joy always wanted to wear the crown others would call popularity. she was tired of those not seeing her for her abilities and smarts, only because she was middle class. a nobody, goodie-two-shoes. she also held a vendetta that knowing she could infi...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It was either a bad idea, or a really bad idea to have agreed to the sleepover that Yerim invited me to. I just couldn't help it. Her eyes were bright and pleading. I had nothing else to do. No excuse. Sure, it was the weekend, but Rowoon was gone. His family had a sort of reunion to attend this specific weekend. I cursed my cruel fate. I had used him as my shield all week. Everywhere I could, I would cling to him and look up to his pretty face. I had never registered the fact that I had indeed been harboring small feelings for him. Not until this past week when it was not weird for me to stare at him for too long and if he caught me, he would smile sweetly in my direction. I would swoon. I would swoon audibly, and he usually would reward me with a kiss. It made me swoon even more!
To say that Kim Seokwoo, was sweet and would make me almost head over heels for him in a heartbeat, was something I would have never said! I hadn't even known his real name was Seokwoo until he told me, and I laughed at how cutely he turned red when telling me. He was too sweet, and I was starting to feel this sort of guilt inside of me knowing I had only agreed to date him because I needed a distraction, a realreason to not fall for Taehyung.
Avoiding Taehyung was harder than I thought it would be. He was everywhere. I would look around and somehow manage to make eye contact with him across the hall, in the lunchroom, in the courtyard, during an assembly. He was everywhere with no way for me to escape him. Things would have been easier if I wasn't considered one of them. The more time passed, the more readers we got and the more Doyoung glorified in making sure we weren't shut down—cackling, he would cackle and scare us all—the more I felt like I was falling into a hole. This hole kept getting deeper and deeper as the time would pass. I was going to start drowning soon. They all thought I was rich, each and every single one of them. All but Sungjae.
Ah, Sungjae. I didn't think I could hate someone as much as I hated Yook Sungjae. I loved his parents, and I was grateful for the opportunity they were giving me. Sungjae could drop dead in a ditch, and I wouldn't even shed a tear. He knew my lowly status. He knew that no one else picked up on that. How could they? They all thought I was one of them because I had shown up to the work party with Taehyung. Taehyung would never look at someone who was below them. No way. Sungjae had this over my head and so when I was asked about what was talked about in his home—I said nothing. I only said that I spoke with his parents about the scholarship and nothing more. That was information that would never make the column. In reality, I had delivered his homework because I had been asked and stayed for dinner. Once again because I had been asked. I needed to keep this scholarship and good relationship with his parents. I couldn't say no.
"What would happen if they were all to find out you're poor and you're our charity case? Doubt any of them would see you the same, so do me a favor, Joy, stop acting like you're one of us. You're not and you'll never be. Whatever little fantasy you have in your head thinking you can be one of us, throw it out. You're nothing."
