CHAPTER ONE

The hallways of X high school were crowded with students milling about on the first day of the new school year. Having graduated as the student council president from M middle school, I was sure I'd find my place in X high in no time at all – my only concern at the moment was finding my classroom. As I entered the first years' wing, I searched the crowd for familiar faces.

My eyes landed upon a familiar dyed blue head that could only belong to one person. Next to him stood another student with black hair and a well-pressed uniform in contrast to the blue-haired delinquent disregarding dress code on the first day of school. The odd pair of unlikely friends were Jung Jun-Seo and Tan Chin-Hwa – Jun-Seo was Chin-Hwa's childhood friend and neighbor from R middle school, whom I had only met once or twice but knew far too much about, seeing as how Chin-Hwa was constantly talking about him. Chin-Hwa and I had graduated from the same middle school and were pretty close, despite the fact that he was a real pain in the disciplinary committee's ass with his dyed hair and piercings.

"Hey Tan Chin-Hwa! How've you been?", I said, placing my hand on his shoulder.

Turning around to look at me, recognition flashed in his eyes before he said, "Tan-Hyun-ah!"

We made small talk and I was relieved to find out that we were in the same class – one thing that I had learned in my ten years of education was that the hardest part of school was making friends.

Moments after we entered our new classroom, that Jun-Seo had fortunately known the location of, our homeroom teacher, Mr. Jung, rose into action and called us to attention. He informed us of our timetables and had us pull lots for our seating arrangement.

I held up my paper in victory as I made my way to the coveted column of seats next to the windows. My place was right at the back of the class, a seat behind Jun-Seo and four seats behind Chin-Hwa. I emptied my bag on the table and organized the numerous books I had, most of them novels. A boy pulled out the chair beside mine and practically threw himself into the seat, hung his bookbag beside the desk and nestled his head in his arms on the table in a matter of seconds.

"Uh... Hello there? I'm Seong Tan-Hyun, what about you?", I asked him, poking his motionless figure.

"Well, I guess we're seatmates now... ha-ha...", I trailed off as he ignored me. He seemed to have already fallen asleep. Great, I thought. I have an asshole for a seatmate.

"Settle down, class!", said Mr. Jung. "I'll be announcing the entrance exam rankings now, to give you an idea of where you stand in the class."

Clearing his throat, he began, "Starting from the lowest – Tan Chin-Hwa, you'll have to try harder. Second from last, we have Student Hyun-Sook followed by Student Yoon-Jae..."

"Hey, Tan-Hyun, how'd you do in the entrance exam?", asked Jun-Seo, turning around to face me.

"10000 won says I got first place in the class, as usual", I said with confidence.

"Really? Make that 30000 won and it's on", he replied. I nodded in answer and he turned back around to face the teacher.

"In third place, we have Student Yoon-Tae. In second place we have Student Tan-Hyun... ", he said and Jun-Seo turned around to smirk at me. I pulled out my wallet and handed over the money to him, waiting for the teacher to announce the class' top student.

"...and lastly, in first place we have Student Jin-Moon. Would you please come to the front of the class?", he said, raising his head to look my way. "Well, isn't that nice! Our two top students, sitting together! I'm expecting a lot from the two of you this year!"

The boy seated next to me, who I was sure was sleeping just moments ago, stood up abruptly and walked to the front of the class with slow, purposeful steps. Mr. Jung continued, "Class, this is Hwang Jin-Moon, make sure to give him a warm welcome. Due to his position in the class, he'll be your class president for this year – and Tan-Hyun will be the vice president. All in favor?"

All the students in the class raised their hands, happy to hand over the position of teachers' errand boy to him. Jin-Moon didn't say a word and simply stood next to Mr. Jung, dumbstruck. Mr. Jung put him to work immediately, sending him to the teacher's lounge to get handouts for the class.

"Hey", I whispered to Jun-Seo, tapping him on the shoulder. "Hey. I thought he was some delinquent? He's wearing a hoodie under his uniform and has dyed brown hair. How come he's top of the class?"

"He's a scholarship student, placed first in the entrance exam, and that's his natural hair. Girls went crazy for his silent and aloof demeanor in middle school – I should know, we were in the same class."

"Wait a second, you were in the same class? Then you knew he'd place first, you scammer! Give me back my money!"

"No can do, a bet's a bet. Anyways, he isn't delinquent or anything, I think he's just shy – he was the same in middle school, always kept to himself.", he said.

"So, he didn't have any friends?", I asked, feeling pity for the poor guy. Jin-Moon opened the door, holding a stack of papers in his arms. "Shut up now, he's back"

Giving the papers to Mr. Jung, Jin-Moon walked back to his seat in the same awkward fashion as before, dropping down into his chair with a thud.

"Hey Jin-Moon! First place, huh? How many marks did you get in the test?", I asked him.

He looked shocked for a moment but immediately went back to his usual emotionless and guarded expression, saying, "I don't remember", before placing his head down on the table once again.

Taken aback, I said, "Alright...". In a final attempt to be friendly, I asked, "Would you like to eat with me and my friends during lunch?".

"No thanks", he said, not even raising his head to look at me. [What's his problem?] I thought. [Jun-Seo was wrong, that isn't how someone who's shy acts - he's just plain rude.]

[If he's going to be like that no one's even going to talk to him, seeing as how this is an all-boys school.]

***

The bell rang, signaling lunch break. Au contraire to his disheveled looks and chronically uninterested mien, Jin-Moon was a diligent student – he took notes for every little thing the teacher said and raised his hand for every question. I raised my hand for every question too but for a different reason – if you raise your hand and answer a few questions at the beginning, you become practically invisible to the teacher for the rest of the class.

For such a hard-working student, Jin-Moon was pretty quick at leaving the classroom. He rushed out of the classroom with his bag in tow, heading in the opposite direction of the cafeteria. [Where is he going?] I thought.

[Well... It's none of my business.] He'd made it pretty clear that he wasn't interested in making friends, shooting down anyone who tried to talk to him in a matter of seconds.

"Lunch at the cafeteria?" I asked Jun-Seo, trying to clear my head of Jin-Moon. He nodded in response, tossing his bag over his shoulder.

"Come on Chin-Hwa let's go to the cafeteria, lunch is on me today", said Jun-Seo, slapping him on the back of his head.

"Ow! What was that for?! Wait... you're treating? What happened? Is the world ending? Are we all gonna die?!", Chin-Hwa responded, amusement lacing his voice.

"What're you talking about? I always treat you!"

"The last time you treated me was in the first year of middle school...", said Chin-Hwa, arching his eyebrows and pursing his lips.

"It's because Mr. Confident over here lost a bet" he said, grinning as he waved the three ten thousand won bills in front of me.

"I didn't lose, you cheated.", I grumbled.

"Making bets on the first day of school isn't very class-prez of you, Tan-ah" teased Chin-Hwa.

"At least I don't have dyed hair like a certain someone – it looks like you don't plan to make things any easier for the disciplinary committee this year", I retorted. "I'm the vice-president, by the way. Jin-Moon is president"

"Yeah, what's up with that anyway? He's so unsociable – I don't know what the teacher sees in him!", said Chin-Hwa, folding his arms across his chest.

"Well, it might have something to do with the fact that his ranking is right on top of the board while yours is lurking in the murky bottom. That reminds me – how did you get into this school anyway?", I said, laughing and raising my hand for a high five which Jun-Seo gladly met with his own.

"Woah!", I cried out in surprise as a student practically tackled me from behind, knocking my glasses off, making me lose my balance and faceplant into the floor. The stack of papers he was holding scattered in all directions, some of them flying out through the window.

"Ahahahahaha! This is karma, you loser, hahaha!", said Chin-Hwa in that high-pitched, nasally voice of his.

"I'm really sorry!", said the clumsy student, scrambling to catch the runaway papers.

"It's okay, it happens. Do you know where my glasses are?", I asked him, fumbling around on the floor for my glasses, practically blind without them. He grabbed my hand and placed something in them.

"Here you are", he said.

I wore my glasses, thanking him and taking his hand to stand up.

"Jin-Moon?", I said. "What're you doing here?"

Jin-Moon was standing in front of me, his face flushed. His hair was as unkempt as ever and a camera was slung around his neck. For a split second he had a stunned look on his face before it went back to being as impassive as ever – although his face was still redder than a tomato. He shifted uncomfortably and turned his head to the side.

"Uh... could you please let go of my hand?"