my first friend; which was very special to me. Everytime I tried to act nice to everyone, they would always say, "THE FRAGILE ONE!" and scream and run away from me, laughing hysterically afterwards because no one wanted to be friends with me.

Everyone adored Jiyeon. Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors. All the boys wanted her. All the girls wanted to be her. Jiyeon was you could say, pefection...to most peoples' eyes. To me, she was nothing but a makeup-filled face in designer clothes. But of course, Jiyeon made sure that everyone liked her, but I didn't. So I kind of guess that's the reason that we hate each other so much. She always taunts me that I'll never be as popular as her, and I don't care. I don't want to be a pretty face on the outside with an ugly heart inside. But sometimes, just sometimes, I feel that I have a real rival. I'm...grasping, you could say. I want to be as popular and beautiful as Jeon Jiyeon. But I have to remind myself that's never going to happen, and I have to face reality. No boys want me, because...obviously. No girls wants to be me, in the shoes of someone getting badmouthed and teased by Jeon Jiyeon every single day.

The worst part is, my brother likes her. PARK JIMIN. With all the sophomore girls chasing after him, wanting to be the special girl in his life: he chooses Jiyeon! JIYEONNNNNNNNN! He actually plans on how to ask her out. "Hey, Seohyun, should I go for a SHINee's 'Replay', 'Noona neomu yeppeo!', or a Big Bang B-I-G-B-A-N-G..." He would say and then pause. "ENGLISH VERSION? Oh yes, that's totally going to make her fall for me..."

"Jimin, I don't need to know or care about you asking Jiyeon out," I would say. Jimin would ignore me, and ask me how I would dare say that Jiyeon wasn't important in his life. Sigh...one day, just one day, he's going to regret about liking Jiyeon. Just one day...

After school, I asked Soohyun if she wanted to hang over at my house and study because I knew that Krystal was going to be gone with her friends for a while, and she replied "yes" since her parents were always busy, and never really paid any attention to her.

I entered into the house to already see Jimin laying on the couch, sipping on a Coco-Cola, munching on some potato chips, and watching TV. That's my brother, everyone. "Don't mind Jimin, Soohyun. He's a lazy pabo."

"Me? Lazy? You should see yourself!" Jimin yelled after stuffing his mouth with chips. I chuckled and ignored him, and motioned for Soohyun to follow me up in my room.

I opened the door and it was filled with stuffed animals, and giant king-sized bed with green bedsheets. I usually organize my room, but today it was just really messy. "This...is your room?" Soohyun burst out.

"Uh...yes..."

"It's amazing!" Soohyun said and ran towards my bed and jumped on it. I chuckled and organized my room a bit. "And wait...that was your brother?" Soohyun asked me, all of a sudden. I nodded my head while fixing my stuffed animals. "Jimin? Yeah. He's a bit of slacker. I don't know how he was crowned Cutest Freshman of the Year," I laughed.

"He's the most amazing human being I have ever laid eyes on..." Soohyun mumbled. I stopped and froze. "My...brother? You like-" I paused here for a moment. I don't really know what was special with Park Jimin to make him this humanly popular, maybe it was just a sibling thing, but a lot of girls liked him...and now my first friend?

Soohyun and I studied for like fourty-six seconds before Soohyun commented on how beautiful his eyes were, and then after five minutes, she dreamed about how they were going to have their first kiss, which was disguisting. I decided that we needed a break (after five minutes of studying) and we decided to go shopping. When we got downstairs, Soohyun shouted, "Goodbye Park Jimin, it won't be long before we meet each other again~!" I rolled my eyes and couldn't contain my laughter, so my giggles just burst out all of a sudden. "Yeah, bye, Seohyun's friend." I closed the door after Soohyun blew her air kiss.

Before closing the door, I could see just a little slightly Jimin getting up and freaking out. "Wait...what?"

❣

We went to Ulzzang Fashion, my favorite store (even though I don't know why they named it that), and picked out a bunch of clothes. I brought money, even though Soohyun insisted that she didn't want me to spend any money on her. I could see her glancing towards that purple dress, though. In the end, I bought the dress for her anyways, and a cute little white, winter sweater for myself along with skinny jeans.

When we got out of the store, there was a flyer that had caught my attention.

Audition for SM Entertainment and become a Idol!

That's all it said, but I kept staring at it, and Soohyun looked at me, saying, "Come on, Seohyun, let's go." Then she caught sight of what I was looking at. I never thought at being an idol, ever before, but something about that flyer hanging up there on the building amazed me somehow. I never even thought that I could sing, anyways. And at that moment, everything flooded upon my head. Becoming an idol...was going to put Jiyeon in her place, wasn't it? I could never get bullied by Jiyeon, or even get cold hate from Krystal ever again. Becoming an idol...gave me so many possibilities. I stared at it a little longer, without thinking.

Becoming an idol, could set me free from this nightmare.