Hongik Boys' High School
It was your typical high school with the nerds and the cool guys, the bullied and the bullies, the rich and their "dirt underneath the shoe" counter part- is what one would've said if this was a cliché Netflix highschool movie.
But it wasn't. It was reality. Hongik Boys' High School was supposed to be a normal high school where a bunch of dudes could bond and study and have fun and be weird together.
Keyword, supposed.
Can someone explain why in the actual fuck was Hongik actually like one of your typical high school with the nerds and the cool guys, the bullied and the bullies, the rich and their "dirt underneath the shoe" counter part straight from a Netflix show?
What happened to being normal?
Guess we'll never know.
Despite all that, students are adamant not to leave the school because it does have a great reputation. It is said that Hongik is the magical spell of one's life. If your resume has a mention of Hongik, you are sure to not live a life of unemployment. Thats what they say.
And maybe it's true. Never ever once has anyone seen a Hongik student not being successful.
It is a private school which takes great pride in providing their students the best facilities and honing them in everything. Your child is to come out as a block of gold from this school, they say.
"Block of gold." Sure. Definitely.
Absolute bull crap. Most of the students here are riding onto the high of being the kids of rich parents. And while I am one too, I certainly do not fall under the category of the cool kids.
It's not like I am ugly. It's quite the opposite infact. I am the child of an extremely famous model so my genes made sure to copy my dad's features to the boot.
Then why am I, the good looking son of a rich retired model, now designer, not a part of the cool kids?
I do not know honestly. Or maybe I do.
Maybe it's because of the way I embarassed myself while confessing to the girl I liked and getting rejected, maybe it's because of how I exploded on everyone in that state of embarrassment and anger, maybe it's because of how I got played again by a cat fish and did some embarassing shit to get their attention.
There are so many more maybes. But I am sure, my embarassing past does play a huge role in it.
Oh? You're here? Hey readers!
You all must be wondering just whose embarassing past we are talking about, right?
It's me, Kim Taehyung, son of Kim Taeyoung and Cha Hyuna. Yes, my dad was very creative with his name giving and also put a lot of effort into it, I know.
Want to know a little more about my life? I'll tell you. Ever since I was born, my life had been a sort of a roller coaster. My mom, Cha Hyuna, was a world class alcoholic. She was the heiress of a big hotel chain in Korea but her love for alcohol was far greater I guess. She threw away all that she had worked so hard for.
No one knows why my mother turned to alcoholism. The only thing we do know is that, alcohol had become her life, and also took her life.
I was 7 back then, and my mom's family members looked so void of emotions on her funeral. So did my dad. He had cried the night before when he received the news of my mother being found dead in one of her pent houses, but after a few hours he had gone completely silent.
It was all so scary for a 7 year old me. From where I was standing, I could hear my mom's older brother talk to my great grandmother with stars in his eyes. He desperately asked for her confirmation that he'll be taking over the family business as the CEO now that mother was gone.
Was his position really all that important that he had to disrespect a dead woman like that by talking and smiling in her funeral?
My great grandmother just nodded her head, looked at me for a while before silently walking away.
My dad took a day or two to recover from his state of pain and numbness before he finaly came to his senses and started paying attention to me like before.
I would have cried for not having a mother under usual circumstances, but I was too used to not having my mom around. She was always gone and busy. Now the only difference was, I would never have to guess when she would be back. I had the answer now. Never.
Maybe I did feel a little hollow but I never dwelled on that fact much. I was growing up and getting closer to my dad everyday. He meant the world to me.
We had a lot of fun time together until the last year of middle school came. My dad got busier and so did I, preparing for my exams and studying to get into Hongik.
Hongik was my dad's dream school when he was a child but back then neither did he have the money to attend it, nor was he able to get the scholarship. The bars were high then.
I wanted to get into the school with great marks so that I could make my dad proud. And I did. He was the happiest when I told him that I got into Hongik. He personally designed me an outfit for that very occassion and hugged me for hours while crying about how proud I made him.
That was the happiest moment of my life after middle school. Infact, it was the only happy moment in my life after middle school. The roller coaster of my life had plunged itself down to the depts of bad and shitty days once school actually started.
Well it wasn't all that bad at the start. Could've been so much better if I was not an awkward little shit but alas, that's just who I was.
And once I did start getting out of my shell, I was welcomed by one misfortune after the other, making up my embarassing past.
I had moved out of the house temporarily, my dad not accompanying me, owing to his new brand collaboration with another company abroad.
He is still in France, seeing to the long term project and I am not gonna lie, it does get lonely.
I had rented a house in the whole colony full of students, near to the school, but soon regretted it. I just could not fit in.
And so I moved away a little farther and got an apartment. It was smaller than what I was used to because of which househelp did not stay with me to help around, but it was nothing I can't tolerate. Humans are adaptive creatures after all.
Except, I was not much of a human when it came to Hongik. No matter how much I try to adapt to the environment there, I just could not fit.
And I was right now making way to that very damn school. My car rolled into the parking lot and stopped before I stepped out.
I waved a quick goodbye to my driver before walking into the huge school. The halls were filled with the chatter of the boys and oh- there it was. The cringiest part of the school, apart from me. The bullies and the bullied. It was so irksome to watch it. They gave me second hand embarrassment but also the shivers. There was the actually embarassing group no one paid attention to as all they did was mock people. These were the ones you could club in with the club I was in- "The Losers' club".
Then there was the group who you'd definitely not want to have anywhere near you. Not because they have the contagious cringe virus, but because they were just straight up fucked in the head sadistic assholes.
I walked past the "Cringe loser bullies" who were mocking some scholarship students for being poor.
"C'mon, they are atleast better than you losers! These smart ones will do something for our country in the future you dumb fucks!", screamed Hyun-jae from a distance.
He was one of the only tolerable but at the same time, least tolerable people in the school. This dude was an absolute gem. A diamond I must say. Patriotic as fuck, he belonged to a complete military family. Devoted to the country, he was someone you could say, has a stick up his ass. He has literally no room for fun in his life. But he was hugely respected in the whole school and no one messed with him.
He was a student of the military school before until he had to quit due to an injury. I remember how depressed and rough he looked when he first entered the school. Man, did people pity him.
Hyun-jae has now gotten better and is pretty into the military commander role and being a stuck up. I am sure if it weren't for his whole military background, this attitude of his would land him in our Losers' club.
I sighed and walked away, getting into my classroom quick.
"Kim Taehyung!" There was another loser. Choi Han. The king of losers. And also my friend. He was one of the top students in our school, right beside Hyun-jae. Han was one petty man. He was jealous of anyone and everyone better than him. He had sent notes to Hyun-jae in jealousy telling him things like "You are so damn mean." "You don't deserve that 1st rank. Its mine."
It was obvious who the sender of those notes was. Choi Han was since declared as Elskay, the pronounciation for the initials "Ls'. K", which stood for Losers' King.
I pitied Han. As a poor guy who worked hard for that scholarship and above all is under constant pressure from his parents to do better, he might not have been in his best element back then. I understand.
I looked him up and down as he scurried towards me, taking a flick from one random bully on the forehead and thus stumbling a little.
He was a little cute, not gonna lie. He had short rough black hair which was always all over the place and his neatly ironed chequered shirt with khakhi pants always remained constant. He was Hyun-jae's other self in a parallel universe where Hyun-jae didn't belong from a military family.
Some even called him Hyun-jae's bad quality xerox. Han would always get all huffy and mad about it. He might have grown a little mentally since then but he still hated Hyun-jae's guts for being better than him academically.
He finally came and sat beside me, sporting a huge smile. It was weird. It wasn't his smile. He had a rather small smile. Why were his lips pulled so further apart?
"I have a crush on someone!" He whisper-shouted, pulling his phone out in an instant before I could say anything. Heck, I couldn't even process what he said.
But when I actually did, I practically choked on the air. Han? A crush? Really?
I forwarded the back of my palm near his face to check his temperature in worry. "Hanie you're okay, right? Did your parents hit you again? Did you hit your head?"
What the fuck? This was abnormal. Han was known to never have even the slightest bit of interest in any girl.
"Yes I am Taehyung. Jeez. I can also like someone. It's not that revolting." He huffed, opening his Instagram and pulling out a guy's profile.
"Isn't this your brother-"
Oh my god. Don't tell me, sweet home Alabama?
"Yes. He recently joined AMQ Entertainment and he has been posting stuff about the trainees from there."
Oh. Okay. Nevermind.
"Congratulations to him! But isn't it illegal to post about other people without their consent? He can get into serious trouble." I said, as I looked at the content of Han's brother's insta page. It made me feel uneasy. The angles clearly showed that they were clicked while hiding.
"It's in his private account and my brother isn't posting anything too extreme. Just little snippets of his work here and there."
Han was aggressively scrolling through the ocean of pictures, trying to locate the one with his crush. Well, no matter what he said, the pictures were creepy to me, but I'll keep my mouth shut right now.
"Found it!" He said as he shoved his phone onto my face.
"The currently most famous girl group trainee Star?" I asked, looking at him before looking at the picture again. It was a really beautiful picture. I really liked Star's audition video. I am rooting for her. She was so cool in the survival show. I remember sitting for hours and cheering her on with a pom pom in my hands.
"No dummy! Its him! This guy behind her!"
Oh. Right. I shouldn't have assumed that it was a girl just like that. I carefully took Han's phone into my own hands and zoomed on into the guy. His pixelated figure did look attractive but I couldn't clearly catch a hold of his features.
"Han he is not even visible. High chance he isn't actually attractive." I said in a dead voice, looking at my friend as if I was done with his stupidity (I was).
Han slapped me on my head, snatching his phone from my hand before turning his body back to the front of the class.
"He is attractive, okay? My brother saw him and said that there is this really good looking guy there who is not even a trainee."
I sighed, shaking my head while Han just sat there pouting at me for not believing him.
Like that the whole day passed by and I was finally done with school. Getting out of the gates of hell was so refreshing and emotional.
I got to my apartment with the food that my driver had got packed for me. I kept them on the kitchen counter to heat them later and went to take a shower.
While in the shower I obviously thought back to Star, real name Park Yuna. Yeah, she was my celebrity crush at the moment. The internet is also flooded with moments of her and her brother training together and making content. Her brother, Park Jimin, was also a trainee at the same company. Their bond is honestly so wholesome.
With those thoughts in mind, I walked out of the shower, drying myself and getting all giddy to watch new updates of Star.
I put my food into the microwave and waited for it to heat up while I connected the television to the Wi-fi.
Just then the bell rang which honestly, annoyed me a lot. I hate it when someone disturbs me when I am trying to watch and eat something.
I took begrudging steps towards the door only to find a man holding several packages, in front of me.
I looked at him confused, wondering who sent these. I had not bought any and my father would have goods sent for me by the hands of Cliff, my driver cum bodyguard.
"I did not order anything sir. You must've gotten the wrong address." I said, gripping the door knob to close the door.
"Wait- I know it's not yours. It is actually your neighbour's. They sent it to you instead since they said they would be arriving later than what was planned due to some unavoidable circumstances." The delivery guy said as he carefully dropped the packages near my feet before moving his hands to his jacket to find something.
"They asked me to hand over this letter to their neighbour. Please keep these safe until your neighbour arrives here. I have more work to deliver so I will need you to sign here real quick."
He said, shoving the clipboard and pen into my arms as I hurriedly signed the papers, still dumbfounded.
The delivery guy had left before I could make a squeak. I looked down at the envelope in my hands which smelled of lavender for some reason.
I sighed before picking up the boxes and keeping them onto the dining table, the envelope still in my hands. It would once in a while brush against my face as I moved, the calming lavender scent hitting me again and again as if this person was so near me.
I jolted back from my thoughts, hurriedly opening the letter to read it, trying not to pay mind to the lavender scent which was now stronger than ever.
Hello soon-to-be neighbour,
I am Jeon Jungkook, your soon-to-be neighbour. I apologise for the inconvenience of having to take my package for me when we are complete strangers and when you yourself might be busy but some things came up which I could not have foreseen. This has delayed my arrival. I had sent this letter and other instructions to the P.O before so that they may deliver both, my packages and this letter, to you.
I believe I'll be moving in by the 19th so if you could please hold my stuff for a week I'd be greatly indebted to you and grateful all the same.
Thank you very much for your help. I promise to pay you back however you wish it.
Have a nice day :)
It's a guy. I thought it would be a girl. What a bummer. But still, the smiley at the end was cute. He also has a really pretty handwriting which I am sure will have my English teacher orgasm at the sight of.
I chuckled and folded the letter back into it's envelope before walking to my room to place it safely in my drawer.
I wonder what Jeon Jungkook is like in real life. Is he as cute as in the letter?
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look who's back?
this is the prologue to give you all an introduction. actual chapters updates will officially start after 24th january.
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