Chapter 1
I had just arrived at school. I walked down the halls toward my classroom. When I reached the door, I was about to go in. The moment my hand touched the doorknob, I heard people talking inside.
"We're going to the amusement park tomorrow, so make sure you invite Rara. You guys are close to her, right?"
"Huh?"
"Haha, since when have we been close to her? She's just a naive girl we're using."
I froze outside the classroom and decided not to go in. Those were the voices of my classmates and the friends in the friend group I'd considered my best friends. All this time, I'd always thought of them as my closest friends, but they didn't even consider me a friend.
I turned around and left the school. I guess I'd have to skip school today because I wasn't in the mood to study. We had an exam today, but whatever. It was better than taking it and failing because I couldn't focus. I went to my favorite café and ordered a matcha latte—my favorite drink.
As I enjoyed my drink, I gazed through the café window at the people outside. My thoughts drifted back to my friend group. There were seven of us, including me—five girls and two boys. I was a transfer student who had arrived a month ago. They were the first group of students to welcome me, so I considered them good friends.
Looking back, I realized they had never once included me in any of the group's special events. Once, I caught them claiming they were too busy to meet me, only to find out they'd gone to a famous restaurant to celebrate Yuna's birthday—the group leader's.
I knew because the restaurant they went to belonged to my family. I'd been keeping a secret from them all this time. I was actually the child of the richest person in the city. I used to attend an elite school, but I got bored and wanted a change of scenery, so I transferred.
I deliberately made myself look nerdy and like a bookworm. I really was a bookworm; even my house had a private library far larger than the one at school. My current school was called Ilmu High School, while my old one was Cakrawala High School.
Cakrawala was one of the top-five schools in the country, while Ilmu didn't even rank in the top fifty. The difference was huge. I deliberately chose a school like this so no one would recognize me. That was proven by the way I spent my days at my new school. No one tried to suck up to me because of my family name. No one tried to network for connections.
I only wanted to find friends who were genuinely sincere. My friend group was definitely a little problematic—actually, maybe not a little, but a lot. They were a bunch of troublemakers who refused to follow the rules, but they were still afraid of punishment. Especially since they all came from ordinary families. If their reputation were ruined and they ended up expelled from school, it would be difficult for them to find jobs.
Every time they made a mistake, I covered for them. I didn't mind because all the school employees knew my family's background, so I never got into serious trouble even when I broke the rules. I thought they'd be happy because of that, but it turned out they were secretly using me behind my back. I didn't want to be the scapegoat who kept covering up their mistakes anymore. It seemed now was the perfect time to let them learn to deal with their own problems.