It feels awkward to invite the butler or whatever the hell his job is inside my room.
I can't even tell if he was judging or is slightly disgusting on what kind of apartment I lived in. The man doesn't even say a thing when I have to kick my door first before we got inside.
At least he's decent enough to remove his shoes after entering my humble living space.
"Come, sit down", I gestured to the small table in the wooden floor.
The small table korean tend to use in a traditional form to kneel down in front of it during meals or in my case, I was damn too poor to buy the modern ones.
In fact, it's the only furniture you can see apart from the bed and the small wooden drawers that the apartment already provided. It's just one small room connected to a very tiny bathroom where I can't do a split inside, that's how tightly small it was.
The man sat before me, looking expectantly and I looked over at him in return, I shouldn't start the conversation or else, it would just end up with him being thrown out the door.
"I'm Mr. Jeon and I have come on the behalf of Shin Hwa High. The company's CEO was unable to make, so she sent me instead", he started with all the life in his voice.
Well, it's the opposite really, he sounds so dead, like crawling out from his grave.
I scoffed before stating, "She couldn't come? Or more like you're her boy for running errands to face some poor girl?"
"I have come to offer you scholarship from Shin Hwa High and later on Shin Hwa University"
Before I could come up with any rebuttal, he clapped his hand as if a signal and sure enough, a maid in a uniform enters silently and brought in a bag, holding out a couple pair of uniforms that I can't help but admire the expensive fabric.
I already have one, only one set from the bank that got me here in the first place.
"I hope you enjoy this school year, Ms. Ryujin", Mr. Jeon says before politely bowing in a total perfect posture.
I didn't say anything and only walked out with him on the way out of the apartment building until he stepped inside his service then finally get out of my sight.
Will I really enjoy this school year at all?
But now that I got a scholarship until college, I should take advantage of it because there's nothing I wanted than to not get home anytime soon.
It never felt like one, anyway.
For once, maybe. But eversince that terrible night, everything change for the worst.
He wake up every morning as usual without someone to wake him up than the nice maid working in his rather empty mansion.
It had been his since the day his whole family passed away in a car crash when he was ten and if not for Sunghoon's family taking care of the Sim's companies for a time being, he couldn't imagine where his life would go.
As he looked around the only room he loved in this place, Jake let out a sigh at the whole quietness of the house.
Every corner looks too lonely for him even. No one would call him anymore again for a breakfast and no one would carry him on his back again just like his big brother used to do.
This is the same reason why he always go to school earlier than any of his friends in order to avoid the dead silent of the halls.
When he arrived at the campus, the hallways were still void of any students and he liked it for some reason on his way to the room only for them, F4. They hold private classes there at 7:30 am from some teachers who didn't know any better.
Still seeing no one of his friends in the room, Jake decided to pick up his violin case from the room's special lockers for the four of them and head to a secluded part of the gardens.
His loneliness is often the thing he could express through the music and it seems to help lessen the ache in his heart, so he stopped at the prettiest part of the garden and sat at the little bench there before starting to play.
Each melody is screaming his heart out. Each pull of the string gently is like a wave of sounds coming to heal. It causes for him to close his eyes, to feel the music within him before he sense someone is watching him.
Jake stopped playing at once, feeling embarassed to be caught in such a fragile state and there was the girl, looking so achingly familiar as the one who doesn't want to talk him in the first day.
The same one who he remembers save Tak Gu a few days ago from the red card's result.
For a minute, the two of them stared at each other with him getting red at the way the girl is looking at him closely before frowning and looking down at the school map in her hands.
"Sorry to interrupt, but where is the school's pool?", she asked, sounding already too tired this early in the morning.
Without a word, Jake pointed to the direction of the pool in the right turn and the girl just nodded thankfully, still not gracing him a smile like that day.
"Thank you, you're my angel!", she says over-sarcastically, "Don't stop playing on my account, I'll go", she added, pointing down the path.
Jake watched her walk away, his eyes filled with sudden curiousity and even if he feels lonely for a time, a smile is reaching at the edge of his lips, for the sake of the girl.
The girl named Ryujin who was skipping on her way to the pool like a kid, as if she was in her own world.
In a way, it felt like to Jake that she doesn't have a care to everything but herself.
It's actually admirable if that's the case.
It was so embarassing. This Jake caught me watching him, as if everything had stood still in our surroundings at just the sight of him.
But how can I not? Imagine you got early to school to avoid the mass of the students and arrived without a greeting to the driver who, apparrently was sent by Mrs. Park, to drive me there.
Yet I'm proud of my anti-social self.
Of course, such big-headed thoughts does have a repercussions. By saying repercussions, I didn't expect for this school to be so huge and the map was crazy and confusing to understand.
But instead of asking anyone for help, I wander around the school grounds like a ghost searching for her final step to the afterlife and was hoping for my luck to lead me into the school's pool.
The luck I was saying had led me instead to stumble across the boy I know now as Jake playing a violin and I was mesmerized by how well he played. It's like he's putting his entire soul to the melody he was playing.
To be honest, in that moment before I immediately left him, I meant what I said. He looks like an angel, so could I ask him to play in my funeral then?
After some of my classes, I found Yuna waiting for me in my locker, though I believe she's waiting for that Park Jay and is using me as an alibi to have a reason to be there.
Before I could even open my locker to pick up my book inside, I was bombarded with questions on how's my day? What did I eat in the morning? Did I, for some reason, want to join her at lunch in the cafeteria?
She's honestly so cheerful and looked the opposite of me. Like I was the death and she is the life itself.
The last one she asked was this annoying question, "Did you see the F4 today?"
"No, and if I do, I will beat their leader and kill him before his body will be found under a bridge in the next day", I told her, making her bunny smile fade.
She looked at me appalled, not that I care about it, "Do you even know what you're saying?", she asked.
"Yes", I said irritatedly as I slam my locker closed and don't bother to worry when she jumped, being startled, "Just go away"
But no matter how bad I treated her so far, the taller girl still followed me and even if she wasn't saying anything, she smiled whenever I caught her eyes and it's kind of hard not to raise some hand on some cute girl trying to be my friend.
Friend? They're nothing but all a user, so I don't want to have one anymore in order to avoid disappointment in the end.
On our way to the main building for my first class, Yuna suddenly gasped before tugging on my arm and followed what could be a commotion that was going on in one of the entrances in the lobby.
There was a crowd of people, mostly of girls as always, excitedly talking around the doorway. My ears seems desperate in wanting to be deaf as I heard one of them says F4.
Seriously, what's with them being treated like celebrities?
The crowd went silent when the four boys walked in dramatically and slowly, where you could imagine a bunch of cherry blossom petals is gently fluttering around the background as they walked in.
Everyone around us was quiet for a moment then started squealing all at once with Yuna pushing against them to get a look closer.
With the exception of myself as my brows screwed the second my eyes laid on Park Jay.
The four of them walked into the lobby, already anticipating the crowd waiting for them. Lots of them started to scream, Sunghoon tried to not cover his ears and the only ones smiling are Heeseung or Jake even though they're actually on the look out for Jay.
Just in case he might target anyone else again and already did their parents warned them not to.
Their hunch is proven correct when Jay looked over to his left and saw a boy wearing the same shirt as he was. Deciding to keep up with his reputation, he looked up at him accusingly and slowly walked closer to the unknowing victim of the day.
He then asked in a bored tone, "Heeseung, did you have any of your juice left?"
"Yes", Heeseung said immediately with a smile, "Do you want it?"
Jay nodded and held out hand as Heeseung gives it to him, thinking he's parched but only to grab the boy closer, opening the coat of his uniform covering the same shirt he wore and poured the juice down the front, causing for the boy to gasp in shock.
So does everyone else, but they did nothing, not wanting to be in the same situation.
Why do he always do this? He had never even confessed his intentions to us, Heeseung thought from behind Jay and looked around for a handkerchief from Jake and Sunghoon.
They refused but as he was searching for his own from inside his bag, he glimpsed the girl from before, the girl who almost scared him from talking shit about them in the locker's area.
She was standing from the back, looking at the situation in horror and he chuckled to himself quietly, not aware Jake is eyeing the same girl for the same reason.
Finally, they found someone who have some sense to see this is all wrong.
He then look over to see what Jay had done. The boy's shirt was drenched in juice and he was the one mumbling a sorry to Jay before disappearing out of the crowd.
But no one had commented on it, not even when the F4 headed to their classroom without mentioning what had just happened.
It's the way of life, after all, in Shin Hwa and that's about to change soon.
Shitty people with their shitty attitude.
That's the thought going in my mind as I stared at the people starting to walk away and acting like nothing happened. Due to my annoyance at Yuna seeing nothing wrong about it, I leave her to herself and walked to my class in my own.
Just like before, she followed me and commented on the deep frown in my face, "That looks too permanent than your smile"
When I thought we were already alone on our way, I spoke to her, "Who the heck do those guys think they are? That Park Jay is the biggest dirt bag I've seen in this prestigious that's actually as trash as the -"
That's when we hear someone behind us scoff and say, "Oh. My. God"
We turn around to see three girls and my temper went up a notch to see how they look like.
Here we have the preppy princesses with their overboard make up and too much styled up hair that I probably already see from some american celebrities.
I didn't even ask them when one of them start to formally introduced themselves, and the first one says with a curled up pink-painted finger pointed to herself, "I'm Jia"
The girl to her right with a giagantic ribbon says, "I'm Soo-ah"
Then the girl to Jia's left said, "I'm Min-Ah", she spoke in a deep voice, but mine was much more deeper and masculine.
Jia spoke next after seeing the roll of my eyes at them, "Do you know who you were talking about, new girl?"
I played the role of being a new girl and just stared at them acting I had no clue. To tell the truth, I have no idea what they were talking about.
"That's Park Jay and his friends, our future husbands. From now on, watch what you say", she threatens with both of her hands in hips.
What did they got from me? A resounding laugh from my throat before I just walked away and dragged Yuna with me. They were asking for a bullet instead of just an innocent lamb.
If they push me more, the trigger would be set up to shoot and they won't like the result.