Tired and dull.

     Areum had stayed up for hours at night, crying and sobbing silently in her bed. Luckily, no one overheard her and the night went by without any interruptions. Her heart felt such excruciating pain as she remembered her mother's sayings, word by word.

It played in her mind nonstop.

The words were like a playlist. Song after song, word after word. She felt her heart constricting after each and every breath, wishing she would stop crying. But she couldn't. Her hands shook and she gripped onto her blanket, to steady the shakiness. She took deep breaths and repeated the words, "calm down."

     Her body still heaved up and down, but it had lessened after a couple of minutes.

     She looked at the clock in her room and saw the time. 2:21 AM. Areum gaped at the time and immediately started preparing to go to sleep. She closed the nightlight she had on and laid under her blanket. Areum sighed in thought as she shifted her body to the right. She closed her eyes, slowly growing tired.

Maybe the next few days will be better, she thought.

     And within a few minutes, she drifted to sleep peacefully.

-

     Areum sighed, shoving her unnecessary books into her locker quickly and picked out the stuff she needed. After gathering them, she slammed her locker door shut. But of course, there was Jungkook leaning against the lockers, a couple feet away, while looking at her with a continuous bright smile. It was as if nothing from yesterday had happened at all.

"Hey, Areum," he stood up straight. She was quick to ignore him and started jogging to her class. He headed towards her with a fast pace, easily catching up with her.

"Hello?" Jungkook called out.

Areum ignored him and continued walking. He sighed and decided to do things his way. He stepped in front of her with a long stride and in less than a second, she bumps into him. Her forehead brushes against his lips for a slight second and that made Jungkook turn pink. He cleared his voice by coughing and asked, "why are you trying to avoid me?"

Areum's eyes widened. "I-I'm not," she stuttered anxiously. She walked around him and headed down the hallway.

     "Areum?" He called out. "Yeah?" She answered, turning around. "Class is this way," Jungkook chuckled at her small mistake. "R-right," she murmured to herself as her cheeks turned bright red from embarrassment. She turned around and shuffled across the hallway quickly, walking into her classroom quietly without disturbing others.

But her attempts on doing just that didn't work.

The girls in the classroom had seen Jungkook coming in right after Areum had. This had raised their suspicions, causing them to mumble to each other about the situation. Most of her female classmates stared at her occasionally with envy and hate. Areum sat down in her seat with a rush and took out her books, opening them to the right page according to what was instructed on the blackboard. One of the female classmates got up from their seats and headed towards Areum.

     She lowered herself to eye level with Areum and leaned in closer, her lips close to Areum's ear.

     "She won't like to hear about this," her venomous voice traced through her words and it caused shivers to go down through Areum's whole body. The girl cackled lightly before standing back up and sitting down in her seat. Areum's hands were shaking, half in fear and half in anger. A tear dropped onto the table and she wiped it away.

     Her breaths started getting uneven. She felt as if her heart was constricting so tightly. Her hands clenched into a fist as she slowly breathed in and out.

     "Don't freak out. It's nothing," she mumbled to herself. Taking out a tissue, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and crumpled it into a ball, in her hands. She struggled to breathe as fear swallowed her whole.

     She's going to kill me for this.

     Jungkook sat down next to her after having a small chat with some other of the male students. He smiled at her and started playing with her hair. He twirled her hair around his finger and occasionally, he would play around with her long yet slightly thin fingers. Areum started to panic about his actions. "Um, Jungkook," she said.

"Yeah?" He let go of her fingers and looked straight into her eyes.

     She thought about it for a moment and decided to say nothing. "Never mind. It's nothing," she said hesitantly. Jungkook hummed lightly in response and continued to play with her hair.

     It's too late now. She's going to kill me anyways, Areum thought to herself.

-

The room was dark and quiet. There was a couple of girls; some were standing and some were sitting on desks or chairs. Cigarettes were in between their fingers as smoke rose up into the air and throughout the classroom, dissipating over time. The leader of those girls was looking out the window, spying on a girl getting bullied by some of her fellow followers. She could see the girl getting pushed around and beaten up.

     A small smirk came upon her face. She heard a knock on the door and replied nonchalantly, "come in." The door slid open and one of her followers appeared—her head looking down onto the ground in a submissive manner towards the dominant figure. It was the same girl that spoke to Areum earlier in class.

     "What is it?" The leader of the girls rolled her eyes as she continued looking through the window and spotted Areum with a boy. That boy.
She took a smoke and breathed out. "Come here," she said. The girl whimpered as she got pushed towards the leader. She knew exactly what would happen to her.

The leader grabbed the girl by the hand so swiftly in less than a second. The girl started to scream as she tried to pull her hand out from the grasp, pleading out for help. "Keep her still," the leader demanded with a stern tone. Two other girls in the same room held her tightly, making her unable to squirm out. "Keep your f*cking mouth shut before I have to carve it out myself," the leader took the cigarette and started digging it against the girl's arm.

     The girl screamed in pain and started thrashing around. "Please stop!" She yelled out. Tears started pouring down her face as the female leader made another burn on her arm. "So, how about telling me what you're about to say?" She said, taking a smoke again. The girl sobbed and answered, "the areum girl is still hanging around the boy that you like. I saw the boy playing around with her."

     "I can see that, you b*tch," the leader slapped the girl's face, "why didn't you do anything about it? Are you f*cking stupid?"

     The leader stood up straight and neatened her school uniform, tossing the cigarette onto the ground and smushed it with her shoe. The two girls dropped the girl with the cigarette burns and the others in the same classroom rose up from their places. "Follow me," the female ordered.

     The other girls started walking in an aligned order, each giving the girl on the ground a slight kick to the chest before walking out the door.

     "It's time to teach that fat b*tch a lesson."

~

I know this chapter isn't the best, but I'm hoping that this book will at least make it to fifteen chapters. Is it a bit too cliche?

So I got my Wacom tablet yesterday omg. I love it so god damn much and I still can't believe I bought it. Trying to draw hoshi (pic of one of my progresses) and I'm using grid lines hehe:

From your author,
Flora Lee

P.S. The "female leader" is the girl that told Areum not to hang around Jungkook. I still have yet to give her a name lol. Does someone want to suggest a name? If you do, just comment here.