Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jenna is riling from Hyein’s confession. She’s never brought anyone to home before? Why did Jenna have to be the first? Fuck. Why can I only think of Hyein and not the true murderer of the other Kim Haein? Jenna’s heart is a raging storm seeking to destroy everything in her path though when she thinks about it, Hyein is her eye - the sunny, clear skies, the empty space that radiates heat within her heart, isolated from the rest of the ugly parts of Jenna. The thing is, once the eye of the storm begins to take up more space, the storm gets more violent. Jenna’s feelings are spiraling out of control and things are about to get ugly.

The only way to seek refuge is taking out her anger and her confusion - so much confusion - on her soon-to-be stepmother, her English teacher at school, and *that fucking bitch* - Jenna cursed, then groan in frustration in the backseat of her limo, earning a look from her chauffeur. Jenna glared back, but can’t help but think about the time Hyein saved her from her evil stepmother. Jenna looked out the car window, looking at the dense buildings in Seoul, desperately trying to remember the way Hyein’s grip felt on her and how much she wanted to kiss her when Hyein brought her to an empty auditorium, only for Hyein to throw a shit ton of money in her face. It’s Jenna’s fault, she knows that herself. But fuck, that was so hot. Hyein is driven, determined, and honestly, the only one who still believes Jenna is capable of good.

Jenna scoffed at that thought, just as the chauffeur opened the door, and a doorman welcomed her to the penthouse. She wouldn’t call it her home. It’s just a place to harden her wings before she could fly off on her own. Of course, not before she’s plotted for the downfall of her father, his mistress and that bastard she’s carrying. But that can wait. Jenna ordered a maid to run a bath while she sat by her vanity, staring at herself. “Am I capable of good?” Jenna whispered to her reflection and let out a hysterical laugh, ignoring the slowing footsteps outside her door, probably other maids stopping to listen and gossip about it in their downtime. Jenna doesn’t care. Jenna knew if she started caring again, she might end up like her biological mother. 

She shook her head. Whatever. I already am a psycho. She doesn’t care if she cannot feel empathy, nor does she care if she is “kind” or “good”. I am Baek Jenna. Jenna mentally repeated to herself, like a mantra, but not like those poor ass folks who are trying to “manifest” their “destiny”. Baek Jenna simply, is. Baek Jenna has it all. Baek Jenna, the epitome of The Girl, and beyond. Baek Jenna is too rich to fucking care — except maybe Jenna cares for one person and one person only; and she is driving Jenna crazy.

Chapter Text

“Baek Jenna,” a voice on the other end of the phone called.

“What?” an annoyed Jenna reprimands the caller, her eyes barely open from her deep slumber.

“Jenna, it’s me. Can we talk?”

“Yah. So Doeon. What the fuck? What time is it?”

Jenna and Doeon have been friends ever since Doeon’s dad became president of Cheongdam High, and shy, kind, empathetic Doeon is ever the antagonist personality to Jenna. Jenna never hated him, nor loved him - like many girls her age did, however Doeon was the only person Jenna could tolerate for the longest time, until -

“Sorry, Jenna. I went to see Haein just now at the hospital and…”

“Bro, what the fuck?” Jenna cut him off. She hates how stupid he gets over that girl. ”Where are you? Give me 15 minutes and I’ll be there,” Jenna’s already running a brush through her hair and changing her clothes.

Jenna walked — she didn’t want to let her chauffeur know — to the side of this huge wall that faced the road, nearby a bus stop. Jenna checked her phone again, “Is this right?” she asked herself out loud. Just then, she spotted a person smoking, one foot up against the wall, looking blankly ahead. “Ah shit,” Jenna muttered and walked towards Doeon.

Jenna leaned against the wall next to Doeon, searching for something to say towards her childhood friend. Doeon just sighed in response.

“Why?” Jenna asked. She knew Doeon enough to know that Doeon will not give no matter how hard she probes, so she should just wait for him to spit it out. Doeon just shook his head. Jenna sighed in return.

“Tell me what did I see in Haein?” Doeon asked.

“Which Haein? Hyein with a y or your Haein?” Jenna said nonchalantly, staring ahead.

“Dying Haein,” Doeon said absent mindedly. He still could not believe she used people around school for money, even gone as far as sleeping with Woojin…

“Nothing worth breaking your heart over, so the sooner you get over her, the better,” Jenna’s voice cut through Doeon’s thoughts like a saber.

“Easy for you to say. How about *your* Hyein?” Doeon teased, though he maintained a straight face and took another puff of smoke.

“What about her? Also, she’s not mine. And, if you tell anyone, I’ll kill you,” Jenna glared at the lanky teenage boy. How anyone finds him attractive is beyond her. He’ll always be a soft, boy childhood friend to her.

“Yeah, yeah the world cannot know Baek Jenna is a raging lesbian, yada yada yada,” Doeun replied, which earned him a punch to the shoulder.

Jenna and Doeon burst out laughing.

“Yah, So Doeon, I’m so serious. I’m not ready to be out yet, not until I have a plan to get my dad’s money and get out of this life for good. Besides, Hyein probably doesn’t like me the same way,” Jenna suddenly finds her shoes more interesting, staring at them, hoping her eyesight turns into laser so she could burn a hole in the ground and swallow up her miserable existence.

“First of all, you probably don’t need that much money to escape South Korea. Many Koreans go to the States, there’s even a Ktown and all that for us. Second of all, for a person who calls poor people parasites so much, you do an awful lot of parasite-ing your father’s money. And third of all, of course Hyein likes you — you just don’t see it.”

Jenna looks up to see Doeun smiling at her. She ignored the part he said about Hyein. “Doeun-ah. You know it wasn’t me, right? I didn’t - Haein…”

“I know, Jenna.” Doeon cut her off. “Your Hyein told me the truth. Again, she likes you, you know? I don’t get how you’re so blind to this,”

Jenna ignored him, exaggerating the awkwardness by looking at her nails.

“For the record,” Jenna finally broke the silence, “I only call poor people parasite as part of my Diamond alter ego. I know rich people are parasites as much as poor people. Perhaps we hate poor people, blame them for being lazy, being born this way, is because we know poor people have a better chance at changing their lives. And us, we’re stuck in this stupid bubble,”

“You know, there’s a saying that’s something along the lines of ‘we hate what we see in others because we know it exists in ourselves’. But I noticed you’ve changed since Hyein,” Doeon nodded while Jenna cocked an eyebrow towards him.

“Whatever,” Jenna only manage to say. “Wanna get drunk?” she offered.

“Sure,” Doeon said.

Together, they went to a sketchy nightclub accessed through an obscure alley, both filthy rich kids pretending they don’t have a chauffeur, multiple maids, and the pressure of inheriting their families’ conglomerates one day. Tonight, they’re just a bunch of teens getting drunk because two girls with similar names are turning their worlds upside down.

Chapter Text

It’s the new semester since two girls “jumped” from the rooftop of Cheongdam High, and it’s been a couple of weeks since Jenna has seen Hyein. Jenna has contemplated texting Hyein, but what would she say? “Hey I was a bitch to you and I liked that you were being a bitch too,” or “No one dared fight me until you squared the fuck up,” didn’t seem like proper things to say. The Hanmyung heir even thought of showing up at Hyein’s house unannounced. Alas, Jenna thought she should keep her word with Hyein and not bother her anymore.

It’s not easy, going back to school. Now that the news has revealed her former English teacher to be her father’s new lover, some people will be ready to use that and drag her to the rungs of the Equal Opportunity ranks. No. Jenna shook her head. People worshipped her. And she learned — from Sieun’s fall from grace and then Hyein, of all people — to stay out of creating invisible ranks and bullying others. She thought slapping that Gold tier bitch was only a one-time thing, but oddly, she felt euphoric messing up people’s perceptions of the shit ranking system. She promised she would keep doing it, so long her Diamond status is here to stay, right? A voice nagged at her. No. Fuck the ranking system. Period. Her “Angelic” side seem to bite back at her other voice.

Yulhee was the first person to greet Jenna the moment she step foot on campus. “Jennaaaa,” Yulhee envelops Jenna into a hug, “I missed you soooo much!” Yulhee squealed as Jenna groaned internally — this bitch. Jenna did not hug Yulhee back, but let the other girl hold her hand as she guided the both of them, comically skipping through the hallways towards the lockers. “I have so much to tell you about semester break!” Yulhee covers her mouth dramatically, as if showing off something… Ah yes, of course.

“He proposed!” Yulhee squeals again, jumping in place. Other students seem to try really hard not to stare. They are Diamond, after all — other students know better than to try making eye contact with the Diamonds. “Wah,” Jenna said with her usual nonchalant look, “Congratulations!” then forced a smile. Just then, Kim Hyein wooshes past her locker. Jenna shut her locker with speed granted by the lesbian gods — and marched towards Hyein. She could feel all eyes turn toward her, and the Yulhee staring at her back. She waved without looking back, “I gotta go, see you later” she said to Yulhee.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Jenna reached out to grab Hyein’s arm. Hyein seemed to know Jenna was tailing her and turned around immediately.

“What do you want, I thought I was clear the first few times — do. not. disturb. me! OW!” Hyein yelped as another person grabbed her arm.

“Yah, why does this fucking feel like déjà vu. This school is cursed, this school is cursed!” Hyein started muttering about King Midas and Cheongdam High and Sisyphus and déjà vu and “crazy crazy! I’m going crazy” over and over again.

“Jenna-ssi, it’s obvious Hyein doesn’t want you around, could you please let go?” Somang smiled his million-dollar smile and looked at Jenna. Even blinked for dramatic effect. Jenna glared right back.

“Yah, Lee Somang, just because you’re my sunbae, doesn’t mean I should obey you. Don’t you know who I-”

“Tut,” Somang, held his free hand in a duckbill in front of Jenna, to shut her up. “Tut! Tut!” He opened and closed the hand-duckbill as Jenna tried to finish her sentence.

“YAH! Both of you! What the fuck. Just let me go!” Hyein shrugged free of both her captors, and opened her locker with the fury of a thousand nuclear bombs, closed the locker with the same force, and stormed off.

Jenna just stood there, dazed by Hyein’s audacity to walk away from her. And Lee Somang. Oh, Lee Somang! Jenna reached out a hand and slapped him, not without him letting loose a rant about protecting the weak — pfft, how ironic — before tailing Hyein again.

“Yah, Kim Hyein!” Jenna called out after failing to keep up, despite putting in a few jog-skips while chasing after Hyein.

“Don’t you understand?!” Hyein turned around abruptly, leaving both of their faces only inches from one another. Jenna could feel Hyein’s hot breath coming out from her flared nostrils.

“This school is fucking cursed! And I want NOTHING to do with ANY of you,” Hyein breathed heavily. Jenna, for once in her life, was actually at a loss for words when she wants to be saying something. Fuck. She muttered as the buzzing at the pit of her stomach threatens to take over her whole body and inch closer to Hyein. Jenna resisted.

“Just let me graduate, okay?” Hyein said, weaker now, and sounded like she almost sobbed.

Jenna did not realize Hyein’s grip on both her shoulders until Hyein walked off, the lower classmen of Cheongdam High staring and whispering at Jenna. Jenna let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, and texted Doeon “Hey, meet you at our usual room?” then walked away from the whispers and gossip.