Seolhyun instantly had made a name for herself by the end of the day. She became the ‘Girl Who Dumped Her Spaghetti on Them.’ She expected backlash in every hallway and class, especially when she spotted one of the Jung boys in her History class or a freshly clothed Chaeyeon sulking by her locker.

But it never came.

After school she drove home, trying to figure out everything that had happened since she moved there.

The first day she’d felt something strange by Hyejeong’s sudden ‘inspection’, surveying her entire house, as the new roommate (not to mention how supernatural power made her name chosen among bits of paper). The second day, she oddly fainted in front of Hyejeong. Then at the lake, Hyejeong had sprouted gills. The flash of light with the bear and the attack at grocery store had to be the same. And all that junk Doyeon had been saying.

It was insane. She stopped herself before she started Googling ‘Evensi” and maybe searching for aliens in her backyard. As soon as she went downstairs, there was a knock on her door.

It was Mina. “Hey,” she said, “can we talk?”

“Sure?” Seolhyun shut the door behind her and walked outside. “My mom’s still asleep.”

Mina nodded as she sat on the swing. “Seolhyun, I am so, so sorry about today. Chaeyeon is a complete sometimes.”

“It’s not your fault she acted like that,” Seolhyun said, meaning it. “But what I don’t get is why she and Hyejeong acted like that.” She stopped, feeling that stupid burn in . “I shouldn’t have dumped my food on them, but I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life.”

Mina sat beside her, crossing her ankles. “I think it was actually kind of funny, what you did and not what they did.” She giggled. “Chaeyeon isn’t Hyejeong’s girlfriend. She wants to be, but she’s not.”

“It didn’t look that way to me.”

“Well, they do... hang out.”

“She’s using her?” Disgusted, Seolhyun shook her head. “What a jerk.”

“I think it’s mutual on both sides. Honestly, they did date last year for a little bit, but then it cooled off. Today was the most I’d seen my sister pay attention to her in months.”

“She hates me,” Seolhyun said after a few minutes, sighing. “I don’t care about that right now. I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

“Okay?”

“We’re friends, right?”

“Of course!” Mina looked at Seolhyun with wide eyes. “Honestly, Hyejeong scares everyone off and you’ve lasted the longest, and, well, I think you’re like officially my best friend.”

Seolhyun was relieved to hear that. Not the part about her lasting the longest, because that sounded weird. Like they broke their friends or something. “Same here.”

“Good, because I would’ve felt stupid for saying that if you decided you didn’t want to be friends anymore with me.” Mina smiled broadly.

The sincerity in her voice hit Seolhyun. Suddenly, she wasn’t sure that she wanted to question her. Maybe it was something she didn’t want to talk about because it was too painful.

“Okay, why did you ask?”

Seolhyun tucked her hair back, staring down at the floor. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about Youkyung?”

Mina froze. Seolhyun didn’t even think she breathed, to be honest. Then she ran a hand up and down her arm, swallowing. “I guess someone told you about her at campus?”

“Yeah, they told me she disappeared with a boy.”

“I know you probably think it’s weird that I’d never mentioned her, but I don’t like talking about her. I try not to even think about her.” Mina looked at Seolhyun, eyes glistening with tears. “Does that make me a bad person?”

“No,” Seolhyun said fiercely. “I try not to think about my dad, because it hurts too much sometimes.”

“We were close, me and Youkyung.” Mina wiped a hand across her face. “Hyejeong was always the quiet one, off doing things on her own, but Youkyung and I were super close. We did everything together. She was more than a sister. She was my best friend.”

Seolhyun didn’t know what to say, but, it certainly explained the almost desperate quality to Mina’s friendship. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up. I didn’t understand and–

“No, it’s okay.” Mina twisted toward her. “I would be curious, too. I totally understand. And I should’ve told you. I’m such a crappy friend that you find out about my other sister from other people.”

Seolhyun shook her head. “Nothing. When you’re ready to talk about her, I’m here. Okay?”

Mina nodded. “Okay! Well, I wouldn’t try to talk to Chaeyeon anytime soon.”

“What about Hyejeong?”

“Good question,” she said, glancing away. “I have no idea what she’ll do.”

***

The next day, as soon as Doyeon and Jieqiong arrived at class, they demanded to know what possessed Seolhyun to dump her plate of spaghetti on Hyejeong’s and Chaeyeon’s heads.

Seolhyun shrugged. “Chaeyeon was being a . Why couldn’t I?”

Eyes wide, Doyeon leaned across the aisle. “And what about Hyejeong?”

“She’s always an ,” Seolhyun told them.

Jieqiong took off her glasses and giggled. “I honestly wish I’d known you were going to do that. I would’ve filmed it.”

“Gladly.” Seolhyun started to laugh.

“Rumor around here is you and Hyejeong hooked up over the summer.” Doyeon seemed to wait for Seolhyun to confirm the rumor.

Seolhyun stopped laughing. “Wow. People are ridiculous.”

She held their gazes until Jieqiong coughed and asked, “You’re going to sit with us today?”

Surprised, Seolhyun blinked at her. “You still want me to sit with you after yesterday?” She was figuring she’d be eating her lunches in the restroom for the rest of the year.

Doyeon nodded. “Are you kidding? We think you rock. We don’t have any problems with them, but I’m sure there have been a few students who’ve wanted to do that.”

“And it was pretty badass,” Jieqiong added, grinning.

Seolhyun chuckled, relieved. “I’d love to, but I’m only taking one class today. I’m getting my splint off.”

“Oh, you’re going to miss the party,” Doyeon said. “Poor you, food ninja.”

And then Hyejeong walked into class. Seolhyun sunk in her seat, biting her lip. “Oh God.”

Wisely, both girls stopped talking. Seolhyun picked up her pen, pretending to be engrossed in the notes she’d taken yesterday. Turned out, she hadn’t taken many notes, so she wrote the date on her notebook very slowly.

Hyejeong took the seat behind her, and her stomach jumped clear into . She was going to vomit. Right there, in class, in front–

Hyejeong poked her in the back with her pen.

Seolhyun froze. Her and that goddamn pen. The poke came again, this time with a little force behind it. She swung around, eyes narrowed. “What?”

Hyejeong smiled.

Everyone around them was staring. It was like a repeat of yesterday lunch. Seolhyun bet the audience were wondering if she was going to dump her backpack on Hyejeong’s head this time. Depending on what Hyejeong said, though, so there was a good chance it could happen.

Hyejeong stared at her. “You owe me a new shirt.”

Seolhyun’s jaw hit the back of her chair.

“Well,” she continued softly, “spaghetti sauce doesn’t always come out of clothes.”

Somehow Seolhyun found her ability to speak. “I’m sure you have enough shirts.”

“I do, but that was my favorite. That was AOA Cream’s.”

“You are an Elvis?” Seolhyun raised an eyebrow. “Oh wait, what is AOA Cream’s fandom name again? Creamies? Jellies? Lollipops?”

“Problem with that? Come on, have you watched their MV? They have such cool abilities.” Seeing Seolhyun rolled her eyes, Hyejeong started to grin again. “And I also think you ruined Chaeyeon’s favorite shirt, too.”

“Well, I’m sure you were there to comfort her during such a traumatic situation.”

“I’m not sure she’ll recover,” Hyejeong replied.

“Don’t tell me that was Sailormoon shirt? Aw, you guys are so cutely matched.” Seolhyun started to turn around.

“Keep going,” Hyejeong said, tipping Seolhyun’s chin up.

Oh, my.

At that precise moment, Seolhyun’s brain stopped working. It stopped thinking, and even trying to think.

“Out of words, Seolhyun?” she said, flashing her killer jerk-smirking. “Ah, you have no idea how y you look right now, so pissed at me.”

Seolhyun stared at Hyejeong for a long moment. The warning bell rang, but it seemed far away. Her chest lurched. “I hate you,” she said, low enough for only them to hear.

Leaning closer, Hyejeong tipped the edge of her desk down. There were only a few inches between their mouths. Totally inappropriate amount of space, really, since they were in class, and Hyejeong had a girl on her lap yesterday. “You and I have to talk.”

Seolhyun’s eyes dropped to her lips. Such a waste of a mouth. “We have nothing to talk about.”

Hyejeong’s gaze dropped, and the air suddenly felt steamy. Unbearable. “Yes,” she said, voice low, “we do. Tonight.”

Part of Seolhyun wanted to tell Hyejeong to forget the whole talking thing, but she gritted her teeth and nodded (how could we blame her, though?).

There was a fluttering deep in Seolhyun’s chest, a breathlessness that shouldn’t be there. She didn’t like her. She was a jerk. Moody. But there had been brief moments that she had spent with her, like maybe a nanosecond, when she thought she might have seen the real Hyejeong. At least a better  Hyejeong. And that part made her curious.

And the other side, the jerky one, well, that part didn’t make her curious. It sort of excited her.

Later that night...

It was after eight when Hyejeong showed up at Seolhyun’s door, a few minutes after her mom left for hospital. She was leaning against the railing, staring up at the sky like usual. With the moonlight slicing over half of her face and the rest deep in shadows, Hyejeong didn’t seem real.

Gathering up her courage, Seolhyun walked over and stopped beside her. “Is Mina home?”

“No.” Hyejeong replied, glancing down at Seolhyun. “She went somewhere with Chaeyeon, but I doubt she will stay long.” Hyejeong paused as she returned to staring at the night sky. There were a thousand twinkling stars. “I told her I was going to hang out with you tonight. I think she’ll come home soon to make sure we haven’t killed each other.”

Looking away, Seolhyun hid her foolish smile. “Well, if you don’t kill me, I’m sure Chaeyeon will be more than glad to do so.”

“Because of the spaghetti war or something else?”

“Well, you looked mighty comfy with her in your lap yesterday.”

“Ah, I see.” Hyejeong pushed off the railing, coming to stand beside Seolhyun. “It makes sense now.”

“What?”

Her eyes gleamed in the dark. “You’re jealous.”

“Whatever.” Seolhyun forced a laugh. “Why would I be jealous? I’m not AOA Cream members.”

Holding her laugh, Hyejeong followed Seolhyun down the steps until they were standing in the driveway. “Because we spent time together.”

“Spending time together isn’t a reason to be jealous, especially when you were forced to spend time with me.” Seolhyun realized how lame it was that she was sort of jelly. Ugh! “Is this what we need to talk about?”

Hyejeong shrugged. “Come on. Let’s take a walk.”

Watching her, Seolhyun smoothed her hands over her dress. “It’s kind of late, don’t you think?”

“I think and talk better when I walk.” Hyejeong held a hand out to Seolhyun. “If not, I turn into the Jerky Hyejeong you’re not very fond of.”

“Ha. Ha. Interesting superhero name there.” Seolhyun stared at Hyejeong’s hand. There was a fluttering in her stomach. “Seriously? I’m not holding your hand.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not going to hold hands with you when I don’t even like you.”

“Ouch.” Hyejeong placed her hand over her chest, wincing. “That was harsh.”

Yeah, she needs better acting classes. “You’re not going to take me out in the woods and leave me there, are you?”

“Sounds like a fitting case of revenge, but I wouldn’t do that. I doubt you would last very long without someone to rescue you.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

Hyejeong tossed her a brief grin, and they walked in silence for a few minutes, crossing the main access road. The night air was definitely chilly. Soon they had moved deep into the woods, where the moonlight struggled to make it through the thick trees.

Hyejeong reached in her back pocket and pulled out a thin flashlight that gave off a surprisingly large amount of light. Every cell in Seolhyun’s body seemed to be aware of how close Hyejeong was while they walked in a cocoon of darkness, the light bouncing in front of them with each step. And Seolhyun hated each of her traitorous cells with a vengeance.

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