Orea sat by herself on the bench about to open her lunchbox. The cafeteria was crowded with students as they lined up in front of the counter to order food. The cafeteria lady was serving cold pasta and cheese sandwiches that day but the food was quite plain in taste. Being a bit eater, Orea refused to touch that abomination and instead blackmailed SD into preparing her meals for her.
One good thing about being the class loner was that there was no one to sit with her and she did not need to share her food with them. She hated to share food.
The smell of chicken chow mein with prawn sticks and sushi hit her nostrils. Orea sniffed the delicacies, her mouth beginning to water.
"The guy might be a sadistic idiot but boy can he cook!" she squealed. She picked up her chopsticks and was about to poke into the sushi when three large shadows fell on her. She looked up to see the curly haired Marley Cho and her minions whose names she was not even going to bother to remember. One had dark blonde hair with cat-like eyes whom Orea simply referred to as Minion One and the other chubby short one was Minion Two.
They were all glaring down at her with spite.
"Can I help you?" Orea frowned.
Marley slammed her hands on the table, making Orea flinch.
"You dare to get closer to my Myung?" she hissed.
"Heh?"
What the hell is this snooty girl talking about? Orea wondered.
"You were assigned as Myung's partner," Marley gritted. "Exchange with me. I'll be his partner!"
Ahhh now I get it, Orea realized.
"Sorry can't do," she replied. "The teacher assigned us together. I'm not gonna back off."
"I won't let you be with him!" Marley hissed.
"Just back off and let Marley be his partner!" Minion One scoffed. "You're not worthy to be his partner!"
She looked at Orea from top to down, judging the latter's cheap clothes and style. The bespectacled girl was mostly quiet but the recent standoff with the computer teacher made news. Everyone was baffled how she was paired with Myung, the most popular boy at school. It was just plain ridiculous!
Orea stretched her limbs, already annoyed by the annoying trinity. She did not pay much attention to the class politics but they really should not have disturbed her mealtime.
"I'll only back out if my BTS or EXO oppas order me to," she said cheerfully. "If you ain't any of them, then don't bother to make such an idiotic request. Now please leave."
Marley snarled at the girl's insolence. She reached over and tried to grab Orea by the collar but to her surprise, the latter was quick. Orea caught her wrist and twisted it behind her. The entire cafeteria was now watching their confrontation.
"Isn't that the nerd who fought with the teacher yesterday?" one of the students pointed out.
"What's she doing?"
"She's hurting Marley!" Minion Two wailed. "She's hurting our poor Marley…"
"OWWWW!" Marley cried in apparent pain. Orea resisted the urge to sneer at her because she was not even holding Marley's wrist that hard. She let go of her and simply shook her head in dismay.
"I thought you were the Queen Bee here," she sighed. "But you're so weak! I didn't even pull your wrist that hard. I wish I had though."
She's actually admitting it! Everyone thought in unison. Was the girl courting social suicide?
"Why you…" Marley grumbled in anger. She grabbed Orea's lunch box and threw the contents at her. To everyone's shock, Orea did not move but stood there as the food fell on her.
Myung had just walked into the cafeteria, witnessing Marley throw food on Orea. He had heard of the commotion from outside and entered the cafeteria out of mild interest.
"You really think you can be Myung's partner?" Marley screeched. "You don't deserve him!"
Orea was silent. She wiped off the food from her face and clothes. Rice stuck to her hair and her uniform was stained with chow mein sauce. Everyone expected her to say something but instead, she scooped up some of the food which fell on the table and put it back in the nearly empty lunch box.
To everyone's shock, she was eating the food she had just scooped from the table!
"Ewww!" Minion One winced. "That's so gross!"
Everyone was ostracising Orea but she did not care. She kept on eating it to their disgust.
"Is she from the slums?" Marley laughed. "She's so sick-"
"I am," Orea revealed. "I am from the slums. I spent days scavenging food from the trash cans. So eating like this is nothing to me, Princess!"
She spoke in a matter of fact way which shocked everyone. How did a slum dweller like her end up in one of the most prestigious schools in the country? Myung peered at the strange girl who was finishing off the food from her lunch and put the box down. There was a cold fury in her eyes along with a hint of reminiscence as she recalled her mysterious past.
"I'll let you and your minions off the hook this time," Orea warned. "But the next time you mess with me during my meal time, I will not simply twist your hand. I will smash your bones to pieces and you'll not be able to lift a finger for the rest of your life."
She glared at the trio who looked a little scared but still kept their haughtiness.
"L-let's go girls," Marley ordered. "We'll deal with her later."
Slowly, they backed away. Seeing that the commotion was over, the rest of the students also went back to their seats. Only Myung stood there, watching Orea. The girl was packing her lunch box into her bag and walked away without even glancing at him. He debated for a while before going after her.
"Yo!"
Orea stopped in her steps and turned around to see Myung following her.
"What do you want?" she sighed.
He took a step towards her. Truthfully, he wanted to apologize to her because it felt that Marley and her gang targeted her because of him. But there was an arrogant part of him which was claiming that whatever the issue was, Marley should be the one to apologize to Orea, not him.
"We still have to work on our project," he said instead. "I don't want the teacher to think that we're idiots-"
"No one will think that!" Orea snapped. "I can make the entire software on my own. All you need to do is stay out of my way and only show up on the day of the presentation."
She was about to walk away when Myung said, "Can't do. It's a team work and I'll have to work with you."
Orea frowned at him as he came closer. He was smug and confident that he would be able to make the project a success.
"Come over to my house today," he suggested. "We'll work on the basics tonight and make a plan. Besides, I have the latest equipment to make it. Much better than the crap we have here."
Orea pondered on his suggestion for a while before replying, "Alright. I'll come over."
"Just FYI," he warned. "You cannot tell anyone about where I live and who my family members are. You might get expelled from this school."
Orea pretended to be confused while thinking in her head, "I already know, moron!"
"Alright," she said out loud. "I won't."
Myung nodded and walked away, already regretting inviting her. But with Orea around his father would put up his best behavior and not hound Myung in front of everyone. Dinner at their household was not a happy occasion.
Unbeknownst to him, Orea was smirking. Getting food dumped on me worked, she thought in glee. Earlier, she had already noticed Myung walking into the cafeteria so when Marley threw food at her, she did not duck away. And the cherry on top was the slight glimpse into her slum dwelling days. She had hoped that it would affect Myung and to her delight, it probably did since she was able to secure an invite to the dinner that night. SD had already texted her about it.
She took out her phone and wrote back to him.
"Step 1 over. Step 2 commences!"
….
At LN Partners, SD read Orea's message and grinned.
"I taught my student well," he said with a hint of pride. "And now…"
He glanced at the television. The news was displaying how the Prime Minister was scheduled to land at the airport in an hour. He had taken his private helicopter to visit Town B and was returning soon before afternoon and after that, he would be visiting the slums downtown.
Time for step 2, he thought and got off his chair. He walked towards the door, shutting it tightly behind him. There was an important appointment he could not afford to miss.
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