Weird Coincidence
Weeks had quickly gone by and it was already the start of the second term. Classes were rearranged, so Xander and Astrol ended up being in class 7C while Bora and Nari were in class 7A together.
Xander had arrived early at school, and had already picked a locker and a desk. He was busy chatting with his new classmates, and some of his friends he was glad to have in his class. Astrol arrived minutes later and walked Nari and Bora to their classes since it was before hers. After seeing Nari off, she walked some more before finally reaching her class door. She really disliked the idea of them changing classes twice every semester because she wasn't interested in getting to know people. People were just annoying. Last term she was stuck with Nari and was glad that she at least had someone to talk to. However, this time around she didn't end up with any of them, and she'd already started disliking the term.
Once she finally pushed open the door, she immediately scanned the room, hoping that she would find someone she knew. Her gaze finally landed on Xander, and her face lit up. 'Maybe today won't be so bad after all', she mused as she walked up to him. "Hey, is this space free?", she asked pointing to the empty desk beside him. Xander froze for a brief second the moment he heard the familiar voice. He turned on his chair, looked up, and was completely stunned to see Astrol standing there. He didn't even know how to reply to her question. He'd never expected that they'd end up in the same class so soon. It never happened before. He just sat there staring at her. "It's not free, huh", Astrol said with a disappointed look and was about to leave when Xander spoke, "No! stay...uhh, I mean it's free, so you can stay", he uttered while rubbing the back of his neck with his palm. Astrol then gave him a sweet smile, and immediately started settling down and arranging her things.
Their first period soon started; it was chemistry, talk of a way to start the term. Mrs Yi was old, so she was very strict and quite the nagger. She was a very hard person to impress. Nonetheless, despite her age, she was undeniably good at what she taught. No one dared to sleep or make a noise whenever she was teaching, no matter how boring the topic was. Except of course, the students who thought too highly of themselves. Devin for instance, didn't care about the principles of the old hag. He was busy flirting with the girl sitted in front of him. Mrs Yi had turned to face the class after drawing on the board, when she saw what Devin was up to.
"You there! Stand up! Who do you think you are to interrupt my class?!", Mrs Yi fumed. Devin just rolled his eyes as he stated proudly, "I'm Devin Qin", and the class immediately became noisy as some of his friends got the courage to cheer him. Mrs Yi had had enough, he actually had the guts to talk back to her. "And so what, you can't even state the first ten elements correctly in order! My previous student - Auston Park - could state the first 50 in order and more without batting an eyelid when he was your class. You think you're so good looking just because that girl managed to give you a little bit of attention! Auston and his friends are way more good looking than you'll ever be!... You're a Qin?, Ha! Auston is a Park and you feel proud enough to claim that you're royalty?!", Mrs Yi was still clearly annoyed, but seeing the humiliated and painful look on Devin's face, she decided she had said enough. The whole class was so quiet and this time around his friends were throwing him sorry glances, some students had even managed to take videos. "Young Man, just because you're royalty, doesn't give you the right to disrupt my class, understand?" "Yes ma'am, I understand, I'm sorry", Devin replied in a downcasted tone, his head hung low. He couldn't believe that Mrs Yi was so heartless as to compare him with 'Auston the great' infront of his entire class. He was nowhere near his level. From then on, he vowed to never piss the woman off again. He could only pray that his social status would still be alive after today.
...
School was now over, and Astrol met up with her two friends in front of the main middle school building. They talked and laughed on the ride home in Nari's car. Nari couldn't help but bring up what happened in Astrol's class earlier that day. The situation had gone really viral. It was so bad that Devin had to pretend to be sick, so he could leave school early. "Gosh , I feel kinda bad for Devin, that was brutal", Nari said "I don't, he had it coming. He should know that wealth and power can't always cover up his a*s", Astrol commented and Bora nodded in agreement. After their chat, they quickly went their separate ways.
Astrol was dropped off at the elderly home she regularly visited every Monday after school.
She played with some elderlies for some time, and decided to go downstairs to get coffee. She walked towards the small coffee space and bought the coffee. As she turned to leave, she bumped hard into someone, stumbled backwards, and almost lost her footing when she felt a pair of strong arms hold unto her shoulders to steady her. Once she regained her composure, she looked up to thank the person, and was utterly shocked to see who she had bumped into. "Are you okay?, sorry about your coffee. Lemme get you another one". "No no it's fine. I didn't really want it" "It really is okay, I wanted to have coffee too so I can pay for an extra one. Please don't say no, let's have coffee together or else I'll feel really guilty", he insisted, and Astrol just sighed before finally giving in.
Soon, they were seated at a table having coffee together. "By the way, my name's Zane Jae Lee, what's yours?", Zane asked. "You don't have to introduce yourself, I know who you are....I mean who doesn't know who you are, you're a Lee. My name's Astrol... Astrol Ming", Astrol replied. They chatted for a bit while occasionally sipping on their coffee before he left.
...
Astrol had taken a cab home, and was now busy with her homework when she suddenly got a call from Nari. "Hey, why are you suddenly calling to bug me by this time?".
"It's your fault, why did you have to end up in a different class. I tried solving the math homework I got today but I'm completely lost. I tried calling Bora first but her line's busy", Nari whined. "Seriously, this one's easy though", she said as she looked at the math questions on the book Nari held up in front of her screen. "Yeah but you know I don't do books". "Ugh fine, show me more", Astrol said as she got out a piece of paper to solve. "Sheesh, I wonder how you pass exams at this rate", Astrol teased . "Hey, what is that supposed to mean?", Nari asked with a crumpled face, but Astrol only laughed at her.
"Anyway, where were you? Nanny Yu had called me earlier thinking that you were at my place since you hadn't arrived home yet", Nari asked. Astrol then explained her encounter with Zane. "You mean you ran into senior Zane there?", Nari asked surprised. Zane was in grade 9. Nari knew him because he was popular and really close to her popular family friend in grade 9 as well. Her brows drew closer as she replayed Astrol's words in her head. Zane was not the type to go to elderly homes or anything of that sort. He was also very rude and mean so Nari was taken aback hearing how nice he sounded from Astrol. "You're sure it was Zane you ran into?", she asked. Astrol didn't do school gossip so she wasn't aware of how off Zane's visit to the elderly home sounded.
"To be honest, I was also surprised to see a royal like him there, or any royals at all. I thought they were all so hell-bent on drawing the line between them and us ordinaries. But yeah, I'm sure", Astrol replied. "Oh ok, it's just that this is the first time I'm hearing him do something like that, and I would know, you know how invested I am in school drama", Nari elaborated. "Yeah, I also know how much of a simp you are too", Astrol added with a laugh. "Anyway, maybe it was his first time there I guess". "Yeah maybe, and if it was, then that would be a very weird coincidence. I'll hang up now, good night", Nari said. "Good night", Astrol replied before ending the call, packing up her school items and going to bed.