THE TRANSFER STUDENT

A Fresh Start, Pt. 3

"What the hell is she doing here?"

"Even after all that she did to Lee Jieun..."

"She's really brazen... wow... I wish I could be as thick-skinned as her..."

"Oh my goodness, does she have no shame?"

"If I were Lee Jieun, I'd punch her right in the face when I see her."

Loud whispers could be heard from every corner of the classroom, and Jieun heard everything. If she heard it, Lisa must have heard it too. Lisa just pursed her lips, waiting patiently for the chaos to die down before continuing.

"As you guys know, a few months ago, before school ended, I did something terrible to one of our classmates over here..." Lisa glanced at Jieun. "And standing in front of all of you here today, I'd like to apologise. I'd like to apologise for the inconvenience I caused to all of you and in particular... Lee Jieun."

Jieun listened intently.

"I never had the chance to apologise to you after you had found out what had happened," Lisa reflected, her eyes filled with apology. "No- let me correct myself, I had the chance to, but I guess I was still so caught up in everything that I couldn't see how wrong I was. But after these many months of reflection, I now do. I was so wrong, Jieun. I did something I shouldn't have, I wanna say... I'm sorry. If you tell me to leave at this very moment, I will and I will not step foot in this school from this day onwards."

Lisa bowed a 90 degree bow and looked up at Jieun with hopeful eyes.

"What kind of apology is that?"

"Ew... she really makes me wanna puke..."

"The fact that Jieun isn't already pulling her hair right now... I can't relate."

"I can't stand girls like her the most, they're the pretty kind but their hearts are literally black."

"This is literally a real life drama right before our very eyes, my friends. Let's sit back and enjoy."

Jieun tried her best to filter out all the noise from her classmates. Lisa did look apologetic, she really did. But as she made eye contact with a very angry-looking Yoojung, who was probably mouthing something like 'don't forgive her, she almost ruined your life', Jieun almost got swayed.

Lisa did almost ruin her life.

She framed her for stealing a watch, even took part in a club to kick her out of the F5 and even the school, probably participated in the rotten egg-throwing that made Jieun's hair smell like vomit for a whole week... she was really mean.

But Lisa had already been punished long enough. She left school for so many months, got tons of hate from literally everyone on the F5 portal - there's no way she wasn't affected by that. And right now, in front of everyone, she was getting hurled with verbal abuses - it reminded Jieun of the old her. The old her who used to be bullied and thrown around like a bag of sand. It also reminded Jieun of her a few months back, when her antis tried all ways and means to bully her.

Mr Kim gestured at Jieun. "So, Jieun, what do you say? Do you forgive Lisa?"

Jieun had many weak points, but one strong point she was sure of was that she always saw the good in other people. Others always told her that that was a weak point, but Jieun chose to think otherwise. She always saw the best in other people, and she always gave second chances. Lisa had suffered more than enough, now was her time to get her second chance to turn over a new leaf.

Jieun got to her feet slowly. "Honestly... I hated you for doing what you did to me. I did nothing to deserve all that. For weeks and weeks, I saw you as my friend, and you betrayed that trust."