chapter one

Pushing the doors open, Cha Soojin walked out towards the rooftop of the school, the wind violently thrashing against her. It was early morning, far before school started, before the sun had even risen that morning. Yet, she was there; studying in the wee hours of the morning before school started. Going up towards the rooftop was forbidden, but with her privileges as the student council president, she was free to go.

Soojin stared out at the dark skies, clouds covering most of the sky. It all felt so dark, but the stars were still twinkling. Twinkling as if they were telling her that everything will get better, that one day, she will shine bright as a star.

It was hard to believe though. Everything was so complicated now. She wished she could go back to when everything was simpler, whether it was snack time or nap time, when all she did was play with her grandmother.

“Everything is so difficult now,” Soojin whispered to herself, a look of sadness washed across her face. The wind was howling. It sounded so lonely, so lost-- so confused.“Just like my feelings.” Ignoring the strong winds, she focused on the sky, her eyes softening. Looking at the sky felt peaceful; it was as if all the pressure was lifted from her shoulders, as if she could do anything she wanted.

“But who am I kidding,” Soojin mused, alone. No one was there to hear her. “I can’t do anything I want...” The action of pouring her feelings out to herself, alone, in the morning seemed foreign, yet, it was strangely comforting. “I’m always being watched, being followed.” Her voice got stronger, bolder. She screamed. “I hate this! But...” her voice quieted down, her eyes closed, “I have to endure this. I’m doing this for myself.”

She suddenly froze, slowly turning at the noise of clanking. It sounded like cold metal, so lifeless, so cold. Everything to her sounded like that.

“Quite a voice you got there,” a voice suddenly complimented, making Soojin jump. She twisted, trying to locate the voice of the stranger, yet, no one was in sight. She heard a sigh. “And I thought you were smart. Up here, you idiot.” Soojin furrowed her brows, looking up. There, on the little compartment on the roof, sat a pale, brown haired boy, casually lying on the ground.

“That’s a bit rude, don’t you think?” Soojin huffed, crossing her arms. The boy was strange. “What are you even doing here at six in the morning?” He seemed nothing like her; lying on the roof, his hands behind his head, staring up at the sky. She despised people like that.

“Well, y’know, I liked this part better than the roof,” he responded nonchalantly, not even sparing a glance in her direction. His eyes were still locked on the sky, the clouds slowly moving. “This is like... a roof on a roof.” Soojin’s face was now in a small glare, her lips pressed together.

“How did you even get up here?” She interrogated, walking close to the boy. The boy was on the roof of a little room that was on the rooftop of the school. She glared at him, craning her neck.

“There’s a ladder,” he bluntly stated, as if it was obvious. He pointed to a ladder leading up to his secret roof. He then looked back up, closing his eyes.

“Not your stupid little roof, you idiot!” Soojin screamed, getting frustrated. She huffed, staring the boy up and down. “Honestly, you’re getting a little irritating. You’re not even supposed to be here! The roof is off-limits to students!” He scoffed. He opened an eye to look at her, the other closed.

“That’s a bit rude, don’t you think?” the boy mocked, a smirk etched on his face. Soojin’s hands were tightly balled into fists. “Not that hard to sneak up here anyways. Why are you up here anyways, student body president?” He sang the last three words, as if he was trying to stir something up. A chill went down Soojin’s body; who did he think he was? He finally sat up straight. She didn’t notice, but he had quite a handsome face. But his personality? Definitely not endearing. “Aren’t you scared of getting in trouble?” He continued sarcastically, waving his hands at the last word.

“You--”

“Oh, the student body president is getting mad!” He acted, looking worried. “Whatever shall I do?” She paused. And she remembered.

Byun Baekhyun, class clown, and in her thoughts, troublemaker. He wasn’t in her class, but she knew of him. Everyone would be gossiping about how funny he was and how cute he was; she didn’t see either of them. All she saw was an annoying, five-year-old boy who didn’t know how to shut up.

“Leave,” she commanded, pointing at the door that lead down the roof. She had enough of it. He was a stupid idiot, and that he probably thought that life was all colors and rainbows. He didn’t know what other people had to go through. “Byun Baekhyun, I’m telling you to leave right now.” That caught him off guard, and for once, he showed an expression other than his nonchalant face.

“And if I don’t?” He raised an eyebrow. Soojin froze; what could she do? Expel him? She didn’t have the power, and to expel over such a small thing was, well, stupid. “See, look, I got you there.”

“You really shouldn’t be on this roof anyways,” she huffed. She wasn’t going to go down without an argument. “You’re going to get in trouble with the teachers.” He snickered, shaking his head, an amused smirk plastered on his face. Currently, it happened to be the exact same face that she happened to want to swiftly punch, a perfect cracking sound to be heard.

“It’s alright, isn’t it? I mean you’re here,” he pointed out, his legs crossed. “I’m here. The sky is beautiful. The night is alive--”

“It’s six in the morning.” She interrupted, not impressed.

“Still! It’s dark. It’s still night. The sun hasn’t risen. When it rises, it signals a new day of troubles, troublemaking, and of hardships.” He had a small smirk on his face, as if he thought what he said was the funniest thing ever. The philosophical talk wasn’t going to change her mind, no matter how he tried.

“Okay, that’s pretty nice. But why don’t you, I don’t know, watch from somewhere else?” She spat the last few words out. “Down in the courtyard’s a good idea. Or through a window in the library. What do you think?”

“Pft, I think I’d rather stay here. Why don’t you watch the stars, calm down a bit?” He suggested, patting the empty spot next to him. Soojin could tell, even if it was a bit, that he was purposely trying to annoy her. He just wanted to see her irritated. Well, she wasn’t going to give in.

“Okay, listen. Can you just leave?” She asked another time, trying to convince him with another tactic.

“Uh, how about... no?” He was not convinced. “Listen, can’t you break the rules for once? I understand who you are but c’mon...” He gestured to the sky. “It’s six freaking a.m in the morning. I doubt anyone is going to see this.”

“Still. I have morals, you know. Unlike you,” she insulted, starting to get childish. She suddenly felt proud of comeback, a small smirk on her face.

“If you think that was good... it wasn’t...” Baekhyun replied, looking as if he was trying to hold in his laughter. “And plus, I do have morals and ethics. This roof just isn’t included in any of them.”

“You’re kind of starting to piss me off now,” she said quietly, though he could still hear it.

“Actually, you’re starting to annoy me.” He said. The two just stared at each other, in deep silence. The silence was so overwhelming that she could that in any moment, it could just swallow her, leaving her in an empty abyss. “You know,” he started to talk, startling her, “you’re so keen on keeping your good girl image, it’s kind of annoying.” Soojin furrowed her eyebrows in shock; annoying? That’s how everyone wanted her to be-- the strong, bold girl who would be able to command a nation. A girl who would obey all the rules. A girl who was studious, intelligent, and could make her own decisions. Soon that’s what she wanted to be. And that’s exactly what she became.

“You know what’s annoying?” Soojin started to talk, her voice shaky. She ignored it. More important matters were at hand. “Dumb people like you who think everything’s fun and rainbows. You think everyone has it easy ju~st like you. Well guess what? It’s not. You think this good girl image is for everyone, but you don’t know what I have to do. Just because you have the easy life doesn’t mean everyone else does!” She exploded, unable to stop talking. She couldn’t help it. He was so calm, so laid-back, but she still ended up shouting at his face. He didn’t understand. He probably had everything done for him. He probably had no hardships.

There was a long silence between the two.

Maybe she overreacted. Maybe it was a bad idea to yell at him. Maybe she should leave.

“You’re interesting,” Baekhyun finally said, gazing at her. He let out a chuckle. “I’m Byun Baekhyun, nice to meet you.” She watched him, confused out of her wits.

“I don’t want to associate with someone like you,” she spat out, making him flinch.

“O...kay?” He responded. The two watched each other in silence, none of them moving an inch. The only things that could be heard were the chirping of a few birds, happily singing songs to each other at six in the morning. Soojin gulped, wanting to ask a question, but wasn’t obeying her.

“Did you... hear?” She croaked out, her voice barely audible, Apparently, Baekhyun thought so as well, as he strained forward to listen.

“Hear...?” He repeated, causing Soojin to nod. It looked as if he hesitated before answering. “Well, yeah. You were, kind of loud.” A tint of pink appeared on Soojin’s face, causing her to look down. He heaved a sigh, leaning back on the roof, his hands keeping him stable. Stability... something to keep her stable. It felt like it was slowly disappearing from her life. “Personally... I don’t see what would be so confused. I mean, just live life the way you want to, there’s nothing more to it.” He shrugged. “Who cares about what your parents think. Who cares about what other people think. It’s your life, isn’t it?” Soojin took a deep intake of air, slightly irritated.

“Personally, I don’t see why you think everyone has the same life as you,” she countered quietly, not wanting to shout anymore. She didn’t need, or even want, to talk about her problems, yet a carefree troublemaker was lecturing her about life. “It’s not that easy. It’s never that easy.”

“I never said anything about that.”

“It sure sounds that way to me.” Instead of being angry, Soojin was just tired. She was tired of arguing, she was tired of his stupidity, and she was surely tired of her life. She watched as Baekhyun pressed his lips together, trying to generate a response.

“My life is much more difficult than you think.”

“Is that why you’re lounging around roofs at six in the morning? Is studying non-existent to you? Don’t you want to get into a SKY university?”

“I’d rather not.” She narrowed her eyes at his response, shocked. She didn’t understand this boy at all. Everyone wanted to get into a SKY university.

“Well then, good luck finding a job,” she snickered.

“I doubt I’ll need to get into a SKY university to get into what I want to be,”

“And what’s that, a clown?” The two stared at each other, both seeming to be in a fierce contest. Baekhyun looked slightly amused.

“What’s so good about SKY anyways? They just talk and talk and lecture. How do you even learn that way?”

“First things first, you have to listen.” She watched as Baekhyun let out a laughter, shaking his head.

“You’re funny, student council president.”

“You see, this is the difference between me and you.” She said, changing the topic. “I try. I try my best to achieve new things, to get people to understand. You... I don’t even know what you are.”

“Well student body president, what more do you want?” He asked. She opened to respond, but he cut her off. “Don’t you have everything? The respect of students, the admiration, the talents, the intelligence! How more perfect can I human be?” Soojin gulped, unable to respond to his sudden statements. Perfection was a strong word. Could that even be applied to humans? But perfection is what everyone strives for in live. Perfection is why people live.

“Perfection isn’t that easy to achieve,” Soojin slowly responded.

“Yes it is. What is perfection then? Do you need superpowers or something?”

“No, you just need to be...” Soojin paused, unable to think of something.

“Be the best you can be?” Baekhyun scoffed. “That’s not perfection. That’s simply called trying.”

“I never said that.”

“But it sure looked like you were going to.” There was a pause. “Perfection is stupid. Perfection is what will kill us all,” Baekhyun said.

“Perfection... is what we all want to achieve,” Soojin corrected. “It’s why we live. To achieve perfection, is it not?”

“Scientifically, we live to reproduce.”

“But we all want to achieve perfection, don’t we?”

“No, you’re wrong. No one wants that.”

“Then I guess since you’re the opposite of me, you’re imperfect.” He scoffed at her response.

“I think everyone would be considered imperfect, except for you.”

“That’s not true!” She countered. “Everyone tries their best to be--”

“But didn’t you say that perfection isn’t trying your best?” She paused. She didn’t know how to respond. Perfection was what it was: flawless, faultless, balanced.

“No one in this world is perfect.” Soojin whispered. “Not yet.”

“Because you want to be perfect? Is that how it is, student body president?” Those three words that came from his mouth can effortlessly send chills down her back. It could effortlessly freeze her, and she didn’t know why.

There was a sudden silence between the two. Instead of looking at each other, both were deep in thought. She didn’t understand; why else would you live? Doesn’t every human strive for perfection? Isn’t that why they were born?

“You can stop trying, Cha Soojin,” Baekhyun quietly said, looking serious for once. Soojin was taken aback by his change in attitude. “You’re already as perfect as a painting, take the back seat and let others take the limelight.” Soojin opened to reply, but she couldn’t think of anything to say. All she did was look at Baekhyun, shocked at his words. Before she could respond, her eyes shot out towards the sky.

It slowly started transitioning into different colours-- orange, pink, yellow. They painted the sky beautifully, the sun starting to rise. The clouds slowly disappeared, leaving a beautiful painting left in their view. Baekhyun and Soojin both watched, none of them letting out a breath; the sun was slowly coming out of its shell, shining bright and giving hope to everything. A small, yet sad smile touched her lips. She needed to be the ray of hope. Soojin suddenly cleared .

“I should go,” she quietly said. Baekhyun, enchanted by the view, barely heard, and just sent a small nod, not even looking in her direction.

Soojin, taking one last look at the view that much resembled a beautiful painting, left without turning back.

author's note: hello hello! thank you for reading the first chapter of this fanfic <3  i hope it was up to your expectations. and trust me, there will definitely be more interactions in the next chapter. im aiming for this to be less than 5 chapters, but i also said that for my other story, and im not even halfway done that and it's at 5. i apologize for the no-poster, no-bg thing, i was going to wait to get them before i posted, but i realized that i didn't want to keep you guys waiting. i hope you guys upvote, subrscribe and comment. i also want to improve, so feel free to leave feedback~ 

thank you so much again <3 i hope the next chapter won't take too long to come out (: