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━━━ " 📂 " ..⃗. ༉
𝙍 𝙊 𝙈 𝘼 𝙉 𝘾 𝙄 𝙉 𝙂
! chapter one hundred
& eighteen ─── ʚĭɞ
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One morning a few days later marked the first snow, Miyeon waking to find that the cold winter sun was no more and instead replaced by the pretty white flakes of snow.
And with that she finally decided she could no longer get away with wearing long socks that her and the many other girls had been clutching to, instead pairing her uniform with tights. She pulled on the thickest jumper she could manage over her blouse, dragging her blazer over her shoulders and, unable to find a coat that had sleeves wide enough to accommodate it all and be warm at the same time, she pulled the leather jacket that Seojun had left off of the coat hooks.
Her bag bounced against her back as she walked, cold biting at her hands as they wrapped around the straps by her shoulders, breath coming out in a mist as she waited for the bus, stepping on it and making her way closer to school.
Jugyeong was waiting for her by her shop, and the two girls trudged towards the school in the snow, hair dotted by the crystal patterns as they neared the gates. "Oh my gosh." Miyeon breathed out, Jugyeong's head shooting up and following her gaze.
Two cutouts from Jugyeong's photoshoot stood by the green gate, which had three posters of similar design - just in green, orange and pink - attached to it.
"What is all this?" Jugyeong exclaimed as her eyes landed on the stands. "It's so embarrassing."
"The face of our school - Im Jugyeong!" Miyeon cheered, nudging her friend. "Come on, I'll take a picture!"
The girl beside her rushed to stand beside the cutout, letting Miyeon take a few photos of her and then taking her phone to take a selfie to send to her mom.
"So she's the queen of Saebom High School." Miyeon's head shot up, seeing two boys walking side by side and staring at Jugyeong. "Hey-" The boy began when Jugyeong looked up as well.
"She's the face of our school?" The other asked, his words mocking. A frown began to form on Miyeon's face at the tone - what in the hell's name was happening, and why were they reacting like that?
"Let's go." The two boys scoffed before continuing on. A hopeful smile was on Jugyeong's face, and confusion covered Miyeon's - she had no idea what that was about, but Jugyeong seemed to be so happy about the cutouts that she didn't notice the tone.
"We should go as well." The Hwang girl pushed. "I bet there's going to be tons of posters up all over the school."
Jugyeong nodded, and with their arms linked they continued towards school. People seemed to be muttering all over, and Miyeon couldn't help but notice as students' head twisted around when they same them coming.
But none of them were looking at her - they were all directed at Jugyeong. At first, Miyeon believed it could be because of all the posters and cutouts, but there were hints of something else in there that didn't at all go with that narrative.
"What's going on?" She muttered to the Im girl, whose smile as slowly disappeared. "Why is everyone staring?"
"I have.. no idea." Jugyeong replied as they continued down the hallway, shoes tapping against the floor and gazes flickering from person to person who seemed to be looking at the girl on the right.
People were crowding around the posters of the wall, and as they were walking, someone purposefully hit Jugyeong's shoulder, the two girls being forced to the side with gasps at the sudden movement.
The boy looked back, hands dug inside his pockets. "Angel?" He asked, eyes flickering from Miyeon to Jugyeong before shaking his head. "What a joke."He continued on, people all around the two muttering and being stared at.
"What was that all about?" Miyeon asked, arm still linked with Jugyeong's as they righted them self. She turned her head as they walked, watching the retreating back. "Ugly bastard." She muttered, letting the Im girl pull her forward.
After passing through corridor upon corridor of the students of Saebom High doing the exact same thing, they reached the classroom - which didn't seem to be any better.
It didn't hold the usual scene, small groups of people clustered around their friends desks and talking animatedly about their plans for that evening, or a new lip tint they had gotten. Now, friend groups mixed as they all stared down at one phone, clumped together in the centre of the classroom.
As soon as they walked in, one of the boys began to tell them all to be quiet and silence fell as they turned to look at the pair entering. Never a good sign.
"No way." Hyunkyu was saying, his voice much louder than the others, who had reduced their comments to whispers and murmurs as they glanced between their phone and the girls at the door - focus clearly on Jugyeong.
"What's going on?" Miyeon asked, voice ringing out across the room, louder than Hyunkyu's and the whispers.
"It's very different." Someone else was saying. Laughter came from one of the girls, and looking up Miyeon could see a crowd gathering at the door.
Sooa approached them, phone in hand and looking incredibly betrayed. "Jugyeong." She began. "Is this really you?"
Jugyeong's arm slipped away from Miyeon's, both of their gazes directed to the screen of Sooa's phone as she held it up.
Breath caught in Miyeon's throat and her mouth went dry, swallowing harshly to try and remedy it. She had seen the pictures just a few nights before. It was the ones that Semi used to try and show Seojun that Jugyeong was a completely different person.
'The real face of Saebom High's Im Jugyeong' the title read, above a picture of what was clearly Suho and Jugyeong kissing on a staircase somewhere.
Then, a picture of the Im girl on her knees beside a destroyed box. 'She was the dumpling girl before she transferred. You guys will faint when you see this. She's mad ugly. It's all makeup.' The girls read, before Sooa scoffed and pulled away her phone, pushing past Jugyeong and out of the classroom.
"Jugyeong - Jugyeong hey.." Miyeon began, the Im girl frozen in place, eyes filled with terror as the stable life that her new start had brought start to crumble.
Muttering began again, comments about Jugyeong's appearance as the girl in question stood frozen. Miyeon felt so incredibly bad for her, the Im girl stood like a deer in headlights in front of her entire class as they poked fun at how she looked before.
Rushed breathing came from the girl, bottom lip wavering and eyes filing with tears. And then Jugyeong turned away, pushing past the crowd by the door.
"Hwang Miyeon, aren't you shocked?" One of the girls came up to her and took her arm. "She's been lying to us all the whole time - it's all makeup."
Miyeon pulled her arm out of her grasp, the girl gasping at the sudden movement and looked around, shaking her head. "Are you all really that shallow?" She asked, rhetorical question pumping in her ears. "Have you ever thought about maybe why she came to this school looking like a different person? So she could avoid all this bullshit!"
She twisted around to leave the room, eyes setting on a girl sat in a dark navy coat. Miyeon hadn't noticed Soojin sat there before, but now that she did she saw an attempted hidden smug expression on her face.
Shaking her head slightly at the girl, knowing that somewhere along the line Soojin had something to do with it, Miyeon rushed back out of the classroom, following the way that Jugyeong had gone.
Twisting around a corner she saw Jugyeong be pushed down by another boy, Suho approached at the cleared end of the corridor. He kneeled beside her, Miyeon pushing her way to the front of the crowd and watching as Jugyeong hit away Suho's hand and rushing away.
It was as simple as a post on the school's social media boards to bring the security that Jugyeong's makeup abilities had brought. And the two people she trusted the most were left behind to try and help deal with the outcome.
And whilst Suho would most likely focus on trying to rid the school of the graffitied posters Miyeon had run past, the Hwang girl had different plans that probably involved Seojun.
She knew that he would help her in finding out who had posted the pictures and created this mess. She had her bets on Park Semi or Kang Soojin.
And she really hoped it wasn't the latter.