Star University

We laughed at the irony of both our names being JiEun. I hi-fived her and we bowed in front of everyone and continued to party. I continued to speak to IU and I learnt how she had wanted to come to this school since she was eight years old and how she had a friend who had just came up to this school called ‘Lee Hi’ but she didn’t come in to school today because she was busy preparing for a competition. I spoke with Tao about going to work today and others we were all becoming really close apart from Kris and YoungBae who distanced themselves from the party.

I decided to talk to oppa and see if he could get YoungBae in a better mood.

“Ya, don’t worry about YoungBae, he’s always like this.” JiYong explained.

“Jinjja? Is he really? He is always smiling around me. Even when we were little.” I told my brother.

“Yeah, only around you babo dongseng. Go and talk to him, make him join in.”

“Araseyo,” I walked over to YoungBae oppa and sat next to him on the table.
“Ya, YoungBae oppa, why aren’t you happy?” I rested my head on his shoulder. “Gwenchanha?”

“Neh, Gwenchanha dongseng,” he smiled and I saw JiYong glance over at us and he mouthed the words “see.”

“Come on, let me introduce you to people, jeobal?”

“Araseyo dongseng.” He called.

“Ya, stop calling me dongseng, acceptable pronouns are ‘Your Majesty’ Your Highness’ Queen JiEun or Master JiEun.”

“Araseyo Your Majesty Queen JiEun.” He stated poking my puffed out cheek “so cute.”

“You can absolutely not call me cute either, I am the devil’s spawn” I grab YoungBae oppas wrist and pulled him toward a group of people who were just hanging out. “Tao!” I call and he comes out of the crowd. “Annyeong JiEun, ahh, this is Taeyang from the bookstore isn’t it.”

“Neh, lets introduce him to BaekHyun and a few others.”

D.O and Xiumin came up to us and spoke to us for a while and they questioned why I called him and Tao and BaekHyun oppa.

“Well, I’ve known YoungBae oppa for all my life and it’s just a habit I guess, as for Tao oppa and BaekHyun oppa they asked me to and it feels nice.”

“Well, you can call me oppa then,” Xiumin said playfully poking me.

“Ani, I shall call you ahjussi,” I giggled and left YoungBae to talk to Xiumin while I spoke to my brother and IU who were talking.

“Ya, JiEun, don’t you think it is weird that you both have the same name and your both the same age, I do Imagine if you looked alike. You would be the same person.” JiYong said.

“Neh, Gwenchanha?”They both nodded in unison.

“I told you he only really smiles around you.”

IU spoke “Who does?”

“YoungBae, ever since he was young he has only ever smiled around you JiEun.”

“Jinjja? He likes you unnie!” IU said nudging me in the ribs.

“Anieyo, don’t be silly” I poked her head a little. “Gaja unnie.” I pulled her away from my brother we took a little walk in the corridors it was nearly time to go home.

“Hey unnie,” she said to me “you are so lucky to have a cool brother and so many friends already and you have only just got here.” I began to walk backwards to properly talk with IU.

“Jinjja, you think so? Hey, you should come over to our house one day, maybe when BigBang are there too?” I began to get excited when I bumped into something and fell to the floor.

“Ya! Watch where you are going” she yelled.

IU helped me up. “Ya, shouldn’t you be the one to watch where you were walking, I was stood still.”

IU whispered in my ear “That’s Min, she’s in a group called Miss A.”

“Ya, don’t whisper about me you tramp.” Min said aggressively.

“Shut up you fool, and don’t call her a tramp she has not done anything to you so leave her alone.”

Aish she was annoying. She raised her hand to hit me, but a tall guy came from behind and stopped her by grabbing her wrist and walked off.

“You better watch it next time no one will stop me.” Min walked off followed by three girls.

“IU who are they?”

“That’s Miss A, Min is not very nice she has some kind of personality disorder or something she was like that in primary too. Fei and Jia, aren’t too bad they just follow her around a little as for SuJi, she’s lovely and she’s sweet when Min decides to skip class SuJi will normally hang out with me, SuJi is in our homeroom too, you should get to know her.”

I took a glance at them the smallest girl there was SuJi, she looked innocent, around the same age as I was but she was slightly taller than I was and prettier. Her head was bowed to the floor carrying a few of her text books in her arms.

“Araseyo, he we better get our things its nearly time to leave.”

We walked back into the room JiYong was waiting holding both of our things, “Gaja dongseng.”

“Hey gomawo oppa,” I turned to IU “how are you getting home?”

“I am getting the bus.”

“Ani, come in the car with us, we will drop you off, where do you live?”

“SeokChan Dong, SongPa-gu”

“Neh, we can drop you off and then pick up our sisters.”

“Are you sure, I don’t mind.”

“Yeah, come on,” I say and we grab our things and head toward the car. I think to myself that

I've never really had a friend who was a girl, I've always got on with boys more than girls, even in England. My closest friends in England were boys too, called Eddy and Jack. My English name was Lily, but everyone referred to me as Jiji, which was really cute. Even the teachers referred to me as Jiji. We got in the car and put SuperJuniors album on. It turns out IU loved SuperJunior as much as me. My favourites were Donghae, Siwon and LeeTeuk. Hers were EunHyuk, Ryeowook and ShinDong. I began to tell her about my time in England and taking Eddy and Jack and another girl called Grace to a concert in London near where I lived and I had officially turned them into K-Poppers.

We turned into a small drive way, a small but beautiful stone house stood before us. In fact everything here was tiny, I couldn’t imagine living some place like this after Cheongdam mansions.

“Ah, yeppoda,” I say out loud. “see you tomorrow unnie!”

I waved. “Jjalga” she said.

Me and JiYong then went to CheongDamDong Elementary school and I walked on to the playground as they walked out of class.

“Annyeong dongsengs” I say to them. “Did you have a good first day at school?”

“neh, unnie, it was great!” Just then I felt a tap on the shoulders and as I turned around I saw Kwon Myungsoo and his umma.

“Ah, Annyeong haeseyo!”

“I thought we would see you here.” The woman said.

“Ah, is there something you want to see me for?” I asked.

“Neh, I want to sincerely thank you for helping at the bookstore the other day, and I was wondering, considering you are fluent in English and you studied there, maybe you could teach MyungSoo one day a week,” she paused “urm, I would pay of course.”

“Anieyo, Gwenchanha, I’d be glad to help you with English you wouldn’t have to pay me,”

“Just let me know when you have a day off, I know you are at work some days after school so whenever you can would be great.”

“Okay, how about every Thursday? After school, I will pick Myungsoo up and my sisters and I can tutor him at my house and take him home after dinner?”

“Ah, that would be amazing thank you so much, yeogi here is my business card, it has all my numbers and address on you can contact me there.” I read the card Park TaeHee. I turned to
the boy who recognised me completely.

“Thank you noona for those books, I really like them.” He said smiling.

I bent down to his level “Would you like to come to our house every week and practice your English with me? My dongsengs will be there too and you can play and have dinner there too.”

“Neh, I would like that a lot gamsahamnida.”

“Anieyo.” I bowed and said goodbye to Park TaeHee and Kwon MyungSoo. I held EunJi and MinJi’s hands as we walked out and they told me about what they had done today and that MyungSoo knew I was their sister. Well at least they had a few friends which was a relief.
On the way home we all spoke about the girls first day at school and I told JiYong oppa about me becoming a tutor for MyungSoo. He told me to not over work and to study less. I do not know what he was talking about, but when I got home I realised. My schedule was being filled fast.

5am- 6am Dance in the studio
6am – 8.30am get ready for school
8.30am – 4pm schooltime
4pm- 5pm get ready for work and go.
5pm-9pm work
9pm-12am study hard.
12am-5am sleep.
Then repeat.

All that changed was the weekends where I would study and dance all Sunday and all Saturday morning until 12pm when I had to go to the café for work until 5pm.

I didn’t mind, I liked being busy I only really had Sundays off to hang out with my friends but I was thinking about dropping Saturdays at the café and Wednesdays at the bookstore but then I thought why? I could hang out with my friends on Sunday and at school. So I decided against it.

I ate dinner at the bookstore during my break. Me and Tao discussed the one hour party we had and I told him about the problem with Min that I encountered before we left.

Tao told me he knew about Min and IU’s past from primary school, I didn’t really understand but I nodded. Me, Tao and Mr. Lee ahjussi all shared some sushi and rice and we drank some bubble tea and juice from the café in our break and Mr Lee told us we could take a book a month home. I thanked him a lot I loved reading and I would possibly read to study. I would buy a lot of books too, one a month would not suffice with me. I’d need at least five. I stood up and went to vacuum and organise the shelves just before closing time. I loved it here and I couldn’t wait to choose my book. I decided I would choose one book on the 5th of each month, and Tao agreed.

I said my goodbyes to Mr Lee and Tao, who pulled me into a hug. At home I decided to read a lot of English to prepare for Thursday I was a clever student really, we didn’t have ranks in England like they do in Korea but I can bet I was one of the top students there, after all I got 12 As an A*s in my GCSEs so it was impressive I should have gone somewhere like Oxford or Cambridge or Yale but I guess you could say I was loving it at SUTA as everyone called it. I was just settling down when I heard a knock at my door.

“come in” I said politely. In walked my appa, I smiled stood up and bowed.

“Annyeong JiEun,” he began “how was your first day of school?”

“Ah, it was really great, I made lots of new friends and learnt a lot about Korean schooling. It was really great.”

“That’s a relief, I heard about your portfolio getting released over school television and people watching it. I also heard you know about my position.”

“Ah, Yeh, Lee JiEun told me, I really didn’t realise you were so well known, I should have guessed with the horses and the studio but I did not really think about it. It is really cool that you are President of school and JM Entertainment. Why didn’t you call the school something like JM Empire or something that would be cool.” I laughed he broke a smile too.

“It’s a relief you are not upset about this, I thought because you didn’t know how much I had to work for this ‘empire’ you would resent me for not being there and sending your mom to England for her health issues.” Hwang JinMan explained.

“Anieyo, Gwenchanha, I forgive you, you were only doing the best for us Gwenchanha.” I replied smiling and placing my cute butterfly bookmark inside my book and placing it on a shelf.

“Okay, I heard from Director Oh, about you and the Korean schooling system, he seemed very impressed by your determination.”

“Good night,” I said as he closed the door.

“Good night JiEun.”

It was only half ten by the time I was asleep, maybe I could wake up super early for school I thought to myself.

That didn’t happen. I woke up later than I usually do.

I quickly get changed and put on makeup and do my hair.

Time to go to school I quickly call for JiYong, who already ate and was heading towards the door.

“Haven’t you ate yet?” he asked me.

“Ani, I’ll eat when I am at school, Gwenchanha I’ll be fine honestly.”

When we pulled into the school I said my goodbyes and went straight into my home room, sure enough IU was sat there next to the girl I realised was SuJi.

“Annyeong,” I called to IU she beckoned for me to sit next to her.

“Annyeong unnie, this is SuJi,” she said and I bowed.

“Annyeong SuJi,”

“Ani, call me Suzy, I prefer my stage name to my Korean name.”

“Araseyo, hey, don’t we have to sign up for our lessons today anyway?” I asked her.

“Mmm, yeah I love having the idea of doing more than six subjects, I think everyone is going to do the main six and then most people will pick math and languages.” SuJi said.

“Ya, noona,” I heard from the back of the room”

“Ah, BaekHyun oppa, what’s wrong?” I ask him.

“Why aren’t you sitting with me like yesterday?” He pouted cutely.

“Ya I don’t have to sit with you every day, do I?” I poked his cheek.

“Aish, noona, I want you to be next to me though.”

“Hey, I’m most likely going to be with you all day Baek, just don’t miss me too much.”

“Araseyo, wait for me after homeroom then.”

“Neh.” I say as he goes back to his seat.

“Ah, I’d love to be as popular as you Hwang JiEun.” IU stopped her.

“You can call her unnie, she prefers it.”

“Ahh, Araseyo. Unnie. I’d love to have a sister like you. It would be really cool”

IU stepped in “Come to think of it, you two look really a like. Hey sit next to each other, let me show you.” She got up and Suzy moved along one seat next to me. I could see the resemblances, my eyes were smaller than hers but that was the only difference I saw. IU took a picture on her phone and showed us.

“Woah, we really do look alike, we could have been separated at birth!” I say.

Daesung comes up to IU, “let me see, please.” She shows him the picture, “wow you really do.”

“This is pretty cool, maybe we can become real sisters.” She paused, “when is your birthday?”

“5th January,” I say.

“Jinjja? Mine too!”

“Really, maybe we are sisters.” I laugh at the irony and coincidence.

“JiEun,” BaekHyun called, “after homeroom, can we get something to eat I am hungry.”

“Me too,”

Ms. Chang walked in with a list and told us to put our names down by 7 – 9 subjects as it went round the class. She also called out our names.

“Byun Baekhyun, Bae Suji, Cha HyunWoo, Hwang JiEun, Kwon SungMin, Kang Daesung, Lee JiEun, Lee HaYi Oh HyeMi and Wu YiFan.”

We were all here. I liked the small groups we were in, it made it easier to make friends. I was becoming really close to Suzy, IU and HaYi, but Oh HyeMi, was a quiet girl and stayed relatively close to her friend Cha HyunWoo. Kwon SungMin was never really in and neither was Wu YiFan, or Kris as I recognised him.

As the list got to me I saw that HaYi, Suzy, HyeMi and IU had picked the same things. I put my names down for;
Vocals
Modelling
Dance
Acting
Media &Photography
Music
Korean Literature
All 5 Languages

Just like I said I would to the director.

Three or two lessons a day.
Monday I would have Vocals, Dance and Music. Tuesdays would be Modelling and Media & Photography, Wednesdays Acting and Korean Literature. Thursdays Korean, English and Japanese and last on Fridays I would do Chinese and Thai.

This was okay by me. I was already an expert in languages and Korean literature due to the nature of living in a foreign country.

The bell sounded and I waited for BaekHyun outside the door.

He poked me in the hip and we walked down to the food court.

“What do you want to eat?” I ask him

“Mmm, anything.”

“Okay,” I say we go up and fetch some lunch boxes and we find some nice drinks and sit down in a corner.

“Mmm, mashitta” BaekHyun says.

When we finish BaekHyun takes the food away and places it into a bin. We slowly walk up to where we stayed for free lesson yesterday and we meet everyone there.

“Annyeong noona,” Sehun calls out first

I wave slightly. I can’t see Tao, I look around a bit more.

“Tao isn’t here today, he said he was going to sign up for classes and then leave until next Monday.” BaekHyun whispered.

“Ah, okay.” I would miss Tao, but I was getting on with everyone, EXO, Ukiss and BigBang especially as well as my new friends HaYi and IU. Suzy was with Min, Fei and Jia.

Notes

Im trying to update as much as I can thank you all for reading and being loyal :)