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Park Sena stood at the gates of the prestigious Seoul Institute of Higher Learning, which other students in the area called Epik High since everyone who attended the school either became famous or very powerful. The school only hands out one scholarship a year and Sena was lucky enough to receive it thanks to her high IQ. She came all the way from Mokpo for this chance to go to this school. It was the first day of school and everyone was arriving in large luxury cars with personal drivers while Sena had just walked. She lived in a nearby single apartment that her parents were paying for with the little money they had saved from working their multiple jobs. All of the other students had crazy accessories to stand out from other students in their matching elite uniforms. Sena felt plain as she stood there in her new crisp uniform; the other students very easily picking out that she wasn’t one of them. Girls started hanging out by the gate and Sena felt crowded and unwanted so she scurried away to the school and everyone was looking at her. Some of the guys didn’t even bother to try and whisper as they commented about how she looked poor by ‘do-able’.

There were a commotion by the gates and Sena looked back to see two separate cars pull up and the girls swarmed them. Uninterested in what the girls were squealing over, Sena headed into the school trying to ignore the mocking by the other students.

Three boys stepped out of the first car and the girls grew very loud. One of the boys was petite with large eyes and a soft smile as he politely acknowledged the girls existence. Another one had his hair shaved short on the sides while his fringe was styled up. He wasn’t interested in the girls at all and was too busy laughing with the last guy to even look at them. The last guy was tall and his hair was dyed a blue-black. He, like his friend, was too busy having a conversation to care about his surroundings.

In the second car two boys stepped out and they both had on similar cold expressions that had the girls swooning. One of the guys had messily styled hair and a well-worn leather jacket. He had on headphones and headed to the trunk where the driver had already taken out a guitar case which the boy swung onto his shoulder and the driver also handed the boy his blazer since once he was in the building he had to be in full uniform. The other boy was tall and thin with his hair parted in the middle and his eyebrows slightly drooped at the ends giving him a scary image. He was very handsome and tried to hide his face as girls tried to take his picture when he walked by. The five boys walked together through the sea of girls that parted for them.

Sena was oblivious to the five guys and the commotion they brought with them as she wandered the hallways looking for her locker and classroom. After going onto the third floor she found her locker which was in the same hallway as the art rooms so everything smelled slightly of paint and old paper. As Sena stood there, putting textbooks and notebooks into her locker along with a picture of her and her parents a week before she left, she couldn’t help but notice that the hallway was getting obnoxiously loud. She looked over and saw the five guys walking down the hall towards her with a few girls following after them but one of the guys told them to get lost. The guy with the guitar went to his locker which was only a few away from Senas and began putting in his code. Sena couldn’t help but stare at them since this was the first time she had seen a group of handsome guys up close. There were good looking guys in Mokpo, but the five guys standing in front of her looked like princes.

“Look Mino, fresh meat.” The boy with blue-black hair said as he pointed out Sena to his friend that he was laughing with earlier.

“Don’t look too long Seunghoon. She’s low quality meat. Let some other sharks eat her up.” Mino said loudly, he and Seunghoon started laughing like hyenas. Embarrassed, she quickly looked away and placed her family picture on top of her books before slamming the locker closed and walking in the opposite direction of them. The cute looking boy started walking off in the same direction as her.

“Jinwoo hyung, where are you going?” The guy asked as he put his leather jacket in his locker. Jinwoo stopped and looked back at his friends.

“My homeroom?” Jinwoo didn’t seem confident in his answer and the guys collectively sighed in frustration.

“Hyung, your homeroom is in the opposite direction.” The boy said back and Jinwoo awkwardly laughed before walking in the direction they told him.

“Thanks Seungyoon.” Jinwoo had a slight blush of embarrassment on his face and his friends couldn’t help but love him.

“Can we go already?” The boy with the centre parted hair whined and the guys agreed that they would all go. Just then another student accidentally bumped into him, making him stumble a bit. The student was going to get angry at the boy he bumped into until he saw who he was dealing with. Mino quickly reached out and grabbed the student by the collar of his blazer and slammed him against the lockers making passer-by’s freeze. Mino’s friends just rolled their eyes, annoyed by the student that seemed so disrespectful of their clear superiors.

“How dare you bump into Taehyun.” Mino said as he tightened his grip on the boy making him flinch.

“I-I-I didn’t mean t-t-t-to.” The boy stuttered. He looked to his friend that he was walking with but there was no way he was going to step in and possibly get beat up as well.

“Did I say you could speak?” Mino said and the boy shook his head. “You’re a first year, right?” The boy nodded his head. “Do you know who we are?” When the boy didn’t answer right away Mino slammed him against the lockers once again. A teacher stuck their head out of one of the art rooms but when they saw who was causing the noise they just went back into the class.

“WINNER.” The boy said clenching his eyes shut tight, waiting to get hit. Mino smiled and raised his fist back and was ready to punch him when Taehyun reached out and lightly grabbed Mino’s arm.

“Knock it off.” Taehyun said and Mino automatically let go of the boy who was shaking.

“You’re lucky my friend is so nice. If you bother us again, he won’t be able to stop me.” Mino threatened and the boy nodded his head before running away with his friend.

“We were in the building for less than thirty minutes and you’re already starting a fight.” Seunghoon said with a smirk on his face.

“I have pent up energy.” Mino cracked his knuckles and looked around as if he were picking out his next victim.

“Let’s go to class.” Seungyoon said as he put his guitar back on his shoulder and walked away and the rest of the boys followed after their leader as the first bell rang. They made sure Jinwoo made it to the right class, made sure Mino and Seunghoon actually went to class and then Taehyun and Seungyoon were in the same class for second years. As soon as they walked in both of them recognised the new girl they had seen by the lockers earlier.

“You’re late.” The teacher said, checking the boys off of the attendance list. Taehyun apologised for the both of them and they headed to the only two empty seats. Taehyun sat in the second last row on the far side of the room, right against the wall. Seungyoon sat behind him and was sitting beside the window since he knew he was going to need a source of entertainment while he pretended to listen to the teacher lecture. He propped his guitar up in the corner behind him. “New girl.” The teacher said and Sena’s head popped up. “Introduce yourself.” He waved his ruler at Sena and she silently cursed. She stuck out enough in the school that she didn’t need everyone in the class staring at her. Sena stood up and pulled at the edge of her blazer to make sure it was straight.

“My name is Park Sena and I’m from Mokpo….please take care of me.” Sena whispered out the last part and slightly bowed her head.

“Scholarship~” One of the students said in a joking tone and some of the other students chuckled. Sena looked to the teacher to see if he would say anything against the students mocking her, but it looked as if he had a smile on his face as well. Without another word, Sena sat down at her desk and felt a heavy weight pull down her shoulders. She knew that this was going to be a long day. If she even thought about the next three years, it brought tears to her eyes. The students kept talking and saying mean things about Sena as if she wasn’t in the room. She just sat there silently, staring at her notebook. There was no way she was going to let them get to her. The teacher tried to quiet down the kids but they were having too much fun watching Sena break. Suddenly a loud bang filled the classroom and everyone became quiet. Taehyun slammed his fist onto the desk and was glaring at the students that didn’t dare to look him in the eyes.

“Shut up. The teacher is talking. Don’t you have respect for your elders?” Taehyun was annoyed. He was one of the top students in the school and having his classmates drag down his marks was possibly the most annoying thing. The teacher cleared his throat and started the lesson with the other students awkwardly starting to take notes. Sena looked to Taehyun only to see him glaring at her. She quickly looked away and continued staring at her empty notebook. Sena remembered seeing slightly that a random student had accidentally bumped into Taehyun and his friend attacked him. She didn’t want to run the risk of angering Taehyun and having Seungyoon possibly hit her for it. Sena quickly learned the hierarchy in the school. She was the bottom. WINNER was the top.

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wooo first chapter