Just to make things clear: Jeremy is Sa-ra's stepbrother who is a year older and had been in Jeguk for a while. Yes he is Chinese and Sa-ra is Korean. Here Sa-ra is a first-year as with Young-do, Rae, Bo-na, etc. Jeremy is a second-year, like Hyo-shin. Everyone in Jeguk is screwed up in one way or another, and I mean everyone.

There were very few instances in his life where he was given the right to take control of the situation. Even his life, he has no control over. Lee Hyo-shin was a name burdened on his shoulders, it came with the crippling expectations from a long line of high-point jobbed family members and the disappointments that followed closely behind every time he moved his eyes somewhere else. It had been especially soul-sucking after he managed to epically fail the one attempt he wanted to go right, because they didn't even bother to ask why. Just two more years, he sighed to himself.

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out, a smile ghosted his face when he saw who the message was from. Kim Tan.

How's your week? Mine bombed.

"Hi, stranger." His head whipped to see a first-year walking down the steps of stairs, slinging her handbag higher on her shoulder and pulling long strands of obsidian hair back to its place. Kwon Sa-ra was certainly a girl his mother would approve him befriending for future means, but not if she was going to be a distraction from his studies. Hyo-shin didn't mind her nagging either since it was a habitual occurrence to have your friend's younger sister nagging you. "I wanted to finish my assignment before lunch so now I'm late. Walk me to the cafeteria?" Without waiting for a response, she took a hold of his left sleeve and basically forced him to eat. It roused him out of the catatonic state he placed himself in when he was suffering from nausea from his pre-scripted meds. Yet another downside of his failed attempt: medicine side-effects suck. He wasn't sure he was going to be able to stomach his lunch.

"Where's Jeremy?"

"Definitely nowhere in miles from me," she answered brusquely.

His lips quirked. What a typical answer from a loving stepsister. Hyo-shin had long suspected Sa-ra was sensitive of other people's feelings, could somehow always tell when he was feeling battered even when the only meetings they had were the ones when he was visiting the Lim household to hang out and before Jeremy shoved his 'annoying little sister' out of the room. And even those times were far and in between with the demands his mother made to study harder than the whole of Korean student body. "How's your first week?" He took in her clean appearance: the bow of her tie perfectly pressed and straight, wrinkles missing from her shirt, skirts swishing from the confidence she boosted in her steps. He quietly sighed in relief that nobody had bothered her.

She lightly scoffed. "Tiring."

"Made any friends?"

"All the wrong ones. They're asking how I knew Jeremy-sunbae." She rolled her eyes. "I bet they're going to start asking me how I know you now." She grinned and he realized that as they were marching down the hallway to the cafeteria, people were pointing and probably wondering who Kwon Sa-ra really was to know so many upperclassmen when she was just entering the Jeguk social scene. Her being in the top tier of the caste system eased him a little that at least she wouldn't be bothered for that particular reason. Jeremy told him she wasn't going to admit that she had a Chinese business magnate as a stepfather, but even then her own biological father who gifted her the Kwon name had enough fortune to run a country.

"They won't," he assured her. Sa-ra's head whipped around to face him with a pout. He could by now write a script about where this was going to end. They've had this conversation repeatedly before that he could probably write her off as his dongsaeng and run with it.

"But why not?" She tapped his cheek. "You're handsome, Hyo-shin-sunbae. Never let anyone tell you otherwise." She had even told him once that if ever he needed a stand in for a fake girlfriend, she would be a willing candidate because she was pretty. Sure, then he'd probably be six feet under the day after because there was no way Jeremy would let him walk away with that.

There was a glint in his eyes. Why is she calling me that?" We're close enough for you to call me something else, don't you think?" He tapped his chin.

She shook her head. "Sun-bae-nim," she spelled out. "Anyway, don't change the subject. Believe me, you're my favorite!" He couldn't hold in the smile when she pinched his cheeks. "Smile! Sa-ra is here."

"Araso, araso, stop it. You're making me blush." He grabbed her hands, minding the pressure on her left one when he detected an involuntary flinch on the younger girl's face.

His smile sobered. It was a cruel thought, but if only he had her luck. It was truly unfortunate that his inheritance needed only a brain to work, and a brain couldn't fail unless his whole being did. Maybe it was the expression on his face, but Sa-ra's grin slipped off, turning into a stern frown. She must be a mind reader in her previous life.

"Does it still hurt?" He spoke before she could reprimand him.

She snatched her left hand away. "Sometimes," she mumbled. It took only a millisecond and her unbothered mask had slid on again, a hybrid between a smile and question, making her look like she was perpetually waking up from a daydream. "People had been telling me about this prick." The subject change was entirely welcomed.

Sa-ra guessed that the girls in her class had actually liked her, because they were warning her of things not to do. Like wearing the same statement clothing article twice unless she was going to make it her thing, or sit on certain tables in the cafeteria, or to meddle with businesses that were not her own.

"What prick?"

"One that picks off the social welfare students..." her voice drifted off as if she wasn't sure if talking about it was a good idea now that they were entering the lunch line. She thanked Hyo-shin when he handed her a tray and stayed behind him on the line. "Why do you think he did it?"

Hyo-shin realized of whom she was talking about. It was a childish tradition adopted by a certain heir of a hotelier after his supposed best friend left for the States unceremoniously. It did nothing but make a statement of how other people were beneath the dirt on their shoes. He turned to look at her seriously. "Don't interfere."

"I haven't even seen him, I think." She shrugged. The girls she sat with for lunch didn't like eating and watching bullies at the same time, so they'd picked a table further away from the main entertainment. Sa-ra was grateful; she might not want to get her hands dirty, but that didn't mean she could stand the sight of it. "You know how I am anyway; you think I would interfere?"

He weighed the knowledge he knew of his junior as he piled his plate high with food. And then he weighed what the knew of the bully. "No, but you're too pretty to not be noticed." He winked at her and inwardly laughed when Sa-ra's cheeks flushed and she hit his forearm. The blazer from the winter uniform allowed the action to not actually hurt.

As if to strengthen his point, another first-year approached them from the side of the line, a camera in hand. Jo Myung-soo had made a beeline for something that caught his eye, he was sure. The first-year was nefarious for being a deadweight, good-for-nothing kid, partying all night and taking pictures all day, a contender for the bottom of the class ranking.

"Ya, Sunbae, is this your girlfriend?" Myung-soo asked Hyo-shin crudely. From the looks of it, he was most likely suffering a mild hangover since his bluntness didn't usually go as far as saying to a complete stranger, "Pretty girl, look here!" and snapping a picture of Sa-ra looking at him oddly.

"No, she isn't. Sa-ra, this is-"

"Star of Jeguk High, Jo Myung-soo. You're really pretty," he cut Hyo-shin off, grinning like a madman and extending his right hand for Sa-ra to shake. Hyo-shin hid a laugh at his forward attitude.

Sa-ra glanced at Hyo-shin with uncertainty. He sent her a tight smile, a sign that this was nothing dangerous. Just go with it, it said. She seemed to come to a positive deduction because she took the offered hand. "Kwon Sa-ra."

Myung-soo was about to reply when a loud bang came from the entrance of the cafeteria. Activities of food piling, eating, and chatting died down, heads turning to see where and what the commotion was. Hyo-shin looked down at his tray instead, then at Sa-ra's, measuring the nutrition content. There's nothing new to see anyway. If anything, the fact that nobody - staff or students, ever stood up to Choi Young-do to stop his actions lay heavy on his shoulders. He was supposed to be a law enforcer someday, if he survived this, and yet he never felt like it here. Shouldn't someone who would attain such a job have that quality in the first place? He was inadequate. He would always be inadequate. But at least he did feel like shielding his friend's little sister from seeing the mean doings of their world.

Sa-ra was completely absorbed with the view she was unfamiliar with. Myung Soo the odd photographer with his extremely expensive camera was shoved to the corner of her thoughts when a boy with a pair of lackeys strode in with the same manner people who own the school might. One of his lackeys was dragging another boy through the back of his shirt, shoving the victim down to a chair, making it scrape unpleasantly on the floor. The main bully looked to the side, her side of the cafeteria and she realized that the other lackey was approaching the lunch line and snatched a tray from a random boy standing at the end of the line. How uncouth. The person they took without a permission from didn't even put up a fight for the food he had paid for.

But she understood what was happening. The victim, a first-year from her homeroom, was sitting on the table her girlfriends had warned her about, the very one they tried to avoid seeing. The stolen tray with various food littered on it was slammed down in front of him, and the rest of their actions were textbook bullying. She had seen the victim boy before, and deduced that he was indeed at the bottom of the tier. He walked without a certain swag of confidence, and the fact that his shoes and bag were scuffed didn't help the matter. The higher tier kids were shiny dolls with the perfect skin, hair, and make up that came from not having to work a single day in their lives. It was at this very moment she regretted coming to Jeguk.

Jung-soo was right, and she would be damned to admit that defeat to him. She itched to just grab her phone and talk to him about this… guilt she was unwilling to suffer. Her form of demeaning people in Saerang had been through her talent-boasting, striking people down as she stroke her violin strings and fought strongly for the highest rank in her year. She slept well at night knowing she did it through a 'kill them with kindness' method and not the physical or verbal assault.

There was gunk on the boy's white shirt now. What used to be a neat arrangement of food on the tray had turned into a vague memory. She frowned. Did they never think that with how hard it was to get into Jeguk, having a 'nobody' admitted meant that they must've been something special? The degraded boy might just be the prodigious genius amongst them.

Sa-ra watched the leader of the bullies, noting that yes, she had actually seen him before in class. From the way he sat she could confirm what her new friends said about him, the confidence of a successor. A hotelier, was it? She wasn't sure, her brain had the tendency to erase unimportant information. He was undoubtedly handsome, if only he could actually smile without the oozing superiority that made her want to strangle someone. His countenance was just so… aggressive, especially with the way his prominent eyebrows were often raised, he looked like he was about to yell across the room any time. No wonder the boy sitting before him cowered under his gaze and did whatever he said.

"Choi Young-do," Hyo-shin told her with a tone that could only be described as dog-tired. He had seen this one too many times. "The Prick."