Prologue #2

                                    

                                          
"What should I pick..." Areum thought to herself while on Jaewon's school website to look at the departments.
"Beauty might be good... I could learn more about makeup..." Areum considered, "No... then my classmates might find out how much makeup I put on."
"Definitely not Comics... people might think I'm weird cause of the stereotypes," Areum thought to herself, she had already eliminated some options, that being Architecture, Vocal Dance, Practical Music, and Computers. Since she was either uninterested or lacking in the skills required for those departments.
"Baking sounds nice," Areum said to herself, "And delicious..." Areum started daydreaming about future things she could bake in that department, "But then again, mom might expect me to cook or bake more..."
So Areum eliminated the Comics and Baking Departments. But that only left one other option, The Fashion Department. Now that it finally sunk into Areum that she only had one option left. What made it worse was that she had no experience in fashion. 
Areum quickly dropped her phone on her bed and ran over to her closet and looked through her wardrobe. 
"Oh my god, oh my god, what is all of this? I didn't know my clothes were this bad!" Areum thought to herself while going through her closet, all she had was either hand me downs from her sister, sweats, plains, hoodies, or merchandise from her favorite bands and series. What was even worse was that Hanjae had told her that Jaewon's dress code was laid back so she could wear some of her own stuff. 
"This is so fricking embarrassing..." Areum groaned, "Now that I think about it, my rooms embarrassing," Areum looked around her room that had barely changed since Elementary School. 
Areum shook her head, "No, it's not like I'm gonna be inviting anyone over," Areum thought to herself.
In the end after looking through her closet, she matched a black Calvin Klein performance hoodie to wear with her new uniform, since she knew it was going to be cold.
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The night before her first day at Jaewon, Areum made sure that her uniform and accessories were out and ready, as well as her bag being mostly packed. She also made sure to set her alarm early and went to bed earlier. But the morning of her first day, Areum found it hard to actually get out of bed so early. But she still pushed through to do her makeup and get ready.
"Areum! Come down and eat already!" Areum's mom called out for her daughter to eat breakfast, "Any longer and she's going to be late, and starving..."
"She probably just wants to look good for her first day," Suae said to their mom. 
"Hard for her to do with that face..." Daeho said while eating.
"Shut up, like you look any better," Suae said to Daeho.
"Oh? And you're a goddess?" Daeho said sarcastically.
"Areum! Come down already!" Areum's mom yelled.
Soon Areum came downstairs and when her dad and mom saw her they were speechless by her new face, "Sorry, I'm not hungry," Areum said to her mom while walking down the stairs.
"If you're not hungry, then at least..." Suae trailed off when she finally saw Areum. Both Suae and Daeho were in shock at what Areum looked like now.
"Mom, where did you put my bag?" Hanjae came into the kitchen, oblivious to what was happening, "Huh? Who... who are you?" Hanjae said in shock when he saw Areum.
"What are you on?" Areum rhetorically asked her brother, "Mom, I'm heading out now!" Areum called out to her mom while putting on her shoes, before leaving.
"I- I'm not blind right? That's a different person, right?" Hanjae asked his family, after Areum left, but they were all speechless. 
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While walking onto the school campus, everyone was staring at Areum, either in jealousy or admiration. But to Areum, she thought they were staring at her because she was that unattractive.
"Is my makeup that bad..?" Areum thought to herself while walking.
"He- hey, can you give me your number?" A guy who looked kind of cute, held out his phone to her, and looked pretty nervous and flustered.
"Ah... um... sorry... I- I don't really know you..." Areum said to the guy, fully expecting him to laugh and ask if she thought she was all that. But to her surprise, he didn't. 
"Oh, that's fine, see you around then," the guy said. Areum hesitantly nodded, before walking away.
"Dude! Your brother was right! Girls at Jaewon are smoking!" The guy's friend said to him, "I know right? How is she that pretty?" The guy said to his friend.
"I'm... pretty?" Areum thought to herself.  Because of that comment, she got really happy and started smiling a lot. 
When Areum got to her new classroom, people were either looking at her or talking to each other. So she decided to just sit down at a desk and mind her own business. 
"Really? You started streaming on Paprika? No wonder you have so many nice things. But what about your parents? Aren't they going to find out?" Areum overheard a girl talking to someone. 
"No way, they're so old fashioned. Besides, I always stream at my boyfriend's place," a familiar voice said. 
Areum knew that voice from anywhere. That was Yui Kim, even though she was in a different than her in middle school, she still knew Areum since she bullied her sometimes. Meaning she knew what Areum actually looked like. 
Areum turned to look and check to see if was actually Yui, and it was. When they made eye contact, Areum immediately turned around again to not look at her. 
"Oh my god, please don't recognize me. Why did you have to choose the same high school as me?" Areum thought to herself, panicking inside. But she glanced back at Yui and who was talking to one of her followers, not seeming like she recognized Areum. But Areum was still overthinking it and worrying about it.
"Hey, what's your name? I'm Mira." A pretty girl with auburn hair in two braids, came up to Areum, "Oh, I'm Areum..." Areum responded to the Mira. 
"Do you have social media? We should add each other," Mira said, sitting down beside Areum and pulled out her phone.
"Oh, um, I don't use social media," Areum replied.
"Really... then can I have your number? We should be friends," Mira said, handing her phone to Areum. Areum hesitantly took her phone and nodded before putting in her number in Mira's phone and handing it back.
"You know, you're so pretty... and I love your lip color, what are you wearing?" Mira asked.
"Oh, that's not true, and I'm wearing this one, it's not very pigmented though. But it smells really good," Areum answered and showed her the lip gloss she was wearing.
"It's so pretty. Not only are you pretty, but so are your products," Mira complemented.
Areum honestly felt really happy. This one conversation started an entire new friendship. After school, they went out to eat tteokbokki, went to play a little at an arcade, and even took some photos at a Photo Booth.
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That evening, Areum decided to make an Instagram account and asked Mira what photo to post and asked for her Instagram account, and in a short amount of time the post got a decent amount of likes. 
Areum was on her bed, on her phone without her makeup on, fangirling over her first day and new friends while texting Mira. 
"I finally have friends now..." Areum thought to herself.