Seulgi didn’t expect anyone to be inside the reserved changing room at that moment, so when she came in only to see Yeri and was told that there’s someone asking to meet the mascot, she raises her brow in confusion.

“Really?”

“Yeah, someone waited for me outside chemistry class just now and then asked me to meet you” Yeri hums seemingly attempting to remember something. “I assumed he’s a senior, judging by the color of his tie”

Don’t tell me that it was..

“Did he tell you his name?”

“Er..” Yeri looked upwards while Seulgi waits patiently. The break had just started so there’s no reason for the latter to be hasty, though she has somewhere she’s supposed to be at.

“I don’t know if I remember it correctly but I’m quite sure it starts with ‘Jae’.. Jae, Jae something”

She doesn’t need Yeri to complete the name as she already guessed that it was Jaerim.

The raven haired girl inwardly rolled her eyes. He must’ve been searching for the mascot because of something related to Joohyun, perhaps to ask for a favor so that he could prove himself to Joohyun that the mascot was indeed him.

Nope, Seulgi won’t and will never help him in that matter.

“Okay.. what did you say?”

“I said that I’ll have to talk to the person first.. and then he just said thanks and asked me to tell him your answer whenever I can” Yeri puts down her hot beverage on the nearest table before walking toward Seulgi, helping the older girl to put the costume on when she noticed that she’s having trouble with the zipper.

“So..?”

“Tell him that I can’t meet him” Seulgi replies, facing the sophomore now after she had successfully put her costume on.

Yeri gave her a confuse look, not that Seulgi didn’t expect.

“Oh.. why?”

“Just because”

“He seems a bit desperate though?” Yeri persisted. “I mean, I’m sorry if I’m being nosy but it’s rare for you to reject someone regarding helping them with something”

“Yeah well, it’s an exception for him” Seulgi shrugs nonchalantly. It’s not like she doesn’t want to help him just because she dislike him, but all of the people who came to her were just asking for the mascot to help them for a good purpose; like asking for help with performing in a charitable event outside of school, or like helping them with inviting more people to their new store. Even it’s a rare thing for her to get that kind of personal request.

She won’t help anyone with trying to act as someone that they don’t, let alone let Joohyun believes that the mascot was him.

-----

“Thank you so much!”

The guy beams happily at her as Seulgi nods her head a few times and gave him thumbs up, genuinely happy that she can help him.

“I don’t know how I will end up if I didn’t get your assistance, I will make sure that I’ll help you with anything if you ever need any help” the guy who Seulgi recalled his name as Hoshi, said. “Oh and please tell Wendy sunbae I’m really grateful for her help too.”

Making people happy because of her doing always made her day, and what Hoshi said made her lips curved into a big smile.

Yesterday, Jooheon told Seulgi that his friend, which is Hoshi, is having a little bit of problem with asking someone out on a date. The sophomore told her that Hoshi has been liking this girl from drama class since quite a while but despite the encouragement from Jooheon to just ask her out, he was still hesitant about it.

“Come on man don’t be a chicken”

“I’m not” Hoshi replied, frustrated. “I’m just afraid that it’ll ruin our friendship”

“Soonyoung, she likes you, believe me. Everyone can feel the tension between you two, even the cafeteria lady”

Yet, he was still unconvinced.

Seulgi actually wanted to help talk things out with him, but she was never a good advisor if it comes to romance. Heck, she can’t even solve her own ‘problems’ with Joohyun. Fortunately, Seulgi remembered that Wendy is a member of the dance class too and apparently, the girl who Hoshi likes is a friend of her. So, she asked Wendy to convince him in confessing to his long time crush.

Wendy is always good in convincing people so Seulgi wasn’t even surprised when Hoshi agreed to ask her out after talking to Wendy, with the help of the mascot as a bonus.

It started with Wendy leading the girl to the dance class with her. 

“Oh? Sunbae, it’s quite rare for you to ask me to accompany you to the dance class?” although a bit confused by the request, she quickly accepted the offer and walked side by side with Wendy. “I thought you said that you were too lazy to attend it nowadays” she teased.

Wendy grinned, “Yeah well, I have something to show you”

When she saw the suspicious look coming from the younger girl, the former can’t help but laugh.

“Don’t worry, I guarantee that you’ll like it”

Before the girl could reply, she saw something move from the corner of her eyes and was surprised to see the famous bear mascot, waving it’s hands enthusiastically at her.

She let out a chuckle when she saw the mascot danced it’s way to her in quite a dorky way and when it reached her, a letter was handed to her.

Seulgi didn’t know what it said inside the letter but it must have been quite surprising based on the girl’s expression. She had slightly open as her eyes scanned the paper she held.

“Who..” the girl folded the paper neatly before carefully holding it with her left hand, “who wrote this..?”

Seulgi only put her index finger up in front of her own mouth before walking behind the girl, covering her eyes at the same time.

“U-uhh..”

“Don’t worry, just follow where the mascot guides you.” Wendy said reassuringly before rushing off elsewhere. The girl decided just to go with the flow. Although, she was afraid that she might get a mean prank, she brushed the thought off when she knew that it was not possible because well.. Wendy is an angel in human form while the possibility of the mascot doing something bad to her was very slim.

And so she let herself getting dragged by the mascot with it’s big fluffy hands covering her eyes.

Her eyes blinked a few times to focus her sight again as soon as the furry hands that were previously covering her eyes were removed, only to widened them in surprise when she saw Hoshi in the middle of the dance room holding a flower, looking quite nervous.

“Will you..will you be my girlfriend Yuju?”

-----

Fortunately, after the incident with Joohyun, their relationship has gotten back to the usual state but with an addition that they’ve grown more understanding with each other than before.

The thing is, Joohyun has gotten a lot busier now. Not that Seulgi can complain because it will affect her life in the future. It is a thing that every senior get stressed about; CSAT or College Scholastic Ability Test to enter the college that she wants. The test will be held in the upcoming two weeks and Seulgi started to notice the dark circles underneath Joohyun's eyes.

She notices that Joohyun rarely came out of her room when she's home too, or answering her texts in that matter. Don't get her wrong, Seulgi wasn't asking for attention nor she wants to disturb her study, she was just concern for her well-being.

The older girl is smart and diligent, so Seulgi is sure that she can succeed the test, though Joohyun think otherwise. There was a night where Seulgi suddenly woke up in the middle of night without a reason and decided to check on her phone just to see a message from Joohyun regarding the text from Seulgi, saying that she should just take a rest and get some sleep.

“No, I still have to study.. I can’t fail this test Seul TT”

Was what she texted at two in the morning.

“You still have some time until the test, unnie.. don’t force yourself, take care of your health also” Seulgi can’t help but let the corners of her lips tugged downward, forming a frown after she saw how tired Joohyun was the next morning at school.

“Yeah, I know, but I’m still scared of how I’ll do the test.. thank you for your concern though.” Joohyun smiled fondly though her eyelids felt so heavy that she just wanted to close them.

That didn’t help ease her concern for her health. And so, Seulgi sometimes visited her house after school, after she had already took a bath and changed her clothes to a more cozy and warm one than their school’s uniform can warmed her up, bringing along hot coffees that she made at her house.

Seulgi always feel her inside warm every time the older girl greets her at the front door with a smile.

“Woah, you brought this for me?” Joohyun receives the cup of hot coffee that Seulgi offered, smiling in content after smelling it.

“Yeah uh actually, I brewed it back at my house before coming here” Seulgi admitted bashfully, rubbing her nape at the same time.

“Really? How come I never knew you can make coffees?” Joohyun raises her brows, quite amused with the new information.

Seulgi’s actually quite proud at herself for this, but she doesn’t show it “Yeah, my dad bought a coffee maker for us just a week ago and I learned how to make it. It taste much better than instant coffees, of course. And well, I don’t have to go outside if I want to drink coffee anymore”

Her smile widens when she saw a smile appeared on Joohyun’s lips. “I could teach you if you want? It’s surprisingly quite easy”

“Then I guess you have to be ready because I’ll be coming to your house more often than usual” Joohyun giggles while Seulgi thinks of how cute it sounds in her ears. “Just kidding, thank you for the coffee”

Seulgi won’t mind at the idea of the senior coming to her house more frequent, even just for a cup of coffee.

Thinking that she has to keep an eye on her, she sometimes stayed at Joohyun’s house with her just laying on her bed while the older girl continued to study whatever subjects it is.

Sometimes Seulgi pity Joohyun when she saw her head would bop up and down as she drifted in and out of sleep. When that happened, Seugi would tell her to rest. Most of the times, the senior will comply in which brought a relieve sigh from Seulgi.

One time, Joohyun was being persistent on continuing her study even when the clock has strikes 12 and she hasn’t gotten enough sleep for days. Unfortunately for the older girl, Seulgi won’t leave unless she let herself rest. At first Joohyun just continued to study, thinking that the younger would get tired of it and just went home but it didn’t turn out that way much to her dismay.

So she stops what she was doing. Not for her, but for Seulgi. She didn’t want the younger girl to sacrifice some sleep too just to accompany her and doing nothing productive in her room.

“Are you sure you’ll be alright on your own?”

Seulgi looks up to see Joohyun in her layered pajama leaning on the door frame. The light coming from the lamp above her makes the brown color on her hair prominent as a few strands of her hair fell down on one side of her face. Seulgi doesn’t understand how someone this tired-looking could still look this beautiful.

She only replies when she remembered that Joohyun’s question was left unanswered.“Yup”

“You really shouldn’t stay until this late just to check up on me”

Seulgi shrugs nonchalantly. “It’s okay, my house is just two blocks away anyway… and I’m riding a bike so if you’re afraid if I encounter a drunken person or anything I can always rush away-” Seulgi smiles, already knowing that the older girl will said something related to that.

Joohyun being Joohyun as always.

“-And our neighborhood is known for being safe so you don’t need to be worry about me..” She hops on her mountain bike.

“Yeah, but still..” Joohyun bites her bottom lip briefly as she walks down the steps of the porch to come closer to where Seulgi is. “or should I drive you home? It would be s-“

“-no, no, there’s no need for that.. just get some sleep and don’t stay out here too long, the weather isn’t good for your body” Seulgi shakes her head firmly.

“But-“

“No buts” Seulgi cuts her off. She knows that it was quite rude for her to cut what the older girl was going to say but at this point she doesn’t care for anything besides letting Joohyun rest.

“Look unnie, I will make sure to call you when I got home okay?” Seulgi smiles reassuringly, and by this Joohyun’s expression softened as she nods her head.

She watches as Seulgi’s back gotten smaller and smaller until she couldn’t see her anymore before going back inside her house.

Seulgi didn’t forget to call her.

-----

It’s the exam day.

Seulgi drops Joohyun off, not forgetting to wish her luck and giving her some encouraging words for the nervous girl to calm down. Thankfully, Joohyun didn’t force her body too much anymore the last few days before the exam day, making her sleep schedule back to normal so that she can do well when she do the real deal.

Seulgi didn’t miss how most of the senior students have this grim expression plastered on their faces, some of them brought their study papers with them as they mumbled words that didn’t manage to enter anyone’s ear except theirs.

Seulgi gazes at Joohyun. Maybe the latter was one of the few seniors who can still look nervous and kind of anticipating what’s going to come rather than looking like the world is going to end.

“Do your best” Seulgi waves her hand, smiling at the older girl. Her heart flutters when she receives a wider smile from the supposedly stressed-out last year student.

“I will”

Seconds after Joohyun went inside the building, she saw another familiar face.

Yongsun gives her a wide smile when she saw Seulgi before walking to her. The raven haired girl reciprocates her expression but her smile falters a little bit when she saw who Yongsun was with.

“Hey Seulgi, what are you doing here? aren’t you supposed to be chilling at your home right now?” Yongsun asks out of curiosity, folding her arms across her chest to hold the stack of papers Seulgi assumed for her to study.

It is true. Other year students in high school beside seniors got a day off today because of the exam and Seulgi would still be in dreamland if it wasn’t for dropping Joohyun off and wishing her luck. Not like Seulgi did