Chapter 2: Chapter 2.
Aeri stared at the abandoned school, almost fully wrecked. Oh, how I miss this place. Solar, Hwasa, Wheein and Moonbyul stood behind her awkwardly as she replayed the flashback of her childhood.
Aeri used to live in Seoul but she moved to the States for middle school, high school and 2 years of college but transferred to Seoul due to family problems. Solar, Hwasa, Wheein and Moonbyul were Aeri's middle school and highschool friends in the states but moved back to Seoul for university. After knowing that Aeri is transferring to a university in Seoul, they all decided to transfer to the same university as her, not wanting their best friend to get hurt.
Their parents were well off in Korea and they all graduated as top students from high school so it wasn't difficult transferring after 2 years of college.
"Aeri-ah, are you done reminiscing about your past, cos we're gonna be late and I wanna see all the cute guys before our first class," Solar pouted, even though they still had an hour before classes start.
"Sorry, I'm done. Let's go," they all walked to the university, laughing and giggling the whole way. They came up with theories on how the cliques are going to be divided, how most guys are going to look and most importantly, what the popular girls are like.
"What do you think the cliche popular girl will be like here?" Aeri questioned out of curiosity while swishing her feet on the concrete sidewalk, hands warmly tucked in her denim jacket.
"I don't know, ask yourself," Hwasa snickered.
"What? What do you mean?"
"You know exactly what I mean, like damn Aeri you look like a natural popular girl. And based on my personal experience of being your best friend since middle school, you are definitely going to be the most popular girl in college,"
"Keep dreaming," was all Aeri said before pulling the girls into the cafe in front of the university.
"Hwasa, Moonbyul and I will go order, you two can go grab us a table," Wheein directed while ushering Hwasa and Moonbyul to the incredibly long line.
Aeri and Solar found a nice little booth at the corner of the cafe, enough for five people to sit comfortably.
"So, Aeri-ah," Solar practically sang her name with one side of her mouth rising into a smirk and cocking her eyebrows. Oh boy, Aeri thought. "Say--if a cute guy, I mean really cute guy, as in a worldwide handsome guy asked you out, what would you say?"
I'd say not possible because there is only one worldwide handsome guy I know and he was practically my brother, Aeri thought. The fact that Solar brought up the name "worldwide handsome" amused her, but what was more amusing was that Solar actually believed she would date.
"Are we really going to talk about this again?" Aeri rolled her eyes. This was all the girls ever talked about: getting her to date. No can do, so far no guy has appealed to her, not because no handsome guy has ever asked her out, of course handsome guys have asked her out, probably hundreds, how could they not, she was practically a walking goddess. She was more or less uninterested because of their lack of maturity, in other words, their wimpiness.
Other than her father and her 7 brothers, who she has not seen in 8 years, she has never been able to love, more specifically, even like a guy.
"What drives me crazy is that you look as soft as a kitten, as elegant as a princess, as charming a fairy, as--" Solar began to rant but Aeri cut her off.
"What's your point?" Aeri pursed her lips, unamused.
"Like your pretty as hell but how is your personality so rough, you know? Like no one can push you down or make you feel insecure. You like to do boyish things like run around and you're not scared of mud or the dark or ghosts," Aeri raised an eyebrow as a sign of confusion, "My point is, what's up with your duality?"
Aeri thought of her brothers, she was naturally born beautiful with full feminine looks, but she was nurtured to become tough like a boy. Growing up with 7 boys sort of automatically makes an individual turn into one of them. She doesn't regret it, no, in fact that's what she loves most about herself, knowing that she was stronger than most of the guys she knows makes her proud.
Just as soon as she opened her mouth to reply, Hwasa, Wheein and Moonbyul came, holding 5 drinks. Moonbyul handed Aeri a grande sized cup of unsweetened latte and Wheein handed Solar a tall glass of pink lemonade.
"So…," Wheein began, she always has the habit of saying that before spilling tea, "when we were in line, I heard some girls in front of us talk about hot guys here. There are 7 boys in the gang 2 of them in our year, some older and younger,"
Huh...that sounds awfully similar to her brothers, Aeri thought, she remembered all of them were good looking boys but she hasn't seen them in years so what does she know? To her dismay, she remembered her father telling her that the boys all lived in Busan, so it was not possible for them to be here.
"Yeah," Moonbyul continued, "I heard they are called the Bangtan boys because no girls could approach them. They were bulletproof since none of the "missile" girls fire at them can penetrate them. By "missile" I meant sweet talk and flirt,"
That's funny, Aeri and her brothers used to call themselves as the bulletproof gang, more so the Bangtan gang since they weren't scared of anything as long as they had each other. Aeri unconsciously touched the pendant on the necklace she was wearing, it was a teardrop shaped purple jewel. The boys and her had one made for each of them, all the boys had a single word on their necklace that would connect into a sentence, while hers had a purple pendant, in the shape of the tear.
"Purple is the last color of the rainbow, therefore, it means trust. We trust you to be the glue that keeps us together Aeri, no matter where you go, no matter what you do, it will remind you of us,"
Those were the words Taehyung said to her the last time they met. She remembered them standing at the gate of the airport sending her off before she left to the U.S.
The teardrop shape symbolized the sadness the boys were feeling, knowing that there was an empty spot in their gang that could only be occupied by Aeri, but she was gone. More importantly, it meant that no matter the pain they went through, they just need to trust each other and they will be able to overcome it together. She was given that pendant because she was the only place where the boys were most comfortable crying, she was their strength.
Aeri has never taken off that necklace, it was filled with memories of her and her brothers that she couldn't afford to lose.
"I bet Aeri can make them all fall for her in an instant," Hwasa interjected, snapping Aeri out of her trance.
"No way, first of all they would probably not fall for me seeing as every girl in Seoul has probably tried but failed. And second of all, I'm. Not. Interested," Aeri said, pausing after each word, for a dramatic effect and for her friends to see that she's not interested in flirting her way into a guy's heart.
"You and your stubbornness," Solar sighed, "If your not going to have them, I might as well go for it,"
"As you please," Aeri indulgently offered.
They all walked towards the university campus, imagining how "hot" or "handsome" or "cute" these guys actually were that every girl in the university had their eyes on.
Aeri opened her lecture schedule on her phone, she's majoring in medicine so her first class was biology. The girls walked to their lockers and grabbed all the learning materials they needed. They came to organize their lockers last week before the term started.
They all said their goodbyes as they majored in different fields, thus having different classes. Hwasa and Moonbyul majored in zoology, while Wheein was in literature and Solar, engineering.
Aeri walked solitarily to the science building. Most of the guys stared at her, almost drooling, while some girls glared daggers at her, not bothering her one bit. She couldn't care less about the stereotypical college girls, they are all so immature.
She walked into the lecture hall, choosing a seat somewhere in the middle. She placed her book on the seat to her right and her bag to her left, so no one could sit beside her.
The lecture was pretty boring, considering the topics discussed were all familiar to Aeri. She started to doze off just like any normal student would during a monotone lecture.
Just when her eyes trailed shut, she heard something juicy within earshot. Her eyes whipped wide open but her ears opened wider.
"Oh my god, V is so handsome like I'm seriously going to faint if he looks at me,"
"Suga looked at me yesterday, he's probably in love with me,"
"I think J-hope wants to ask me out but he's too scared to,��
"I bought a new Chanel dress and I wore it yesterday, I think RM noticed me, I am so his type,"
These girls were delusional, talking about guys who Aeri was pretty sure they didn't know these girls existed. But wait, V, Suga, J-hope, RM? Those were the nicknames she gave Taehyung, Yoongi, Hoseok and Namjoon.
Distracted by her thoughts, she didn't realize the hall was gradually clearing out. She grabbed her things and rushed out of the room, not wanting to be the last person in there.
She put away her books in her locker preparing to go get breakfast since she didn't have another lecture till afternoon. Suddenly something, more like someone, crashed into the locker beside her. She saw Solar panting heavily, resting her hands on her knees. Soon after, the 3 other girls came running towards Aeri.
"Umm...what's going on?" Aeri closed her locker and turned the padlock to lock it.
"Choi Aeri...my eyes...have been blessed…," Solar breathed loudly, her chest heaving up and down gasping for oxygen.
"I now know what gods look like,"
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