Chorong, who seems to finally be catching onto why the other three are acting so weird, also feels smugness slip into her expression. Oh, this was just too good.

Her curiosity got the best of her, however, as she voices her thoughts out loud, “Wait, why?”

It probably wasn’t the best question to ask, Hayoung thinks, as Namjoo’s, Eunji’s, and Bomi’s expressions all slightly darken.

“Just some misunderstandings,” Namjoo abruptly answers, avoiding the looks of her two friends. Chorong realizing her question seems to be a bit touchy, directs the attention elsewhere.

“Well you’ll definitely be a great addition to our class.” This forces a smile onto Namjoo’s face and she nods shyly.

From then on the conversation keeps flowing from one topic to another and soon enough it was time for all of them to get going. Eunji gets up first, pulling Naeun up with her. She tells the others she’s going to drop her off and they both say their goodbyes.

As soon as the couple is across the street, Bomi speaks up, “Namjoo-ah, how about we get going as well, I told my dad we’ll be home before dinner.”

Chorong agrees, mentioning how she’s got to get Hayoung home safely. As Bomi says her goodbyes to the eldest, Namjoo turns to Hayoung.

“I know we haven’t really gotten that many opportunities to talk but I just wanted to apologize once again, about your head and all those other things, I mean. A note really doesn’t do much,” then she does something that would normally have Hayoung jumping in joy but she doesn’t have much time to react. She pulls her into a hug that ends too quickly for Hayoung’s liking.

Namjoo notices her shocked expression before sheepishly adding, “Sorry, the more time you spend time with me you’ll realize how affectionate I am. Anyway, see you Monday.” And just like that she and Bomi are walking down the sidewalk, moving further and further away.

“Bye,” Hayoung wants to say but the girl is already too far away. Chorong nudges her side, smiling widely at her younger friend.

“Hayoung, I’ve witnessed the way you talk about her. Now that I’ve actually seen you interact with her, I can honestly say this is more than a simple crush,” her unnie says, patting the taller girl’s head, “you like her.”

Hayoung doesn’t bother responding, just staring into her unnie’s eyes who immediately understands, nodding, “Alright, Hayoungie. Let’s get you home.”

The weekend goes by smoothly, too boring for Hayoung’s taste. She spends the days finishing up homework and spending time with her parents at the park. Lately they have been fairly busy with work so they had taken the weekend off to spend time together with their daughter.

While Hayoung was grateful her parents wanted to spend time with her, she’d rather go to the internet cafe and play games in her free time. It’s been awhile since she went and she’s having withdrawals.

Monday comes and the first thing Hayoung sees walking into the school with Naeun by her side is Bomi and Namjoo making weird faces at each other by the latter’s locker while Eunji stands next to them laughing.

Naeun goes up to Eunji pecking her cheek in greeting but the other girl barely notices as her eyes are glued to her two best friends still having a staring match in front of her. Not at all perturbed by her girlfriend’s lack of response, Naeun grabs her hand and motions her head towards the two, “What are they doing?”

Hayoung leans against the lockers on the other side of Namjoo, tilting her head curiously. She hides her smile at what is supposed to be Bomi’s angry face but in actuality looks like her constipated face.

“Well, Namjoo always packs cookies to eat before class for breakfast but she can’t find them anywhere so Bomi said she might’ve left them at home. And you know these two, always a battle with food. Long story short: Namjoo thinks Bomi ate her cookies and Bomi’s offended,” Eunji answers with laughter in her voice, shaking her head.

Hayoung snickers into her hand. “You guys are ridiculous,” Naeun breathes out with a chuckle.

“No, Namjoo is ridiculous. No matter how many times I tell her sorry for eating her chocolate bar last month, she’ll keep accusing me of stealing her snacks,” Bomi pouts pathetically after giving Namjoo one last glare, “And I’m your unnie, why don’t you share with me like you do Eunji?”

“I do share with you, unnie. But you always just chow everything down while Eunji unnie at least rations the food,” Namjoo explains. “Food is meant to be savored not devoured.”

Bomi is left speechless for a few seconds before she begins to whine causing Namjoo to sigh loudly, “Here we go.” The two begin getting into another argument while the remaining three are watching in complete amusement.

“Okay, you two. We have to get to class and you’re blocking stretch’s locker.” Hayoung rolled her eyes while the two begrudgingly comply to Eunji’s words.

After Hayoung grabs her things, Chorong joins them and they all walk to class-7 together. The history teacher is sitting at the front of the class and tells them they can choose new seats as soon as they walk in.

Of course, Naeun and Eunji immediately grab onto one another and choose the seats all the way in the back corner. Bomi’s mouth forms a smirk as she pretends to fix her uniform and makes a weird facial expression as she looks Chorong up and down.

“What’s wrong with her face?” Hayoung asks Namjoo quietly. Chorong eyes Bomi warily as she also awaits Namjoo’s answer.

“That’s her seductive face,” she sighs, giving her unnie a judging look. She then turns toward Hayoung, “You wanna be seatmates? I promise not to cheat off of you.”

The older girl holds out her pinky, giving Hayoung her signature dimpled smile. The other girl shyly nods, wrapping her pinky around Namjoo’s and pressing their thumbs together.

Namjoo beams widely and removes her pinky from Hayoung’s to grab her hand entirely, leading her to the set of seats in front of Eunji and Naeun. The two older girls halt their conversation as soon as they see their hands linked together. Hayoung, who notices the looks, instantly lets go of Namjoo’s hand and sits in the seat in front of Naeun.

She glances over at Bomi and Chorong (who inevitably gave into Bomi’s request of sitting together) walking over to their seats at the set next to the couple’s and laughs at her unnie’s annoyed expression.

Eunji, still staring at the two girls in front of her, notices the startled look Namjoo gave Hayoung after she abruptly let go of her hand. She really hopes Namjoo will be able have a better time while in this class considering the treatment she got in her previous class.

Namjoo is known in their school for being extremely intelligent. She would answer every question she was asked in class correctly, whether it be math, science, history, or even using accurate pronunciation during the English lessons.

Teachers would always notice her outstanding performance during class which they would voice out loud. However, not everyone was a fan of Namjoo’s intelligence.

Eventually some classmates began harassing her during break and lunch for some time. That then formed into bothering her during lessons, bringing her confidence level down even more. Fortunately, the mathematics teacher noticed Namjoo’s sudden change in behavior and lack of responses and spoke to her about it.

Though Namjoo continuously avoided the topic of what her classmates had said to her, Eunji and Bomi knew it was because if she told them, they’d go all “protective unnies” and confront the people who did this to her. In a violent manner.

But as Eunji observes the girl seated in front of her joking around with her girlfriend’s best friend, she knows that whatever happened in class-3 was not going to happen in class-7.

“What are you thinking about?” Naeun wonders, nudging her. Eunji removes her eyes from Namjoo and Hayoung to stare lovingly at her girlfriend. She fixes a displaced strand of Naeun’s hair and gives her an eye smile.

“Just about how we should all hang out again,” the long-haired beauty hums in agreement before Eunji adds on, “also about how Bomi suddenly got so thirsty for Chorong unnie.”

“Yeah, what the hell?” Naeun laughs, glancing at the pair next to her. Like the day at the coffee shop, Bomi is talking nonstop about whatever while Chorong absently nods along.  

Suddenly the bell rings, indicating that classes should begin. The history teacher loudly greets everyone and then begins writing down the new seat assignments while taking attendance, “While I’m doing attendance, continue doing your work I assigned from Friday.”

As soon as the teacher gets to the back corner, she lets out a silent ‘oh!’ as she notices Namjoo who’s quietly writing notes in her notebook, “Everyone! Kim Namjoo will be joining this class now so be welcoming.”

Namjoo looks up surprised at the introduction as some students look back at her and the teacher gives her a silent nod. She looks back down shyly trying to avoid the attention, murmuring a small yet polite greeting.

Hayoung smiles slightly at that. She’s learning more and more about Namjoo just from observing her and she’s enjoying every bit of it. Like just now, she realized that Namjoo can be talkative and warm around people she meets properly, but quiet and polite when suddenly addressed.

She places her hand on top of the other girl’s, unexpectedly receiving some confidence. She leans over and whispers, “Don’t worry, everyone in this class is friendly.”

The older girl stares at her hand for a few moments before looking into Hayoung’s eyes. Then her lips twitch at the corners and she turns her hand around, squeezing her fingers around the accompanying hand in a silent thanks.

This time Hayoung doesn’t let go as quickly, even when the teacher begins speaking again. Namjoo only lets go to continue writing down notes from the book.

The lesson passes by as quickly as it began. While they wait for the next class to begin, which was science and technology, Hayoung hears a low grumble coming from the girl next her. Her eyes widen slightly, “What was that?”

Namjoo, who had her head resting on her palm while reading over her notes, groans, “My stomach. I didn’t get to have breakfast because somebody ate my cookies.”

“Okay, for the last time, I did not eat your cookies,” Bomi exclaims, having heard Namjoo easily over the quiet murmurs in the room. “Knowing how you can be a pabo sometimes, you probably ate them and forgot.”

“Yah, can you two not start this again?” Eunji cuts in before Namjoo can retort with something clever that will most likely fluster Bomi and start an even bigger argument. “Namjoo-ah, Bomi will buy you more cookies after school, sound good?”

Namjoo hums with a slight pout while Bomi quickly opposes beginning a dispute with Eunji. Hayoung turns back to Namjoo after witnessing Naeun and Chorong both sigh simultaneously.

The older girl’s pathetically rubbing her stomach with a pout.

Hayoung suddenly remembers something before she turns in her seat to dig through her bag. A few seconds later she pulls out a calorie bar. Gently, she places the snack bar on top of Namjoo’s notebook, “Here, Namjoo-ssi.”

Namjoo looks up, not at the food but at Hayoung, “you don’t have to do that.”

Hayoung, startled by Namjoo’s direct reply, “N-no, it’s okay. I don’t really like that kind anyway,” she says, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Without warning, Namjoo begins giggling. Hayoung’s face turns even redder, but Namjoo places her hand on the younger girl’s shoulder in reassurance. Though her giggles fade, her smile doesn’t as she speaks, “No, I mean you don’t have to be so formal. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Hayoung hesitantly nods to which Namjoo follows, “Great.”

Her seatmate removes her hand from Hayoung’s shoulder and reaches over to grab the calorie bar, unwrapping it swiftly and taking a bite. She hums in approval, a silent thank you slipping out in between her chewing. Hayoung laughs, “No problem, unnie.”

Namjoo pauses at that (and blushes a bit) mid bite, her dimples showing.

In the next minute, the science and technology teacher enters but Hayoung becomes distracted when Namjoo suddenly leans over and whispers in her ear, “You know, I think I did eat those cookies and forgot.”

Hayoung laughs at the guilty expression Namjoo’s wearing and can’t help but think they are going to get along great. And that Chorong was right when she said this is not just a crush.

-----

Hello! First off, thank you all so so much for the support! I’m glad it’s getting a response. Also sorry for the wait, I wanted to make the chapter long but exams got in the way. Future ones will be longer.

The story’s probably a bit boring right now because of all the cutesy/fluffy stuff but trust me when I say it’s gonna get a bit angsty soon. There some hints at it in this chapter. Thank you for reading!!!