Operation: Tame Her

3. THE GOLDEN ONE

"I'm awake! I'm awake!" Venus suddenly yelled when she heard her name.

As immediately, she put her hands to cover her lips with the realization that she just dumbly announced to the whole class that she was stealing a nap and tried to get away with it. The whole class-- which was only twenty people including her and that glaring boy across her, laughed at her evident stupidity.

'It's not my fault that this class is boring.' Venus reasoned to herself and shrugged the teases off.

"I'll let you slide today since you got the highest marks in this week's evaluation," their Finance professor warned with a raised eyebrow. She stretched her arm towards the lad, giving her the evaluation paper.

Venus's eyes slowly widened, and her grin followed as she stared at the red mark on the upper right corner of her paper which read, A+.

"Whoa! You're not human!" Kristen whisper-yelled beside her once she peeked at her friend's paper. "I mean, nobody even gets an A in Finance!"

She chuckled in response, carefully placing her evaluation sheet inside a transparent briefcase. "Someone has now," she proudly winked, feeling happy that all the short night's sleep she spent for the last weeks paid off better than she expected. Not to mention, the stress she needed to go through that morning with the infamous Azrael Kim.

'What use are my A+s if my school life will be doomed?' she sighed. So far, nobody bothered her yet. It was probably because the campus was still spreading rumors about her and the incident, and also waiting for Azrael's go signal to pounce on her. She didn't want to dwell on what awaited her after the ruckus she caused, but the anxiety was honestly starting to creep under her skin. What if the whole school really turned against her and bullied her? How long will she be able to last and how much was she willing to tolerate?

The bell rang, an indication that they had 5 minutes to go to their next class. The girls picked up their bags and stood, but before they could even walk, a figure appeared in front of them.

"Congrats," he greeted her with a rather bitter tone. A brown pair of eyes that seemed to analyze every detail inside her head stared at her. The boy was the exact definition of the term gorgeous. His brown hair was parted in a stylish way, making his plain white shirt paired with faded jeans look more elegant and formal than they should be. The way his bone structure was sculpted made every element of his face harmonize beautifully--- especially the way his nose complemented his thin lips.

Her forehead furrowed at the sight of the handsome creature. She didn't know if she'd consider herself lucky that another member of the Monarch was talking to her, but she was pretty sure the audience thought she was hella lucky she could die any moment now. She honestly didn't appreciate that luck. Why do they keep coming to her like moths? Was he there to punish her for what she did to his friend this morning?

"Er..." The feeling of his irritated stares was making her want to gulp. "Thanks?" she replied with an awkward smile. In all honesty, she didn't know how to react to him, and she certainly would rather have him treat her like she was invisible.

His angelic features made Venus's heart beat rapidly inside her chest, not because he was pretty but because he seemed mad at her for a reason she didn't even know--- or perhaps she knew why. 'Maybe because of what happened this morning. Did the coffee jerk already tell me off?' her train of thoughts flowed.

Instead of smiling back, the boy glared sharply. "Make sure to enjoy that highest mark because it's never gonna happen again." Then he walked out of the room, leaving Venus shooked.

"Um..." she muttered, still staring at the empty space the boy left. "What--- what just happened?"

"I think he's mad because you got the highest mark," Kristen pointed out, as if it was the most obvious reason.

"Wha---" Venus gaped, cutting her own words midway because her mind still couldn't seem to make sense of the situation. 'That means it's not because of what happened this morning, right?'

The two began to make their way to their next class. Now that her friend mentioned it, the memory of who the boy was started to flow in her mind.

"Yes, of course!" Venus sighed in recognition. She already knew he was one of the Monarchs, but it was only now that she remembered who exactly he was among the seven of them. "The Golden One," she uttered in a sour tone.

'Why do I keep on stumbling upon them?'

Helios Jeon. The Monarch who excelled in everything he does despite being the youngest member of the god-forsaken Imperial Monarch. The boy hated competition-- no, he hated to lose. He felt like everything was a competition and nobody but himself deserved to win. He got the face, the brains, and the money-- of course, fame follows that. He was a natural talent, basically Mr. Perfect.

'He got everything-- including the attitude.' Venus scoffed at the thought. 'Perfect? Yeah, talk to my A+!'

"Nobody had higher marks than him in anything before," Kristen informed with a giggle once they turned at the corner corridor. "No wonder why he was so irked by you."

Venus smirked wanting to say, 'Somebody has now!' but instead, she humbly spoke, "Nobody has had the scholarship to maintain in this academy before."

Yes, she was Venus Jung, the infamous first scholar of the Imperial. Thank her IQ and her diligence for giving her a chance to enter this prestigious school! "Irrelevant Creature," the familiar voice she started to dread suddenly echoed in her mind. She frowned. 'How dare he! Even Mr. Perfect couldn't have my A+!'

"You deserve that scholarship very much!" Kristen nodded with respect.

That was also the reason why the rich brats couldn't just bully her despite knowing that she was in a scholarship program. They figured Venus was too smart for them to handle, and by smart that means sassy-- so, they ignored her instead. Besides, though the kids were brats in every definition, they knew how to recognize intelligence when they saw one. After all, they were studying in the Imperial, the school where smart was definitely sexy. And it went without saying that she got the school's backing, given that she was the only one who had the smarts to get a scholarship.

She just hoped the student would take all these exceptions into consideration even after what she did with Azrael this morning. She was sure most of them were actually itching to bully her because of the stereotypes of having a scholarship. What did she expect? She was admitted to the most prestigious and luxurious university in the world! 'Ugh! Should I just have stayed out of their business? I'm starting to regret it.'

"Hey! Where are you going?" Venus asked with furrowed eyebrows when Kristen didn't come into the classroom with her.

Her friend giggled. "I'm going to my next class, genius!" Then she waved before turning her back and continued to walk away.

'Right!' Venus thought with a tilted head before finding a good spot in the lecture room. "Time to use my brain again!"