The Hunter Jiyu knew had no interest in anyone but himself. Whatever he did to Sienna was therefore completely meaningless. Yet to hear Sienna talk, one would think Hunter Hamilton was some flawless gift bestowed by the gods.
The other girls were too afraid of Sienna to openly admit that they liked him, but whenever he passed them on the way home, they exchanged knowing glances and giggled among themselves.
Things Jiyu had never paid attention to before began catching her eye.
The cliques that had rapidly taken shape in fifth grade were firmly established by sixth. Every child seemed to know instinctively which group they belonged to.
Jiyu belonged to the “Nerds.” Most students who excelled academically but lacked social skills and possessed only average athletic ability fell into that category.
Boys and girls alike wanted to join the “Popular Kids,” the clique Hunter and Rex belonged to. They attracted attention no matter what they did and showed little interest in academics.
For children from upper-class families whose surnames alone revealed their social standing, getting into a good college was not particularly difficult. That did not mean they attended mediocre schools, however.
Children at that level needed only respectable grades to enter Ivy League universities through legacy admissions or donor preferences—the same institutions their families had attended for generations. As a result, they did not obsess over grades or extracurricular activities the way everyone else did.
Hunter’s fixation on tennis was, in fact, an exception.
Jiyu still hated attracting attention, so even if she were invited into Hunter or Sienna’s clique—which would never happen—she had no desire to join them.
After attending the same school for seven years, ever since kindergarten, she no longer fled like a frightened puppy whenever someone spoke to her. But her personality had not undergone a complete transformation. She was still most comfortable spending time with Chloe, her one best friend.
Even so, she had grown just a little curious.
“What exactly do the other kids see in Hunter that makes them like him so much?”
She saw his face every day, so she could no longer judge for herself, but everyone said he was handsome. Fine.
He was tall, rich, and good at sports.
Yes, all of that was more or less true.
But those were only superficial qualities.
Would they still like him if they knew just how self-centered and willful he truly was? Hunter Hamilton was not the kind of person who could ever genuinely care about anyone else.
Jiyu shrugged.
Who liked Hunter and who did not had nothing to do with her.
And she firmly believed it never would.
In October, the broad bridle path encircling the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir on the northern side of Central Park was beautifully painted in the vibrant colors of falling leaves.
By two in the afternoon, students from various Upper East Side private schools began gathering along the path, dressed in gym uniforms embroidered with their school emblems.
Guided by their physical education teacher, Jiyu and Chloe entered the bridle path alongside a group of girls. A short distance away, boys from Alton School also made their way onto the path, wearing short-sleeved gym shirts with navy-blue bodies and white logos across the chest.
Beginning in fifth grade, when middle school started, students were required to choose one sport each semester. Jiyu had chosen volleyball in the fall, softball in the winter, and lacrosse in the spring.
After trying all three, however, she concluded that team sports were a waste of time. While the popular children bumped shoulders and passed the ball among themselves, she spent the entire year standing on the sidelines like an unnecessary extra.
This year, she chose individual sports instead: track and field, cross-country, and outdoor running. The names changed slightly from semester to semester, but in practice, they all amounted to the same thing.
Running.
Like most other Manhattan private schools, Aster School and Alton School had no dedicated athletic fields. They shared a sports center, but it was not large enough for track events. As a result, most schools used Central Park as their athletic grounds.
Hunter had also chosen track and field that year. Unlike team sports, it finished at three twenty in the afternoon, which was the only reason he had selected it.
From Monday through Thursday, he trained at the tennis academy on Randalls Island from four until seven. Sports such as basketball, football, or field hockey, which usually ended around five, were therefore out of the question.
But Hunter’s decision to join track had caused an unexpected flood of popular students—including Sienna—to sign up as well.
‘I knew this would happen. I should have stayed with volleyball.’
Jiyu regretted her choice, but it was already too late.
The locations where each school established its base camp had been determined by long-standing tradition. Alton School’s designated area lay a little farther back than Aster School’s.
Recently, Hunter seemed to have acquired at least a fingernail-sized understanding that such a thing as basic courtesy existed between people. As he passed Aster School’s base and his eyes met Jiyu’s, he gave her a subtle nod of acknowledgment.
Jiyu responded with an equally slight dip of her chin.
The exchange lasted only an instant, and fortunately, no one noticed.
As usual, once they had finished warming up, the students surged forward together from the starting line before gradually spreading out according to their own pace. Some pulled ahead, while others fell behind.
Jiyu liked the time she spent running alone.
Although only a single street separated the park from Fifth Avenue, the moment she entered Central Park, even the air seemed cooler and fresher.
The gentle warmth of sunlight resting on her shoulders.
Red leaves fluttering to the ground.
The reservoir glittering in the afternoon light.
The distant skyline of the Upper West Side.
As she ran through scenery that looked as though it had been lifted straight from a tourist brochure, every sound except the rhythmic thud of her footsteps and the steady cadence of her breathing faded away.
Usually, that was how it went.
But then, without warning, a synchronized pounding that seemed to shake the ground rose behind her.
Startled, Jiyu glanced back while continuing to run. A group of about ten boys from Alton School was jogging in formation. At the head of the front pack ran Hunter, a full head taller than the others.
Their eyes met in the middle of her stride.
Flustered, Jiyu veered diagonally in an attempt to clear their path, repeatedly looking over her shoulder as she ran.
Then her feet became tangled.
She stumbled over the dry earth.
A moment before she hit the ground, she squeezed her eyes shut. Her thighs and knees scraped against the dirt at once, and the sharp point of her elbow struck the ground, sending a deep, throbbing pain through the bone.
“Hey, look over there!”
“Shit, she went down hard.”
“What was her name again?”
“Olivia, right? The Neverland kid.”
“Yeah, that’s her! Should we help?”
The voices of boys whose voices had only just begun to deepen erupted all at once.
Jiyu had thought she had remained safely hidden in an inconspicuous role throughout the musical. She had never imagined that any of them would remember her name.
“Shut up and keep running.”
Amid the commotion, Hunter’s sharp rebuke was unmistakable even without her looking up.
Jiyu squeezed her eyes shut even more tightly.
The pain was secondary. What she could not bear was the humiliation of having fallen so ridiculously in front of Hunter and the boys from Alton School.
‘I want to throw myself straight into the reservoir.’
Pressing her bloodied palms against the ground, she shakily pushed her upper body upright.
As Hunter passed directly beside her, their eyes met again.
He swept a glance over her with a contemptuous frown, then coldly turned his head away.
For some reason, Jiyu felt utterly wretched.
Her entire body burned as hot as it did when she had a fever.
‘How much is he going to tease and ridicule me for this?’
With her head bowed, Jiyu finally became aware of the pain.
Her ankle throbbed. Her knees were scraped raw, and long scratches across her thighs were oozing blood. Fresh crimson droplets began to bead along the abrasion on her elbow.
Tears welled in her eyes, but she forced them back.
Crying in front of everyone would only attract more attention.
‘I need to get up. Quickly.’
Then a pair of legs clad in blue gym shorts appeared in front of her. The word ALTON was embroidered in white across the left hem.
Before Jiyu could raise her head, someone seized both her arms and hauled her upright.
The grip was rough and utterly lacking in consideration.
Angular shoulders filled her field of vision at eye level.
She knew it was Hunter without needing to see his face.
When she glanced up, he was breathing heavily and wiping the sweat from his forehead with his wristband.
“Are you crazy? Why did you run diagonally?”
“…”