"'Oh, she doesn't know the effect she can have!'"

Jessica scowled. She flung her eraser at Hyoyeon, earning a satisfying groan in response. "How is that remotely what I said? At all? And I'm pretty sure that's a direct quote from The Hunger Games, so that's called plagiarism."

The eraser didn't make its way back to her desk, and Hyoyeon looked smug about it. Jessica thought Hyoyeon looked smug about far too many things. "Is the cute lawyer-bound personality rubbing off on you already? How adorable."

"Did you know that if your roommate dies, you get to keep the whole double to yourself for the price of a single?"

Hyoyeon shrugged, hopping off the bed. "You used that line on me last year. But come on, real talk."

"Does it look like it's about to rain?" Jessica said instead, kicking her feet up onto her desk.

Her roommate pursed her lips, standing directly behind the chair. She glared down. "Spill."

"We didn't talk about it," Jessica mumbled, looking anywhere but Hyoyeon.

Hyoyeon, on the other hand, looked less at ease--arms crossed, brows furrowed, mouth agape. "You didn't talk about it?"

Clearing , Jessica checked her phone. "What's there to talk about?" she asked, swiping between home screens. Feigning disinterest would have been easier if she had at least one text to look at. Or something. Anything.

The blonde was not having any of it. "You mean to tell me that you and Tiffany. Tiffany Hwang--the most upfront, most obstinate girl I've met since first year orientation week--sat at a table. For two hours. And managed to avoid even mentioning that you guys--"

"Has that stain on the ceiling always been there?"

Her roommate sighed and bulldozed on. "You can't really expect me to believe you, right? There is no way you talked about... some... ethics, or whatever, for the whole time."

Jessica opened Instagram again for the fourth time since sitting down, praying for a distraction.

Jessica could feel the holes being bored into the back of her head by her roommate's stare. When she didn't reply (she was very busy refreshing Instagram again), her roommate let herself fall back onto the bed with a resounding thud. "You're hopeless. Both of you."

Jessica couldn't help the sardonic smile on her face. "Finally, you're dropping your standards low enough to understand my level."

"Do not speak to me. What a disappointment."

Phone screen locking, Jessica scoffed. "My pleasure."

There was a second--maybe two--of blessed non-interrogative silence, and then--

"And another thing--" Hyoyeon began, to Jessica's dismay.

Just one day of peace and quiet, that’s all I’m asking for.

A snowball collided with Jessica’s window, making her jump and subsequently glare at the boys outside.

Just one?

She had abandoned Hyoyeon in favor of getting work done, because really, assignments felt like the lesser of the two evils. Well, trying to get work done, she should say. Her head gave a satisfying thud as she let it fall onto the desk. She imagined the sound echoing through the stacks—and when the person sitting three desks in front of her leaned out to glare at her, she rolled her eyes.

Footsteps to her right were a welcome distraction to her lack of productivity. She looked up, eyes following a long grey coat to a pair of sunglasses in hand. She gave something akin to a sigh of relief.

“Yoona! What a sight for sore eyes,” she whispered, closing her textbook.

Yoona shoved her hand between the pages before it shut. “And aren’t you doing a terrible job of doing your reading?” she taunted, smiling. With a casual flick, she threw the textbook open again. “Figured I’d find you here, anyway.”

Jessica rested her elbows over her textbook, making a show of not reading it. “What’s up?”

They earned a tired shush from the kid three desks up.

“I’m just bored, to be honest,” Yoona muttered, lowering her voice. She leaned against the desk, making it slide a few inches. “Haven’t heard from you in a while.”

Shrugging again, Jessica said, “Classes are kicking my .”

“I’m gonna be the one to kick your unless you actually come to class,” Yoona countered, and then put on her best puppy eyes. “Stats is really boring with you.”

“Stats is boring with or without me.” The poor girl three seats up turned to glare again, and Jessica almost felt bad for her. “C’mon, let’s head out. I’m not getting anything done, anyway.”

Yoona nodded, pushing off the desk. “So much for getting work done."

Taking matters into her own hands was Hyoyeon's specialty. Leaving Jessica to her own devices was clearly not going to work. She just needed some tea, fast wifi, and time--and she needed to get rid of this centuries-old cafe voucher, anyway.

I will pay you to shut up about Tiffany, Jessica had said, half-jokingly—or Hyoyeon figured, maybe closer to a quarter-joking.

Would you really?

I will pay you fake money to shut up about Tiffany, she negotiated.

Hyoyeon shrugged. You know what, I’ll take it.

And that was how she came to possess a punchcard so worn, only half the cafe name and the words “Get” and “free” were legible. It was good enough for her.

After a brief exchange with the barista--Is this still valid? she had asked, and received a nonchalant, Probably, who knows, and promptly received a piping hot cup--she found a lone seat near the back and pondered her options.

She could seek Tiffany out personally and play a double agent role; but Tiffany wasn't an idiot, and she would remember she was friends with Jessica. She could try negotiating with Jessica? If she presented an ultimatum—“you have to ask out Tiffany, or else” style… but Hyoyeon held nothing over Jessica. She would have to think about that one. Perhaps she could meddle with the final assignment, ask the professor to require--

She frowned, rejecting that right off the bat. Talking to professors was almost never worth it.

Maybe--

And, as if the clouds had parted and fate finally sided with her, the door chimed, and none other than Tiffany's friend from the bar walked in.

Hyoyeon was scrambling from her seat before she knew it. She tapped on the girl’s shoulder.

”Wow, you're short," the girl said simply.

"Sorry I'm not a giraffe," Hyoyeon shot back, already reevaluating her new plan. "Listen, this is important--aren't you friends with Tiffany Hwang?"

The girl blinked twice, brushed lint off her jacket, and said, "Can I get my sandwich first?"

Hyoyeon shrugged with only a hint of exasperation, telling her to join her table when ready. Sliding back into her corner, Hyoyeon sipped at her now slightly-less-than-boiling cup. This girl could be harder to work with than imagined. She could reconsider the “ultimatum” concept; it seemed to work in movies, anyway.

"Scoot over," the brunette eventually muttered around a mouthful of bread, and Hyoyeon obliged. After chewing, the girl continued. "You must be that Jung girl's friend."

"Kim Hyoyeon, the one and only." She paused. "I meant the only Hyoyeon, but I that also applies to being her only friend."

"Damn, you're savage,” the girl said. "I like you. I’m Sooyoung. I think we can help each other, if you want what I want, which really is what they want."

Hyoyeon brushed imaginary dust off her hands, ignoring the thread peeking through the rips in her jeans. Well. That was surprisingly simple. "Jessica and Tiffany?"

"Of course." Sooyoung looked impressively contemplative in the act of consuming a sandwich. "You got a plan?"

The blonde frowned. Her eyes glanced from her cup to Sooyoung to the pastry display at the register. Hyoyeon paused, giving her best Mission-Impossible-debriefing voice (because she might as well have signed them both up for what was certainly an impossible mission). "I know Jessica, and she's almost as stubborn as me. This could be tough... But I think we have an lead."

Sooyoung grabbed a napkin, leaning forward and playing along. "I'm all ears."

Hyoyeon pointed a finger at the girl behind the cash register, smile growing. "I think we just found our inside woman."

“So what’s been up with you?” Yoona asked, pulling her coat closer to her body. “Besides not coming to stats, I mean.”

Jessica whined. “I get it, I get it! I’ll start going to lecture again, sheesh.”

Yoona bumped her shoulder. “Good. But really, I miss you. Last time we hung out was New Year, and it feels like forever ago.”

She felt her cheeks heat up at the memory and pulled her hood up to try to mask it. “Has it been that long? Maybe we should go out again this weekend,” she offered, genuine in both her offer and her attempt to steer the conversation away.

The girl wrinkled her nose, and Jessica’s brows raised. “I’m… trying to save money,” Yoona muttered, sounding like she was submitting herself to some sort of torture. For Yoona, she supposed it was.

“Who am I speaking to at the moment? I would like to see Im Yoona, please,” Jessica snorted.

Her friend groaned, taking off her sunglasses. “New Year’s resolution,” she said, and Jessica didn’t know whether to be impressed or skeptical. Or both.

“New Year’s resolutions were meant to be broken,” Jessica said, and then, at Yoona’s glance, added, “but.. you totally got this.”

She laughed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. Anyway, how’s Krystal?”

“I hear they call her Yoona 2.0 at school,” Jessica said, laughing. “Sounds like you really made an impression in high school.”

“Personally, I don’t see it. But hey, I’m always glad to be paving the path for the red-carpet-bound Jung. See? I’m a wonderful influence on your family.”

Jessica shoved her. “Hey, I thought I was your favorite Jung.”

“Not my fault she looks more like my sister than yours,” Yoona laughed. “But tell her I say hi. And—oh, this is almost my stop. Really, though! I’m actually busy this weekend, but how about next? Are you free? We can stay in?”

Nodding, Jessica tried to bite down a laugh. “But we’re ordering out this time, because I can still smell the last time we tried cooking and Hyoyeon hasn't let me live it down.”

Yoona turned to leave, but Jessica could hear Yoona’s laughter continue down the path.

“Yuri, right?”

She glanced up from the table she was wiping. “We’re closing, actually—“

Hyoyeon shook her head, jerking a thumb between herself and Sooyoung behind her. “I’m not ordering something.”

“Thank you,” Yuri breathed.

Hyoyeon took a breath. “So this might sound weird, but—“

“—how would you like to be a spy?” Sooyoung finished.

Hyoyeon coughed. That was one way to put it. “By that,” she explained, “Sooyoung here means we think you can help us with something.”

Yuri folded her arms over her apron.apron, squinting. "This sounds suspicious."

Sooyoung waved her arms, dispelling the notion. "Trust me, this is the purest mission we could be giving you."

"Look, it's been a long day, and who even are you guys?" Yuri muttered, starting to wipe the table again. Hyoyeon frowned. The girl's nametag was upside down. A long day, indeed.

"The best friends anyone could ever have," Sooyoung said, putting her hands on her hips dramatically--which was to say, as Hyoyeon had quickly learned, normally, for Sooyoung. "Which is why we need you to help us help some friends."

Yuri moved to the next table, pursing her lips. Hyoyeon watched the process--spray, wipe, spray again, wipe again. She made a mental note to clean the table better next time she visited this cafe. "What’s in it for me, and who am I helping?"

"Two frequent visitors," Hyoyeon explained. "They're hopelessly infatuated with one another but for some reason act like they hate each other."

Yuri brushed off her apron, standing taller. Why were these two so tall? "You're sure they don't actually hate each other, right?"

Sooyoung looked at Hyoyeon, and Hyoyeon stared back. "No, we're positive," they said in unison, and Hyoyeon wanted to high five the girl. It looked like they had rehearsed this.

"You also never said what's in it for me," Yuri pointed out, finally putting the spray bottle down.

Sooyoung grabbed the broom leaning in the corner of the room, nodding her head in the direction of the mop next to it. "We'll help you close up?" she tried.

Yuri bit her lip, throwing a glance to the door to the back. She considered it for a few seconds, Hyoyeon and Sooyoung on the edges of their figurative seats. "Just don't get me fired and we have a deal," she said, some significant amount of hesitancy in her tone.

"Don't worry," Hyoyeon said, taking said mop in hand. She gave Sooyoung a subtle high five. "You won't regret this."

She hoped time wouldn’t prove her to be a liar.

Having made her way back to her room, Jessica groaned. It was late and she had made the mistake of checking her email. She was half thankful for the assignment reminder and half dreading its consequences.

Discussion of chosen topics tomorrow. Please be present.

Jessica groaned, pulling out her phone. She began a text, frowning.

Hey, it’s Jessica, she began, and then erased it. She didn’t need to reintroduce herself every text message.

Hey, she tried again. I just checked my email. How could she phrase this besides saying “Sorry, I totally forgot we had an assignment due tomorrow even though we literally met up to work on it like two days ago?”

Whatever.

I totally forgot we had that assignment due tomorrow, she typed, and sent the open-ended message.

The reply was almost immediate. 

kinda figured. dw, I got it this time. I’ll send it when I’m done

Jessica was surprised, and was surprised that she was surprised. Of course Tiffany would have it under control. She seemed to have everything under control. Jessica almost felt bad for not helping. She might act lazy, but she’s not an idiot. In her hesitation, she saw another message being typed. 

but don’t think this is how it’s gonna be for the rest of the semester :)

Jessica smiled, typing back. Despite the intense levels of awkward and tenseness and whatever it was between them, Jessica would never stoop to being a bad teammate. She’d prove it.

Don’t worry, it won’t be. Can we meet before discussion tomorrow and go over the assignment?

Jessica felt ridiculous for being nervous. She was glad Hyoyeon wasn’t there to make fun of her. She could imagine her roommate’s responses: is Little Miss Icy finally warming up?

It wasn’t that she meant to act standoffish. In one of Hyoyeon’s more down-to-earth moments, she had pointed out that despite Jessica’s pretty face—was that a compliment, Kim Hyoyeon?—her social skills were horrific.

That’s what I have you for, Jessica had replied.

Good thing, too, Hyoyeon said.

Her phone buzzed. 

sounds good! let’s meet the library, 15 mins early?

Jessica sighed, already bracing herself for another round of avoiding eye contact and trying her best to pretend Tiffany was just a class partner.

see you then

Read 10:42 PM

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A/N: Has it really been months? I am so sorry.

I've made a twitter though, so follow me, let me know what you think, or bother me about updates!