Chapter One- The Three Beauties in the Palace

"Why is this school so big?"

Rays of sunlight filtered through elongated windows, reflecting against the cold marble flooring, almost resembling ice. Footsteps echoed through the seemingly endless hallways as a young girl made her way up a mountain of stairs, her small figure stopping the moment she reached the top as if to catch her breath. She was gripping to the railing tightly and taking in mouthfuls of air, her head hanging forward so that her bangs and her long black hair covered her face.

"Maybe I shouldn't ignore mother when she told me I needed to get into shape," Hwa Young mumbled to herself as she combed a hand through her hair, pushing it away from her face. "If I can barely make it up these stairs now, how am I going to manage a full week of school without dying of exhaustion?" she muttered, her eyes scanning through the area, examining the lockers and closed doors. She skimmed the gold marked numbers on the doors for a moment before pulling out a folded up pamphlet from her blazer pocket, opening it up to a map. "Is this a school or a palace?" she exclaimed to herself, her eyes wide as she stared blankly at the piece of paper.

"Are you lost?" a female voice asked from down the hall as three sets of heels clicked towards her direction, coming from the expensive glossy pumps of three girls, each adorn in silk covered headbands and colorful stockings. Like mirror images, each girl had her arms crossed over her chest and assumed a position that would surround her like a pack of wolves around a lamb, looking her over as if to inspect whether or not the girl had any dirt on her.

"Actually, yes," Hwa Young replied quietly, her hands hanging loosely at her sides. "I'm looking for room 415-A," she stated, feeling the strong discomfort push down onto her chest as they continued to eye her, feeling their stares probing at her like dissection tools. "I have a history class there. My name is Yoon Hwa Young," she introduced politely, though instincts told her that none of these girls were here to make friends or pleasantries.

"Oh my god," rang loud though the area in heavily accented English, the girl of which the words came from giving her a look of minor interest. "You must be that academic scholarship student then," she stated rather than asked, narrowing her eyes and leaning forward to inspect her facial features and neck. "The whole school has been talking about you, you know. A commoner girl managing to score top marks in the entrance exam; you must be pretty brainy to pull that off. Your skin's pretty clear too for someone who probably uses cheap drugstore products."

She felt the muscles beneath her eye twitch. "What?" she asked plainly, watching as the girls share gazes and began laughing slightly, as if finding her bewilderment amusing.

"If you're looking for room 415-A, you're on a completely wrong floor," another girl spoke up as she twirled a beaded decorative pen along the curls of her side-ponytail, raising her eyebrow at Hwa Young as if it was obvious news to her. "Go down two floors, through a hallway of windows, and you should find it down the first set of stairs you see," she stated simply with a slight smirk curved over her lightly glossed lips, watching as the new girl let out a sigh and turned towards the staircase once more. "There's also an elevator to your left," she sneered before her and her friends turned their heels towards Hwa Young and strutted off as quickly as they had come.

"Thank you!" she called after them quickly before rushing off in the direction as instructed, the young girl soon finding herself pushing the lit buttons to a set of chrome elevator doors. "Well, at least they were helpful," she muttered to herself as she rubbed the back of her neck, stepping into the compartment as the automatic doors slid open for her. As she pressed the button to the correct floor, she began to wonder if the rest of the student population would have the same sort of attitude as the three girls she had bumped into moments ago. If so, she already began to dread how making friends at a school like this would be like, or if she could even manage finding some sort of social companionship in a place like this. 'Do I even want to bother?' she thought to herself quietly as she looked up at the ceiling anxiously, bouncing on the balls of her feet. From the looks of things, she really didn't have much in common with these people. What would she possibly talk about with them?

"Hello is a good start," she murmured quietly, hurrying out of the elevator once it hit her destination, then groaned quietly. She should concentrate more on her studies than making friends, anyways. After all, her mother did tell her to work hard throughout high school, though her mother's intentions weren't as wholesome as most. While some mothers told their children to do well for a successful future, her mother was the one who told her to do well because she didn't have the wealth to take care of her if she didn't. Her mother really wasn't a bad person; she just saw things in a different point of view.

From following the previous girl's instructions to the best of her ability, she soon found herself standing in front of an open doorway where a small set of spiraling stairs ran. She poked her head through the entrance as if to try and make out what was at the other end, but darkness and the fact she had forgotten to put in her contact lenses that morning prevented her from doing such. "What an unusual place to put a classroom," she muttered quietly before descending down the stairs, soon regretting said action as she came to the image of what seemed to resemble an entertainment room, stocked with a big-screen television set, an open bar, and a pool table.

Well this definitely wasn't a classroom, so either her bad sense of direction kicked in, or those three girls were actually playing a rather mean prank on her. She noticed a small group of boys who weren't in uniform positioned at various areas of the room, seemingly too busy with their lounging about to notice her presence. She turned around and moved to silently tip-toe up the stairs with a small sigh, hoping that her exit would be unnoticed. 'I guess there are bullies everywhere,' she thought to herself, biting her lower lip as she tried her hardest not to make a sound. She was then stopped at her tracks, wincing slightly at a raised voice from behind her.

"What are you doing here?" one of the boys called out, causing her to stiffen and wince. He raised his eyebrow at her as the girl awkwardly and hesitantly turned her head to face her addresser, his fingers tapping impatiently as if every second without an answer irritated him. He appeared to be a tall curly haired boy dressed in a casual suit, sitting back on the black leather couch with a highly aggravated look plastered over his face.

"I'm really sorry, I lost my way and I think someone gave me the wrong directions," she said quickly, bowing her head with formal haste before fleeing up the set of stairs, her legs carrying her across the marble hallway as fast as humanly possibly. Admittedly, it had been rude of her to scamper off in such a sudden fashion, but she hadn't planned on waiting for his approval of her response. She was already late for her first class as it was, and she didn't have the time nor desire to get into any confrontations with any more students.

"Why was this school so big?"