BEEP! BEEP!

“Come on, Hayi! Let’s go!”

My friends called me over from the front of my house. I could hear the sound of Jennie’s car audio from my bedroom; it was her favorite song as always. Every day she came to my house and took me on a ride to school, not just me, but the rest of the girls. I knew she was the richest among us, and I thought we could comprehend with that fact.

I peeked through my window and saw her red ford mustang was parked on the side way, the same view as every day. The girls were chatting, laughing, singing along to the song and Jenny was sitting in the driver seat, being y as always. I got a little jealous of her attractiveness, a boy is not a boy if he doesn’t at least once attracted to her, I didn’t know what kind of magic she took but I knew I got to have it. I brushed my hair a little more and hurried myself to downstairs. I had to make sure that I looked great enough to sit next to Jennie and the girls. This sounded crazy though but I guessed all girls felt that way, right?

I walked downstairs and kissed my mom’s cheek before I walked out the door. The wind blew my white skirt, it was down to my thigh but not as high as Jisoo’s, her small thighs fit perfectly with her high wasted skirt while mine? I wasn’t really sure how to describe how ugly it was compared to Jisoo’s, but I didn’t know why I wore mini skirt anyway. Maybe it was some kind of a survival? I mean, hey! I was pretty popular; I needed to wear these things for the sake of my image.

“Hey, girls! Sorry I’m late” I seated myself in the back seat next to Lalisa. She wore a green jacket. Her hair was so perfect that I could not hold myself from staring at it.

“What did take you so long?” Jisoo was on the front seat next to Jennie, she put her foot up on the dashboard and she wore shades by Chanel which I really liked.

“Um.. My mom is being overprotective as always, she asked about things which I don’t even remember” I rolled my eyes as I faked my giggles.

“Ugh! I know right?! Mothers are always like that! I mean they can just chill a little bit, it’s not that we’re doing something wrong!” Jennie yelled, she liked to provoke everything that we talked about, aside that she was a little bit rebellious and fearless.

“Jennie!” I guessed Lalisa tried to stop Jennie from cursing her own mother. “Maybe they’re being that way because they love us and they don’t want us to get drowned in bad things” She acted the way angels acted. If Jennie went out of the line, Lalisa was always the one who neutralized the situation.

“Well, that’s too bad. I am already bad” Jennie smirked. “Yeaah!” and we all laughed at her. She pulled the gear and the car was moving, we headed to school, the place where anything could happen.

*

*

*

As we walked into the school hallway, people were staring at us, boys, girls, everybody. But we got used to it, being pretty and friends with Jennie Kim made us popular. Not only because Jennie was rich and pretty, but because all of us are rich and pretty. Starting from Jennie, she was tall, slim, talented in almost everything, charismatic, charming, and her parents owned The Lotte company. And then there was Jisoo, she was also tall, beautiful, her body was bikini ready, kind, smart and her father was the representative in the government. And then Lalisa, she was originally from Thailand so her face was a little bit different from us, she was a tomboy, she hung out with a lot of boys and I guessed that was what made her easily changed partners, she was good in sport and played in the school’s basketball team, she have won many competition and even became the all star player, and her father was the rector of Asia-Pacific University in Japan.

 And last but not least, me, Hayi. My specialty? Well, Jisoo said I was cute and had a great voice, Jennie said I was like the school’s princess because I liked to wear pink and my body was tiny that everyone liked me because of my cuteness, and Lalisa said I was fun to be with. My father was a composer, he earned a lot of money from shows and composing orchestra for famous movies in Hollywood, did it make me rich enough to be with the other three?

I didn’t really know what the school thought about me, I never wanted to know, but obviously I was far behind Jennie when it came to popularity and attractiveness. I didn’t know why she was still single though, but I did notice that she was picky about boys, too picky that she never even once had a boyfriend.

While I, I currently had a boyfriend. His name was Mino. We were in a relationship for two years now and still going on. I remembered the first time I met him was on my first attendance on a party in Jisoo’s house. He approached me first and we had our first long conversation until morning, and then that was it. He confessed and asked me to be his girlfriend. I said yes, even though I hesitated at first. I never thought it could be this long, he was so nice I could not help.

I walked through the hallway with the girls, everyone greeted us and we only smiled back. I caught some guys were staring at me, Lalisa noticed and bumped me with her elbow, giving the look of i-see-you-have-admirers-over-there, I rolled my eyes and chuckled.

“Okay girls, see you at lunch” Jisoo waved and went in to her class upstairs followed by Jennie. And then there was just me and Lalisa.

We went to our locker. Lalisa’s locker was across the hallway so we were separated for a while. I opened my locker only to be closed by a hand that I recognized as Mino’s.

“Hey baby” his husky voice went through my ears as he stared at my eyes deeply. He leaned his arms towards my locker, oh God, I could not breathe. He was so damn y in that football jacket he always wore on Monday, and his hair was the kind of mess that I liked, I liked everything about him from head to toe.

“Hey” I smiled like a goof, I was charmed by his handsome face and his smile. I’ve been with him for two years and never once I got bored with his attractiveness. He was sure hot as hell.

“What?” what? Why was he asking that? What did he mean by ‘what’? I shook my head swiftly. “Huh?”

He looked down as he laughed, that laugh, the laugh I always miss every day and night. “You were staring at me for like ten two twenty seconds without saying anything” he explained as he leaned closer towards me, close enough that I could smell the mint of his breathe and the perfume that he wore today. I realized I was starstrucked, so that explained me enough on why he asked me ‘what’.

“What? Am I just that y for you?” Yes he was obviously too y for me. I punched his chest as he laughed away. “Ya! You jerk!” I .

“But it’s true right?” he crossed his arms as he leaned against my locker. “That’s why you love me” I didn’t say a thing and then he leaned towards me, he got closer in every second, closer than before, close enough that I thought he was about to kiss me. But I didn’t feel like kissing him now, not in the school hallway, not when everyone was around. What should I do? I didn’t care if I upset him because I reject his kiss, I didn’t like being kissed on public. I stared at his lips for a while and I pulled my head aside, I swiftly kissed his cheek.

I leaned back and saw his upset face. I kept smiling at him to symbolize my apology for rejecting his kiss. “Yes, it’s true. I love you, very, very, very, very, very, muuuuuuuch!” before I could finish what I was about to say, he suddenly lifted me around. I laughed at the shock he gave to me, he always surprised me with things like this, the things that I like about being in a relationship, knowing that I was loved by a boy like him. “Put me down, Mino!”

“What? I can’t hear you?! Tell me how much you love me!” he said as he kept circling around while he wrapped my body.

“Okay! Okay! Put me down first so I can tell you” he did as I say, I brushed my hair with my fingers and tidied up my outfit.

“So?” he crossed his arms as he waited for me to speak. “I…I…I….” I looked up and down as he kept waiting for me to speak, i thought it wouldn’t be fun if I tell him right away, so I decided to not answer him this time. “Step aside! You’re blocking me from my locker. I have class in five minutes and I haven’t picked my book because of you” I pushed him away and took my books from my locker.

“You’re avoiding me missy” his inaudible husky voice teased me from behind. As soon as I finished picking my books, I closed my locker and turned to him. “Talk to you later, okay?” I kissed his left cheek and waved him goodbye as I went to Lalisa across the hallway.

I didn’t even bother to turn around and check on him, I thought it wouldn’t be fun enough if I did. Lalisa was already finished, she walked along with me and we headed to our class.

“I see you’re having a good time with him” she said without even looking at me.

“Well, what can I say? He’s full of surprised” I stared at her with my dreamy eyes.

“Okay, I’m gonna stop you before you’re making a spontaneous poetry about Mino, I’m sick enough with our homework and I’m not gonna let you making me more sick with your oh-so-lovely relationship with him” she said.

We both laughed as we walked into our class. We had chemistry and as usual, I and Lalisa were lab partners. I didn’t want to be partners with anyone other than Lalisa since she was smart in chemistry, so it gave a good impact to my grades. She also didn’t mind with it since she didn’t like most of the people in this class, she said they talked a lot about her and us. She once heard them talked one of the rumors about her and she hated them ever since. She thought it was not their right to spread things like that.

We seated ourselves nicely as the class began. I personally hated chemistry but I got into this class only because I didn’t want to be alone in the art class. None of my girls took the art class, I was a bit upset with it because that was my favorite class. So then I had to face the fact that I was stuck for the whole of my high school year with the subject I didn’t even like or understand.

I couldn’t stand being in the class for another minute, they were talking about combustion or something, I didn’t even want to know what that thing is. I felt like going somewhere right now, somewhere but here. My head was in so much pain because I tried too hard to understand the subject, but no matter how hard I try I still couldn’t understand. It didn’t make sense to me, this subject was for smart people only, and I was not that smart. I massaged my forehead because my migraine just attacked me. I was hopeless, but at least I had to try asking Lalisa to explain it to me.

“Lalisa, can you explain it to me? I can’t really understand what he’s saying” I asked.

Without even thinking, she explained to me, I heard clearly what she was saying but it was still hard for me to understand. I guessed chemistry was really not for a person like me. I stopped her, pretending I had understand enough to continue the lesson. But I didn’t, I lied.

One second to one minute, I finally decided to asked permission to go to the toilet. Quickly I took the permission card and went out of the class. I finally could breathe and think properly. The hallway was empty, none of the students were out except me, I felt a little bit scared because how empty it was. I just walked with nowhere to go, looking around the empty hallway, I kept walking and walking. I asked the permission to go to the toilet but I was not planning to go there, I just needed a fresh air and away as far as I could from class. Was skipping class making me a bad student?

I was not skipping class, I was going to the toilet, only in fact I was not. Doors to doors, rooms to rooms, stairs to stairs, I didn’t have a destination, I just walked to the places I’ve never been to in this school, which was the fourth floor. I’ve heard stories related to this floor about how scary and haunted it was, they used to hear the instruments in the music room playing by itself. Somehow it scared me too and prevented me from visiting the fourth floor. But this time, I thought I needed a little challenge to entertain myself. So without hesitating, I went up. I took the stairs slowly, curiously looking up. I was expecting to meet the ghost that used to play the instrument, but I knew it was stupid. I didn’t believe that ghost existed.

The fourth floor was narrow and empty. There were only three rooms including the depository, the spare room for an extra class and the music room which usually visited by some random kids from this school that owned an unknown band, which I never even heard about. This floor though didn’t have the scary vibe as I expected, it was somehow comfortable for me. I wanted to explore this floor a little more, and I chose the music room as my last destination.

I put my hand on the doorknob, I was positive that the door was locked but it turned out I was wrong. I pushed the door slowly, trying not to make any noises, or else the teacher would caught me red handed. I was amazed by how the music room was such a heaven for me, there were so many instruments from drums, piano, violins, cellos, guitars and some of the marching band old kit. I mouthed the word ‘wow’ to express my amazement, I turned around and closed the door slowly, and I continued exploring the room. I was familiar with music instruments since my dad liked to take me to his working place, he taught me violin, piano and guitar. And from those three, the one that I liked the most was piano.  I’ve played it since I was five and I loved it very much.

Filled with excitement, I walked towards the grand piano in the middle of the room. I could not stop my amazement as I drag my fingers all over the piano. Should I play it? But if I play it then the teacher would know I was here, they would catch me. But I really wanted to play, at least a few notes and then I would stop. I just wanted to try that’s all. I seated myself in front of the piano. I was going to play it. I stretched my fingers a little bit before I play it. And the next thing I knew was that the melodies had flown all over the room. Filling this place with the good sound of piano, I was drowned inside my own melodies. My fingers felt like moving on its own, going with the melodies and my mind was cleared. It was the calmest moment I’ve ever had in this school. I closed my eyes and felt the peace inside my heart.

“Well, well, well. Isn’t it the coquettish school’s princess Lee Hayi” wait what? A voice interrupted me from behind me. I stopped playing as soon as I heard it, i was thinking that I got caught. I finally got caught skipping class. I was doomed. It scared me that the voice came out of nowhere, maybe it was the ghost finally showing up? But how did it know my name? I was scared to death, I didn’t blink even once. The fact that I got caught skipping class and that a ghost recognized me are both scaring me so damn much. Slowly, I turned around, a guy wearing black hoodie was sitting behind the drumset, and he was looking through at me. His hands were crossed; I guessed he was not a ghost after all.

“W-who are you? What are you doing here?” I asked as I stood up.

He smirked and stood up, taking step by step towards me. “No, Princess. The question is what are you doing here? In this place, MY place”

I didn’t even know what to say, I just came here for the first time and he already claimed this place as his place, how could I even know it was his place?!

“I guess everyone can come to this place. FYI, this is the music room, not YOUR place” I said. My body was getting stiff as he got closer to me but eventually he stopped about five feet away from me.

“I see you played well on that piano. I didn’t know a girl like you can have a music taste like that. Beethoven? It’s very rare these days” he said.

“A girl like me?! What do you know about me?” I tensed up our little talks. I didn’t like that he was saying as if I was some kind of a bad girl, a girl who didn’t have taste or an attitude. I didn’t like the kind of thing he was pointing at by the phrase of ‘a girl like you’.

“Well first, you’re popular. Second, you’re overrated. Third, you’re spoiled. And fo-“

“Okay, stop! I don’t wanna hear it anymore. I know who you are, you’re that kind of people who hate me because you think I am popular! What’s wrong with being popular?! You’re just jealous because I have thousands of friends and you don’t!” I yelled.

“No you don’t have that many of friends, you probably only have like one, two, or three, or maybe not at all” he calmly said. I was shocked.

“W-w-what do you mean by that?”

“It means your friends are fake. They only be friends with you because you’re popular and rich, not because of who you are.” He said.

I felt tears were coming down to my cheeks, how could he say that kind of thing to a girl? I didn’t know who he was but clearly my first impression about him was that he was heartless and rude. I wanted to punch him so badly but I couldn’t. I cried as I wiped my tears.

“You jerk!” I yelled at him. I ran away, I ran out of the music room and down to the third floor. I covered my face with both of my hands as I ran to the toilet.

I looked at the mirror and my makeup was ruined because of my tears. That guy took full responsible for this mess. He was so unbelievable; I guessed that’s why he was an outsider, an antisocial outsider who hated a girl like me.