The New Number One

"Runa," someone called her name while she was reading a book in her classroom. Runa tear her sight from the book and looked at her friend, Mandy. Her face was so serious and it made Runa frown too.

"What is it?" Runa asked as she closed the book in her hand, but she pinched her thumb between the pages so it wouldn't be completely closed.

"The list is out," said Mandy.

Runa sighed. "Do I have to look at it?" her voice sounds annoyed. Runa was about to open the book again and read when Mandy said, "You have to," she paused before saying, "you're in second position."

Runa dropped her book on the table while her mouth slightly opened, but she said nothing. The next thing she did was push the chair she was sitting on backwards until it fell, causing a creaking and thumping sound that made several students who were still in the class turn to look at her. She took long strides towards the classroom door and she squinted. "Take me there."

It's been a long time since Runa came to the campus notice board on the day 'The List' was out. Because Runa knows she is always in the first place. Her achievements as a person who occupies the top position have never been tarnished since she was in the first grade of Sunbrillo elementary school, until now when she is in her second year as a business college student.

Sunbrillo is a school complex that has all levels of education, from kindergarten to university. Runa has spent her entire life here, and everyone at this place knows that she is the most accomplished human Sunbrillo has ever had. For this reason, Runa feels there is no need to jostle with other students just to see The List, a ranking list that is routinely issued by campus.

But today, everything changed.

"Make way!" shouted Mandy when they arrived at the campus notice board, which was being surrounded by almost all students majoring in business. Several students turned their heads towards Mandy and, when they saw Runa's presence with her, they immediately step aside. In just a few seconds, the crowd split and made way for Runa. Runa smiled at every student who met her gaze, then she turned at the bulletin board which was now full of white paper, which contained a table of student names according to their rank.

Runa's gaze fell on the paper that stuck in the corner of the board, which contained a list of students who were ranked in the top ten.

Runa found her name was on the second line, and she glanced at the row above it.

"Arden Whitlock," Runa mumbled the name written next to the number one. The name sounded familiar. She dug up her memory, where she stored all the names of students majoring in business. As Runa looked at Mandy, who was standing beside her, she said, "Isn't he the student who moved here last month?"

Runa remembered the commotion that had occurred, especially among the female students, during the few days after Arden's arrival to Sunbrillo. They, including Mandy, chatted again and again about how charming this man named Arden was. Runa had to get out of the way to the library so she could study in peace and no longer hear about Arden, which made her sick.

Runa was not at all interested in trivial things like that. For her, the most important thing is to make everything in her life perfect, and to achieve that, she has to get rid of even the slightest distraction.

Mandy nodded, agreeing with Runa's words. "And he's now officially a member of the Sunbrillo bad boys." Runa frowned when she saw Mandy's eyes sparkling when she said that.

Delinquent, huh? Said Runa in the heart. The kind of person she would cross out of her association.

Runa looked back at the list and sighed. "Maybe he just got lucky… or cheated," she later said. "After all, this is only a ranking list for the monthly test, right? Not something I should be worried about." Runa gave her sweetest smile to Mandy, then she looked around and gave the same smile to the students around them. "Sorry for causing a little inconvenience!" she shouted before walking away from there and indirectly invited the students to gather again in front of the campus notice board.

"I want to be like Runa," a woman whispered to her friend. "She is absolutely perfect. Beautiful, kind, smart, friendly, born with a silver spoon in her mouth. If I were her, half of my problems would be solved."

"You're wrong," argued her friend. "Not half, but all problems. She has absolutely no problem, isn't she? Even her destiny supports her to be perfect."

"Yeah. It wouldn't be wrong if she got the nickname Miss Perfect."

Runa wasn't going far enough, so she could hear the conversation. She paused for a moment, swallowed hard, and started walking again.

They all saw her as a perfect person, until they didn't realize that now her hands were clenched tightly and a few beads of sweat were dripping down her forehead, along with the fear that began to creep in her mind.

---

Someone tapped Arden on the back so hard it made him groan and dropped the cigarette that was stuck to his lips. Arden turned his head and glared at his friend, who Arden didn't quite remember his name, who returned the murderous glare with a grin.

"Good job, dude!" shouted his friend, with two thumbs up, pointed at him.

"For what?" Arden stepped on the fallen cigarette until the embers went out, then he picked it up and put it in his jeans pocket because there were no trash cans around.

"You don't know? Did you already see The List?"

"I'm not interested," Arden replied in a nonchalant tone. The ranking list, or whatever it was, didn't matter to him. Everything is just something mortal, which traps humans in a rat race, competing to be the winner, even though their ambitions are never ending.

The breeze on the rooftop made Arden's hair a little messy. He ran his fingers through his jet black hair. His eyes looked beyond the horizon as another friend said, "You beat her, The Miss Perfect."

"Who?" said Arden, turning around and now leaning his back against the iron fence that was the barrier to the edge of the building. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his faded blue jeans.

"Runa Crown," said his first friend. "You should see how she looked when she came to the campus notice board and saw The List. Man, her expression is so priceless."

Then the group talked to each other about how this Runa Crown always had the first position in anything at Sunbrillo, also her work when she was a student council president in high school, and how she was actively involved in several campus organizations. And it's incomplete if they don't talk about how beautiful her face and her body are.

Arden was silent, half listening.

His mind is now elsewhere. His eyes darted to the line of the sky that met the ground, as if there was something amazing there. Soon his friends, his real friends, will come. Remembering them made one corner of Arden's lips lift. He couldn't wait to start the hunt.