“Soojung, have you done buying drinks?” My best friend, Choi Jinri shoots me a questioning look. She’s waiting for me at the elevator area, while I’m buying a can of Iced Lemon Tea from the vending machine.

Ever since the vending machine has been moved from the second floor to the first floor—just an inch away from the elevator, other students and I find it very bothersome to juggle downstairs just to buy one from the vending machine. I have no idea why the management decided to move it. I mean, there is no classroom on the first floor—it solely belongs to the exam unit and a couple of computer labs.

“Yeah, I’m done.” I take out mine from the ‘out’ case and briskly leave the vending machine.

“What took you so long?” She puckers her lips the moment I walk up to her. “It’s fortunate that the elevator doors haven’t popped open yet!”

“Sorry!” I grin at her. “I had a hard time looking for coins in my purse since I’m running out of cash.”

“Whatever,” she say in defeat, and both of us end up waiting for the elevator until it arrives.

///

“Hello, guys!” Jinri says to our coursemates as we settle in the seats that have been spared by Naeun. “Mrs. Jo hasn’t come yet?”

“Fortunately, nope,” Naeun says in delight.

“Let’s chat until she comes in!” Luna chirps happily.

Instead of chiming in the conversation the three have, I’d rather have my eyes wander at the wide open door, looking at students who come in and go out of the spacious room at times.

It’s not that I’m not close to them. I am quite close to them, but out of three, I’d pick Jinri as my best friend since I’ve known her since high school. We studied in the same class and now, we’re even attending the same university as well as having the same major.

In retrospect, I don’t think I have made so many friends since the first semester, and even now that I’m in the second semester, I’m still stuck with a small group of friends; consisting of Jinri, Naeun and Sunyoung @ Luna (she thinks Luna sounds awesome, by the way).

Just for the record, I reckon Jinri would be my sole friend if two of them weren’t my coursemates. It’s not that I’m introverted or something, but I find myself contented doing things on my own. Some would think that being alone means you’re a loser, but I don’t give them a . I prefer being alone and that’s it.

“Soojung, have you done choosing your desired novel for the major assignment?” Naeun’s inquiry breaks me out of my reverie.

I pick up the opened can on the table and have a sip. “I have.”

“What is the title?” Luna questions eagerly.

“It’s ‘Remember Me?’ isn’t it?” Jinri looks at me for confirmation.

“Yeah, that’s the novel I’m doing.”

Luna rolls her eyes. “I thought Mrs. Jo clearly said no to romance novels?”

“I’ve shown her the novel and she said the novel’s okay.” I lean against the seat. “You guys should show her yours if the genre of your novel is romance. I’m pretty sure she accepts any kinds of genres, though.”

I hear a heavy sigh escapes Jinri’s lips. “I still can’t find a good novel.”

“You know what, I just picked out a random novel from my sister’s shelf!”

“Really?”

“Oh my God, you really are taking this major assignment like it’s just a piece of crap, aren’t you, Luna?”

“I don’t think I am, guys. I just had a hard time to think of what novel I should choose. That’s all.”

Here we go again, I pay them no heed and again, I look around the classroom—

I find myself staring at a relatively small, co-ed clique at the back seats. They are all handsome and pretty, and seem to be somewhat rich from their posh outfits and hairstyles.

Truth be told, I don’t think I have ever seen them before in the campus. They all look new to my eyes.

“Guys,” I call them.

“What is it, Soojung?”

“By chance, do you know who they are?” I point to the notable clique. “Those people who are heartily laughing at one another?”

“Who doesn’t?” Naeun lifts a shoulder. “They are one of the popular cliques in the campus.”

“Popular?” I narrow my eyes, bemused. “Define ‘popular’, will you?”

“Those people come from well-off families and as you know, being rich means you’re popular. So yeah… they’re popular because they’re rich other than having good looks,” enlightens Luna tediously, as though she’s had enough of them.

“They’re freshmen just like us, though,” Jinri adds. Okay, I’m taken aback the fact my best friend actually knows them. Fine, I guess I really am an introverted girl.

“Majority of them are students from May intake, and I think only two of them are from our batch—September intake.”

In Daehan University, that’s one of the different things that you won’t find in other universities. Students aren’t only taken at one time, but rather it uses ‘intake’ system. There are three batches in a year; January, May and September. For me, I was supposed to be admitted for May intake, but some things happened. Thus I was pushed to September intake, in which Jinri was in the same intake as me.

“The brown-haired girl is Seulgi, the glossy black-haired one is Yura and the blond is Suzy, if you were wondering.” Naeun has basically disclosed me all the girls’ names, who literally have such weird hair colors.

“What about those two guys in their clique?” As wacky as it might sound, I find myself interested in the slightly dark-skinned male student, who has got pretty much messy hair. He, along with the other guy, are very touchy with the girls as they talk. They are their girlfriends, perhaps?

“Oh Sehun and Kim Jongin.” Luna cross her arms over her chest. “The latter prefers to be called Kai, though.”

Jinri just snorts, a disgusted look on her face. “As if ‘Kai’ sounds very masculine.”

“Which one is Sehun and which is Jong—I mean, Kai.”

“The blond is Sehun and the other one is Kai, of course,” says Naeun.

As I expected, the guy I’ve been keeping an eye on is indeed Kai.

“Kai’s hot, isn’t he?”

“Not at all,” Jinri retorts right off the bat. “He’s just… well, very plain.”

“Do you not like him, Jinri?” I ask out of curiosity. There must be reasons as to why she acts that way when I brought up about the clique.

“She doesn’t like all of them,” Naeun corrects briskly.

She pulls a face. “It’s not that I don’t like them, but I kind of hate people who say they’re filthy rich and shop anything they want, though the money actually comes from their parents.”

In all honesty, I agree with my best friend’s words. I also detest those kind of people. They act as though they are the ones who run the business and make money—

Bloody hell, Kai’s looking at me!

A shiver runs down my spine as his gaze’s still on me. I tell myself to turn around and get him off my head, but my body wouldn’t work with me.

One,

Two,

Three.

Kim Jongin or pretty much known as Kai, has a small smile on his lips and it’s pointed towards my direction.

God, I swear my heart just gives me a hard thump.

///

Damn. I am late today.

I would have kept on sleeping until evening if nature weren’t calling me. I did set the alarm, but I guess I was too tired. I was doing an assignment until 1 o’clock in the morning. The submission date for the assignment is next week, though. I am the type who loves doing things ahead of time and totally detest last-minute work, so that was why I pushed myself so hard that I slept very soundly, and hadn’t realized that I had a class the next morning.

Rushing to elevator since my class is on level two, I nearly crash against a male student in the hallway.

“Sorry!” I mutter a quick apology. “Didn’t realize you were in front of me—”

I look up in horror. He’s the popular Oh Sehun, isn’t he?

“It’s okay,” he answers, deadpan, and stalks off a moment later.

As my eyes train on his footsteps down the hallway, I cannot help thinking he is a little—or rather cold. He did not even look at me in the eyes just now. I suppose he was being hostile because I’m just nobody.

Are all rich people like him? I mean, I know he’s rich, popular and good-looking, but that doesn’t mean he can just look down on me.

At the very least, his friend is not like him. Kai smiled at me during