BREAK THE WALL | JENLISA, CHAESOO

Chapter 7

Lisa was certain she could pretend to be Jennie, how hard could it be anyway? The Thai had already finished high school a year ago, surely she'd be able to do well as a student. Besides, Lisa was smart about it. She browsed through Jennie's phone to see who Jennie's friends were and talked to Jisoo who gave her a lot of useful advice. So Lisa was overflowing with confidence when she entered Jennie's school. She looked at the phone, opened Jennie's schedule and a slight frown appeared on her face. Damn, apparently she had classes from 8 am to 3 pm and then extra activities till 6 pm. "That's quite a lot, I don't remember my school to be so demanding." Lisa couldn't help thinking. Still sure of herself, she walked along the corridor when she suddenly felt uneasy because of two realizations: first, it was an all-girl high school. "It feels so damn strange." she thought. And second, other students were staring at her.

"Hi Jen!" a pretty girl came over to her, smiling warmly and Lisa recognized her, it was Nayeon, Jennie's best friend.

"Oh, hi. Do you know why everyone keeps staring at me?" she asked directly only to see surprise in Nayeon's face.

"Well, what did you expect coming to school looking like that?"

"Like what?"

"Are you out of your mind? What's that heavy make-up on your face, it's against the rules, did you forget about them or something? And take these earrings off, for god's sake." Nayeon grabbed her by the arm and led her to the bathroom. Then she took out a tissue and began wiping Lisa's lips. "What the hell were you thinking Jen?"

"I'm sorry, I'm a little confused recently." Lisa replied.

"Remember, the rules state the every student needs to look modestly. And that means no miniskirts, no excessive jewelry and just a minimal make-up." Nayeon explained. "And no cleavage." she added, buttoning up Lisa's blouse.

The Thai only then realized why everything around seemed so off. All girls were dressed very conservatively, no one had a tattoo, braids or dyed hair... "Gosh, this school is like a damn prison." she thought. "No wonder someone so free-spirited like Jennie doesn't like studying here. I certainly wouldn't." For the first time Lisa felt sorry for the brunette, but she didn't allow this emotion to linger.

The first class was maths and Lisa's confidence in her abilities vanished just after twenty minutes. She could remember her own classes from a year ago and she never had any problem with maths, but in this school the level was insanely high, way above what Lisa was used to. She felt quiet desperation as she realized she stopped even understanding what the teacher was talking about. For the rest of the class, she just sat staring blankly forward and wondering that maybe this "being Jennie" thing won't be so easy after all.

On her lunch break Lisa was on her way to the cafeteria when she spotted a disturbing scene in the corridor. Three senior girls were standing around a fourth one, clearly a junior student, who cowered in fear, her back pressed against the lockers and her eyes begging for mercy.

"Look at her, she's going to cry!" the tallest girl pointed at her mockingly, laughing and two other girls chuckled. Lisa immediately understood what was happening, the blood boiled in her veins and she rushed forward, determined to stop the bullying.

"What the fuck are you doing to her!?" she yelled.

"Not your damn business." one of the girls replied, but Lisa was barely controlling herself, she violently pushed the girl aside, her body clashing against the lockers. "Leave her alone and get the fuck out of here!" Lisa stared at them angrily, completely certain that they'd obey. They didn't. The tallest girl smiled wickedly and hissed with a palpable irony:

"Wow, it seems that our young girl got herself a protector. How very sweet, I think I'm going to vomit. So tell me Jennie, what are you planning to do now? Fight us?"

Lisa didn't have the chance to answer, because Nayeon appeared out of nowhere, grabbed her shoulder and forcefully moved her away.

"I'm sorry for this, Jennie isn't herself today, she's not going to make any problems." she apologized. "Jen, come with me." she said in a firm voice which made Lisa obey.

"Then leave but you can be sure I'm not going to forget it." the tallest girl warned menacingly as Nayeon was dragging Lisa away.

"Have you lost your mind!?" Nayeon blurted out. "Why the hell did you meddle?"

"They were bullying her-"

"So what? It's Moonbyul, she does that all the time."
"What? How's that possible?"

"Jen, are you alright? Do I have to remind you that Moonbyul's father is the richest and most influential man in the country? She can do whatever she wants and no one will bat an eye."

"So what, are you saying that she can bully people and everyone just accept this? That's just damn wrong."
"Maybe it's wrong, but you're not going to change that. It's just the way it is. Just accept it."

Lisa frowned.

"Or have you already forgotten how you tried to fight against her bullying a year ago? It didn't work and you only got into trouble because of it. Face it Jen, you stand no chance against someone like Moonbyul."

Feeling powerless, Lisa sighed resignedly. Just this morning she thought that things like that didn't happen in a prestigious high school, she was under the impression that it would be full of goody-goody, well-behaved rich girls. She was so wrong. Apparently money and status meant everything and the entire power structure existed there, with the richest students at the top taking advantage of those at the bottom. "This school is a hellhole." she thought, suddenly missing her own high school where no one paid any attention to how other people looked like or how much money they had.

And then her mind turned to Jennie. If it was true that she tried to stop the bullying, that she confronted Moonbyul, then... Lisa had to admit to herself that it made her admire Jennie a little. "Maybe she isn't a snobbish rich bitch after all." Lisa thought and she didn't know why but this realization was extremely relieving and even comforting.