Sujin feels her jaw tighten. She snatches one in a swift movement that teeters the shelf ever-so-slightly, and storms out of the office with a huff.
"Enjoy your stay, Miss Han!"
★
͏͏͏͏͏͏⠀⠀Oh. My. God.
Sujin lets out a long-overdue groan as soon as she steps out of the main building, going so far as to kick stray pieces of gravel on the footpath with a frustrated humph.
"What the Hell is her problem?!" She hisses to nobody in particular, not quite able to keep her thoughts to herself now that she's no longer in an enclosed space. She slowly rubs at her temples to soothe another oncoming migraine. "She's just like Mom..." She sputters in disbelief, "A carbon freakin' copy - they all are!"
Luckily, there's not many students around to gawk at her mini-tantrum. There's only a handful of other people weaving in and out of the building and walking around the lawn and, even then, everyone seems far too occupied with their own agendas to really care about anything going on around them.
Chill... being known as the crazy girl who talks to herself is not a good rep, Sujin reminds herself firmly.
The girl finds a nearby bench and takes a seat. She shakes off the oncoming cramp in her left forearm after having carried the handbook at her side for a mere few minutes. Well, that's just an entire issue in and of itself... she thinks, dumping the offending object in her bag with a distasted scowl.
The next plan of action is figuring out where her dorm room is - and to do so as fast as humanly possible. The humidity and ongoing agitation are catching up to her, for sure; and the quicker she can find a bed to bury herself in for hours, the better.
Sujin scans the quadrangle for any signs pointing to the 'West Wing' Headmistress Jeong had referred to earlier. She squints, eyesight struggling without the help of her trusted reading glasses in the unforgiving summer light. The search proves to be fruitless after about a minute of scouting, but in that time Sujin finds her gaze subconsciously drawn to a pair of students emerging from one of the archways.
They're a couple, by the looks of things. The girl wears a flattering pink sundress and a pair of strappy wedges, caramel-hued hair pushed back with the help of a ribboned headband. She laughs elegantly into the sleeve of her knitted shrug as the boy next to her cracks some kind of joke. He's taller - much taller - and sports a pair of light wash jeans that pool easily over a pair of spotless white sneakers. One of his hands is jammed into a front pocket, the other occupied with tousling through the golden blonde hair falling over his eyes. Both of them bear a shiny badge over their chests that seem to sparkle in the sunlight, and they walk in effortless sync with one another - a picture-perfect embodiment of young royalty.
Sujin momentarily wonders what that must feel like; being so sure of your place in the world that it shows through your stride alone. She might even go as far as to say that for that brief moment in time, she catches herself yearning for a taste of it. But that feeling is gone as quickly as it had come, and Sujin tears her eyes from the pair with an unintelligible grumble.
She hoists her bag back onto a shoulder and jumps to her feet upon spotting a sign - at last - directing her to the girls' dormitories. It points away from the quadrangle, but Sujin's view is blocked by the surrounding archways of the main building. She silently whines to herself at the thought of having to walk such a distance in the sweltering heat.
(Okay, it's not that bad - but the girl just needs a break for crying out loud!)
She curves around the pavement, passing by a sign that reads: 'LAWN MAINTENANCE IN PROGRESS. Keep off the grass at all times.' Her agitation only further increases when she realizes the additional distance she'll now have to travel without cutting across the lawn.
Oh, screw this.
Sujin gives up about ten paces in, abandoning all reason as she proceeds to step over the sign and traipse through the grassy area without a care in the world.
Not like she ever had a care in the world to begin with, but the rebellious sentiment remains nonetheless.
"Oi!"
A loud exclamation has her whipping her head around, eyes catching onto those of the golden-haired boy she'd observed just a few minutes prior. Standing at the edge of the paved pathway, he knits his brows together in a stern frown, "Can't you read?!" And his voice is laced with an unfamiliar accent, she notices, as he points to the sign she just walked over with a 'Duh'-like expression, "Stay off the grass!"
You've gotta be kidding me.
Never in her life has Sujin ever come across a teenage boy who gives so much of a shit about lawn maintenance. Or any shits about it at all, for that matter. She rolls her eyes in his face, and spins back around to continue on her course - but not before giving him a piece of her mind.
She flips a middle finger uncaringly over her shoulder, not even bothering to look back and gauge his reaction upon pairing it with a particularly unladylike retort: "Suck my dick!"
But if she were to have locked eyes with the stranger a second time, she would have seen him rooted to the ground - jaw slack in utter, dumbfounded shock.
Now, there's one Hell of a way to make a first impression.
SAGE'S SPACE! 🗯️
sujin is so 😭😭😭 she wins the idgaf war idc
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we're finally getting into the story though !!! WOOHOOO 🕺‼️ and it's only right to kick things off with first impressions of a... very special someone ;) which i am so incredibly keen on unpacking in the next chapter(s). as always, i hope you're enjoying this book and our silly little drama queen sujin 👩❤️💋👩
til next time, sage ♡
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