She knew there could only be dark days ahead.
What bothered her wasn’t merely academic work. She glanced round the filled classroom; everyone was buried in their study material and it was utterly quiet. Everyone was concentrating on their self-revision and no one was conversing with another. Yun Jin thought self-mockingly, even if she was surrounded by groups of students chattering away, she would not likely be a participant either.
This class was similar to all the other Science classes in that there was a masculine majority. After the streaming, there were 57 people in this class of which only 8 were girls. Among them, 5 were locals in the provincial capital so they did not stay in the hostel. They would return to their homes for meals before returning to the campus at night for self-revision sessions. And when those ended, would once again return home for the night.
Everyday, the city girls were most lively before morning reading periods and evening self-revision sessions. They would discuss the exciting plot details of the previous night’s drama serial and the latest style of their favourite idols in the newest MVs. They would continue with the gorgeous dress in the shop at the corner of someone’s alley or they would converse with the boys about the latest sporting news. Yun Jin would merely listen passively since she hadn’t any knowledge on such matters anyway. She existed on the fringe of their colourful existence and everyday after self-revision sessions, she would return to her hostel where she faced a bed and four walls.
Since most of the students were locals who did not have to live in the school hostel, the hostel was very simply furnished. The hostel residents were just like Yun Jin; they were either from the nearby counties or villages. They were mostly similar, having a quiet disposition and a wooden expression. Even when they gathered back in the dormitories at night, there was little conversations. The only thing of note was that often in the dead of the night or in the wee hours of the morning, one could make out light coming from under the blankets.