Not Again

The school session had resumed a week ago and the crazy four had already started their senior year. Minjun, Auston and Zane got to be together since they were having a combined class in preparation for their first general exams. The exam was designed to test their reasoning capabilities because they would be taking lots of foreign and native exams throughout the session. The three along with their classmates had already been seated for the past fifteen minutes taking a physics test. They were all very focused, the test wasn't hard but was tricky instead.

The paper was meant to last for 45 minutes, so everyone was shocked when Auston suddenly stood and handed in his paper after only seventeen minutes had gone by. They all knew just how smart Auston was but he had never turned in his paper so early before. He would normally just stare at it once he was done and wait till the time for the paper was up. After the 45 minutes had elapsed, the teacher went round the lab and collected all the papers. He quickly scored them and distributed it back to them. "You all did well, I'm actually really impressed with the general performance", the teacher said pleased as he stood before the class.

"However, I would like to point out something. You shouldn't be in a rush to turn in your work, and this goes for you Auston. You ticked your answers carelessly...I mean you failed really cheap questions", the teacher scolded. Auston had actually gotten a 92% which was the second highest score, but he knew that that wasn't Auston's normal range. "Do you have anything to say about what happened today young man", the teacher asked and Auston lazily stood up with a bored expression, "Not really, *sigh* I guess I won't be valedictorian anymore", Auston replied sarcastically, a sly smirk playing on his lips. The teacher stood speechless as the students gasped. He didn't expect the sharp remark from Auston. Auston wasn't wrong though, he always got an unbelievable average, so even if he decided not to be 'serious', he would still emerge top of his mates. He'd always been a prodigy. "I'll leave now sir, this class is already over", Auston said drawing the teacher's attention to the time. He stood watching as the young prince exited the physics lab.

"Look at that cocky brat, he's so smart that he even decides when to do well in a test or not", Minjun said once he reached Zane's seat. They were all stunned by Auston's reply. Most of the girls even started swooning over him upon seeing him smirk and the dude just walked out casually like nothing happened. "You're smart too you know, you were the highest in this test weren't you?", Zane said. "Well yeah but I only passed him with three marks and I spent a lot of time on the test. Besides if Minho were here, he'd probably be the highest since he's the second smartest out of all of us. And mind you, I actually work really hard. Do you have any idea how much time I put into studying just to be where I am in this set unlike that statue", Minjun replied and Zane could only smile.

It was true. Minjun didn't even have a choice not to do well. He just couldn't afford not to. Senior Han - Minjun's dad and the king of country Z - was a really hard man to please. He wanted nothing short of perfection which made it quite impossible for Minjun to meet up with his high expectations and standards. Minjun had always tried his best to impress his father. He just wanted him to be proud of him, which was why he was always on his toes whenever it came to things his father was concerned about or took seriously like his studies for example.

Zane's line of sight soon fell on the door Auston had just walked out of a moment ago. He noticed that Auston seemed to be in a foul mood even before the test began. He was also probably not in the mood for books which would explain why he turned in his test that early without even reading through the questions properly. "What's up with Auston?", Zane asked. "Oh he's just upset because his grandpa woke up with a minor cold this morning. You know how much of a worrywart he is when it comes to his grandfather", Minjun explained. Auston had actually texted Minjun earlier to tell him to inform him when the physics class would start, since he planned on arriving late to school so he could stay longer with his grandpa at home. "Well that explains it. He really worries about his grandfather a lot huh", Zane uttered. "He does, but can you blame him though", Minjun replied.

...

Astrol ended up being in Nari's class again while Bora and Xander ended up alone in other classes. Unlike their middle school, they would maintain their classroom until the end of the session. So far the beginning of freshman year was good. Everything seemed normal and fine. Astrol and Nari had just finished their last class for the day and were about to head out when their Geography teacher told Nari to wait behind. Seeing that the conversation would be a long one, Nari told Astrol to head home without her.

Astrol decided to go check on Bora so they could leave together but she didn't find her in her classroom. She decided to go check Xander's class but neither of them were there. She was still trying to figure out where they had gone to, when she suddenly received a message from Bora telling her that they had to leave school early. Although a bit confused, Astrol just sent her a quick reply and went towards her locker in the hallway to get her things.

As soon as Astrol reached her locker, she entered her locker combination and unlocked her locker. However, the moment she opened her locker, food came flying at her face, staining her white and purple uniform. She was shocked and froze for a moment, before looking down at herself and realising that the food that came flying at her were actually leftovers of what they had for lunch that day at the cafeteria. What devastated her the most was the heavy stain on her uniform. There was no saving it, she had spares but still, the uniform was really expensive and it was her best one. After staring at herself like what seemed like forever, she slowly rose her head to look in her locker. She found out that most of her books were ripped apart and covered in bits of the leftovers. Although a few books were spared, there were a lot of abusive words written to her on notes stuck at different parts of her locker.

The words really stung as she swept her gaze over the notes before her eyes finally landed on the huge note pasted in the middle. 'You're it' , the note read, and Astrol's entire being began to tremble. With shaky hands, she reached for the note, hoping, praying that it wasn't real. 'No no....not again', she repeated silently within herself. Wasn't the world tired of making her miserable, wasn't fate tired of being so cruel to her?. Did she have to go through this every stage of her life?, she was really tired now and she didn't know how long she could put up with this if it kept on happening to her. She looked at the note now in her shaky palm and her eyes narrowed the moment she saw the name attached to it. 'Kim Minho', wow was she going to get bullied by a Kim now, she might as well be dead. She couldn't help but shake her head as she crumpled the paper in her hand with clenched fists. These royals were really sadists. 'He even wants me to know that he's going to be the cause of my torture now', she thought with a bitter smile on her face. But what did she expect, it's not like she was surprised anymore...