𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐘 𝐁𝐎𝐘

| 𝙸𝙸.𝟷 |

opening her eyes, today's new transfer student slowly and painfully stirred back into consciousness. with an effort and a half she moved towards the bathroom and had a shower to force herself to stay awake. a towel was wrapped tightly around herself as she glanced at the clothes she had ready. her white jeans fit neatly, and she wore a sleeveless grey turtleneck under an oversized white shirt. a little bit of eyeliner with some red lip tint, plus her ebony hair in a messy ponytail completed the half-assed look.

when yumeko got downstairs, her younger sibling was already kneeling around the low table with plates of food scattered along it. mina was already starting an argument in her cute uniform about who was going to make the most friends in the day. yumeko thought she would be lucky to make even one. she wasn't by any means socially awkward or shy, just more introverted. she liked her personal space and calm conversations. after a hearty breakfast, she picked up her bag, put her shoes on, and headed out the door into the breeze, wishing her sibling good luck on her way out.

the train journey to university felt too long. it was 50 minutes, but with how nervous she was to start her history of art degree it felt like 50 hours. of course, getting into such a degree course in korea was always going to result in a lot of hard work and long nights of studying. especially since her knowledge of the korean language comes from studying it in school, and she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to keep up with casual everyday conversation.

at long last, she reached the tall front gates which towered over her and felt like they were yelling 'these are actually the gates of hell so enjoy the ride'. she brushed away the thought and took her first step inside. almost on cue, as if the universe needed to throw some cliches at her, two sports cars raced into the parking lot and came to an abrupt halt. 'god for such expensive cars, their driving sure is cheap', she thought. the fact they didn't crash seemed like a miracle to her. shaking her head and ignoring the crowd that gathered as they were getting out the car, she continued walking straight through the large wooden door and to the reception area to pick up her welcome pack. she could literally feel the judgement radiating off these rich kids and was biting the inside of her cheek to distract herself.

whilst flicking through the pointless freebies which weren't even food, she finally found a map and navigated the large maze of a university to her locker. the problem being the two girls were standing in front of it. actually, they looked friendly, but it seemed like they were gossiping about things already. it's 8:45am, classes haven't even started. how much could there possibly be to gossip about already?

"hey um good morning, would you mind me just putting some things in my locker?"

"oh i'm so sorry!" the taller one squealed, "wait, you're new here, right? how comes is your locker with the second year lockers?"

"ah yeah i transferred here, i moved from japan a week ago. my name is yumeko." she bowed her head slightly.

"god you're so pretty too! what are you studying? do you need help with anything?" the slightly shorter one asked.

"yeojin, i think we're scaring her"

"no no it's okay, i could really use your help actually i do history of art, but i don't know where i'm going and this map has no labels. and everyone is looking at me like I'm disgusting. and I'm scared since my korean is bad. and i'm rambling." yumeko sheepishly chuckled.

"well hello rambling, i'm kim yeojin, this is chayoung, i do business and she's in the wrong faculty."

"hey, nice to meet you - i do chemistry. i actually need to be at the other side of campus in 3 minutes, just came to say hi to yeojin. good luck on your first day and come sit with us at lunch!" chayoung yelled as she ran off down the corridor.

"come, i'll walk you to your class, and speak more casually- I'm adopting you into our friend group, and fuck the others their parents think a new phone is the same as love," yumeko's new friend began to explain the poorly printed map as well as giving her both her own and chayoung's numbers.

"oh. are people here gossipy?" yumeko questioned.

"yeah sadly, and mostly the gossip revolves around exo," replied yeojin, which earned her a baffled face in return, "anyway this is your lecture hall, i'll explain more at lunch in the meantime just avoid any trouble!"

yumeko watched yeojin run off toward the business school and hoped that lunch would come soon so that she could explain more about the school. still unsure about what she was talking about, yumeko pulled out her phone and typed exo into her japanese-korean dictionary. what the fuck is an exo? it's not even a korean word? unaware of the gentleman behind her, she shook her head and turned to face the hall. the doors stood wide open with most students already seated and the professor standing at the front. tentatively, she walked up to him and introduced herself. he pointed in the direction of a free seat behind a girl who had clearly fallen asleep behind her textbook and yumeko walked over hoping she just had a late night instead of the course being boring.

that same gentleman went to sit down behind her, looking at her the whole time that it took for him to get there. in no way did he seem like he was into her, it was more of a curious look, but he still wouldn't stop when she sat down and unpacked her things. everyone at least knew each other's faces even if they weren't friends, yet the boy didn't recognise hers.

the professor cleared his throat, "please welcome our new transfer into the class, i trust you will take care of her. yumeko please stand up for a second."

she looked up at him with a blank, unimpressed face. 'but, for why?' she obeyed and quickly sat back down, her face visibly panicked and face becoming flushed. the girl did not dare attempt to listen to any of the whispering nor look at any of the glaring.

"excellent. let us begin the start of the module by taking a look at the renaissance in europe..."