Chapter 1 - Wakely

I hated this. I hated that my father forced me to leave my university in Seoul to be closer to home. To be closer so he could ensure I didn’t embarrass him. I didn’t understand why he thought I was going to embarrass him. I just went to school and studied. That’s it.

But now it was my third year, and I was accepted to a university that was only two hours away from home. All I wanted was freedom, and when I had it for two full years, it was ripped from my grasp. And that hurt more than anything.

“Miss?” The woman at the table asked. I wasn’t sure how long she was trying to get my attention, but my thoughts were too focused on how my life had been flipped upside down.

“I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“Can I get your name?” She looked at me and then at the clipboard that sat in front of her.

“Oh yeah, Wakely Gil…Moore. Wakely Moore.” I didn’t want to give her my real last name. I registered under my mother’s maiden name. I didn’t need more attention than I was already going to get.

Plus, I loved her with every fiber of my being and abhorred my father.

“Yup, you are right here.” The woman put a notch next to my name and then dug into the box of folders next to her, finding my folder. “It looks like you are in Williams Hall, that’s the coed dorm. And you got yourself a single room three-oh-four. You are so lucky. There aren’t a lot of single rooms available, and you snagged one.” She smiled at me and handed a folder to me.

I grabbed the folder and opened it. My eyes scanned over the information.  

“You have your student ID and your parking pass. Your space is in the green lot number eighty-seven. The paperwork in there is going to have the details for your meal plan, there’s a map of the campus, and it has any other tidbits that will make your time here the best possible experience.”

She gave me a beaming smile. She really believed that I was going to have an amazing experience here. I knew that wasn’t the truth, though.

I was going to be a prisoner here. But she didn’t need to know that.

I stopped myself from snorting at her. My experience here was already tainted. My father was going to be watching my every move. I wasn’t sure why he was so concerned now. But he was fuming when I came back from university for the summer. And he never explained why.

I could only assume that, since his company was growing and gaining traction, I was an extension of him and he didn’t want to taint his success. It stung that instead of thinking of me as a loving daughter, he thought of me as something that could ruin his image.

But I thought there was something more underlying. That there was some deep, dark secret that he didn’t share with anyone. I could see it in his eyes. I wasn’t going to ask him, though…I wasn’t stupid.

“Thank you.” I smiled at her.

“Of course, and if you need anything, your resident advisor is Bethany Montgomery, she’s in room three-oh-two. Just down the hall from your room.”

I had no intention of needing anything from my RA. I was going to keep my head down and focus on getting through this year, I was going to graduate early and get out of here. As far as I could go.

I was going to get my degree, and then I was going to move away where my father couldn’t find me. I wished I could disappear off the face of the planet, but I would have to settle for across the nation.

I grabbed the key that the woman extended toward me and looked down at the map so I could get to my room and close myself away.

I walked through the quad and into the building that had a large copper plate above the door that had the name ‘Williams Hall’ etched into it.

People were excitedly walking in and out of the building, carrying luggage and boxes. They were chatting and hugging friends that they made the previous years. I didn’t have that. At my old school, I had more friends than I needed. But here, I was alone and that bothered me more than it should have.

It was my third year, and of course, I had to be the new girl on campus.

I stared at everyone talking for a moment, jealous of their friendship. One guy asked if a girl needed help loading stuff to her room, she gratefully accepted and handed him the heavy box she seemed to have been struggling with. She mentioned other items in her car as she showed him where her room was.

Watching the other students help each other sent another pang of jealousy through me. I didn’t have a lot, just my suitcase that I was dragging behind me and the backpack that was on my back. I didn’t need a lot, I was going to focus on school, and that was it.

I didn’t need any other distractions. I was solely focused on getting out of here as fast as humanly possible. I was taking double the credits that were recommended to speed up the process. And all of my credits from my school in Seoul transferred giving me a leg up to the other students in my same engineering program.

I took a deep breath and lugged my bag up the few stone steps in front of the building. This was the start of my year, and even though I was bitter to be here, I was going to make the best of it.

I pulled my bag up flight after flight of stairs. The building didn’t have an elevator. I could understand why because the building was created in the eighteen hundreds, there was no room for an elevator.

Sweat started to pour down my forehead as I paused on the landing, huffing and puffing. I was very out of shape, but I could see that changing with how many stairs I would be climbing every day.

I wasn’t a skinny girl. I had curves, I had thick thighs, but I liked them. I embraced them. It made me different. Plus, I never worried about what I ate. I just wanted to enjoy life.

I have been through so much in the last sixteen years that worrying about my weight seemed silly.

“Did you need help?” A cheerful voice sounded behind me, which made me jump, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I looked over, a girl was standing there, bright orange hair pulled up into two space buns. She had her septum pierced as well as the right side of her bottom lip. She wore a tight crop top with a cartoon character on it, a pair of bright purple shorts, and combat boots.

What she was wearing reminded me of some of my friends back in Seoul, and that made me miss them more. Maybe this girl could be my new friend?

Hopefully.