Guts (EXO)

Ambushed

Mornings at Yeongnam High were always bright and sunny and full of noisy teenagers. Today was no exception, and Hyerin was not exactly about that life.

Even just for a day, she would want some peace and quiet when she walks in through the humongous school gates of her school. Every day, there were rushing students, teens who shamelessly gossip about other teens, and jocks with their obnoxious laughter. She always wondered if there ever will be an end to this routine and get their butts to class quietly, but this was, in a way, the essence of high school.

Then there were those who just try to cope. The quiet ones that don't really want to get involved with anything, but are definitely not loners – the ones who have a couple of friends and average grades but didn't exceed any further. Basically the normal ones.

Hyerin wanted to believe she was one of those people, but the problem is, she was anything but normal.

Hyerin was beyond that. She exceeded in anything physical, at least two or three steps ahead of the average person. The rush of adrenaline gets to her as if she can take down anyone and anything. She can pick up sports easily and in a few practices, she could actually play decently. She was taught several fighting styles throughout the years, and she had little trouble with that, too. She knew she could hurt anyone badly, and deep within her she knew the grim reality that if it ever came down to it, she could probably kill someone.

She was not at all planning to flaunt this strange thing of hers to the whole world. She had been keeping a low profile for years and she was satisfied with that. No attention meant no one bugging her, and the least she wanted was other people in her business.

As she walked through the swarm of students littering the campus, something dark caught her eye. She turned to her right where she thought she saw it, but was met with nothing.

She shook her head and continued walking to her building when it passed again, now on her left. She turned and completely faced the opposite direction, eyes widening.

Looking past the people who were walking by, there on the other side of the fence was what appeared to be a man clad in all-black with a strange looking device in hand. He was easy to spot, standing out from a pool of baby blue blazers.

Even with the black sunglasses he had on, Hyerin knew he was staring right at her.

For some reason, anger bubbled up inside her. What was this man's deal? Without any hesitation, she stomped her way towards to the fence, not caring about the students who were getting annoyed by her walking the opposite direction.

A boy harshly bumped into her. "Hey, watch where you're go-"

"Sorry," she said distractedly. Hyerin turned back to where she was headed but was surprised when she saw that the man was gone.

"What the-" She looked around, scanning the place for any trace of him but he was nowhere to be found.

Just then, the bell rang and it was time for the students to head to their first class. Furrowing her eyebrows suspiciously, Hyerin tightly clutched her backpack and moved on to her first period.

- - - - -

Hyerin's ex-best friend, Jung Soojung, once asked her why she preferred walking home when she could easily have had her dad's personal driver pick her up from school. Soojung would always scold her about how she wouldn't take advantage of the privilege of not walking, but soon shut her mouth when Hyerin told her that she wanted to spend more time with her every time they left school.

Only now, she was alone, but Hyerin continued to walk anyway, for the sake of her pathetic pride and also as a routine. She wouldn't have to do all this though, if only Soojung stuck around and didn't abandon her for a rowdier, friendly crowd.