The girls were finally back at school after the competition and it was like they were super famous movie stars to all the teachers. Everyone kept congratulating them when they would see them in the school halls. Jessica was at the top of the ladder when it came to receiving congratulations. The teachers absolutely loved her and everyone wanted to her questions about the competitions. A meeting with the school principal was even scheduled, photos were taken and everything.

At first Jessica loved it, because she felt like they had actually done something worthwhile even though they didn’t win 1st place. It felt like the whole competition wasn’t pointless just because they didn’t win. Honestly, people say that nobody remembers the 2nd and 3rd place winners, but Jessica felt like in this moment, all of the teachers in the school will remember their team’s accomplishments forever.

School was the only place where Jessica felt appreciated. She wasn’t getting that kind of treatment at home. Her mother continued to drive her crazy because of the competition, saying things like “You could’ve don better, Jessica!” or “You should’ve won 1st place. 3rd place is such an embarrassment!”

Jessica hated it so much that her mother wasn’t proud of her and diminished all the hard work she had done for the competition. Why couldn’t she just be happy for her like everybody else? Why couldn’t she praise her?

Jessica felt super depressed when she had to come home every day after school, so she tried to avoid it as much as possible by taking up extra work at school and occasionally going to Taeyeon’s house when the girl didn’t have basketball practice.

It was hard for both girls. They were so used to spending all their time together in LA when they were at the competition that now it just because they were both so busy and could barely see each other, even at school. They would text as much as they could do, it was still something. They could sneak off behind the school building for maximum 5 minutes a day and just kiss for a while, enjoying each other. That was all they could get during school hours because Jessica was either working on the Economics stuff, preparing for the next competition and Taeyeon was training like crazy for her basketball tournament. It was so sad, but both girls managed to deal with it.

Taeyeon was sitting on one of the benches in the locker rooms and scrolling though her phone, trying to get her mind off the fact that Jessica hadn’t texted her for more than an hour. Practice was finally over for the day and Taeyeon needed to change and head home, but she just stood there hoping that her girlfriend would text her and they could meet up.

“What are you still doing here, Taeng?” Yuri asked her best friend and eyed her curiously.

“Oh… I’m waiting for my brother to text me and tell me if we’re meeting up later,” the girl lied because she didn’t want Yuri to know that she has a girlfriend and had been hanging out with Jessica.

“Cool! I’m glad that you’re not going to work with those nerds from that economics thing,” Yuri’s voice was super y and it was obvious that for some reason she didn’t like Jessica and the others. “Do you know how hard it was for me when you were in L.A. with them for such a long time. I missed you, man.”

Taeyeon was a little annoyed that Yuri was talking about her girlfriend and new friends but she couldn’t let it show just how much it bothered her, so she went along with her.

“Yeah, I’m glad I don’t have to spend time with them too. They only talk about boring school stuff,” Taeyeon lied, trying to convince her best friend that she hated the Economics team too.

“So I guess that picture and those comments that you left on the group photo in L.A. was all just an act? You were pretending to be nice to them,” Yuri proudly said and fist bumped her best friend. “It would be a shame if you actually enjoyed the company of those geeks.”

“Yeah, yeah… don’t be crazy. You know I’m too cool for those losers!”

Taeyeon needed to keep up the act so Yuri wouldn’t get suspicious.

“Taeyeon, may I speak to you for a second,” suddenly both girls heard their coach’s voice coming from behind them and they both turned around. Taeyeon nodded and immediately went to see what’s going on.

Yuri decided to wait for Taeyeon so they could hang out a bit more. They hadn’t seen each other for a while and Yuri really did miss spending time with her best friend. As she was waiting she heard something vibrating from inside Taeyeon’s bag. She decided to open it and see what it is. The girl searched inside and saw that Taeyeon’s phone was lighting up and vibrating like crazy because someone was sending her so many text messages one after another.

She tried to open them but Taeyeon’s phone had a password lock. The only thing she could see was the small notification and who it was from.

“Jessica Jung,” Yuri read out the name. She was confused and wondered since when do her best friend and this nerd text so much. She was interested in the fact that if Jessica was willing to blow up Taeyeon’s phone like that, then maybe they must be close or Taeyeon is pulling a really amazing prank by pretending to care and getting the nerd to trust her, then stab her in the back afterwards. The only message that Yuri could see was “Are we hanging out later?” and she was now really intrigued about what’s going on. Either way the girl thought she should get to the bottom of things.

She heard Taeyeon and the coach coming back, so she immediately put her best friend’s phone back in her back and zipped it up.

“Girls, I have to head out. Don’t slack off now, got it? I need you both at your best game for the upcoming tournament!” the coach told them and then left the locker room.

Afterwards Yuri immediately asked her best friend about her conversation with their coach. “What’s up? What did the coach want to talk about?”

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