.  Were they twins? Since their genders were different, they must be fraternal twins, but both of them looked so identical and that truly piqued my interest.

  It seemed that I was not the only one drawn to their appearance and vibe. Most of my classmates were also directing their gazes at their countenances. Regardless of our curiosity, the twins remained sitting on the back nonchalantly, pouting their lips as if talking to each other; however, I could barely hear their conversation since they were too far apart.

  While I had my blank gaze at them for a moment, someone knocked on the front desk which made me glance back to the source of the said knock. In front, there stood our teacher.

  He had a grizzled hair, impressively angled jawline, and gold frame glasses on his eyes. His wrinkled face assumed a look of anger. Soon, he stopped knocking on the desk and looked around us. He then spoke with a voice filled with vigor.

  “Hey! What age do you think we are living in now for you to sit separately with different genders? Boys with girls! Girls with boys! Sit together like that, now!”


  His words roared in the classroom, leading the groups of boys and girls to mingle with each other. As I saw them getting up and changing seats, I glanced over the seat next to me.

  The seat beside the blond boy was unoccupied. I took a sweeping look around and realized that there were no vacant seats left, which brought my butt to perch on the tip of the chair.

  It made the teacher yell out to me, “You! Why are you acting so shy? Don’t sit up straight!”


  “Uh… okay!”


  His raving prompted me to fix my sitting posture. As if the boy, at last, acknowledged my existence after hearing my response, he took his hand off of his chin, and he slowly turned his head to look at me.

  His skin was transparently pale, and his light blonde hair gently scattered around his white forehead. His eyes that were on me were, surprisingly, blue.

  His artisan-crafted, straight, sharp nose, those cherry lips of his—please understand the cliché description—the clavicle revealed through his loose collar, and his deer-like, sleek neck above looked smooth and seamless.

  She then perked her red lips upward to show a gleaming smiled at me. I previously explained her wearing a schoolboy uniform, but the reason why I came up with the term ‘she’ instead of ‘he’ was simply because of this.

  She stretched out her white hand to me. Just at a glance, it was surely a soft and delicate hand that looked similar in size and shape to mine. She pouted her lips and spoke to me.

  “Hi, my name is Yi Ruda. You can call me Ruda or Ru as what they have called me before. Call me whatever you like.”


  “Oh, hi. I’m Ham Donnie.”


  “Ham Donnie? Your first name is Donnie, and your last name, Ham?”


  Her voice sounded genderless and purely ringing. She pronounced my name fluently in English with a straight face which made me smile to her awkwardly.

  My forced smile would have looked pathetic, but she responded with a rather embarrassingly bright grin and shook my hand around in the air. Her extremely vibrant energy resembled that of the typical American attitude.

  Regarding Yi Ruda’s blonde hair, blue eyes, pale skin tone along with her attractive voice, she had the qualification to be called a born-to-be-a-star. In fact, a few kids in the classroom were stealing glances at us.

  I had hoped she would look outside the window now, but she was being quite talkative while asking me questions.

  “Oh, I recently moved to Korea from the States. Don’t I have a weird pronunciation? My mom has taught me, but I’m still so nervous anyway.”


  “Then you’ve lived your whole life in America until now?”


  “No! We moved to the States when I was six, but I could hardly remember anything about it since I was too young.”


  She then shrugged while sticking out her tongue, which was truly cute. I, again, gazed at her for a while and discovered she had no Adam’s apple.

  She had her blue eyes wide opened and asked in wonder, “What’s wrong, Donnie?”


  “Oh… I mean. Your skin is so white. Makes me jealous.”


  “Is it a compliment?”


  “Of course.”


  “Thank you!”


  Her pronunciation was amazing. As I paused from our conversation and glanced back, the twins still remained seated with a sour expression. Then the girl looked shaken up as our eyes met, which made me turn my head back away from her. What I confronted next was, again, Yi Ruda’s overwhelmingly stunning face.

  In front of the classroom, our teacher kept on knocking the front desk roaring out something, but it barely came into my ears. I was merely feeling hopeless and had my hands around my forehead.

  “Geez…”


  I thought there would be a reason why the author left me in my lonesome away into a different class.

  Yes, I could not break out of my original role as the female protagonist’s bestie position since I was born to be the neighbor living next door to Ban Yeo Ryung. Since I became a high school student, the author, however, freed myself from this restraints so easily. Yeah, now I get it.

  Soon I began to laugh hollowly.

  Yi Ruda. A beautiful blue-eyed blonde fresh from the States. Slim neck, arms, and legs like a girl. Looked quite tall at first glance but no Adam’s apple whatsoever. I stopped thinking as I felt spaced out and closed my eyes tightly with a moan.

  The author was completely out of their mind. Ever since this person drew the Four Heavenly Kings, the imaginary creatures, into the real world, this novel turned into a fantasy book.

  However, now, there’s even a female crossdresser breaking into the story? Was Ban Yeo Ryung not enough for the leading role? Besides, they’re positioning me also as an entourage for the female crossdresser?

  I clenched my fist with anger as I looked up at the blue sky. Then I swore to myself scowling at the sun with a fire in my eyes that I would never ever allow this story to progress according to the author’s will.

  Still, there were 3 years left to graduate high school, and a year left until the class change. As I had these thoughts in mind, I felt desperate enough to smash my head on the desk to attain the sweet release of death once and for all.

  While I was down in the dumps, laying my head on the desk, someone shook my back.

  I muttered, “Oh, Ruda. Hold on, I’m having a stomachache.”


  “How dare you refuse to even lift your head while your teacher is writing his name on the board?”


  The wild voice ringing around my ears bounced my upper body off the desk.

  When I had my eyes wide opened to look up at the roaring voice, a gray-haired demonic-looking man came into my sight under the white classroom ceiling. I dropped my gaze and made a long face.

  “Oh, sir. I’m sorry…”


  “You’re sorry?”


  From my experience, apologizing was better than coming up with a lame excuse.

  As I nodded crazily, the teacher looked quite satisfied as he tapped my head like what Eun Hyung did to me in the morning. The only difference was that Eun Hyung tapped my hand with his hand while the teacher did so with the roll book.

  He then soon spoke with a generous smile.

  “You’re the temporary class president.”


  “Excuse me?”


  “Let’s see, Ham Donnie. I know where all your old schools are. You are from Ji Jon Middle School, right, Ham Donnie?”


  The same look of shock remained painted on my face as I nodded. It was due to the fact that I could not return the time that had already occurred.

  As soon as the word ‘Ji Jon Middle School’ popped out of the teacher’s mouth, my classmates began to buzz around one another, looking at each other. The word ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ rang around the classroom occasionally and that led me to assume what they were gossiping about.

  The teacher took the roll book back and tapped his shoulders. Then he glanced over the seat beside me.

  “Oh, are you Yi Ruda who hailed from America?”


  “Yes, sir.”


  “I told you to sit with a boy, not the same gender.”


  As he spoke doubtfully, pulling up his gold frame glasses, Yi Ruda responded immediately with a cheerful voice.

  “I’m a boy!”


  “Geez, your appearance confused me a bit, but now, I could tell you’re a boy based on your vibe. I like you; why don’t you be the vice president of this class then?”


  “My honor, sir!”


  I stared at the teacher as he headed back to the front desk with a satisfied look on his face. Then I turned my head back to see Yi Ruda.

  I was the temporary class president and Yi Ruda was the vice president? The unexpected situation happened out of the blue as if the author was trying to make a fool of us. Regardless of me yowling inside my head, Yi Ruda had a bright grin on her pretty face and reached out her lovely hand to me.

  She then pouted her lips and said, “I’m not familiar with Korean schools, so please help me out, class president! Let’s make it happen.”


  “Uh… um… yeah.”


  I had no idea why, but she shook my hand continuously and kept her bright grin at me. Her smiling face sent my head throbbing again.

  At this very moment, I was desperately missing Ban Yeo Ryung and the Four Heavenly Kings, whom I had once admitted on record to be those people who had been a huge pain in my ass.