-5-

"My name is Nathan. Nice to meet you."

Nathan reached out her hand to Dinda when she was still sitting. Unexpectedly, she ignored him and picked up her book and pen then walked away. She ignored him and just left the classroom.

The class started to get rowdy since this was the first time Nathan had a girl straight up rejected him. The most popular boy in the school, the most prominent boy, was rejected.

Nathan smiled when his gesture was unrequited. He then put his hands back in his pocket and watched as Dinda left the classroom.

"Dinda, are you out of your mind!?" Selly - one of Dinda's classmates - exclaimed.

Selly immediately looked for Dinda as she felt the need to warn and explain the dire situation that Dinda was trapped in.

But, Dinda ignored her. She was busy studying several books that she borrowed from the library.

"Don't you know who Nathan is?" Selly said.

Dinda paused and stared at Selly for a moment with a reluctant gaze.

"Who was he? What sort of importance did he have?" Dinda answered reluctantly.

Selly took a deep breath and put down her round glasses that she had worn all day. Then she took a good look at the pretty girl in front of her. Selly could guess that Dinda was coming from a circle with some girls similar to Giselle and Sasa. But Selly thought that Dinda should not act arrogant, at least not here.

"In this school, there are three dominant pillars that you need to keep your eyes on or steer clear whenever you can." Selly started explaining. "The yellow card of Gisel and Sasa, the black card of Rendra, and the red card of the king. If you manage to receive one of those cards, it means that you are marked. You are being targeted for the rest of your school life here."

"What will they do to me? Bullied to death? What sort of pranks will they do?" Dinda asked after she put down her pen. She tried to pay attention to her friend's answer.

"If you get your hands on the yellow card, Giselle and Sasa will harass you wherever you are. They are known to overdo things. They won't hesitate to call for an outsider's hand to do their dirty work. Then we have Rendra's black card. They like to get involved in mass street fights, so their targets are usually boys. You know how boys do bullying. That's…him." Selly said while pointing at a bunch of boys behind the library.

Dinda squinted her eyes to catch the sassy boy that disturbed her earlier today. She remembered clearly how she would tag him instead. It turned out that the sassy boy was one of the students that she should avoid at all costs.

"The last one, the king's red card." Selly paused.

Dinda seemed confused because Selly really showed a different expression. She looked pretty terrified to explain it.

"This is the one you should distance yourself from, as far as possible. You are completely done if you receive this card. Usually, the recipient of that card got transferred a week after they received the card."

"Why is that?" Dinda asked again.

"He was the most powerful. The son of this education center's owner."

Dinda remained silent for a moment after she heard Selly's explanation. Then she reached her pocket and pulled out a wrinkled card and a ripped card.

"I got them, two cards." She said,

Selly held her breath, her round eyes widened in horror. She stared at Dinda who still looked calm. She packed up her books from the table and said.

"Dinda, keep in mind that although Nathan is indeed handsome, he is the worst boy in this school. Okay, I need to get back to the classroom now!"

Dinda took a deep breath when she saw Selly being afraid and all. This was similar to what Nadya did earlier. Up until now, she did not see Nadya's face anywhere.

To Dinda, the most feared person in this world was neither Sasa, nor Giselle, nor Rendra, nor Nathan. It was Panji, and his parents, the worst people that she ever met.

Again, Dinda attempted to power through that bad memory. She did not want to remember it even for a second. She does not want to remember how ruined she was and how frightened she was. When she was barely conscious, Panji forced himself upon her.

"Can I sit here?"

Dinda flinched, her heart rate spiked up. Her pupil shrunk, contrasting her sclera. The figure in front of her waved his hand right in front of Dinda's face.

"Are you alright?" He asked. She thought Dinda had just seen a ghost, she looked so frightened. "There is no seat left, so I will take a seat here," he said.

Dinda ignored him and focused on her study again. She took note of the important parts to work on her daily assignment.

The library became quiet again, there were only a few visitors that could be heard aside from the ticking clock on the wall. Dinda raised her face to see who was sitting across the table. It appeared that the boy in front of her only needed some space to study. He was busy with his handful of books.

She wondered, why would a boy like Nathan loved to read? Shouldn't he be with his gang members and hang out somewhere? Just like Rendra. Why didn't he just go and do lewd stuff with some girls?

"What? I bet you find me irresistibly charming, that is why you stared at me all this time." His words made her look down again at her books. Nathan continued without looking at Dinda. "I do love to read, don't be surprised. You think a boy like me didn't deserve books?"

Once again, Dinda ignored Nathan. Not a single reaction. Nathan took a deep breath, he did not want to let his feelings get the best of him. Even after she embarrassed him in front of their classmates.