FLAME - EPISODE 4

JUNG AERA

The car pulled up at my abode and I walked in with her after she instructed her driver to wait for her. We walked in together with a portfolio in her hand.

I entered…my sis and mom where staring at me with questioning gaze.

“This is the lady I helped the other day”,I stared at my mom intently so that I can imprint her expression in my mind. As expected,her eyes flew wide in shock and disbelief.

“Yes ma….your daughter is a rare gem and so I have come here with a good news”,Mi-cha smiled sweetly at my mother.

“Pardon my manners”,my mom smiled back at her and offered her a seat in which Mi-cha accepted and sat on.

“Your daughter here,Aera,is a rare gem. She did what is rare for today youth like us to do”,she praised me.

“Yes I know that and I am so happy to be her mother”,my mom smiled and patted my back gently,showing affection.

My eyes almost flew out of its socket and I almost choked on the water I am drinking.

‘What did I just here mother say?’

I am dreaming right?’

‘She is really good at acting’

“Sis Aera is really kindhearted”,Ara added to the praises.

I shook my head.

White lotus personality!,I scoffed inwardly.

“Without wasting much of your time I’ll go straight to why I am here”,she smiled and held out the portfolio she is holding.

“This is a four years scholarship into the prestigious Jin College. It states all the condition for the scholarship to continue i.e the GPA mark you must maintain. Also,you can study any course of your choice and renew your scholarship contract once it expires”,she explained.

I am extremely bewildered! I didn’t see that coming because I truly wasn’t expecting her to come and show gratitude and now this…

Gosh! The prestigious Jin college!

The only school that assures a job employment on matter the course you study. That’s why entering Jin college is as similar as a camel passing through the eye of a needle.

“What?”,Ara burst out in shock.

“She? Aera? Jin college? This must be a joke”,she scoffed as she eyed me with contempt.

“Ara”,my mom scolded her and then she came back to her senses.

Ara sighed and sat back.

“Sorry about that! Ara doesn’t deal well with surprises”,my mom lied.

Lee Mi-cha nods in understanding.

“I just need her to append her signature here”,she said and I quickly obliged before my mom comes up with any flimsy excuse to stop this beautiful dream from coming to pass.

My mom glared at me.

“Will you prefer staying in the dorm or …..”

“Aera is quite a busy lady and am sure that she’d want to be going from home and not school dorm”,My mom said tightly and glared at me,daring me to go against her word which I clearly can’t.

If it was left to me,I’d gladly accept to stay in the school dorm and escape this hell I am living in but my mother has already decided my
fate.

“I’ll come here personally on Monday to pick you up and conclude all finalities at the college”,She said and stood up….

“Okay…I’ll be taking my leave now”,she announced

“Thanks for everything”,my mom beamed at her and Mi-cha repayed the favor.

She left.

“But mom…she shouldn’t go there!”,Ara sulked.

“She played her trick and signed the paper and there was no way I can go against that”,my mom tried to pacify her.

Today,I know that I am walking on thin thread which can snap any second if I anger my mother.

MONDAY MORNING…..

Lee Mi-cha came as promise but this time alone in a pink convertible and picked me up. My sis and mom waved and wished me good luck on my first day in college.

I rolled my eyes at their skilfull acting.

We arrived at the college and my eyes almost popped out of its socket….Jin college is different from how it is always described and also definitely more beautiful and bigger than on magazines.

She swipe a gold card at the door and it beeped and then opened. We walked and we went straight to the directors office where I was giving a prep talk and then dismissed with a map.

“Good luck in your first day in college”she hugged me and then left.

I stood in the empty and vast hallway with only a map in my hand.

I used the map to locate the main school building.

I came in time as I saw a large crowd pave and made way for someone who drove in with a mettalic red car which glints in the sun. He stepped out putting on a red baggy trousers with sack like pockets and a white ripped dress and a red huge sunglass sat on his face,his Red timberland catching my attention as he made way to the school building. He looks like a rock star and not a student.

He walked up close and pulled at the door to walk in and everyone gasped when he walked in and removed his sunglass and then stared at the student and looked away.

He is really handsome!

“Its really oppa”,the girls squealed in pure delight.

He stood and leaned on the tiled wall like as if he wasn’t affected by all the yelling and kept staring at his phone.

One lady walked up to him and handed him flowers which he looked at and then back at his phone.

The lady was ashamed as he didn’t even collect the flowers she brought for him,she scurried off.

Geez! He should at least collected it and appreciate her effort.

As I wanted to walk off,another lady came up much more confident than the other lady with a box of confectionery in her hand and a big business journal in the other hand.

“Oppa”,she called him sweetly.

He didn’t even look up.

“Jim-in”,she called him his name and he still didn’t look up.

Geez! He is a snob!

I better make sure to avoid him.

That didn’t even deter the lady. It seems she is determined to get Jim-in attention.

“Jim-in!”,she called him,more louder than before and this time he looked up like he is been disturbed.

The lady smiled at what she accomplished.

“I bought this box of confectionery with love for you and also this business journal so that you can save business info in it”,she explained her gift. It felt like she is showing off and daring others to think of something more thoughtful than what she thought of.

Everyone gasped including me at what Jim-in did next.

He took the chocolate from her hand and kept it beside him and it got her smiling. He collected the journal and began ripping the page off.

“I won’t be the CEO till my next birthday,NEXT YEAR and so why not tear it off since it won’t be useful”,he smirked as he kept tearing it until he was satisfied.

He smiled at the lady who is staring at him with her her eyes wide in disbelief. She couldn’t believe that he’d do that after collecting her gift.

“And this”,he smirked and picked up the box of confectionery and opened it. He shook his head in dissatisfaction.

He brought out one confectionery;a box of mouth watery chocolate in a huge heart shape,broke it and smeared it on her face,trailing his hand down her face gently,slowing turning her face into a muddle of messed up chocolate. He brought out another confectionery out and its a sweet and he stuck it in her hair,making it impossible to remove easily.

“Oppa!”,she cried out in shock.

“You really lack taste”,he clicked his tongue in disappointment.

“I am not a lady that will gush all over a box of confectionery”, he scoffed

“And beside..”,he continued and cleaned his hand on a female student dress who in turn was blushing heavily. I felt the urge to smack senses into the lady.

Why in the world will you blush when he is visibly staining your cloth

” If I want these,I’d just call in my five star chef”,he said with pride and leaned back on the wall,like nothing happened.

This school is something! I just need to stay out of these type of people way and I will be fine,I soothed my anxiety.

Well! It didn’t work out ……

Authoress POV

One of the ladies of the popular bully queens, A.S.H,who are three in number,has been staring at Jung Aera in contempt and disgust.

What is she doing here?”,she asked her co friends.

Poor Jung Aera doesn’t know that she isn’t supposed to be here. There is a heavy seclusion of the poor from the rich,here the poor are treated as people with incurable and contagious disease. So in that light,Aera isn’t supposed to be here,this main entrance is only for the rich and they have to swipe a card to walk in and so how did she get in.

The lady, Yeong Rae-bin,eyed Aera from head to toe with scorn and even degraded her appearance.

“How dare this lowly dressed human come in here. A place filled with stars”,she complained to her friends.

“Let’s just deal with her or put the green card in her locker”,one suggested.

“She is new here and so the green card is too extreme”,another disagreed.

“I agree that its too extreme”,Rae bin nods her head in acknowledgement.

“Why not disgrace her now and give everyone a good show. That way she will know her place”,Rae bin smirked at her own idea.

Rae bin then stealthily moved to where Aera stood and saw that its the perfect angle since she is standing not to far from Jim-in. As Aera was Still stretching to catch a glimpse of what is going on with her two legs slightly raised,it gave Rae bin the perfect opportunity to give Aera a slight push and that is what she did and Aera tumbled,trying so hard to hold back her weight and get back her stamina but with the way she stood earlier,it will be hard for her to do and so she fell face flat close to Jim-in and her lips on his timberland. From others angle,it seems like Aera is worshipping Jim-in.

Everyone gathered laughed at Aera act.

“So a poor thing like you think that she can get our oppa attention”

“What is this thing doing in here. This is the rich student ground”

“Did you have to go all the way and kiss his shoe”

“You can’t even afford it”

“Our oppa doesn’t like people seeking his attention,so back off”

“Someone call the security to throw her out..I feel suffocated”

“I’ll faint any minute with the air that has been polluted by this poor church rat”

Rae bin smirked and high five her co friends for a job weldone.

Jim-in looked away from his phone and he bent low to look at the lady at his feet and everyone held their breathe on what will happen next………