𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲

chapter 5

The next few months fly by, with you settling into your school really well and loving your new home. You're walking through the gate towards the school building when you hear lots of murmurs and whispers, looking around and noticing that everybody seems to be staring at a girl who's walking towards the building nervously. You've never seen her before, so you realise she must be a new student.

You pause for a moment, smiling because the situation reminds you a lot of your first day too. You notice how anxious she looks, her balled fists glued to her sides as she walks. You know what it's like to be the new girl and you can imagine how stressed she must be feeling in that moment, so you walk over and tap her on the shoulder.

She turns to you in shock, and you smile to reassure her.
"Hi, I'm Y/N," you say as you walk beside her towards the school building, other students still watching and whispering around you. You take no notice of it though, still smiling at her. She just stares at you in awe.

Wow, so pretty, she thinks to herself, barely even processing your words.
"Thanks, but you're pretty too," you respond, letting out a little giggle when her eyes widen. She blushes when she realises what she said, before looking back up at you.

"I said that out loud, didn't I?" You nod with a smile, and you both just giggle at each other.
"It's nice to meet you, I'm Jugyeong," she says once you both stop laughing.
"Nice to meet you too." 

You guide her towards the school and take her to the teacher's office, chuckling at the way everybody moves away in shock to clear a path for the two of you. When you look at her, you realise how anxious and confused she seems to be because of all the stares she's receiving.

"Don't worry," she looks up at you when you speak suddenly, "they're just in shock because you're so beautiful. Just ignore them, it'll calm down eventually." She smiles gratefully at your words, continuing to follow you down the corridor.

When you arrive at the teacher's office, you take her to your homeroom teacher who is sitting at his desk.
"Ssaem, we have a new student!" you tell him, causing him to look up from his computer. He smiles at her in greeting.

"Thank you, you can go to class now," he says, so you bow at him before turning to Jugyeong with a smile.
"Hopefully I'll see you later, okay?" She smiles and nods at you, thanking you for helping her get to the office. You shake your head with a smile, as if to say it's not a problem, before leaving to go to your homeroom class.

"I see you've met Y/N," Jugyeong looks back at the teacher when he speaks. He looks up from her transfer papers and smiles when he sees her confused expression. "She's probably the friendliest person you will ever meet. She's one of our top students and she's really bubbly, so if you're already friends with her you will be fine." His final sentence is a form of reassurance to her, because he can tell how nervous Jugyeong is to be starting a new school.

"She really cares for her friends, so you will be well protected here. Lucky for you, she's in the same homeroom class as you." Jugyeong feels all the tension leave her body and she smiles in relief at his words, following after him as he gets up.

She walks into class with your homeroom teacher and you wave at her happily from your seat, pleasantly surprised to see that she's in the same class as you. When she introduces herself you all cheer for her, you bursting into giggles after hearing someone say something about the visual average of the class increasing.

As soon as the lesson is over you get up and walk over to Jugyeong's seat.
"I'm so glad we're in the same homeroom class!" you say excitedly, and she grins at your words.
"Our Y/N here is so bubbly I'm not even shocked that she's already managed to befriend you," Jugyeong looks at Sua who's in the seat in front of her, and said person introduces herself.

You giggle and do a little twirl at her words, before placing your hands under your chin in a flower pose. They smile at your actions before you feel an arm on your shoulder, looking over to see Taehoon leaning against you.

You jokingly lean forward, acting as though you're going to hit him, and Sua sighs with a laugh - very used to your bickering by this point - before telling Jugyeong who he is. She meets Soojin and a few of her other new classmates as well, and you all converse with each other before heading back to your seats for the next lesson of the day.

You honestly find it quite amusing to see how scared she seems to be of Suho whenever you pass him throughout the day, but you reassure her that he's genuinely harmless. He just likes to act tough but he's honestly a nice person.

Throughout the day you show Jugyeong around and help her fit in as much as you can, all of you already accepting her into your little friend group. You all adored her as soon as you met so you spend the entire day with her, even going out after school that evening. You, Sua and Soojin take Jugyeong to an arcade where you buy some food and enjoy some free time together with your new friend. 

You're spending some time with Seojun a few weeks later, when the topic of school suddenly comes up in conversation.
"Saebom High? Oh, I go there," he says, and you look at him in confusion.
"And you never told me this because..." you trail off.

"You never asked," he responds with a shrug of his shoulders, causing you to stare at him with a deadpan expression.
"You've seen me in my uniform so many times and you never thought it would be a good idea to tell me?" Another shrug. You roll your eyes at his logic.

"So why haven't I seen you before at school?"
"Because I'm on a leave of absence right now."
"Ahh, because of your mum?" He nods.
"Why don't you come back though, she's been doing a lot better recently," you ask, and when he doesn't respond you know he's probably considering it.
"I'll think about it."

You walk into school the following Monday, meeting your friends at the gate and walking towards the school building together, your arm linked with Soojin's. You're talking casually, but you gasp when you suddenly feel Soojin pull you to the side. You stumble along with her before looking around in confusion.

She throws you an apologetic smile as she helps you smooth down your uniform, telling you there was a motorbike and motioning towards it. When you look over in the direction she's pointing at, though, you see a very familiar motorbike and the realisation makes you smile. You guessed the constant nagging over the weekend had worked to a certain extent.

You walk forward and your friends all watch, confused about where you're going. They're even more shocked when they see that you go up to Seojun of all people, skipping up to him while he parks his motorbike.

You tap his shoulder and, when he turns to you from where he was sorting out his helmet, you poke his cheek with your finger. You giggle at his exasperated expression, and he hums in acknowledgement when he realises it's you. 

Everybody watches the interaction, confused about how you're close with Seojun. Considering you're still a fairly new student to the school and Seojun has been absent since long before you transferred into the school, they were shocked that you even knew who he was.

Even your friends are puzzled; you've never mentioned Seojun before - not for any specific reason, you'd only found out that he attended the same school as you a few days prior.

You wait for him to sort his bike out so you can walk into school together, chatting normally while he does. You barely even take a few steps towards the entrance when you see Seojun stopping out of the corner of your eye, and when you look at him you see Suho standing beside him.

"Suho? Good morning!" You look at him in confusion when he doesn't return your greeting like he normally does, and that's when you realise that Seojun and Suho are both glaring at one another. You watch as they continue glaring in silence for a few moments, but when Seojun just walks away wordlessly you follow after him in confusion.

You figure you should probably leave it for a while and ask him later on when he's in a better mood. You walk into school with him but you split once you enter the building, since he has to go to the teacher's office and head to his own homeroom class.