F I V E

               She stands still there, stunned at the fact that the girl who escorted her on the way back to the classroom was now sitting inside the class in her own seat staring back at her. Many things ran through Rose's head, and she starts taking small, minimal steps to her seat.

               "What're you waiting for, Rosie? Hurry up and sit in your seat."

               "Ah — ah... Right..." She murmurs to herself, remaining her line of sight with the seated Jisoo, who's currently grinning back at her (in a somewhat slightly frightful way).

               And back from Jisoo's perspective, she makes a small gesture with a simple wave.

               The bright, cheery facial expression of Rosé's drops as she lowers her head and looks to the floor while walking towards her way to her seat.

               "And so as I was saying, your partner is Jungkook, Rosie, if you didn't know that. In fact, he's sitting next to your sit in anticipation with wide eyes," the teacher grumbles digustingly. Though, every word to Rosé sounded like a blur.

               Jungkook? Out of everyone else, why Jungkook?

               He was great and all and perhaps a good guy, but this would get the whole school in roars as her name gets constantly mentioned with his every time it's mentioned out of someone else's mouth. Sure, they could get along and be a good match, but it does get irritating since it's a bit overdone — and not to mention the existence of his crazy fangirls. She does not want any part in that.

               And even if Jungkook was the subject of the teacher's conversation directed towards her, she wasn't thinking that much in depth about her future time spent with him on the project. Instead, her thoughts were all over Jisoo and the unanswered questions that she had mentally for her. What in the world just happened there? Were her eyes playing tricks on her? Was she talking to herself this whole entire time and having a weird hallucination about some new girl from school? Her thoughts were jumping from Point A to Point C, without a reasonable Point B to connect the other two thoughts to make sense.

               She tips her head slightly at the grinning boy next to her seat and sits down casually, though the look in her eyes are lost and out of it. Jisoo simply stares at her, with the corner of her eye.

--

               Passing period comes by quick, and before Jennie gets to spend some alone time by herself for a few minutes, Jisoo is quick to rest her cheek against the palm of her hand with her elbow on the table, facing the girl.

               "What was that all about?" She says in a slight pout.

               Jennie raises an eyebrow, simply moving her eyes towards her but not her head. She knows Jisoo was talking to her so she asks, "What do you mean?"

               "Well, it seems like you didn't want to be my partner earlier for the project."

               "It's whatevers. We're paired up now. I'd rather get it over with instead of receiving a failing grade for it."

               "Sounds like you do your work."

               "More or less."

               "Mm, maybe now you sound like you do just the minimum instead of overachieving."

               "Depends on my mood."

               "Mediocre-average level?"

               "Why're you asking me so many questions.." Jennie finally turns her head, "You're weird, okay? You've kind of freaked me out when we first met too... Go talk to the many people around here who actually wants to talk to you."

               Just very vaguely, Jisoo makes a grimacing grin, "Is that so... I just thought I'd get to know my partner a bit better before we got to work. You know, for teamwork-cooperating-synergy purposes, and maybe getting our ideas started."

               "We can just do it when we arrange a specific day for it. I don't really want to think about it right now," Jennie replies lazily as she lays her head down on the desk.

               The class period begins shortly afterwards, and the class sessions resume. Rosé has been sparing a few glances towards the pair and at their interactions. She decides that she just cannot conclude that she was hallucinating, and leave it at that. There was no way such a phenomenon would happen just like that. On another note, what if it was?

               Maybe it was my conscience telling me to get back to class instead of ditching.

               But either way, I'll just have to ask Jisoo myself about that, and if she reacts, then I'll know it wasn't me.

               I'm not the one freaking out about just nothing!

--

               The bell to begin lunch rang; every student scurried out of the classroom quickly for cafeteria lunch. Without much exchanging words or sparing glances at anyone, Jennie walks out of the classroom alone, giving no chance to Jisoo to approach her again. Rosé uses the opportunity and grabs the latter's forearm as she stands up to walk somewhere else, leaving her quite taken aback as she turns her head and looks at her wrist being held.

               "So, I believe you had something to clarify with me?" Rosé grins at her, "Like about how you know me and Jennie are stepsisters, why you told everyone, and your offer about venting out to you?"

               "Ah..." She perks her eyebrows up as if she truly had forgotten, "Well, I don't really have lunch though, so wouldn't it be kind of awkward to be sitting with someone who isn't eating lunch alone?"

               So all that talk with her on the rooftop really happened? - Rosé thinks to herself - Then how did all that happen??

               There was a moment of silence, with Jisoo just staring blankly at her.

               "W-Well, you could join me and my friends — one of them wants me to introduce you to her. Her name's Lisa." There's a pause in her statement until she awkwardly adds, "I-I probably have an extra portion of food for you too, you know. We could share, though I don't know how much you eat."

               Jisoo eyes the classroom door, but redirects her attention towards Rosé again, "Alright, I guess it's time to meet your friends and new people then." She says so while wearing a lopsided grin on her face as she follows the latter towards the cafeteria. And once she enters the doorway into the cafeteria, she immediately gives a stiff grin at the appearance of clusters of students randomly scattered throughout the room and many lines of students waiting to buy whatever they want as their meal. She keeps her attention straight ahead, though she knows that her presence itself is gathering all eyes on her as Rosé pulls her along. The girls reach their designated table shortly as Rosé finally stops and turns around to look at her while having her hand out towards a group of girls that were sitting down in front of them.

               "Ooh, you must be the new girl everyone's talking about!" A girl clasps both her hands right in front of her chest with a big, cheeky smile. She had long bangs that covered her forehead and past shoulderlength hair. She extends her hand out for a handshake, "Nice to meet you! I'm Lisa."

               Meanwhile, Jennie excuses herself silently and goes to the restroom so she could finally let her bladder relax after sitting through class all day long. She stares at herself in the mirror at the sink and gets lost in her thoughts, but they're cut short as others enter through the door.

               "Wow, I didn't know you were actually a person who was so on time," a familiar voice speaks out to her with sass.

               Oh . Is this the east wing's restroom?

               Jennie wants to mentally scream in frustration as she shut her eyes tightly. She wasn't even thinking about meeting Hyeri and her bandwagon of friends — in fact, she forgot she was called out to meet here. Yet here she was now, standing inside the girl's restroom by mistake, unintentionally, and without even realizing it. She lets out an awkward, unsure laugh of anxiety.

               "Oh... Ha, right.."

               No — I forgot we were supposedly "meeting!" I didn't want to come..

               "Well, what would you have wanted to talk to me about anyway, you know.. The first time I saw you and your friends were on the staircase, and I don't really know you so ..."

               "We can get to know each other then, right? You know, use this opportunity to do so now." Hyeri approaches her with her two sidekicks, "It's never too late, after all."

               "Yeah, you're right. It's never too late, so can we do this another da — "

               "Why are you in such a hurry? We haven't done anything yet," the girl to Hyeri's left says.

               Then, the girl on the right, "Yeah, why are you trying so hard to avoid us? You don't like making new friends?"

               "That's not — "

               — "She doesn't want to be friends, Hyeri!"

               — "What should we do, Hyeri?"

               Both sidekicks interrupt her.

               Hyeri scoffs and walks closer to her with her arms crossed against her chest, "You don't want to be our friend?"

               Oh god. What are "friends" in the first place?

               "Uhh. No, that's not it.. It's just..."

               "Okay, so you're willing to be friends with us, right?" Hyeri emphasizes the last word in her sentence.

               Truthfully, Jennie didn't want to drag this out on any longer. It wasn't like she was actually sincere about willing to be friends. She was almost sure that the definition she had as a "friend" wasn't the same as what Hyeri was implying. But to get through this and stop talking with the girls, she reluctantly agreed without bothering to care anymore.

               "... I guess."

               "Okay, so prove it then."

               Oh.

               "W-What?"

               "You heard me; prove it. And since you're going to ask me 'how?', then I guess you can just start with buying all of our lunches including the guys outside. You're rich anyway, considering the kind of car you drive already, so that shouldn't be a problem, right?"

               Jennie raises her eyebrows and stares at the other girl as if