The Transfer Student Who Brings a Storm #1
The school was in complete chaos after the earthquake that struck last night. Right up until first period started, all anyone could talk about was the quake. I glanced around at the noisy kids, feeling the weight of everything I needed to tell Jeong Seok and Yang Ju-hui. About Hong Miri, Kwon Su-ho, Gu Hye-na, and the newest addition to our group, Yu Da-hui.
I'd already sent them a rough summary through text. I'll give you the full story at lunch. Meet me by the old building. As I hit send, a thought crossed my mind. If we had our own private spot in this school, we wouldn't have to keep changing meeting places like this. It would be nice to scout out some kind of secret base.
The classroom door slid open with a rattle. The homeroom teacher for Class D walked in, looking exhausted. The earthquake must have kept him up all night.
"Alright, everyone shut off the local news station and sit down. Open some windows and get some air in here. Jeez, what is that smell? Anyway, we've got a transfer student joining Class D today. Hey, come on in. What are you doing standing out there?"
The boy waiting in the hallway stepped into the room. The class immediately erupted into whispers, mostly from the girls.
"Whoa, he's tall."
"No way."
"Doesn't he look like an idol? Like Oh Chan-hyuk from TTS Group!"
Girls like Gong Ye-rin and Im Hui-yeon couldn't hide their smiles. The new transfer student was tall and strikingly handsome. He had pale skin, neatly styled hair, and an overall pretty-boy look that reminded me of those delicate traditional dolls.
"Nice to meet you all. My name is Wang Ja-hyeon. I just transferred from Seoul, so everything in Gaeryong City feels new and awkward. I don't know much yet, but I hope you'll be patient with me and we can get along."
His voice was clear and confident. While the girls were cheering and clapping, the teacher scanned the room and pointed at an empty desk.
"Kim Geon-ho is absent again today, huh? Ja-hyeon, go ahead and sit in that empty seat for now."
The transfer student ended up in Kim Geon-ho's old spot. It was in the back, right near the rear door. He set his bag down and took his seat. First period began, but the classroom remained restless. The real chaos, though, came after the bell rang.
"Where in Seoul did you live before?"
"Do you have a girlfriend? Eek!"
The kids swarmed around the new student, turning the room into total pandemonium. Mostly girls. Kim Young-ho, one of the local delinquents, had been lying face-down on his desk but finally lifted his head, scowling.
"Ugh, fuck, it's so damn loud. Did you guys buy the place or something? I can't even sleep with all this noise."
"If you want to sleep, go get a motel room!"
Gong Ye-rin, one of the popular girls, snapped back at him. Most of the girls started throwing insults like "Drop dead!" and "Get lost!" at Kim Young-ho until he couldn't take it anymore and stood up.
"Hey, In-bae. Let's go."
Probably off to smoke. With Kim Geon-ho gone and everyone else sporting one weird quirk or another, the class had actually become pretty quiet lately. The girls, though, were the problem.
"No way! You don't have a girlfriend?"
"What about me? I'm single too. Heehee."
"How is your name Wang Ja-hyeon? Like Prince? Prince Charming?"
"Ugh, you're so lame. Go away."
The group centered around Gong Ye-rin and Im Hui-yeon was basically running the class atmosphere these days. They weren't as openly violent as Kim Geon-ho had been, but... it was hard to explain. Just unpleasant.
Wang Ja-hyeon casually scanned the room, then asked, "What about her?"
He was looking at Yang Ju-hui, who had her head tilted back on her desk, snoring away. His eyes had naturally gone to the prettiest girl in class. Yang Ju-hui was beautiful enough that even in Seoul, a city of six million, she'd stand out. I'd lived there long enough to know. He was probably thinking something like, How is a girl this pretty stuck in a backwater dump like this?
"She's taken."
"Total delinquent."
"She smokes and skips school all the time."
Gong Ye-rin and Im Hui-yeon wrinkled their noses at Yang Ju-hui, making their disgust obvious. Among the girls, Yang Ju-hui was basically an outcast. Not that she cared.
"Hey, you bitches. I can hear you."
Yang Ju-hui opened her eyes. She'd come to school and immediately gone back to sleep, only waking up now for the first time. She blinked at the new face.
"Who's that?"
She seemed to have just noticed the transfer student. Then her eyes widened.
"Wait... you?"
What? Did Yang Ju-hui know him?
"You transferred into our class?" she asked.
"That's right. You're Yang Ju-hui, right? Daughter of Reverend Kim Yeo-ok."
What was going on? I leaned over and asked her quietly, "You know him?"
"Him? He came to church last week. Said he was from Seoul. I think he's some cousin of Sister Chan-mi's or something. So he transferred into our class. Small world."
While Yang Ju-hui was still processing it, Wang Ja-hyeon stood up with a scrape of his chair and walked over to her.
"Perfect. I still don't know where anything is in the school. You could show me around."
Was the world really this unfair? If I'd been a girl, my heart probably would've been pounding right now. But Yang Ju-hui wasn't the type to fall for that.
"What? Why would I? No thanks."
She frowned, looking genuinely annoyed. Wang Ja-hyeon scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile, but his eyes quickly shifted to me. I met his gaze.
"Then you do it. We've got about five minutes of break left. Starting with where the bathroom is."
"Sure."
We both stood up and left the classroom together. I could hear the class exploding behind us, but I didn't care. As we walked down the hallway, other students kept stealing glances at Wang Ja-hyeon. He spoke to me quietly.
"I heard you transferred to Gaeryong. So this is where you ended up. And what is this? Ha Yeong-won?"
He reached out and touched the name tag on my chest with his index finger. Having another guy touch my chest area felt gross.
"Ha Yeong-won, huh. So you changed your name and wanted a fresh start. Too bad for you that I ended up transferring here too. I didn't see that coming either."
Wang Ja-hyeon! This bastard was the one who'd made my entire school life miserable from sixth grade through all three years of middle school. He wasn't physically violent like Kim Geon-ho, but in some ways he was even more underhanded, vicious, and rotten. The type who acts like a perfect gentleman in front of people, wins everyone's favor, then does psychotic shit behind their backs. Like Jeong Sojin. Yeah, he was exactly like her. The problem was that compared to Wang Ja-hyeon, Jeong Sojin looked like she was just doing cute little pranks.
Why the hell did this guy have to transfer from Seoul to Gaeryong? And why our class, of all places!
"Anyway, let's get along for another three years. Yeong-won."
---
"Then how about our transfer student answers this one?"
"Yes. The answer is number four."
"Hey, kid. This is an essay question. Where's number four? Falling asleep in class on your first day?"
The class burst into laughter. Wang Ja-hyeon had gotten closer to everyone in Class D in just a few hours than I had in months. It was because of his incredible social skills. Actually, no. It wasn't really skill. He treated people normally, but they just automatically liked him. It was all because of that handsome face.
Wang Ja-hyeon had always used his good looks and friendly attitude to gradually turn people to his side. And once he took control of a class... that's when the real political games began.
After school.
"Sojin, you're the class president, right? You live in the Boseok Apartments? I do too."
Wang Ja-hyeon was already extending his tentacles toward Jeong Sojin, the class president. He'd probably noticed with those snake-like eyes that she was one of the more influential people in our class. Strangely enough, this was actually good for me. If Jeong Sojin, who's been bothering me lately, fell for Wang Ja-hyeon, maybe she'd leave me alone!
"You live in Boseok Apartments too? Those are expensive. You must come from money, Ja-hyeon. Your parents must be really successful?"
Jeong Sojin's eyes flashed behind her glasses. The alpha-male lover in her must have caught the scent of a wealthy guy from Wang Ja-hyeon. He didn't miss the opening.
"My father runs a very large church in Seoul. But I still don't know the way home yet. Would you mind walking with me today?"
It sounded almost like he was asking her on a date. Jeong Sojin let out a creepy little laugh.
"Just look it up on your phone. Open the map app and it'll show you."
"Huh?"
Jeong Sojin walked right past Wang Ja-hyeon and came straight to me.
"Yeong-won. I found this book on feng shui but there are parts I don't understand. Want to read it with me at the library today? We can study for finals too."
Oh shit...! This was hell in its own special way. My vision went blurry for a second.
"I... uh, I promised Jeong Seok we'd go to the PC bang today! We've got ranked games to play!"
"Finals are next week and you're going to a PC bang?"
Jeong Sojin's perfectly logical question made my heart tighten. I looked desperately at Jeong Seok for help. He widened his eyes like he'd never heard of this plan before, but then nodded.
"Yeah. Yeong-won's going to the PC bang with me today."
"Hey! Jeong Seok! You've barely been showing up to cram school lately. Is that okay? Your grades are going to drop! You went from Class A to Class D and now you don't even want to study properly?"
Jeong Sojin was Jeong Seok's cousin. She must have known he'd been slacking off. Then she asked, "Are you two ghosts or something?"
What? Where did that come from? Jeong Seok looked confused.
"Us? Ghosts? Suddenly?"
"Ghosts do the opposite of what living people do, right? It's exam season but instead of studying you're going to play games. That's suspicious. Jeong Seok! You're the one who talked Yeong-won into this, aren't you!"
This was painful to watch. Wang Ja-hyeon, who'd been observing the whole thing, spoke up.
"Wow. Yeongji High is pretty interesting. Guess I'll have to walk home alone then."
He said it loud enough for everyone to hear, like he was complaining on purpose. Gong Ye-rin, who had clearly been waiting for her chance, shot her hand up like a vulture diving for prey.
"I live near the Boseok Apartments! Want me to walk with you?"
Gong Ye-rin. Wasn't that a little too obvious? The same girl who always played hard to get with guys like Park In-bae, saying things like "I'm busy" or "Are you paying for dinner?"
Soon after, Gong Ye-rin and Im Hui-yeon left with the transfer student. Park In-bae clicked his tongue as he watched them go.
"Wow. Gong Ye-rin. That's actually insane."
I headed to the PC bang with Jeong Seok. Yang Ju-hui said she had something to talk about with Bong Ji-yeon, so she went home separately. Jeong Seok turned on his computer and said,
"You should probably be nervous."
"...Me?"
"The transfer student's ridiculously good-looking. And he keeps glancing at the back row like he's interested in Yang Ju-hui. If you keep going like this, you're going to lose her."
"Lose her? She's not mine to lose. She's not an object."
"Why are you getting so shy? It doesn't seem like Yang Ju-hui dislikes you either. The whole reason things got awkward between you two was April Fools' Day at the start of the semester. In my opinion, it looked like she was going to accept your confession that day. And now it seems like you're even closer than before."
I couldn't believe the April Fools' story was coming up again. And that Yang Ju-hui might actually like me. Thinking about it now, it wasn't actually that impossible or ridiculous. I'd shown off some pretty cool sides of myself lately. Beating up ghosts left and right.
"Or is it Yu Da-hui after all?"
"Yu Da-hui?"
"You, Ha Yeong-won, always glitch out like a broken robot whenever you're around Yu Da-hui. And she seems pretty friendly toward you too. So? Yu Da-hui or Yang Ju-hui? You need to make up your mind."
Jeong Seok always gave me helpful advice, even about my romantic problems. The only issue was that I wasn't sure I should trust his dating theories, considering how pathetic he acted around Bong Ji-yeon. I'd only listen to half of what he said about love. Still, his instincts were usually pretty sharp.
Wang Ja-hyeon might be targeting Yang Ju-hui. Probably because he saw that I was close with her. He might target Jeong Seok too. That was his style—slowly absorbing everyone around his target before destroying the person he really wanted to crush.
"Jeong Seok. From what I can tell, Wang Ja-hyeon is probably targeting you too."
"...Fuck, is that bastard gay? They say all the perfect guys are gay. No way..."
"No, that's not... I don't know. The truth is, I already know him. I told you I used to live in Seoul, right? We went to the same elementary and middle school."
I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to tell Jeong Seok why I'd transferred here. This was a huge decision for me.
"Back when I was in elementary school, something happened..."