After the incident with the locker, Hayoung and Namjoo have become slightly more acquainted with each other.

Namjoo no longer rushes off to her class. Instead, she takes her time, carefully closing her locker door while keeping notice of Hayoung’s head and doesn’t drop any books on her anymore.

And, Hayoung?

Hayoung is on cloud nine.

Every morning for the past week Namjoo has smiled her sweet, dimpled smile at her as a greeting and Hayoung doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to the melting feeling it brings her.

Plus, they sometimes reminisce about their days to each other while preparing to leave after last period, so Hayoung gets to hear about how during Namjoo’s chemistry lab, her seat mate, Mina, “accidently” blew up Namjoo’s lunch which resulted in both of them covered in chunks of fruits and vegetables. (And how Mina has detention for the rest of the week.)

Unfortunately, that brings more and more teasing from her unnies, who find joy in watching her suffer from the sidelines. It got even worse when Naeun’s girlfriend (who also happens to be Namjoo’s best friend) returned to school. And if Naeun was bad, Eunji was the end-all.

The three, more prominently Naeun and Eunji, had resorted to bringing up Namjoo every chance they got just so they could see their precious maknae blush.

Friday, a week since the locker incident, Hayoung returns to her class for her last lesson of the day earlier than usual since Namjoo wasn’t at her locker to distract her for a few extra minutes during break.

As she walks into the room, her eyes quickly land on the girl who seems to be occupying her mind a lot recently. She is speaking to the mathematics teacher, nodding politely along to whatever he is telling her.

Hayoung quietly makes her way to her seat all the way in the back, not wanting to disrupt the conversation going on, keeping her eyes down.

She looks up for a brief moment, seeing Namjoo bow respectfully to the teacher before turning around, flashing Hayoung a quick smile and walking out of the room, leaving the latter’s heart pounding at just a twitch of the lips. God, what is wrong with her?

As other students quickly begin filing in, she begins getting her book out and preparing for the day’s lesson. Naeun, Eunji, and Chorong all walk in together, as they went to get some water after their previous brutal English lesson.

Hayoung observes as Eunji lets her hand slip out of Naeun’s to slap the back of a slouched girl’s head. She snickers as the girl immediately retaliates, smacking Eunji in the stomach, and the two go at it back and forth while Naeun rolls her eyes at her girlfriend’s childishness.

She moves to the unoccupied seat next to Hayoung, poking at her side hoping to annoy the younger girl. Of course, she’s successful.

“I swear, unnie, if you only pick on me because you don’t sit next to your precious garden gnome, I’ll gladly request a seat change,” Hayoung sasses, earning a glare from her best friend and a shout from the dwarf herself.

“Yah, I heard that, you tree!” yells Eunji, spinning around from her seat in front of Naeun to scowl at the taller girl. She quickly turns back to the person next to her when the girl laughs at Hayoung’s nickname for Eunji and slaps her in the gut, “you have no room to laugh, Pabomi!”

As the two go back to bickering back and forth, Naeun sighs and settles her attention on Hayoung again, “I pick on you because it’s my job as your unnie, and as for that seat change-no need. I heard we’re having one on Monday.”

“What? But it’s not even midterm yet,” she responds, confusion evident in her voice. The only response she gets is a shrug from Naeun. A seat change was rarely random.

“Oh, Hayoung-ah,” Chorong calls from her other side, as the teacher begins writing notes on the chalkboard in the front of the classroom, “we’re all planning to go out for some coffee and sweets after school today, if you wanted join us. Eunji’s bringing her friends as well.”

“Eunji unnie has friends?”

She smirks as she hears another laugh and a growl from the two girls in front of her. Chorong lets a small breath of laughter slip from her lips before she’s glaring at Hayoung to apologize.

She sighs, “sorry, funsize.”

“Whatever, stretch.”

Chorong and Naeun collectively roll their eyes at the two of them, as the girl in front of Hayoung becomes a designated punching bag for her seatmate.

“Anyway,” Chorong continues, “what do you say? We’ll be meeting at the front of the school first.”

Hayoung looks at the older girl, before nodding, “sure, why not?”

She doesn’t get a response as the teacher finishes up his notes, “Okay, everyone, copy these down and work with you seatmates, I’ll be coming around to assign you to a problem.”

The rest of the lesson goes by smoothly and before Hayoung knows it, the bell rings signaling the end of the day. She leaves quickly to her locker, hoping to catch a glimpse of Namjoo. She doesn’t, which saddens her since she won’t see the beautiful girl for the next two days.

She slams her locker door shut after placing her books away and grabbing her bag. She’s lucky to not have any homework this weekend, meaning she could just relax and hang out with her unnies.

She stands up, making her way down the busy halls, out the front doors, and to the spot Chorong told her to meet them. Once she gets there she spots Chorong, Naeun, and the girl from her class she never bothered to learn the name of. (Only thing Hayoung knew of her was how much she found joy in Eunji’s suffering like she did, which made her sort of cool in Hayoung’s book.)

Hayoung nudges Naeun who’s observing the awkward conversation happening between Chorong and the girl with the weird laugh, “where’s pipsqueak?”

“Eunji, is right here,” says the girl in question, walking up to the small group. However, Hayoung isn’t listening to any height nicknames the small unnie has to throw at her, as her attention is on the walking goddess next to her.

“Okay! So now that we’re all here, let’s get moving,” Naeun announces, grabbing Eunji’s outstretched hand, a smirk painted on both their faces, “and close your mouth, Hayoung-ah. You’ll catch flies.”

The two snicker with each other, basically pointing and laughing as they watch Hayoung not even try to compose herself in front of an oblivious Namjoo.

(Somehow throughout all the events that happened during the day, Hayoung managed to forget Eunji’s best friend was Namjoo, as in the Namjoo. As in the Namjoo who literally invades her thoughts 24/7.)

“Hello!” she greets, cheerfully, flashing everyone her signature dimpled smile and slightly bowing. The weird laugh girl steps forward from Chorong’s side, throwing an arm around Hayoung’s shoulders and squeezing.

“Namjoo-ah, you might want to put that away before you give Hayoung here a heart attack.” The said flustered girl snaps out of it, pushing the other girl away with a glare.

“Yah, Yoon Bomi,” Eunji laughs, bending over and slapping her thigh repeatedly with one hand while the other lets go of Naeun’s and pauses in the air next to her head, “good one, high-five!”

Chorong also cracks a smile and Naeun is covering , laughing, as she points at Hayoung’s still blushing face. And Bomi turns around to slap Eunji’s hand.

All the while, Hayoung’s avoiding her crush’s eyes and Namjoo’s smile never fades, more amused than ever.

Once they all calm down (and Hayoung manages to keep her blushing to a minimum), they begin walking to the coffee shop across the street from the school.

Chorong is at the front of the group, trying to keep up with whatever Bomi is telling her (which she doesn’t seem to be doing a very good job of), Eunji and Naeun are behind them whispering to each other and being all gross and lovey-dovey, and Hayoung somehow managed to be stuck in the back with Namjoo, who is subtly observing the taller girl next her.

As they’re waiting for the go-ahead crosswalk sign, Namjoo finally breaks the silence between them. “Sorry about Bomi unnie, but if it makes you feel any better, I literally spend every day with her and Eunji unnie. So who’s the one suffering now?”

She laughs at her own expense, and Hayoung doesn’t mean to sound cheesy, but the sound is like music to her ears. It forces a laugh of her own out, although she quickly recovers, trying not to show how affected she is right now.

The go-ahead sign lights up and the group begins walking again. Hayoung tries to come up with what she should respond with but her mind is only filled with jumbled words, which is rare for her. Luckily Namjoo saves her from blurting out gibberish.

“You don’t talk much, do you? Which is not what I expected from a person who cursed me out a week ago,” she says, squinting up at the short-haired girl. Hayoung snaps her head to Namjoo, expecting to see annoyance but she only sees laughter shining in her dark eyes.

“I mean this whole week I’d ask you how your day went, and it was always the same. ‘Long and tiring, you know?’ Kind of makes me feel bad for always blabbering on about my boring day,” she continues, eyes melting into a look of embarrassment.

Hayoung’s eyes widen, shaking her head rapidly and responding before she can even think, “it was never boring. And don’t feel bad; your words are more entertaining than whatever I have to say.”

Namjoo pauses for a moment (and for a split-second Hayoung thinks she said something wrong) but then her dimples appear and she’s quietly thanking her and suddenly it feels ten degrees hotter outside.

(And maybe Hayoung almost collapses right there, in front of a coffee shop, surrounded by all her friends, because Namjoo’s cuteness is enough to make anyone’s knees go weak.)

Bomi loudly announces their destination before ushering everyone inside, holding the door open. As they pass her, Hayoung notices her winking at Namjoo who shoves the girl with a small glare.

The cafe is busy judging by the long line of students that travel closely to the door. Bomi groans loudly at the prospect of standing for more than two minutes to get a drink and leans on Namjoo who is also showing similar discontent.

Hayoung, ever the helpful maknae, proposes two people stand in line and order for everyone while the rest of them find a table. Naeun ends up volunteering herself and glares at Eunji to do the same, who begrudgingly agrees and slaps the back of a snickering Bomi’s head.

As the two take their place in line, Chorong claims she saw a few empty tables outside. The four of them head out and take a seat around a circular table and Chorong purposely nudges Hayoung to sit next to Namjoo. She manages to stop herself from blushing when the girl gives her another smile.

While they wait for their drinks, Bomi goes back to bothering the eldest leaving the two youngest to entertain each other once again. The two observe the older girls as one reveals endless information about her last encounter with a man that required her to pull out her taekwondo moves while the other one uninterestedly nods along.

Hayoung shoots a bewildered look at the strange girl as Namjoo laughs at Chorong’s not-so-subtle eye roll. Hayoung wonders for a moment how someone as sweet and normal as Namjoo could be friends with people like Bomi and Eunji.

“Oh, trust me, honey. She’s not that normal,” a voice announces from in front of her making Hayoung’s head shoot up. She looks to her right at Namjoo who’s blushing and looking down, then to her left at Chorong and Bomi who are both smirking at her.

Bomi, thinking this is the perfect opportunity to embarrass her best friend, begins speaking again, “Namjoo, here, can literally eat her weight in pizza. She’s an amazing singer until it comes to the shower, and then you’ll just have the neighbors asking why she’s housing a squealing pig. And don’t even get me started on her constant gushing about-”

“Okay!” Namjoo claps, forcing a smile, “How about we stop there, Bomi unnie. Unless you want me to share some information with Chorong-ssi about your-”

“All right, all right,” Bomi exclaims, laughing nervously before she and Namjoo gave each other similar scowls. The two begin having a silent conversation with their eyes while Hayoung and Chorong look back and forth between the two, not sure of what they should say.

“So, Namjoo-ssi,” Chorong cuts in, breaking the staring contest the two girls were having, “you sing?”

Namjoo blinks before realizing that bit of information came from Bomi. “Oh, yeah! But I don’t really do it publicly,” she answers, nodding shyly. A warm breeze blows a few strands of Namjoo’s fringe to the side, preventing her from curling into herself.

“Namjoo’s got a bit of stage fright,” Bomi cues in for her friend, smiling sadly. Hayoung thinks it’s the first time she’s seen the second oldest girl be serious in the short time she’s known her. It sparks both the curious side of her and the twinge in her heart from wanting to know more about Namjoo.

Eunji and Naeun return with their drinks and a few treats, saving Namjoo from any further conversation regarding herself. Eunji grabs the seat next to her and hands her a chocolate chip cookie.

Hayoung feels a nudge on her left arm, turning her head towards Namjoo. Without saying a word, the girl holds up the cookie. Hayoung nods, unable to hold in her smile as Namjoo breaks the cookie in two, placing Hayoung’s half on the napkin in front of her with a small smile.

Her eyes linger a little too long on the smile, even when it fades into a pout as the owner drinks from her coffee cup.

She jumps noticeably in her seat when Naeun kicks her in the shin from across the table. She giving the youngest girl a look that Hayoung interprets as, you’re being too obvious.

Suddenly the look transforms into smugness as Naeun looks over at the cause for Hayoung’s torture, “So Namjoo-ah, when are you transferring?”

Hayoung chokes on her cookie, which thankfully nobody notices, and immediately her heart begins to ache. Namjoo’s...transferring?

“I talked with the principle earlier and confirmed it’s Monday,” the girl responds, nodding firmly. She’s transferring Monday and no one told me? Hayoung thinks also wondering why this seems to hurt her so much.

“Wait, transferring?” Chorong asks confused, “You’re leaving?”

Eunji laughs, shaking her head, “No, she’s transferring classes. She’ll no longer be in class-3, instead she’s transferring to class-7.”

Hayoung’s heart skipped a beat. One, because Namjoo isn’t transferring to a different school. And two, class-7 is the one Hayoung happens to be in.

-

Sorry for taking so long to update this, school duties call. Thank you for all the support! I honestly was expecting this story to flop horribly but it actually got a response so I’m happy! This chapter ended kind of abruptly, so apologies, but, after thinking about it, I am planning on making this into a full length story.
Disclaimer: I’m not totally educated on their school system so I’m really sorry if I got it wrong.