Chapter 1
My name is Ares Bernadette Lee.
I'm currently 18 years old. I'm an orphan but I am one of the illegitimate children of the former richest man in South Korea.
I don't know anything about my mother.
When my father died, his brother, who is my uncle, succeeded the family business. He wants nothing to do with my father's illegitimate children. After all, I am just one of many. So, I ended up in one of the orphanages in South Korea until I ran away at the age of 15.
Besides the former orphanage director and her assistant and of course, the Lee family, nobody else knows about my background.
Considering that the Lee surname is quite common in South Korea, it wasn't surprising that nobody has any suspicions at all.
I received no support at all and grew up to be an introvert.
The orphanage was quite competitive and bullying was quite common if they are intimidated with you.
And so, to prevent myself from getting bullied further, I would wear a short brown wig, a pair of eyeglasses (with no grade of course but no one knew any better), and male clothing, to prevent myself from getting too bullied and acting like a boy, as if they find you pretty, you would get bullied by them.
Though the boys are also bullies, the girls are much more notorious and extremely cruel than them. Like, there was a pretty girl before that was a head turner. The next day, someone splashed acid on her face.
Yep.
You get the picture.
I usually wear dark colored shirt, as not to stand out, and just blend into the background. I also wear a second hand black hoodie, as it usually hides the obvious parts of my female body. Along with a pair of baggy black pants and some old checkered Vans sneakers, my disguise is complete. I also have an old black no brand bag that I always carry around, filled with my everyday essentials.
Not to brag or anything, but I can say I am a bit intelligent. However, to prevent myself from standing out too much, I don't speak up during classes and also during break time, unless I'm being spoken to.
I'm currently enrolled in the top 1 international high school here in Seoul.
Actually, I got in by scholarships that I managed to secure. It is extremely expensive to go there and mostly, the students who studied there are sons and daughters of influential people, politicians, rich businessmen, anyone from the entertainment industry, and even some royalty too, from other countries as well.
Basically, it's the cradle of the cream of the crop and is among the top international high schools in the world. It is extremely competitive and it is usually where students make important connections for their family and future.
A place where one makes alliances.
It is extremely rare for someone to study there without any connections, money, and influence.
Great thing about my name is that, people usually assumed that I'm male, (as I rarely use my Bernadette, and would just go by as Ares Lee.) and with everyone assuming my gender as male, I acted like one (not to mention that my disguise also helped).
But it is a huge problem whenever I have to use the toilet.
Thankfully, nobody knows that I'm a female. Not to mention that the school staff didn't focus too much on my application, thinking that I just got there lucky and might drop out in the middle of the first semester.
To support myself, I'm currently working 2 part-time jobs (in my male disguise). I worked at a convenience store after class for 4 hours (my afternoon class ends at 3pm) and the second part-time job after it, for another 4 hours at night, at a restaurant.
I lived in the low district, at an apartment, at the top floor rooftop, as the rent is low, considering it is on the 10th floor.
The rent is low but I get my daily exercise coming up and down the stairs. Because it's cheap, there's no elevator and my apartment is only one room.
But what I liked about it, is the privacy as it is on the rooftop and I can plant some leafy vegetables to have additional food source, in case I'm short on money.
Another secret of mine is that, I love playing online games.
I'm quite good at them actually.
Since my skill is somewhat good, I join online game tournaments as much as I can, secretly, using the name: godofwar, as my username.
My username became quite famous and I have a huge fan following, and if there's an online game tournament, people looked forward to me being online there.
Correction.
Mostly males looked forward to seeing me online, as nobody have any idea who I am in real life, including not knowing that I'm a female.
For now, I'm currently playing a popular multiplayer online battle arena game, named Mobile Myths: Smash Smash (MMSS). It is very popular everywhere, especially at the school I'm currently enrolled to.
Yet.
Nobody has any idea that Ares Lee and godofwar, are same.
Anyway, I do make a bit of money from the tournaments that I joined and it helped a lot with my living expenses.
One last thing.
Whenever I get out of my apartment, I would always wear my usual male disguise.
No one will be any wiser. No one would know.
As of now, I'll live quietly, not attracting attention and try to survive with my 2 part-time minimum wage jobs.
Nothing can go wrong.