“Look at the snow,” Sinb said as she looked out the window. “The fluffy, aesthetic balls of white falling and hitting the floor with gentle grace.”

Sinb put her hand on the window, “How wonderful it’d be if I could go outside and take a picture.”

“Hun, I doubt that you are going to go outside,” Yerin said. “You’re wrapped in a big blanket.”

“It’s aesthetic, but sadly it’s too cold,” Sinb said as she turned around.

“Then why come up with such a dramatic monologue?” Yerin said. “Also, remind me why you’re in our room.”

“Because I wanted to,” Sinb said as to answer both of the questions at once.

“Well, you better get back to your own room and get ready. We all have to go to the assembly soon.” Eunha said from the bathroom.

“Don’t worry, I’m already all prepared,” Sinb threw off her blanket to reveal that she was indeed ready to leave.

“Why couldn’t you wait in your own room?” Yerin asked. “Aren’t you leaving Umji all alone?”

“It’s awkward,” Sinb said.

“Still don’t like her?” Yerin sighed.

“It’s complicated…”

“Why?”

“It’s hard to explain…” Sinb said as she dismissed the conversation.

Yerin puffed her cheeks, “Hwang Eunbi, at this rate you’ll never get a girlfriend.”

“What do you mean?” Sinb said. She was dating Umji, but it was more to just get the guilt off her chest and to use her until someone else came. She felt bad for treating Umji bad all the time even though she was trying to change for her, but Sinb just didn’t love her… so why not use her to find out what love actually was.

“I don’t mean that. I meant you’re attitude,” Yerin said. “At this rate, your bet is just going to become hot air wasted.”

“What do you mean, I am dating someone!” Sinb said. She didn’t mean for that to slip out.

“What? Really?” Yerin said in surprise. “Who?”

“Someone,” Sinb said. If Yerin knew about Umji and Sinb then she might get skeptical about their relationship and reason for dating. Sinb didn’t want that, Yerin would hate her for it.

“How do I know if you’re lying or not?” Yerin said.

“Ok, you caught me,” Sinb feigned sadness. “That was a lie to see how you’d react.”

“Oh shoot, bro I was kinda shocked… also, I didn’t expect you to get one so soon so I was scared that I’d have to get a tattoo so early.”

“Jeez, thanks…”

“I’m ready to go,” Eunha said as she walked out of the bathroom.

“Finally,” Yerin said.

“Shut up,” Eunha said. “I like to take my time.”

“Eun, you’re a typical girl,” Yerin teased.

“And you’re not?” Eunha asked.

“Nah, I only take like 20 minutes in the bathroom,” Yerin said.

“She’s someone you’d call barbaric,” Sinb replied.

“Exactly,” Yerin agreed.

“She said barbaric, you know…” Eunha said.

“I know, ‘beautiful’,” Yerin said.

“No, barbaric,” Sinb said. “Girl, can you hear?”

“Oh shoot! I misheard!” Yerin said. “What do you mean barbaric!”

“The moment’s over… you messed it up,” Sinb said in disappointment. “Girl, get your ears checked!”

“It’s fine, my ears just started ringing for a bit,” Yerin said. “I kind of just assumed what you said.”

“Have your ears been ringing frequently?” Eunha was concerned.

“Nah, don’t worry, it might’ve been because of Sinb’s loud voice so early in the morning,” Yerin said.

“So it hasn’t been happening frequently?” Eunha asked.

“No,” Yerin replied. “It might just be because I’m stressed about next month,”

“Stressed? Why?” Sinb said.

“Oh, I wasn’t supposed to say that…” Yerin said.

“Well now you gotta tell us,” Sinb said.

“Well,” Yerin started. “The arrangements are all done for our debut as Gfriend!”

“Seriously!” Eunha said.

“Yep! We’ve been practicing for a long time, and the teachers noticed, so they set up a street performance for us in a month… I was going to tell everyone tonight…” Yerin slumped.

“Well,” Sinb said. “That means I need to shave soon.”

“That’s awesome!” Eunha said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun!”

“Yep! Don’t tell the other three though, I want it to be a surprise for them at least.” Yerin said.

“Hm, will I be able to keep such a secret?” Sinb teased.

“You better,” Yerin put her fist up.

Sinb laughed.

“Yuju just texted me,” Eunha said. “We better get going.”

The three exited the room, and met up with Yuju and Umji; Sowon was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s the giraffe?” Sinb asked. “You would think that even if she was hiding we’d be able to find her.”

“She said that she wouldn’t be coming to the assembly, as she said she had something to do,” Yuju said.

“She said she would meet up back here after her classes ended,” Umji added.

Sinb and Umji’s eyes met. Umji looked over at Eunha to avoid Sinb’s eyes. Sinb kept looking at Umji. Her stomach dropped as Umji looked away. She hadn’t realized until now, but her heart was hurting. Sinb must’ve felt guilty. Using this girl for her own needs. Not even her own needs… she still can’t think of the reason why she asked Umji to date her. Maybe, she just hated Umji that much to where she wanted to toy with her feelings. Then what was this feeling? Must’ve been guilt…

“Well, we should get going,” Umji said without looking at Sinb.

 

 

“Welcome back to school,” The head of the school—Park Jisoo—started her speech, “And welcome to the second semester of the school year!”

There was a collective clap through the assembly hall, as it was obligatory to clap at this point.

She continued her routine speech about policies and school stuff, but at this point, Yerin was too drowsy to even follow what was going on. Eunha tried to keep her awake as it was quite disrespectful to fall asleep during someone’s speech, but soon she just gave up, as there was no saving Yerin. Eunha was slightly relieved to see that Yerin wasn’t snoring.

Sinb wasn’t paying attention to anything as her mind was swimming with thought. Her mind mostly revolved around Umji.

Umji was fake, so I hated her.

Umji is trying to change, yet I still hate her…

Now whenever I’m around her, my heart hurts, my stomach drops and I feel guilty. 

Sinb hated her own thoughts… they were annoying. Her thought process was stupid… of course, she probably didn’t hate Umji anymore as she changed the part of herself that Sinb hated. Umji is no longer fake… Yet, Sinb still doesn’t like her? Sinb can tell that these feelings that she feels now is not hate… but what is it? At this point maybe it was her stubbornness that couldn't owe up to thee fact that Umji was actually starting to grow on her.

Her mind pointed back to guilt. Sinb nodded, she must be doing all of this, and feel all of this because of guilt. She feels bad about getting mad at her, she feels bad about being a . She asked Umji out to repay her for being so bad... only for her to feel even more guilty because she was only toying with Umji's feelings.

Why did Umji look so sad when Sinb asked her out? There is so much she doesn’t know about Umji. Sinb hit her head; she can’t put two and two together. Sinb is trying her best to make it up, yet she has these feelings that make her reluctant to do so.

Maybe there is another reason why Umji was sad? Maybe Sinb should apologize… A girl’s emotion was a stupid thing…

Sinb couldn’t even understand her own feeling. What even is love? Was love what Sinb felt for Soyoon?

Man, my mind is crazy.

She looked over at Umji, and she felt the same feeling in her heart—hurt… and… contentment?

That’s new.

She watched at Umji had her thumb in . She couldn’t get her eyes off her. Umji was like an elf, strange, but something made you want to keep looking… or maybe that was just for Sinb.

This feeling was nothing like what she felt for Soyoon… did she even love Soyoon? What was love? Does she love Umji? But she hates Umji.

Nothing makes sense.

All while Sinb was thinking about Umji, Umji was thinking about Sinb.

How can I make Sinb like me…

At this point, Umji didn’t care about her unrequited love. She only cared for Sinb’s acceptance. It wasn’t even for herself; she needed to make Sinb’s college life enjoyable. Everything she was doing was for Sinb.

Umji thought about faking everything again, show Sinb that she was the best girlfriend Sinb could ever ask for… but Sinb already explicitly expressed her distaste for Umji’s fake personality…

She couldn’t just… be herself… No one likes that…

Umji stopped for a second, what kind of person is she actually? Was this current personality just another persona that got mixed inside Umji’s head?

Who am I?

 

“FINALLY!” Yerin yelled as the assembly came to an end.

“Yerin, they might hear you,” Eunha said.

“Oh shoot, you’re right,” Yerin said as she covered .

“Where did Umji go?” Yuju suddenly brought up.

“She’s right he-“ Yerin turned around to find that she was gone. “-re… Where did she go?”

“Did she tell you anything?” Yuju asked Sinb.

“No,” Sinb said. “Why would she tell me?”

“She’s your roommate?” Yuju said.

“I guess, but that doesn’t mean that I have to babysit her,” Sinb said. “She’s capable of doing her own thing.”

“Wow, that’s like the nicest thing you’ve said about her,” Yerin said. “I’m proud of you.”

“What do you mean,” Sinb said. “You’re making me sound like a rude .”

“You are though,” Yerin said.

“I can’t control what comes out of my mouth,” Sinb replied curtly. “Things just come out,”

“So saying that about Umji just came out?” Yuju asked.

“Ye- No,” Sinb corrected herself. “I just wanted to… end the topic of her whereabouts.”

“Mmhm,” Eunha said.

“Come on Yerin, we’re going to be late to class,” Sinb said.

“Classic Sinb, always running away,” Yerin teased.

“Shut up,” Sinb said. “If Umji went up ahead, she should be there already.”

The four girls parted ways and as Sinb and Yerin were walking Yerin said, “It seems like you’re warming up to Yewon,”

“Wow we haven’t used that name in such a long time,” Sinb said to dismiss the first thing Yerin said.

“Well, it is her name,” Yerin said. “At first you hated her guts, but now it seems like you hate her less.”

Sinb rolled her eyes. “Such progress,”

“Well, progress is progress,” Yerin said.

“Still wondering, why did you call her Umji?” Yerin asked. “At first I thought you were making fun of her, but then I realized that I was just overreacting,”

“You know, I was making fun of her,” Sinb lied. To be honest, she didn’t even know why she called Yewon, “Umji”.

“I hope you two can set aside your differences and become friends,” Yerin continued. “I have a feeling that you two can have a great relationship one day.”

“And that day will be when I decide to stop being a ,” Sinb joked. “And you know how impossible that is.”

“That’s true,” Yerin laughed. “I thought Soyoon leaving you would fix your attitude, but it just got worse,”

“, why you gotta bring that up,” Sinb shoved Yerin. “We didn’t really have a thing going anyways.”

“Bro, stop swearing, jeez, no wonder you got no girl,” Yerin shoved back.

“, I'm gonna do whatever I want,” Sinb laughed.

“Girl, soon I'm gonna start swearing,” Yerin said.

“I bet you won’t,” Sinb said.

“You’re right,” Yerin laughed.

The two laughed as they neared their class.

“You know, you should look past that weird hatred you have for Umji I don’t know what it may be,” Yerin looked at Sinb, “But thinking about it, it’s probably because she’s nicer than you’ll ever be,”

“Girl, I’m going to fight you,” Sinb said.

Yerin laughed, “I can sense that Umji isn’t a bad person, you just need to give her an actual chance. You don’t know much about her yet because of this barrier both of you have set up against each other. Maybe step into her shoes and look around, you might find something that you’ve never thought you’d ever see.”

Sinb was silent.

“A person’s personality says a lot about a person, maybe get to know the real Umji,” Yerin replied before patting her back. “I really believe that Umji can be a better friend than I’ll ever be,”

Kind of hard to believe. Sinb thought. She looked down at her shoes as Yerin went inside the building. Maybe she wasn’t giving the chance Umji deserved. There was something about Umji that was unsettling, but that doesn’t mean that should define her whole being. Sinb was hard to judge, and she judged Umji harshly… maybe she should give Umji a chance.

Sinb walked into the building, and for the first time that day, she realized how exhausted she was.

Her body felt like she ran a marathon. She walked into her classroom, and by then, she was a little short of breath. She really needed to work out… she has been slacking.

She met eyes with Umji, and she saw an expression that she has seen before: great concern.

This was normal, but then why was Umji so worried?

“Right on time, Ms. Hwang,” The teacher said. “Now let’s start class.”

 

Yuju met Sowon after her first class.

“Where did you go?” Yuju asked.

“Oh, I had… business elsewhere,” Sowon smiled.

“What was it for?” Yuju asked.

“Volunteering,” Sowon quickly answered.

“What were you volunteering for?” Yuju asked.

“Yuju, if you keep asking me so many questions, it’ll feel like you’re interrogating me,” Sowon laughed.

“Oh sorry, I was just curious,” Yuju said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sowon said. “I just had a little something I had to do. Plus, I’d rather be anywhere else but that assembly hall,”

“Do you not like listening to the chairwoman?”

Sowon paused, “Yes, it’s boring and it’s the same old speech over and over again.”

“Oh,” Yuju said. “Well, are you free for the rest of the day?”

“Sadly no,” Sowon sighed, “Some people transferred in and as an uperclassman, I need to them and welcome them.”

“Can I come with you?” Yuju asked. “I have the rest of the day free.”

“As much as I’d love for you to tag along, it’s not allowed.” Sowon sighed again.

“Oh,” Yuju’s face fell into a small pout.

“I’m pretty sure Eunha is free for the rest of the day,” Sowon said to cheer Yuju up. “Why don’t you hang out with her? I’ll meet you in the dorm.”

“Ok,” Yuju replied.

Sowon walked away and headed towards her destination. Her smiling face turned into a frown.

Back to this again.

 

Sowon exited the room after filling out an application for one of the incoming students.

“What’s the case with this one?” A girl asked as Sowon walked up to her.

“This one shows symptoms of Schizophrenia,” Sowon said.

“This early?” The girl said. “That’s quite rare… and quite unfortunate… how bad does it look?”

Sowon handed the girl the applicant and another binder, “We’re not sure, its just symptoms and even if she does happen to have it, we’re not sure of the level of extremity.”

The girl silently took the two binders.

“Anyways, you know the drill,” Sowon said.

The girl bowed and walked away leaving Sowon emptier than before.

 

 

“GUESS WHAT GUYS!” Yerin yelled as all the girls were gathered back at the dorm. “GFRIEND IS OFFICIALLY DEBUTING NEXT MONTH!”

Yuju’s face lit up and the other two opened their mouth in awe.

“That’s awesome!” Sowon said.

“Where are we performing?” Umji asked.

“We’re performing in the middle of Seoul,” Yerin said. “The teachers are even setting up a stage for us,”

“Wow! We’re going to be like actual idols!” Yuju said.

“Yep!” Yerin puffed her chest out.

“Sorry to ruin the mood guys, but I think we should all get ready for bed, it’s really late and I know some of us have classes early in the morning,” Sinb said.

“True,” Eunha said. “Yerin let’s go up, we don’t want to keep everyone down here longer than they need to.”

“I guess…” Yerin said as she pouted. “Mark the date, guys!”

The three pairs left quietly and went up to their rooms, and soon night fell.

---

 

Does it count as media if I post my chapters... I hope not... I couldn't wait til Sunday ><

Welp, I think talking does count... so imma make this quick so I won't be sinning longer than I need to.

Sorry about this being shorter than usual. Also, I hope things aren't confusing, but they might be... but that's the point. But I'm kinda making things obvious now...

hm well, yep! See you Sunday! Maybe I'll finish the next chapter? Idk, knowing me and school... it'll be out in three years... but hey! This only took a month! So I'm proud about that!

Now I gotta work on my other stories.... 

So until next time!