"Hell, here I come!!"
Huh?
Yulia cursed under her breath. She made sure there was no other person on the rooftop before she sat down and reviewed her music score, but the sudden howling shattered her concentration.
"No one can stop me now!! I will kill myself, motherfucking people of the earth."
Is that person serious?
She peered at the direction of the voice, catching sight of a certain melon-head. The male student who looked just about her age stood by the edge of the rooftop. His hands were grasping the top of the railing while his feet thrusted on a lumbering climb.
Yulia's first impression was a crab trying to escape metal bars. Sighing, she called out to him. "Hey!"
The unexpected interruption caused Luciel to loosen his grip from the cold metal, slipping uncontrollably during the process. He propelled backwards and landed on the hard cement with a thud.
"Shit! I almost died! Why would you surprise me like that?!"
Yulia finally had a clear look of his face. He was certainly familiar, but she couldn't tell where she'd seen him before. In spite of his unwelcoming remarks, she held out her hand to assist him. "What are you doing up there? It's dangerous."
"I wanna jump, isn't that obvious?," Luciel cheekily replied, still taking her hand and pulling himself up.
Yulia observed the guy with disbelief in her features. She surely knew he was joking, judging by his reaction after the drop. "Stop acting dumb."
"Oh, I'm not acting, thank you very much."
Just how sassy is this person, eh?
She was intending to tell him off for disrupting her peace when the rooftop door slammed open, spitting two more male students. They both rushed to the melon-head. "Ciel!!"
"What the hell were you thinking?! I told you to go find me!" The one with dark green hair held his shoulders quite tightly. That did not escape Yulia's notice. The whole setup looked silly, but this guy's reaction was definitely real... or maybe, he was just good at overreacting.
"Chill pill, honey. I'm not gonna jump. It'll hurt, why would I?"
Okay. Too much info.
First, this guy said he wants to die, got mad when he almost died, said he wants to die again then now, he won't do it cause it'll hurt?
"Ciel, Gen, it's lunchbreak. Don't waste the time," Elijah- the youngest, nonchalantly backed off the scene and trudged down the stairs as if nothing just happened.
"Hey, you! I won't forget what you did!," Luciel exclaimed, pointing a finger at Yulia. He wiped the stray strands of light orange hair off his forehead while trying to intimidate the clueless girl with narrowed eyes.
"Huh? What did I do?"
Luciel turned his back on her. "Gen, let's go!"
"See you around, pretty lady!" Genesis waved goodbye as he turned his back from her and followed Luciel, his moss-colored hair looking more prominent under the sun.
They're...weird.
Yulia's eyes grew tired of following the retreating shadows of her schoolmates, so she grasped her music score and picked up where she left on.
Looking up once more to scan the surroundings, hopeful that no other distraction would come, a green journal caught her sight. She crouched down and retrieved it, instantly noticing the worn out cover. The leather was already dry and chalky, and the pages seemed crunched up from getting dampened.
At the very first page wrote, "Do broken pens really do art no justice?"
Does this belong to that guy a while ago?
The words imprinted on that page puzzled Yulia. She did not want to intrude in case it contained anything personal, but the subtle undertones of sadness in the opening note made her wonder. If it was that person who owned it, the possibility of his earlier words struck her.
Did he actually want to jump? What if he's not really okay?
She winced as flashbacks of her response towards him hit her. She might have been too prejudiced because of the nonsenses he was spouting that she forgot no "okay" person would attempt to climb the rooftop's railings.
♟
"...leave him under her care."
Yulia only caught the visitor's last few words before she entered the receiving area. All heads turned to her. Attention was something she had been receiving in excessive amounts since childhood so stares from a new face did not bother her anymore.
"Pleasant afternoon," she greeted with a smile. Her calm demeanor had always given off an air of competence to everyone looking, but today, she looked rather spaced out.
"Yulia, play for us?," her mother gestured towards the upright piano resting beside the extensive stairs. Yulia nearly spilled her fears then and there when she realized she wasn't able to study her music scores properly.
She could have played any of the hundred pieces she had learned before, but her mother was never fond of listening to repeated pieces. Yulia tried to search for any reasonable excuse to cover up for that. She turned to the guest- a man of his fifties, surely there for business, and asked,
"Is there any composer you particularly like?"
"Any by Schubert?"
"Sure," she sat down the bench which was already lacking its comfort from being sat on thousands of times.
Schubert Serenade, arranged by Liszt
As her fingers skillfully glided over the keys, playing testament to her years of relentless practice, Luciel Zhang returned to the receiving area after a nature call.
Nooo waaay.
His lips parted when it dawned on him, his palm slapping lightly against his forehead. The tutor his uncle got for him was that nosy girl.
He had the immediate urge to call Genesis or Elijah, and plead them to get him out of there.
"Her mother has agreed," his uncle filled him in. "The schedules will be during Fridays and Saturdays."
Yulia lifted her head.
Huh? Melon-head!
With the sudden loss of focus, her fingers tripped on the keys during the last bar, earning a glare from her mother. She mentally scolded herself and drilled her attention back to the piano.
Why is he here?! Is he really serious about that revenge thing he said earlier?
After finishing the rather short performance, Yulia joined the group, awkwardly keeping her eyes from the orange-haired schoolmate.
"Yulia, this is Luciel Zhang," her mother introduced. "I'm sure you two are familiar with each other since you attend the same school. Sir Zhang and I had a talk. You'll be tutoring Luciel with his major subjects during Fridays and Saturdays."
Tutoring? Why didn't she inform me earlier?
"Understood." Despite of the confusion and internal opposition, she knew she would not be able to say no with the two men in front of them. She was rather disappointed at her mother for not seeking her opinion first, but the feelings were mild- she was used to it afterall.
"Stupid!," Luciel mouthed in disbelief. It was obvious he did not want it, too. His face morphed into a sullen pitiful look as he continued ranting while the two adults were engrossed in their personal matters. "You should've said no!"
Yulia shut her eyes and muttered a few distressed words. She did not want it either, but how could she ever turn them down when it was them who approached her mom.
She mouthed back in annoyance, "you're the one who came here. How am I supposed to say no?"
♟
Friday
The sultry air was starting to take a toll on Yulia. She had nothing against hot days, but today was an exception. She would rather stay home doing piano lessons the whole afternoon but now, she had to tutor a sassy aggressive weirdo.
Asking about, Yulia gathered sufficient information about him. Luciel Zhang was one of those children her parents would force her to socialize with. His parents were businessmen- successful ones at that. All members of his immediate family excelled in their chosen fields, except for that guy.
Luciel Zhang would always come in a group of three, though. With him were Genesis Yoo and Elijah Xia who also came from notable backgrounds.
Genesis Yoo rooted from a highly influential political family from a neighboring country who had probably the cleanest record in government history while Elijah Xia was the youngest son of the Xia family of prominent actors and businessmen.
The three share numerous things in common, but the one thing that bound them together most was their well-known academic records. If there would be a ranking of the worst students in school, they'd be among the top ten.
Class 1- C
Before she could even knock, the door flung open, revealing Genesis Yoo. He was just as confused as she was, but he still invited her in. "Hi."
Yulia acknowledged his greeting with a brief nod. Most students' attentions darted at her. It wasn't everyday that the rank 1 student in the whole school would visit their class. Talks would surely circulate after this.
She made her way to Luciel who had his face buried on a book, napping.
Look at this inconsiderate guy. He didn't even bother informing me of his schedule.
Yulia was about to tap him awake when Elijah caught her wrist midair. He sent her a disapproving look and lightly shook Luciel's shoulder. "Ciel? Wake up."
Luciel grumbled, his cheeks brushing against the pages of the book as he moved his head to the other side. "Leave me alone, Eli."
"I'd like to, but your tutor is here."
Waking Luciel up and getting him to his senses was one of the hardest things to do, but this time, he instantly straightened himself up and glared at Yulia.
"Oh hi. This is McDonald's drive-thru. The fuck you want?"
"Your time. We're supposed to have tutorial session today, remember?"
Genesis joined them in the circle, chuckling. "Tutorial session? This guy here needs therapy, not that shit."
Yulia flinched at their hostile replies. She had never encountered anyone as unfriendly as the three and it was putting her patience to test. All she wanted was to get her job done, that's it.
She took a deep calming breath. "Come with me."
"Say, please master." Luciel had a lazy grin plastered on his face as he watched Yulia's face heat up. He was sure a cultured girl like her wasn't fond of those banters.
"Just go," Elijah spoke, causing all three to stop bickering. "Stop wasting her time. Elites like this one doesn't have much time to spare, unlike us."
Yulia would have been thankful if not for the spite evident in his tone.
Why does it feel like these people hate me?
"Fine fine. Whatever." Luciel dismissively waved off Genesis's counter. Their youngest never really spoke unless something irked him and they knew better than testing Elijah's patience.
"Well, thank you."
Yulia was so close the edge, but she kept ridding herself off the stress from the trio. Luciel never paid attention and just stared at the window, in nowhere in particular. Genesis was making fun of her diagrams. Elijah was on his phone, playing racing games.
"Please focus."
"Why? We're paying you. Just do your job and I'll tell them you did. You can even not do it and I'll still tell them to pay you."
"They will assess you and it'll reflect on my teaching," Yulia grunted in a frustrated tone, but it only seemed to feed the pleasure of the three. They paid no mind to her frustrations, not realizing she could be in trouble for their mischief.
"So annoying~ We're hungry and we can't even go out without Ciel," Genesis teased. He had his arms around Luciel, hugging him from the back as he looked at her, unbothered.
"Not my problem. Just go buy food and eat here, then," the intolerant girl sighed.
"But you're here. We don't eat with strangers," he answered.
"Then starve." Yulia picked up the pen once again and tapped on the equation she was trying to explain. As expected, no one paid attention, but she had it all in record. Just in case she'd be cornered for not teaching Luciel properly.
The banter was making Elijah's head spin. He couldn't help but comment, "you know this is pointless. You're just making fun of yourself, Lim. Stop being so desperate and tell Sir Zhang you'll quit."
And that was the last straw.
"I'm not doing this because I want to, get it? I'm tasked to do this and that's why I'm putting up with you disrespectful people. Now, won't you just shut up and listen? 'Cause it's not like you're going to lose anything by paying attention to the lessons," she argued.
She hated it. They made it seem as if it was her fault that she was forced to tutor that guy.
"We're going to lose braincells," Genesis retorted.
Goodness me, how difficult are these people?
"Though I doubt you have any," Elijah commented, antagonizing his own friend. That statement caused another argument to branch off the previous one until the three were in their own world, excluding a helpless Yulia who was sure to get an earful from her mother when she gets home.
Elijah stole a glance from the corner of his eyes, amused to see such frustration from another ambitious top-wannabe. If his assessment of her was correct, she was the type to follow orders blindly and do everything methodologically.
He really hated that kind, but as of now, his most discernible urge was to see the girl's haughty, privileged mien fall apart.
And how he needed to stop those tempting ideas of messing her up...