Scarlet

"Great! More homework! Just what I had needed before the term break!" Nayeon remarked sarcarstically.

"Yeah, your dumb brain certainly needs to get more work done," Jeongyeon snapped back, causing a commotion of laughters amongst the rest of us and also a slap in the back by the bucktoothed individual.

Jeongyeon and Nayeon bickering and squabbling was an everyday occurence, they literally pick a fight with one another every single ing day. We could easily be having a conversation and one of Nayeon or Jeongyeon (usually the latter) would indubitably bring up the other and make fun of her.

This one time Chaeyoung was educating Momo on how jellyfish doesn't have brains and then Jeongyeon abruptly cut in and started doing an ostrich run around the class screaming, "NAYEON IS A JELLYFISH OH MY GOD NAYEON IS A JELLYFISH CONFIRMED".

Or the other time Nayeon learnt a chinese slur, '白痴(báichī)', which translated to 'idiot', from Tzuyu and kept calling Jeongyeon an idiot for the entire day, which threw Jeongyeon off because she didn't understand what Nayeon was saying but she was sure the rabbit was making fun of her. The funny thing was that the rest of us all understood what Nayeon was saying and we all didn't tell Jeongyeon what it meant because watching Jeongyeon get frustrated was a hilarious sight.

Everyone was used to it. In fact, if there was ever a day Jeongyeon and Nayeon didn't quarrel, we would be worried and would start questioning why they each hadn't be getting on each other's nerves. To a certain extent, their little brawls and whatnots were cute and Dahyun even started to ship the both of them. 

There was a week of school left till the term break, we had all known each other a lot better since the first time we met each other; a month and a half ago. We all got a little closer with one another, and misunderstandings between each and everyone of us were resolved.

Just two weeks ago, Nayeon came to me and apologised for having thought that I was a haughty and arrogant because I had graduated from the top school and also because I seldom talked to her. She wasn't wrong in thinking that way though. I'll admit that I have had my fair share of being a presumptuous and cocky person in my life. All of us are self-confident in our own ways, but the way we express our self-confidence sometimes may put people off, and I guess that was what happened with me and Nayeon. 

But that isn't what I'm driving at. I didn't chat with Nayeon much for the first month after meeting her was because she was always with Jeongyeon, and also because I didn't know what to chatter with her about. We had different interests and didn't have a single common topic to talk about. "We can start talking to each other more I guess," she rounded off the conversation with a smile after I had explained to her my reasonings.

Ever since then, me and Nayeon had started to converse with each other more. She would approach me whenever she needs help on homework or just to ask a simple casual question like how well she looked on that day. I was a strict teacher, but a good one. I made sure Nayeon understood whatever I was teaching her and also made sure to check up on her a few days later to ensure that she hadn't forgotten about what she had learnt. Regarding questions on how well she looked, I gave honest and critical opinions, marking down her fashion whenever she's dressed poorly, instead of sweettalking her and pretending she had looked good when she didn't, which she confessed to me that my honesty and straight-forwardness was one thing she liked and admired about me.

Over the course of a month, we've all also started forming our small little cliques in our big group of nine.

Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu were in a clique of their own because Chaeyoung had formed a study club in the school and managed to drag the other two to join the club with her.

Jeongyeon, Nayeon and Jihyo also joined a choir club in the school called '6MIX' and the three would ramble on about musical notes and stuff that the rest of us didn't understand during lunch.

Sana, Momo and I were the only ones who hadn't joined a club in the school, so we kinda formed this 'No-club Clique', or the 'Japanese Trio' as Jeongyeon likes to address us by.

The last week of school was a tiring and also a hectic week because of all the assignment submission deadlines. Between the submission deadlines and also having to deal with our own problems at home, the nine of us managed to survive the first term of school in an amiable and pleasant way, with none of us lagging too far behind in studies, and also none us holding a grudge against any other.

"Lunch at East Block?" Chaeyoung suggested after the last Accountancy class of the term ended, revealing her most valuable assets, her cute dimples.

"Call!" The rest of us agreed to it, or rather, we all were already planning to head to the East Block for lunch.

Most of our lunch had been held at the East Block (more specifically the rooftop), one because most of our classes were near the East Block, and two because nobody else in this school knows about the quiet and beautiful ambience up on the roof. We haven't seen a single soul come up to the rooftop yet.

The rooftop was a very valuable place for us. In this one very empty space, surrounded by nothing but fences and wind turbines, we were at ease, and separated from the rest of this world. This unfurnished land, held our month and a half's worth of memories. All of Jeongyeon and Nayeon's little pranks, Chaeyoung's little 'fun facts', Tzuyu's chinese slurs, and other shenanigans, they were all kept here.

We made our way to the East Block canteen in a disorderly yet congregated manner. Along the way, we had light conversations on what each of us had planned to do and whatnots.

I treaded along with the group, with my head slightly tilted down as I unfolded a little grin. I was reminiscing the time that I had spent with the rest of the girls. The time spent was short, yet boisterous and fun. 

It didn't take long for the nine of us to reach the East Block canteen. When we had reached, we dispersed into our three little cliques, Chaeyoung and friends went off in one direction, and the 6MIX girls went off in another, leaving the Japanese Trio behind at the entrance of the canteen.

"What is our Minari~ thinking about?" Sana suddenly popped up in front of me, with her beaming smile covering my spatial array of visual sensations, catching me off guard, making me blush a little.

"Oh er... I.. I was just thinking about the homework. Right, the homework that Mrs Park issued to us earlier." I lied.

"EHHHH?!" Momo interjected, "Our Minari smiles when she thinks about homework? That's cute!" The taller brunette squished my cheeks, flushing my already red cheeks into a hotter and a warmer shade of red.

Sana frowned her eyes and looked at me in doubt, "Is that so..." 

Before Sana could continue her probing, I shove the other two Japanese an arm's length away, and changed the topic, "What do you guys want to eat today?"

"Hmm... I kinda want to eat bibimbap (korean mixed rice) today.." Momo pondered for a second, pointing at the bibimbap stall to our right before she turned her head back to face me and Sana with a wide smile. Momo seemed excited whenever the topic at hand was related to food.

I looked over to the direction which Momo had pointed and my stomach started to growl. The other two didn't notice the noise luckily. I rested my thumb and my index finger on my chin and contemplated if I should eat bibimbap as well. 

"Sounds good. I'll have bibimbap too I guess..." I concluded, replying Momo with a smile half as radiant as hers. 

Having made our decisions, me and Momo looked over to Sana and waited for her reply.

"Hmm..." Sana murmurred with a pout. Then suddenly, jerking one of her hands up to her lips, mimicking a handgun, the blonde started to spin in circles and announced, "I'll haveeeeee...".

Me and Momo exchanged glances and took turns to sigh at Sana's antics. Why is she so weird ... and adorable?

Putting her whirlings to an abrupt halt, she extended her 'handgun' off into a certain direction. "Bi. Bim. Bap," she annunciated, before bringing her 'handgun' back up to her lips and then pretending to blow off the imaginary smoke that was curling out of her fingers.

Me and Momo made eye contact again, this time our sighs in sync. Momo then shook her head, conveying a 'why do we have a friend like her' message to me. I shrugged my shoulders   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sana then turned back to face the both of us, and suggested, "Do you two want to make your way up to the rooftop first? I'll buy for the three of us."

Me and Momo were taken aback by her suggestion, but agreed to it. The East Block canteen was irksome. It was noisy, and reeked of a weird-smelling stink. We then each passed Sana a five-dollar note and thanked her for her offer. 

"I'll help you carry your bag up." I communicated to Sana. She was wearing this yellow haversack on her back. 

"No, it's fine it's not that h-" Sana tried to turn me down but I had already laid my hands on her haversack.

I stared intensely at Sana, her innocent eyes back at me. Here we go again, her eYES ARE SO ALLURING. I didn't waver this time round, and neither did Sana falter. Seconds felt like years. We maintained eye contact for what seemed like ages, before Sana finally blinked out of the intense staredown we were having, gave in and surrendered her lemon-coloured bag to me. 

The blonde then whined, "No fair, you've always lost the eye contact game whenever we had disputes like this in the past." 

"Keyword, 'in the past'," I emphasised on her words before I brandished a smile, resulting in another pout by the other.

"Excuse me?! I'm still here you know?" Momo coughed and broadcasted her presence, before the three of us broke into a chain of laughters. 

I flashed Sana another grin and got rewarded with a smile that was as bright, if not brighter by Sana before me and Momo made our way up to the rooftop.

"GAAAHHHHHHHHHH" Momo groaned as we scaled up the stairs, "Why must the elevator spoil on the last day of the school?!" She grumbled.

Too tired for words, I could only nod my head in response to show my consentment. The brunette climbing stairs in front of me, was of course, oblivious to my gesture as she had her back facing me. We continued climbing the brutal stairs in silence.

I wiped the sweat off my face as I continued striding up the stairs. After what seemed like years, I looked up and scanned the signboard. It read "Storey Eight".

"what the heck?" I mouthed silently. All that climbing, and we're still only at the eighth storey? The East Block was a 30-storey tall building. The rooftop was but of course, above the 30th storey.

Momo, who seemed to have heard my swearing, turned around and stopped. She wasn't sweating as much as me, but she still looked tired. She looked at me with concerned eyes, and looked as if she had wanted to say something. 

Conversing with just eye contact, we both concurred to taking a minute's break to collect ourselves and rest before continuing on. 

We sat against the wall and laid down our bags onto the floor. Momo took out a pink water bottle from her bag, drank a sip, before offering it to me. Exhausted and thirsty, I seized the water bottle from Momo's hands without hesitation and started gulping down chugs of water before returning the bottle back to the brunette. 

I haven't been alone with Momo at all ever since I've met her. The two of us had always been grouped up together with Sana. In fact, I've never had a single conversation with just Momo before. I opened up my mouth, ready to thank her for kind gesture (passing me water to drink) but was cut off by her impromptu . 

She picked up her bag and also Sana's haversack, "Shall we continue on?" Momo uttered the first few words that broke the divine silence that was being kept in the stairwell. She extended her right hand out, with eyes beaming at me, awaiting my response.

"Uh," I replied, grabbing onto the extended hand and stood right up. We then continued our imminent journey to the rooftop. 

The second half of the journey to the rooftop was a much pleasant and less tiring one, probably because Momo was now carrying Sana's bag instead of me. 

"Thanks for the water earlier," I said in a soft voice. I felt obligated to thank Momo for that. "And also thanks for helping to carry Sana's bag," I continued.

Momo kept on climbing the stairs, not stopping to acknowledge my expression of gratitude. I wasn't sure if she had heard me. I opened my mouth again to repeat my words but I was discontinued by Momo's sudden question.

"Mina," She started off slowly, her back still facing me.

"Hmm?" 

"Mina, you like Sana right?"

I... what?

I was caught off guard by her question. I didn't know what to reply. My mind raced with thoughts and I was thrown into confusion. Amidst the turmoil I was in, I haven't noticed that I have stopped right in my tracks. I wasn't climbing the stairs anymore. I was more than perplexed, I got disorientated.

What is she talking about? My brain tried to decipher whatever Momo had just said, but it was a futile effort.

Picking up from the sounds of my footsteps disappearing, Momo realized that I had stopped climbing the stairs, and she turned around.

"Mina, you like Sana right?" She reiterated her question. "I mean, it's pretty obvious you like Sana, but I had just wanted to confirm it."

"I.. I ... yes..." I conceded. My mind was that of a blank space. All that had been muddling my head seconds ago had suddenly ceased to exist. I didn't answer Momo of my own consciousness. The words that had came out from my mouth weren't authorized by my brain, but instead, by my heart. I answered, what my heart had been screaming inside me all along.

"Yes, I like Sana." I restated, this time without stuttering, and in a much louder voice. 

Momo took a second to register what I have just said, before she started jumping about and screamed, "I KNEW IT!" She then bursted into a weird chain of laughter before she clarified her amusement.

"You see, me and Jeongyeon made a bet on whether you had a crush on Sana or not, and Jeongyeon said that it was impossible." She cackled out, before going more into detail, "I kept telling her, 'Jeongyeon-ah, Mina's obviously in love with Sana,' but she went all like 'There's no way the smartest student in TA05 likes that blonde dimwit' and then we betted 20 bucks on whoever was right!"

I blushed after I had became conscious of whatever I have just confessed. Hearing about Momo and Jeongyeon's dumb bet made my cheeks turned scarlet red. 

Momo then started pacing up the stairs again and we continued on climbing after taking our unofficial second break.

"Is.. Is it that obvious?" I asked worriedly.

"Hmm..." she teased with a smirk on her face, "It is. Especially when you two have this strange electric eye contact thing going on, and then you would always blush afterwards," the brunette disclosed her observations.

My mind started to race again. Oh no, what if Sana knows I have a crush on her? What if she stops talking to me when she finds out about it? Meaningless questions started to leap out of nowhere, contributing even more anguish and concern onto my already uneasy heart.

"You don't have to worry though," Momo said reassuringly, as if she had heard my thoughts. "Even though the others have probably figured it out as well, I think Sana's dense enough that she hasn't noticed it yet."

"Oh..." I heaved a sigh of relief. Momo was right in that sense. Sana was indeed a little dense, or slow, as she would call herself. 

I was deep in thoughts, living in constant fear that Sana may just find out about my feelings for her and decide to never talk to me again. Me and Sana had grown significantly closer in that one month that the nine of us had met. We grew from strangers who had slight misunderstandings of each other, to close friends that had lunch together everyday. I didn't want our slow growing relationship to discontinue, neither do I want it to escalate into that of a dangerous one.

I guess it's good that I'm being told that i'm a little too obvious... I tried to persuade myself out of the embarrassment that had formed in me whenever I remember that the other girls knows about my crush on Sana.

As Momo and I continued to climb up the stairs, neither of us spoke of a single word. I was engrossed in sorting out my thoughts. The pain in my legs had dissipated, and a new thriving pain surfaced in my heart.

We creaked open the door and walked out of the eerie and dark stairwell, the afternoon Sun blinding our sights.

"What the heck you two? What took you two so long?!" A high-pitched voice shouted out from the direction we were facing. It was Sana.

"wait wHAT?" Momo vociferated and started stomping her way towards the rest. The first words that came out of next, were of course, frustrating questions that we both didn't have answers to. "Did the elevator not break down, if not how did you all make it here before me and Mina did?"

Chaeyoung and Dahyun then broke into a never-ending series of laughter, rendering me and Momo even more confused than we originally were. The other girls too, laughed at the disconcerting situation that had befalled the brunette and I. Tzuyu, who was known for her strict poker face, couldn't help it but giggled a little too.

"The elevator did spoil," Jihyo, being the first to compose herself, started to explain what had happened to the misinformed us, "but the maintainence uncles told us it would be up in about five minutes, and so we waited and took the elevator instead."

Upon hearing Jihyo's words, Momo and I had an enormous facepalming moment to ourselves. 

"WoW! That's amazing, did you two idiots really climb up the stairs?" Tzuyu said scornfully.

"This here, is a 30-storey building we're talking about," Dahyun punctuated Tzuyu's mockery. "There's no way the two of them climbed up here... right?" 

Me and Momo lowered our heads, we have made fools out of ourselves. We weren't able to comprehend the situation that we had placed ourselves, much less answer Dahyun's question, which would multiply our embarrassment into infinity.

Dahyun's face changed from that of a confident one, into a disbelieving one. "... right?"

"wAIT YOU TWO REALLY CLIMBED YOUR WAY UP HERE? BWAHAHAHAHAHA" she then synced up her laughter with that of Chaeyoung's who had been laughing since we entered the rooftop.

Chaeyoung kept on laughing for a good 10 minutes, she seemed like she was on the verge of death from laughing too much. Even after everyone had stopped laughing, each time she looked up and met me or Momo in the eyes, she would start giggling.

Chaeyoung has changed the group name from 'Jeongyeon is a 白痴' to 'MiMo acTUALLY CLIMBED THE STAIRS!?$%#('

"Well well well, what do we have here? A Japanese conspiracy." Jeongyeon narrated with her dumb Mojojojo voice.

The other half of the comedy duo, Nayeon then supplemented the former's words, with her equally moronic MC voice, "It looks like... The Japanese Trio has decided to challenge the legendary korean cuisine, Bibimbap!"

"Will they successfully become koreans right after this meal? Find out in the next episode of...." the shorter haired girled attempted to close it out, before she started drum rolling on the floor to hype up her lame gig.

"J to the K" Nayeon snatched the glory, in the most extra way possible, resulting in a holler from Jeongyeon, "YAH, you ruined it! I was going to call it The Japanese Trials" And then the double started their usual bickering on which of the two had suggested a better name. The rest of us watched the two squabble and were left with nothing but smiles on our faces.

Tzuyu had recently fallen in love with the taste of kimbap (korean sushi), so the chinese girl had been eating nothing but kimbap for the entire week. Chaeyoung even gave her a nickname, 'Kim Tzuyu'. Nayeon had eaten significantly lesser food today, she gave half her leftovers to Momo, saying she wasn't feeling particularly hungry, and Momo of course, being the glutton she was, accepted Nayeon's unconsumed food.

Chaeyoung and Dahyun being the first two to finish their lunch, proposed that we have an outing during the term break. The majority of us were fine with that. When most of the girls had finished eating their lunch, we started to have a theatrical discussion on where and what we were going to do during the term break. Sana participated actively in the discussion, her high-pitched voice sounding me out and I find myself entrapped in a world where I could only hear her voice. 

"Mina, what about you?" Jihyo, who noticed I wasn't engaging in the conversation as much as the others, pulled me into the scene, drawing the attention of everyone, Sana included.

"O-oh er..." My fingers fidgeted, as I gave a counterproductive suggestion, "I'm fine with anything." 

I let out a deep breath when the attention has faded away from me, and I scanned around to see if any of the girls were still focused on me.

My eyes made contact with Momo's as she looked over in my direction. Her lips revealed a smile. She didn't say anything nor did she hint at anything, but I felt like she was poking at me, for having found out about my 'secret'.

"Mina, you like Sana right?" 

Momo's words echoed inside of my head, as I reviewed and reassessed my feelings. Am I... really in love with Sana?

Lunch time ended shortly after and we went for our last class of the term. The Law class was boring (as usual).

The first few days of my term break was spent in ways you socialites would know of as, 'desolate' and 'depressing'. However, I beg to differ, I feel like I've spent the first few days fruitfully. Sure it wasn't exciting but at least it served a purpose.

I had finished all of my homework and projects even before the third day of the Term Break had even begun. The rest of the girls probably would've left it till the last day of the term break before even attempting to look at it. Jihyo would be an exception.

The rest of the days I had spent it on either reading 1Q84, or on revising and studying for the upcoming term. Nothing interesting happened.

The great golden orb hanging up in the solemn sky shone light upon the piece of land below it. I whipped out my phone and read the numbers that were visible, "12:40 A.M." I'm early again. 

The nine of us had decided to visit Everland. one of South Korea's largest theme park on this very friday. It wasn't really a decision made off the top, but rather, Sana had been whining about how she has never been to Everland despite being in Korea for so long. So as a result, Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung organized this little 'outing' and the rest of us were in favour of it.

I stood around at the entrance for about a couple of minutes. The cartoonish castle-like walls weren't as beautiful as I had imagined them to be. Truth be told, I was a little hesitant about this Everland trip because I was a little afraid of roller coaster rides.

I glanced around my surroundings and my eyes discerned a girl with beautiful red hair waiting on the opposite end of the entrance. The hair color wasn't that of a familiar one, but I recognized the height and also the bodily features of that person.  Isn't that...

"JIHYOO!!" I yelled out, however my faint voice didn't appear to get through. I walked a few steps closer and struggled to shout again in two spaced-out breaths "JIIII~HYOOO!!" 

She turned around and a luminous smile and facial expression betrayed the girl crush look that the red hair had intended to bring about. It was indeed Jihyo, the goody-two-shoes Park Jihyo of TA05 had red hair now. It actually looked quite good on her.

"Mina!! You're early!" Jihyo ran up to me and enthusiastically spoke. 

"Yeah, you're early too." I replied with a smile. "You have red hair now," I stated the obvious.

"Yes, I have red hair now. Since it was the term break, I had wanted to do challenge myself to change up my looks. How do I look?" the girl with a new look explained.

"You look amazing." I assured her. Our school wasn't that strict on students dying their hair. And I could see why Jihyo had wanted to dye her hair red. She looked ravishing with red hair. 

We then both stood around the entrance together, having light conversations before the others had arrived as well.

"WOAH JIHYO HAS RED HAIR NOW!" Chaeyoung gasped as she came out of the taxi together with Dahyun and Tzuyu. Dahyun and Tzuyu's eyes traced Jihyo and they too, were in shock when they had learnt that Jihyo had dyed her hair red.

"You're like the happier version of Mina now," Tzuyu said bluntly, before pointing at my scarlet hair.

"MINAHYO MINAHYOO" Dahyun worked up her phone and started taking pictures of me and Jihyo together.

Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo and Sana came shortly after. The latter two were too, shocked by Jihyo's sudden change in appearance. Momo hadn't even noticed that was Jihyo until Chaeyoung pointed it out again to the blur and confused Japanese.

"EHHHH!? JIHYO HAS RED HAIR?!" Momo lagged and cracked out her Japanese accent, Chaeyoung now laughing at how slow Momo was.

Nayeon and Jeongyeon weren't as excited and surprised as ther rest of us, because the 6MIX club had training sessions during term breaks as well and they had already seen Jihyo's red hair before we did.

Dahyun has changed the group icon (It was a group picture of the rest of us before, but Dahyun changed it to that of a picture she took earlier)

Dahyun has changed the group name from 'sTOP CHANGING THE GROUP NAMES' to 'Red-haired MinAHYO'

Jihyo was busy explaining the rationalism for dying her hair to those that had just arrived. My eyes locked on to Sana innately, almost like she belonged in my sight or something. Amidst the mess that was going on, Momo had noticed my staring at Sana. The nosy brunette tapped Sana and whispered something into her ears.

Sana looked over to my direction, smiling with not just but also her eyes, "Hey!"

"H-hey! Jihyo has red hair now," I stuttered as I tried to shift the topic towards Jihyo. I got caught off guard, I didn't expect Sana to turn around.

"Yeah, I know." Sana retorted, before further explaining, "Actually, I attended one of the 6MIX training sessions for tryouts on Tuesday and I had seen her hair then"

"Oohh," my mouth curved into an 'o' shape, before asking the next obvious question calmly to keep the conversation going, "You're interested in joining 6MIX?"

"Not really, but I had nothing to do at home so I decided to go have a little peek at what Nayeon, Jeongyeon and Jihyo were up to during their club activities." Sana answered, before continuing on, "The three of them sing REALLY well!"

I nodded my head in compliance. I have heard Jihyo's singing before. This one time Jihyo invited me to her aunt's wedding and then she surprised me with her singing for the wedding couple. She sang her rendition of 'Ave Maria'. Jihyo had an angelic and beautiful singing voice. My mind started to replay the scene in which Jihyo had blessed my ears with her heavenly vocals.

"So... You were staring at me earlier?" Sana asked boldly and snapped me back into reality.

"I-i wasn't!" I tried to deny it. "It just so happened that you were in my line of sight... that's all.." I started to cave in.

Momo shot a glance briefly over at me, and winked. Damn you, Hirai Momo.

"Is that so..." Sana didn't buy my words, but she didn't probe any further.

"Since we're all here, let's get reADY TO PARTEHHH" Jeongyeon shouted, resulting in cheers and loud noises from the rest of us. 

And so, our day here in Everland had begun.

"I can't ride the things in theme parks. So I just eat food, or I ride kids' things." Momo asserted, as we approached one of Everland's craziest rides, the 'T-Express'.

"The 'T-Express' is a wooden rollercoaster with prefrabricated tracks. It is the world's ninth fastest, fourth tallest and sixth longest wooden rollercoaster. At it's highest speed, the 'T-Express' can hit up to 104km/h, or 65mph, and the maximum vertical angle is 77 degrees." Chaeyoung read out informatively, from the tourist map that she was given at the entrance.

I started to shiver at the thought of going onto the rides and I hesitated before owning up to my fears, "I can't ride rides like these too."

"Oh right, Mina has fear of rollercoasters." Chaeyoung enlightened the rest. I cowered my head when she pointed it out.

"EHH? That's such a shame," Sana pouted and the other members looked at me as if I had said something wrong.

"I thought you were the daredevil type of person who would keep a poker face throughout the entire rollercoaster ride." Tzuyu expressed candidly.

With that, the other members went up onto the 'T-Express' ride and me and Momo followed them up until the gates where we could see them before they had taken off.

"It's so nice to be able to be here with the rest of you," Jeongyeon said in a serious and solemn tone before the ride moved. She had meant that, and we could all tell from the way she had sounded. Nayeon didn't poke back at her for being serious, for she too, understood and agreed with what Jeongyeon had said.

"aaAAHHhhHHHHH" the girls screamed as the 'T-Express' ride started to accelerate out of our sights. Me and Momo kept waving our hands as they moved off. There were both relief and regret in my heart.

I tapped the tip of my fingers together, "So... what do you want to do now?" I asked the brunette standing to my right.

She flashed a sly smile, before pulling out a packet of snacks from god knows where. She opened up the packet, reached inside and grabbed a handful of chips before shoving it into her own mouth. She then brought the packet of chips towards my direction and shaked it coaxing me to eat some.

I took a single piece. Potato chips weren't my type of thing.

"Six," She blurted out as she withdrew the packet of chips.

I stared at her in confusion, and waited for her to spell out what the number had meant.

"I caught you staring at Sana on six different occasions today," she went into detail as she grabbed another handful of chips. "Can you get even more obvious with that?" She teased.

"S-shut up you.." I sheepishly tried to defend myself.

"Did you like it when I set up that conversation for the two of you earlier?" Momo buzzed.

I feigned ignorance and shifted the direction of the conversation, "You can't ride rides?" I poked back at Momo.

"S-shut up you..." Momo retreated, before she realized that I was of the same plight, "waIT A MINUTE, YOU CAN'T RIDE RIDES TOO!"

The two of us then started bantering and teasing each other about our incapability of riding theme park rides until the rest came back.

"WOOOOOOOO" Dahyun screamed, "That was so fun! The view from up there was incredible" 

"But Dahyun you kept your eyes closed throughout the ride what the heck?" Tzuyu, who sat beside Dahyun exposed her. 

The seatbelts were unfastened and the girls walked back up to the platform and gathered around me and Momo.

"That was FUUUNNNN!" Chaeyoung announced cheerfully. She resembled a 3-year-old who had just received a stick of cotton candy.

"YAH you stupid bunny you blocked me!" Jeongyeon denounced Nayeon as she looked through the photos taken during the ride from the photo booth. The rest of us all gathered around Jeongyeon when she acquired the photos.

Standing at the back, I tiptoed to be able to catch a glimpse of the photo.

Dahyun was sleeping (???) Tzuyu had a confused and pain expression on her face. Nayeon had an unglam expression and had raised both her hands. Jeongyeon's face was blocked out from the camera by Nayeon's hands. Sana was covering her face but a smile could be spotted from within the cracks between her fingers. Chaeyoung and Jihyo were the only ones with a decent shot. Chaeyoung was blowing a kiss and Jihyo had managed to flaunt her red hair.

The other girls saw the photo as well and their reactions varied. 

"I LOOKSO FUGLY" Nayeon complaint as she saw the expression she had put on for theshot. Tzuyu stoned out and just stood there, we didn't know how she felt towards seeing herself in the photo. 

After the 'T-Express' ride, Jeongyeon had suggested we go for the 'Lost Valley' attraction.

The 'Lost Valley' was a safari adventure where we were sitted in a convertible amphibian vehicle, moving through water and land where approximately 150 unique wild animals roam freely. It wasn't a motion-crazy ride so me and Momo were okay with it.

Throughout this ride, we had witnessed and got shocked by many of the various animals we have never seen before.

"The giraffes will be poking their head through the windows and you all will be feeding them with leaves." The tour guide that was on board with us announced as she started passing us a bunch of leaves..

"wAIT WHAT THE " Nayeon screamed as a giraffe had already appeared right outside the window to her right. She then started jumping off her seat and retreated into the opposite corner.

"Nayeon calm the down they don't bite," Jeongyeon said cooly as she fed a leaf to the giraffe.

Moments later, more giraffe heads started to pop out of nowhere and one of them poked their head through the window.

"GYAHHHHHHH GET THIS MONSTER AWAY FROM ME!" Nayeon screamed even louder as the giraffe lurked towards the leaf that was held in her hands and stuck out it's 10 inch tongue. Nayeon panicked and tossed the leaves in random directions, before compelling even louder, "TAKE YOUR LEAVES AND LEAVE (no pun intended I swear)"

The rest of us laughed as we watched Nayeon suffer from the sight of the lengthy giraffes. 

With my head facing the back, my eyes were stuck on Nayeon and I couldn't help but chuckle along as well. I haven't even noticed my right hand was on Sana's lap.

Out of nowhere, Sana held my right hand up and directed it outside the window. "MINA WATCH WHERE YOU'RE HOLDING THESE LEAVES!" 

"hOLY F" I jumped backwards as I turned around and my field of vision was entirely covered in brown and white patches of animal coat. There was a ing giraffe right in front of me. 

Thanks to Sana, the giraffe pulled back its head and maneuvered towards the leaves that were on my hand, that was now being piloted by Sana's hands. The giraffe out the leaves that were in my hand with it's tongue, before walking away.

I was traumatized by what had just happened. 

"Mina, it hurts.." Sana yakked out with a pained expression.

"What do you m-" I asked, baffled, until I had noticed my hand wrapped around Sana's hands tightly. "OH MY GOD sorry does it hurt?" I asked out of concern.

"It's okay," The blonde said with a smile while shaking her head. She then went on, "If I hadn't moved your hand away, the giraffe would've picked up the leaves from my thigh, and that would be..." she stopped for a second to think of an appropriate word, "... scandalous."

My face turned scarlet red. I actually placed my right hand on Sana's thighs without my noticing. 

The rest of the 'Lost Valley' ride wasn't as fun as when the giraffes came into our vehicle. We saw many other animals such as zebras and ostriches, but most of it were lame animals that just stood around, earning only low 'oohs' and 'ahhs' from us when the tour guide had introduced the animals.

After we were done with the 'Lost Valley' ride, the other girls went off to ride one of the viking ship rides, and after that, the nine of us went on a kiddie ride just so that Momo and I wouldn't have missed much.

Time flies when you're having fun. In what seemed like minutes after our last ride, the sun had already started to set. The nine of us settled for dinner outside of Everland and parted ways after dinner.

I settled down onto a window seat in the bus, plugged on my earphones and ceased any further eye activities. 

*buzz*

My phone vibrated. I peeled open my eyes and took out my phone.

You have received a message from Herai Momo

Momo: (9:38): 13

You: (9:41): ?

Momo: (9:41): Don't play dumb with me, Miss Myoui

You: (9:42): ...

You: (9:42): STOPP BRINGING IT UP

Momo: (9:43): Hahaha ssssureeee 

Momo: (9:47): Do you need me to help you and Sana get together? ;)

You: (9:49): N-O!! >.<

You: (9:49): Please just mind your own business, Miss Herai ㅠ.ㅠ

Momo: (9:50): Herai(?)

You: (9:50): ?.? 

Momo: (9:51): oHH my surname aight gotcha

You: (9:51): wts? you didn't recognize your own family name?

Momo: (9:51): Well I did, but... 

Momo: (9:51): Neverminds :)) GAMBATEH MINARI CHANNNN

You: (9:52): _|_

I locked my phone and shoved it inside my bag. I looked out of the window, the street lights flashing by and my brain started to replay clips from today.

Today, was a good day.

[ Author's Notes ] 

To answer a few questions: Yes the two POVs' timelines are different, for now at least.

Also, sorry that I haven't brought in 'Burning Bridges' into this fic yet, I had originally planned to make the girls play 'Burning Bridges' this chapter as I had mentioned in Cherry (Chapter 3), but I felt like it would be more appropriate for me to go into greater details about the various characters. 

Last but not least, thank you for supporting and reading this fic. I will try my best to pull out an update once every week (which I have managed to keep up with up till now). Please leave any feedback/criticism if you have any :) All sorts of criticisms are welcomed, and I will address whichever questions y'all have in the next few chapters. Once (HA pun) again, thank you for making it this far into the fic, I applaud you for being able to endure such ty writing :)