Hi! Thanks for starting Perfect 10. I'm really happy you're here. If you ever feel like sharing a thought while you read, don't hesitate to leave a comment. I love reading them more than you'd think. Writing this story and spending time with these characters has been a big part of my life, and getting to share that with you means a lot. I hope Perfect 10 stays with you, even after you close the chapter. -Yohwaink

PERFECT TEN

Volume 1

Prologue

While the silence on the campus roads, which had not heard any footsteps for a while, mixed with the rustling of the newly unfurled leaves on the branches surrendering to the wind, all the students were trying to walk quickly. The first day of the new semester had lived up to expectations and filled the air with a restless and excited energy.

The parking lot had been empty for a long time. Not that morning. Sports cars were packed in one after another, and the nepo babies had basically made the place their show-off spot. One luxury car stayed off to the side. Inside, the air was icy. 

Like... ICY.

Kwon Ji-a was in the front seat, picking at the skin around her nails. The sweet morning sun was hitting the car, but it did nothing for her. When the shitty, suffocating feeling inside the car mixed with the silence outside, Ji-a got even more tense and kept complaining without looking at her boyfriend, Han Yeonjun, who was sitting behind the wheel. "I swear I'm so sick of you flirting with other people," she said. She jerked her head and tossed back the hair that had fallen in front of her eyes. But her own temper came back to bite her, and like a complete idiot, she hit her head against the window before turning to Yeonjun. "Aissh¹! Because of you!"

Of course, she knew that the last thing she had said was probably the stupidest thing of the day.

Because unlike her in this crazed state, Yeonjun was sitting quietly, watching the students in the distance and waiting for this fucking bullshit to be over. Still, he said, "I wasn't flirting or anything. You know that too. When I'm trying to be polite, I'm not flirting."

Ji-a crossed her arms in front of her like a four-year-old who did not want to eat and turned her whole body toward the window. Yeonjun's most annoying side had shown up again. The one where he calmly listened while Ji-a was busting her ass and did not fight with her.

"You don't have to smile at every cashier girl you see for the first time in your life," she said quietly.

Yeonjun sighed, his chest rising and falling under his white shirt, the kind that made a rich guy look even richer. "We've been dating for a year, and we keep having the same fight," he said. "I don't even understand anymore why we keep going through the same thing."

"Maybe because you keep doing the same thing," Ji-a said right away and got out of the car without even waiting for an answer.

SLAM!

Yeonjun got out of the car about fifteen seconds later, calm as if he were staying that way just to spite Ji-a. He was not looking at his girlfriend's face, but he knew the fight would get worse if he kept avoiding her eyes. With his height, blond hair, and almost too-perfect face, he was usually someone who drew attention, and he knew he looked terrible at that moment.

But Ji-a did not care about how he looked or what he thought. By the time they reached the campus road, their still-ongoing fight was setting them apart from the crowd, and the fact that Ji-a had no hesitation around anyone was enough reason for Yeonjun to play the next few minutes out in his head, almost like a coach before a game. Still, "Aigoo², Ji-a... It's the first day," Yeonjun said, rubbing his forehead tiredly. "Don't drain me. Let's just go to class, okay?"

Ji-a stopped and turned to him. But wait, what had happened now that tears had started running down her face? "You're telling me not to drain you?" she asked through her tears, looking nothing like the girl who had been raising hell in the car just a moment ago. "When are you ever gonna manage to apologize after you hurt me? What is wrong with you, Yeonjun?"

She's crying again, Yeonjun thought. He was almost used to this crying by now. Just because I smiled at someone. How do we end up like this once a week? He was not going to answer and would just wait for this tantrum to pass. Besides, once he got out of class, this whole fuss would somehow turn into sulking and being forgiven in exchange for a kiss.

Could Ji-a be getting even angrier when she did not get an answer? Yeah, maybe. But Yeonjun was too much of a guy to figure that out.

"You don't care," Ji-a said. "You don't even care about me! Look at what you're doing!"

"I didn't do shit. You're the one doing all this," Yeonjun said this time. "I'm tired, Ji-a."

By the time Ji-a shouted, "Are you fucking serious, asshole?!" many of the students around them had already stopped and were watching. "And now you wanna make me feel like everything is my fault? I'm the one who's tired, not you!"

Yeonjun stopped walking but kept talking without looking at Ji-a. It was obvious from the expression on his face that he had given up. But... Just when Ji-a thought she had won this fight and that he was going to make it up to her, he said quietly, "If we're both this tired... and if you cry every time something happens, maybe this relationship doesn't mean anything anymore."

Ji-a's eyes went wide when she looked at Yeonjun. Without thinking twice, she grabbed her boyfriend's arm. No, grabbing was not really the word for it. She squeezed so hard that her nails dug into his arm through his shirt. "What did you just say, Han Yeonjun?"

As Yeonjun slowly pulled his arm away, he wondered if anyone was filming them. "I don't know if you realize it, but all we've been doing for a while now is fighting. Maybe we'd both be better off if we broke up."

Ji-a's heart was pounding so hard she thought her chest might split open. Does this asshole really think he can just walk away like this? she thought to herself, trying to remember if Yeonjun had ever said anything like this before. "So you wanna break up with me?" she shouted, her voice easily carrying over the noise around them.

"Ji-a, stop yelling!" Yeonjun said. Then he realized he had just yelled back at someone who was yelling, which was pretty stupid. "Everyone's looking at us. Let's talk later."

Ji-a looked around. Yeonjun was right. All the students had stopped and were watching them, whispering to each other. Some of them had actually taken out their phones. A few were quietly laughing. The others were just staring, and it was pretty obvious they were excited to see what happened next. Then someone muttered, "Fuck, she's really losing it."

Ji-a had never cared what people thought in her life. No. Scratch that. Of course she had. She cared about her appearance. Their opinions were a different story.

And this time, something felt different to her. 

SLAP!

She hit him so hard that before the sound cut through the crowd, Yeonjun realized he had played the whole thing out wrong in his head and had actually lost the game.

The students froze for a few seconds at first, and then finally a girl screamed. It was not even clear if the sound was a laugh or not. Just a scream. Then laughter came from the back. Within ten seconds, more phone cameras were pointed at them.

Yeonjun lowered his head and went quiet. And Ji-a lowered her hand, but not because she regretted it. She was challenging not just Yeonjun, but everyone around them. She looked at the students holding up their phones and almost begged them with her eyes to keep filming.

No. She was not embarrassed at all. She just wanted her boyfriend to be embarrassed.

By the time she finally said, trembling, "Who do you think you are?" the whole place had already turned into a circus.

And Yeonjun did not even move. At that moment, he looked like he was just waiting for everything to end so he could leave.

—

In another corner of the same campus, a little farther away from the drama, two guys were lying on the grass under a blooming Maehwa³ tree, killing time by rating the people passing by.

The guy, who looked punk enough to be proof that every kind of person could exist on a university campus, pulled a few strands of his dark blue hair away from his face, which was covered in piercings, and nodded toward someone passing by. "Ya⁴, look... That one's cute. He gets a seven from me."

The other guy, with his hair tied in a bun and clothes that made it look like he had put on whatever he could find at home, looked like he had stepped out of a newly formed K-pop group that no one had invested in yet. He scrunched up his face. "Mmmhh..." he said, then tilted his head, making his cross-shaped earring swing. "He's uptight, has no style, and I saw it myself at a party the other day. He couldn't even keep a normal conversation going. Four from me."

The guy with the piercings laughed. "Do you have to know everyone?" he said, already looking around for someone else to rate. "The guy's shoulders alone are worth a five. But whatever, Ji-hu. We can't expect you to notice anyway."

"And why's that, Seojun?"

Kim Seojun and Song Ji-hu, second-year fine arts students, had been close since their first year.

Close, but not THAT close.

Seojun was two years older than Ji-hu, and they really were like brothers. Ever since they realized they were both into guys, they had been inseparable, but there was a line between them, and neither of them had ever wanted to cross it.

Seojun stood up and stretched, his leather jacket sliding from his wrists toward his elbows. As he moved, the metal on his face caught the sunlight. Although his double eyelids highlighted the beauty of his face, what drew the most attention was his jawline, which looked like it had been drawn with a calligraphy pen. His black T-shirt, pinned with a few safety pins and torn in a way that carelessly showed his bare skin, lifted enough to reveal his smooth, muscular stomach. "Because when I'm around, who could you possibly give a ten to?" he said with a grin that made it obvious he had broken plenty of hearts.

Ji-hu rolled his eyes. "Please, hyung⁵," he said. "Now I'm gonna get a nosebleed or something!"

SLAP!

They had not even had time to laugh at each other's joke yet, and when they turned their heads toward the fine arts building, they had no reason left to think the first day of school had not started off exciting enough.

"Aigoo..." Ji-hu said, looking over curiously. "Are they fighting? I think the girl hit the guy."

Seojun turned his head and saw the boy standing there quietly with his head lowered.

Then something happened. A feeling Seojun had never known hit him hard and deep, in a place he did not even know existed. Standing there, he suddenly found himself wanting to cry. He felt like a soul stuck somewhere in between, in another dimension, as if he had completely forgotten his past and did not want to think even one second into the future. Without taking his eyes off the boy, he asked, "Do you know them?"

Ji-hu looked at him closely, trying to remember. "Second-year architecture student. Way too rich," he said. "Chaebol⁶ kid. And the girl is always yelling at him. It's like an open-air K-drama theater, they can go at each other anytime, anywhere. They've been like this since last year. The girl's shitty, I know her from high sch—"

"The name, Ji-hu..."

"Kwon Ji-a."

Without taking his eyes off the boy, Seojun said, "Aigoo... I'm not talking about the girl..."

Ji-hu quickly turned to Seojun and chuckled. "I can't remember his name right now, but are you serious? That guy? He looks like he hasn't smiled even once in his life, and he's almost as tall as you."

When Seojun finally turned to Ji-hu, there was a deadly serious look on his face. "Ya, you wanna die⁷? Don't talk shit about my future husband." Then, without waiting for an answer, he started walking toward the girl and the boy.

The real K-drama was starting now.

¹ Aish/Aissh - 아이씨 A common Korean exclamation used to express annoyance, frustration, irritation, or anger, similar to "damn" or "damn it" depending on the tone. It is informal and can sound rude.

² Aigoo - 아이고 A common Korean exclamation used to express frustration, surprise, exhaustion, pain, sympathy, or disbelief, depending on the situation.

³ Maehwa - 매화 A type of East Asian plum tree that blossoms in early spring. Its delicate white or pale pink flowers are often associated with renewal and quiet strength in Korean culture.

⁴ Ya - 야 A casual Korean interjection used to call out to someone, often between close friends. Depending on tone, it can express annoyance, surprise, or get someone's attention. Not rude in informal settings, but inappropriate when used toward elders or strangers.

⁵ Hyeong/Hyung - 형 Korean word meaning "older brother" or a way for a younger man to address an older male friend. It shows respect and closeness.

⁶ Chaebol - 재벌 A large, family-controlled South Korean business conglomerate, often consisting of many companies operating under the control of the same wealthy family.

⁷ Jugullae - 죽을래 An extremely common Korean expression used to show frustration or anger. It literally translates to "Do you want to die?" but functions more like a sharp warning to cut it out, similar to asking if someone has a death wish.