Seulgi shivers under her coat, rubbing her palm together to create some friction for some heat. She can’t wait until she finds the older girl and just go back to her house as quickly as possible. The weather is getting worse and she wonders if the older girl is okay right now, the fact that Joohyun was never fond of the cold weather make her fastened her pace to the senior’s supposedly classroom.

She was going to giving her an unplanned visit. She figured that Joohyun would like something to warm her body up so Seulgi decided to brought her a cup of hot coffee, with her own hot beverage on her other hand.

A smile appeared on her face when she saw the older girl talking to someone else only to falter when she saw who it was. It was Song Jaerim, the boy who always gave her love letters since a year ago. The person that Seulgi didn’t know why she never likes.

Seulgi stood behind a wall quite far from them, out of their radar but enough to hear their conversation. It’s not her intention to eaves-dropped on them but she wasn’t sure when she should barge in into their conversation, at least that’s what she thinks.

“Was it really you?,”

She peeked her head a little and saw Joohyun taking out a familiar letter from her pocket, holding it in her hands to show the letter to him. Her ears perked up when she heard what Joohyun said next.

“,you’re our school’s mascot?”

And her eyes widened in disbelieve when the boy said yes, confident oozing in his voice. She couldn’t believe that he claimed himself as the person behind the costume when it really wasn’t him.

She couldn’t believe her ears either when Joohyun replies him with a somewhat happy response. She didn’t expect the older girl to believe it was him that easily.

The Junior came out of her hiding only to see that Joohyun is smiling widely at him that she felt a pang inside her chest. Maybe the charming smile he has on his face was the thing that make Joohyun believed what he said.

Seulgi her heel,

Her intuition was right that the boy brings nothing good to her.

------

The next morning Seulgi does her routine in the school lifelessly.

Her mood was so bad that she couldn’t even give a smile back to Joohyun when she approached them with a wide smile.

The older girl remains oblivious though, her face radiating happiness. The raven haired girl thought nothing could worsened her mood anymore but apparently Joohyun proved her wrong.

“Guess what did I found yesterday??”

Wendy know that Seulgi didn’t feel like talking for whatever reason today so she asks her on their behalf. “What?”

“You wouldn’t believe it, I found out who the mascot is!”

Even without looking she can feel that Wendy has her eyes bulged out of their sockets as she diverts her attention back to Seulgi but she felt something was wrong. Seulgi didn’t even change her expression this whole time. Confused with it, she decided not to jump to conclusion and chose the safe route.

Before Wendy could manage a reply though, Joohyun beat her to it. “It was Jaerim!”

Wendy grew even more confused with her eyes still wide, now looking at her best friend giving her a questioning look but Seulgi refused to meet her eyes, instead opting to stares at the ground.

Wendy frowns at the realization, She felt so stupid. If Joohyun knows that Seulgi was the mascot, why do the two of them had a totally expression with each other? Joohyun’s expression look nothing like Seulgi’s whose face looked anything but pleasant.

“Look, Joohyun un-“

“I think it’s the time for us to go to our classroom” Seulgi cut off Wendy before the canadian can say anything while Joohyun frowns in confusion at this.

“The break isn’t about to end in 15 minutes though?”

Seulgi shrugged nonchalantly at this. “We still got some project to discuss, goodbye Unnie” Seulgi basically dragged Wendy with her, not even waiting for Joohyun to reply her back as she hastily walk anywhere her feet can carry her, as long as it’s not near the older girl.

-----

“What was that all about??” Wendy furrowed her eyebrows, demanding an answer from Seulgi who is still refusing to meet Wendy’s questioning gaze.

“Why does she think that it was him?” Wendy continued asking her. Seulgi sighs as runs her fingers through her hair, scratching the scalp a little bit.

“I don’t know” Seulgi shrugged, fumbling with her fingers. “all I know is that yesterday when I was about to pick her up she was talking to him and he..”

Seulgi pressed her lips. “He said that he was the mascot and I don’t know how, but Joohyun unnie just easily believe that it was really him”

Wendy heaved a heavy sigh. “I told you you should’ve told her that it was you when you had the chance before anyone told her and claimed that it was them”

Seulgi huffed.

Easier said than done.

The conversation between them just ended up with Seulgi never talked back to Wendy and just continue to stare at nothing, with the words coming out of her best friend’s mouth didn’t got Seulgi’s attention anymore.

The next period, unfortunately for Wendy she has to parted ways with Seulgi because of the different class they have. Seulgi merely nodded her head before she went her way to her next class, ignoring the concern look her best friend give to her.

Her avoiding Joohyun was going perfectly fine, she hasn’t seen the older girl since the last conversation they had this morning.

“Hi Seul”

She mentally cursed herself for going down this route. She should’ve known that Joohyun will be waiting here like she used to do. She totally forgot about it just because she was too occupied with her thoughts.

She manages to give Joohyun a smile back, thankfully the older girl didn’t noticed it was a forced one as she only walked towards Seulgi with an unfaltering smile.

Joohyun linked her arm with Seulgi’s left arm, They continued to have decent conversations until the inevitable topic comes.

“So as I said, Apparently Jaerim was the mascot”

Seulgi clenched her jaw at the mention of his name. She didn’t know that Jaerim can be this shameless by saying that he’s the mascot. But mainly the part of why she was this upset was that Joohyun believes that it was really him.

“Okay” Seulgi said emotionless, shrugging mindlessly making Joohyun raises her eyebrows at the lack of excitement she expected from the former.

Joohyun actually noticed that Seulgi didn’t seem like her usual bubbly self since the morning, only replying Joohyun with short responses. But she didn’t think that it will be this serious to the point where Seulgi keep acting this way for a whole day.

“Are you okay?” Joohyun asks, this time eyebrows furrowed in concern.

“Sure” Seulgi responses her question curtly.

“Why are you telling me this?”, she blurts out.

Joohyun look confusedly at her. “What do you mean why I’m telling you this? We’re friends of course I’ll tell you this.. and you said that I could tell you anything” Joohyun smiles at the last sentence, though Seulgi didn’t reply her smile back.

That’s all they are, Friends.

“And you said that you don’t have any feelings for him”

“Well, it’s different if he was the mascot”

Seulgi unconsciously clenched her fists. Thankfully it was hidden inside her pockets so Joohyun wouldn't notice it. “How do you know that it was really him?”

“He said that it was him”

“And you actually believe that?”

Joohyun frowns. “what makes you think that it wasn’t him? He wouldn’t said that if it’s not true”

“Maybe he just wants to get in your pants” Seulgi said thoughtlessly, too caught up with her frustration that she didn’t think about the older girl’s feeling hearing that.

Joohyun pulls away completely from her at the same time taking the warmth away from her, unimpressed with what Seulgi just said. Seulgi almost whine when she lost the contact, almost.

“Why are you being like this? I thought you’re going to be happy that I finally know who it was”

“Because I-“

Because I am the stupid mascot who continues to pursue you.

“- Because you don’t deserve that kind of guy”

“You don’t know him Seulgi”

“Do YOU know him?”

Joohyun paused “… of course, he’s a good guy”

“You literally only know him personally for about, what? Less than 24 hours?” Seulgi shook her head firmly. “Unnie.. for all we know there was a possibility that he wasn’t the mascot..”

“..What are you implying?”

He lies about being the mascot.

Of course, Seulgi can say that but Joohyun will ask her why she said that and Seulgi would be forced to tell her secret to Joohyun. So, she just shut up and bites her bottom lip, frustrated with herself. And being a stupid person that she is, she let moves on its own and letting out the words coming out of without any thoughts.

“He’s a liar, He-he just likes you because of your look, everyone is!”

When she finally realized what she just said, she knew she was too late as she herself gasped while Joohyun just stares at her, the frown on her face deepens.

Joohyun was quick to hide the hurt in her eyes, though Seulgi has already seen it clearly written on her expression for a split second.

“How can you say that” Joohyun replies, with a tone that Seulgi has never heard before; anger.

“I-I’m sorry unnie I didn’t mea-“

“Forget it” Joohyun held her palm up, stopping Seulgi from salvaging herself. “I don’t know you can be such a jerk Seulgi”

Seulgi flinches at the tone Joohyun was emiting.

“I guess I thought of you wrongly” Joohyun said before she turn her back on Seulgi and left her alone, motionless in the hallway. Seulgi could only stare at her back as it grows smaller and smaller until it disappeared from her vision.

The hallway is so silent that Seulgi could only hear her own thoughts running inside her dull mind.

The raven-haired girl can’t believe she just said that to Joohyun, can’t believe that she lied about that. Joohyun was more than just a look, and Seulgi know it perfectly so how could she even said that?

Well, she’s not any different from him wasn’t she?

She doesn’t have the right to say that he was a liar when she herself kept this secret from Joohyun and all the lies she said to Joohyun when she had to reason to her whenever they had basketball matches.

Seulgi lets out a humorless chuckle.

What a hypocrite.

-----

The girl woke up feeling much worse than the day before, not only emotionally but physically too. She blamed herself for stupidly hanging around at her backyard with only thin layer of clothes, even though she knows that the weather was getting colder drastically. Her mother scolded her after that.

Though she can’t help but admit that doing that relieved her, at least for a moment. The coldness creeping on her skin successfully making her forget about the event she had with Joohyun. But the aftermath was something that Seulgi dislike.

She woke up with a splitting headache and eyes reddened from tears. The fact that Joohyun didn’t acknowledge her presence the day after the incident wasn’t helping her condition either.

Seulgi has been trying to make eye contact with the older girl since the moment she saw her this morning. They both crossed pathways in the hallway, with Seulgi awkwardly trying to open and attempting to apologize to Joohyun but the words never came out.

Seulgi wordlessly looked at Joohyun while the latter merely glanced at her for a brief second before averting her gaze elsewhere, continuing her walk to wherever it is as if they didn’t know each other.

She felt so dumb.

And she felt like , literally.

But feeling that way doesn’t come any close to the feeling of her heart plummeting at the sight she was seeing now.

Seulgi discreetly clenched her fist under the table as she stares at Joohyun and Jaerim at the table on the other side of the canteen, completely away from Seulgi, talking animatedly at each other as if they are the only one in the canteen. Joohyun didn’t even glance at her this time, not even once.

Of course, Yongsun and the others noticed that Joohyun was missing from their usual “meeting place” at the canteen, and Yongsun being the good friend that she is asked Joohyun why she wasn’t heading to their usual table.

Joohyun merely gave a small smile at her and told her that she will be spending her break time with Jaerim. Joohyun sends an apologetic smile to them, though Seulgi didn’t recall seeing Joohyun looking her way.

And Seulgi let the corner of her lips tugged downwards when Joohyun her back, making her way to Jaerim’s table.

Unfortunately for Seulgi, Yongsun didn’t miss the awkward atmosphere around them.