Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Prologue

It may be a clichéd intro, but let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Ham Donnie, 17 years old. I will become a freshman in high school after ten days.

Born and raised in an average family with an average appearance and character. I’m such a run-of-the-mill girl living a very ordinary life.

It truly is when looking at me every day until fourteen.

Then what happened in my life after I became fourteen?

That is so horrible, nasty; gosh, I can’t articulate it well in this short sentence…

To explain what happened, I should address something first. Have you ever heard about web novels? They were a popular online book series with novels like the story of a celebrity-looking teenage heir who skips classes and messes around, but he always manages to nab the spot of being a top student in the whole school. For some reason, this same person will fall in love with a poor average girl.

Bringing up this unexpected subject might be a little baffling, but in order to explain my life, it’s necessary to talk about this. I mean, for real.

Article 1. The Female Protagonist? She Lives Next Door

March 2, 2008, that was the day I had my middle school entrance ceremony. On the night before, I could hardly sleep, feeling nervous and throbbing. Therefore, I rolled around the bed and opened a book instead. When my eyes were about to close, I put my book down. When I opened my eyes again, the sun was already shining. I rolled out of the bed with a frizzy hair. At the bedside, there was the book I didn’t finish last night.

It was an ordinary morning until I went to the living room. My mom was making breakfast as I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and cleaned my hair. I was standing in front of my wardrobe with a calm mind. However, I grew speechless when I saw the all-white-from-head-to-toe school uniform hanging on the door.

What? I was watching it furrowing my brows and rubbing my eyes. Nothing seemed to change, so this time, I banged my head on the wall. Still, nothing changed in the wardrobe.

What is this? I wondered while holding the uniform. As I looked at the whole thing over and over, it seemed like a psychiatric hospital gown. The jacket was pure white as well as the skirt. The vest had a light beige color but it didn’t help. If I wear this and button up the jacket, I would look completely white from head to toe.

Despite everything, it was fortunate that the uniform was not for my school. My school uniform was a normal navy blue color.

My mind was blank for a while. I asked my mom,

“Mom, where’s my uniform?”

“What?”

My mom came closer to the door after cleaning the dishes. I shook the white uniform and asked her again.

“Mom, this isn’t my school uniform! Where is mine?”

“What are you talking about? You’ve ordered it a week ago. That is your school uniform!”

“No.”

“No for what?”

An awkward silence hung between us for a time. Then my mom smashed my back as if I were joking around and left the room. I would have yelled out in pain, but I stared at the uniform without even thinking about it.

I thought for a moment. The uniform was emitting lights under the sun as if it was a luminary.

This uniform is for my school right now? I should wear this thing from now on? This crazy, not-for-everyone-style kind of uniform?

I felt things were going wrong from the first day of school. There was a note of consternation in my face while wearing the uniform. My bad luck was not over yet. This was a prelude to the series of misfortunes I would encounter for the next 3 years.

I realized it as I took a step outside the front door of my apartment.

As I stepped out, I got surprised by a girl whom I never saw before, standing right behind the front door. If I opened the door a little wider, it could have struck her. The girl was that close. I mean, why was she standing that close? I turned around to look at her, trying to calm down my pounding heart. Then I gaped.

What a pretty girl. She was very gorgeous. It was the first time in my life to see such a beautiful girl that close.

Her soft skin was so pale it revealed her veins and her jet black hair fell straight to her waist as if it was a caricature drawn with a ruler. When the sunlight shed over her hair, a purple glow flowed on her pitch dark hair like an arrow. The light also smeared into her eyes, and they were glowing with a transparent purple shade. The parts hidden from the light’s way was completely dark like a pupil.

Her pouty lips had a glossy luster and her nose was small and sharp. As I was looking at her, her whole face seemed to shine.

I even forgot to go to school staring at her. Then I realized she was gazing at me in silence which brought me back to reality. Oh god, I was an obvious stranger looking at her!

Never seen her before, did she recently moved in? I thought. However, I couldn’t believe such beauty was living next door. She seemed about my age, so I wanted to befriend her. I hoped not to give her a bad impression.

Fortunately, she didn’t look offended. She was just staring at me with her beautiful eyes. Should I say hi? It was then that I tried to reach out my hands awkwardly.

She smiled brightly and held my hands all of a sudden. Wow, very outgoing? That was what I thought.

“Donnie, we’ll be late. Let’s go.”

“…?”

She even had a beautiful voice… No, it’s not about that!

What? I was so surprised I gazed at her hands grabbing mine. In the meantime, she led me to the elevator without a hitch. Wait, stop! She turned around as I took my hand away from her. Her clear eyes made my heart sank.

“I mean, what are you doing?” I asked.

She was calling my name at our first sight and rushing me to get to school, what was she doing? The girl, however, looked more surprised than I was.

“What do you mean by that? We have to go to school!” She asked,

“Of course, we should! But why should we go together.”

“What?”

She asked and then clenched her mouth, looking upset. There was a frown on her beautiful forehead.

A heavy silence filled the space for some time. Suddenly, I realized her uniform was the same as mine. We were standing in the middle of a dark hallway, but her white uniform was shining so bright. There was a name tag on her chest written Ban Yeo Ryung. I read her name inside my mouth. A name I never have known.

Ban Yeo Ryung stared at me with sad eyes but grabbed my hands back and said,

“Ok, I get what you mean, but let’s go to school first.”

Know what I mean? I wanted to respond, but I had no idea what was going on. I couldn’t say anything at her serious face, however. Maybe I lost memories or seemed to make a silly joke in front of that pure eyes.

Since I became speechless, Ban Yeo Ryung walked together with a distance. We got out of the elevator but was still walking in silence. As I got into the streets, I looked around feeling kind of renewed.

It was strange. I never saw this insanely white uniform ever in 13 years of existence in this neighborhood. However, most of the students were wearing this as if they were all making a secret agreement today. Does this make sense?

My eyes rolled with confusion. The boys looked around casually but became frozen when they saw Ban Yeo Ryung quietly walking next to me.

The cold sunlight of the early Spring fell on Ban Yeo Ryung’s white forehead. The bright light was hanging on her round nose tip and her long lashes.

This splendidly gorgeous Ban Yeo Ryung looked depressed maybe because of me. Even that seemed so admirable. I could understand why people around us keep staring at her with awe.

As I was gazing at Ban Yeo Ryung, she lifted her eyes and had me in her sight. Then she looked around and held her arms feeling daunted. She then called me,

“Donnie.”

“Yeah?”

“Can you hold my hand while we’re walking?”

She spoke with nervous eyes as she looked people around her. Their gaze might have been uncomfortable. Well, all the people walking along were looking at her.

I hesitated for a while but laid my arm slightly on hers. Then she had a grin. She wrapped her hand around hers and moved on. I felt kind of okay to be her bodyguard.

We were getting closer to school. I remember the overall building since I went there to take a placement test. It looked old like other public schools, but not that bad. It’s just a moderate gray building for students to take classes and have lunch.

It was when I raised my head with those thoughts when I saw it. In the distance, there was a massive building over the school fence under the blue sky. Holy cow!? My brows hooded over my eyes. I was born and raised in this neighborhood for 13 years, but I never saw a school like that. It was at least five stories high. It had the main building and an annex which had glass walls on all sides. That should be a department store, how could it be a school building? However, as I got closer, the school was apparently what it was. The fences around were made of clean brown bricks and had a nameplate of the school in front.

Ji Jon Middle School