Tokki High was a pristine, all-girls private academy nestled in the hills of Seoul like a pearl in a velvet box. Its ivy-covered stone buildings oozing old money, tradition, and unspoken rules. The air always smelled faintly of lavender and fresh ink, and the sound of polished loafers on marble floors echoed with the weight of generations. In this world of manicured uniforms and whispered alliances, Lee Hyein ruled like a queen behind her veil of perfection.

Hyein—sharp-tongued and silk-wrapped—glided through the halls as if the world parted for her. Her dark hair was always slicked into a glossy twist that caught the light like onyx, and her blazer bore more pins than a prefect’s sash—each a silent symbol of dominance. She wasn’t loud; she didn’t need to be. A single glance from her could reduce a girl to tears or compliance, depending on how generous she felt. Her clique, Hanni and Danielle, followed two steps behind, mimicking her confidence but never matching her cruelty. When she smiled, it wasn’t kindness—it was strategy. And if she ever looked your way, it meant one of two things: she was bored... or she saw you as a threat.

And that's what Hyein saw as a threat to be taken care of. There was this gentle aura of kindness and quiet beauty around her that Hyein seemed to despise... or more like be drawn to, but she refused to let another girl take her control of Tokki High that only Hyein had. So, Hyein made sure to pick on her every. single. day. Whether it was a passive-aggressive comment under her breath, a condescending smirk, an "accidental" knock of her textbooks off her very hands, Hyein was dedicated. It's enough to drive anybody crazy, to have somebody like Hyein, the queen of this literal school, so determined to reduce somebody down until they were nothing. And she couldn't seem to understand why.

It happened in the glass-paneled lounge just before third period, where sunlight spilled in through vaulted ceilings and turned the polished floor into a mirror. She had been quietly sitting on the stone bench beneath the wisteria vines, scribbling in a worn notebook, when the silence shattered—heels clicking like a metronome of menace. Hyein’s voice, smooth and saccharine, curled through the air.“Taking notes on how not to stand out?”she purred, arms crossed, head tilted slightly as if truly curious. Her clique, Hanni and Danielle, hovered behind her like shadows, lips twitching with amusement.

She looked up, startled but not surprised. This was routine by now. But something was different in Hyein’s eyes today. Beneath the polished cruelty, there was a flicker of something closer to frustration than fun. A nerve had been struck, perhaps by the way she simply looked through her, unshaken, serene in her silence. That look—like Hyein’s words were rain on glass—made her seethe.“Careful, sweetheart,”Hyein added, stepping closer, her voice now low and silk-smooth but it was like a knife scraping against her back.“Girls who think they’re special usually find out... they’re not.”

Does she continue to put up with Hyein's torments? Could she even last another possible year of it?