ओह! यह छवि हमारे सामग्री दिशानिर्देशों का पालन नहीं करती है। प्रकाशन जारी रखने के लिए, कृपया इसे हटा दें या कोई भिन्न छवि अपलोड करें।
NA Ahreum barely blinks an eye when her alarm begins to ring, the sound filling her larger than average bedroom. She simply reaches out to snooze it, before burrowing herself back into her blankets, keen to make use of the few minutes she actually has to continue sleeping. It's still dark outside (which might actually be due to her curtains that block most of the light trying to seep into her room), and there is nothing Ahreum hates more than having to wake up early in the mornings to make herself look presentable for school.
And Ahreum now attends an all girls private school with some of the richest kids in the country, she can't afford to turn up looking like she just rolled out of bed. Some of the students already look down on Ahreum for transferring from a public school, she doesn't need to give them anymore reason to dwell on it, especially not while the title "new girl" still hangs over her head. Seriously, it's been a few weeks, she thought they'd be over it by now. Apparently not.
(As it turns out, the Gangnam Academy doesn't get many transfers, especially not right before the beginning of their final year, so Ahreum's probably not going to lose that title anytime soon.)
She still misses the times where she lived with her mother, across the street from her old school, and could afford to wake up half an hour before her classes started. If she made it to class with minutes to spare, and a rumpled uniform at her old school, no one would blink an eye. If she ever did that at Gangnam Academy, people would stare at her distastefully. Not ironing her shirt perfectly before stepping on the premises is practically a crime in the eyes of some people at that school.
What's even worse is that Ahreum has to leave the house even earlier, because not only does her father's chauffeur have to drop her off at school, but he also has to drop off her half brother, Yeonwoo, and whichever friend he's dragging around for the day. That's an extra ten minutes of sleep that Ahreum is losing because of her half brother, who's decided that he needs to go to school even earlier ever since Ahreum moved in with them. And she knows he's only doing it to spite her, because she has a vivid memory of her step mother fondly telling her about Yeonwoo's sleeping habits, completely oblivious to the fact that her son is the spawn of Satan.
She's considered coming to school with Yoon Shinjin, the nice girl in her year that lives two houses over, in a mansion almost as large as her father's. But Shinjin always seems to have things to do at school in the morning, what with being the student council treasurer and all her other extracurricular activities, and Ahreum's seen the Yoon Family driver leave even earlier than her and Yeonwoo, and she values her beauty sleep far too much to wake up even earlier than necessary. She'll take dealing with her asshole of a brother over going to school sleep deprived any day of the week.
She feels like a zombie as she makes her way to the car barely an hour later, lugging her school bag behind her. But even though she feels dead on her feet, she knows she looks great, because the face mask she put on last night did wonders for her skin, and she actually managed to get an even wing on her eyeliner this morning, both of which are personal wins for Ahreum. No matter how exhausted she feels, she takes pride in being able to hide it well.
It takes Yeonwoo at least another ten minutes before he makes his presence known, and Ahreum's on the verge of snapping at him, even though she knows it won't get her anywhere, and she'll probably just end up even more furious at him. Yeonwoo has a particular ability to drive her up the wall very easily, and Ahreum hates it. Especially since it's all his fault that she's losing her precious beauty sleep in the morning. The least he could do was actually be ready on time.
"Come on, Piggy," says Yeonwoo, as if he weren't the last person out the front door. Ahreum has to resist the urge to throw her backpack at him while his mother is watching them.
Sometimes (read: all the time) Ahreum really can't stand him.
She bites her tongue when he gives the driver an address three streets away, no doubt to pick up one of his friends, and slumps back in her seat, wishing more than ever that she was back at her old school in Iksan. Ahreum appreciates the fact that her mother wants her to get a good education, and she's thankful her father was willing to take her in and expose her to a whole new range of great opportunities (seriously, he managed to help her get a part time modelling job, something that Ahreum has always wanted), but there's still a small part of her that remains homesick.
Ahreum doesn't really know much about the boy they pick up, even though his face is familiar and she recognises him as someone they've picked up a few times already. She's not even completely sure what his name is, since Yeonwoo likes to pretend that Ahreum doesn't exist and never feels the need to introduce her to any of his friends. All she knows is that he lives three streets over in one of the richer apartment complexes in the area, and that he attends the Gangnam Institute with her brother. She knows that the pair are friends (she can't fathom why, though, because in the six months that Ahreum's had to live under the same roof as Yeonwoo he's been as far from pleasant company as you can get).
Ahreum doesn't bother to strike up a conversation with the boy, because she knows better by now. Yeonwoo has made it a mission to tell everyone how much of an inconvenience Ahreum is, like she's intruding on his family, and he's no doubt brainwashed all of his friends into thinking the same thing. Ahreum thinks it's a bit unfair. It's not like she asked to be sent halfway across the country to live with her Dad who she'd never met before, because he felt bad about not being in her life and decided the best way to make up for it was to pay her tuition fees for a fancy private school.
She doesn't attempt say goodbye to either of the boys, when the car finally pulls up in front of the Gangnam Academy, knowing that she'll either get ignored, or end up on the receiving end of an insult. Ahreum only thanks the driver softly as she climbs out. She doesn't notice the look that the boy gives her as she steps out, far too focused on getting out of the car as quickly as possible. However, she does hear the snide comment that Yeonwoo makes as she goes to shut the door, and if she slams it harder than usual, well that's nobodies business but her own.
