A/N: This two-shot was supposed to be posted on June during my two best friends' birthday but unfortunately, I'm very slow. To Natalia, my good friend who always spices up my day whenever I feel alone and to Leticia, my tiny friend who gets all my self doubt and spends a lot of time being emo with me.

Inspired by a book titled The Red Files by Lee Winter.

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For most young girls, having a best friend who had known them since childhood and who had grown up sharing giggly secrets with them up until adulthood was probably, a dream came true.

Seulgi would love to have a friend like that too -- the one who had gone through thick and thin with her for a really long time -- so she could craft those cute friendship scrapbooks at the end of every school year and post pictures on her social media that read, “Yay! Best Friend Forever! Xoxo.”

However, life seemed to have a different plan for her altogether because instead of giving her the ‘BFF’ she had always wished for, it granted her a lifetime ‘BBF’ instead. And by ‘BBF’ she meant the Biggest Forever.

The biggest forever came in the form of the smallest girl forever however, and this was how the story of Seulgi’s eternal nemesis unfolded.

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“Pay us 1000 won or take the long way around!” Bae Joohyun – also known as Baechu as how Seulgi made the other kids call her – stomped the skinny wooden stick in her hand into the ground as if it was the mighty Poseidon’s trident and she was the god of the sea – or in this case, the goddess of the puny neighborhood – herself.

Seulgi looked up at her snobby, pompous face in anger, practically blowing white steams out of her nostrils as she wished hard that one day she could grow taller than this evil witch just so she could smack her upside down.

“I’m not gonna pay you any money, Baechu. You own none of these streets.”

The said girl stalked towards her in what supposed to be a threatening manner, and two of her sidekicks – Yerim and Sooyoung – snickered at the side. She glared at Seulgi like she could swallow her whole. “My name is Bae Joohyun, you idiot. And in case you can’t spell names out properly yet, you better run back to your momma and study more instead of polluting the sight out here with your snotty, runny nose.”

Seulgi glared back at her with what she hoped was equal menace, and ran a finger under her nose to wipe off the snot that never seemed to end for reasons she didn’t know. She considered wiping it off onto Joohyun’s face just for the hell of it.

“And? What are you gonna do if I refuse to pay you? Cry your Bugs Bunny teeth out?”

At the mention of her buck teeth, Joohyun immediately pursed her lips to close over her protruding front teeth and bright pink braces, self-conscious and angered as she shoved Seulgi on the shoulder until the shorter girl stumbled several steps backwards.

“You little piece of annoying poop! I’m gonna whoop your stinky !”

She pushed Seulgi on the shoulder again until the girl nearly fell, and this time, Seulgi refused to go down without a fight as she expelled a loud yell to boost her combat spirit before charging forward and literally tackling Joohyun onto the ground.

They rolled and squawked and screamed unceremoniously, until somebody actually got angry enough to throw out a fist amidst the hell of a mess.

Seulgi would always resent Joohyun for making her lose one of her baby teeth in the most painful way possible. The second Joohyun’s knuckles kissed her right smack on her upper lip, her head was sent flying upward and she saw stars swirl before her eyes.

“Hey, should we call someone?” Sooyoung whispered to Yerim in concern, who in return, only replied her with an amused, “No.”

“Joohyun unnie got this.” She whispered back.

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“Seulgi, is this really necessary?”

Soojung, Seulgi’s new favorite buddy since middle school started one year ago, asked in great distress as she watched Seulgi pluck at the thin threads of Joohyun’s running pants with her sharp little orange nails.

“Yes. Absolutely necessary. This is a good deed for the general publics.”

Seulgi crooked a huge -eating grin as she continued to pull at the untangled threads of Joohyun’s pants, feeling immensely satisfied – and evil – with her little stunt. “I still haven’t got her back for making me painfully toothless in elementary.”

Soojung sighed and crossed her arms, tired arguing against her childish, petty friend. “Hurry up, someone can walk up to their locker and see us. I don’t wanna get into trouble.”

Seulgi finished her job and put the plucked up running pants back into Joohyun’s locker, constantly giggling at her genius idea to bribe the key man with one month worth of lunch money to get the insufferable girl’s duplicate key.

Living on tofu for a month would be definitely worth it.

She had been waiting for this particular activity in PE class since the start of the semester, and she would see it come to a victorious end no matter what.

When the PE teacher gathered them in the Long Jump field an hour later and all the students clad in their gym attires flocked to the said area, Seulgi knew that it was finally time for show.

She passed one last sly glance at Joohyun as the girl with high ponytail raised her hand to be one of the first students taking the long jump – always competitive, that little prick – rubbing her hands together in evil anticipation as she watched on hopefully.

Seulgi swore she wasn’t naturally a devilish person, but dealing with the devil herself for many, many years had taught her that she had to be the bigger devil to survive. Or so, she was told.

When Joohyun took off from the ground and flew across the field like a feather carried by the wind Seulgi held her breath in anticipation, because the second she landed back to the ground with a heavy squat all her actually not-so-feathery weight made its existence known in her stuck-up by ripping her pants right smack in the middle.

The loud ripping sound zapped through the field like a public announcement to every single student, and then a second after absolute silence somebody yelled from the back.

“Oh my god, it’s Barney! She has Barney on her underwear!”

The entire field exploded into voracious laughter as they started pointing out and shouting at the flabbergasted girl, and Seulgi couldn’t help but cackle her guts out as she clutched around her stomach and nearly rolled down to the ground.

“Purple dinosaur, Baechu? Really? I was thinking more of a green cabbage!”

Horribly ashamed and mortified beyond saving, Joohyun sat down immediately on the ground in a poor attempt to hide her exposed , whipping a dirty glare at Seulgi as her face turned into red shade so dark it resembled a beetroot.

“Kang Seulgi, you little piece of !!!”

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“My name is Joohyun, stop calling me Baechu, you stupid, lanky, twig looking idiot!”

With hormones flaring and period gnawing away at her already non-existent patience Joohyun glared up at Seulgi, her teenage fury magnifying by several hundred scales as she actually had to look up to glare at what used to be a stinky little brat.

Seulgi was now a good six centimeters taller than her, and even though it didn’t bother Joohyun that almost everyone in their high school now had grown taller than her – apparently her growth plate decided to die on her miserably when she hit 155 cm – she couldn’t take the fact that Seulgi now possessed the natural ability to look down on her.

She fumed even harder at the thought of it like a ball of fire.

“Get outta my face, Bae, I’m not in the mood to fight with mountain trolls. I just want to eat my lunch peacefully.” Seulgi placed her tray of food on the table and sat down, seemingly thinking of something as she rubbed her chin purposefully. “Although, on second thought, you are probably not a mountain troll because trolls are tall.”

She made a point to nod and picked up her spoon. “And a few hundred times less of a than you.”

Joohyun slammed her food tray on the table and balled her fists, face boiling red with anger as she sputtered. “You. Just because you have some useless, extra length to your limbs doesn’t mean that you get to say or do whatever the heck you want. I claimed this table first, so you need to take your stupid, F for five classes outta my face and find somewhere else to smell up.”

Seulgi’s ears burned red at the sudden, unexpected attack on her less than stellar academic performance, and she slammed her hand down on the table just as hard before shooting up from her seat.

Everyone in the canteen turned around to look at them.

“That’s a low blow, Bae. What is your problem? This place is for any student and this table doesn’t have your name on it! Are you just trying to one up your own iness today or are you all cranky because you just got rejected by that girl, Seohyun, from the twelfth grade? Maybe if you spend less time being a and more time chewing that stuck up stick off your with your buck bunny teeth you will actually find a girl who likes you back!”

Joohyun whipped a glare at her best friend Amber, who must have leaked the story of her failed confession to her girlfriend Soojung (who must have happily relayed the news to Seulgi) and glared back at Seulgi with even darker vehemence.

“Orrr, do you actually like me and all these petty fights you start with me are only excuses to touch me up?”

Joohyun made a disgusted face at her statement and almost spat out. “Even if all the girls in the world go extinct and I have to date boys, or monkeys in that matter, I won’t ever, ever like your . You are so dumb you can’t even spell the E in Economy right, which is weird considering that E is the letter you see most often on your papers because you have brain the size of a bean.”

Seulgi’s face colored so dark red this time she was actually turning purplish.

“You are so, full of , Bae.”

She yelled and charged forward, lunch be damned and pristine uniform be ed as she tackled Joohyun onto the floor again and soon their hands pulled at each other’s hair.

Someone screamed from the back of the hollering, cheering crowd, sounding like Son Seungwan who was the only sensible student in the entire mess of a school.

“Teacheeeers!!! Kang Seulgi and Baechu – Bae Joohyun – are going at it again!!!”

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Some things just never changed.

Seulgi had heard this saying more often than she wished for, but never in her life had she expected it to truly happen. She used to believe that change was the only constant thing happening in life, until she grew up her entire life right alongside her BBF, Bae Joohyun.

Joohyun stayed the biggest that she was from elementary school all the way to college, and unfortunately, after graduating, they even shared the same work.

Seulgi was positive that she was cursed for a lifetime.

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“You are late again.” Luna looked up at Seulgi’s panting form through her round rimmed glasses, the latter slamming a parking ticket down her office desk with a heavy grunt.

“If someone, and by someone I mean our one and only y Ice Queen of Seoul Metro News a.k.a Bae Joohyun knew how to park properly, I probably didn’t have to park my car illegally outside the building and I certainly didn’t have to get caught while doing it, which led me to not only get fined but also to get told to move my car three blocks down.”

She growled and threw her messenger bag onto her desk right next to Luna’s, proceeding to throw her own onto her chair right after.

The other girl looked at her in sympathy – or pity – and went back to type something on her computer with poise. “She parked her BMW right smack in the middle of the line that separates both of your spaces in the basement again?”

“Exactly!” Seulgi threw her hands up in frustration, sighing dramatically. “I swear to God, she is out to kill me slowly with all these lifetime tortures that never seem to end. I’m going to die young just because of her.”

Luna let out a low chuckle and remained typing her newest article about some political mayhem with ironically, way too peaceful smile. “Honestly, what was it that started this eternal war between the two of you? A misunderstanding or some sort?”

“Nope.” Seulgi looked up to the ceilings, pretending to consider the options she had when she clearly, already knew the one true answer. “She was born. That’s why.”

Luna laughed and tossed a ball of crumpled newspaper at her. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m serious. I think I’ve hated her with passion for longer than I’ve ever loved anyone. Which is equal part amusing and depressing.”

The other girl raised a brow at her, giving her a questioning look. “You broke up with your girlfriend again?”

“Yes.”

“When was this?”

“Yesterday.”

“Because?”

“You already know why.” Seulgi frowned.

“Let me guess.” Luna clicked her tongue. “Things grow dull over time, fire dies out into cold ashes as months pass, and not enough passion?” She stressed the last word intentionally, drawing a narrowing glare from the other girl. “Weird, I think I have just heard someone say ‘passion’ about someone a while ago.”

“Don’t do that.” Seulgi wagged a warning finger at her, shaking her head adamantly. “Don’t try to hook me up with the y Ice Queen. Do you want me to die of frostbite? I have no feelings towards her except for intense dislike.”

“Orrrr intense, pent up ual frustration that you have kept hidden for her since your early, pubescent days.”

“Ew.” Seulgi hurled the ball of newspaper back at her, grimacing heavily at the thought. “That is sooo gross. I’m going to kiss a bonobo monkey before even thinking of touching her.“

“And what a poor, sad monkey it will be.” Replied an arctic cold voice from across the room, making itself known with the presence of a petite girl striding tall in expensive, 12 cm killer Louboutin heels.

Joohyun stood straight and haughty, and as much as Seulgi despised to admit this fact, puberty and time had been kinder to her arch enemy than it had for most people.

The snarky black-haired girl, once buck toothed and plastered with pink braces that never seemed to come off, finally did get her teeth amazingly straightened on top of growing ten times more attractive and maturing in the most beautiful way possible in the span of four college years.

Gone were the reddish pimples from her angry teenage years, and even though she was still very commonly angry now, she had somehow morphed into cold, flawless porcelain skin and equally cold, deadly short snarks that opposed her noisier, less graceful teenage self.

Seulgi was actually more afraid of her now than before.

(And that might or might not have something to do with the fact that Joohyun was her Team Leader in their newspaper company.)

Seulgi really wasn’t academically bright – damn it – so it took her more years to finish her photojournalism study than Joohyun did for her investigative journalism study.

Damn it all to hell.

Now she was her junior and her inferior at work.

Note to kids out there? Please study well when you are at school.

“I’m not sorry to interrupt your unprofessional, unintelligent talk but I would like to have you in my office in less than two minutes.” Joohyun pulled her chin downward slightly so she could look at Seulgi through the top rim of her y – wait no – glasses instead of the lenses themselves. A degrading and intimidating movement that Seulgi had learned to lament for more than one reason.

“Uh…what for…?” She balked, unsure if being alone with Joohyun in a confined space would be a good idea. Would she be murdered and be hidden under the rug?

“You will know when you get there.” Joohyun said curtly, looking at her hasty morning getup with blatant distaste. “And honestly, Kang, if you ever wish to stop taking pictures of insignificant celebrities and move up the ladder to actually take shots of things that matter, I suggest you to throw out your holed up, cheap college flannels into the trash bin and get something suitable for your age.”

Seulgi whipped down to look at her red flannel immediately and winced when she spotted the graceless hole nestling on her right waist, the result of her chasing after a scandalous celebrity few weeks ago and practically slamming her waist into a doorknob.

She thought she was facing death that day.

“My office. Less than one minute.”

With that the woman in pristine Armani suit turned around and walked away from their puny little desks, as if she couldn’t stand the sight of them mortals for one more second.

“Good luck.” Luna whispered her support quietly.

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Bae Joohyun’s office was exactly as sharp and as arctic as her personality.

Seulgi wondered if the chill that prickled at her skin the second she set foot into the sophisticated, black and white room had something to do with the air conditioner or just the virtual frost emitting from Joohyun herself.

The said woman sat cross legged on her padded chair as she observed Seulgi with tilted up chin, making Seulgi feel suddenly self-conscious.

“When you are done gawking at my furniture you can actually close your mouth and open your ears to start listening to my instructions.”

Seulgi clamped shut immediately and frowned, displeased at being treated like a backwater hick.

“You don’t have to be rude.” She steadied her voice with effort, putting on her best polite attempt for her own sake. She needed her paycheck. “What is it that you want to talk about?”

Joohyun stirred in her chair, seemingly so reluctant and displeased by what she was about to state. Seulgi wondered what it was.

“I received a call from the superiors this morning and they said there were suspicious movements detected from local pharmacies in some provincial areas, where abnormally large numbers of certain medicine had been ordered for the past six months.”

The serious girl pulled her dark rimmed glasses off in a move that Seulgi totally think was not hot – absolutely not hot, at all – and put them on the table before looking at her again with that annoying exasperated sigh.

“They said, it looks like this abnormal occurrence may have something more to it and it may even relate to our current, most favorite presidential candidate who has been